Peace Messenger

Ryan Bell on "Announcing & Enacting Peace in an Age of Empire"

Hollywood Adventist Church Pastor Ryan Bell sets forth the biblical mandate for peacemaking at the newly-launched ReligiousLiberty.TV:

God’s shalom is perhaps the central theme of God’s creation restoring work; the central metaphor throughout scripture for the complete wholeness of creation, which God is restoring....

So, peacemaking – announcing and enacting peace in our world – is evangelism. It is bearing the good news to a world awash in violence, war, poverty, disease and every other injustice. The good news of God’s kingdom envisioned by the prophets (Isaiah most notably), incarnate in the person of Jesus and taught by him in passages like the Beatitudes, is a good news of God’s shalom gaining the upper hand in the world....

...[B]eing peacemakers in God’s kingdom today means speaking and acting for justice for the poor, the outcast, and the war-torn. It means speaking out again an unjust war and actively working to bring that war to an end. It means speaking truth to power and holding power to account for the righteousness that God envisions. In short, being peacemakers in God’s kingdom means being radically committed to overcoming evil with good.

Michael Peabody edits the new ReligiousLiberty.TV site, described as "a leading independent online resource for news, information, commentary, and insights on contemporary issues involving the free exercise and establishment clauses of the United States Constitution."

Adventist Protests Extra-Judicial Killings & Environmental Destruction in Marathon Walk

From "Pastor to walk for an end to killings," by Eldie Aguirre and Orlando Dinoy, Inquirer.net, June 14, 2008; forwarded by Monte Sahlin:

DIGOS CITY, Davao del Sur, Philippines -- A 58-year-old Seventh Day Adventist pastor has launched a walk from his hometown in Matanao, Davao del Sur to Aparri in Cagayan Valley to dramatize his call for an end to unabated extrajudicial killings of journalists, militants, and suspected criminals, plus the massive environment destruction.

Edervin Samson of Barangay (Village) Camanchiles set off alone on Thursday and has been in contact with his family through a mobile phone....

"I wanted to stop the practice of extra-judicial killings, which is against the law of God, and to encourage people to renew their faith in Him," Samson told reporters when he passed by here on Thursday.

The trek to Aparri and back is a new endeavor according to the pastor and is the most daring walk he made in his life as marathoner. But he said his past experience in marathons would surely help him in attaining his goal....

"Humans are only stewards of this planet and we don't have any right to kill people or destroy the environment that God has entrusted to us," he said.

Samson said he would be stopping by selected areas from time to time to preach the Gospel....

Christ Commands Talking With Adversaries

The evangelical Christians of the Matthew 5 Project believe that their Lord's teaching about making peace with adversaries by talking (Matthew 5:21-26) is "a command, not an option," and that, in view of "Christ's lordship over all areas of life," they must follow it with regard to international conflict.

Their statement develops seven principles for "national security through international cooperation," leading them to advocate direct U.S.-Iranian negotiations without preconditions:

Ever since the Iranian hostage crisis during the Carter administration, the U. S. government has refused to talk with the Iranian government. But in May, 2006, President Bush and his aides wisely reached the decision to offer conditional talks to Iran. “Mr. Bush's search for a new option was driven, they say, by concern that the path he was on two months ago would inevitably force one of two potentially disastrous outcomes: an Iranian bomb, or an American attack on Iran's facilities.” Therefore, U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice announced on May 31, 2006 that the United States would join multilateral talks with Iran on its nuclear program “once Iran suspends disputed nuclear activities. Kazem Jalali, spokesman for the Iranian parliament's Foreign Policy and National Security Committee, said the U.S. move might be viewed positively in Tehran if preconditions were dropped.”

To give in to the U.S. demand that they suspend enrichment of uranium even before talks begin is very difficult in a culture that values honor. It would mean giving up the right to enrich uranium for generating electricity—a right universally recognized for other nations. David Isenberg writes in Defense News: “After all, nearly 30 years after the 1979 revolution, we need to consider what the policy of no official U.S. dialogue with Iran has achieved in terms of influencing Iranian behavior. In a word: nothing.”Howard Baker, Secretary of State in the first Bush administration, pointed out that despite major disagreements, the United States and the Soviet Union talked directly many times, helping us avoid nuclear war and achieve a peaceful end to the Cold War. Former U. S. foreign policy officials, both Republican and Democratic, including Zbigniew Brzezinski, William Perry, Henry Kissinger, Madeline Albright, Richard N. Haass, and Richard L. Armitage, support direct US-Iranian unconditional negotiations. 59% of Americans support negotiations even if Iran refuses to suspend enrichment....

Jesus is the realist. Talking with Iran, as with Libya and North Korea, may bring surprising peace. Or at least avoid horrible war perpetrated on millions of God’s loving creation—mothers, fathers, brothers, sisters, and children....

The statements endorsers include Glenn Stassen and David Gushee, co-authors of Kingdom Ethics: Following Jesus in Contemporary Context (InterVarsity Press, 2003).

Read the statement at the Matthew 5 Project web site, and if convicted, add your endorsement!

Its Time for Talking With Iran

The cover story of the June 17 issue of the Christian Century deals with U.S. policy toward Iran, and on its editorial page, the interdenominational biweekly also makes the case for direct negotiations between the two nations:

Because a military strike would be disastrous and economic sanctions don't seem to be working, now is the logical time to open negotiations between the U.S. and Iran, much like the talks that the U.S. held with China in the 1970s....

Diplomacy offers no assured outcome.  But one thing the U.S. should have learned from its misadventure in Iraq is that military interventions don't have assured outcomes either.  Military efforts can exact an enormous price in human life and national treasure while unleashing new, uncontrollable forces of chaos.  Now is the time to send a clear and unequivocal message to political leaders regarding an attack on Iran: Don't do it.  Not in our name, not with our tax dollars, and not with the lives of our men and women.

Iranian Perspectives

Reporting on a visit to Iran, Century associate editor Richard Kauffman ("Inside Iran") cites Iranian philosopy professor Muhammad Legenhausen's summary of how Iranians view recent positions taken by the U.S. government:

According to Legenhausen, Bush's "axis of evil" speech baffled most Iranians.  Iranians had helped the U.S. against the Taliban in Afghanistan after 9/11.  Also Bush's speech came at a time when Mohammed Khatami was president of the country.  A reform-minded leader, Khatami was open to the West and was trying to advance human rights within Iran, especially for women.  When Bush included Iran as part of the axis of evil, a typical Iranian response was: "If this is what we get from the U.S. when we have a reform-minded president, then perhaps what we need is a more aggressive and nationalistic kind of leader."  Ahmadinejad was voted in at the next election.

Moreover, many Iranians think that the U.S. and it allies are inconsistent in their approach to Iran.  When Khatami was president, Western leaders said that he wasn't the real power in Iran; the real power rests with the supreme leader.  But now that the radical Ahmadinejad is in power, Western countries are treating him as if he, not the supreme leader, is the one with ultimate power.

Kauffman continues:

Behind all discussions of Iran are some inconvenient truths about U.S. foreign policy.  First among them is the fact that in 1953 a CIA-sponsored coup brought down the government of Prime Minister Mohammad Mossadeq, a popular and democratically elected leader.  Mossadeq's crime in U.S. eyes was to nationalize Iran's petroleum industry....

The U.S. helped put the shah in power and for 25 years supported the monarch, who ruled with an iron fist, suppressing or killing his opponents.  The shah's notorious secret police, SAVAK, were aided by American and Israeli intelligence....

Americans also tend to forget that the U.S. supported Saddam Hussein and Iraq in that country's eight-year war with Iran in the 1980s.  Thanks to U.S. aid, Iraq acquired superior weaponry.  Iran tried to make up for that deficiency by the sheer number of its armed forces.  At least 500,000 Iranians died in the war with Iraq....Iranians have not forgotten that the U.S. backed Iraq in this effort, nor that Saddam used chemical and biological weapons against their people.

An informative, realistic and constructive summary of "Eight points about Iran's nuclear program" by David Cortright of the Joan B. Kroc Institute for International Peace Studies at the University of Notre Dame accompanies Kauffman's piece in a sidebar.

Shi'a Eschatology...and Ours

Thomas Finger's excellent explanation of Shi'a Islamic eschatology ("Waiting for the Mahdi"), also in the June 17 Christian Century, points out that both U.S. President Bush and Iranian President Ahmadinejad espouse faiths teaching that in the last days, Jesus Christ will return to earth.  The Shi'a branch of Islam, which dominates Iran and is the majority faith in Iraq, teach that in the last days, Jesus will reappear along with the Mahdi -- the last in a series of righteous imams who was taken by God into a hidden state of "occultation" several centuries ago. (Above: Shi'ite pilgrims in Karbala, Iraq, light candles in honor of the birthday of the Mahdi).

Beyond that very broad statement, it is difficult to be definite or precise about the details of Shi'a eschatology, says Finger, because there is such great diversity of understanding.  The same is true, of course, with Christianity.  Finger identifies a particularly salient issue that runs through the eschatological varieties in both world faiths:

A major question is whether the future is seen as discontinuous or continuous with the preceeding history.  When eschatologies stress discontinuity, they often legitimate efforts to bring about that future by violent means.  When eschatologies emphasize some measure of continuity, they usually inspire people to start living by the ideals of the future in the present, and to try to realize them in their societies.

Does Seventh-day Adventist eschatology place more emphasis on discontinuity or continuity?  Answers would likely be varied and complex, but serious discussion of the issue is needful.

The Prophetic Word

Excerpts from Pastor Trevor Kinlock's sermon, "I'm Sick of It!", preached at Calvary Seventh-day Adventist Church in Newport News, Virginia, May 10, 2008:

A fiery preacher named Jeremiah…criticized the nation and its smooth-talking pastors and they threw him in jail and burned his sermon notes (Jer. 36:37)….

Beloved, they cannot handle the message of the prophet, they cannot handle the message of truth, when it challenges the structures of power….

[The prophets'] message is universal, and its speaks to nations, social conditions, and religious institutions and orthodoxy.  “Woe,” and “repent” are the two consistent words of the prophet.

And so, church, if we have a prophetic message, we ought to speak out against the nation when the nation contravenes a “thus saith the Lord.”  Help us God!

And so I declare this afternoon, “Woe unto you, George Bush, for lying about weapons of mass destruction.  Woe unto you for invading and destroying a nation, and arrogantly trading the blood of thousands of American soldiers for oil and strategic dominance.  Woe unto you. Shame on you.  There’s a problem with that....

Repent, America, for exploiting the poor and enlarging the rich.  God is not pleased with that….

Woe unto you, America, for glorifying violence, perverting sexuality, debasing the institution of marriage, and worshipping the “almighty dollar.”  Woe! Woe! Woe!  God is not happy with you.  God is not pleased with you.  God is going to deal.  Judgment day is coming….There’s a God that sits in heaven and He deals with those who oppress His people.  So you better repent!

Last day church, don’t be afraid to preach the prophetic word. Remnant church, Seventh-day Adventist church, don’t be afraid to speak truth to power....

Listen to the sermon at PraizeVision.com.