Peace Messenger

To End All Wars: A Story of Love and Rebellion, 1914-1918

by Adam Hochshild
Houghton Mifflin Harcourt / 2011

"In this deeply moving history of the so-called Great War, those opposing its mindless folly receive equal billing with the politicians, generals, and propagandists obdurately insisting on its perpetuation. Implicit in Adam Hochschild's account is this chilling warning: once governments become captive of wars they purport to control, they turn next on their own people."--Andrew J. Bacevich, author of Washington Rules: America's Path to Permanent War

Torture and the Trail to bin Laden: McCain Sets the Record Straight

...Former attorney general Michael Mukasey recently claimed that "the intelligence that led to bin Laden . . . began with a disclosure from Khalid Sheik Mohammed, who broke like a dam under the pressure of harsh interrogation techniques that included waterboarding. He loosed a torrent of information -- including eventually the nickname of a trusted courier of bin Laden." That is false.

Neal C. Wilson's Leadership Voice for Peacemaking

Putting the leadership of the Seventh-day Adventist Church on record for peacemaking must be honored among the many achievements of the late Neal C. Wilson (1920-2010), who served as president of the General Conference of Seventh-day Adventists from 1979 to 1990.

Monte Sahlin prompted this overdue recognition with a reminder about Elder Wilson's remarkable address to the International Forum on a Non-nuclear World and the Survival of Humanity, held in Moscow in February 1987. In "Peace and Peacemakers: A Christian Perspective," the Adventist leader set forth a specific peacemaking initiative, challenging Mikhail Gorbachev's

Spencer Chiimbwe - Adventist Peacemaker

Ryan Bell interviews the founder of the New York Center for Conflict Dialogue in his second report from a recent gathering of Religious Peace Fellowships:

I sat down for breakfast at the Stony Point Retreat Center for the first full day of meetings of the Religious Peace Fellowships and as I spoke to a Mennonite leader about the Seventh-day Adventist peace work, the man to my right leaned over and said, I'm a Seventh-day Adventist. I was shocked. There were only about thirty of us and we were intentionally chosen a representatives of different denominations and religious groups. What follows is a brief introduction to Spencer Chiimbwe and an interview focused on the way his faith has shaped him in the work he does today.

 
Spencer Chiimbwe is a Zambian national residing in the United States since 2006. Throughout his life he has been involved in conflict transformation at a national and international level including being a Peace Fellow, Action Researcher and Coordinator for both the Coalition for Peace in Africa in Southern Africa Region and for the ACTION Support Center. He is also a member of the Global Partnership

Conscientious Objectors: A Short History

Michael Peabody's succinct and insightful history of conscientious objection to military combat is the cover feature for the July-August issue of Liberty magazine.  He provides this analysis of how modern democracies motivate people to fight:

Motivating people who enjoy freedom to join a larger fight is more difficult than simply forcing them to do so at the tip of a sword. The loyalty of subjects has been replaced by patriotism and nationalism, and there is an expectation that citizens will take up the fight against the Other.

There is a formula for this rhetoric. The Other has made plans to harm our interests and will carry them out unless these plans are stopped