Hope

Today, it is not hard to suffer fits of despair.  Dante's sign at Hell's gate seems too "spot on": "Abandon hope all you that enter."  It is paralyzing to have no hope.

A text for these times is from Romans: "....suffering produces endurance, endurance produces character, and character produces hope, and hope does not disappoint us, because God's love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit that has been given to us."  Romans 5:3-5.  And then James 1:22: "Be doers of the Word, and not merely hearers who deceive themselves." And James 2:17: "So faith by itself, if it has no works, is dead."

So, by the grace of God, we have hope, because of God's action and our action.  Hope comes alive in action.  Paralysis is gone.

What can we do?  Here are some possible actions that may give us hope.

SOCIAL SECURITY: Realize that SS pays for itself.  By law the government cannot borrow from other sources to pay out SS checks.  SS is solvent for decades.  To further insure its stability: 1) Stop borrowing from its trust fund to pay for other needs; 2) Raise the pay-in requirement from $108,000 to $200,000; 3) Consider the possibility of means testing SS so that the very wealthy need not draw it down.

MEDICARE-MEDICAID:  Expand it to include all people, utilizing public and private sources.  Move to a focus on quality of care rather than fee for service.  Negotiate to regulate drug prices.  Negotiate to regulate prices of medical insurance to insure that all people are adequately covered.  Move to establish more local, community health care centers.

CLEAN ENERGY:  Make a national commitment to the development of wind, solar, geo-thermal and other non-carbon, non-fossil burning fuels.  Expand the power grid so this type of energy is available to all.  Develop more electric-powered vehicles.  Move away from nuclear, oil, coal, and carbon-based fuels.  Jobs will result from this commitment.

ENVIRONMANTAL CARE:  Realize that global warming is a reality.  Care for the rainforests.  Better manage cutting of forests.  Enact laws to protect wildlife on verge of extinction.

REBUILD OUR INFRASTRUCTURE:  Repair our roads and bridges.  Build a national train system.  Insulate and retro-fit buildings to make them more energy efficient.  Such actions will result in many jobs.

CORPORATE RESPONSIBILITY:  Make corporations pay their fair share of taxes.  If thery want to do business overseas, require them to pay taxes.  Remind the corporate leadership that it will cost if they want to do business in the USA.  No off-shore tax havens.  Incentivize corporations to stay in the USA.  Prevent corporations from raiding workers' pensions.  Require corporations to invest a significant portion of their profits in job creation.

EQUITABLE SALARIES: Share the wealth so all people can be secure.  Pay for all corporate management ought to be more in line with that of regular workers.  Perhaps a ratio of 10:1 rather than 400+:1. More money will be available to hire more people.

RESPECT STAKEHOLDERS AND SHAREHOLDERS:  All people are stakeholders.  Some people are shareholders.  There needs to be a balance for the common good.  Corporate profit cannot sacrifice the common good.  Corporations exist for the stakeholder first and the shareholders second.

BANKS AND WALL STREET:  Reinvigorant the Glass-Seagall Act which regulated financial trading.  Regulate derivatives, hedge funds, and credit default swaps.  Require banks and mortgage companies to work with home owners to stop and prevent foreclosures. Be generous in re-financing home loans.  Require banks to be more forthcoming in making small business loans.

INTERNATIONAL TRADE:  Require other nations to open their doors to our products and limit the influx of foreign products that adversely affect the price and availability of our products, and the employment of our people.

FOREIGN AID:  More money for the building of other nations' infrastructures and economies, rather than most aid going for military purposes.  The focus should be on helping other nations feeding themselves and becoming economically self-sufficient, able to fully employ their people for the betterment of their society, with reasonable, sustainable trade with other nations.  Assist in the training of teachers and medical staff, the building of schools and health facilities in Iraq and Afghanistan.

NATIONAL DEFENSE:  We cannot be the "cops of the world."  Other nations need to step-up in militarty preparedness.  WWII is over and our forces are not needed in Europe.  Furthermore, we have over 700 bases of all sizes throughout the world and most are unnecessary.  Bring'em home.  We can cut our defense budget by at least 50% .  Put this money towards education, health care, infrastructure, and helping other nations develop their resources, including Iraq and Afghanistan.  Continue to address Al Qaeda threat, not the Taliban.  Assist other nations in their quests for freedom, working with other nations.  No more nation building wars!

IRAQ AND AFGHANISTAN +:  Initiate major drawdowns and leave only a necessary force to train their armies.  All except small training forces should be back home by the fall of 2012.  Continue some type of action to address Al Qaeda issues.

EDUCATION FOR ALL:  Enable everyone to be able to earn a college education and beyond, affordable for all.  Invest more in public education and accountability.

EQUAL RIGHTS:  Remove barriers to inequality.  Allow LGBT folks to marry and receive equal treatment under the law.

VOTER ID:  Eliminate barriers to voting.  The cry of voter fraud is a canard for voter suppression.

INTERNET NEUTRALITY:  Insure that all people have equal access to the free flow of information through the internet.  Prevent corporate control of news.

PUBLIC FINANCING OF ELECTIONS: Level the playing field so the battle of ideas takes precedence over the ability to buy elections through the purchase of media saturation.

INCREASE TAXES:  Taxes are the price of caring for the common good.  Eliminate the Bush tax cuts.  Increase the tax rates especially on the wealthiest and eliminate loop-holes so everyone pays their fair share.  Managing our national indebtedness also means increasing our sources of revenue.  All are responsible for the common good.  Shared sacrifice AND shared responsibility.

MANAGE OUR INDEBTEDNESS:  Be better stewards of our financial resources.  See the above!

In the end, we have much room for hope because there is much we can do.  Our challenges are human made, and therefore can be solved by human action.  Why?  Because God's grace has given us hope-filled action to transform our world and to make real the Kingdom-Reign of God.

Peace!
Ron

Standing with our Youth

The youth in our St. Paul Area Synod have been denied assembly synodical authorization to engage the critical questions surrounding military service.  The synods did not stand with our youth with the authority of the office.

Recently, the Joint Peace with Justice Committee of the St. Paul Synod and the Minneapolis Area Synod proposed a resolution with the resolves: "...to provide congregations with resources for addressing the issues of faith and conscience inherent in military service....[urging] congregations to share such resources with parents, pastors, church youth leaders, Sunday school teachers and confirmation instructors in order to encourage the teaching of what Jesus taught and lived, and to inform young people of the often destructive consequences of combat and training to kill."

It was the decision of the St. Paul Area Synod resolution committee to NOT allow for a vote, but instead to allow two speakers, one pro-resolution and the other a military chaplain, table conversation, but no public comment.  To be fair, the speakers were excellent and the table conversation vigorous.  I had planned to speak in favor of the resolution.  What follows was to be my speech.

I speak in support of the resolves.  Our nation has fought more wars and proxy wars than any other nation in the world in the 20th Century.  Now, in the 21st Century, we are again leading the world in being the major player in wars.  Our national defense budget is larger than all the defense budgets of all other nations in the world combined.  We are a fighting nation, and if the past is our teacher, we will fight again in defense of our nation and to protect the vulnerable.

The truth is that our youth are going to be asked to fight these wars.  Our youth are going to be faced with the most traumatic decision of their lives: taking another life on the field of battle. For most, this action is life changing.  Some are physically impaired for life.  Suicides, unemployment, and homelessness rates for vets are significantly higher for the discharged soldier.  War has life beyond the battlefield.

Our Church owes it to our youth to provide them with the opportunity to engage the central questions of war, peace, and military service from Biblical, confessional, and historical positions.  We support our youth when we provide opportunities for faithful, moral conversation on these crucial issues of life.  We

support our youth when we provide time for conversation on the just war theory, pacifism, conscientious objection, selective conscientious objection, and the nonviolent ethic of Jesus Christ.

The Church is the most gifted place for our youth to engage these questions.  Indeed, it may be the only place where our youth can engage these profound questions in a faithful, thoughtful, suppportive, compassionate environment.  Let us journey with our youth.  I urge the asssembly to support the resolves within this resolution.  Thank you.

Some would argue that synodical resolutions are words in the wind, signifying little, assuaging only bothered consciences, creating only illusions of moral action.  For some voters this would be true.  But where would we be if those who signed the Augsburg Confession would not have signed?  Where would our nation be if our Constitution was unsigned and not voted into law?  Where would the ELCA social statements be if there were no votes?  Where would the Civil Rights Act of 1965 be if there was no vote?  Democracy would be a sham without the right to vote.  What is the Arab Spring all about?

Votes matter.  Votes give authority for action.  Votes put conscience on the line.  Votes mean we are standing up for what we deem of faithful value.  Our synod failed our youth.  Personally, I will spend the next year moving another resolution forward for vote.

We must stand with our youth.

Peace!
Ron

Songs Keep Me Going

Songs keep me going.  Songs are stories, theology, and values put to rhythm and melody.  Perhaps a main reason why songs are so central in my life is that as a former stutterer, I never stuttered when singing.  One doesn't.  Hence, I am grateful for songs. Songs meant freedom!  Songs keep me going today.

I sing and play the guitar.  I have three 12-string guitars: a 45 year old sunburst Gibson, a 32 year old Guild, and a 24 year old Guild.  I play them all.  Each has spent ample time accompanying worship liturgies, sermons in song, music at campfires, school programs, in-home gatherings, and daily hanging loose at home. Our four year old granddaughter Anja picks up a 12 string and strums along.  Joy!   I have a stack of music perhaps six feet high which fills drawers and takes up shelf space.  Songs keep me going.

Given all that is going on in this world, we need songs to help define the reality of the times and to give us hope for the times.  Songs help us verbalize our fears and rage, our hopes and dreams.  It is always better to express and decompress.  Songs are our personal confessions of faith and ethics.  Songs unite our spirits because when we all sing the same song, we are one.  It could be that if the world would sing together, we could live in peace.  Yes, songs can ignite discord, but that is part of the truth-telling, and when there is truth, there is hope.  So here are some songs and lines for these times, songs that keep me going and perhaps can help you keep going.

Lord of all hopefulness, Lord of all eagerness,

Lord of all kindliness, Lord of all gentleness.... (Struther)

So you speak to me of sadness and the coming of the winter.

Fear that is within you now that seems to never end. (Denver)

Have no fear, little flock....Have good cheer little flock.

Praise the Lord high above....Thankful hearts raise to God.... (Jillson)

Sometimes I just don't know, how could life be anything but beautiful;

It seems that I was made for you and you were made for me. (Lightfoot)

Jesus loves me this I know, for the Bible tells me so.

Whose garden was this?  It must have been lovely.

Did it have flowers?  I've seen pictures of flowers.

And I'd love to have smelled one. (Paxton)

How many times must those cannon balls fly,

before they are forever banned?

The answer my friend, is blowin' in the wind. (Dylan)

You've given me tenderness so I can know warmth.

You've given me laughter so I can be free!

You've given me honesty so I can know trust.

You've given me You, so I can be me. (Letnes)

Ain' nobody gonna turn me aroun'.

I'm gonna keep on a walkin', keep on a talkin',

marchin' till the day I die. (Civil rights song)

When we look and we can see things are not what they should be,

God's counting on me, God's counting on you.

Hoping we'll all pull through, me and you. (Wyatt and Seeger)

Light one candle for the wisdom to know

that the peacemakers' time is at hand.

Don't let the light go out! (Yarrow)

You are salt for the earth, O people....

Bring forth the kingdom of mercy, the kingdom of peace,

The kingdom of mercy, the city of God. (Haugen)

Preparing to cross the Jordan into Canaan, Moses said to the people: "Now therefore write this song, and teach it to the Israelites; put it in their mouths, in order that this song may be a witness...." (Dt. 31:19) What followed was "The Song of Moses", written to sustain the People of God in their New Land.

What are your songs?  What songs keep you going?

Peace!

Ron Letnes

I Celebrate No One's Death!

The day after Osama was killed, I received an email from my sister-in-law in which she asked a pointed question: "Is bin Laden's death 'justice' in your peace-and-justice world?"  I emailed her and asked her if I could use her question as the lead for this commentary and she graciously said yes.  Here was my response with some additional comments.

"Justice has been done", so we hear.  In ways, yes.  Justice demands accountability to the common good.  God creates us to be part of the same family of God. Being part of the same family of God makes us accountable to each other, that we are not simply a bunch of Ayn Rand types individually doing our own things at another's expense regardless of the common good.  No one is exempt, from Hitler to Osama to Christians to Muslims to them to us to me.  In the proclamation of Komarovsky in "Dr. Zhivago": "We're all made of the same clay you know!"  We are all broken, some the same bones, some others.  We are all called before the justice bar of God's and the world's courts to be given life's verdict.  One newspaper headlined Osama's death: "Rot in Hell!"  Then there are Jesus' words to the thief on the cross: "Today you shall be with me in Paradise".   I celebrate no one's death.

Osama's death insured his accountability to the common good.  No one is accountable only to themselves.  Osama had broken the trust and sanctity of the common good.  Justice demands accountability to the common good.  However, justice and killing are not necessarily wedded. I celebrate that Osama was held accountable.  Yet, I celebrate no one's death.

How then is justice administered?  In Romans 13:4, Paul writes that the government is God's instrument of justice: "It is the servant of God to execute wrath on the wrongdoer." The purpose of justice is to maintain order.  When order is disturbed, the wrath of justice is brought down.  However, this does not mean that governments have a blank check to do whatever and however and whenever it pleases.  Justice must flow out of love for the sake of love.  In short, the main ingredient of justice is love.  It is important to recognize that Paul's Chapter 13 is bookended by the call to love.  Indeed, the Old Testament meaning of love is justice.  Likewise, when the New Testament speaks of love it means justice.  Justice is love and love is justice.  Justice administered by governments is to be tempered with love.  Love does not instigate death.  Hence, I celebrate no one's death.

How then do we administer justice with love?  The message of the Gospel is nonviolence.  Jesus' justice is a gentle justice, a justice tempered by mercy.  Jesus took death upon himself as the expression of God's mercy for the world.  In the case of Osama, it was right to call him to account, but to exact justice with mercy.  This means the first goal should have been to  try and capture him alive and bring him to the United States for trial. Second, he should have been given the full protection of the law guaranteed within our Constitution.  Third, if and when found guilty, lock him up for good.  No capital punishment.  Jesus put an end to the ethic of "an eye for an eye".  Whether we want to admit it or not, Osama was also created in the Image of God, which tragically he bastardized.  Yet, all of God's people deserve mercy.  God's ways are not necessarily the world's ways.  Hearts can change, repentance happens. I celebrate no one's death.

I have been bothered by the celebrations of Osama's death.  I ask, is this what we have become?  Is this who we are? We dance at death?  Shouts of "USA!  USA! USA!" provide the dancers' cadence.  The bloodlust of revenge drips from our polluted souls.  Osama's death is our catharsis.  Furthermore, we celebrate the skill of the "Kill Team", "our nation's finest."  We elevate them to near deity status.  They have executed American justice by their "terrible swift sword".  We trained them well and they performed their duty well.  They were obedient, courageous patriots.  Yet, I recall Churchill's warning: "Those who have sown the wind shall reap the whirlwind."  Yes, Osama sowed the wind on 9/11 and he has reaped the whirlwind.  Now, do we reap the same whirlwind?  Are we dancing to our own funeral?  Violence begets violence.  I celebrate no one's death.

We can ask: Does death move us forward?  Is there a positive in death?  Certainly.  The defeat of a vicious enemy, the passing of one whose life has been wracked by pain and disease, the exiting of an unjust political force, all may release us from past barriers to love and justice.  But celebrate these passings, no.  The pain has been too great, the sufferings too deep, the memories too vivid to make us dance on their graves.  I celebrate no one's death.

The Christian faithful recently celebrated Easter!  Easter reminds us that death is not to be celebrated, but life is a gift to be lived in faith, love, and justice.  The grace within Jesus' death and resurrection is Christ taking death upon himself to give us all a new heaven and a new earth, when there will be no more dying, no more crying, and pain will be no more, when God is making all things new. (Revelation 21:1-5)  If we dance, let us dance at the resurrection!

Jesus' justice is life!   Jesus does not celebrate death.

Peace!
Ron

Our Fork in the Road

Our nation and all who call themselves followers of Jesus are at a fork in the road.  One fork travels the ethic of Ayn Rand, alive in the Tea Party.  The other fork travels the ethic of Jesus.  The irony is that the Ayn Rand crowd is loaded with professed followers of Jesus.  Yet, each fork is a unique journey of values, quite different, each offering distinctly different outcomes.

Ayn Rand was born in Russia and emigrated to the United States.  Two of her biggest books are: The Fountainhead, and Atlas Shrugged.  Avid followers include Alan Greenspan, the economist Milton Friedman, and Congressman Paul Ryan.  Some call her an objectivist.  Some quotes:

If any civilization is to survive, it is the morality of

altruism that we have to reject.

I swear, by my life and the love of it, that I will never live

for the sake of another man, nor ask another man to 

live for mine.

...the only way a government can be of service to national

prosperity is by keeping its hands off [business].

Civilization is the process of setting man  free from men.

The purpose of morality is to teach you not to suffer and die,

but to enjoy yourself and live.

God [is] a being whose only definition is that he is beyond

man's power to conceive.

Many say that Ayn Rand opened the door to unbridled greed and unrestrained capitalism.  Considering her disciples, this is a reasonable conclusion.  I would add a third outcome: triumphant selfishness.  Evan Knappenberger, a disabled Iraq war veteran and activist writes of his conversion from Rand to Jesus: 

Like Rand, I denounced compassion as weakness, abhorring

the idea of living for others.  Not only does Rand state 

unequivocally that greed is good and selfishness a virtue,

but she [claims that] love of personal gain is the only 

"objective" good in the universe.  Rand leaves the masses of 

humanity to die of starvation while a chosen elite live in

harmony in a capitalist utopia.

  Sojourners, March 2011, p. 22

Paul Ryan's budget plan travels the Rand Road: cut spending on education, food stamps, low income housing, Medicare, reduce taxes on corporations and cut taxes on the wealthiest Americans from 35% to 25%, and permanently extend the Bush tax cuts.  Do all this while:

One percent of the U.S. population holds between 34 and 39 percent

of the nation's wealth; the top 5% hold between 66 and 72% of 

the wealth; and the bottom 50% hold 2% of the wealth.  The share

of America's income held by the top 1% of the population

has more than doubled since 1980, while the bottom 90% 

has, since 1975, coped with flat wages and mounting debt.

Christian Century, April 19, 2011, p.22

Then there is the Jesus Road.  Consider Acts 2:44-45: "All who believed were together and had all things in common; they would sell their possessions and goods and distribute the proceeds to all, as any had need."  In the Parable of the Rich Fool, Jesus says, "Take care! Be on your guard against all kinds of greed; for one's life does not consist in the abundance of possessions."  Colossians 3:2-5 states: "Set your minds on things that are above....Put to death, therefore, whatever in you is earthly: ...impurity...evil desire, and greed (which is idolatry)."  And Amos 5:21, 24: "I take no delight in your solemn assemblies....But let justice roll down like waters, and righteousness like an ever-flowing stream."

It is time for a bold Christian witness!  It is time to step up and make the Reign of God real!  It is time to trod the Jesus Road!  I am convinced that this is the only way back from our nation and the world being forever lost.  The Light of Christ enlightens our darkness and guides us through this perilous time.

We are at our fork in the road.

Peace!

Ron

CORRECTION: Two blogs ago, I incorrectly wrote: "The richest 400 people in the USA control 50% of the nation's wealth."  The correct statistic should have read: "The top 400 people control as much wealth as the bottom 50%."  My apology to Michael Moore for mis-hearing his comment.  Thank you, Duane, for bringing this matter to my attention. 

   

Invasion of the Vipers

I'll join the chorus!  If the writer of Genesis can use a viper as the symbol for evil and the fall (Genesis 3:1-5), if Zophar in Job can speak of wicked people as "the tongue of a viper" (Job 20:16), if the prophet Isaiah can refer to the sinfulness of God's people as those who "hatch out vipers" (Isaiah 59:5), if John the Baptist can call the Pharisees and Sadducees a "brood of vipers" (Matthew 3:7), if Jesus can condemn the Pharisees as a "brood of vipers" (Matthew 12:34), if Paul can refer to all who have sinned as "The venom of vipers is under their lips" (Romans 3:13b), I'm in!

The character of our nation is being invaded by vipers.  I think Gandhi's SEVEN DEADLY SOCIAL SINS defines these vipers:

Politics without principle

Wealth without work

Commerce without morality

Pleasure without conscience

Education without character

Science without humanity

Worship without sacrifice

These poisons are draining the life out of America's soul.  In his last editorial for the New York Times, March 26, 2011, Bob Herbert wrote:  "Arthur Miller...liked to say that the essence of America was its promises.  That was a long time ago.  Limitless greed, unrestrained corporate power and a ferocious addiction to foreign oil have led us to an era of perpetual war and economic decline."  The vipers strike!

Herbert goes on: "But like greedy children, the folks at the top are seizing virtually all the marbles.  Income and wealth inequality in the U.S  have reached stages that would make the Third World blush.  As the Economic Policy Institute has reported, the richest 10% of Americans received an unconscionable 100% of the average income growth in the years 2000 to 2007, the most extended period of economic expansion....In 2009, the richest 5% claimed 63.5% of the nation's wealth.  The overwhelming majority, the bottom 80%, collectively held just 12.8%."  The vipers strike!

And General Electric, one of our largest corporations, didn't have to pay any taxes last year.  The vipers strike!

Meanwhile, we are told we only have a debt problem, not a tax problem.  Cut taxes and the wealth will flow to all, so we are told.  I like what Leo Gerard of the United Steelworkers said: "If tax cuts for the wealthy created jobs, we would have full employment."  The vipers strike!

Governors in the states of Wisconsin, Michigan, Ohio, and Florida pull a bait and switch to eliminate collective bargaining and destroy unions.  The vipers strike!

Republican lawmakers, influenced by the Tea Party gang, attempt to cut and squeeze as much as possible out of 12% of our discretionary budget, included funding for child nutrition, Planned Parenthood, Pell Grants for education, and other programs supporting the most vulnerable.  All this in the name of fiscal responsibility.  Forget about the common good, life is all about survival of the fittest. The vipers strike!

Joseph Stiglitz, Nobel Prize winning economist, writes: "...one...of the reasons we have so much inequality is that the top 1% want it that way."  The vipers strike!

And now we are in War #3!  The vipers strike!

Years ago, I recall a lecture by the great theologian, Helmut Thielecke, as he talked about the Fall in Genesis.  He observed that when the serpent tempted humankind, the words used were not filled with fire and brimstone or vituperous hatred.  No, instead, the serpent engaged in a theological conversation, asking essentially, "Wouldn't you like to be like God?" (Genesis 3:1-5). In short, brokenness happens because humanity chooses to break God's design.  Stiglitz is correct.  Tyler Cowen, Professor of Economics at George Mason would concur: "The root cause of income inequality...is extreme human ingenuity, albeit of a perverse kind." The vipers strike!

What is the way back?  Remember John the Baptist: "Repent!"  Remember Micah: "What does the Lord require but to do justice, love kindness, and walk humbly with your God."  Remember Amos: "Let justice roll down like water, and righteousness like an ever-flowing stream!"  Remember Jesus: "Blessed are those who hunger and thirst after righteousness, for they will be filled."

I'm in!

Peace!

Ron

    

  

War: A Time of Restless Sleep

War brings restless sleep.  Jesus despises war, war is contrary to the will of God. The Reign of God is a time of peace.  The Kingdom of God is a place of harmony.

Hence, I shout "No!" when the Tomahawks seek their targets, when the fighters straif the columns, and when the Hellfires incinerate another tank.

Jesus cries out,  "Would that you knew the things that make for peace."   "Blessed are the peacemakers, for of such is the Kingdom of God."

Yet, we are committed to another war in Libya.  We didn't ask for it.  We encouraged peaceful regime change. We hoped for another Egypt.  Sadly, Muamar is not Mubarek.  Libyan mercenaries are not the Egyptian army.

What is a Christian to do?  Christians have options.  Christians are not privileged to blindly go along with government decisions.  We are always facing ethical dilemmas.  War is a messy fog. There is no easy passing of the moral buck.  Indeed, we must engage the ultimate moral choice: As a Christian, in what direction will God's grace free my faith and conscience in response to war?

How is a Christian soldier to respond?   Soldiers are not off the hook.  Soldiers can disobey orders if the order is contrary to their conscience.  Obedience to orders is not a free license to kill.  In Germany it is mandatory for soldiers to go through the Resistance Museum in Berlin and be reminded that there are moral limits to soldiering.

Soldiers and civilians can rest upon the guidelines of the "Just War" tradition.  Tried and true.  Augustine spelled them out in Christian terms even though the essentials were born within an earlier moral philosophy.

We can live out our pacifism: no war, no killing, no exceptions.

We can be committed to nonviolence with the "Gandhi caveat": "Where there is only a choice between cowardice and violence, I would advise violence."  Yet as Walter Wink observes: "But Gandhi believed that a third way can always be found, if one is committed to nonviolence."

We can be selective conscientious objectors saying not this war, but maybe another.

As we choose how to respond to the realities of war, I find these helpful paths: 1) The Jesus Way is that of nonviolence.  We are not created to kill, but to love and seek life for all;  2) Jesus forgives and restores. Because we sin ("I do what I do not want to do, but what I do not want to do, that I do", Paul), we are reconciled to God and each other in Christ by grace through faith;  3) Bonhoeffer unveils the complexity of action, "Before other men the man of free responsibility is justified by necessity; before himself he is acquited by his conscience; but before God he hopes only for mercy." (Ethics, p. 248) To Bonhoeffer, there are times when we must risk standing guilty before God, trusting in God's mercy for our restoration.

May our sleep be restless.

Peace!
Ron