For Peacemaker: the Possible Dream
By Neil Earle
Dr.
Glen Stassen, Fuller Theological Seminary's Professor of
Christian Ethics
To rephrase Mark Twain,
“Everyone talks about peace but no-one does anything about it.”
Of course this is an
exaggeration.
One group that does do
very much about it is led by Fuller Theological Seminary’s Professor
of Christian Ethics, Dr. Glen Stassen. In 1992 Professor Stassen outlined
biblically-based principles of practical peacemaking along with actual
case histories from political science and recent history in his textbook
Just Peacemaking: Transforming
Initiatives for Justice and Peace (Westminster John Knox Press,
1992). He followed this with a five-year project featuring twenty-three
ethicists and international problem-solving specialists titled Just
Peacemaking: The New Paradigm for the Ethics of Peace and War
(Pilgrim Press, 1998, 2004, 2008).
Not
Pie In the Sky
“Jesus was no Platonic
idealist,” Stassen wrote in the Spring, 2009 issue of Fuller’s Theology:
News and Notes. “He was a Jewish realist…[w]hen Jesus taught
leaders in Jerusalem that they needed to practice peacemaking or the
temple would be destroyed, he was talking realistically about a real
threat and the practical ways to avoid the destruction of the Temple and
Jerusalem – which happened.”
Stassen and his
colleagues present ten practices in the realm of practical peacemaking,
an issue they feel can move
Christian problem solvers and others beyond the traditional “just war” or
pacifism dichotomy. Stassen laments that many churches “have no Christian
guidance when debates about peace and war arise.” Hence members
“are undefended against ideologies that blow back and forth through
our nations and our churches” (Ephesians 4:14). The goal is to teach
broadly enough so that individual
Christians “can decide prayerfully, which ethic seems right to them.”
Even Stassen’s critics
have to admit he has an intriguing approach.
Ten
To Ponder
Here are the ten
practices of just peacemaking as outlined in Theology: News and Notes as supplemented by comments from other
contributors. Reconcile’s
readers will be more than a little interested in what is being offered
here as the principles this newsletter has consistently expounded for
ten years are echoed in much of what follows:
- Support nonviolent direct action. This is drawn from the
famous “turn the other cheek” teaching in Matthew 5:38-42. Some Christian
expositors insist Jesus is not advocating simply being a masochist
and allowing oneself to be smashed in the face for
no purpose. Rather he counsels us to act in such a way that a
well-thought-out, peaceful and determined response might oblige your
opponent or onlookers to reconsider what is true justice in the
situation. Thus Jesus is seen as reacting non-violently to the High
Priest’s false and deadly charges (Luke 22: 66-71). He quietly but
calmly asserted his rights before a kangaroo court. Our generation saw
this method employed to great effect, says Stassen, by the non-violent
civil rights protestors of the American South in the 1960s.
- Next: take independent initiatives. Matthew 5:25 urges,
“agree with your adversary quickly.” Stassen argues that President
George Bush Sr. (1989-93) and Mikhail Gorbachev applied this in
disposing of 50% of their respective nation’s nuclear weapons. Fuller
student Kent David Sensenig sees Abraham taking an independent
initiative with his nephew Lot
when both men’s herdsmen were quarreling over pasturage. “Abraham
willingly conceded to his younger nephew, Lot, the first choice of land,
in order to keep peace in his family”
(Genesis 13:2-12).
- Use cooperative conflict resolution. President Jimmy
Carter helped achieve lasting peace in the 1979 Camp David Accords
between Egypt and Israel with just this tactic. For more
see www.matthew5project.org.
- Acknowledge responsibility for conflict and injustice and
seek repentance and forgiveness (Matthew 7:15). ORM Chapter leader
Evelyn O’Callaghan Burkhard sees just this principle at work in the
largely successful Truth and Reconciliation Commission in South Africa
this past decade.
- Work in our communities toward worthy grass-roots
initiatives for human rights, religious liberty and power-sharing.
President George W. Bush was right when he insisted that in the
twentieth century democracies did not fight each other. The often
chaotic-seeming approach to democratic decision-making nevertheless
tends to let destructive forces spill over in non-violent ways. Ballots
are better than bullets.
- Where possible, foster equitable and sustainable economic
development. This could be called the Erin Brokovich resolution. One
town’s waste disposal facility may be another’s toxic health hazard.
- Support cooperative initiatives in the international
arena. Historically, argues Stassen, “the more nations are involved in
travel, missions and international trade, the less they make war.” The
United States
and China
showed the value of beneficial
cultural exchanges during the famous Ping Pong Diplomacy of the early 1970s.
This led to much greater things as we all know. Reconcile’s parent organization,
then known as Worldwide Church of
God, helped sponsor the musical troupe “Little Ambassadors of
Shanghai” to the United States in 1985 and the effect was
electrifying.
- In general, where possible, work to strengthen
international efforts for global cooperation. Though it is far from a
perfect model, nations more engaged in the United Nations, for example,
tend not to attack each other as easily. As Winston Churchill said,
“The United Nations was not intended to lift us to heaven but to save
us from hell.”
- Support moves to reduce offensive weapons and the
scandalous trade in weapons (Matthew 26:52). No less a personage than
American-born Queen Noor of Jordan is one of 100 political and civic
leaders behind Global Zero, a new initiative to eliminate nuclear
weapons—mainly the 26,000 still owned by Russia and the U.S. “The
presence of nuclear weapons drives more proliferation and insecurity,”
Queen Noor warns. It also exposes nuclear powers to the threat of
hypocrisy when they try to curb right states.
- Encourage grassroots peacemaking groups. Taking back our
cities begins a block at a time. Peace activism starts in our own
neighborhoods. ORM, a para-church ministry we support, won an award in
2008 for its contribution to reducing tensions between police and gangs
in the city of Pasadena, CA. Other links can be found
at www.ecapc.org
and atimetoreconcile.org.
David
Gushee of
Mercer
University
in Georgia
concludes: “Just peacemaking obeys
Christ’s peacemaking mandate. It is a crucial aspect of a Christian vision.”
In fleshing out this vision, Stassen colleague and
professor of Islamic studies Evelyne A. Reisacher explained why she
responded enthusiastically to an open dialogue between Muslim and
Christian thinkers. “There are too many misunderstandings between
evangelicals and Muslims to reuse a warm invitation.” In such ways do
real reconciliation and just peacemaking coincide.
Neil
Earle with contributions from Parade magazine and Evelyn O’Callaghan
Burkhard.