the war and why I'm not protesting

well, actually, I am protesting. I pray for peace every day. Every day I put on my paper clip. Nearly every week I write to my representatives in Washington. I vote for those who seek peace, not war. I have even gone, reluctantly, to a downtown New Haven protest on the news that President Bush was going to send 20,000 more troops to Iraq. On March 19, 2003, at a Wednesday night lenten service as St. Mark's Episcopal in New Britain, CT, I preached the clearest and most direct sermon I could about the immorality of this proposed war with Iraq and the necessity of Christians to speak out against the war.

But I can't help but recoil at the crazy antics of the left. This past Saturday (3/17) a march happened in Washington and it was unofficially sponsored and organized by "Answer Coalition" which is short for "Act Now to Stop War and End Racism". In typical form this group lumps a bunch of traditionally leftist causes including support for Cuba and sells "Resist Imperialism" shirts that are red and sport the revolutionary Che Guevara on the front.

Listen. I protest the war. i think it is immoral and unjust. Evil, even. I cry thinking about the casualties. I don't, however, want my opposition to the war to be used by the likes of Brian Becker, the national coordinator of the Answer Coalition and a member of the Party of Socialism and Liberation who said that the protests had little hope of influencing either the president or congress. "It is about radicalizing people. You hook into a movement that exists--in this case the antiwar movement--and channel people who care about that movement and bring them into political life, the life of political activism."

How condescending. And how self-defeating. I find it so irritating to see how so many on the radical left define their "radical" status by how unlikely it is that they'll ever have an impact. I want to have an impact. And ultimately I trust that God is at work, as the second lesson said today in Church, working out reconciliation through Christ, and we are ambassadors for Christ, since God is making an appeal through us on behalf of Christ. Christ is peace, our peace and the peace of the world, and we are to be that peace in the midst of a world at war.

I think the left is too often as mean as the right, and as manipulative in its methods. The right seems at least to focus its energy better, and achieves better success as a result. I would rather not have my views be considered "left" or "right".

Is this rambling a way to describe what being a politically active Christian is just now? At least for me. I too often don't know what to do, and thanks be to God, I can simply offer what I can do, knowing that it is enough.

Anon, and peace,

Chris

Comments

[tony jones]

This, my friend, is a great post. Thanks for helping me understand my own ambivalence about this weekend's protests.

TJ

[Christy]

One can point to extremes on either side of the political spectrum, and find plenty of speech out there to ridicule and draw others to one's own political leanings (perhaps not in themselves extreme.) The effort does not seem.... well, dignified, helpful, kind, or a contribution to the Way of Life we wish to promote. Our culture is composed in part of a highly nuanced spectrum of belief (including political and religious spectra which partly, but not completly, overlap.) If you effort is to define your own spot on the rainbows, better to do it by saying who you are- rather than who you are not. You paint all those to one side of you (the left by your description, thereby labeling all who engage in one form of public protest or witness) with the same brush. By so doing you also presume that the universe of opinion, action and belief can be laid out on a single axis, with left at one end. By all means, stand with and nurture the particular cohort that reinforces your stakeout on the spectra. In some ways, unfortunately, that is the best we humans can do at nurturing authentic community. If you must, you can even avoid public witness in order to not be categorized by others, though making a moral claim for your actions is certainly dubious. But to join in the categorization efforts simply contributes to silence and acquiesence. There are cheap and easy brushstrokes of comparison I could make here, but they would not contribute to the development of a civil civic consciousness.

[Jack]

Thanks, from someone who disagrees with your position on the war. I know THOUGHTFUL protesters are out there - I love it when they speak up.