King Abdullah of Jordan to U.S. Congress

Speech to U.S. Congress by His Majesty King Abdullah II of Jordan.

Thank you for such a warm welcome. It is an honor to stand, as my father did, before this historic institution. Allow me to thank you, on behalf of all Jordanians.

Jordan and the United States have had a long friendship. It is a special privilege to be here in the year that the American Congress welcomes its first woman Speaker, and its first Muslim-American member of Congress. These milestones send a message around the world about the America I know so well, a place where individuality is nurtured, a place where hard work is rewarded, a place where achievement is celebrated. The America I know so well believes that opportunity and justice belong to all.

In my days in Massachusetts, I also learned something of New England virtues. There wasn't actually a law against talking too much, but there was definitely an attitude that you didn't speak unless you could improve on silence. Today, I must speak; I cannot be silent. I must speak about a cause that is urgent for your people and for mine. I must speak about peace in the Middle East. I must speak about peace replacing the division, war, and conflict that have brought such disaster for the region and for the world.

This was the cause that brought my father King Hussein here in 1994. With Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin beside him, he spoke of a new vision for the Middle East. Their courageous work for peace received bipartisan support from your leaders. And there was tremendous hope for a new era. There was tremendous hope that people would be brought together. There was tremendous hope that a final and comprehensive settlement of all the issues would be achieved. Thirteen years later, that work is still not completed. And until it is, we are all at risk. We are all at risk of being victims of further violence resulting from ideologies of terror and hatred. It is our greatest and most urgent duty to prevent such dangers to our region, to your country and to the world.

The choice is ours: an open world full of promise, progress and justice for all; or a closed world of divided peoples, fear, and unfulfilled dreams. Nothing impacts this choice more than the future of peace in the Middle East. I come to you today at a rare, and indeed historic, moment of opportunity, when there is a new international will to end the catastrophe. And I believe that America, with its enduring values, its moral responsibility, and yes, its unprecedented power, must play the central role.

Some may say, ‘Peace is difficult, we can live with the status quo.' But, my friends, violent killings are taking place as part of this status quo. Palestinians and Israelis are not the only victims. We saw the violence ricochet into destruction in Lebanon last summer. And people around the world have been the victims of terrorists and extremists, who use the grievances of this conflict to legitimize and encourage acts of violence. Americans and Jordanians and others have suffered and survived terrorist attacks. In this room, there are representatives of American families and Jordanian families who have lost loved ones. Thousands of people have paid the highest price, the loss of their life. Thousands more continue to pay this terrible price, for their loved ones will never return.

Are we going to let these thousands of lives be taken in vain? Has it become acceptable to lose that most basic of human rights? The right to live? The status quo is also pulling the region and the world towards greater danger. As public confidence in the peace process has dropped, the cycle of crises is spinning faster, and with greater potential for destruction. Changing military doctrine and weaponry pose new dangers. Increasing numbers of external actors are intervening with their own strategic agendas, raising new dangers of proliferation and crisis.

These are groups that seek even more division: faith against faith, nation against nation, community against community.

Any further erosion in the situation would be serious for the future of moderation and coexistence, in the region and beyond. Have we all lost the will to live together in peace celebrating one another's strengths and differences?

Some may say, ‘But there are other, urgent challenges.' How can there be anything more urgent than the restoration of a world where all people, not only some people, all people have the opportunity to live peacefully? This is not only a moral imperative, it is essential to the future of our world, because long-term, violent crisis is the enemy of all global prosperity and progress. Certainly, our era faces critical issues. There is great public concern here, just as in our region, about the conflict in Iraq. The entire international community has vital decisions to make about the path forward, and how to ensure Iraq's security, unity, and future. But we cannot lose sight of a profound reality. The wellspring of regional division, the source of resentment and frustration far beyond, is the denial of justice and peace in Palestine.

There are those who say, ‘It's not our business.' But this Congress knows: there are no bystanders in the 21st Century, there are no curious onlookers, there is no one who is not affected by the division and hatred that is present in our world. Some will say: ‘This is not the core issue in the Middle East.' I come here today as your friend to tell you that this is the core issue. And this core issue is not only producing severe consequences for our region, it is producing severe consequences for our world.

The security of all nations and the stability of our global economy are directly affected by the Middle East conflict. Across oceans, the conflict has estranged societies that should be friends. I meet Muslims thousands of miles away who have a deep, personal response to the suffering of the Palestinian people. They want to know how it is, that ordinary Palestinians are still without rights and without a country. They ask whether the West really means what it says about equality and respect and universal justice. Yes, my friends, today I must speak. I cannot be silent. Sixty years of Palestinian dispossession, forty years under occupation, a stop-and-go peace process, all this has left a bitter legacy of disappointment and despair, on all sides.

It is time to create a new and different legacy, one that begins right now; one that can set a positive tone for the American and Middle East relationship; one that can restore hope to our region's people, to your people, and to the people of this precious world. Nothing can achieve that more effectively, nothing can assert America's moral vision more clearly, nothing can reach and teach the world's youth more directly, than your leadership in a peace process that delivers results not next year, not in five years, but this year.

How do we get there? Not by a solution imposed by one side. A lasting peace can only be built on understanding, agreement and compromise. It begins with courage and vision. We, all of us, must take risks for peace. The Arab states recognized that reality in 2002, when we unanimously approved the Arab Peace Initiative. It puts forward a path for both sides, to achieve what people want and need: a collective peace treaty with Israel and normal relations with every Arab state, collective security guarantees for all the countries of the region, including Israel, an end to the conflict, a dream every Israeli citizen has longed for since the creation of Israel, and an agreed solution to the refugee problem, a withdrawal from Arab territories occupied since 1967, and a sovereign, viable, and independent Palestine.

The commitment we made in the Arab Peace Initiative is real. And our states are involved in ongoing efforts to advance a fair, just, and comprehensive peace. His Majesty King Abdullah Bin Abdul Aziz of Saudi Arabia initiated the 2002 proposal; today, he continues to rally international support. Momentum is also building among Muslim countries outside the Arab world.

Ten days ago, in Islamabad, the foreign ministers of key Muslim states met. They came together to assure Palestinians and Israelis that they are not alone, that we back their effort to make and build peace. The goal must be a peace in which all sides gain. It must be anchored in security and opportunity for all.It must be a peace that will free young Palestinians to focus on a future of progress and prosperity. It must be a peace that makes Israel a part of the neighborhood, a neighborhood that extends from the shores of the Atlantic Ocean, across the breadth of the southern Mediterranean, to the coast of the Indian Ocean. It must be a peace that enables the entire region to look forward with excitement and hope, putting its resources into productive growth, partnering across borders to advance development, finding opportunities, and solving common challenges.

This goal is visionary, but my friends, it is attainable. History shows that longtime adversaries can define new relationships of peace and cooperation. The groundwork for a comprehensive, final settlement is already in place. At Taba, as in the Geneva Accords, the parties have outlined the parameters of the solution. But we need all hands on deck. The international community, especially the United States, must be engaged in moving the process forward to achieve real results. Above all, we must make our process serve our purpose. We must achieve an agreed solution to the conflict.

Madam Speaker, Mr. Vice President, Honorable Members - your responsibility today is paramount. Your potential to help Palestinians and Israelis find peace is unrivalled. This is because the people of the region still regard the United States as the key to peace, the one country most capable of bringing the two sides closer together, holding them accountable, and making a just settlement reality.Time after time, there has been progress towards peace when Americans have actively engaged. Camp David, Madrid, Wye River: nearly every breakthrough was accomplished when America was determined to help the parties succeed.

On behalf of all those who seek and strive for peace in my part of the world, I ask you now to exert that leadership once again. We ask you to join with us in an historic effort of courage and vision. We ask you to hear our call, to honor the spirit of King Hussein and Yitzhak Rabin, and help fulfill the aspirations of Palestinians and Israelis to live in peace today.

Let me reaffirm that Jordan is committed to playing a positive role in the peace process. It is part of our larger commitment to global co-existence and progress. Ours is an Islamic country with a proud record of diversity, moderation, and shared respect. Allow me to say, we thank the Congress and the Administration for supporting Jordan's progress and development. I deeply value the partnership between our peoples, and the contributions of so many Americans to the future of our country.

My friends, "A decent respect for the rights and dignity of all nations, large and small." That's how President Roosevelt - the great F.D.R. - described the basis of American foreign policy. He pledged American support for the four freedoms, freedom from fear, freedom from want, freedom of speech, and freedom of religion, everywhere in the world. The Four Freedoms speech was given right here, before Congress. And that's entirely fitting. Because it is here in the People's House, that the voices and values of America have made hope real for so many people. Today, the people of the Middle East are searching for these four freedoms.

Today, the people of the Middle East are searching for new hope, hope for a future of prosperity and peace. We have seen the danger and destruction of violence, hatred, and injustice. But we have also seen what people can achieve when they are empowered, when they break down walls, when they commit to the future. And we know that Middle East peace can be a global beginning, creating new possibilities for our region and the entire world.

We look to you to play an historic role. Eleven American presidents and thirty American congresses have already faced this ongoing crisis. For not the future generation, but the generation alive today, let us say together: No more!

Let us say together: Let's solve this!

Let us say together: Yes, we will achieve this!

No Palestinian father should be helpless to feed his family and build a future for his sons and daughters.

No Israeli mother should fear when her child boards a bus.

Not one more generation should grow up thinking that violence and conflict are the norm.

As Roosevelt also said, "the justice of morality must and will win in the end." But he knew that it was up to responsible nations to stand up for justice when injustice threatens. This is our challenge as well. And we must not leave it to another generation to meet this challenge.

Thirteen years ago, my father was here to talk about his hopes for peace. Today, we are talking about a promise that is within our reach. We can wait no longer and that is why I am here before you. We must work together to restore Palestine, a nation in despair and without hope. We must work together to restore peace, hope and opportunity to the Palestinian people. And in so doing, we will begin a process of building peace, not only throughout the region, but throughout the world.

How much more bloodshed and how many more lives will it cost for this grave situation to be resolved?

I say: No more bloodshed and no more lives pointlessly taken!

The young boy, traveling to school with his brother in Palestine, let him have a life of peace.

The mother, watching with fear as her children board a bus in Israel, let her have a life of peace.

The father in Lebanon, working hard to provide an education for his children, let him have a life of peace.

The little girl, born in Iraq, with her wide eyes full of wonder, let her have a life of peace.

The family, together eating their evening meal, in Asia, Africa, North America, South America, Europe, Australia, and the Middle East, let them all have a life of peace.

Today my friends, we must speak; we cannot be silent. The next time a Jordanian, a Palestinian, or an Israeli comes before you, let it be to say: Thank you for helping peace become a reality.

Thank you very much.

King Abdullah of Jordan to U.S. Congress

Speech to U.S. Congress by His Majesty King Abdullah II of Jordan.

Thank you for such a warm welcome. It is an honor to stand, as my father did, before this historic institution. Allow me to thank you, on behalf of all Jordanians.

Jordan and the United States have had a long friendship. It is a special privilege to be here in the year that the American Congress welcomes its first woman Speaker, and its first Muslim-American member of Congress. These milestones send a message around the world about the America I know so well, a place where individuality is nurtured, a place where hard work is rewarded, a place where achievement is celebrated. The America I know so well believes that opportunity and justice belong to all.

In my days in Massachusetts, I also learned something of New England virtues. There wasn't actually a law against talking too much, but there was definitely an attitude that you didn't speak unless you could improve on silence. Today, I must speak; I cannot be silent. I must speak about a cause that is urgent for your people and for mine. I must speak about peace in the Middle East. I must speak about peace replacing the division, war, and conflict that have brought such disaster for the region and for the world.

This was the cause that brought my father King Hussein here in 1994. With Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin beside him, he spoke of a new vision for the Middle East. Their courageous work for peace received bipartisan support from your leaders. And there was tremendous hope for a new era. There was tremendous hope that people would be brought together. There was tremendous hope that a final and comprehensive settlement of all the issues would be achieved. Thirteen years later, that work is still not completed. And until it is, we are all at risk. We are all at risk of being victims of further violence resulting from ideologies of terror and hatred. It is our greatest and most urgent duty to prevent such dangers to our region, to your country and to the world.

The choice is ours: an open world full of promise, progress and justice for all; or a closed world of divided peoples, fear, and unfulfilled dreams. Nothing impacts this choice more than the future of peace in the Middle East. I come to you today at a rare, and indeed historic, moment of opportunity, when there is a new international will to end the catastrophe. And I believe that America, with its enduring values, its moral responsibility, and yes, its unprecedented power, must play the central role.

Some may say, ‘Peace is difficult, we can live with the status quo.' But, my friends, violent killings are taking place as part of this status quo. Palestinians and Israelis are not the only victims. We saw the violence ricochet into destruction in Lebanon last summer. And people around the world have been the victims of terrorists and extremists, who use the grievances of this conflict to legitimize and encourage acts of violence. Americans and Jordanians and others have suffered and survived terrorist attacks. In this room, there are representatives of American families and Jordanian families who have lost loved ones. Thousands of people have paid the highest price, the loss of their life. Thousands more continue to pay this terrible price, for their loved ones will never return.

Are we going to let these thousands of lives be taken in vain? Has it become acceptable to lose that most basic of human rights? The right to live? The status quo is also pulling the region and the world towards greater danger. As public confidence in the peace process has dropped, the cycle of crises is spinning faster, and with greater potential for destruction. Changing military doctrine and weaponry pose new dangers. Increasing numbers of external actors are intervening with their own strategic agendas, raising new dangers of proliferation and crisis.

These are groups that seek even more division: faith against faith, nation against nation, community against community.

Any further erosion in the situation would be serious for the future of moderation and coexistence, in the region and beyond. Have we all lost the will to live together in peace celebrating one another's strengths and differences?

Some may say, ‘But there are other, urgent challenges.' How can there be anything more urgent than the restoration of a world where all people, not only some people, all people have the opportunity to live peacefully? This is not only a moral imperative, it is essential to the future of our world, because long-term, violent crisis is the enemy of all global prosperity and progress. Certainly, our era faces critical issues. There is great public concern here, just as in our region, about the conflict in Iraq. The entire international community has vital decisions to make about the path forward, and how to ensure Iraq's security, unity, and future. But we cannot lose sight of a profound reality. The wellspring of regional division, the source of resentment and frustration far beyond, is the denial of justice and peace in Palestine.

There are those who say, ‘It's not our business.' But this Congress knows: there are no bystanders in the 21st Century, there are no curious onlookers, there is no one who is not affected by the division and hatred that is present in our world. Some will say: ‘This is not the core issue in the Middle East.' I come here today as your friend to tell you that this is the core issue. And this core issue is not only producing severe consequences for our region, it is producing severe consequences for our world.

The security of all nations and the stability of our global economy are directly affected by the Middle East conflict. Across oceans, the conflict has estranged societies that should be friends. I meet Muslims thousands of miles away who have a deep, personal response to the suffering of the Palestinian people. They want to know how it is, that ordinary Palestinians are still without rights and without a country. They ask whether the West really means what it says about equality and respect and universal justice. Yes, my friends, today I must speak. I cannot be silent. Sixty years of Palestinian dispossession, forty years under occupation, a stop-and-go peace process, all this has left a bitter legacy of disappointment and despair, on all sides.

It is time to create a new and different legacy, one that begins right now; one that can set a positive tone for the American and Middle East relationship; one that can restore hope to our region's people, to your people, and to the people of this precious world. Nothing can achieve that more effectively, nothing can assert America's moral vision more clearly, nothing can reach and teach the world's youth more directly, than your leadership in a peace process that delivers results not next year, not in five years, but this year.

How do we get there? Not by a solution imposed by one side. A lasting peace can only be built on understanding, agreement and compromise. It begins with courage and vision. We, all of us, must take risks for peace. The Arab states recognized that reality in 2002, when we unanimously approved the Arab Peace Initiative. It puts forward a path for both sides, to achieve what people want and need: a collective peace treaty with Israel and normal relations with every Arab state, collective security guarantees for all the countries of the region, including Israel, an end to the conflict, a dream every Israeli citizen has longed for since the creation of Israel, and an agreed solution to the refugee problem, a withdrawal from Arab territories occupied since 1967, and a sovereign, viable, and independent Palestine.

The commitment we made in the Arab Peace Initiative is real. And our states are involved in ongoing efforts to advance a fair, just, and comprehensive peace. His Majesty King Abdullah Bin Abdul Aziz of Saudi Arabia initiated the 2002 proposal; today, he continues to rally international support. Momentum is also building among Muslim countries outside the Arab world.

Ten days ago, in Islamabad, the foreign ministers of key Muslim states met. They came together to assure Palestinians and Israelis that they are not alone, that we back their effort to make and build peace. The goal must be a peace in which all sides gain. It must be anchored in security and opportunity for all.It must be a peace that will free young Palestinians to focus on a future of progress and prosperity. It must be a peace that makes Israel a part of the neighborhood, a neighborhood that extends from the shores of the Atlantic Ocean, across the breadth of the southern Mediterranean, to the coast of the Indian Ocean. It must be a peace that enables the entire region to look forward with excitement and hope, putting its resources into productive growth, partnering across borders to advance development, finding opportunities, and solving common challenges.

This goal is visionary, but my friends, it is attainable. History shows that longtime adversaries can define new relationships of peace and cooperation. The groundwork for a comprehensive, final settlement is already in place. At Taba, as in the Geneva Accords, the parties have outlined the parameters of the solution. But we need all hands on deck. The international community, especially the United States, must be engaged in moving the process forward to achieve real results. Above all, we must make our process serve our purpose. We must achieve an agreed solution to the conflict.

Madam Speaker, Mr. Vice President, Honorable Members - your responsibility today is paramount. Your potential to help Palestinians and Israelis find peace is unrivalled. This is because the people of the region still regard the United States as the key to peace, the one country most capable of bringing the two sides closer together, holding them accountable, and making a just settlement reality.Time after time, there has been progress towards peace when Americans have actively engaged. Camp David, Madrid, Wye River: nearly every breakthrough was accomplished when America was determined to help the parties succeed.

On behalf of all those who seek and strive for peace in my part of the world, I ask you now to exert that leadership once again. We ask you to join with us in an historic effort of courage and vision. We ask you to hear our call, to honor the spirit of King Hussein and Yitzhak Rabin, and help fulfill the aspirations of Palestinians and Israelis to live in peace today.

Let me reaffirm that Jordan is committed to playing a positive role in the peace process. It is part of our larger commitment to global co-existence and progress. Ours is an Islamic country with a proud record of diversity, moderation, and shared respect. Allow me to say, we thank the Congress and the Administration for supporting Jordan's progress and development. I deeply value the partnership between our peoples, and the contributions of so many Americans to the future of our country.

My friends, "A decent respect for the rights and dignity of all nations, large and small." That's how President Roosevelt - the great F.D.R. - described the basis of American foreign policy. He pledged American support for the four freedoms, freedom from fear, freedom from want, freedom of speech, and freedom of religion, everywhere in the world. The Four Freedoms speech was given right here, before Congress. And that's entirely fitting. Because it is here in the People's House, that the voices and values of America have made hope real for so many people. Today, the people of the Middle East are searching for these four freedoms.

Today, the people of the Middle East are searching for new hope, hope for a future of prosperity and peace. We have seen the danger and destruction of violence, hatred, and injustice. But we have also seen what people can achieve when they are empowered, when they break down walls, when they commit to the future. And we know that Middle East peace can be a global beginning, creating new possibilities for our region and the entire world.

We look to you to play an historic role. Eleven American presidents and thirty American congresses have already faced this ongoing crisis. For not the future generation, but the generation alive today, let us say together: No more!

Let us say together: Let's solve this!

Let us say together: Yes, we will achieve this!

No Palestinian father should be helpless to feed his family and build a future for his sons and daughters.

No Israeli mother should fear when her child boards a bus.

Not one more generation should grow up thinking that violence and conflict are the norm.

As Roosevelt also said, "the justice of morality must and will win in the end." But he knew that it was up to responsible nations to stand up for justice when injustice threatens. This is our challenge as well. And we must not leave it to another generation to meet this challenge.

Thirteen years ago, my father was here to talk about his hopes for peace. Today, we are talking about a promise that is within our reach. We can wait no longer and that is why I am here before you. We must work together to restore Palestine, a nation in despair and without hope. We must work together to restore peace, hope and opportunity to the Palestinian people. And in so doing, we will begin a process of building peace, not only throughout the region, but throughout the world.

How much more bloodshed and how many more lives will it cost for this grave situation to be resolved?

I say: No more bloodshed and no more lives pointlessly taken!

The young boy, traveling to school with his brother in Palestine, let him have a life of peace.

The mother, watching with fear as her children board a bus in Israel, let her have a life of peace.

The father in Lebanon, working hard to provide an education for his children, let him have a life of peace.

The little girl, born in Iraq, with her wide eyes full of wonder, let her have a life of peace.

The family, together eating their evening meal, in Asia, Africa, North America, South America, Europe, Australia, and the Middle East, let them all have a life of peace.

Today my friends, we must speak; we cannot be silent. The next time a Jordanian, a Palestinian, or an Israeli comes before you, let it be to say: Thank you for helping peace become a reality.

Thank you very much.

Christian Peace Witness for Iraq - following the Prince of Peace

Friends,

The Christian Peace Witness (www.christianpeacewitness.org) is a week away. Next Friday night, March 16th, there will be thousands of Christians who will gather to worship together at the National Cathedral in Washington, D.C. at 7:00 p.m. Following our worship service, we will create a joyous procession to the White House, celebrating the Prince of Peace as we walk three and a half miles down Massachusetts Avenue. Worship will continue in Lafayette Park in front of the White House, and at around 10:00 or 10:30, we will surround the White House in a circle of light and prayers for peace and an end to the war in Iraq. Simultaneously, there will be close to one hundred other services going on across the country as Christians gather to insist that we are united by the Jesus who chose the way of the cross. Together, we stand against this war.

As of now, close to 3,500 people have registered on-line as participants, with more signing on each day. Perhaps most significantly, over 700 of the registrants have indicated that they are prayerfully discerning whether they feel called to risk arrest as the procession forms around the White House late Friday night. Though the point of our witness is not to be arrested, our resolve to carry out this nonviolent witness in a way that will be heard is strong.

It’s not too late to be a part of this important witness. Close to thirty partner organizations representing a wide spectrum of Christians have worked together to plan an event that will reflect the best of our traditions and beliefs as followers of Jesus.

There is nothing simple about standing against war. Many will call us naïve, foolish, stupid, or perhaps most troubling – subversive – as we stand firmly with the Jesus who calls us to love our enemies.

Still, it is our conviction that Jesus’ teachings about reaching out in love and friendship to those of whom we are most afraid are, in the end, the only way to achieve genuine security in a world that is increasingly violent and insecure. In a post September 11 world, the people of the United States must reach out rather than turn inward. This message is no more difficult than what Jesus asked his earliest Jewish followers to do as he insisted that they “cross over” to the other side – to the land of the gentiles – those whom they had been taught to hate.

In First John, chapter four – that Gospel message is driven home once again. “There is no fear in love, for perfect love casts out fear. . . and those who say ‘I love God,’ and hate their brothers or sisters, are liars. . . The commandment we have from God is this, those who love God must love their brothers and sisters also.”

So this is your opportunity to join in a witness that you can trust grows out of an authentic commitment to our faith. This event is not about partisan politics, it is about being firmly rooted in the biblical tradition and insisting that the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus had serious political implications in his time, and has similar implications in our time as well.

This witness will call for a clear plan to end the war.

We will ask for a timeline to bring our troops home and we will call on all of us in our churches and across our country to honor the sacrifice made by our soldiers and their families. The project of providing pastoral care for those families will be long and will demand our deepest resolve.

We will be clear that the gospel calls us as a people to commit to the difficult, long-term work of helping Iraqis to rebuild their communities. The only way to begin to build trust in communities in the Middle East and around the world is to make it clear that we have no intention of enriching our own corporations as we support an international reconstruction effort.

We will insist, again, that we believe our nation is called to renounce all torture, for we know that it is both ineffective as a security measure and morally abhorrent to our God.

We will ask for a clear commitment from our government to recommit to the things that we know will make for peace and genuine security here at home in our own country: affordable health care, a dignified wage, a full-education, and genuine food security for every family in our country.

When we affirm that we are followers of Jesus, it must mean something. We must be willing to take risks for and with the Prince of Peace. We must be willing to extend a hand of genuine friendship to all people, of all faith traditions, and insist that we can and will create a world of genuine security.

Next Friday night, join us in Washington as we lift our voices in a proclamation of what it means to be Christian. If you can’t come to Washington, go to https://secure.democracyinaction.org/dia/organizations/Sojo/event/distributedEventSearch.jsp?distributed_event_KEY=249 to find a Christian Peace Witness service near you.

Many blessings as we take action together to move us toward peace and genuine security.

Rick

The Circle of Elders

Friends,

A couple of quick updates.

First, the website for the Christian Peace Witness for Iraq is now totally live, including online registration. If you're planning to come, don't hold off on registration, because there is limited seating at the National Cathedral and you'll be able to print a free "ticket" to get in as you register. If we go over 3,500 people, we'll have to figure out what to do next - spill out onto the lawn, use other churches, etc. If you're looking for a positive way to voice your opposition to the war, check out www.christianpeacewitness.org.

Keep in mind that the Presbyterians will have a networking gathering (co-sponsored by the Presbyterian Peace Fellowship, the Presbyterian Peacemaking Program, and the PC(USA) Washington Office, on Saturday from 11 - 4. (Some who have chosen to risk arrest as an expression of their conscience and their faith may not make it to that gathering). There's a place in the on-line registration where you can sign up for that as well.

Also, if you are organizing a group (and I'm praying that you are) to come from your church, presbytery or campus, please send us a note at ppfcpw@gmail.com so that we can try to keep up with you. I remain convinced, (most days), that we can turn out five thousand Presbyterians for this event.

Also,

Some of you may know that the Presbyterian Peace Fellowship is in the early stages of developing a "Circle of Elders" in which we will match interested young adults who are committed to active, nonviolent peacemaking work with elders on our database who have given their lives to the practice of integrating peacemaking and their ministries/careers.

We have a list of about two dozen elders who have expressed interest in being the charter members of the Circle of Elders. If you are roughly between 16 and 35 years old, and you'd like to be mentored in this kind of relationship, please write to us at ppfwitness@gmail.com to let us know. We're hoping to encourage you into a relationship that might include email correspondence, regular phone calls, meetings face to face (if possible), and perhaps even doing nonviolent direct action work together.

I must say, as I work on these different initiatives, the energy around peacemaking that is deeply grounded in our faith is pretty tremendous.

The church is on the move. Can you feel it?

rick

Christian Peace Witness for Iraq March 16th

Friends,

It's been several months since I've written, and some of you have been letting me know lately that you kind of miss it. I confess that I needed a break, and the opportunity to reconnect with my family. I've also been extremely busy with my work and travel with the Presbyterian Peace Fellowship, and I've spent the fall working hard on my "ecological footprint." I convinced my wife to trade our minivan in on a ten-year old VW Passat converted to run on used french fry oil, and I've been developing a plan to purchase renewable energy credits to compensate for my fossil fuel use as I fly for my work. More about all of that in the coming weeks. In fact, I'll catch you up on the epic cross-country grease car adventure that my family and I took over the Christmas/New Year holidays.

For now, though, I want to give you a heads-up on the work that has been consuming almost all of my time and much of my creative energy over the last few months. (If you don't have time to read the story - just go to www.christianpeacewitness.org to learn more about the huge event we're planning for Washington D.C. on March 16th.)

Many of you read that I was arrested with some seventy other people as a result of our interfaith, nonviolent action against the war in Iraq during the week of protest planned by the Declaration of Peace in September. After that event, I was contacted by each of the four Presbyterian Pastors who were arrested with me (Gwin Pratt, Tim Simpson, Andrew Foster Connors, and Roger Powers) to ask about what we might do next. All of us felt that the experience had been deeply meaningful, and we wondered what we might do to invite other Presbyterians to take similar action.

To make a long story very short, after a few conference calls with a dozen or so folks from the Presbyterian Peace Fellowship, it was clear that this was an idea that wouldn't let us go. It was easy for us to name the kind of event that we were looking for. We wanted to call people we know together for an action that would express a prophetic call to end the war in Iraq and a pastoral concern for both our soldiers and their families as well as Iraqi families who have suffered so much in the violence. This event would be intentionally Christian, clearly committed to nonviolence, open to the movement of the Holy Spirit, positive in its tone , and unabashed in its grounding in the scriptural command to be peacemakers and to love our enemies.

Perhaps most importantly, we were hoping to craft an event that would call out to everyday, average Presbyterians (and others) who might be nervous about showing up at the typical peace rally; folks who know deep in their hearts that the war must end, but who are also concerned about their family members and friends who are serving in the military. This would be a moment to call our elected leaders to a vision of security that is built on being in right relationship with one another, not on the elusive security promised but never delivered by responding to violence with more violence.

Anyway, the bottom line is that we broadened the conversation to include more than twenty other Christian peace fellowships and organizations. On our first conference call with close to thirty people, I was blown away by the deep resonance I felt in the group. Getting consensus on our basic commitments was easier than in any other collaboration I've ever been a part of . The idea that has jelled as the leaders and representatives of those organizations have worked together through the fall looks like this.

On Friday, March 16th, at seven p.m., thousands of Christians will worship together in the National Cathedral in Washington D.C. (that's where the memorial was just held for Gerald Ford, so you probably so it on tv). Following the worship service, we will process together (in a candlelight vigil) down Massachusetts Ave. about two and a half miles to the White House (transportation provided for those who can't make the walk). Then there will be a late-night (possibly all-night) witness/vigil in Lafeyette Park where there will be speakers and music and prayer. There will also be an opportunity to participate in "Divine Obedience," some kind of intentional, nonviolent action that risks arrest for those who feel led by their conscience to do so in order to make clear their opposition to the war.

This is a peace witness to bring your children and grandchildren to. All participants will be asked to affirm a pledge of nonviolence, there will be no rocks thrown through windows, and the chants will be about what we affirm because of who God calls us to be. I'm hoping that many of you, like me, have been waiting and watching for an opportunity to act on your faith in a positive way. More than fifty thousands Iraqis have been killed in the war, along with 3,000 U.S. soldiers and more than 28,000 soldiers who have been wounded. Isn't it time for us to lift up our commitment to the Jesus who repeatedly insisted that we must reach out to those we're most afraid of?

Please mark your calendar now to be in Washington with us on March 16th. Go to www.christianpeacewitness.org to learn more about the event and to register to attend. If you want to help us organize, you can contact us at ppfcpw@gmail.com to get involved. College and seminary students, please get in touch if you're willing to help organize on your campus!

This is a chance for all of us to lift up a vision of a great nation that is known and respected around the world for our commitment to justice and basic fairness for all of God's people. I hope you'll join us - and the naive Jesus who dared to call his own followers to love their enemies - in insisting that security is possible, and that it will come as we extend a hand of friendship - never at the point of a gun.

By the way, we've talked a lot about whether this should be an interfaith witness, especially inviting our Jewish and Muslim sisters and brothers to join us. All folks are welcome, and we are asking those of other faith traditions for their support and their prayers as we organize. We're clear, though, that much of the violence has been carried out in the name of Christianity. We have a special responsibility to reclaim our own gospel tradition, to repent of the violence that has been done in our names, and to show our country and the world that there are Christians who are willing to follow a nonviolent Jesus into a world of fear, trusting that God is indeed, our hope and our salvation.

That was pretty scary stuff when Jesus led his disciples into the land of the gentiles, and it's pretty scary stuff today. I'm pretty sure that it's the fundamental message of a people who build their faith around an empty cross - a Jesus who responded to violence with love over and over again, even at the cost of his own life. We hope that our brothers and sisters from other faith traditions, and those who count themselves as non-believers as well, will welcome this initiative and anticipate our common work in the future for a world without war.

Stay tuned,

Rick

An Op-Ed on Prop 107 in Arizona

Friends,

Arizona, like many states, is increasingly turning to ballot propositions in our governance - something I have grave concerns about because it tends to reduce complex and nuanced public policy issues to twenty second soundbites on t.v. or yard signs that do nothing to create an informed electorate. This round, we've got 19 of these initiatives. I spent over an hour and a half reading the various proposals and their critiques and justifications, and still found it difficult to sort through them when I went to cast an early ballot last week. One of the most pernicious is Proposition 107, which would change our constitution to make same-sex marriage illegal in our state (it already is), and to deny any marriage-like benefits to all persons who are not married.

I felt strongly enough about this one to write an opinion piece for our local paper, the AZ Daily Star, which ran it in it's electronic version of the paper about a week ago. As it's circulation has widened, I've been asked by several people to share it more broadly through my blog.

So for those of you who are interested, here's my own take on this one - limited to the 500 words allowed by the newspaper. . .


Proposition 107 would explicitly deny any “marriage-like” benefits to persons who are not married, and would constitutionally define marriage as only being available to persons of opposite gender. Like the broader society, the faith community is deeply divided on this issue.

My experience as the highest elected official of the Presbyterian Church (USA) from June of 2004 to June of 2006 gave me a glimpse into the passion and divisiveness of this debate. Though it is clear that there is currently no consensus in our churches to broaden the definition of marriage, our denomination has been clear that we will not become unwitting participants in any movement to isolate gay and lesbian persons as a group, nor will we condone discriminatory practices against the lesbian, gay, bisexual or transgender community from our legislative, executive or judicial branches of government. This is entirely consistent with our denomination’s historic advocacy for women, persons of color, undocumented persons, and those who live with mental or physical disabilities, all of whom also face the possibility of discrimination because of who they are.

I long for the day when all who desire to make a lifelong commitment to one another are able, as I am, to do so within the bonds of the covenant of marriage. Someday, it could happen. After all, the biblical story is full of examples of God’s people being surprised by what God had in mind for them. We Presbyterians believe that God is constantly being revealed to us in ways that challenge, trouble, and occasionally delight us. For that reason, I will continue to be in dialogue with my sisters and brothers with whom I disagree about this matter. As people of faith, all of whom are struggling to be faithful to their understanding of God, we must find respectful ways to wrestle with this and many other issues that divide us.

However, what we must not tolerate are laws motivated by hate or discrimination, or that single out an entire class of people to be treated differently than the rest of us. Prop. 107 would take away domestic partner benefits such as health insurance from public employees. It would remove domestic violence protections from unmarried persons. It makes simple things like the right to visit a loved one in the hospital impossible.

Questions of how marriage is defined will continue to be debated within our faith communities and across our society. In the meantime, let’s assure that our laws embody the best of what our country has always been – a safe haven for those who might be targeted elsewhere because of who they are or what they believe. Let’s honor our country’s history as a place of tolerance, mutual forbearance, care and concern for all members of our communities. Those are values that all of us, both in and out of the church, ought to be able to affirm.

Please, vote “no” on Proposition 107.

Blessings on each of you as you also go to the polls in the next few days.

Rick

Witness against the War

Sisters and Brothers,

Here is my promised update on how our interfaith witness against the war played out on Tuesday.

It was a beautiful day in Washington, and I rode the subway into Union Station and walked to Upper Senate Park with Mike Benefiel, who was one of our Presbyterian Peace Fellowship accompaniers in Colombia this year. Mike graciously agreed to house me for a couple of nights, and also gave up an entire day to support the witness by acting as my “support person,” in case our witness led to an act of civil disobedience for which I would be arrested. Thirty-five or forty other Presbyterians joined us for the day as well, including four pastors who ended up being arrested.

By ten o’clock, there were between 250 and 300 people gathered in the park for our peace liturgy. We were led in song (“Siyahamba – We are walking in the light of God,” “Ain’t gonna let nobody turn us around,” “Peace is flowing like a river,” “We shall overcome,” “Freedom,” etc.), and then we heard from a young man from Iraq who is Muslim and who spoke about the Iraqi peace movement. Then we began the liturgy itself, which included words from myself, Rabbi Arthur Waskow of the Shalom Center in Philadelphia, a responsive reading with representatives of a number of different faiths, and a chant with a Buddhist peace group. As I emceed the gathering, I led with a reflection about the importance, when we gather in an interfaith context, of lifting up the best of our religious traditions, rather than watering our traditions down to the point where they are no longer recognizable in the interests of not offending one another. I began with a reading from the book of Luke, Chapter 19:38-43, where Jesus was entering Jerusalem and he broke down and wept over the inability of the people to see the things that make for peace.

As the liturgy ended, we read a statement of commitment to nonviolent principles, and were led in a moving prayer by Rev. Seiku, a pastor who heads the organization called Clergy and Laity Concerned about Iraq. We then formed a procession and walked toward the Capitol building to a point where we had agreed that a small group would break off for their own witness – attempting to place a mock coffin on the front steps. Rev. Andrew Foster Connors went with that group and was among those arrested as they walked across the lawn toward the front steps of the Capitol.

At that point, the rest of us turned and walked back past the park and on toward the Hart Senate Office building, where it was our intention to hold a public ceremony of prayer, scripture reading and song in the atrium in the center of the building. About a block from the building, we were met by D.C. Capitol Police, who formed a cordon of officers to block us from continuing.

Over the next hour, the group continued to sing as several of us negotiated with the Chief of Police about our intentions and how our witness would be carried out. The police were, at all times, unfailingly courteous, and even helpful as we tried to agree together on a way that our public witness could continue that would be acceptable to them. I was so gratified that those who were participating in the demonstration also remained courteous and respectful, even as they waited for a very, very long time for the negotiations to play out. There was a small group of about eight people who chose not to wait for those negotiations, and they were the second group arrested as they moved into the street and tried to go around the police barricade on the sidewalk.

Eventually, the rest of the group agreed to put down our signs and to continue with only strings of paper peace cranes that had the names of soldiers and others who have lost their lives in Iraq. The police asked us to continue individually if we wanted to see our Senators, but the group remained clear that we were there as a group to participate together in a public, interfaith expression against the war. The process of negotiating was fascinating as we would speak with the Chief, and then return to the group to decide together what was acceptable to us, while the Chief would speak on the phone with his superiors to make similar determinations.

When he agreed to let us go on toward the Senate Office building, the Chief was clear that we would have to be individually screened for security (which we expected and were fine with) and that, if we re-gathered together inside the building, he would be forced to consider that an unlawful assembly. We were clear at all times that we intended to have a peaceful witness as a group when we re-entered, and that we understood the possible consequences if we did so. As we moved forward and entered the building, about forty of us who were comfortable risking arrest moved to the front of the procession, while most of the rest stayed behind.

The Hart Building has a beautiful atrium that is seven or eight stories high, with balconies on all sides of the atrium on each floor. As we were processed into the building, we formed a circle there in the atrium, and Ken Butigan, one of the founders of Declaration of Peace (please sign the petition if you are so moved at www.declarationofpeace.org) spoke about our insistence that the War in Iraq must come to an end. I then read a few verses from Jeremiah 29, and reflected on God’s instructions to the people of Israel about how to relate to their enemies at one of the most pivotal, and fearful, moments of their history – while they were being held captive in Babylon. After instructing God’s people to make their homes, start families, and attend to the welfare of Babylon, God assured the people, “Surely I know the plans I have for you, plans for your welfare and not for harm, to give you a future with hope.

Pastor Gwin Pratt, participating with his close friend and colleague from Jacksonville, FL, Rev. Tim Simpson, then shared the marvelous verses from the second chapter of Isaiah about “beating swords into plowshares, spears into pruning hooks, and nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they study war anymore.” There was singing, and some fairly quiet chanting, and all the while more and more people were coming out of the offices and lining the balconies. The police warned those of us assembled that we were in violation of the law (three times during our witness), and then announced that arrests were beginning. At that point, spontaneously, about fifteen or so people did a “die-in,” lying down on the floor in the center of the circle as the rest of us continued to sing.

The police continued to demonstrate the greatest professionalism, and I was proud to be a citizen of a country that bends over backward to protect the right of public dissent. As I was arrested, my arresting officer, named “John,” gently escorted me by the elbow to a waiting police van outside, where he gently patted me down before I joined the others in the vehicle. From there on, the day became an exercise in patience, and in building friendships with one another and sharing stories. It took almost eight hours to process charges against seventy-one of us who were arrested in all three incidences. In addition to Tim, Gwin and Andrew, my good friend, Roger Powers, who is also a pastor from Baltimore, was also arrested with us. I’ll have to return to Washington to pay the fine (fifty dollars for unlawful assembly) in a few months.

If you’re interested in more about the day, you can check out a great article in the Baltimore Sun that appeared the next morning, or another solid article by Evan Silverstein of the Presbyterian News Service. Here are the citations:

http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/local/bal-md.clergy27sep27,0,2593888.story?coll=bal-local-headlines

http://www.pcusa.org/pcnews/2006/06489.htm

I’m aware that my actions have generated, and will probably continue to generate, a lot of conversation. I thought it important to share my own perceptions about how the events of our witness against the war unfolded, though I’m aware perceptions always vary depending on one’s predisposition and point of view. For instance, the coverage by the Washington Post described us “shouting” scripture in the Hart building, and though I cringed a little when I read it, I realize that it is certainly factual given the fact that we were raising our voices to be heard by one another, though we made no attempt to be heard by those up on the balconies.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/09/26/AR2006092601359.html?sub=new

In the end, it seems to me that many of our disagreements with one another – both in the church and in the broader context of our country, often come down to differences in perception like this.

As these things are debated, I do want to be clear that this was, and remains, a very personal decision to me, though I was pleased to see a clear, faith, witness - for peace and against war - lifted up by the media. I hope that all of us who are followers of Jesus, like Peter and the earliest disciples in the stories of the Acts of the Apostles, are clear about what we’re willing to risk as we seek to live our faith and to follow the Jesus who stood against the destructive powers of his own time. This one, in the end, turned out to be small risk (though we were told ahead of time by the police that it would be called a felony rather than a misdemeanor).

I will continue to seek ways to stand against this war, and the broader “War against Terror” for as long as it takes (perhaps my whole life) to bring about a different way of approaching our enemies that will, Jesus assures us, lead to greater security. In the meantime, I will also continue to also seek ways to put even greater energy into living a positive, and probably more risky, commitment to peacemaking through activities like Accompaniment in Colombia with the Presbyterian Peace Fellowship, or Nonviolent Direct Intervention in situations of extreme conflict with Christian Peacemaker Teams.

Somehow, we must risk everything for the “peace that passes all understanding.”

Thanks for taking the time to follow my own journey around these tough questions.

rick

Update on plans for Interfaith Witness against the War in Iraq

Sisters and Brothers,

Some of you have written to ask for more information about the events to be held in Washington D.C. later this week and next. I am still planning to participate (after continued prayer and discernment) in the Interfaith Service and Procession to be held on Tuesday the 26th.

The event will begin at 10:00 a.m. in Upper Senate Park. There will be an interfaith liturgy beginning at 10:30, followed by a procession near or around the Congressional building. As I wrote several weeks ago, some of the participants are considering an act of nonviolent, civil disobedience as a part of the procession. There is more information about all of those events at www.declarationofpeace.org and at http://www.iraqpledge.org/, and both websites have registration forms to fill out if you will be participating.

I am not unaware of some of the conversation that's been going on about my decision to participate in these events, and especially to consider participating in nonviolent, civil disobedience, in Presbyterian blogging and list serve circles.

Ched Myers has written, in his one of his two amazing commentaries on the book of Mark, called "Who will roll away the stone," about the powerful image of Peter warming his hands at the fire of the temple guards while Jesus is being tried, beaten, and condemned to die on a cross just a few feet away. He suggests that Peter's struggle is a metaphor for our own. In a sense, we are all inside the temple gate, warming ourselves at the fire of- and receiving the benefits of - the empire. In the meantime, there is a world of suffering, and it doesn't take a lot of effort (though perhaps it takes incredible courage) to listen to the cries of a suffering Jesus just a short distance away.

The agony that Peter expressed as he denied Jesus and then broke down and wept is our own agony. Perhaps better said, it is my agony. The opportunity to travel around the world and to worship with sisters and brothers who live with violence, and disease, and poverty, and yes - war too - carries a special burden. My own struggle is to try to figure out how to pull away from the fire and to try to move where I can stand with that suffering Jesus.

Lest I be accused of sanctimony or shallow acts (accusations I take quite seriously), let me say also that I continue to feel doubt, and to experience my own brokenness, as I try to move to stand with that Jesus. I felt it last week as I spent a couple of days in the desert vainly searching for migrants who were lost or ill. I am feeling it this week as we meet as leaders of the Presbyterian Peace Fellowship to talk about how to make our own feeble efforts at accompaniment meaningful even as we recognize that our privilege means we will never really understand the suffering of others.

And I'm certain I'll feel it next week, as I stand with a relatively small crowd in front of our Congress to witness to my conviction that Jesus' instructions to love our enemy are more than empty rhetoric or religous flourish.

And still, I'm certain we must all do more to live what we believe.

Please join us in Washington, or in your own communities, in standing against this war. And please, keep our religious leaders, our soldiers, and the people of Iraq and Afghanistan in your prayers.

Rick

From the first night of planning with the Peace Fellowship

Friends,

It's late, late at night on the first day of the Presbyterian Peace Fellowship National Committee planning retreat. About forty of us are gathered from all over the country (including college students from six Presbyterian Colleges and one Seminary) in order to dream a little about what our commitments, our work and our organizing strategy will be over the coming year.

We began this evening with a brainstorm about those commitments, and it was really quite moving. Integrity, humility, openness to working with others, and reconciliation were lifted up as attitudes that should characterize our work. Being right with God, commiting to follow the nonviolent Jesus, openness to the movement of the Spirit, and an unwavering desire to do justice were named as the fundamental building blocks upon which our work is built. Folks talked about accompaniment, a desire to renew the church and local congregations, and an uncompromising commitment to nonviolence.

Then, though, the conversation got more interesting as we entered into a time of "confessional questioning." Folks in the room were invited to lift up doubts that they have about our work, or about their own commitments as peacemakers, and to share openly with one another about the areas where we're not sure of ourselves.

We talked about the struggle to maintain a healthy tension between our prophetic role and our pastoral role as leaders in our churches, communities and even our own families where some of our loved ones are serving in the military.

We wrestled a little with whether there is a difference between pacifism and active nonviolence, and what each of those words mean.

We talked about whether we in the peace community have been strong enough in our condemnation and clear witness against all violence, including extreme acts of terror and violence. We tried to define what it means when we say we are against war, and how we define war.

There were a lot of other questions, as well. We wondered, together with the young adults who have joined us this week, about what it's going to take to inspire the next generation of leaders in the faith-based, activist community, and we wondered whether it will be possible to build our mission around strengthening local congregations.

We started the day today by reading Isaiah 55. The whole chapter is wonderful, but I find the words of verse 12 especially moving as a vision of what God might have in store for is if we dare to live faithfully:

"For you shall go out in joy, and be led back in peace; the mountains and the hills before you shall burst into song, and all the trees of the field shall clap their hands."

What if those words are true? This week, having begun with confession, we're looking forward to a week of trying to dream up such faithful, exciting, daring acts that - if we summon the courage to carry them out - even the mountains will burst into song and the trees will clap there hands.

All God's creation in celebration. Perhaps God deserves nothing less.

Rick

Charges against AZ Humanitarian Aid workers dismissed

Friends,

Many of you have followed the case of my friends Daniel Strauss and Shanti Sellz with great interest. They were arrested by the Border Patrol in July of 2005 as they were providing a medical transport out of the desert for three men who were in serious medical distress.

Below, I am posting a copy of a press release I drafted for Christian Peacemaker Teams about a week ago after attending and speaking at the Press Conference held by the "Humanitarian Aid is Never a Crime" campaign.

Rick

Release: Next steps for No More Deaths in the Arizona borderlands

As many CPT supporters have heard, last Friday, September 1rst, District Judge Raner C. Collins, in Tucson Arizona, dropped all charges against No More Deaths volunteers Daniel Strauss and Shanti Sellz, declaring that the U.S. Attorney does not have a credible enough case against the two young volunteers to go to trial.

In July of 2005, Sellz and Strauss were apprehended while transporting three Mexican men to medical care from a desert location about eighty miles southwest of Tucson. On that day, No More Deaths volunteers discovered a group of nine men in a wash near the “Arc of the Covenant,” a migrant aid camp staffed for four months each of the last three summers. Six of the men were in good physical condition, and the volunteers gave them food and water but did not offer a medical transport. The other three were in advanced stages of heat stroke and dehydration, evidenced by clammy skin, vomiting, and diarrhea laced with blood. After consulting by phone with a physician and notifying an attorney that they were about to transport the men to medical care, Shanti and Daniel put the three men in their car and headed for Tucson. They were apprehended en route and arrested.

In a press conference held in Tucson by Shanti, their lawyers, and No More Deaths volunteers on Thursday, September 7th, 2006, Shanti expressed gratitude to the entire No More Deaths community in Arizona and across the country. She said that while they never would have invited the charges to be placed against them, she views the last year as a great gift. “When I called my mom from the Border Patrol station,” Shanti said, “her first words were ‘I’m so proud of you’.” The full sanctuary at Southside Presbyterian Church burst into applause and offered a standing ovation for Shanti’s and Daniel’s courage.

Retired Chief Justice of the Arizona Supreme Court Stanley Feldman, who volunteered his services with the pro-bono legal team that mounted the defense for Shanti and Daniel, explained the ruling to those present. “While there is a great deal to give thanks for in this decision,” he said, “we should be clear that this decision was based on Judge Collin’s assessment that Daniel and Shanti were acting on their belief that the Border Patrol had either explicitly – or implicitly – approved of the protocol developed by Samaritans and No More Deaths volunteers over the previous three summers, which called for medical transport in cases of extreme medical danger.” Justice Feldman explained that this decision clearly stopped short of ruling on the primary assertion of the human rights and faith-based volunteers that “Humanitarian Aid is Never a Crime.”

“That assertion,” Collins wrote in his opinion, “will have to be left for another day.”
After Shanti and each of the lawyers had spoken, Kat Rodriguez, Director of the Tucson-based human rights organization, “Derechos Humanos,” gave a sobering recitation of the death statistics in the desert. One hundred seventy-one people lost their lives between October and the end of July this year. That number set the stage for the religious voice that followed, as representatives of the Christian and Jewish communities made it clear that Daniel and Shanti are considered heroes, and that the faith community has a moral imperative to offer humanitarian assistance so long as people are continuing to suffer and to die in the desert.

While each speaker at the press conference made it clear that the work must continue, each also spoke of No More Death’s willingness to sit down with representatives of the government in order to develop a protocol that will clearly recognize and protect the right of faith-based and humanitarian volunteers to offer aid to migrants in the desert. This also was a recommendation in the legal decision handed down by Judge Collins. “There must be some way,” he wrote, “that both the government and the aid organizations can meet their obligations.”

Christian Peacemaker Teams was represented at the event by long-termer Scott Kerr, who has served as the project coordinator for the last several summers, and Reservists Rick and Kitty Ufford-Chase. As Scott leaves for seminary, Rick has agreed to coordinate a continuing presence of CPT delegations and reservists in the Arizona borderlands.

Notes from Colombia

Many of you have been following the work of Presbyterian Accompaniers in Colombia. Our current volunteers, who have been there for more than a month now, are Christine Caton and Rachel Ernst.

I thought some of you might like to check out Rachel's blog about her experiences there.

http://what-i-can.blogspot.com/

Check it out when you have a moment! It's much, much prettier than mine. :)

rick

Sisters and Brothers,

I have written and spoken often about my conviction that our witness as people of faith should, wherever possible, be a positive one. What we as followers of Jesus are for is far more compelling than what we are against, and we must accept the challenge to live out Jesus’ absurd conviction that we are most secure, and most right with God, when we love our enemies.

It is that desire to be a witness for Christ that has led me to become a reservist with Christian Peacemaker Teams. It is what has compelled me to be involved in the work of trying to save the lives of folks who are dying in the desert. It was what compelled me to become the Director of the Presbyterian Peace Fellowship with the hope of creating a corps of Presbyterians who will offer nonviolent accompaniment wherever sisters and brothers in our partner churches are at risk around the world.

Though I remain firm in that core commitment to offer positive, Christ-centered, alternatives to violence, I also believe that there are times when evil is so strong, and so interwoven into the fabric of our culture, that God demands that we rise up in protest.

For me, the moment to stand up and say “no” can no longer be avoided.

I have decided that I will join in an interfaith procession and witness against the War in Iraq in Washington on September 26th. If God opens the way for me to do so, I will risk arrest to make it clear that I believe the War in Iraq is a violation of my most fundamental beliefs as a Christian. Whether or not such a witness is effective, it is clear to me that I must do everything in my power and in keeping with my values as a follower of Jesus Christ to stop this war.

I believe that – when called to protest - our protest must be completely nonviolent.

I believe that we must insist that our stand against this war is not unpatriotic, nor can we allow it to be misconstrued as a lack of support for our soldiers. The most supportive thing we could do for them is to bring them home and reunite them with their families.

I believe that we must be clear and unequivocal in our support for Iraqi families that have been torn apart by this war as well. Pulling back militarily must go hand in hand with an unwavering commitment to support the Iraqis with all aspects of the reconstruction of their society. Our churches should be willing to take the lead in helping to rebuild communities that have been destroyed in Iraq, and we must demand the same of our Congress.

We can and we must stand firmly on the international rule of law to hold accountable those who commit evil in the world today. Anything more is naked aggression and vigilantism that leaves the world community more afraid and more vulnerable than ever. Anything less is an invitation to extremists to continue to hold the world hostage to terror.

There is nothing weak or cowardly about a principled, nonviolent, constructive approach to seeking security in this world. Was Jesus weak when he allowed himself to be hung on a cross as a common criminal? Was Gandhi weak when he insisted that only nonviolence could stand against the injustice of the colonization of his people? Was Martin Luther King Jr. weak when he put to words and lived in deed the power of a people who refused to be provoked to violence in the face of overwhelming injustice?

If they were not weak, nor should we be. Now is the time for all people of faith – especially Christians, Muslims and Jews whose faith traditions are being used to fuel hatred rather than to sow the seeds of peace – to make a stand for peace.

I would invite Presbyterians, and any others who are moved to join us as well, to meet us in Upper Senate Park at 10:00 on Tuesday, September 26th for a service of worship, a procession, and a nonviolent witness to the power of our belief that Jesus meant exactly what he said. I welcome any who would like to join me in risking arrest, and any who would come to provide support for that witness. I would also be grateful for Presbyterians who carry out a witness for peace and against the war in your own communities during the Week of Peace from September 21rst to the 27th.

I will post more details as I learn them. At this point, I understand that those who feel called to risk arrest will be asked to participate in a training for nonviolent action on Monday the 25th. The witness will begin at 10 a.m. and last several hours, plus any further time for those who choose to risk arrest. More to follow on all of of this.

If you intend to join us in Washington on the 26th, please send me an email at ppfwitness@gmail.com so that I can be in touch to coordinate our Presbyterian witness, and go to http://www.declarationofpeace.org/regform-nvcd to register how you intend to participate in events during the week of peace.

I am aware that many others crossed this threshold a long time ago, and I’m grateful for their courageous witness. I repent that it has taken me this long to decide that I must take greater risks in speaking out against the war.

Finally, I ask for your prayers. We are a people who trust that God does listen to prayer. Please pray for this witness, for wisdom and courage for decision makers in Congress, for the safety of our sisters and brothers in the military as well as their families, and also for Iraqis whose families have lost so much in this conflict.

This summer I had the opportunity to spend an hour with a group of Military Chaplains who are members of the Presbyterian Council for Military Personnel and their Families. As I was leaving, after a thoughtful conversation about the challenges confronting chaplains at this time, a Navy Chaplain approached me and said, “Rick, I want you to know that, if my church is going to come down on the side of either war or of peace, I want it to be peace.” We agreed that day, even as we recognized the different ways God has shaped us, that the church must find clear, pastoral ways to make a firm stand for peace.

I hope you’ll join me in personal discernment about how to live out that challenge.

With prayers for the peace of Christ,

Rick

On foundational commitments as peacemakers

Friends,

I’ve spent the summer thinking about my own personal commitments regarding how to be effective in the work of peacemaking. What are the principles that guide my decisions about how to prioritize my time and energy when the task of peacemaking and the opportunities for engagement so often seem overwhelming. I thought I’d share some of my thoughts as I begin in my new role as Executive Director of the Presbyterian Peace Fellowship. Please remember that these are my own musings, and they don’t necessarily represent the consensus of the PPF’s national steering committee. My goal here is not to be definitive about what is or isn’t worthwhile for others, but to get all of us thinking about how we make such decisions ourselves. I would welcome the opportunity to learn about your own commitments. I also recognize that my own beliefs and actions as a peacemaker are a work in process.

I believe that peacemaking is an expression of my faith. I am a peacemaker, first and foremost, because of my formation as a Christian and my commitment to follow Jesus.

Peacemaking is an activity that must be done in community. To me, it seems critical that our efforts strengthen local congregations or other faith communities so that our actions are sustainable over time and provide ongoing support and accountability for one another.

I think peacemaking must be a physical act – it can’t be accomplished in our heads. It is about accompanying those who are experiencing violence and standing together with them as they struggle to survive. It’s about modeling genuine alternatives to war, terrorist acts, and other violent conflict. We must expect our peacemakers to take the same kinds of risks that we expect soldiers to take.

Though I will seek ways to work cooperatively with those of other religious traditions and with non faith-based activists, I will only do so when that cooperation does not violate my fundamental understanding of who God calls me to be, and I will seek always to be clear about my own grounding as a follower of Jesus.

In general, I’m more comfortable with being FOR something in a proactive way than I am in being AGAINST something. For instance, I would prefer to practice hospitality in the desert borderlands - in a way that shows that we have nothing to fear from migrants – rather than focusing on protesting immigration policy that violates our fundamental commitment to welcome the stranger. In fact, I believe that living that proactive witness in an intentionally public way is the best thing we can do to impact public policy.

I do believe, however, that there are times we must protest violence by participating in nonviolent public actions and even risking arrest to call attention to the seriousness of the matter at hand. (More on this soon, as I have made a commitment to risk arrest in a religious protest of the War in Iraq on the 26th of September and I would like to extend a call to Presbyterians to join me in that witness.)

Though I have always thought of myself as a pacifist, I no longer lead with that word when I describe myself. It’s not that I don’t believe in the power of nonviolence to overcome violence. Rather, when a conflict can be described as genocide, I find myself wondering how we can move more quickly to stop the genocide, and my current thinking is that a unified, international police action (not an act of war) is quite likely to be necessary to stop a powerful force from committing that act of genocide. (As you can tell, my thinking on this one is a work in process.)

I’m pretty sure I believe that there is no longer any such thing as a “just war.” I say this primarily because, as the war in Iraq and the recent war between Israel and the Hezbollah have made crystal clear, war is now directed primarily against civilians, and not against soldiers. There are other reasons as well, but this one seems the most compelling to me.

It seems to me that the only way to have integrity as we negotiate the difficult political waters of conflict in the world today is to insist that we will stand against all violence. That means the violence of powerful warmakers and the violence of extremists whose people are being oppressed. It means the violence of military occupation, wherever it may be taking place, and the violence of those who would pick up a gun or strap a bomb to their body in response to their powerlessness. Taking such a stance will allow us to insist that Peacemaking is not a politically partisan activity, though it will almost always have political implications if we are truly witnessing to our faith.

I dream of a day when the PC(USA) might create a new confession about the ways in which we have historically participated in violence, and I dare to dream of a day when we might affirm a commitment to join the Quakers, Brethren and the Mennonites as a “Peace Church.” I doubt such a commitment will take place in the foreseeable future, and I would settle for a strong commitment to insist that we do in fact believe that it is possible to love one’s enemies and to model that belief by actively promoting alternatives to violence – especially the violence of the so-called “War on Terror.” If the church is unwilling to name the impossibility of finding security and peace through the making of war, then who will step forward to do it?

Finally, a word about patriotism and supporting our troops. I am unyielding in my insistence that our first allegiance as Christians is to our God. There is nothing unpatriotic about standing against policies that neither make us more secure nor embody fundamental, Christian commitments to human rights, justice and the safety of civilian noncombatants. Jesus calls us to stand against the pervasive, gut-level assumption in our culture that violence can in some way be redemptive.

At the same time, it is clear to me that faithful Presbyterians - or people of any faith tradition - can come to a different conclusion than I do. I think we would all be wise to adopt a measure of humility about our own understanding of what God desires for the world. It’s such a fine balancing act, isn’t it? How will we live with conviction even as we recognize that we are a work in progress and God is continually shaping and molding us?

In the end, I feel torn. On the one hand, I can embrace and even affirm the Presbyterian assumption of total depravity in the world, for I’ve seen that depravity far too closely as I’ve worked with victims of torture, war, and economic injustice whose oppression can be both overwhelmingly global and devastatingly focused on individuals. On the other hand, I stand with the Quakers in their assumption that there is that of God in everyone. For every evil I’ve seen in the world, I can name a concomitant act of kindness and generosity, and I’m convinced that nothing could be more pragmatically proactive than the assumption that people will do the right thing if given the opportunity to do so. I’m pretty comfortable living with the juxtaposition of those two ideas – total depravity and inherent goodness. Perhaps it’s something akin to being as wise as serpents and as gentle as doves.

I welcome your own thoughts on the “it’s-your-turn discussion group. If you’re not already signed up, you can do so from the front page of my blog.

May God be with us as we go as Peacemakers into a troubled world.

Rick

Life as a "Former" Moderator

Friends,

Slowly, life has been returning to what I now remember was normal at one time in my distant past. I spent most of the month of July reconnecting with my family and regrounding myself in the things that sustain my spirit. After two weeks with my family touring the lake district of northern England - a Quaker roots exploration with my wife and son and my wife's family. I returned for one last hurrah in a more moderatorial role. I attended a conference with church leaders, most of them former moderators, in Montreat early in July, followed by attending the Presbyterian Women's gathering in Louisville.

A few days later, I spent a week at Ghost Ranch on a trip called the "High Desert Spiritual Quest" led by John Fife and Gene LeFebvre, both retired Presbyterian pastors who have been leading this trip together for fifteen years. The week included hiking, my first experience of a Native American sweat lodge, and three days on the Wild and Scenic Chama River. It felt like the first thing I had done that was solely to nurture my own faith and spirit in a very long time. The plan is that my good friend Brandon Wert, who is a pastor in Tucson and the coordinator of our Young Adult Volunteer Site on the border, will take over co-leading this trip with me starting next year. If you're interested, keep an eye on the Ghost Ranch website this fall.

Then I went back east and spent almost three weeks traveling with my eleven year-old son, Teo. We backpacked twenty-two miles of the Long Trail in Vermont, and then headed out on a 1900 mile road trip that included spending time with Teo's best friend (whose parents happen to be two of Kitty's and my closest friends) on the northern tip of the Bruce Peninsula in upper Ontario - right between Lake Huron and the Georgian Bay.

Finally, after a month of decompression that didn't involve cell phones, blackberries (other than the kind one competes with bears for) and email, I felt ready to engage my vocational side once again. I've spent the month of August getting up and running in my new position as the director of the Presbyterian Peace Fellowship. My job will include some national organizing on college campuses, providing trainings in nonviolent accompaniment in churches and Presbyteries, and re-engaging the work with migrants who are at risk in the borderlands, this time as the Arizona representative for Christian Peacemaker Teams. Mostly, I figure I'm tasked with moving Presbyterians to take direct action to live out Jesus' clear call for peace, even - maybe especially - in times like these. If I could have named my dream job as I did my discernment work about my vocation over the last six months, I'm fairly certain it would have looked like this.

I must say that I've thought a lot about the seduction of serving in a position like the one of Moderator for Presbyterian Church. As I've shed myself of the technology that goes with that position, I've realized that I must let go, also, of the rush of always being needed. I'm trying to relocate myself, once more, with folks on the edges. In many ways, it feels like serving the church in this way has been one more experience in crossing borders. I've learned that for all its faults, the world of the connectional church is also a wonderful, rich, vibrant, spiritual world that I hope to be able to move in and out of for the rest of my life. The trick, I think, will be to straddle the border that exists between the world where the church is and the other world where the church is called to be.

I'll begin writing more regularly again now. As always, please remember that I write mostly for me - as a way to process the experiences I'm having and share my reflections on those experiences with others who are interested. The danger of blogging is that it calls for quick impressions, so I'll ask my readers to stick with me as my impressions continue to shape and change me over time. All of us are, I think, a work in progress. God clearly isn't finished with us yet.

Blessings on all of you this weekend as the familiar rhythms of the fall begin again.

Rick

Endings and Beginings

Friends,

It has been a busy week. I intended to share impressions as the worship, fellowship and business of the General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church unfolded, but most days began by 6:30 or 7:00 in the morning and ended at midnight or later. Perhaps next year I'll be able to function more as an observer and less as a participant.

I am so grateful to all of you who have encouraged and engaged with me as my moderatorial term has progressed. This has been, and probably will remain, the greatest vocational experience of my life. I've discovered that I love the whole church, and that there is far more out there to appreciate than I ever could have imagined. I am a far different person, and my faith is far deeper, because of the way God has spoken to me through my preaching and studying the lectionary, and through all of the amazing experiences of God's people around the world.

Some of you may not have heard that I have been asked to serve as the first full-time, Executive Director in the sixty-two year history of the Presbyterian Peace Fellowship (www.presbypeacefellowship.org). I have accepted that offer with enthusiasm, after months of wondering where God was calling me, and especially after a week of ruminating on the questions of vocation and call as I hiked the migrant journey in the desert earlier this month.

This call will allow me to honor the core convictions that God has placed on my heart over the past twenty years: that we are called to the margins, that we are called to take risks for what we believe, that we are called to build up a strong church, that we are called to pick a particular place in the world and to commit to that place and its concern's until God places a clear call on us to move on.

Kitty and Teo and I will remain on the border, and we will continue our work with migrants who are at risk in the borderlands. As we thought about the possibility of trying to move to be closer to our families, we realized that we couldn't leave the border at a time when so many lives are at stake in this part of the world.

Kitty and I hope to recommit to another three years as reservists with Christian Peacemaker Teams, and the National Committee of the Presbyterian Peace Fellowship has encouraged me to understand that commitment, as well as my volunteer commitments with migrants, as a part of my work with PPF. Kitty will remain in her job as the Faith Community Coordinator for the Food Security Office of the Southern AZ Food Bank, which she has loved since being invited into that position a year ago. Teo will go to school at a small school two blocks from our home that he got to choose (with some input from his parents) as he transitions to his middle school years. The three of us will remain connected to Sitting Tree, the intentional community where we live in Tucson. Kitty will remain active at Pima Friends Meeting, where she has just led the Quakers into establishing a weekly "Meeting for Worship with a concern for Peace" as an expression of concern regarding the War on Terror. And I expect that I will recommit to my home church, Southside Presbyterian, and help us to transition into whatever God has in store for us next.

I will begin my responsibilities with the Peace Fellowship on August 1rst. We hope to become a vibrant organization that will welcome a new generation of Presbyterians of all ages into direct action for the causes of God's peace and justice in the world. There are many places where the work will begin, but you can certainly expect that one of the priorities will be to begin by choosing half a dozen Presbyterian Colleges and Seminaries where we will make serious organizing efforts.

I have appreciated your encouaragement to continue writing for U-C:What-I-See. Of all the strategic decision I made as I started my moderatorial term, this one was by far the most important and has had the most far-reaching consequences. I have decided that I will continue writing under the same blog title and at the same address. By late August, you can expect to see a link to the blog from the Peace Fellowship website, along with a somewhat refreshed and more up-to-date personal website.

I have also enjoyed the conversation that many of you have had at "It's-Your-Turn" in response to my blog. (By the way, I enjoyed the recent spate of submissions regarding globalization and Latin America, and I was sorry not to have time to engage.) So, yes, let's keep that conversation going as well!

Dave Hackett has earned my undying gratitude for turning me into a blogger! Thank you.

This afternoon, I will be leaving for ten days in England with Kitty, Teo, and Kitty's family. We will be doing a "Quaker Roots" tour, which seems a particularly appropriate way for a consensus-building moderator to finish my term. Later, I will spend a week with John Fife and Gene LeFebvre doing the High Desert Spirituality Week at Ghost Ranch in July, and then two weeks of backpacking and traveling in New England for my son Teo and me. You should expect only sporadic entries on the blog over the next two months as I reconnect with my family and make the transition to the work of the Peace Fellowship. I will attend the Moderators' "Hope for the Church" gathering at Montreat and the Presbyterian Women's gathering in Louisville in a few weeks.

That's it for now. Blessings on all of you as your summer unfolds. Please keep the concerns of migrants in the desert in the summer heat, and the cause of nonviolent peacemakers around the world in a time of violence, before you as you spend time in prayer, worship and work this summer.

Gratefully,

Rick

A final Migrant Trail Reflection: Death in the Desert

It wasn’t real, but the emotion evoked in me surprised me. At the end of our seventy-five mile trek through the desert, a group of about twenty of us agreed to a nonviolent witness as we passed the Border Patrol Tucson Sector headquarters in Tucson. It was to be a “die-in,” a simple dramatization on the sidewalk of migrants who are dying in the desert. Though I hadn’t intended to volunteer, my thirteen-year-old traveling companion Ben attended a gathering of those interested in participating that was held in our last campsite on Saturday afternoon. A little later, each of those who were to “die” on the side of the road asked someone to be their “mourner,” and I agreed to do so for Ben.

As we took our last water break on Sunday morning, our little group took some foam sleeping pads and went on ahead. It was telling that those who were dying needed the pads to lie on. At one hundred and six degrees, the gravel and concrete right-of-way between the sidewalk and Ajo Road would have badly burned them. Ben was seventh among those who had agreed to die. Without saying a word, he lay down on his stomach, fully extended with an arm outstretched, reaching toward an empty water bottle. Silently, I knelt beside him, leaning over his prostrate form on the gravel with my head in my hands.

My own emotion shocked me. Perhaps it was a natural feeling that welled up in me as we came to the end of a powerful and deeply meaningful experience. Maybe it was the particular connection I feel with Ben, and my more visceral realization that thirteen-year-olds like Ben account for some of the death statistics in the desert each year. Maybe it was the memory of encountering folks in similar condition during my “Samaritan Runs” in the desert over the last few years four years.

I never looked up as the line of walkers, now almost two hundred strong, moved silently past our witness. I focused on Ben, and on what it means when we lose children in the desert every year. Already this year, our current death count is ninety-nine men, women and children since October 1rst. Every one of those people has a story and a family that mourned for them the same way Ben’s family and I would mourn for Ben. It’s way to easy for the bodies to become statistics. As we finished our walk and drove home, the local NPR affiliate announced the death of someone in the desert over the weekend, just twenty miles or so to the west of where we had been walking all week.

Something is drastically wrong with the kind of desperation that leads thousands of people each day into the danger of the borderlands in an attempt to help their family survive. It’s wrong theologically for those of us who profess the Christian faith but then refuse to take seriously the Biblical imperative to welcome the stranger and to care for the suffering. It’s wrong politically for those of us who profess to be a caring and generous people to turn away from the crossers, insisting that they made their own choices and we’re not responsible for their welfare. It’s even worse when we demonize them as “potential terrorists” even while most agree that our economic well-being is built on the labor they desire to offer. It’s wrong economically for those of us who receive the benefits of cheap goods in the global economy to refuse to recognize that we will be unable to sustain the vast, growing, inequity that exists between those of us who have the good fortune to be the winners in the global economy and those who work on the underside of that economy and who find it impossible to feed their families, much less dream of something better for their children as I do for mine. It’s misguided from a security point of view to think that we can ever provide for the security of our children if we are unwilling to recognize the need for a modicum of economic stability for the children just to our south.

Seven days in the desert. Seventy-five miles. Temperatures well above one hundred degrees. This has been an experience that Ben and I won’t soon forget.

May God’s blessings rain down, this day, upon all of God’s people, and may each of us commit to be a part of that blessing.

Rick