Ramblings and Reflections

Newsletter 4
Christmas 2003

“When injustice becomes law, civil disobedience becomes duty.”  Leeds card

“When just laws are broken by governments, nonviolent resistance is duty.”  Sr. Ardeth

Dear Family, Sisters, and Friends,

During these Advent and Christmas seasons I have chosen the three statements above for reflection as a means to creating a better future for children.  I believe that Jesus, Son of God, Prince of Peace, became human, lived nonviolence, a life of love and spoke truth against oppression and all evil.  He performed the vision on Earth for all to see.  He established the beloved community.  He healed on the Sabbath, chose options in behalf of the poorest, challenged those who hid behind titles, wealth and practices, resisted temptations for abusive power, ego and possessions.  He disallowed the Temple to become a market place and he spoke truth to the leaders, Pharisees, and scribes of his day.  He placed his security in the One who sent him, not in the sword of Peter.  He gave his life for all rather than take another’s life.

At Jonah House with community we study the Scriptures daily and in prison many of us pick up our Bibles to get us through another day, to keep our hearts open for the Holy Spirit, and open to each other in our vulnerability.

It seems more difficult to celebrate in lieu of inimical relations all over the world, more military bases established, more weapons targeting nations, more weapons sold, more wall being built and cities falling apart.  It is difficult to celebrate when so many families are suffering, weeping over lost ones murdered by bombings, injured by environmental catastrophes and the desperation caused by downward economic trends.

The other side of this is that Christmas still initiates light into the darkness and hope.  It is worth the waiting and preparation in Advent.  It is a balm in the wounds of the world.  Where would most of us be without the vision lived by the one whose birth we celebrate?  We know the difficulty of his journey to Jerusalem and that “Come follow Me” means the same for us.

The good news that each of you share in your peace journals, your analysis of these times and your grand direct actions are acts of hope.  These fill all of us with gratitude:

- for thousands of you in Miami outside the FTAA negotiations (Nov. 17-21)

- for thousands of you at Ft. Benning in Columbus GA and the many who risked arrest to close this school that trains assassins in terrorist tactics (Nov. 21-23)

- for you who will be spending time in the courts and in jails and prisons for your stand against murder, torture and the disappeared.

- for you who vigiled weekly at Bath Iron Works, ME to witness your abhorrence of the construction of more Aegis ships.

- for all of you who will gather at Offutt AFB in Omaha, the Pentagon, White House, Rumsfield’s house, and nuclear sites throughout the country on Holy Innocents’ Day in behalf of children.

Yes, we continue on the road to a peace with justice this Christmas and each new day. In the name of Sr. Carol in Alderson Prison, Sr. Jackie in Victorville Prison and my voice added to theirs, “A blessed, holy, gift and grace filled Christmas day and season to you and to all with whom you share your lives.  My love and prayers!

Always grateful, Ardeth Platte  # 10857-039, FPC Danbury, Rt. 37, Danbury, CT 06811

Only Love: Broken Promises

War has lied to us – again.

War told us it would make the world a better place.  It told us it would increase goodness and reduce evil.  So we said, “Yes, let’s wage war.”  We’ve said yes so often that war has become part of who we are.

Yes to war on crime.  Yes to war on drugs.  Yes to war on poverty.  Yes to war on abortion.  Yes to war on communism and terrorism.  Yes to war on whatever we think is evil.

War promised to win, to stamp out evil.  But war has become the evil it set out to kill.   The more war we wage, the more evil worms its way into our world.  We attack it in one place, it changes form and crops up somewhere else.

We assume that if we kill enough evil, goodness will simply rise up spontaneously.  This is a deadly error.  Goodness isn’t just what “happens” when evil is eradicated.  Goodness is something that must be cultivated, planted, tended, grown – like growing wheat.   But we’ve left the fields and gone off to war.

Ultimately, war is an attempt to control.  If we want to say no to it we must trade our impulse to control for a desire to influence.  We can’t make life or people do what we want.  What we can do is influence them.  And nothing influences people more toward goodness than love.  When we realize that life is inherently uncontrollable (the only way to truly control it is to kill it), we will return our attention to mastering the art of influence that we have abandoned for the promise of control.

Only love will increase goodness and make the world a better place.  If love seems impotent, it’s only because we’ve starved it of our creativity, energy, and respect, choosing instead to pour these into war and control.

What would happen if, instead of pouring resources into war, people poured into prisons – teaching, validating, restoring, confronting, and provoking offenders to be whole?  What would happen if we went into juvenile homes, claimed these children as our own and acknowledged that we have failed them?  What if we wanted them to change for their own benefit rather than for ours – that is, simply because we love them?

We want goodness without the bother of having to love people.  That’s the promise of war: that we can make people “be good” without loving them.  How many times must this promise be broken before we realize it’s a lie and abandon it?

Troy Chapman