Anti-War Protest
2007 September 21
Scenes from the ACU students anti-war protest for UN Day of Peace. (Read more here.)
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Once a year I play golf. This was the day. Nine holes with my brother and my dad. Loved it. I used to play quite a bit of golf, but then I became a Christian. (Just kidding, Rick, Milt, Chris, etc.)
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Can’t wait for this Sunday. Usually when Jerry Taylor preaches I’m away. But this week I’ll be there. He’s doing one of the six messages on Galatians. I’m doing the themes of scars, tables, crosses, water, and yokes. He’s speaking on fruit.
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Terrah:
The situation in Iraq has deteriorated to the point where coming to Baghdad to “see how you can help” would flout the dictates of prudence. An American wandering in Baghdad would simply end up either beheaded, as an object lesson in the inability of the occupying forces to protect anyone, or else kidnapped and contributing to the coffers of some militant group or criminal gang. Christian Peacemaker Teams, despite our intense training and practical discipline, had to pull out of Baghdad for fear of endangering our local partners. If CPT, which has worked successfully in Hebron, Haiti, Colombia, and through the invasion of Iraq in 2003, cannot function in the chaos of Baghdad today, untutored individuals turning up in Iraq looking for a way to help merely endanger themselves and others.
I would not advise anyone to go to Iraq without knowing exactly what they plan to do, without arranging for a welcome with Iraqis, and without knowing (from consulting with Iraqis) exactly how your work will make a contribution. Trying to do anything else strikes me as neither wise nor constructive. And suggesting it as a possibility, honestly, suggests to me that you have simply not faced up to the depth of disaster that Iraq has plunged into.
People whom I trust tell me that the situation for ordinary Iraqis has actually deteriorated since the invasion. The news reports paint a particularly chilling picture. Two million Iraqis now languish in exile, and credible reports indicate that this total includes a substantial proportion of Iraq’s doctors, a disaster that cancels out any progress the American forces have made at building clinics. The war has devastated the Iraqi Christian community, many of whom have gone into permanent exile.
Justice, for the living and for the dead, demands that any account of the war include these tragic facts. Even many of the strongest advocates for the war concede that life for the Iraqis has deteriorated to the point that any moral justification for the war has come into serious question. Looking at the devastation in Iraq that well over a decade of meddling and blundering by Westerners has helped create, should we not mourn? Do those who call upon you to repent and turn again not deserve a hearing? To dismiss the repentance and mourning shown by the demonstrators with a wholly unrealistic call for them to “get involved” by wandering into Baghdad does not striker me as a compelling argument.
We have seen no shortage of calls by modern Jonahs for Americans to repent. That people even from the most conservative corners of the United States have begun to put on the sackcloth and ashes should give us a little hope that maybe, God’s gift of repentance and renewal has begun to taken root.
Pardon my tardiness; just came across this interesting discussion.
I was at the protest. I held hands with the students during a prayer for peace. I’m a new ACU faculty member, so I guess I didn’t know any better.
A lot of you throw around the term “pacifist.” I reject that term. It’s too,…. passive. What we stand for is non-violent resistance. Gandhi called it “satyagraha.” MLK called it “soul force.” Jesus calls it “love your enemies.” When enough people cooperate, it has the power to destabilize oppressive, Godless regimes. That’s how we can change world.
No, I’m not skinny with long hair.
Terrah:
The situation in Iraq has deteriorated to the point where coming to Baghdad to “see how you can help” would flout the dictates of prudence. An American wandering in Baghdad would simply end up either beheaded, as an object lesson in the inability of the occupying forces to protect anyone, or else kidnapped and contributing to the coffers of some militant group or criminal gang. Christian Peacemaker Teams, despite our intense training and practical discipline, had to pull out of Baghdad for fear of endangering our local partners. If CPT, which has worked successfully in Hebron, Haiti, Colombia, and through the invasion of Iraq in 2003, cannot function in the chaos of Baghdad today, untutored individuals turning up in Iraq looking for a way to help merely endanger themselves and others.
I would not advise anyone to go to Iraq without knowing exactly what they plan to do, without arranging for a welcome with Iraqis, and without knowing (from consulting with Iraqis) exactly how your work will make a contribution. Trying to do anything else strikes me as neither wise nor constructive. And suggesting it as a possibility, honestly, suggests to me that you have simply not faced up to the depth of disaster that Iraq has plunged into.
People whom I trust tell me that the situation for ordinary Iraqis has actually deteriorated since the invasion. The news reports paint a particularly chilling picture. Two million Iraqis now languish in exile, and credible reports indicate that this total includes a substantial proportion of Iraq’s doctors, a disaster that cancels out any progress the American forces have made at building clinics. The war has devastated the Iraqi Christian community, many of whom have gone into permanent exile.
Justice, for the living and for the dead, demands that any account of the war include these tragic facts. Even many of the strongest advocates for the war concede that life for the Iraqis has deteriorated to the point that any moral justification for the war has come into serious question. Looking at the devastation in Iraq that well over a decade of meddling and blundering by Westerners has helped create, should we not mourn? Do those who call upon you to repent and turn again not deserve a hearing? To dismiss the repentance and mourning shown by the demonstrators with a wholly unrealistic call for them to “get involved” by wandering into Baghdad does not striker me as a compelling argument.
We have seen no shortage of calls by modern Jonahs for Americans to repent. That people even from the most conservative corners of the United States have begun to put on the sackcloth and ashes should give us a little hope that maybe, God’s gift of repentance and renewal has begun to taken root.
GKB,
Thanks. You made my day. I too think is sad and juvenile to spit on someone.
I think it is great when someone can hold an opposing viewpoint on a major issue and still be friends.
One of my very best friends whom you know in Portland is a Pacifist.
And furthermore Adam Langford was a BIG OU fan. I invited him and Ben over to watch the Red River shootout game. Texas got creamed that year too.
I probably would be considered far right polically, but I have been against this war from the beginning. I say let them protest! Unfortunately those who are opposed get lumped in with some folks with whom we might otherwise have great differences politically.
One day soon there will be Christian missions to Iraq where nobody gets beheaded. When that happens, I will thank God for the soldiers that made it possible.
For these protesters and their ilk, I pray for them to wake up and smell the bloodshed. Saddam was the epitome of evil and the terrorist that intend to take his place are no better. Soldiers are saving lives and liberating men. God bless them.