Reclaiming the Gospel of Peace II

“Challenging the Mythology of Violence”
Given by the Rt. Rev. Eugene Taylor Sutton, Bishop of Maryland
April 9, 2014

Let us pray.

Come by here, my Lord, come by here. Come by here, my Lord, come by here. O Lord, come by here. Someone’s dying Lord, come by here. Someone’s dying Lord, come by here. Someone’s dying Lord, come by here. O Lord come by here. Be present be present Lord Jesus.
The Episcopal Church aims to model at this gathering a civil and respectful conversation about violence in general and gun violence in particular — a dialogue that our society has not been able to accomplish. It arises out of a dream that a number of us had of gathering together Episcopalians from across the spectrum of geographical, political and theological differences to learn from each other, pray with each other, and discern together what the Spirit may be saying to us as church leaders. In order to do this, we need to agree to make this a safe space, a “condemnation-free zone” for the next three days.

It will not help us to pre-judge each other here. Do not assume that just because someone owns firearms that she or he is a right-wing, violence-prone, conspiracy theorist who does not want to end gun violence in our cities, towns and rural places. And, on the other hand, do not assume that just because someone supports legislation to put limits on gun ownership that he or she is a left-wing, un-American, Constitution-tearing snob who wants to take away your private property and who does not himself or herself own firearms. These are all unhelpful conversation starters, and not conducive to the building up of Christian community! So, let’s leave all pre-judgments at the door, agreed?

What this means is that we are here to listen as much as we are here to advocate positions. “Listening is the act of entering the skin of the other and wearing it for a time as if it were our own.” (David Spangler in Parent as Mystic, Mystic as Parent) It is in this climate of tolerance and respect that we can begin to address a major public health crisis in our country that increasingly is defining our image both here and abroad.

I want to speak to you know about Challenging the Mythology of Violence.

In the United States of America, the world’s only remaining superpower and self-proclaimed moral force for good in the world, 30,000 of its citizens are killed every year by firearms. Another estimated 100,000 are shot every year, most of whom will carry permanent injuries, and all of whom will carry emotional scars for the rest of their lives. Just think about these figures…what it means is that every 8-10 years, one million people are shot in this country.

This comes at a tremendous cost to our society: one million emergency room scenes, one million families grieving, one million victims and survivors trying to put broken bodies and wounded souls back together again. The financial costs to our health system, the longterm costs of physical rehabilitation, and the emotional costs to the victims and their families last for decades.

The violence affects us all. Whether it is in the middle class enclaves of Newtown, CT, on a native American reservation in the Dakota plains, a school campus in Colorado or Arkansas, an Army base in Texas, or on some forgotten street in Baltimore, Maryland - we are a nation in mourning over the killing of its children.

What’s going to stop the epidemic of violence in our state, in or country, and in our world? The Christian Gospel has proclaimed for thousands of years that there is a cure – but we have lost confidence in our day that that ancient solution will work. For according to the gospel of Jesus Christ, the cure for violence is love.

Jesus said, “Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you, and pray for those who abuse you…” (Luke 6:27)

What? Our violence-ridden culture would have us believe that what Jesus said in the gospel were wonderful words back then 2,000 years ago, and they may have worked well back there in Galilee, but we live in the real world in a very dangerous 21st century. Love your enemies? Love those who want to harm you? No, we must fight our enemies, outwit and outmaneuver our enemies, destroy and kill our enemies before they destroy and kill us.

And yet, Martin Luther King Jr., many years ago had this to say about these words of Jesus:
Jesus has become the practical realist…Far from being the pious injunction of a utopian dreamer, the command [to love others] is an absolute necessity for the survival of our civilization. Yes, it is love that will save our world and our civilization, love even for enemies. -November 17, 1957

Well how can it actually work? Remember a story that Gerald May, the Christian psychotherapist and spiritual guide at the Shalem Institute for Spiritual Formation in the Washington area, he once recounted this story: “It was in 1976, and I had just received my first-level belt in the gentle Japanese martial art of Aikido: the practice (do) of the harmony (ai) of the universal energy (ki). A visiting master called me to the front of the room and he asked me to attack him. He stood quietly as I charged at him, then turned his head slightly away. My speed increased as I felt powerfully drawn toward him. Then he bowed his head slightly and looked back at me, and I found myself lying comfortably on the floor. We had not even touched…

“He explained that he had aligned himself with my attacking energy, joined it from his own centered stillness, and gently guided it back around me to towards the ground. From my perspective, it seemed I had inexplicably decided to lie down and rest.”

What was that force, that non-violent power? Power, in human terms, is the ability and use of force to accomplish one’s will over persons or situations. But dunamis, the word for “power” which occurs over 120 times in the New Testament, is a creative, dynamic power that is very different from the “power over” aspects of human force or control. Dunamis is spiritual power; the power that can only come from God.

As for human, or worldly, power, the United States is unquestionably the most powerful nation in the world. We have unparalleled economic power, so much so that it is said when the US economy sneezes, the rest of the world catches a cold. We have immense technological power that enables American influence and culture to be felt to the farthest reaches of the earth – even into the universe. We have unmatched military power, with capabilities of destroying targets with pinpoint accuracy from hundreds of miles away.

And yet, with all the power that is possible to acquire on this earth, still the United States of America is not able to force the rest of the world to act in accordance with our will, or to further our own national goals wherever and whenever we desire. Despite our massive human power, we frequently find ourselves powerless to get persons or situations or countries under our control. We find that we cannot force others to do what they do not want to do.

So we need to make a distinction between power on the one hand, and control on the other. To illustrate that difference, I want to tell you about Louise Degrafinried. Several years ago in Mason, Tennessee, an elderly black woman named Louise Degrafinried astounded the nation when she persuaded an escaped convict from a local prison to surrender. He had a gun, and with his gun, he thought he had control. He had surprised her husband Nathan outside their modest home and forced him inside.

But Louise was not afraid of the gun. The short, grandmotherly woman told the convict to put his gun down while she fixed him some breakfast. Now, I don’t know if you know anything about the amazing curative powers of a Southern home-cooked breakfast, it’s really built about fat. While cooking the meal, Louise spoke of her faith and how a young man such as he should behave, and that with God’s help he could turn his life around. Between the breakfast and her words, in no time at all, the young man was on his way back to the Tennessee prison.

The escaped convict had control, the control of the gun. But Louise Degrafinried had power.

There is a fundamental distinction between control and power. It is very important that we see it, both in our personal lives, in our society, and in our theology. God, we say, is “omnipotent” – all powerful – and that is true, but we must not confuse that power with control. God is all-power, but not all-control. God has plenty of power, but chooses to exercise little control over the world.

The unchecked human need for control arises out of fear: fear of a chaotic and unsafe world. “If only the world were more predictable,” we think, “then I would feel better, I would feel safe.” It is because of fear that humans tend to theologize a controlling God. Thus we also tend to believe that it is our duty, led by a controlling God, to control others by any of the means of control at our disposal – especially weapons. And there lies the idolatry.

But the agenda of God is not to control, but to love. Love always seeks the best for the beloved, even at great cost. “God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son…not to condemn the world [but to save it].” (John 3:16-17)

The power of love to change the world cannot be underestimated. To quote Martin Luther King, Jr. again, he called that kind of power “soul force”. The great American civil rights leader learned the principles of soul force from his reading of the ethics of Jesus, and from Gandhi’s use of the phrase to describe his methods of nonviolent resistance.

In terms of social change, “soul force” is based in the power of an idea: freedom. If our great nation has any real power at all, it is in the abundance of freedom that we enjoy here and our willingness to share this power with the world. It is the only export that we have that has power over others – not money, not bombs, not self-interest, but freedom. Archbishop Desmond Tutu once said, “When a people decide they want to be free, the nothing can stop them.” They can even stare down the barrel of a gun – and they will prevail.

This soul force is not only the power to change human lives, but it is the most effective force that is available to humans to change whole societies toward the vision of God for the world. In the book “A Force More Powerful”, written by Peter Ackerman and Jack DuVall in 2000, the authors carefully document over 15 movements of mass social change that have resisted systems of injustice on every continent of the world. They have concluded that the 20th century should have been known as the century that has demonstrated the triumph of nonviolent action as the most powerful force in the world. This massive and well-documented book reminds us that…

…it wasn’t physical force that drove the mighty British empire from colonial India in 1947, it was soul force.
…it wasn’t physical force that successfully resisted the Nazis in Denmark and saved many Jews it was soul force.…
…it wasn’t physical force that brought down the dictator General Martinez in El Salvador in 1944…
…it wasn’t physical force that brought down segregation in the American South in 50’s & 60’s…
…it wasn’t physical force that restored democracy to the Philippines in 1986…
…it wasn’t physical or violent force that moved Lech Walesa and Solidarity into power in Poland…
…it wasn’t physical force that brought down totalitarian regimes in the former USSR and Eastern Europe…
…it wasn’t physical force that dismantled apartheid and the racist government in South Africa…

In each case, it was soul force.

If the above representative list seems new or shocking to you, it is because we have done a poor job in this country of teaching any of the principles of nonviolent action as a way of solving conflicts. We don’t do it. Many fear that our culture will never do this, because we have become intoxicated with violence as the only effective means to achieve our personal goals and national aspirations. We have worshiped for too long at the altar of the gun to solve our problems. This has led to what can be called The Mythology of Violence; namely, the widely held myth that violence works, and that nonviolence is a pipe dream for idealists who do not know how the world really operates.

I want to emphasize here that there is a time-honored tradition in Christianity of sometimes having to resort to a “just war” in certain extraordinary circumstances, and we are very dependent upon our brave men and women in the armed forces who are sometimes called upon to fight and put themselves in harm’s way on our behalf. We are grateful for their service and the service of all uniformed people; we pray for them and for our leaders to make wise decisions before sending them into armed conflict. But you do not need be a pacifist like Jesus, Gandhi or King in order to learn any of the almost 200 methods of nonviolent action that have been proven to be effective in removing unjust institutions and governments, and restoring peace and freedom. As Christians, as followers of Christ, we are called upon to teach peace as well as to practice peace, which means we have to continually re-learn the ways of peace in a culture that’s awash in violence. We must repent, both individually and collectively, for believing that violence and killing will be the answer.

Just this past week I had the privilege of spending some time in Baltimore with the former Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams, who was there to give a lecture. I told him about this conference addressing violence, and I reminded him of some words he said 11 years ago that had a profound effect on me in my thinking about violence. It was early 2003 when our nation was embroiled in an intense debate on whether or not the United States should invade Iraq to address the problem of Saddam Hussein and his supposed weapons of mass destruction. Dr. Williams said at that time:

“If all you have is hammers, then all you see is nails.”

His warning was clear. If we put our trust only in guns and bombs to make peace, then we only see solutions that demand the use of guns and bombs.

Perhaps Martin Luther King, Jr. can teach us once again how to “live together as [family] or die together as fools.” Six months before he was cut down by an assassin’s bullet, he said this in a sermon:

To our most bitter opponents we say: “We shall match your capacity to inflict suffering by our capacity to endure suffering. We shall meet your physical force with soul force. Do to us what you will, and we shall continue to love you. We cannot in all good conscience obey your unjust laws, because non-cooperation with evil is as much a moral obligation as is cooperation with good. Throw us in jail, and we shall still love you. Send your hooded perpetrators of violence into our communities at the midnight hour and beat us and leave us half dead, and. we shall still love you. But be ye assured that we will wear you down by our capacity to love. One day we shall win freedom, but not only for ourselves. We shall so appeal to your heart and conscience that we shall win you in the process, and our victory will be a double victory.”

That is the power of love. We need to teach that. That is soul force…the way of Jesus.

Reclaiming the Gospel of Peace I

Why are We Here?
Bishop Ed Konieczny, Bishop of Oklahoma
April 9, 2014

Good Evening!

For those who don’t know me I am Ed Konieczny, Bishop of Oklahoma. On behalf of our Diocese and all Oklahomans we welcome you to our Great State!

We extend a special welcome to the Most Reverend and Right Honorable The Lord Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby, and his wife Caroline. And to the Most Reverend Katharine Jefferts Schori, Presiding Bishop of the Episcopal Church and her husband Dick.

I hope you enjoy your stay here and more importantly that you find the time we will share together over the next couple of days to be Thought Provoking, Challenging and Empowering.

I have been asked to kind of set the stage for these next couple of days; and share some thoughts on “Why we are Here”…

Over the next two days you will hear some keynote presentations, have the opportunity to participate in workshops, exchange ideas and network in table discussion and self selecting groups, and visit the Oklahoma City National Memorial, the site of the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building bombing on April 19, 1995 where 168 souls were lost including 19 children. Following the visit to the National Memorial on Friday, we will gather for a closing Eucharist at St. Paul’s Cathedral with our Presiding Bishop preaching. We will conclude our time together with dinner at the cathedral and hear thoughts on how we take what has started here at this conference and move it forward.

So Why are We Here?

On December 14, 2012, a young 20 year old man entered Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown Connecticut and fatally shot 20 children and six adult staff members. Before driving to the school the young man shot and killed his mother in their home; and then as first responders arrived at the school he shot and killed himself.

The incident at Sandy Hook Elementary School was not the first of these kinds of incidents in our society; and has not been the last.

In 1966, a former Marine killed 16 people and wounded 30 others at the University of Texas

1973, a 23 year old man killed 9 people at a Howard Johnson’s motel

1986, a part-time mail carrier killed 14 postal workers in a post office, here, in Edmond, Oklahoma leading to the often and unfortunately used phrase: “Going Postal”

1999, two young men, 18 and 17 years old killed 12 students and a teacher at Columbine High School in Colorado

2007 a 23 year old student killed 32 people at Virginia Tech University

2012 a 24 year old man killed 12 and wounded 58 others in a movie theater in Aurora Colorado

2013 a Civilian contractor fatally shot 12 and wounded 3 others inside the Washington Navy Ship Yard

And just this morning, a student moved through a school in Murrysville Pennsylvania stabbing and slashing more than 20 others before being taken into custody.

These are just a few; in the last 30 years there have been more than 60 mass killings in the United States; and this doesn’t even begin to take into account the single acts of violence resulting in loss of life, wounding, and maiming that occurs every day in our cities, towns, and communities across this country.

By any definition of the word, the frequency of violent acts in our society is of Epidemic Proportion.

With what always seems to be predictable regularity, what follows these incidents are the speculations of motive, the arm chair psychological profiling, the ideological positioning, the political rhetoric, and the finger pointing, trying to cast blame on someone or something.

And sadly, after a few weeks, the shock and devastation dissipates from those not directly affected; our attentions are drawn elsewhere; politicians move on to the next political debate; and we are left wondering why and how and won’t anything ever be done…

Doing something is why we are here…

For years people have cried out for the authorities or politicians to enforce existing laws and pass new ones. For years people have pointed the finger at this or that as the cause for the violence in our society. For years the polarizing voices of the extremes have dominated the conversation, entrenched in their idealistic positions and agendas; and stifled any attempt for a reasoned, common sense conversation and approach to challenging the increased incident of violence around us.

We are not here to cast blame; or to produce some statement or resolution calling on others to act; or to be drowned out by those who want to intimidate…

We are here to have a new conversation; a conversation that says we are not willing to accept that violence is a natural part of society; a conversation that acknowledges we live in relationship; and that we are all responsible for how we treat one another; a conversation that talks about how each of us can make a difference; about how each one of us can change the trajectory of violence in our world; A conversation that recognizes and honors the diversity of voices and perspectives and passions.

So how is it that I am standing before you today?

I represent one of those diverse voices…

So let me share a little of my story…

It was a little over a year ago when I received a call from the Bishop of Connecticut, Ian Douglas

Ian asked if I would be willing to participate in a panel discussion at our Spring House of Bishops Meeting to reflect about gun control and violence in our society following the horrific incident at Sandy Hook.

In all honesty I was surprised by Ian’s call. I told Ian that I didn’t think my perspective would be welcome as part of the discussion. I shared with Ian that I was a former cop, having served for nearly 20 years in Southern California; that I support the Constitutional Right to Bear Arms; I have a CCW Permit, and on occasion have been accused of being a “gun toting Bishop”. I suggested that he might want to reconsider his invitation. After all, my voice was not exactly in the mainstream of political correctness.

Ian paused and said “your voice and perspective is absolutely needed in this conversation”; He said, if we are ever going to be able to change the incidence of violence in our society, then all voices need to be heard; that we need to do something other than entrench ourselves in ideological positions.

So, with a little persuasion, encouragement, and arm twisting Ian convinced me that my voice, my experience might add something to the conversation.

As I prepared my remarks for that meeting, I became very aware of a tension, an internal struggle that was challenging me to get past my long held party line perspectives and dig deeper into what I was truly feeling.

As a former Police Officer I can say: we work hard at meticulously building walls and putting up protective barriers to protect ourselves from emotions and feelings. The myth is that having emotions and feelings is a detriment to doing the job.

What I was discovering while preparing those remarks was that maybe I did have some emotions and feelings. That maybe over the years some cracks had developed in those walls…

At that House Meeting I started my remarks with what I had said to Ian:

You should know I am a gun owner;

I have a CCW Permit;

And I occasionally carry a gun when traveling throughout the State of Oklahoma.

And then I went on to share some of my experience:

In 1979, one of my best friends and fellow Police Officer, Don Reed, agreed to swap shifts with me so I could have a weekend off to of all things, play in a Police Softball Tournament. During that shift, Don responded to a call at a local bar where he confronted a man who was later determined to be a convicted felon, recently released from prison, and who had recently purchased several guns. As Don was escorting the man out of the bar with other officers, the man took a semi-automatic handgun out from under his coat and shot Don several times in the chest. Don died at the scene… The suspect eluded police for several days, but was eventually captured, convicted, and sentenced to life in prison.

In 1982, as the lead investigator working on a Crime Task Force I was assigned the case of a prison escapee who was a serial rapist. The suspect was reportedly responsible for more than 20 brutal rapes, usually pistol whipping his victims in the two weeks following his escape. Early on a Sunday morning I received a tip from an informant that the suspect was heading to the Santa Ana area of Orange County. Staking out the area with other officers, the suspect appeared in the stolen vehicle of his most recent victim. A pursuit ensued with the suspect losing control of his vehicle and crashing into a telephone pole. The suspect exited his vehicle and in an exchange of gun fire, he was shot and killed.

In 1991, a couple of days before I was to leave the Police Department for seminary, I was dispatched to a Check the Welfare call. Family members had been unable to contact a brother who had been suffering from depression. Getting no response from knocks on the door, we checked and found the front door of the residence unlocked. Upon opening the door the man appeared directly in front of me with a rifle pointed at my head. The man pulled the trigger but the gun misfired. The man was subsequently arrested and taken for a psychiatric evaluation. It was later determined he had been suffering from Mental Illness for years, yet was still able to purchase a gun.

As I made these remarks to my fellow Bishops, a flood of emotions began to well up within me and I came face to face with my reality: I live everyday knowing that I share responsibility for the taking a human life; and but for the Grace of God I would not be standing here today.

These incidents, the tragedy at Sandy Hook, and all the other incidents of violence, and hatred, and intolerance, and death seem to collide within me; and I was left wondering how we got here. What have we as a people done or failed to do that causes someone to think that their only option is to act out in some violent way?

And then there was this question: “What are you going to do about it?”

For years these tragedies have been occurring, and while there may have been momentary calls for changes in laws or political rhetoric, what seems to be happening is that our world, our society; our communities are willing to accept this as the new norm. That we should all just get used to it because it is going to happen again and again and again….

(After that House Meeting, I decided) I am not willing to accept that… I refuse to feel powerless; that I cannot make a difference; or have an influence.

I refuse because I know better… I refuse because I have seen lives changed and relationships restored…

I have seen youth who have felt outcast and lonely and unworthy come to know that they are beloved children of God, cared for, and respected, and valued…

I have seen teenagers and young adults caught in the vicious cycles of life given a new sense of purpose….

I have seen adults incarcerated for the mistakes they made renewed, reconciled and restored…

I have seen how the faces of the homeless light up when they are treated with dignity and respect…

I am not willing to accept that we are destined to suffer the tragedies that have plagued our society.

Instead I am convinced that we can change judgmental attitudes, intolerant behaviors, and the violence in our society…

Each and every one of us has the power to make a difference. We do it by Proclaiming by Word and Example the Good News of God in Christ. We do it by seeking and serving Christ in all people, loving our neighbors as ourselves. We do it by striving for justice and peace among all people and respecting the dignity of every human being.

These words may sound familiar. They should. They are the foundations of our Baptismal Covenant.

You see, we don’t have to figure out what to do; we just have to do that which we have already promised…

Each and every one of us here has the ability to make a difference; one person, one life at a time; And the time is now…

We didn’t get to where we are today overnight, or in a year or even a decade. It has taken generations.

And there are those who would say, we’re not going to change it overnight or in a year or in a decade. It is going to take generations. But there was a Jewish Philosopher who once said in the first century: If not now, when? And if not me, Who?

It is time that we as people of faith stand up and proclaim something new to this hurt and broken and violent world.

It is time that we as people of faith reclaim that which we have been blessed and given.

It is time that we begin a new conversation and that our voices instill a new mantra in the world: That all are created in the image of God; that all are children of God, and all deserve respect and dignity.

My hope is that this conference might be a model, an example to others of how differing voices, with often very opposite passions, can come together with honesty, charity, and grace for a common purpose.

As we go about our time together over these next couple of days, let’s keep in our hearts and minds all those who have been victims of violence, especially those who suffered that attack of this morning.

May God bless our time together, and may God make us instruments of His peace!

Praying for Peace (during Holy Week)

Great God, who has told us
"Vengeance is mine,"
save us from ourselves,
save us from the vengeance in our hearts
and the acid in our souls.

Save us from our desire to hurt as we have been hurt,
to punish as we have been punished,
to terrorize as we have been terrorized.

Give us the strength it takes
to listen rather than to judge,
to trust rather than to fear,
to try again and again
to make peace even when peace eludes us.

We ask, O God, for the grace
to be our best selves.
We ask for the vision
to be builders of the human community
rather than its destroyers.
We ask for the humility as a people
to understand the fears and hopes of other peoples.

We ask for the love it takes
to bequeath to the children of the world to come
more than the failures of our own making.
We ask for the heart it takes
to care for all the peoples
of Afghanistan and Iraq, of Palestine and Israel
as well as for ourselves.

Give us the depth of soul, O God,
to constrain our might,
to resist the temptations of power
to refuse to attack the attackable,
to understand
that vengeance begets violence,
and to bring peace--not war--wherever we go.

For You, O God, have been merciful to us.
For You, O God, have been patient with us.
For You, O God, have been gracious to us.

And so may we be merciful
and patient
and gracious
and trusting
with these others whom you also love.

This we ask through Jesus,
the one without vengeance in his heart.
This we ask forever and ever. Amen

 

prayer for world peace - sister joan chittister - benedictine sisters of erie

 

Thanks to Pastor Bryan Berghoef for sharing this on his site.

 

A Better Atonement

Read this:  A Better Atonement: The Last Scapegoat

then follow up with this:

http://www.jamesalison.co.uk/texts/eng11.html

http://www.touchstonemag.com/archives/article.php?id=16-10-040-i

and finally, Abbott Andrew of St. Gregory's Abbey has a fine blog that also looks at the issue of mimetic desire in many of his blog posts:

http://andrewmarrosb.wordpress.com/

http://andrewmarrosb.wordpress.com/articles/saved-by-the-life-of-jesus/

Forgiveness

There is an excellent article in The Guardian last month by retired Archbishop Desmond Tutu on "'I am sorry' – the three hardest words to say."

Read the article here and an excerpt:

The simple truth is, we all make mistakes, and we all need forgiveness. There is no magic wand we can wave to go back in time and change what has happened or undo the harm that has been done, but we can do everything in our power to set right what has been made wrong. We can endeavour to make sure the harm never happens again.

(A version can also be found at the Huffington Post here.)

On May 4, the Tutu Global Forgiveness Challenge will begin.  There is a free 30-day online program developed by Desmond and Mpho Tutu to teach the practical steps to forgiveness they share in their new book, The Book of Forgiving: The Fourfold Path for Healing Ourselves and Our World.

Learn about the campaign here,