THOUGHT FOR THE WEEK
November 18, 2002
My friend and fellow pastor first in Rockdale and then in Bangor, WI since 1974 has written in his November-December church newsletter one of the most cogent and moving comments on our rush to war that I have seen. We are both small town, countrified, preachers with small congregations. Yet I whole-heartedly endorse his sentiments.
He writes, and I can’t quote it all in this space, "Jesus was more than direct in assigning us as the keepers of ‘peace.’… Power was not to be sought as our major goal of life, but rather identifying with those who had no power or an advocate. We were to be trusting, gracious and loving"…Yet, "the sophistications of eradications of people are so much more productive and intense…But there are similarities in the trusting of neighbors, friends and enemies with ages gone by…The rights of victims are still pushed easily to the backgrounds of concern. The powerful are still trying to ‘lord it over’ those without power…Our national ‘war hawks are promulgating another war willing to expend the lives of those who do not represent power---and willing to take the lives of those who may feel differently, representing a totally different tradition or set of customs"…Thus ‘the trust that comes from faith needs to be revisited and renewed. We belong to the whole world, and to a humanity that values all people and their national traditions. To say that a small country cannot have the same options and alternatives as a larger country is totally suspect---and the feeling that we ought to be safer than others transgresses Christian faith’…’The Iraqi people have suffered enormously at the hands of Saddam, the despot. They’ve also suffered from the United Nations sanctions imposed after the gulf war.’ In the name of peace we need to stand in the shoes of the Iraqi people before we assent to another bludgeoning…Let us become the ‘peacemakers of our day,’ letting the spirit of the Babe of Bethlehem work his magic within us!"
Louis Stoker
This is strong medicine. Do we have the stomach for it?
FIRST BAPTIST CHURCH
201 Oak St.
Mauston, WI 53948-1333 608-8474555
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