Posted by JHR on March 14, 2003 at 13:04:36:
In Reply to: U.S. Letter to Europeans posted by Many Signatories--AMERICANS on March 14, 2003 at 12:27:22:
Thank you for sending me such a cognitive and astounding letter, which I am happy to endorse.
I leave you with the words of an equally cognitive Vietnamese Monk which I find to be truly one of the most important documents ever written on the subject of violence:
"ALL violence is injustice.
Responding to violence with violence is injustice, not only to the other person but also to oneself.
Responding to violence with violence resolves nothing; it only escalates violence, anger, and hatred. It is only with compassion that we can embrace and disintegrate violence. This is true in relationships between individuals as well as in relationships between nations.
Many people in America consider Jesus Christ as their Lord, their spiritual ancestor, and their teacher. We should heed His teachings especially during critical times like this. Jesus never encourages us to respond to acts of violence with violence. His teaching is, instead, to use compassion to deal with violence. The teachings of Judaism go very much in the same direction.
Spiritual leaders of this country are invited to raise their voices, to bring about the awareness of this teaching to the American nation and people. What needs to be done right now is to recognize the suffering, to embrace it and to understand it. We need calmness and lucidity so that we can listen deeply to and understand our own suffering, the suffering of the nation and the suffering of others. By understanding the nature and the causes of the suffering, we will then know the right path to follow.
The violence and hatred we presently face has been created by misunderstanding, injustice, discrimination and despair. WE ARE ALL CO-RESPONSIBLE for the making of violence and despair in the world by our way of living, of consuming and of handling the problems of the world.
Understanding why this violence has been created, we will then know what to do and what not to do in order to decrease the level of violence in ourselves and in the world, to create and foster understanding, reconciliation and forgiveness.
I have the conviction that America possesses enough wisdom and courage to perform an act of forgiveness and compassion, and I know that such an act can bring great relief to America and to the world right away."
--Thich Nhat Hanh
18 September, 2001
***
My personal belief is:
If a worshipping community fails to at least fully inform its young confirmands and potential soldiers about the gruesome realities of the warzone before they join up or are forced to register for potential conscription into the military at age 18, it invites the condemnation that Jesus warned about in Matthew 18:5-6: "And whoever welcomes a little child like this in my name welcomes me. But if anyone causes one of these little ones who believes in me to sin, it would be better for him to have a large millstone hung around his neck and to be drowned in the depths of the sea."
That's why I wrote OVER THE WALL.
--JHR
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