World Religions Day

Today I participated in a panel discussion of religion and war. There were seven panelists from different religions: Hinduism, Buddhism, Judaism, Islam, Baha’i, Catholicism, and Protestantism. I represented my faith perspective as it relates to war. I attend the Church of the Brethren, which is one of the three historic peace churches, along with the Mennonites and the Amish. There is a bumper sticker in the Church of the Brethren that reads, “When Jesus said love your enemies, I think that he probably meant don’t kill them.” For me it is simple, war and violence should never be used as a means to solve conflicts. I believe that it our place in the world to work together and build peace in the world. Whether you take a Christian perspective or a take a evolutionist perspective the answer is still clear to me. If we are only here on this earth for a short period of time then it makes sense, to me at least, that we should work together to build peace because in the end we are only going to survive and overcome global problems through cooperation: vis-à-vis global warming and end of fossil fuels.

The common question that I get asked as universal pacifist is WWII. What would I have done in the early 1940s to end the evil dictator that was Hitler? My answer is two-fold. Number one I believe that WWII could have been avoided if a more equitable peace would have been made at Versailles. Versailles left Germany crippled and starving. If peace would have been more equitable, like it was after WWII, 50-60 million people’s lives could have been saved. Secondly I believe that there were attempts to resist Hitler nonviolently. One notable example is Denmark. The Danish people actively resisted the Jewish roundup by the Germans. Demark successfully saved the lives of countless of Jewish people by refusing to comply with the German demands.

I believe that war is the simple answer but peace is possible through cooperation.

I was encouraged by the continuity of the messages at the panel—all agreed that war should be avoided and we must work for peace. I believe that it can be accomplished through nonviolence.