[269.3] HOW DO WE REALLY WANT TO 'EMERGE'?

Amidst the agony of waiting and hoping, one of the interesting issues that has arisen from the CPT hostage situation in Iraq is the contrast between how different sections of media (and the communities behind them) have responded to the story. Even though Christian Peacemaker Teams were on to prisoner abuse and Abu Ghraib before anyone else, the mainstream continues to ignore such groups, except when a crisis erupts.

Here in the UK, Christianity is most often only good for a story when it is being silly, when it is declining, when it is fretting about sex, or when its hierarchs are being obnoxious or clueless. The routinely extraordinary things done by groups like CPT are simply "not news" -- even when they clearly are. They just don't fit "the script".

The church media isn't much better. Indeed it is often confused and baffled by people who think that Christian faith is about life transformation rather than churchianity or my-personal-Saviour. A deep commitment to the way of Christ that involves a refusal of violence, the embracing (rather than the haughty rejection) of 'the other', and so on, is for an eccentric minority.

As far as the abductions in Iraq are concerned, the main response of some Christian media outlets has been, in fact, to focus on accusations -- not well researched -- of "irresponsibility" against CPT. There is much church talk of 'mission' and (less often) 'discipleship', but those words are often little more than a cipher for maintaining control and doing nice, respectable things for Jesus.

The biblical tradition has a huge amount to say about peacemaking and social justice, but the Christendom church mindset sees these, at best, as add-ons. Whereas its own insecurities about identity (confusions over sexuality), authority (how to make the Bible our personal or communal weapon) and security (how we can come up with an 'emergent' or 'historic' brand to keep us in business) are what it's actually about, when the chips are down.

As we pray that the captives might emerge, we might ask ... Emergent church? Yes, but what and who really is "the Body of Christ", where has it come from, where is it going, what is it for, and what is it doing? Those remain the central questions. And the answers to them are to be found in places of endeavour, argument and suffering -- not "in church". More like, "in Baghdad".

By humbling contrast, the unexpected outpouring of Muslim respect, concern and recognition for the vocations of Tom, Harmeet, Norman and Jim in Baghdad, and the tragic plight they share with haundreds of abductees in a vortex of oppression and violence, has been noticeable. Of course, Islam has its own major issues with religiously sanctioned revenge. But what the Iraq hostage saga has shown is that there is another way of seeing and acting that people of good faith (whether they are 'believers', humanists, secularists or whatever) recognise as authentic -- if a little crazy -- when they see it.

The excerpt below is from Mark DeVine, writing on Ekklesia and in the marvellous Mother Jones. Among other things, he suggests that the secular left has something to learn from CPT, just as CPT (with all its faults) has been willing to work with, and learn from, others.

My last images of the Christian Peacemaker Teams in Baghdad was of their holding a vigil in Tahrir Square to protest against the detention and mistreatment of Iraqis by the US military in Abu Ghraib. This was in late March 2004, months before anyone in the United States had even heard of Abu Ghraib, or bothered to consider how our armed forces were treating detainees in the war on terror. But CPT knew full well what was going on in Abu Ghraib--that's why they were in Iraq, to "witness" the realities of the occupation--and they were determined to make sure that the Iraqis saw that there were Americans, and westerners more broadly, who were willing to put their bodies on the line to protest against such abuses. It's too bad that it's taken this tragedy to get the rest of us to listen. [Full article here]

Mark LeVine is Associate Professor of modern Middle Eastern history, culture and Islamic studies and author of Why They Don't Hate Us: Lifting the Veil on the Axis of Evil (Oneworld Publications, 2005). Visit Mark LeVine's website here. His article also appears in the latest Mother Jones.

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[269.2] ROWAN WILLIAMS INTERVIEWED

For those who want to know "where he's at" at the moment, BBC Radio Five Live presenter Simon Mayo interviewed Rowan Williams, Archbishop of Canterbury, for 35 minutes a couple of days ago. You can hear the whole thing here (in Real Audio format). Includes discussion of pretty much every current hot topic. Thanks to Thinking Anglicans for the tip. See also Williams' 'What is Christianity?' talk for a Muslim audience in Pakistan.

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[269.1] HOSTAGE LATEST

UN secretary general calls for release of all Iraqi captives 09/12/05 (with updated complete list of Ekklesia news and features on this developing story, including Tom Fox's last article and weblog entry before he was captured.
Former Guantanamo Bay detainees call for release of Christian peacemakers 08/12/05
Jack Straw says he will talk on Iraq hostages 08/12/05

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[268.2] A SMALL GLIMPSE OF LIGHT

[Update: Jack Straw says he will talk on Iraq hostages 08/12/05]

Yesterday I was writing, in connection with Advent hope and the CPT hostages in Iraq: "[Though it does not happen as much as we might want, hearts can be melted. Simply dehumanizing those whose actions revile us does nothing to break the cycle of hatred, even if it makes us feel better." Later in the day the news became public that Abu Qatada, allegedly Osama Bin Laden's agent in Europe, had asked his solicitor to arrange for a TV recording in his UK prison cell (where he is being held under British terror laws) to ask the Sword of Truth Brigades to have mercy on the four abductees. Extraordinary, whatever we think of his other views and actions. Note the deadline of their threatened killing (if US and UK Iraqi detainees are not released) has been extended for 48 hours to Saturday. There is a glimpse of light in a very dark situation, though no-one should doubt the continuing gravity of it. Petition for the release of the four. Incidentally, a friend in the US said recently that the issue is much more difficult to discuss in many Christian churches, where the work done by CPT is often seen as "too controversial" or "unpatriotic". How very sad. In Britain too, some of the church media have been rather recalcitrant, to put it politely.

For reference, here (below) is the full archive of material on the kidnappings from Ekklesia. Some of these links, but by no means all, have been notified on FinS.

[Full and chronological related articles on Ekklesia: Christian Peacemaker Teams full briefing (with links to features and stories on CPT's work); Why are we here? (by CPTer Tom Fox); Abu Qatada pleas for Iraq captives as deadline is extended 08/12/05; Christians criticize UK Iraq war budget increase 08/12/05; Christian peacemakers say the work must go on 08/12/05; Last minute appeals made for Christian peacemakers 07/12/05 ; Muslim detainees plead for lives of Christian peacemakers 06/12/05; Faith groups in the US unite to back Iraq captives 06/12/05; French engineer seized in Iraq 05/12/05; Norman Kember's wife pleads for his life 04/12/05; Iraqi, Muslim and Palestinian support for peace hostages grows 04/12/05; Insurgents say they will kill Christian peacemakers 02/12/05; WCC calls for freeing of Christian peace workers 02/12/05; Vigils and messages of support for abducted peace activist 02/12/05; Palestinian bishop seeks mercy for Iraq peace workers 02/12/05; Anti-war campaigner flies to Iraq to plead for Christian peacemakers 01/12/05; Muslims urge release of Christian peacemakers missing in Iraq 01/12/05; Al-Jazeera releases film of Iraq peace hostages 30/11/05; Search goes on for Christian peacemaker kidnapped in Iraq 28/11/05. Key book: Patricia Gates-Brown (ed.), Getting in the Way: Stories from Christian Peacemaker Teams, Herald Press]

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[268.1] THIS TIME IT'S PERSONAL

"It is not love in the abstract that counts. Men have loved a cause as they have loved a woman. They have loved the brotherhood, the workers, the poor, the oppressed - but they have not loved [humanity]; they have not loved the least of these. They have not loved "personally." It is hard to love. It is the hardest thing in the world, naturally speaking. Have you ever read Tolstoy's Resurrection? He tells of political prisoners in a long prison train, enduring chains and persecution for the love of their brothers, ignoring those same brothers on the long trek to Siberia. It is never the brothers right next to us, but the brothers in the abstract that are easy to love."

Dorothy Day

Social activist and founder of the Catholic Worker movement. It was 25 years on 29 November since she died. Thanks to Sojourners for reminding me.

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[267.2] SEEKING MERCY, FACING THREAT

"Blessed are the merciful, for they shall be shown mercy." (Matthew 5.7)

Advent is a time of waiting. Right now, many of us are waiting rather anxiously to see if the appeals -- of religious leaders, politicians, human rights advocates, ordinary people across the world, and opponents of war and occupation -- are heeded by the little-known militant group that holds in its hands the lives of four associates of Christian Peacemaker Teams. Tomorrow (the captors' deadline) we may know more. In all probability we will not. There is likely to be further painful waiting.

In statistical terms the odds seem less than evenly stacked. But while, tragically, many of the hundreds of ordinary Iraqis who are kidnapped simply disappear or die, the 50 or so Western hostages have, on average, been better off. Rather more have been released than killed. This is, of course, scant consolation for the families and friends of Margaret Hassan, Ken Bigley and others. But it is likely to be at least a straw of hope for the loved ones of Tom Fox, Harmeet Sooden, James Loney and Norman Kember.

Given the situation on the ground, it is easy to be cynical about the pleas for mercy to 'Sword of Truth'. And some of my correspondents have been. One wrote: "You must live in cloud cuckoo land if you think all these pious calls for mercy will influence the psychos who go around kidnapping people in Iraq. And in the process, with all this talk of occupation and detainees, you are simply feeding the propaganda machine of Islamists. These so-called 'Christian peace makers' thought their high moral principles would make them safe. Maybe they and you will have to learn the hard way."

It's hard not to be saddened by the callous tone, and it is tempting to bin such vitriol. But this response cannot be dismissed lightly. It raises important issues. Yes, in human terms, those who kill and terrorise for their cause have hardened their hearts, often to an impenetrable degree. This is a fact that cannot be ignored. Nevertheless (and this is perhaps even more difficult for us to face than the alternative), they are not zombies. They still have a choice. Moreover, though it does not happen as much as we might want, hearts can be melted. Simply dehumanizing those whose actions revile us does nothing to break the cycle of hatred, even if it makes us feel better. We may or may not be able to avert violence and horror in particular situations. And we should be under no illusions about those who choose to live by the sword. But we too have a choice. We can still go on witnessing to a better way - the alternative cycle of peace-building-justice, for which even a small gesture of mercy or bridge-building can prove an unexpected start.

Those who work with CPT don't just believe that (as if they were acting in naive defiance of reason), they are prepared to stake their lives on it. Whatever happens next, they went to Iraq knowing that they might have to share the fate of Jesus, who they name as the source and inspiration of their hope. Maybe this is utter foolishness, but it is as far from ineffective piety as you can get. Nor is it a stance based on a sense of moral superiority. Gandhi once said that he sympathised more with those who take up arms against injustice than those who acquiesce 'peaceably' with injustice. But he went on, respectfully, to suggest that there is a better way - that of disarming love. That way is not based on thinking ourselves better than others, it is based on recognising that others have an equal claim to the life we share but do not own. This is as far from endorsing the agendas of those who use terror as is possible.

To believe, as I do, and as all four abductees do, that life is given by and returns to a God whose own disarming, transforming love is encountered in the face of Christ is to belong to a company of people who share a conviction that -- contrary to much of the way our world runs -- power and might will not have the final say. So while I agree that in our actions we must resolutely face both our capacity for grotesque inhumanity and the often fatal ambiguity of life, I am not reduced to cynicism about the CPTers. Rather I am humbled by the courage of those (of whatever faith or ideology) who are prepared, if needs be, to allow their lives to be spokes in the wheel of revenge. Whatever their fallibilities, and I am sure they have many, Tom, Harmeet, James and Norman have taken a path deserves the utmost respect.

Meanwhile, we remember them. And some of us, if we are able, pray. We do not pray to a fantasy god who we expect to render the world conveniently compliant, who is some kind of cosmic fixer on our behalf. We pray, rather, to the God who Jesus knew in Gethsemane -- the one who strangely embraces us in what looks like, and sometimes simply is, abandonment. Lord, have mercy. For we need it, desperately.

See also: Mercy in a messy world.

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[267.1] MUSLIM DETAINEES BACK CHRISTIANS

In a remarkable development as the deadline set down by the captors of four Christian peacemakers in Iraq looms, three Muslim detainees who have themselves been held for years without charge have urged that the hostages be shown mercy and set free.

In a film shown by Al-Jazeera television on Friday, a group calling itself 'Sword of Truth' said they would kill their Christian hostages unless all US and UK prisoners were released by this Thursday (8th December).

However three Muslims who have been detained without charge for between four and five years in Canada have urged that they be set free.

In a statement, Mahmoud Jaballah, Mohammad Mahjoub and Hassan Almrei, who have spent as much as four years in solitary confinement, say that one of the hostages, James Loney, has worked for the freedom of Muslims who have been detained without trial in this way.

They also point out that James helped the families of the Abu Ghraib prisoners and opposed the US invasion and occupation of Iraq.

"Some of us have spent as many as four years in solitary confinement. We are being held captive under security certificates because the government of Canada alleges we are linked to terrorist organizations and that we pose a threat to the national security of Canada." they said. Full story here.

This is another appeal from 'Mere Islam'. Further Arabic sources here.

Also read the last article and webdiary entries of detainee Tom Fox before he was abucted.

From the BBC last night: Extended Iraq hostage video aired. However, Christian Peacemaker Teams says: "[We are] concerned that the showing and the re-showing of the al-Jazeera tape dehumanizes both our team-mates and those holding them. In our media release, we have asked the media not to run it. We have refused to do TV interviews where they have wanted to use the tape."

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[266.2] PEACE WORKERS' PETITION AND POSTER

The poster (for printing, copying and spreading the news about the daily noon d-i-y prayer vigil for the Iraqi detainees) has been produced in *PDF format by Pax Christi. The new petition, promoted by Muslim, Jewish and Christian communities together is here. The background to it is indicated on Ekklesia.

Also important to note: guidance for those making spublic statements in support of the Christian Peacemaker Team detainees, which are very much encouraged at the moment.

This to the kidnappers from Lorcan Otway, a member of the committee of Ministry and Counsel for the New York Quarterly Meeting of the Religious Society of Friends (also known as Quakers): "I ask you to stay your hand because you can. When you stand before your God, next to the American who wore an army uniform, next to the one who drove the tractor that killed Rachael Corrie, and our God asks each of you, why have you taken the lives of innocents, what difference will there be in your answer? When, some day, and I pray after a long life of loving works, Tom Fox [one of those abducted] stands before our God and is asked why he placed his life in your hands, I think you know his answer. Because hatred is blind and love is unconditional. "Whoever has saved a life, it will be as if he has saved the life of all [hu]mankind" (Quran 5.32)

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[266.1] FROM AMUSING TO CHALLENGING

To start on a lighter note, those following the current UK political scene might be amused by BBC's Tory leader TV trail thwarted by Jesus.

Slightly more seriously, Jonathan Bartley has a conversation about the politics of Jesus with former Home Office minister Ann Widdecombe, who converted from Anglicanism to Catholicism (she is against women priests, but has discovered that Catholic Social Teaching can be a bit roug for a high Tory too!). The exchange occurs as part of Ed Stourton's In the Footsteps of Jesus on BBC Radio 4. There's a short-term internet 'listen again' feature on the relevant BBC page, though the transcript wasn't up when I last checked.

The theme of the programme is described as follows: "When the Roman Emperor Constantine had a vision of Jesus just before his victorious battle for Rome it was arguably one of the most important moments in the history of the West. It was the start of the process whereby Christianity would go from a persecuted minority to the official religion of the largest Empire the world had seen. But how did that change Jesus and his message?" Quite a bit, I think you could say...

Also relevant to this theme: God and the politicians - where next?; After absolutism: the world, the church and the papacy; Questioning political leadership; The 'which Blair?' project; Keeping the wrong kind of religion out of politics.

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[265.2] THE SHOCKING REALITY OF ADVENT

There is perhaps nothing we modern people need more than to be genuinely shaken up. Where life is firm we need to sense its firmness; and where it is unstable and uncertain and has no basis, no foundation, we need to know this too and endure it. We need to recognize that we have stood on this earth in false pathos, in false security, in spiritual insanity.

For this is the message of Advent: faced with him who is the Last, the world will begin to shake. Only when we do not cling to false securities will our eyes be able to see this Last One and get to the bottom of things.

Condemned as a traitor for his opposition to Hitler, Alfred Delp, a Jesuit priest, wrote this piece in a Nazi prison shortly before he was hanged in 1945.

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[265.1] WEST BANK SUPPORT FOR IRAQ ABDUCTEES

Thousands of Palestinians and Iraqis across the region have been joining vigils and protests to call for the release of the four Christian Peacemaker Team activists abducted in Iraq last week. In the West bank village of Litwanyah on Fridat, Palestinian women (below) mingled pictures of Tom Fox, Harmeet Sooden, James Loney and Norman Kember with those of their own children and loved ones.

A group representing Muslim citizens in the United States called yesterday for the release of the four. ''Those who left the comfort of their homes to advocate for the rights of others that do not share their faith, ethnicity or language should be celebrated and honored by Muslims, not humiliated by being made captives or, God forbid, killed,'' said Parvez Ahmed, chairman of the Council on American-Islamic Relations. ''This is a universal human ideal and a cherished principle of Islam.''

In Iraq, the Council of Organizations of Civil Society has made an appeal to "all people who care for freedom" to support the adductees, commenting: "We have found in the CPT workers a sense of religious co-existence, (that is why the Association of Iraqi Muslim Scholars have called for the release of the four members). We also found that the CPT were doing their utmost to release Iraqi detainees. They have similar actions in other parts of the world on top of which their solidarity with the Palestinian people in the Occupied Land (as His Eminence the Mufti of Holy Jerusalem stated in his last appeal for their release).

Among the more personal responses are those by Abdurrahman R. Squires, a former US marine who converted to Islam. He has launched an Appeal for the Christian hostages in Iraq, and writes on Tom Fox's own weblog, Waiting in the Light: "I just posted an appeal for your safe release, which included a moving letter from your [Quaker] friend Lorcan Otway. Myself and many other Muslims are praying that you and your fellow CPTers are released unharmed. Contrary to popular belief, turn-the-other cheek ethics and non-violent resistence are part of our Islamic tradition as well. God bless you and the work that you do."

Friends of Fox have unveiled their own website: http://freethecaptivesnow.org/

[Additional News: Families plead for mercy (National Post, Canada); World Prays as kidnappers threaten lives (Christian Post); Norman Kember's wife pleads for his life (Ekklesia).]

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[264.1] VIGILS FOR IRAQ CAPTIVES, LATEST NEWS

***Update, 19.50 - Norman Kember's wife pleads for his life ***

Forgive the emphasis on this story at the moment. It's one in which I'm personally involved. Here are some excerpts from the latest Ekklesia update (in full here). See the end for vigil info and links. Important also not to overlook the German aid worker, Susanne Ostoff (pictured left) who has also been captured - and is, for both better and worse, not getting nearly so much publicity.

Although anxiety and uncertainty about the prospects of four peace campaigners taken hostage in Iraq last week remains high, hopes for their release were given a big boost last night (3 December 2005) when five prominent Sunni Muslim groups condemned the kidnapping. The development followed the arrival in Baghdad yesterday of Anas Altikriti, a senior sponsor of the British anti-war movement and a member of the Muslim Association of Britain (MAB). His focus is on UK Christian Peacemaker Teams volunteer Norman Kember.

On Friday the kidnappers released a video, shown on Arabic news station Al-Jazeera, in which they threatened to kill the retired professor and his fellow hostages by Thursday unless all prisoners in US and Iraqi detention centres were released.Mr Altikriti is also due to be interviewed on al-Jazeera, which has been criticized for broadcasting the two kidnap videos of the captives.But the independent news service, which President Bush allegedly told British PM Tony Blair he wanted to destroy, has also published Islamic support for the CPT hostages, and has publicised a worldwide petition for their release.

The National Council of Churches USA has joined the World Council of Churches and other ecumenical and denominational groups in calling for the peace workers to be freed. They have also criticised the occupation and called for moves to withdraw US and allied troops.Mostly, Christian groups have decided to take a back-seat in the quest for release, recognising that Muslim voices (including, in Britain, the Muslim Council of Britain as well as MAB) are those that most need to be heard.

CPT is, however, encouraging groups to organize public candlelight prayer vigils throughout the coming week highlighting the messages “Love your Enemies”, “End the Occupation” and “Release the Peacemakers.”

Christian Peacemaker Teams, a global pro-active violence reduction initiative, is supported by the Mennonite Church USA and the Mennonite Church Canada. It has a UK network which is a partner of Ekklesia, the religious think tank. CPT works ecumenically with Protestants and Catholics, but also resources volunteers of other faith and no faith. It has specifically helped equip Muslim peacemakers. Sami Rasuli, is a member of the Muslim Peacemaker Team which was founded in Iraq in conjunction with the Christian Peacemaker Teams. He was recently interviewed here from Najaf.

The non-missionary CPT has been operating in Iraq since 2002, and has had a presence in Gaza and the West Bank for the past decade. It has previously worked in Afghanistan, Chechnya and Bosnia.

A full briefing on CPT can be found here

Prayer vigil information; Mennonite Church USA Peace and Justice Support Network. UK vigils - Fellowship of Reconciliation.

[Also on Ekklesia: Christian peacemakers say coalition force causes Iraqi violence; Muslims urge release of Christian peacemakers missing in Iraq; Christian peace activists launch in the UK; Christian peacemakers advised to leave Iraq; Vigils and messages of support for abducted peace activist; Palestinian bishop seeks mercy for Iraq peace workers]

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[263.1] THE UNBEARABLE LIGHTNESS OF BEING HELD

Last month, Tom Fox [one of the four CPT workers kidnapped in Iraq] helped lead one of the team's more gruelling missions, helping 19 Palestinian refugees who were trying to migrate to Syria because of rising animosity against Palestinians in post-Hussein Iraq. Team members rode with the Palestinians to the Syrian border and camped with them in the desert for a portion of the five weeks it took to get the refugees entry. Fox, who is tall and thin, later joked that the trip had been a great weight-loss programme.

In Baghdad, the team lives at a nondescript downtown apartment building and shares chores in what feels like a group house for aging college students. Last month, after fixing a dinner of pasta and salads for the team and a visiting reporter, Fox offered a variation on the traditional mealtime prayer of thanks and blessing.

"Let's take a moment to meditate about journeys," he said. "We're all on journeys."

Fox's team members expressed anguish on Wednesday about where their peacemaking journey has taken him and his fellow hostages. (A Perilous Peace Trek)

Blessed are you peacemakers,
who say no to war as a means to peace.

Blessed are you peacemakers,
who are committed to disarm weapons of mass destruction.

Blessed are you peacemakers,
who wage peace at great personal cost.

Blessed are you peacemakers,
who challenge and confront judges, courts and prisons.

Blessed are you peacemakers,
who bring hope to those who are hurting.

Blessed are you peacemakers,
who befriend perfect strangers.

Blessed are you peacemakers,
who open doors for acting justly,
loving tenderly and walking humbly with God

And all people of good will.

[From Pax Christi’s Prayers & Liturgy (scroll down), echoing St Matthew 5. See also this Jewish, Muslim and Christian invocation created out of an inter-faith encounter in Jerusalem, 2003. As for my title... well to live in prayer is to be held in the midst of not being held, and to know the question "whose are you?" And yes, the Milan Kundera reference is meant, for a number of reasons.]

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[262.2] WORDS OF HOPE & DEATH FOR IRAQ DETAINEES

[Update: Insurgents say they will kill Christian peacemakers 02/12/05]

Most of the important work, obviously, is going on behind the scenes -- to try to establish a link with those sanctioning or influencing the kidnappers; to convince faction leaders that these men are not "spies", they are genuinely what and who they say they are; and to appeal for mercy.

It's easy to be cynical from a distance. "How do you expect monsters who would do this to respond to such pleas?" is a common response. But words and gestures are the only possible lifeline in a situation like this. That and the search for a common language of honour and dignity, however difficult and improbable that may seem. Captives have been freed as well as lost, let's never forget that.

So Electronic Iraq has launched a release petition in Arabic and English, together with a statement on CPT from Palestinian parties and groups.

Meanwhile, Bishop Munib Younan, a Palestinian from the Lutheran Church of the Holy Land, has called on those holding the four Christian Peacemaker Team workers in Iraq to release them. To those with the will to act, he declared: "I urge you from Jerusalem, the city of peace, to do your utmost to bring about the release of these apostles of peace who are the friends of every oppressed people." A similar call has been made by the World Council of Churches.

People of different faith groups and none have been joining vigils and prayer events in London and other parts of the world today to remember Tom Fox (USA), Norman Kember (UK), James Loney and Harmeet Singh Sooden (Canada).

This just in from The Nation: "Echoing the call[s from around the world] is an urgent appeal that's being introduced today by an ad-hoc group of concerned writers and activists in the US and Canada. Please read it and circulate it widely. Click here to join Arundhati Roy, Rashid Khalidi, Cindy Sheehan, Noam Chomsky, Howard Zinn and Nation writers Naomi Klein and Jeremy Scahill in signing the statement which calls for the activists' immediate release so that they may continue their vital work as witnesses and peacemakers. And, remember, time is of the essence." [This appears to be a mirror from the Electronic Iraq petition]

A full briefing on CPT and those who have been kidnapped is available here. And the BBC resume is also worth looking at.

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[262.1] TAKING RISKS FOR PEACE IN IRAQ

In the chamber of echoes that passes for intelligence in Iraq, the dominant theory is that Norman Kember and the other Christian Peacemaker Team workers have probably been kidnapped by associates of Abu Musab al-Zarqawi. Given Zarqawi's record, this is a matter of great concern. He has in the past defied calls for mercy from even radical Muslim sources - as was the case with the captors of the courageous Margaret Hassan, married to an Iraqi and an established humanitarian worker. But there is still life and hope. Canon Andrew White is among those who have extensive contacts with people connected to armed groups. And although he takes a very different stance to CPT and has been keen to repeat the "I told them not to come" mantra, he is someone of considerable energy and resources. It is also very encouraging to see the outspoken support for CPT and the captives from the Muslim community, and from one activist in particular. (See also Christians aid Muslim nonviolence initiative in Iraq.)

That the work of CPT is being publicised more widely is an important and beneficial factor in a dark hour. Ekklesia has produced a detailed Christian Peacemaker Teams briefing (put together by my excellent colleague Jonathan Bartley). This contains 14 articles tracing the work of CPT in Iraq over the last three years, including its endeavours in highlighting abuse of 72 Iraqi detainees, several months before the Abu Ghraib prison scandal was made public. The fact that this is news to many of the newsmakers in the general media is indicative of just how much gets bypassed by the rather restrictive understanding of 'news frames' and 'news values' in the mainstream.

Equally, the church press in the UK has tended to overlook CPT and similar initiatives. The notion of peacemaking as a central Christian vocation is a fairly alien idea to them, and the WCC Decade to Overcome Violence has also mostly been sidelined both by the denominations and their media. This week's Church of England Newspaper (CEN) can't even get CPT's name right, it seems.

The CEN trumpets its version of a 'biblical perspective' (especially when attacking those who dissent from its anti-gay exegesis). But in the likes of CPT's hands-on peacemaking it mainly sees something "irresponsible", apparently. That was what it chose as its headline angle. Others might prefer to acknowledge Norman Kember and his colleagues as a little closer to the sometimes-foolish way of Jesus than are the vituperations associated with the sexuality 'debate'.

Incidentally, when C4 anchor Jon Snow put it to Bruce Kent, a long term friend of Kember's, that the CPTers might be regarded as foolish to risk their safety, Bruce responded by pointing out that from the perspective of Christian discipleship, it might sometimes be necessary to weigh and take such risks.

[See also Jim Loney's story - abuducted in Iraq on the Peace Church website. Getting in the Way: Stories From Christian Peacemaker Teams, edited by Tricia Gates Brown (Herald Press, 2005) is a 300-page paperback available in Britain through Metanoia Books.]

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[261.1] WHY TRADITION REQUIRES CONSTANT CHANGE

Argument without and within religion is bedevilled by the imprecision and confusion surrounding many of its basic terms of reference – not least the idea that what they describe is fixed and imposed. Examples would be popular uses of ‘traditionalist’, ‘radical’ and ‘orthodox’. From time-to-time I use this space to try out clarificatory experiments with these and other terms. But time moves on, and you’d be a genius to find them in the primitive date archiving system which this particular weblog uses. (Yup, I know, I should change it or move to Typepad. Meanwhile, the search function at the top will be as good as it gets.) Anyway…

Let’s take ‘traditionalism’. Mostly it is assumed (both by those who use this term as a badge of honour, and by those who deploy it as a term of dismissal) that ‘tradition’ is about the past and that traditionalism is therefore about the preservation of something already completed as a means of constraining the present and the future. But what is ‘given’ in the Christian story is not closed or complete, but open and developmental. The Word becomes flesh, not stone.

In fact tradition is about giving transmittable shape to our understanding about how the narrative we are in changes its form without changing its character. For example, ‘the God of the Bible’ is a not a God captured by ‘the biblical’ [as fundamentalists mistakenly think], but a God disclosed through the biblical as contemporary-and-more, so that what we call revelation is always, in a sense, now or never – the litmus test being that it discloses the same love-embracing-suffering that characterises the core of the rest of the story. This was the message of the prophets with their call to social justice as the realisation of covenantal living.

To put it another way: because ‘the tradition’ talks of a future given by God out of the conditions of a limited present, it requires continual change to stay with the surprising constancy of what is being fulfilled beyond our expectations. (tbc)

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[260.1] LATEST ON CPT AND THE PEACE HOSTAGES

This recently in on an Al-Jazeera released film from a militant group in Iraq which claims to be holding four peace workers from Britain, the US and Canada - three Christians and a man from a Sikh background. The kidnappings took place on Saturday. All have been working with the highly commendable Christian Peacemaker Teams, with which Ekklesia is associated in the UK. The charges of spying from what seems to be an insurgency-linked Islamist organisation are wholly untrue - indeed, ironically enough, CPT was in the forefront of exposing the Abu Ghraib scandal. On the current Iraq situation, see this wise comment on Pickled Politics. [The picture shows a CPT intervention in Israel-Palestine to stop soldiers shooting demonstrators]

I knew when I made my post yesterday of the CPT link, but we had to change an initial story on the Ekklesia site because of security concerns. Now both the situation and the evaluation have changed and CPT has made a public statement on its website. Channel 4 News (UK) did actually mention Christian Peacemaker Teams last night at 7pm, and the report was streaming on their site -- so inevitably the link got out. The difficulty is that militants are often unable to distinguish Christians who oppose violence and injustice from those they characterise as 'crusaders' and 'occupiers'. There are also elaborate conspiracy theories circulating all the time in Iraq. Kidnapping is a terrible and common occurence across the country, but especially in Baghdad. Let's hope and pray that the outcome of this one is positive. CPT obviously especially values support at the moment, as do the families of those who are missing.

In a recent 'Statement of Conviction, the long-term CPT Team members stated that they "are aware of the many risks both Iraqis and internationals currently face," and affirmed that the risks did not outweigh their purpose in remaining. They express the hope that "in loving both friends and enemies and by intervening non-violently to aid those who are systematically oppressed, we can contribute in some small way to transforming this volatile situation."

CPT does not advocate the use of violent force to save lives of its workers should they be kidnapped, held hostage, or caught in the middle of a conflict situation.

Christian Peacemaker Teams have been present in Iraq since October 2002, providing first-hand, independent reports from the region, working with detainees of both United States and Iraqi forces, and training others in non-violent intervention and human rights documentation. Iraqi friends and human rights workers have welcomed the team as a nonviolent, independent presence and asked that the team tell their stories.

CPT teams host regular delegations of committed peace and human rights activists to conflict zones, who join teams in working with civilians to document abuses and develop nonviolent alternatives to armed conflict. The CPT Iraq Team has hosted a total of 120 people on sixteen delegations over the last three years.

Christian Peacemaker Teams is a violence reduction programme. Units of trained peacemakers work in areas of lethal conflict around the world. In addition to the Iraq Team, teams of CPT workers are currently serving in Barrancabermeja, Colombia; Hebron and At-Tuwani, Palestine; Kenora, Ontario, Canada; and on the Mexico-United States border.

CPT is a multilateral initiative of the historic peace churches (Mennonites, Church of the Brethren, and Quakers) with support and membership from a range of Catholic and Protestant churches.

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[259.1] IRAQ INSURGENCY... AGAINST PEACEMAKERS

[Updates 02/12/05: CPT Briefing; Petition; Taking risks for peace; Words of hope for Iraq detainees.

The appalling violence in Iraq is claiming many victims among those who try to challenge the cycle of revenge - through peacemaking, reporting and pilgrimage. Such is the logic of terror. In remembering especially the hostage and international Christian Peacemaker Teams at the moment, it is also important for us to recall that the majority of those killed, captured and torture are Iraqi and Muslim - and that many who carry out these actions tragically do so in the name of religion as well as ideology. The report on Ekklesia (excerpted below) gives more information and background. There is a good feature on CPT here. Their occasional feature column is also worth looking at, including the report earlier this year from Fallujah.

Search goes on for Christian peacemaker kidnapped in Iraq -28/11/05
The search continues tonight for a Christian associate of an organization that places violence-reduction units in crisis situations around the world, who has been kidnapped in increasingly lawless Iraq, alongside an American and two Canadians.

Two British Muslims on a religious pilgrimage have also been killed in an indiscriminate bus ambush by insurgents that also injured three other people.

Hostage Professor Norman Kember, aged 74, is a long-time advocate of nonviolence. He has been involved both in the Baptist Peace Fellowship and in Fellowship of Reconciliation (FoR), an international network of religious pacifists. [Continued...]

FoR commented yesterday: "Norman has consistently stood for peace and against violence and war and opposed the invasion of Iraq from the beginning. We ask all members and supporters of the Fellowship to pray for the safe return of Norman and the other aid workers to their families. We will post more news .. as soon as we can." [See also: UK CPT]

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[258.1] THE SILENT TSUNAMI

The 'silent tsunami' is how HIV/AIDS is increasingly referred to across Asia, with some 20 mllion people likely to be affected within the next five years. If you are still looking for resources for World AIDS Day 2005 (which is on Thursday 1 December), Christian Aid - the UK-based international churches' development agency - has produced a very good pack called 'Acts of Faith', which is available free online here as a *.PDF file). You might think of making a donation in return. As well as stories from across Asia, there are prayers from a number of religious traditions and biblical reflections, plus information about practical projects. Also worth knowing about is the NAMES Project AIDS Memorial Quilt in the USA (see picture), which has been emulated across the world. Some churches in the UK, for example, have done their own quilting for 'The Body of Christ has AIDS' displays.

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[257.1] SENDING ONE OUT TO AUCHENFLOWER

That's Auchenflower in Queensland, Australia. I've noticed from having a peek at my webstats data that someone from the Uniting Church offices there drops in to FaithInSociety fairly regularly. You're very welcome. I'm fascinated by the unexpected links this medium creates - a kind of cyber-ecumenism. Anyway, I have fond memories of the UC during my two relatively brief sojourns in the wide, red land in 1988 and 1991 - though mostly that was in New South Wales (the socially and spiritually active congregation at Pitt Street, Sydney - "a mainstream alternative"), in Melbourne and Canberra. Anyway, do drop me a line (email on the feedback link below) if you're so inclined, dear friend. [The picture, by the way, is of a bushfire linked to the Advent B Liturgy, with its theme of light, produced as part of a useful database of resources on lectionary themes by retired Uniting Church minister Moira B. Laidlaw.]

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[256.2] MORE INTELLIGENT THAN DESIGN

“To arrive at the point where the world can be truthfully named in its relation to God involves some grasp of [it] as pointless, futureless love.”

Rowan Williams (from Grace and Necessity, Continuum, 2005)

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[256.1] REASONS TO BE THANKFUL

I recently happened upon a ‘guided, interactive ritual’ on the web (thanks, Maggi). Ghastly jargon, good concept. It involves lighting a virtual candle as part of a flickering, global community of people who have decided – for a few minutes, at least – not to curse the darkness, but to signal hope. And its URL is ‘gratefulness’. A suitable gesture, along with gift-giving, for Buy Nothing Day. Which is today, in case you hadn’t noticed.

Earlier this week I overheard a conversation between two people at a bus stop. One was telling the other how tiresome she used to find it when, as a child, she was made to write little formulaic ‘thank you’ notes by her parents whenever someone gave her a present. Her friend agreed. They concluded that it was liberating to be freed from such meaningless gestures by ‘our more modern attitudes’. A minute-or-so later, both parties were cursing a young kid who had skateboarded past them and nearly knocked one of them over. When the other shouted at him to ‘mind where you’re going’, his blunt reply indicated that he too had been ‘liberated’ from any sense of formulaic obligation.

Gratitude is something I too was reared on. My father was one of the world’s great exponents on the thank-you note, and by comparison I have always felt inadequate on this front. Too many thoughtful gestures, too little time. Being quietly competitive, I guess I knew I was staring defeat in the face! But to him such gestures came naturally because he had cultivated a sense of gratefulness as a habit, a virtue to be shared. A man whose life was frequently marked by seemingly indelible pain and darkness, his frequent litany that “there is so much to be thankful for” was much more than an acquired denial – even though it could sometimes sound hollow to those (like me) of a more cynical bent.

What would it be like to view the life-world we inhabit as a gift and all human beings as “mysteries to be loved” (T.S. Eliot)? To live spiritually, whatever our ‘beliefs’, is precisely this, it seems to me. It is part of what enables us to resist the temptation of despoilation, to disarm the culture of threat, to honour those for whom the gift has died or is disfigured, and to discover in the grit of the other something in ourselves and them which has to be embraced rather than denied. This is a political as well as a personal challenge, and it needs schools of thankfulness (communities of example) to help us live this way. It requires what Brett Webb-Mitchell has called ‘the instilling of Christly gestures.’ By this ‘formulaic’ means we discover, slowly and not always easily, that we do not have to become over-dependent on ‘reasons to be grateful’. Gratitude receives the world it gives.

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[255.1] RISKY HOPE, NOT DEADLY CERTAINTY

A modern Jewish poet, whose name eludes me for the moment, once versified to the effect that "where we are right, no flowers grow". The tendency of the religious imagination (so different to the sanctified imagination) to wish to 'know it all', to revel in a 'correctess' that knocks others down, is not a sign of faith but its denial. Rather than trusting in the God whose transcending of our limitations is given in the passionate brokenness and vulnerability of flesh, history and textuality, it substitutes a rationalist idea of a god who is the final justification of our version of being. The God of Jesus is the one who confounds this crucifying logic by absorbing it and living beyond it.

(Cartoon via Weary Pilgrim. I used to own a poster where Snoopy sagely observes, "the world can't end today, because it's already tomorrow in some countries.")

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[254.1] SQUEEZING THE LIFE OUT OF FAITH

"If we seek to cling to inherited possessions, to hang on to our past, we shall find that it has slipped through our fingers. Whether we like it or not, words change their meaning, institutions their function, customs their use. Moreover, preoccupation with the retention of the past ensures inattention to the demands of the present. A form of Christianity which is concerned, first and foremost, with retaining its inheritance, is likely to prove insensitive both to the demands of present suffering and to problems concerning its institutional and linguistic insertion in contemporary culture. In other words, contrary to the best intentions of its adherents, such Christianity is likely to become, not a movement effectively concerned with the redemption of the human, with its liberating transformation in the direction of the promise, but an esoteric subculture. As such it is likely to possess not even the virtue of irrelevance: more probably it will fulfil a darker and more destructive social function. And if this seems an overstatement, I would remind you of the character and social implications of those forms of Christian self-perception which contributed most actively to the electoral success of [George W. Bush.]"

Nicholas Lash, Seeing in the Dark (Darton, Longman and Todd, 2005).

Well, it was Ronald Reagan actually - since this is from a fine new collection of sermons. But the 'dynamic equivalence' is clear...

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[253.1] A RESOUNDING SILENCE

Where shall the word be found, where will the word
Resound?
Not here, there is not enough silence.

T. S. Eliot, Ash Wednesday

(Though also an appropriate thought on the threshold of Advent...)

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[252.1] THE KNOWING IS IN THE WOUNDING

The incredible pain that's around in the Anglican Communion at the moment - not to mention the lascerations being inflicted around the globe more generally in the name of religion - Muslim, Christian, Jewish, Buddhist and more - put me in mind of this quote (below) from Rowan Williams' deeply moving and re-orienting book, The Wound of Knowledge. What a gift, both intellectual and spiritual, is being squandered by the warring in his Church right now! Also of relevance is the passionate statement, in a TV interview shortly before he died, from the heterodox playwright Dennis Potter - "What I have come to discover is that religion is the wound, not the bandage."

It is the intractable strangeness of the ground of belief that must constantly be allowed to challenge the fixed assumptions of religiosity: it is a given, whose question in each age is fundamentally one and the same. And the greatness of the Christian saints lies in their readiness to be questioned, judged, stripped naked, and left speechless by that which lies at the centre of their faith.

As distinct from performing those actions on others, note. Corrupt religion or ideology is that which puts the question, the task and the challenge of living on someone else (a scapegoat) 'out there' and exacts revenge on behalf of its fretful certainty. In this way, whatever its label, it becomes truly evil.

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[251.1] INTERNECINE CITY ANGLICANA

I've been meaning to write for several days on the further escalation of conflict around the anti-gay 'global South' Anglican Primates' letter to embattled Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams, and its implications - since I've been party to some conversations around this, and it is of much wider significance for Christians (not just Anglican ones) on how we handle our scripture and tradition, church polity and the sexuality debate -- more like a war, sadly. As someone painfully observed to me, "how these Christians hate one another... It's not supposed to be like that, is it? Didn't y'man Jesus have something to say about this, and precisely nothing about homosexuality?" Enough said.

If you haven't been following the latest sorry saga, it is mapped out in the following Ekklesia stories - we hope in a way that is fuller and a little fairer than many of the media reports now circulating... which have upped an already angst-ridden ante. Thinking Anglicans is tracking the range of current source materials on the story. I'll say more when I get a mo.

Anyway, here goes on the historiography (latest piece first): Pro-gay Anglicans say Nigerian Church 'obsessed' with gays 21/11/05; Bishop's name removed from disputed letter to Archbishop of Canterbury 21/11/05; Akinola denies rift over Primates' letter to Williams 21/11/05; Primates disown open letter to Archbishop of Canterbury 18/11/05; Global leaders query Church of England state link 18/11/05; Anglican Primates deny attack on Archbishop of Canterbury 18/11/05; Rowan Williams calls for active dialogue over gay conflict 17/11/05.

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[250.1] ON LEARNING TO BE HEALTHILY MALADJUSTED

"In order to meet the requirements of a competitive society, a person needs to go against the natural order of things. When s/he is tired, s/he continues to work. When s/he is angry s/he represses the emotions. When s/he is ill, s/he ignores the symptoms. When s/he grieves s/he hides the pain. When s/he loves, s/he loves superficially, replacing love with lust. S/he fears exposure. When s/he plays, s/he plays hard to win at all cost. S/he is deluded into believing s/he is free, yet in reality s/he is fragmented, separated, competitive and controlled." (adapted from Bill O'Hehir)

"We don't realize how much our world is controlled by created desires for things we do not need or really want…Let's fast from advertising." (Richard Rohr)

Don't become so well-adjusted to your culture that you fit into it without even thinking. Instead fix your attention on God. Be prepared to be changed from the inside out." (Romans 12:2a, adapted from Eugene Peterson, The Message)

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[249.1] TICK TOCK MERRILY ON HIGH

"The civilisation that confuses clocks with the time also confuses nature with postcards"... and, as Oscar Wilde pointed out, price with value. (Eduardo Galeano)

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[248.2] WHO WOULD JESUS SHOOT-TO-KILL?

Difficult to know whether what might need to be put in response to Bishop Tom Butler's shoot-to-kill endorsement can really be heard. Any response other than conditional pragmatism is usually seen as airy-fairy pacifist Christian nonsense. Still, I believe it must be said. I'd have the greatest personal sympathy if anyone felt they had to kill to defend themselves or others, but that's different from making shoot-to-kill a police policy, which in turn is very different from endorsing such a policy in the name of the church. And why, for heaven's sake? To make us look macho and 'realistic'. Well that's not too hard, but where does it get us, especially when the policy is deeply flawed on other grounds, and when the churches have more positive options to contribute that don't involve judicially sanctioned violence? What follows is the Ekklesia media release. A longer version of the story (mainly extended at the end) is here.

Ekklesia, the UK Christian think tank, has questioned the anti-terrorism stance adopted by the Anglican Bishop of Southwark, the Rt Rev Tom Butler, when he this week defended the Metropolitan Police ‘shoot-to-kill’ policy.

Dr Butler was speaking during a two-hour debate in response to the 7 July London bombings at the General Synod of the Church of England, meeting in London from 15-17 November 2005.

While highlighting civil liberties “anxieties” about certain aspects of the Terrorism Bill, which is currently passing through Parliament, he said that armed police might sometimes have to respond with lethal force to suspected suicide bombers.

Speaking on BBC Radio 4, the Bishop of Southwark described such killings as a lesser of two evils. “Sometimes we have to judge between two things that are wrong to produce the best result,” he told an interviewer.

He added: “Obviously, killing somebody is never a right thing to do, but if it prevents many other people being killed, it may be the only thing to do.”

However the UK Christian think-tank Ekklesia has responded by saying that the role of Christian leaders is not to endorse violence as public policy, but to create alternatives to it.

“While we should respect the tough decisions that the police and others have to take in dealing with terrorists, it is sad to hear a representative of the Gospel supporting killing as an appropriate policy option,” said Ekklesia co-director Simon Barrow.

He continued: “The police shoot-to-kill policy backfired disastrously the first time it was employed, resulting in the death of an entirely innocent Jean Charles de Menezes. Experience suggests that it contributes to a cycle of violence, rather than being an effective antidote to it. We have to examine the bigger picture too.”

He added that it was dangerous, and often misguided, to calculate that a greater good would come out of a basically wrong action.

Civil liberties, human rights and religious groups, including Muslim organisations, have said that the police policy should be to disable and disarm potential bombers, not to risk gunning down innocents or creating martyrs.

Arab news media have interpreted Bishop Butler’s response as saying police officers should be allowed to gun down suspected suicide bombers.

Ekklesia’s Simon Barrow commented: “This isn’t a marginal question for the Christian community. Jesus prevented a supporter using violence at his arrest and called on his followers to respond to evil with good. Where we should be focussing our resources is on conflict transformation, arguing against the religious legitimation of violence, and building alternatives to the culture of armed hatred.”

Mr Barrow said that it was unhelpful and over-simple for the churches to think that they could have short-term answers to every human dilemma.

“Christian conscience sometimes has to say ‘no’ to courses of action which might seem immediately justifiable, but which actually divert us from the better way to which the costly message of Christ points,” he explained. “This isn’t irresponsibility, it’s alternative realism.”

Concluded the Ekklesia co-director: “While we can’t reduce the complex ethics and politics of this situation to ‘who would Jesus shoot-to-kill?’, it’s not a question we can avoid either – and the core of the answer points in a different direction to the bishop’s response.”

[Also on Ekklesia: Beyond the politics of fear: An Ekklesia response to the London bombings; and Of bishops, bombs and ballast]

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[248.1] OUT OF THE CLOISTER

To pray unceasingly is to lead all our thoughts out of their fearful isolation into a fearless conversation with God... Prayer can only become unceasing prayer when all our thoughts – beautiful or ugly, high or low, proud or shameful, sorrowful or joyful – can be thought in the divine present. (Henri Nouwen)

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[247.1] PLAIN LANGUAGE, AWKWARD TRUTHS

The weekly reflections of Johan Maurer, a US Quaker writer and academic, are always worth reading. This one links the depth of tradition with something very topical, reminding us that it is action and character which gives the lie to, or supplies the truth of, what comes out of our mouths and keyboards...

The first time I wrote about plain language, it was a reflection on the meaning of plain language in Quaker culture. Now I'm writing on plain language as exemplified by the word "torture."

These are not unrelated themes. Early Friends wanted to be plain in the sense of "transparent"—for the ego and its external vanities to get out of the way so the Holy Spirit could shine through. Similarly, words were to be vehicles for truth, not for lies (hence no double standards for public speech, no oaths in the courtroom) nor for idolatries (hence no days and months named for pretender-gods). Even some of our humour is based on this "plain" concept of bald truth. "A flock of white sheep," says one Quaker passenger on a train to the other, pointing out the window. "Yes, they're white ... at least on this side," responds the other.

The word "torture" has been a fine example of plain language. Now, thanks to our nation's administration, even the word is being tortured, and I have lost my sense of humour. In the service of the latest imperial presidential philosophy, the White House spokesman is put into the impossible position of denying the plain and obvious facts: his bosses want the freedom to go beyond the boundary that the Geneva Conventions have set. [Continued here]

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[246.2] THE REAL CHOICE BEFORE US

If you haven't yet discovered the world of Australian cartoonist and poet Michael Leunig, it's worth checking him out on curly flat and elsewhere on the web. What I like about him, apart from his often dry humour, is that he manages to puncture the self-regard of human beings (especially in their 'religious' mode) with knowing gentleness, and to point towards a depth of experience which is fully funded by a Christian perspective but able to speak well beyond those bounds -- because it is about life, not loyalism.

So I was delighted and a little surprised to see that Rowan Williams, in his wise presidential address to the General Synod of the Church of England (an occasion more likely to induce depression than hope for many of us, but well documented by Thinking Anglicans) decided to quote a typical prayer from Leunig at the end of his peroration:

There are only two feelings.
Love and fear.
There are only two languages.
Love and fear.
There are only two activities.
Love and fear.
There are only two motives,
two procedures, two frameworks,
two results.
Love and fear.
Love and fear.

God help us to find our confession;
The truth within us which is hidden from our mind;
The beauty or ugliness we see elsewhere
But never in ourselves;
The stowaway which has been smuggled
Into the dark side of the heart,
Which puts the heart off balance and causes it pain,
Which wearies and confuses us,
Which tips us in false directions and inclines us to destruction,
The load which is not carried squarely
Because it is carried in ignorance.

God help us to find our confession.
Help us across the boundary of our understanding.
Lead us into the darkness that we may find what lies concealed;
That we may confess it towards the light;
That we may carry our truth in the centre of our heart;
That we may carry our cross wisely
And bring harmony into our life and our world.
Amen.

[Sample cartoon (c) Michael Leunig]

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[246.1] THE CHANGING FACE OF BELIEF

A new opinion poll conducted by the BBC suggests a persistence of religious belief in the UK, a growth in outright secularism, and widespread ignorance of other people’s convictions among different faith communities.

It also indicates that while a fifth of people in the UK feel less positive about Islam since the London bombings in July 2005, the view of the majority is unaffected.

Commissioned for BBC News 24’s Faith Day, the poll of a representative sample of adults across the country examines how religious belief is continuing to impact British identity. (Continued on Ekklesia)

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[245.1] LOOK IN THE LIGHT OF WHAT YOU'RE SEARCHING FOR

... so that the truth will out, though not if you force its meaning or try to possess or twist it to your own ends. It's manna, after all. As Simone Weil suggests, in an exposition that becomes slowly more meaningful to me:

We do not have to understand 'new things', but by dint of patience, effort and [proper] method to come to understand with our whole self those truths which are evident.

The most commonplace truth, when it floods the whole being, is [therefore] like a revelation.

We [also] have to try to cure our faults by attention and not by will. The will only controls a few movements of a few muscles... What could be more stupid than to tighten up our muscles and set our jaws about virtue, or poetry or the solution of a problem?...

Inner supplication is the only way, for it avoids stiffening muscles which have nothing to do with the matter [in hand]...

Attention [to reality], taken to its highest degree, is the same thing as prayer. It presupposes faith and love. (Adapted from Gravity and Grace)

As for the methodological part - well, broadly speaking, epistemology models ontology. Or to put it another way, the true nature of something, in both its apparent availability and non-availability to us, conditions the appropriate means by which we might patiently, experimentally, gradually get to 'know' it.

In the case of an object or the relation of objects this is relatively straightforward. In the case of persons, not at all straightforward. And in the case off God, strictly speaking, it is impossible. For as Weil also explains:

We have to believe in a God who is like the true God in every respect, except that [this God we believe in] does not exist, [because] we have not yet reached the point where God exists.

How we 'know God', then, the true God who is beyond our capacity to exist, is by learning deeds of love, companionship, justice, peace and compassion -- not by metaphysical speculation or by seeking to exercise demonstrative power. This is so because God is love rather than will, excess rather than essence, gift rather than possession, act rather than being, possibility rather than prescription.

This is also why 'killing for God' (the most ancient and modern religious disease) is in fact the ultimate act of non-belief, against which atheism is the highest, most Christlike virtue.

Jesus was 'killed for God'. That is, he was killed by the religion of power, and in this event the lie at the heart of religion was exposed -- the lie which keeps us from the true God who awaits us as love beyond vengeance.

Waiting for the 'more' that is God is essential if we are not to foreclose truth in our procedures. In this way 'faith' (loving expectation) is not an antonym to reason, but a condition of its very reasonableness.

This, I think, is why St Paul and those around him needed to speak of the indivisibility of knowledge and love in the transforming economy of divine communion (Colossians 2.2, Ephesians 3.19, etc.).

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[244.1] MOVING BEYOND RELIGIOUS SECTARIANISM

Among the many good things in the Community Relations Council (CRC) evaluation of the role of church-based peacemaking initiatives in Ireland (Beyond Sectarianism - The Churches and Ten Years of the Peace Process - *.PDF download) is the contribution [excerpt below] from Geraldine Smyth OP, a lecturer at the Irish School of Ecumenics. I first spotted this in the recently revamped Corrymeela magazine - the journal of the extremely worthwhile Corrymeela Community - which now definitely ranks alongside Fortnight and Shared Space as a 'must read'. See also this article, A Time To Heal (faith and politics), and the Centre for Contemporary Christianity in Ireland.

"Violence cannot deliver peace, and the self-defeating mechanisms of the sacral power of cultural religion which keeps sectarianism in place need to be exposed and repudiated. Churches in Ireland must keep scrutinizing their own life... It is imperative that we all discover how we collude in tolerating violence - through segregated religious and social practice, and through clinging to identity-forming symbol structures which feed ancient rivalries through appeals to distorted memories of biblical chosenness as the basis of exclusion of others... Surely the churches have a vital role in shaping alternative, open spaces where ideas are never beyond question and the fresh air of dialogue can circulate, where experimental moves are envisaged and pilot projects undertaken - whether in secular life, through the arts, civic politics, education or community development - or within and between religious communities."

Incidentally, David Stevens, leader of the Corrymeela Community (and before that long-term general secretary of the Irish Council of Churches) has made a comment about religious hatred legislation, which has a particular history in Northern Ireland.

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[243.1] THE FRENCH UPRISINGS IN CONTEXT

In a different tenor to Gary Younge's necessarily provocative perspective, there's a thoughtful article (France and the Muslim myth) from the Observer's European editor, Jason Burke, looks at the fears and half-truths surrounding the more than two weeks' worth of rioting that began in the smouldering ghettos of Paris. As he points out, the underlying issues are global. But to complete the picture he needs to say more about the travails of an economically reductionist globalisation, and the aspirations of traditional societies faced by change. Some of the latter issues are mentioned in Rowan Williams' interesting new piece on 'respect', probing behind the latest buzz-word. The coverage and discussion on Pickled Politics has been helpful, as ever.

Meanwhile, this from a briefing on religion and state in France, on the BBC Religion and Ethics site: Many people believe that the French model of a secular state is not working. French ethnic minorities are very much aware of the disparity between them and white-French citizens. The riots of October 2005 reflect how aggrieved minorities feel. They feel victimised because of their culture, because of their colour and because of their religious orientation. For these minority groups, there is no space for a dual-identity that incorporates French-ness and religion.

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[242.1] LEST WE FORGET

"Rats and roaches live by competition under the laws of supply and demand; it is the privilege of human beings to live under the laws of justice and mercy." Wendell Berry

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