BEARDEDBABY.NET :: conversation, community, & comics with gusto by john stephens

Peacemaker Prayer & Action

2006

This is something I am working on for our peace hostage action page FreeTheCaptivesNow.org as a way of elaborating on Gene Stoltzfus's call for 1000 Peacemaker Prayer Groups. It is far from polished, and gathering the materials necessary for a fully-developed resource will take some time. I am posting it here as a draft to invite keener minds than my own into the conversation.

]]> Launching Peacemaker Prayer & Action in Your Community

for Focused Study, Prayer, Support, and Action

Priority | Study | Prayer | Support | Action | Sharing | Print Version

A Word of Caution: We have known since this effort began that our actions might have little, if any impact on the outcome of this crisis. That has not changed. While we endorse intense study and prayer toward burnishing the collective witness for peace, we don't want to feed the prideful American habit and illusion that the right technique will solve any problem.

The Priority of Continuing Witness | top

In a video released on December 7th, 2005, our friend Tom Fox plainly states that his life is tied to our efforts to free other detainees, and he pleads for our help in this matter: "... a plea for my release from captivity and also a plea for a release from captivity of all the people of Iraq. We are all suffering from the same fate ...". He asks not for legislative action, but for the people of America to take direct action on the behalf of all being held captive. While this message was uttered in urgency, we share Tom's abiding concern for all people being held without trial, or enduring humiliation, torture, or captivity in violation of international law. Tom himself has worked tirelessly with families of detainees in Iraq to bring more public attention to their plight. We too can take direct action on these concerns.

The readiness of these men to endure isolation, sacrifice, and suffering in the service of others, renouncing sanctions of death and violence even to save their own lives, escalates a theological and social challenge upon all Christians and Quakers, indeed all who seek to advance the Peaceable Kingdom. Addressing this challenge faithfully is an immediate and persistent priority.

To support the continuing witness of Tom Fox, Harmeet Singh Sooden, James Loney, and Norman Kember, and to inspire creative faith-driven response to their present captivity in Iraq, CPT affiliate Gene Stoltzfus has called upon congregations around the world to raise up peacemaker prayer groups to meet weekly for focused prayer and dialogue. Recognizing the value of such spiritual discipline in a time of crisis, and the need to shift from emergency mobilization to long-term commitment, we offer the contents below as a jumping-off point for anyone who might find them useful.

In order to develop a continuing witness on behalf of the Peacemaker captives, and on behalf of the communities they have served in their ministry at home and abroad, each Group must understand its own strengths and opportunities, as well as the weaknesses and threats with which it must contend. In order to foster this process of discernment, we recommend that Prayer Groups take on three specific practices, taking seriously the range of disciplines involved, and making time in their meetings for all three: Study, Prayer, and Support.

Study | top

... but his delight is in the law of the LORD, and on his law he meditates day and night. [...]
I will ponder all your work, and meditate on your mighty deeds. [...]
I will meditate on your precepts and fix my eyes on your ways.

Psalms 1:2, 77:12, 119:15

Behold, I am sending you out as sheep in the midst of wolves, so be wise as serpents and innocent as doves

Matthew 10:16

The scriptures charge us to study and meditate constantly on God's laws and words, both those written and those that can be discerned thorough experience and observation. Collective study will help a group focus its meditation on the issues at hand. Bible study may form an important part of this practice, helping us to anchor our understanding of the present challenges in a critical assessment of the prophetic lineage of Abraham. But it is also crucial for our study to address the commencing social, moral, and humanitarian crisis, to look beyond the parade of headlines and develop a broader, deeper perspective of the history and present reality of Christianity & Islam, Iraq, and CPT's work there.

Friendly Bible Study is a well grounded method for illuminating study without authoritarian structure.

BibleTexts.com is a vast, comprehensive, and free online Bible commentary for "all people who seek a thoroughly honest understanding of the Bible, of earliest Christianity, and of the unconditional love (agape) that is at the heart of Christian practice."

Islam Online includes an extensive archive of introductory material to the faith and practice of Islam.

Reuters posts daily reports on the turmoil in Iraq.

Electronic Iraq is an initiative to provide humanitarian perspective, supplementary news, and analysis during this uncertain time.

Christian Peacemaker Teams initiated a long-term presence in Iraq in October 2002, six months before the beginning of the U.S. led invasion in March of 2003.

Help us by suggesting additional resources!

Prayer | top

Likewise the Spirit helps us in our weakness. For we do not know what to pray for as we ought, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words. [...]
Rejoice in hope, be patient in tribulation, be constant in prayer.

Romans 8:26, 12:12

Gene Stoltzfus writes: "For the years that I was with CPT our teams tried to begin the day with common worship. I am sure our primitive attempts at worship must have looked wimpy to our Muslim friends whose ritual of five prayer periods every day always facing Mecca was so clear, and confident.

"I noticed over the years that when life got more dangerous and severe, Muslim prayer time become more disciplined. I also noticed that when we felt threatened, demeaned, or desperate to break through the silence with an act of love, our own worship which included scripture, songs and prayer became more focused. Sometimes in our confusion, laughter would lubricate our prayers. Other times a CPTer might jump up in the middle of our serious gathering seized by the Spirit with a message or a song. Some of us doubted the messenger but we knew we might just as well start listening to the Spirit."

According to Stoltzfus, four to eight people meeting one or more times per week may be enough to form a focused, Spirit-driven response to the challenges at hand.

Support | top

Iron sharpens iron, and one person sharpens the wits of another.

Proverbs 27:17

I therefore, a prisoner for the Lord, urge you to walk in a manner worthy of the calling to which you have been called, with all humility and gentleness, with patience, bearing with one another in love, eager to maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace.

Ephesians 4:1-3

The need for mutual support, both emotional and intellectual as well as spiritual, is readily apparent. Prayer Groups should be a safe place for friends to share their concerns, doubts, ideas, and insights without fear of a careless or hurtful remarks. Support also extends into strengthening each other intellectually. Care must be taken to winnow action ideas for clarity, coherence, and continuity within the present dialogue. Some basic guidelines that may be useful:

Look for the good in others.

Listen carefully and don't interrupt.

Respect the privacy of other people.

Allow everyone to participate fully.

When brainstorming, ask divergent questions and hold off judging ideas until all ideas are on the table.

The discipline of worship sharing as defined by FGC's Quaker Toolbox is a focused approach for group spiritual nurture, but it does not include guidelines for integrative problem solving, which may be instrumental in forming a basis for action.

Action | top

For I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me drink, I was a stranger and you welcomed me, I was naked and you clothed me, I was sick and you visited me, I was in prison and you came to me. [...] Truly, I say to you, as you did it to one of the least of these my brothers, you did it to me.

Matthew 25:35-40

The Acts of Mercy described in the judgment parable of Matthew 25 establish a powerful foundation for action that is germane. The examples in this text by no means exhaust the possibilities, but they illustrate a single directive: to befriend the restless, outcast, and downtrodden, providing intimate service that meets human needs while humanizing the victim and the servant. This echoes the Jubillean mandate of Isaiah 61:1-2, forming the basis of the CPT's work in Iraq.

Too often peace activism is marked by bitter demands and political attacks that can erode the moral bonds of society. Waged in the moral sphere, peacemaking should not be aimed at bringing down the wicked as much as redeeming humans from the social pathology of moral paralysis:

I mean by "moral impoverishment" what the Bible often cites as "hardness of the heart" or as the impairment or loss of moral discernment; the incapacity to hear, though one has ears; or to see though one has eyes (e.g., Mark 8:14-21). I refer, thus, not so much to an evil mind as to a paralyzed conscience; not so much to either personal or corporate immorality as to a social pathology possessing persons and institutions; not so much to malevolence, however incarnate, as to the literal demoralization of human life in society.

from An Ethic for Christians & Other Aliens in a Strange Land by William Stringfellow

Working in the field of human rights, Jim Corbett developed a comprehensive outline of concrete disciplines that aim at redeeming humans from this social pathology while ministering to human needs in the spirit of the Acts of Mercy:

Civil initiative is formed by this function; our responsibility for protecting the persecuted must be balanced by our accountability to the legal order.

As formed by accountability, civil initiative is nonviolent, truthful, catholic, dialogical, germane, volunteer-based, and community-centered.

Nonviolence checks vigilantism. Civil initiative neither evades nor seizes police powers.

Truthfulness is the foundation for accountability. Civil initiative must be open and subject to public examination.

Civil initiative is catholic (in the sense of all-embracing) rather than factional, protecting those whose rights are being violated regardless of the victim’s ideological position or political usefulness.

Civil initiative is dialogical, addressing government officials as persons, not just as adversaries or functionaries. Any genuine reconciliation of civil initiative with bureaucratic practice- the discovery of an accommodation that does not compromise human rights-is a joint achievement: civil initiative can never be based on non-negotiable demands.

Action that is germane to victims' needs for protection distinguishes civil initiative from reactions that are primarily symbolic or expressive. As a corollary, media coverage and public opinion are of secondary importance when our central concern is to do justice rather than to petition others to do it.

Civil initiative's emergency exercise of governmental functions is volunteer-based. The community must never forfeit its duty to protect the victims of human rights violations, but no new bureaucracy should be formed that would oppose the return of governmental functions to those constitutionally designated to assume responsibility.

Civil initiative is community-centered. To actualize the Nuremberg mandate, our exercise of civil initiative must be socially sustained and congregationally coherent; it must integrate, outlast and outreach individual acts of conscience.

A Definition of Civil Initiative by Jim Corbett

Sharing | top

Our hope for you is unshaken, for we know that as you share in our sufferings, you will also share in our comfort.

2 Corintians 1:7

If you use this reference in any way, please let us know! We are interested in feedback toward a more fully developed resource, but we are even more interested in sharing ideas and highlighting actions that address the present ordeal in a creative, coherent, and sustainable way. Direct all correspondence to prayeraction[at]beardedbaby[dot]net or visit us online at FreeTheCaptivesNow.org.

Download, Print, and Share this Document | top

Freely you have received, freely give.

Matthew 10:8

[PDF] Launching Peacemaker Prayer & Action:
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Free the Captives

My work here at BEARDEDBABY.NET has been on an extended hyatus for various reasons. The most prominent being that my friend and mentor Tom Fox was among four peace workers taken hostage in Iraq on November 26, 2005, and I have been absorbed in the effort to support their release.

What began as an emergency response has become a daily vigil as we monitor all reports and post prominent related dispatches. Please visit our peace captive action page to find out how you can take action to support freedom for the captives in Iraq.

Community Peace Workshop: Summer 2005

Advancing Peace
in your community

Based on 300 years of Quaker peace work in prisons, schools, and situations of violent tension, Help Increase the Peace Project is a creative process for transforming conflict and building community. HIPP workshops focus on reflective personal dialogue combined with energetic, fun activities, in order to foster experiential skill development based on real-life situations.

Ideal for: Parents, teachers, students & student leaders, mentors, trainers, counselors, and all creative individuals who care about their community; ages 13 - 113 welcome

Folks who come to our Basic training will be eligible to join our Advanced workshop in the Fall. We are trying to raise up more facilitators to share this training with others in our community, but Basic is for everyone, not just people who want to be trainers.

Each attender is asked to contribute $25 to defray the cost of food and supplies. Please contact me if cost is an issue, and we can work something out. All of the facilitators are volunteers.

If you live in Northern Virginia, feel free to Print & Post our flyer on some bulletin boards in your community! Download PDF

Join us for our Summer workshop:
Thursday, July 21 6pm-8:30pm
Friday, July 22 9:30am-5pm
Saturday, July 23 9:30am-5pm
Lunch & Snacks included

Location :
Woodlawn Friends Meeting
8990 Woodlawn Road
Fort Belvior, Virginia 22060

Registration Closed July 15.

Please contact John Stephens if you have any questions: hipp (at) beardedbaby (dot) net

notes on "Do This in Remembrance of Me"

Picking up the threads of my last journal entry, I wrote an article for Friends Journal called Do this in Remembrance of Me, mainly to satisfy the submission demands of one of my classes. Here's an excerpt:

I can't help thinking that the experience of communion practiced by Friends is deeply connected to the vision of God revealed in Eucharist. There has been a great deal written on this subject from the vantage point of other traditions, but I would like to focus on the fundamental attitude toward reality presented in the Eucharist narrative, an attitude shared by the early Quakers and deeply nourishing for Friends today. [...]

On the night that he was arrested, Yeshua joined his disciples in a Passover meal which he vividly connected to the suffering he anticipated. The New Revised Standard Version reads:
Then he took a cup, and after giving thanks he said, "Take this and divide it among yourselves; for I tell you that from now on I will not drink of the fruit of the vine until the kingdom of God comes." Then he took a loaf of bread, and when he had given thanks, he broke it and gave it to them, saying, "This is my body, which is given for you. Do this in remembrance of me." And he did the same with the cup after supper, saying, "This cup that is poured out for you is the new covenant in my blood."
Narrative of the arrest, trial, and execution of Christ immediately follows, and throughout these anguishing events, the rabbi remains unwaveringly faithful to his vision of divine love and justice. Because of this juxtaposition, I would suggest that the meditation captured in the above text is much more than an injunction to carry out a ritual of remembrance. The words "do this in remembrance of me" are referring not only to the meal, but also to the radical faithfulness demanded by God in the trials of our times.

This idea of Living in the Cross, “radical faithfulness” to God's love and justice, is something I've been wrestling with a lot, and I still feel like I've failed to articulate the blood & guts of it. This week, I found a reading by Rich Foster that seems to express the idea almost elegantly:

The foremost symbol of this radical servanthood* is the cross. “He [Jesus] humbled himself and became obedient unto death, even death on a cross” (Phil. 2:8). But note this: Christ not only died a “cross-death,” he live a “cross-life.” The way of the cross, the way of the suffering servant was essential to his ministry.

[...]Jesus called his followers to live the cross-life. “If any man would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me” (Mark 8:34). He flatly told his disciples, “If any one would be first, he must be last of all and servant of all” (Mark 9:35). When Jesus immortalized the principle of the cross-life by washing his disciples' feet, he added, “I have given you an example, that you also should do as I have done to you” (John 13:15). The cross-life is the life of voluntary submission. The cross-life is the life of freely accepted servanthood.

* emphases mine

Foster makes it clear that the “freely accepted servanthood” of Living in the Cross should not lead Christians into sniveling complicity with evil and injustice, even when it is perpetrated by their own government. Indeed, revolutionary subordination demands the courage to transform our communities, even through civil disobedience: “[The apostles] illustrated revolutionary subordination by meekly refusing a destructive command and being willing to suffer the consequences. The German thinker Johannes Hamel says that subordination includes 'the possibility of a spirit-driven resistance, of an appropriate disavowal and a refusal ready to accept suffering at this or that particular point.'”

Living in the Cross is a vocation of service to all people, and service calls us into the field of action. Yet it is so easy to get sniveling with complicity when dealing with the beurocracies, institutions, social conventions, and other powers that crush human dignity and turn us away from Friendship. I remember working in Human Resources a couple years ago, and being subject to a culture of somewhat dehumanizing policy. It took a constant exertion of will to align my priorities with the needs of my coworkers, to provide them with support in navigating the maze of paperwork and policy regarding their payroll and benefits. Subordinating the demands of the institution to the needs of the community created a friendlier environment all the way to the customer.

I can't talk about that with more wit because labor relations isn't my main interest. While studying toward teacher certification, I have found other concerns that I feel I must carry in serving my community:

Kids need experience-based training in constructive alternatives to violence. We need to foster a culture in our schools that empowers young people with creative skills in conflict transformation.
Families need stronger connections with their coworkers and neighbors. When crap hits the fan, it will be the people in my neighborhood and workplace who need my help, and who can help my family. Political, economic, and cultural divisions are all red herrings. The real issue is our commitment to divine love and justice.
Religious strife is rapidly sending us back into the dark ages. Our different traditions provide us with unique visions of God and unique vocations in the world, but when our relationship with each other is defined by enmity instead of service, we have regretably departed from our calling. We need to support loving dialogue that builds a robust spirit of fellowship across denominational boundaries.

These aren't things I have any natural gifts for, but they are the concerns that drive my present work and study.

That's enough high-falutin' for now. Time to read some bed-time stories and rest in the questions and mysterious silence that follow.

Summer 2005 Community Projects

This schedule is still being refined, but we are planning our summer HIPP workshop for the week ending 07•23.

On 08•07, I will be leaving for Quaker House, a GI counseling center near Fort Bragg where I will be interning for about two weeks.

Orthodoxy vs. Christopraxy

Since I'm not recognized as a member of the Roman communion, my opinions about the new bishop of Rome may not matter much, but I think that the issues around this papal election reflect some of the major struggles of the 100 Year Lamb's War - will the YHWH faith be led by fear into an embattled prophetic message, or will we embrace a long term vision for a century of peacemaking inspired by the love and justice of God? This remains a critical question for us all regardless the pontiff's position on this spectrum, and there is work we can all do to support the continuing emergence of this ancient calling.

The former Cardinal Ratzinger's staunch adherence to the orthodox traditions is well attested to; in his address to the cardinals prior to this week's conclave, he made it clear that the next pope must make war on moral relativism by enforcing the established doctrines.

This raises the question: is orthodoxy - uniformity of doctrine - a faithful interpretation of the prophetic message of Avraham, Moshe, Yeshua, & Paulos? We must be careful not to depreciate the prophets of the ancient world by diluting their voices with halting shudders of our own prejudices and paradigms.

The prophets were neither unified by doctrine nor practice - the unity of their message emerged in their unique struggle to apprehend the divine and bring forth the blessed kingdom, a struggle most vividly illustrated by the cross.

Moved by the significance of this struggle and the image of this event, the early Quakers called their discipline Living in the Cross.

Patricia McBee writes:

“Living in the Cross” is to put our own will aside, and to submit to the guidance discovered through retirement and prayer. It means not to turn away from the suffering world, but to face even the suffering that we are powerless to alleviate. It means to allow the Light to shine into our dark spots and show us the way—and to follow that way even when we are tempted to take an easier path.

Living in the Cross is living at the threshold where tenderness and suffering meet, where pain awakens the love and justice of God deep inside us. It is a visceral experience that results in an immediate and unwavering commitment to establishing the reign of peace and Truth in every home and community. Can friends today take on this commitment and calling?

Although it is unclear what the new Pope may do to advance the Peaceable Kingdom – how he might promote demilitarization and active peace dialogue within and beyond the Roman communion – it is clear that we must not be misled into the easy faith of tough-sounding doctrines. Beyond these ruinous battlements, there is an even deeper struggle that demands our faithfulness regardless of our creed.

I'm still grappling with the implications, and I don't know if I've articluated this well at all. I hope this dialogue will throw more abundant light on this subject.

for the DIDDLUM DAY: New Jotunheim

In August and September I worked on a few projects with Quaker House, a GI counseling center in Fayetteville, NC near Fort Bragg. One project was a Truth in Recruiting comic in which the Enlistment Agreement for the U.S. Armed forces is explained by Sgt. Abe the Honest Recruiter. This resource is freely available online and we distributed thousands from the GI Rights table at September's Peace & Justice Festival in D.C. I wasn't directly involved in counseling, but I did observe calls and visits with soldiers, all of whom were very rattled by their experience. Although I learned a lot and the work was very meaningful, the most memorable part was sitting in on the counseling of a young soldier stricken with severe Post Traumatic Stress. I also worked on dozens of case studies, and processing their stories was sometimes difficult, and my nightmares continue to be influenced by this work.

for the DIDDLUM DAY: Hit the Ground

Conflict Transformation Workshops at NVCC Woodbridge

Transformaing Conflict & Building Community at NVCC Woodbridge | Resources

Wednesday, March 16 12P-2:30P
Monday, March 21 12P-2:30P
Friday, April 1 3P-5:30P

Location:
NVCC Woodbridge: Room 409
15200 Neabsco Mills Road
Woodbridge, Virginia 22191

Help Increase the Peace and the Alternatives to Violence Project comprise an interactive program for bringing new light to situations of tension. Through a combination of serious, focused reflection and energetic, fun activities, participants learn to identify and transform patterns of behavior that keep their communities in conflict.

This program is used in prisons and schools around the country to radically reduce violence by giving individuals a process for transforming conflict and inspiring them to lead.

Basic training provides all participants with practical skills for positive, nonviolent social change. Advanced training and Training for Facilitators prepare students to uplift their communities through creative dialogue & direct action.

hipp (at) beardedbaby (dot) net

Beyond Civil Rights

Beyond Civil Rights: Reflections on the Prophetic Vision of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.

On January 17, 2005 (that's 17th day of 1st month in plain speech), I was invited to speak at NVCC on the topic of Dr. King to commemorate the holiday. I had a lot of material, but it was difficult to decide what would be most meaningful for the audience. In the end, we settled on a collective listening format in order to reflect as a group on various readings from Dr. King's speeches and letters. There were about twenty-five students and faculty in attendance, and the messages that came out of the silence were quite moving.

Downloads: PDF Guidlines for Collective Listening | PDF MLK Day Readings

Overview: First we went over the concept of collective listening, and then eight participants volunteered to read from the selections. After each portion was read, we settled into meditatiive silence and participants responded from their own experience. One caution with collective listening is that some people get anxious if the silence is extended, especially if they are accustomed to taking charge of discussions and "getting things started." It is wise to address this in the beginning when you go over the guidelines.

Readings:

It is unfortunate that demonstrations are taking place in Birmingham, but it is even more unfortunate that the city's white power structure left the Negro community with no alternative.

In any nonviolent campaign there are four basic steps: collection of the facts to determine whether injustices exist; negotiation; self-purification; and direct action. We have gone through all these steps in Birmingham.

Letter from a Birmingham Jail

Nonviolent resistance does not seek to defeat or humiliate the opponent, but to win his friendship and understanding. The nonviolent resister must often express his protest through noncooperation or boycotts, but he realizes that noncooperation and boycotts are not ends themselves; they are merely means to awaken a sense of moral shame in the opponent. The end is redemption and reconciliation. The aftermath of nonviolence is the creation of the beloved community, while the aftermath of violence is tragic bitterness. [...]

It is evil we are seeking to defeat, not the persons victimized by evil. Those of us who struggle against racial injustice must come to see that the basic tension is not between races. [...]

Nonviolent resistance avoids not only external physical violence but also internal violence of spirit. At the center of nonviolence stands the principle of love. In struggling for human dignity the oppressed people of the world must not allow themselves to become bitter or indulge in hate campaigns. To retaliate with hate and bitterness would do nothing but intensify the hate in the world. Along the way of life, someone must have sense enough and morality enough to cut off the chain of hate. This can be done only by projecting the ethics of love to the center of our lives.

Nonviolent Resitance

Perhaps a new spirit is rising among us. If it is, let us trace its movement, and pray that our own inner being may be sensitive to its guidance. For we are deeply in need of a new way beyond the darkness that seems so close around us. Over the past two years, as I have moved to break the betrayal of my own silences and to speak from the burnings of my own heart, as I have called for radical departures from the destruction of Vietnam, many persons have questioned me about the wisdom of my path. At the heart of their concerns, this query has often loomed large and loud: "Why are you speaking about the war, Dr. King? Why are you joining the voices of dissent?" "Peace and civil rights don't mix," they say. "Aren't you hurting the cause of your people?" they ask. And when I hear them, though I often understand the source of their concern, I am nevertheless greatly saddened, for such questions mean that the inquirers have not really known me, my commitment, or my calling. Indeed, their questions suggest that they do not know the world in which they live. [...]

As if the weight of such a commitment to the life and health of America were not enough, another burden of responsibility was placed upon me in 1954. And I cannot forget that the Nobel Peace Prize was also a commission, a commission to work harder than I had ever worked before for the brotherhood of man. This is a calling that takes me beyond national allegiances.

But even if it were not present, I would yet have to live with the meaning of my commitment to the ministry of Jesus Christ. To me, the relationship of this ministry to the making of peace is so obvious that I sometimes marvel at those who ask me why I am speaking against the war. Could it be that they do not know that the Good News was meant for all men-for communist and capitalist, for their children and ours, for black and for white, for revolutionary and conservative? [...]

Every man of humane convictions must decide on the protest that best suits his convictions, but we must all protest. Now there is something seductively tempting about stopping there and sending us all off on what in some circles has become a popular crusade against the war in Vietnam. I say we must enter that struggle, but I wish to go on now to say something even more disturbing.

The war in Vietnam is but a symptom of a far deeper malady within the American spirit, and if we ignore this sobering reality, we will find ourselves organizing "clergy and laymen concerned" committees for the next generation. They will be concerned about Guatemala and Peru. They will be concerned about Thailand and Cambodia. They will be concerned about Mozambique and South Africa. We will be marching for these and a dozen other names and attending rallies without end unless there is a significant and profound change in American life and policy. So such thoughts take us beyond Vietnam, but not beyond our calling as sons of the living God. [...]

A true revolution of values will lay hand on the world order and say of war, "This way of settling differences is not just." This business of burning human beings with napalm, of filling our nation's homes with orphans and widows, of injecting poisonous drugs of hate into the veins of peoples normally humane, of sending men home from dark and bloody battlefields physically handicapped and psychologically deranged, cannot be reconciled with wisdom, justice, and love. A nation that continues year after year to spend more money on military defense than on programs of social uplift is approaching spiritual death.

Beyond Vietnam: Address at Riverside Church on 4 April 1967

I am in Birmingham because injustice is here. Just as the prophets of the eighth century B.C. left their villages and carried their "thus saith the Lord" far beyond the boundaries of their home towns, and just as the Apostle Paul left his village of Tarsus and carried the gospel of Jesus Christ to the far corners of the Greco-Roman world, so am I compelled to carry the gospel of freedom beyond my own home town. Like Paul, I must constantly respond to the Macedonian call for aid.

Moreover, I am cognizant of the interrelatedness of all communities and states. I cannot sit idly by in Atlanta and not be concerned about what happens in Birmingham. Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere. We are caught in an inescapable network of mutuality, tied in a single garment of destiny. Whatever affects one directly, affects all indirectly. Never again can we afford to live with the narrow, provincial "outside agitator" idea. Anyone who lives inside the United States can never be considered an outsider anywhere within its bounds.

Letter from a Birmingham Jail

I Am Not Moving to Canada

Now Showing: 100 YEAR LAMB'S WAR | Resources

2004•11•04: Happy Hallowe'en! My holiday comic was interrupted by a cantankerous Skeleton - I went over the handlebars of my bike last week & fractured my right scapula (my "shoulder"). The doc said I shouldn't try any acrobatics for four weeks.

I AM NOT MOVING to CANADA.

A lot of people are worked up about the presidential election, huh? I am driven by a much deeper concern; now that the winner has been projected, victory has been conceded & claimed, I propose that we turn off our televisions and take on the revolutionary work before us.

Deep divisions continue to strain the world in which we live. We are deeply in need of a new way beyond the darkness that seems so close around us.

100 YEAR LAMB'S WAR will continue to explore a vision for a century of peacemaking.

Again from Dr. King: Every man of humane convictions must decide on the protest that best suits his convictions, but we must all protest.

Now there is something seductively tempting about stopping there and sending us all off on what in some circles has become a popular crusade against the war in Vietnam. I say we must enter that struggle, but I wish to go on now to say something even more disturbing.

The war in Vietnam is but a symptom of a far deeper malady within the American spirit, and if we ignore this sobering reality, we will find ourselves organizing "clergy and laymen concerned" committees for the next generation. They will be concerned about Guatemala and Peru. They will be concerned about Thailand and Cambodia. They will be concerned about Mozambique and South Africa. We will be marching for these and a dozen other names and attending rallies without end unless there is a significant and profound change in American life and policy. So such thoughts take us beyond Vietnam, but not beyond our calling as sons of the living God.

I hope that it is abundantly clear that this significant and profound change would not be initiated by the White House in any scenario of this election. The work of this revolution must begin in our communities, in every synagogue, church, and mosque, in every prison and school.

Every one of us will be called to commit our time and endowments toward different fields in the century of peacemaking before us, but we must meet the those deluded by the myth of redemptive violence with equal devotion to the sovereignty of Love.

I have posted a new resource page to supplement this comic and provide links to related information around the web. That's all for now; I better get to work. It isn't comfortable to recognise a common interest with UBL, but we need to secure our country through peaceful prevention of deadly conflict.

TAKE ACTION: Sign the I AM NOT MOVING to CANADA pledge, and get involved with peacework in your community.

100 YEAR LAMB'S WAR Intro

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This comic was made in just four hours while preparing for 2004's Small Press Expo based on some ideas set forth in Chuck Fager's A Quaker Declaration of War. This was only a cursory introduction to Chuck's Declaration, and I am hoping to work on a more comprehensive adaptation in the coming weeks and months.

This comic is not an attack. The polarization of our culture along political lines bothers me a lot. One of the main points of 100 YEAR LAMB's WAR is that presidential politics is not the best way to uplift our community – it's not even a good way. Peace work demands that we care for our neighbors regardless of who they voted for.

for the DIDDLUM DAY: Poised to Strike

for the DIDDLUM DAY: Bad Water

for the DIDDLUM DAY: Chiropractice

]]> for the DIDDLUM DAY: 2004.04.20 APPLESEED: It's like they're all in a beatnik trance! GROUNDHOG: Help! GROUNDHOG: Oh fie, Johnny Appleseed! My legs are all asleep! What shall I do? APPLESEED: Appears to be subluxation! APPLESEED: Spinal adjustment! Restores inner harmony! GROUNDHOG: BOOMPA!