A Conversation
on
PEACE

Our Christian Beliefs in Response to Terrorism
Monday, September 24th, 2001

The events of the past couple weeks have stirred up limitless emotions in all of us. Many people have been confused and anxious about what to do next. From what I hear, there are probably very few who feel that nothing should be done in response to the terrorist attacks. However, there are also a great number of people who feel expressing our military might is not the appropriate response. So, what response should we have? That is the question that a group of 54 people discussed at Monday night’s meeting, “A Conversation on Peace.”

Peter Eichten Polly Mann
Peter Eichten opened the evening with a prayer and shared some of his thoughts. Having lived in the Middle East for 2 years with his wife, Peter gave an insightful history of Afghanistan as well as Osama Bin Laden. Peter then introduced Polly Mann (parishioner and founding member of SJA WAMM/Peacemakers). Polly brought up interesting issues, such as the Sermon on the Mount from the Gospel of Matthew, chapter 5. This passage teaches us not to follow the saying of “an eye for an eye". We are told to “love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you."

Jim Farrell
The third person to address the group was Jim Farrell (parishioner and professor of American Studies at the College of St. Olaf). I was very interested in the statement he made about the United States traditionally provoking attack and then looking innocent. This is precisely what our president seems to be doing when stating that we are the “good guys” and we need to defeat the “enemy".

After listening to the three presenters we broke into three smaller groups for discussion, then came back together as a large group. We came to a consensus that the group would like to meet again next Monday, October 1st at 7 P.M. Everyone is encouraged to come to the meeting. The objective of the session will be to come up with ways that we can realistically take action both as a nation and as individuals. If our country’s leaders want to use violence to try to stop violence, then we need to come up with another solution and it will take the collective ideas of us all.

On our way home from the meeting, my wife said to me that, as a nonviolent/peace supporter, she feels very outnumbered. I share in that feeling, but also believe that we are not outnumbered, but out-voiced. It is my hope that we all go out and learn as much as we can to come prepared for Monday’s peace meeting. Then we can share with those around us our feelings and ideas about a peaceful response to terrorism. We need to teach and demonstrate to our children about nonviolence, peace and love, for to love is our greatest commandment from God (I Corinthians, 13). But we can’t stop there; we need to voice those same virtues to our friends, coworkers, relatives, teammates, strangers and even our enemies. It has been said by our media that nobody deserves the death and destruction that happened on September 11 - I couldn’t agree more. However, we must remember that when we say nobody deserves that kind of cruelty, we are also speaking on behalf of our so-called enemies.

In the past there has always been a strong leader to emerge and lead people in peaceful movements. I think back to the three people that Peter mentioned in his closing remarks the other night: Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., Gandhi, and Jesus Christ. If there is any doubt in your mind about what road the U.S. should follow in the future, just think of those three people. It has been said many times that we cannot fight hate with hate, nor can we fight violence with violence.

For future information we came up with the following resources:

Along with these resources we, as Christians, can also learn a lot from the book most of us have at home, the Bible.

May I be filled with loving kindness.
May I be well.
May I be peaceful and at ease.
May I be happy.

May our world be filled with loving kindness.
May our world be well.
May our world be peaceful and at ease.
May our world be happy.

We invite you to an opportunity for new thoughts on Monday Oct.1 from 7-9 PM. Join us in a discussion around bringing our wisdom and creativity into the present events and exploring new thinking. It's one thing to say we don't want something, its another thing to say what we would do instead. We'll meet at St. Joan of Arc 4537 3rd Ave. S.(two blocks from 46th & 35W) in Hospitality Hall, Door #1. Free. Just show up.
Tyson Burke and his wife, Darcy, live in the SE corner of Minneapolis and have been attending St. Joan's for the past year. He enjoys playing soccer, running, music, and working on house improvement projects. In the "working world", Tyson assists Hamm Memorial Psychiatric Clinic (Downtown St. Paul) with computer and business systems.

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Our 8th Conversation on Peace

SJA Reacts to Terrorism

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