A fellow advocate of peace thinks it’s time to walk the walk. Be the peace you hope to inspire in others. “There’s been enough talk about peace, now walk the walk.” I find this a less than refreshing contortion of the catch-phrase. It’s one thing to speak peaceably, quite another to speak up in support of peace. Policemen are not going to disturb your being peaceful. Keeping peace with yourself does not disrupt their bosses’ war mongering and profiteering. But speak up for peace, and the war industry has a problem with you.
Am I advocating rubbing policemen the wrong way? Not for its own sake. But are you trying challenge authority and stop a war?
I’m all for people walking the walk, paying more than lip-service, or putting their money where their mouth is. But don’t pervert that to mean a peacemaker’s mouth should be kept assiduously quiet. The effort to end war and injustice means speaking up for those who cannot. If I insist it means fighting for what you believe, I do not mean fighting in an other than non-violent sense, I mean putting forth effort. If you are not talking, you’re just walking.
I am in complete agreement with you here. Advocacy naturally involves conflict. Peace, to me, means living successfully in community with one another. At least striving to do so. Showing respect for others simply because they are human beings, no better, no worse than I am. Not relying on power to subdue another.
In my house peace is the highest goal. We do not have to agree. But we must respect. The sanctity of the individual is paramount. I will advocate vociferously my ideologies. But I will not play my trump card. As a mother, as a nation, we have the ace up our sleeve. Jesus could’ve SPOKEN his persecutors into hell, but he chose the path of peace. He didn’t play his hand. He advocated his position. He made no power play. That’s the definition of a peacemaker.
Strolling along the war path with a calm countenance is not peace.
I seem to remember of Jesus entering The Temple…