Our Crooked View of History

Nonviolent general strikes have overthrown at least seven Latin American
dictators: Carlos Ibanez del Campo of Chile (1931), Gerardo Machado y
Morales of Cuba (1933), Jorge Ubico of Guatemala (1944), Elie Lescot of
Haiti (1946), Arnulfo Arias of Panama (1951), Paul Magliore of Haiti
(1956), and Gustavo Rojas Pinilla of Columbia (1957).

In 1989-1990 alone, fourteen nations underwent nonviolent revolutions,
all of them successful except for China, and all of them nonviolent
except for Romania. These revolutions involved 1.7 billion people. If we
total all the nonviolent movements of the twentieth century, the figure
comes to 3.4 billion people, and again, most were successful.

And yet there are people who still insist that nonviolence doesn’t work.
Gene Sharp has itemized 198 different types of nonviolent actions that
are part of the historical record, yet out history books seldom mention
any of them, so preoccupied are they with the power politics and wars.

--Walter Wink, /Jesus and Nonviolence: //A Third Way/ Minneapolis:
Fortress Press, 2003.

Prayer for Red Lake

Our Lord and our God,
You created us...but not for this.
Though Red Lake walks in the shadow of death, may they know your presence and may they draw close to the Comforter so you too may draw close to them.

Though we as a nation walk with them in the shadow of death, teach us to be present with them in their suffering. Forgive us for trying to give trite and inconsiderate answers for the questions that these tragedies invoke. We are a people who too often live in fear of the questions that cannot be answered, teach us to better live under your sovereignty and not our own.

Though it is presently to near, as our grief wanes, give us this courage: that we will choose to look this evil in the eye, that we will choose to accept its admonishment, and that we choose to change our lives for your glory and the redemption of your people.

Be with the families who lost loved ones to this senseless violence. You are the only God who knows the cross intimately and so the only God who can comfort those who bear their own crosses today. May they know you are there.

Be with Jeff Weise and his family. We are angry with what he has done. But in our anger, Father God, keep us from sin. Keep us from finding scapegoats for our judgments, anger, and bitterness and may they not overcome us with rage. You are the only righteous judge, so teach us to leave the judgment to you alone.

Father...Jesus...Spirit
You have created us...but not for this.

For the Lord will not reject forever.
Although he causes grief, he will have compassion
according to the abundance of his steadfast love;
for he does not willingly afflict or grieve anyone.
--Lamentations 3:31-33

Nelson Mandela: Against the System

I was asked as well about my fears of whites. I knew that people expected me to harbor anger towards whites [for 27 years of imprisonment]. But I had none. In prison, my anger toward whites decreased, but my hatred for the system grew. I wanted South Africa to see that I loved even my enemies while I hated the system that turned us against one another.

-Nelson Mandela in Long Walk to Freedom

But I tell you who hear me: Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you, pray for those who mistreat you.

-Luke 6:27-28

Nonviolence in Post 9-11 America

Originally this blog was for a personal diary of sorts. However, because I have decided to make a word play out of the title At Arms Length, I hope to be discussing issues of violence like the military, weapons, America, freedom, and all the other issues that surround America's thirst for violence.

This, however, is not necessarily to criticize America. That you can find on my other blog, Green Summer Lawn. This is more my trying to process through why my belief in non-violent social action has strengthened the last few years, how far I am willing to take it, and if it really is a viable option in a post 9/11 America under constant threat of nuclear warfare.

I have often heard nuclear weapons called weapons of mass suicide. I have to agree. Denzel Washington in the movie Crimson Tide was right when he said the real enemy in a nuclear war is the war itself. But it is not the nuclear aspect that makes these statements true. Any type of war, whether it is between countries or between families, or between individuals, any action of war is the real enemy.

War is dehumanizing. Not just because of the violence but because the systems that led to the state of war are often dehumanizing to begin with. When Nelson Mandela was released from prison after being incarcerated for 25 years for doing what was right he forgave the ones who held him captive and then pointed out his anger for the system that taught people to hate. I'm sure I will returning to Mandela on a number of these ponderings.

I pray this exercise is fruitful.