A Just Peacemaking Ethic

S E P T E M B E R / O C T O B E R 2 0 0 7 W W W. T I K K U N . O R G T I K K U N 21 FLICKR CC/DIGITAL GRACE A Just Peacemaking Ethic by Glen Stassen W hen I teach or preach on peacemaking in churches, I’m often asked, “But what about the ‘Old Testament?’” The questioner is still stuck in the pro–war, anti–war debate. He (it’s usually a he) fears that my talk about how to make peace threatenshiscommitmenttomakewarnowandthen.Soheturns the Hebrew Bible into his defense for making war. So I ask him, “Who brought us ‘nation shall not lift up sword against nation’ and ‘beat their spears into ploughshares’?” Answer: My favorite prophet (and Jesus’ favorite prophet), Isaiah. In the Hebrew Bible. In American culture many quickly revert to war as the one way to do something active about a wrong; not making war feels to them like not doing anything. These people lack imagination about the practices that work to correct injustices without thedevastationofwar.Ifwarisnottheanswer,thenwhatistheanswer?Withnonviolentdirectaction , millions of people toppled the violent dictator Eric Honecker and The Wall in East Germany. In that revolution, not one person died. By practicing cooperative conflict resolution and independent initiatives, Menachem Begin and AnwarSadat(withalittlehelpfromJimmyCarter)achievedenoughpeacethatIsrael has not fought with Egypt or Jordan since. So did Northern Ireland, by practicing conflictresolution,withalittlehelpfromSenatorGeorgeMitchell.BypracticingeconomicjusticeandhumanrightsforKurds ,andthusseparatingthepeoplefromtheterrorists , Turkey ended the PKK (Partiya Karkerên Kurdistan) movement that had killed 30,000 people. The resultant peace lasted until recently the Iraq War has stirred up some rebellion again. In other examples, just peacemaking practices have brought significant correction to injustice and healing where there was war, or the near likelihood of war: GandhiinIndia,MartinLutherKing,Jr.intheUnitedStates,thepeoples’movementinthe Philippines, the grassroots human rights and democracy movement throughout Latin America. Nonviolent direct action, cooperative conflict resolution, economic justice, human rights, transition to democracy from below—these are all practices of the new ethic of just peacemaking. They are bringing healing where there was injustice and dictatorship— without making war. In order for members of our Abrahamic faiths to rally support for specific practices of peacemaking that workandare scripturallysupported, we needa widely known ethicthat identifies those practices. It needs to be a publicly known ethic with a specific list of practices.TheTenCommandmentsisnotjustavagueessaywithscatteredsuggestions.We need something like The Ten Practices of Just Peacemaking. 5.Religion:Politics rev. 8/7/07 10:16 AM Page 21 22 T I K K U N W W W. T I K K U N . O R G S E P T E M B E R / O C T O B E R 2 0 0 7 When the question that people are asking is whether it is sometimes OK to make war, many evangelical Christians (mis)use the Hebrew Bible to defend waging war. Guided by thatdebate,whattheyseeintheHebrewScripturesiswars.Theyaresofocusedonwarthat theylackimaginationaboutwhatpracticesprovidealternativestowarandfailtoseethose practices in the Scriptures. Now a new ethic is emerging: just peacemaking theory. It’s not about debating whether war is ever acceptable. It’s about focusing on the practices thatworkrealisticallytopreventwar.MyfathervolunteeredtofightinWorld War II. Surely he believed in the right to fight some wars. But he came back saying, “Glen, war is so horrible we have to do all we can to prevent World War III and nuclear war. ” He loved my focus on the ethics of practices that preventwars.Manyveteransknowbetterthantherestofushowdevastating war is. Whenpeople’sguidingquestioniswhethertosupportpracticesthatmake peace,theScripturescomealiveinrefreshingways.Wenoticethepeacemaking practices of prayer and independent initiatives carried out by a fearful Jacob on his way to seeing Esau after fourteen years of exile. We see Judah asking Joseph, “Can we talk?” after years of tense separation. We notice how CainshouldhavemadepeacewithAbelbypracticingconflictresolution.We seetheprophetscallingforjusticeandfaithfulnesstoGodinordertoprevent the judgment of war’s destruction. We notice Isaiah, Hosea, Jeremiah, Micah, Jonah and their practices of peacemaking. Recently, twenty–four top scholars, including myself, from the Muslim, Jewish, and Christian faiths (eight from each faith) met at Stony Point, New York for a working conference on practices that offer alternatives to war. We metbecausewehavelongbeenfrustratedwithdebatesinourtraditionsonly aboutwhethertosupportvariouswars.Wewanttoturntodebatingwhether tosupportparticularpeacemakingpractices.AstheNSPputsit,“Theanti-warmovement has not yet become a peace movement.” We want to move the discussion in our own traditions from debating whether...