Saturday, January 8, 2011

"Following a nonviolent Jesus while living in a warmaking state" by Susan Crane

"Following a nonviolent Jesus while living in a warmaking state" by Susan Crane -- posted on the Disarm Now Plowshares Blog, January 4, 2011

http://disarmnowplowshares.wordpress.com/2011/01/04/crane-3/

 

During the trial of the  Disarm Now Plowshares, Arlen Storm, the US

attorney, said something to the effect that all of us in this

courtroom want a world without nuclear weapons.  There is general

agreement on that, and the question is, “How do we get there?” The US

attorney was objecting to our tactics. And he’s not the only one

objecting. Stephen Kent (Catholic News Services) wrote: “Granted, the

tactics of the Disarm Now Plowshares were wrong, but not so the

philosophy and theology at the root of their action.”

 

What is the value of a philosophy or theology, if it isn’t practiced?

Or, what does it mean to follow a nonviolent Jesus while living in a

warmaking state?

 

From the Gospels we read that Jesus was a teacher of nonviolence and

often broke the laws in order to obey God. This tradition of embracing

God’s will can be found throughout the Hebrew Scriptures.

 

At the beginning of Exodus, we read that Shiphrah and Puah, the Hebrew

midwifes, were ordered by the Pharaoh to kill the boys that were born

to the Hebrew women. In between the lines, we can imagine that the

midwives prayed, talked with each other and with their families, and

made a decision based on their faith. The decided to disobey the

Pharaoh, and not kill the boys. This is perhaps the first story in the

scriptures where people deliberately, in a knowing and careful way,

make a decision to obey God instead of Empire (the king or human

laws). (Exodus 1:8-17)

 

Throughout the Old Testament, there are similar stories. Balaam, who

doesn’t obey King Moab and instead listens to an angel (the felt

presence of God) and blesses the Israelites rather than cursing them.

(Numbers 22)  David’s wife, Michal, who helps David escape instead of

handing him over to the King, her father. (1 Samuel  19:11-17) Ester,

who goes into the King’s presence, uninvited, to beg for the lives of

her kinspeople.  Rizpah, who sat in sackcloth and ashes, until her

sons could be buried, (2 Samuel 21: 10-14) and the story of  Eleazar,

who refused to eat pork as commanded by  the King. Eleazar is a

reminder that we ought to have the “courage to reject the food which

it is unlawful to taste even for love of life.” (2 Maccabees 6)

 

So what is more important: obeying the laws of the country I live in,

or obeying the laws of God?

 

And then we get to the Gospels where right at the beginning, the wise

men don’t obey Herod.  Herod wants the wise men to come and report to

him where the baby Jesus is. No, the wise men obey an angel who comes

in a dream, and they take another route home. This is civil

resistance.  And then we see Jesus who cures on the Sabbath and

doesn’t follow the purity laws, who eats with all sorts and classes of

people. We see Jesus gather the people the Empire doesn’t want

gathered, we see him curing the people the Empire doesn’t want cured,

and we see him feeding the people the Empire doesn’t want fed.  There

are many examples of his trouble-making law-breaking actions, where

compassion and love come before religious and imperial laws.

 

So there here we are today, living in a country that is spending more

than half of every federal tax dollar on warmaking. We are living in a

country that keeps waging wars that are illegal, and seem to have

little meaning except to keep the war industry employed and keep US

control of resources intact.

 

What should I do when I live in such a country?  I think about what I

wish I might have done if I had lived in WW II Germany. Would I have

helped people escape who needed shelter? Would I have written leaflets

and handed them out? Would I have gone to the concentration camp on

the outside of the city where I lived, and cut the lines carrying the

zyklon B gas? I don’t know, or course, what I would have done.  But I

hope I would have done something.

 

And today? The rest of the world is very concerned about nuclear

weapons. We in the US claim we are disarming, while spending more

money on refurbishment of warheads, building more nuclear weapon

plants, and now building a new fleet of nuclear armed submarines. The

Ohio Class subs, we are told, need to replaced at a cost of 70 billion

dollars.

 

I think about the story at the beginning of Mark 3, the story of a man

with the withered hand. Jesus is in the temple on the Sabbath, and

calls the man up in front of everyone, and says, “Is it right to do

good on the Sabbath, or to do evil? To save life, or destroy life?”

The crowd around him is silent. Jesus looks around, and is angered and

grieved at their silence and hardness of heart.  In my prayer, in my

life, I do not want to cause anger and grief to Jesus. I do not want

to be silent.

 

Walking onto the Naval base and cutting some fence is minor in

comparison to the destructive power of a nuclear weapon. And, it was a

legal action that was our responsibility and obligation.

 

If people really believed there was a crime scene at the base, that

there were weapons that threaten all life on earth, no one would think

twice about cutting the fence to get to disarm the weapons. That’s why

we tried to use the necessity defense in court, a defense that is

similar to someone seeing a burning building, with a child in the

window upstairs, screaming. The person of course would break the door

down, and run upstairs to rescue the child. These actions that would

normally be considered criminal, would be justified during a fire to

save a life.

 

Further, there is a body of humanitarian law that is codified in US

treaties, in the US criminal code, and in military manuals that

prohibits the preparation, threat or use of weapons which

indiscriminately kill civilians, and which can’t be controlled in time

or space.  What is happening on the Naval Base Kitsap-Bangor is not

just immoral, but it is illegal. It is a war crime.

 

But basic to everything, is our faith and prayer.  How do we practice

the teachings of Jesus? How can we love our enemies? What does it mean

to follow a nonviolent Jesus while living in a warmaking state?

---------------

 

The Disarm Now Plowshares 5 are scheduled to be sentenced in U.S.

District Court, Tacom, Washington on March 28, 2001 for their November

2, 2009 Plowshares action at the Trident nuclear submarine base at

Bangor, Washington.  More information and updates at

http://disarmnowplowshares.wordpress.com/.

 

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