Sometimes the Christian faith is obscured by wider events, opinions and quarrels and the maelstrom of the secular media. So it is with war and militarism. We are in the middle of two intense wars in which both sides are right, but really wrong, causing devastation and untold deaths. Worse, there are other trillions of weapons, wars, 120m war refugees, half the world’s population under military dictators, perhaps 1bn with trauma, big military budgets, 28m armed troops and war and militarism spews massive CO2. The way we are going is broad and leads to destruction and we all need to stop, think again and turn to another road.
We have long had a range of Christian truths and principles shaping the different way. We have allowed them to be sidelined, but surely now we reaffirm them as the way the world should go, and seek to have them acknowledged by everyone. Here, roughly, are the key ones.
ALL HUMAN LIFE IS SACRED. It is God’s command that nobody should be killed and all lives require equal respect. Jesus says we should not even set out on the journey to killing with anger, quarrelling and enemies.
ARMING TO KILL IS WRONG AND EVIL. Arms aim to kill and destroy however they are dressed up. They are not neutral “defence”. Jesus says that if we go for arms against others, they will kill us too.
IN HUMAN AFFAIRS MIGHT IS A FALSE GOD. Might, in the form of the Superpowers, dominates much of the planet, but it is a false way. God will bring down the mighty from their thrones and the Lamb will govern our affairs.
WE CAN LIVE WITHOUT ENEMIES. We can love enemies and renounce the view that drives towards fear, threats, hatred and harm.
WAR IS JUDGEMENT AND PEACE IS BLESSING. Sometimes states go for war, but it finishes judging and destroying them. All lose in war. Living in peace is the way to go for the whole world.
THERE CAN BE JUSTICE AMONG NATIONS. As opposed to nationalistic self-righteousness, each claiming the other is wrong, there can be justice among nations, fair solutions without war. It requires acknowledgement of sins, facing injustice, restitution, fairness and becoming friends.
WE HAVE TO MAKE PEACE. Peace does not just happen. As Jesus taught, we have to make peace. We spread it round the world as good news. Peacemaking costs nothing and blesses us.
THE ROUTE IS SWORDS INTO PLOUGHSHARES. Mass arming has been the wrong direction. Disarmament makes us good neighbours without war. World-wide, arms are a big problem and need a big solution – Full World Disarmament. Anything less would be silly. It is practical, do-able and safe. As we are mainly disarmed within states and have few wars, so we disarm and police between states. The process is laid out below.
FAITH CAN MOVE MOUNTAINS. Christians act by faith and faith can move mountains. The Church can move mountains. A fraction of 2bn Christians could see this adopted at the UN if we acted together and affirmed these principles as the way to go. We move from passivity to living our faith.
JESUS LIFE and TEACHING GUIDES US. Jesus gave us this way of peace through to the Roman cross and the resurrection. It has local and world-wide consequences as we recognise the way of the Lamb on the throne and the blessings of peace on earth and the healing of the nations.
We each and all need to stand for and share this peace with those we know around the world until the way of peace opens up, as it nearly did in 1932. Signing and sharing this petition is a good way of building the momentum. We need to be practical, contacting others to get them to sign up, spend some time and work convincing others, organising churches and making it clear that we all will win world disarmed peace this decade.