Peacemaking

What are Christian responses to Empire in a time of war?

Without repentance, a nation can lose its soul. Lincoln began this idea for the US in his 1863 Proclamation Appointing a National Fast Day, which ends with the famous line: “with malice toward none; with charity for all.” In the National Fast day Proclamation Lincoln asserted the biblical claim that a nation so blessed with liberty and equality “can long endure” only as it continually passes through the crucible of national self-interrogation and repentance, especially when that crucible comes in the shape of war. Lincoln understood this patriotism as obligating both the President and the citizens to “confess their [political] sins and transgressions” as a national practice of truth.[1]

Even-especially!-a presidential declaration of war did not suspend national interrogation and genuine repentance. Regardless of the nature or justification of war, repentance is necessary because accountability to God is paramount.

The Holden community, at the last session of God, War and the Law, brainstormed ideas beyond repentance as responses to war and violence, including:

1. Be faithful in small things, that’s where your strength is. Start with your next-door neighbor.
2. Don’t wait for the leaders!
3. Respectful relationships are the root of love and nonviolence.
4. Good works are links in the chain of love.
5. Peace begins with a smile.
6. Practice patience: seek first to understand before being understood.
7. Set aside your power and ego; begin the day with thanksgiving and be ready to accept forgiveness.
8. Redefine success in non-monetary terms.
9. Be open to true dialogue and changing your self.
10. Look for common ground.
11. Overcome fear, it leads to inhospitality.
12. Quit the myth of “melting pot.”
13. If the message of the church is exclusive, remember that God is love and we are all God’s children.
14. As we die and rise again, the church need do the same.


Peter Thompson



[1] Gary M. Simpson, “’By the dawn’s early light’: The Flag, the Interrogative, and the Whence and Wither of Normative Patriotism,” in Word & World, Vol. 23, no. 3 (St. Paul: Luther Seminary, Summer 2003)