Seeking peace in a world of war
07/10/24 02:22
Like most other people whose formal education began in US elementary and secondary schools, my history education consisted mostly of reading and classroom activities teaching about a series of wars: The American Revolution, The War of 1812, The Civil War, World War I, World War II, The Korean War, The Vietnam War. Our history books rarely mentioned the acts of war against Native Americans that were part of the settlement of the continent by Europeans. And most years our US history class didn’t make it to the Vietnam War. It was not mentioned in all of the history books we had even though the US was involved in the war for all of my school years. Unlike some previous conflicts, although the US was involved in the war and the war produced casualties of US combatants, the war was officially between North Vietnam and South Vietnam. It was, in many ways, however, a proxy war between the Soviet Union and the United States.
The Vietnam War had an impact on me personally because the United States had a draft. The draft applied to men only and I registered as required by law. By the time I was old enough to register the war was quite unpopular in the United States. Huge protests were being held in American Cities. Members of congress were expressing opposition to the war. The draft was officially ended with my age cohort. No one in my birth year was drafted, though we registered and received our lottery numbers. My lottery number was 11. Had I been born one year earlier I would have been drafted.
Even though the War in Vietnam carried on for a long time with nearly 20 years of US involvement, it did have an end date. On April 30, 1975 Saigon fell. Residual conflicts in Laos and Cambodia continued after that date, but historians can post a date for the end of the war at least when it comes to US involvement.
Of course for many who were directly involved the cost of war never ended. In round numbers, 58,000 US soldiers died. Grief over the loss of a loved one never ends. By the 1990s, another 58,000 veterans of the war were living with homelessness, another lasting legacy of their involvement in the war.
For those who experience combat war never ends.
Unlike the War in Vietnam, those who fought in the Korean conflict can’t put an end date on US involvement in that war. Technically that war has been ongoing for nearly 80 years since August of 1945.
It would also be accurate to say that the Arab-Israeli conflict has been ongoing for all of my life. There are sub-wars within the conflict that have start and stop dates, but there has been ongoing conflict in the region since May of 1948.
And those wars are short compared to some wars in history. In European history we studied the Hundred Years’ War which really lasted for 116 years. And there was a Second Hundred Years’ War that lasted 126 years. The Ottoman-Hungarian wars lasted for 160 years and the Russian conquest of Siberia lasted nearly 200. The Crusades are officially dated at just under 195 years. According to Wikipedia, the Muslim invasion of India tops the list of the longest wars in history at 1213 years from 644 to 1857.
One way to characterize human history is to report it as a story of unending war. The wars overlap. There are countries who have had perpetual war for all of their history. Today marks the first anniversary of the October 7 attacks that were the deadliest day in Israel’s history. 1,189 people, including 815 civilians were killed. 7,500 were wounded and 251 were taken hostage. The response to those attacks has continued to expand over the year since. The air and ground campaign in Gaza has killed more than 41,500. And one year in the conflict has spread from Gaza to become a regional war with Lebanon reeling from deadly air strikes claiming victims in Beirut every night. Terror attacks against Israel continue. Just today a gunman was shot dead after a policewoman was killed and ten others injured in an attack in Beersheba. And the world response to the conflict has increased antisemitic incidents worldwide. The Anti-Defamation League has identified 10,000 incidents in the US in the past year.
We know how to start wars, but we don’t know how to end them. Even when we can put an official date to the end of a conflict, the effects of that conflict continue. US combatants have officially withdrawn from Afghanistan, but the people who live in Afghanistan haven’t experienced peace for more than 46 years.
And in this world of perpetual war there are always innocent victims. It isn’t just soldiers who die in wars. It is impossible to count the casualties of the Somali Civil War or the Lord’s Resistance Army Insurgency, or the drug wars in Columbia or a hundred other ongoing conflicts that are not mentioned in this journal entry. The history of humanity continues to be shaped by conflict and the unjust deaths of innocent civilians.
In the context of all of these wars, the ritual of passing peace in worship is much more than a symbolic gesture. It is the practicing of a critical skill. When we turn to those who are in the same room as us and wish them the peace of Christ we are acknowledging that peace comes from beyond us and is beyond our capacity to understand. And yet we have been empowered to offer that peace to one another. I am well aware that passing the peace around a room of people who are similar to us and who worship with us is not extending peace to the places in the world enmeshed in active combat. But for me it serves as a reminder that war is not inevitable. Peace is possible. Prayers for peace are not in vain.
May the Peace of Christ be with you.
The Vietnam War had an impact on me personally because the United States had a draft. The draft applied to men only and I registered as required by law. By the time I was old enough to register the war was quite unpopular in the United States. Huge protests were being held in American Cities. Members of congress were expressing opposition to the war. The draft was officially ended with my age cohort. No one in my birth year was drafted, though we registered and received our lottery numbers. My lottery number was 11. Had I been born one year earlier I would have been drafted.
Even though the War in Vietnam carried on for a long time with nearly 20 years of US involvement, it did have an end date. On April 30, 1975 Saigon fell. Residual conflicts in Laos and Cambodia continued after that date, but historians can post a date for the end of the war at least when it comes to US involvement.
Of course for many who were directly involved the cost of war never ended. In round numbers, 58,000 US soldiers died. Grief over the loss of a loved one never ends. By the 1990s, another 58,000 veterans of the war were living with homelessness, another lasting legacy of their involvement in the war.
For those who experience combat war never ends.
Unlike the War in Vietnam, those who fought in the Korean conflict can’t put an end date on US involvement in that war. Technically that war has been ongoing for nearly 80 years since August of 1945.
It would also be accurate to say that the Arab-Israeli conflict has been ongoing for all of my life. There are sub-wars within the conflict that have start and stop dates, but there has been ongoing conflict in the region since May of 1948.
And those wars are short compared to some wars in history. In European history we studied the Hundred Years’ War which really lasted for 116 years. And there was a Second Hundred Years’ War that lasted 126 years. The Ottoman-Hungarian wars lasted for 160 years and the Russian conquest of Siberia lasted nearly 200. The Crusades are officially dated at just under 195 years. According to Wikipedia, the Muslim invasion of India tops the list of the longest wars in history at 1213 years from 644 to 1857.
One way to characterize human history is to report it as a story of unending war. The wars overlap. There are countries who have had perpetual war for all of their history. Today marks the first anniversary of the October 7 attacks that were the deadliest day in Israel’s history. 1,189 people, including 815 civilians were killed. 7,500 were wounded and 251 were taken hostage. The response to those attacks has continued to expand over the year since. The air and ground campaign in Gaza has killed more than 41,500. And one year in the conflict has spread from Gaza to become a regional war with Lebanon reeling from deadly air strikes claiming victims in Beirut every night. Terror attacks against Israel continue. Just today a gunman was shot dead after a policewoman was killed and ten others injured in an attack in Beersheba. And the world response to the conflict has increased antisemitic incidents worldwide. The Anti-Defamation League has identified 10,000 incidents in the US in the past year.
We know how to start wars, but we don’t know how to end them. Even when we can put an official date to the end of a conflict, the effects of that conflict continue. US combatants have officially withdrawn from Afghanistan, but the people who live in Afghanistan haven’t experienced peace for more than 46 years.
And in this world of perpetual war there are always innocent victims. It isn’t just soldiers who die in wars. It is impossible to count the casualties of the Somali Civil War or the Lord’s Resistance Army Insurgency, or the drug wars in Columbia or a hundred other ongoing conflicts that are not mentioned in this journal entry. The history of humanity continues to be shaped by conflict and the unjust deaths of innocent civilians.
In the context of all of these wars, the ritual of passing peace in worship is much more than a symbolic gesture. It is the practicing of a critical skill. When we turn to those who are in the same room as us and wish them the peace of Christ we are acknowledging that peace comes from beyond us and is beyond our capacity to understand. And yet we have been empowered to offer that peace to one another. I am well aware that passing the peace around a room of people who are similar to us and who worship with us is not extending peace to the places in the world enmeshed in active combat. But for me it serves as a reminder that war is not inevitable. Peace is possible. Prayers for peace are not in vain.
May the Peace of Christ be with you.
