The Center of the World

By Brian J. Grieves

The war in Iraq is a blight on the nonviolent vocation which many in the Christian community embrace.

We live in such a violent, broken and divided world. Our political leaders are usurping our faith in support of violent behavior. Recently, President Bush and Senator John McCain appeared together to defend the Iraq war as a conflict between good and evil. McCain said the war is a fight “between a just regard for human dignity and a malevolent force that defiles an honorable religion by disputing God's love for each soul on Earth. It's a fight between right and wrong, good and evil. It's no more ambiguous than that.”

While McCain is right that Islam – the presumed religion to which he refers – is being misused, he fails to acknowledge that Christianity is also abused to condone violence. God's name is being invoked by some Muslims to condone a holy war, by some Jews to condone a brutal occupation of the Palestinian people, and by some Christians to condone a military adventure in Iraq. Extremists in all three religions are justifying violence in the name of religion, which sets up a contradiction from the outset. The Episcopal Church has long been on record as saying in the words of the Lambeth Conference that “war, as a means of settling international disputes, is incompatible with the Gospel of Jesus Christ.” War, from the perspective of any of the three Abrahamic faith groups, represents a failure of the human spirit.

I spent ten days recently in Jerusalem and surrounding areas. Being in Jerusalem is like being in the center of the world. It bridges the centuries with its ancient sites, where the three Abrahamic faiths – Judaism, Christianity and Islam – converge in a tiny area, and time seems to stand still.

Here are these three Abrahamic faiths being the source of the problems we face as a global community today rather than being the solution. Somehow we have to find the way to be the solution. The war in Iraq is as much a failure of these three great religions as it is a failure of our political leaders.

No part of the earth is more divided, more violent, more conflicted, than this holy city, called the city of peace. Here are these three Abrahamic faiths being the source of the problems we face as a global community today rather than being the solution. Somehow we have to find the way to be the solution. The war in Iraq is as much a failure of these three great religions as it is a failure of our political leaders. And we need to own that and reclaim our faiths from the extremists who have taken the path of violence.

Sadly, it seems the whole human family has turned in on itself in a reckless age of violence, hatred, rage, arrogance and self-righteousness. And none of the three religions is without blame. We must stand up together, Jew, Christian and Muslim, and say no to violence, not in our name, and not in the name of God.

For Christians, we know that Jesus rejected violence when he submitted himself to the Roman guards in Gethsemane, rebuking Peter for wielding his sword. The mission is to beat swords into plowshares, to usher in God's reign in these days so that justice may flourish and God's transforming love be lived in every heart, with all violence vanquished. Anything short of that by Muslim, Jew or Christian is a failure of our common mission to reconcile all things to God.

The Rev. Canon Brian J. Grieves is director of Peace and Justice Ministries for the Episcopal Church, USA, and the convener of the international Anglican Peace & Justice Network. He may be reached by email at bgrieves@episcopalchurch.org .