On International Day of Peace September 21, 2009 I joined with others across the world in my deep desire for a global culture of peace. This year, the United Nations issued a call for nations to disarm, under the focus we must disarm or wmd. It is believed that to disarm will be a significant gesture in creating the desired culture of peace is the leadership of world leaders.
As a servant of hope who inspires faith is some to believe that all things are possible when we trust God, it might seem contradictory to some to hear me say peace the way we perceive it will not come anytime soon. And I’m not being original in those sentiments either. Jesus never offered his disciples any such consolation of ‘world peace’ the way they anticipated it. Yet, the way he taught them how we should live with our neighbours would bring about precisely that peace we yearn after.
The present culture of war and violence that characterizes life as we know it has been centuries in the making. None of us alive know any other world, and a world of peace we can only imagine. We can speak of relatively safe and less violent times when we were children. Today’s youth and children have no such memories of ‘good old days’.
There is no shred of evidence to support exactly what a world at peace might look like, except what we hear about and believe to be possible. The wisdom of Prophets, Sages and Religious Leaders who receive(d) glimpses into Divine mystery, teach us that the present path of war and violence, hatred and hostility is a fool’s path. It’s present and its future breeds nothing but destruction.
[Photo courtesy of UN Photo/Jorge Aramburu - UN peacekeeper patrols Lebanon border]
Many peace initiatives have already been tried and proven. Some have failed, some are still being flogged, and we are thankful for every ounce of success. The call to disarm must go out to nations as well as individuals with high powered sophisticated nuclear weaponry for national defense, and small personal arms for protection.
The call to for disarmament is not gaining sufficient ground among the powerful world leaders. I believe it is because it is not a profitable option, and thus cannot gain sufficient popularity from those who now profit greatly from war and violence. I am no geo-political pundit but as I see it, religion, distrust and money are the three main reasons why nations will not disarm anytime soon.
Religion, Violence & War
Judaism, Christianity, and Islam, the three Abrahamic faiths share a history of war, violence and conquest interpreted as sanctioned by God oftentimes depicted as the most cruel warlord. Historic religious conflicts are kept alive in religious memories, rituals and traditions of synagogue, mosque, temple and church.
Religion seems to be more a matter of death, not life as seen in the violent clashes around the world. There is conflict within each religion, and there is conflict among communities of adherents of these religions. The race for arms to defend territories, and current wars being waged have strong religious links that seem only to be getting stronger.
Distrust From Historical Hurts
Our ancestors taught us not to trust each other, and with some good reasons too; and with some bad ones we can’t overcome. There is a reason why we are told not to trust strangers. They first came walking, riding horses or in ships and pretended to be friends from far away lands. Or they come pretending to trade with the locals, and end up stealing precious resources, kidnapping and or killing women and children.
Every single nation has a primal story that goes something like that. Soon we learn that the foreigner is the enemy. Generation after generation hate each other. The foreigner want what we have; and the foreigner always believes you are coming to take it back. We bear arms to protect ourselves and those we love. Where there is no trust, no one will disarm.
Disarming, throwing down arms/weapons allows us to throw open our arms to embrace each other as sisters and brothers where we once considered the other our enemy. But this disarmament thing is a costly exercise.
Money And Profits We Stand To Lose
The billions of dollars spent on nuclear and other sophisticated weapons only promises psychological delusions of national security. Who cares about the loss of lives, when we believe that fighting wars is the way to protect lives? Who cares about the current threat to lives from the disposal of radio active wastes? Who cares about nations living under the threat of those weapons detonating by accident?
Nuclear weaponry rakes in mega-profits for a few powerful people. Many related industries benefit from the ‘trickle down’. To disarm will disrupt the world’s economies that have for centuries been built on war, violence, conquest and exploitation and the mentality of the survival of the fittest (fittest = ones with bigger guns/smarter war lords are the fittest to lead). Backed by religion, devoid of trust who is willing to lose profits and weapons?
Evil spares no resources to increase its power while peace earns no profit.
Listen to Michael Jackson’s cry in the Earth Song as it echoes the pain and anguish of the land and the world’s most disenfranchised by war and violence:
May Justice roll down like waters (Amos 5:24a)…and therein we’ll find peace,
Marvia
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