W.J. Astore
I’m still waiting for the blockbuster Hollywood production that celebrates peace
Last year, “Top Gun: Maverick” was all the rage. It was a silly war flick with a plot ripped from the original “Star Wars” movie featuring plenty of bloodless, high octane action sequences. I enjoyed it in the way I occasionally indulge in unhealthy fast food. The movie was instantly forgettable except for one scene where hotshot pilot Maverick, played of course by Tom Cruise, meets his old rival Iceman, played by Val Kilmer. In real life, Kilmer suffers from throat cancer, and his condition is not hidden in the movie, where Kilmer is now an admiral who still believes in his old friend, Captain Pete “Maverick” Mitchell.
Naturally, Maverick saves the day, pummeling a nameless enemy (most likely Iran) with bombs because that country is developing nuclear weapons. Nothing, of course, is said of the thousands of nuclear warheads and bombs in America’s arsenal, or that the USA is the only country to have used atomic bombs in war (Hiroshima, Nagasaki). But I digress.
Hollywood loves war movies. They sell well. Yet I still await “Top Dove: Peacenik,” in which an intrepid, brave, determined, and charismatic person stops a war without bombing or killing anyone. What a breath of fresh air that would be!
Exactly ten years ago, I posted the article below at Bracing Views. We need peacemakers now more than ever. Sadly, they are still very much forgotten, or ignored, or dismissed as unserious or even delusional.
Forgotten Are the Peacemakers (2013)
Being Catholic, I’m a big fan of the Sermon on the Mount and Christ’s teaching that “blessed are the peacemakers.” Yet in American history it seems that “forgotten are the peacemakers” would be a more accurate lesson. We’re much more likely to remember “great” generals, even vainglorious ones like George S. Patton or Douglas MacArthur, than to recognize those who’ve fought hard against long odds for peace.
Elihu Burritt was one such peacemaker. Known in his day as “The Learned Blacksmith,” Burritt fought for peace and against slavery in the decades before the Civil War in the United States. He rose from humble roots to international significance, presiding over The League of Universal Brotherhood in the 1840s and 1850s while authoring many books on humanitarian subjects.
Interestingly, peacemakers like Burritt were often motivated by evangelical Christianity. They saw murder as a sin and murderous warfare as an especially grievous manifestation of man’s sinfulness. Many evangelicals of his day were also inspired by their religious beliefs to oppose slavery as a vile and reprehensible practice.
Christian peacemakers like Burritt may not have had much success, but they deserve to be remembered and honored as much as our nation’s most accomplished generals. That we neglect to honor men and women like Burritt says much about America’s character.
For if we truly are a peace-loving people, why do we fail to honor our most accomplished advocates for peace?
Bracing Views 
The Bible! The Bible! Do it by the Book Religions demand.
As the BIGGEST Arms Merchant in the History of Nations, in the current WAR making atmospheres most Christian America conveniently ignores this most relevant line in the whole Bible, “This is the word of the Lord to Zerubbabel, saying: ‘Not by military force and not by physical strength, but by My spirit,’ says the Lord of Hosts.
Zechariah 4:6.
Bill citing from the NT ‘Blessed are the “Peace Makers” for they shall be called The Children of God’ from Christ’s Sermon on the Mount accentuates that OT line. They are excluded from exposure by the MSM as deviants from the prescribed WAR narrative.
As for the Babel in Zerubbabel
LikeLike
So let me ask You a question, Ray: What actual “peace” did Jesus actually work for and actually bring about and make happen during his lifetime?
What did he actually, really do in the Real World of 2000 years ago AGAINST the biggest force for War, Slavery, and Tyranny at that time [the Roman Empire} that actually, really changed or accomplished anything?
After his ministry, were the People of Palestine/Israel any closer to Peace [let alone Justice or Liberty] than they were when he started his preaching?
Or did all that he actually do was to ultimately provide a basis and foundation for Christianity to become and be one of the biggest champions, fomenters, and ultimate causes of War, “Just” Conquest, and Tyranny in all of Human History?
When has any faction of mainstream Christianity ~ particularly when aligned with the dictatorial powers of Government and The State ~ ever brought into, espoused, and actually functioned “not by military force or physical strength,” but by Zerubbabel’s declaration about “spirit”?
Or actually committed itself and then followed thru on making Justice and Peace actually happen in the Real World? Before, that is, the so-called “End Times” when it will be too late for everybody but those “Chosen Ones” who have bought into The System?
LikeLike
JG, some 4450 years ago in the Bible Timeline, 1550 years after the Creation record in the Genesis, just before the great flood, it’s written in Genesis 6, ‘And GOD saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually […] The earth also was corrupt before God, and the earth was filled with violence.
And God looked upon the earth, and, behold, it was corrupt; for all flesh had corrupted his way upon the earth.’
Has that much changed from then to now? Wars and talk of Wars and crazy mass shootings are on the increasing in the US in the US and the World. Someone in China just shot and killed many pre-school children. The US claiming to be the World Leader, every mass shooting in the US is magnified in the rest of the World as it’s reported.
The minor Jewish Prophet Zechariah speaking for God wrote that line “not by Military Force” some 2550 years ago.
If you re-read my comment, we’re in agreement “mainstream Christianity” is as Establishment Today, as Establishment Judaism was when Jesus walked through the West Bank of Roman Occupied Palestine challenging the Religious Leadership. Israel ceased to be some 700 years BC, until it was re-created from the Bible in 1948.
While his disciples slept, Jesus went through the passion alone knowing overturning the tables on the Bankers and Merchants working the Shopping Mall on Temple property in a Kosher deal with the Priests in the Jewish Religion HQ was the last straw for the Religious Leadership.
He was going to suffer the pain and torture of Crucifixion in his human flesh. The record shows he prayed to God to be spared crucifixion. He was smart. He could have got out of Jerusalem and started up someplace else. He didn’t save his own life, in his prayer saying, ‘O my Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me: nevertheless not as I will, but as you will […] O my Father, if this cup may not pass away from me, except I drink it, your will be done.’
He had to be crucified in Jerusalem for these Days when Armageddon is shaping up to be with the CURRENT Religious Leadership in Jerusalem.
You hypocrites, well did Esaias prophesy of you, saying,
This people draws close to me with their mouth, and honours me with their lips; but their heart is far from me.
But in vain they do worship me, teaching for doctrines the commandments of men.
TRUE LOVE cannot be forced on anyone.
Today is the 51st Day of my 80th year in the Flesh. I was unexpectedly Resurrected from the Spiritually Dead, to my great surprise and Wonder, I was Spiritually BORN AGAIN to believe in the Spirit of the Living God in my flesh, the Fundamental of the Christian Faith. I was 29 going on 30. That was on February 1, 1975 making me only 48 AD within 2023 AD!
LikeLike
LikeLike
Sorry for the delay responding, Ray: Been tied up with Boat Work.
First of all, and before proceeding any further, let me ask You a couple of questions:
~ 1. Do You ~ without any doubt or question whatsoever ~ believe and think that this Universe was created 6000 or so years ago?
~ 2. What is the basis for and source of that belief and thought besides Genesis?
Second of all: Your response did not answer my original Question about what Jesus actually DID against the Roman Empire that actually accomplished Any good for Anybody living under Roman Tyranny at that time.
LikeLike
~ 1. NO! Some 4000 years after the Genesis Creation account, in The Revelation of Jesus Christ, it’s written “These things say the Amen, the Faithful and True Witness, the Beginning of the Creation of God.
~2. I would guess it’s due to Blind Faith in the literal words of the Bible. I know when the woman caught in adultery was brought to Jesus, he was told it’s written in the Bible she should be stoned to Death and even so, Jesus did not agree. The Spirit of Christ speaking through Jesus said, ‘Search the scriptures; for in them you think you have eternal life: and they are they which testify of me.’
Israel did not exist when Jesus walked through Roman Occupied Palestine some 2000 years ago. The Jews were expecting a Military Genius Messiah like King David, who would get the Romans out of Judea and Samaria.
Jesus’ message of Peace and Forgiveness did not meet their expectations, but some 476 years after Jesus, the Roman Emperor/God was gone replaced by the Pope of Rome exercising Power in Jesus name. Power corrupts and so was the Message of Christ perverted during the Church tyranny.
Slowly, through the efforts of sincere Believers, much Good ended much tyranny through all those Centuries and the work not finished yet!
LikeLike
LikeLike
A good question, JG.
I was just reading a short essay by MLKJr in which he describes his non-violent methods. He says the key to it all is producing shame in the target. While I greatly admire King for what he did and his courage in doing it, I just can’t accept that shame has any power outside of individual personal relationships. Can we think of any tyrant or dictator or even elected head of government that has exhibited any shame? GWB does not experience any remorse at all over his personally authorized disaster in Iraq. Possibly the British were shamed out of India, but I think they realized they could no longer afford an empire and that was the key.
As for King and the Civil Rights Movement, there were certainly uninvolved Americans in the North who felt shame on seeing Bull Conner put his hoses to work but how about the people on the line, those who might have been manning the hoses? I don’t think any in the Old South were shamed by the drive for abolition.
Tolstoy’s The Kingdom of God is Within You was mentioned here by Jonathan Jones. In it Tolstoy calls out individuals to refuse orders to kill. Has there ever been any evidence of any significant number of soldiers feeling shame at the killing they are asked to do…enough to stop the killing?
The sad fact is that humans can all too easily be organized to destroy their fellow humans or keep them in degradation. What astounds me is the high regard in which we routinely hold ourselves in the face of what we actually do to each other. King needed to reach beyond to sustain his view.
LikeLike
What essay were You reading, clif9710? i’d like to read the part where he says that “shame is the key to it all.” i have a hard time connecting that with Dr King’s actions and, particularly, his speeches.
In any event, i agree with You about shame being a non-player in the real world of the pursuit of Wealth and/or Power.
And I have no idea what role “shame” played in those situations in Vietnam where GIs refused to fight. It may have been a contributing factor, but i think the primary driver was a critical mass of them suddenly realizing that this War is not merely Wrong; It is Fucking EVIL. And they then effectively went on strike. It’d be interesting to see how that whole process turned out, and what happened to those who did refuse to fight.
Anyway, what’s the title of that essay? Thanks.
LikeLike
I tried to find the article I have online but failed though I have the printout in front of me, “The Power of Non-Violence” Apparently there was a book by that title written the 30’s by a Richard Gregg that Google takes me to. MLKJr was influenced by it.
He does not say that shame is the key to all of his method, he says it is the goal of any boycott (the Montgomery boycott being in the past at the time of writing), so I am guilty of going beyond his words.
Under the heading “Not to humiliate but to win over” he writes…
“A boycott is never an end within itself. It is merely a means to awaken a sense of shame within the oppressor but the end is reconciliation, the end is redemption.”
LikeLike
Got it. Thanks for the clarification. That makes a bit more sense.
LikeLike
Worth reading on the subject of peacemaking is Tolstoy’s “The kingdom of God is within you”- as strong an argument for pacifism as I have come across. “Love your enemies” is also one of Christ’s teachings- rarely quoted in time of war.
LikeLike
Thank you Bill for this series of Anti-War, Turn to Peace columns–
I’m a lousy 80 y/o Protestant Agno-Christian myself, son of generations of Methodist/Presbyterian/Mennonite ancestors, who nevertheless has long been fascinated
by Christ’s Sermon on the Mount and the 180-degree denial/pursuit of power/dominance
over others that my Evangelical “brethren” have pursued for the past half-century.
Of course, waves of generations past have done the same (just ask Moses) but in
current American social and political life, read Mathew once more, then look at the projected
budgets for the DoD/ MICC vs. all other Federal Departments, Agencies, and Bureaus–
I’m a retired Psychiatrist, usually an optimist and I like most people, but I have come to believe
that we are a fatally -flawed species, destructive of our environment and unable to transcend
our drives, especially our male half of the population, to live in peace and cooperative ventures.
LikeLike
“The very beasts associate the ideas of things that are like each other or that have been found together in their experience; and they could hardly survive for a day if they ceased to do so. But who attributes to the animals a belief that the phenomena of nature are worked by a multitude of invisible animals or by one enormous and prodigiously strong animal behind the scenes? It is probably no injustice to the brutes to assume that the honor of devising a theory of this latter sort must be reserved for human reason.” — Sir James George Frazer, The Golden Bough: a study in Magic and Religion
Dog’s Plan
Dog shared Its plan with George last night
Which gave him such an awful fright
He stayed awake till dawn’s first light
Too scared to run and hide
Dog’s Plan concerned our land’s defense
And naked, fierce belligerence
And dreadful leaders proud and dense
Who waltzed while others died
He’d often heard barks just as dumb
But this one left George cold and numb
For by the sucking of his thumb
He knew that Dog had lied
For Dog had nothing planned at all
It merely longed to see men crawl
And women moan and babies bawl
And peoples petrified
The Book of Dog contained no clue
That what appeared as Doggie-doo
Would sicken not just me and you
But others, too, beside
Sometimes George thought he understood:
Dog wanted him to do some good
By bombing nature’s neighborhood
With Power’s pesticide
But George had garbled up the rhyme
Which led him then to pantomime
An offer of Medieval Time
To those he’d terrified
He claimed he lived to do Dog’s work
Yet only seemed to play the jerk
With curling lip and cynic’s smirk
Upon his mouth so wide
His reckless swagger left appalled
A world aghast at one enthralled
By perquisites and servants called
And makeup reapplied
But mom and Dog had always seen
That newsmen wore their glasses green
In Emerald City’s vapid sheen
And they, of course, complied
So few observed or told of ills
As boy George, green around the gills,
Downed fantasies like poison pills
Which left whole countries fried
But Dog said not to sweat the small
That sycophants would dance on call
At his inauguration ball
And have him glorified
Upon the stage he struts and frets
A player poor without regrets
As good as little ever gets
Absorbed in pompous pride
His monologue no rhyme consults
His thought the human mind insults:
A sound and fury that results
In nothing signified
His hour upon the stage unfilled
The audience leaves hardly thrilled
At having bought bad tickets billed
As drama unsupplied
Reviewers chose to see his clothes
Where he wore none, which only shows
How power blinds and money glows
In circles rarified
He chose to write his own critique
Which papers printed: cowed and meek
Too scared and bought to try and seek
The truth unsanctified
He thought himself both shrewd and deft
Yet brain-wise he had little heft
His flighty visions only left
Our nation vilified
But, anyway, the plagues will come
They need no fife or beating drum
To herald where they’re to or from
This, Dog has certified
So George was left alone to weep
Betrayed by Dog, in doo-doo deep,
As shadows cruel began to creep
Up on him as he sighed
Michael Murry, “The Misfortune Teller,” Copyright © 2005
LikeLike
‘The New ‘New World’
What happens when reality hits delusion? U.S. mythology and fantasy will remain resilient. Denial, doubling-down, scapegoating, recrimination and more audacious adventures are the instinctive responses, writes Michael Brenner.
Americans discount the past. They live in the present and imagine the future. Events are assimilated into a mythologized pageant of progress that leads to an ever fuller realization of a more perfect union — liberty and justice at home, goodwill and good works abroad.
Happenings of an unseemly nature are sanitized so as to conform to the self-image of destiny’s child born in a state of original virtue; or they are encapsulated and repressed.
Deep within us, though, they survive in a state of indeterminant hibernation — along with the passions, impulses and ambitions that generated those misdeeds. They become spores, dormant until a favorable environment appears for their reactivation.
What we are witnessing in the United States today is a recrudescence of baneful elements from earlier times: the rapacious society that ruthlessly decimated the indigenous peoples from sea to shining sea; that warred against Mexico to steal half of its lands; that attacked Spain’s overseas possessions to build the early foundation of empire; that policed the Caribbean basin to its commercial advantage; that jailed those who voiced disagreement with the U.S.’ entry into World War I; that has glorified the frontier’s violence, sharp-dealing and wanton destruction of nature denied its status as an heirloom.
Certainly, those unbecoming episodes from the past resonate with what we observe today: in the United States’ rampage through the Middle East, its resort to systemic torture, its belligerence and bullying, its repressive treatment of critics at home, its crude and corrupt electoral politics.
These deeds are at variance with the country’s principles, its self-image, its external image and, too, a 20th century record that included policies and attitudes that aimed at generating public goods and attentive to the general welfare……………………………………..
https://consortiumnews.com/2023/07/10/the-new-new-world/
LikeLike
Does this have any connection to the Future we’ll be going through? Governments are like People having that kind of Financial exposure.
Deficit Hits $1.4 Trillion in First 9 Months of Fiscal Year: CBO
The federal budget deficit totaled nearly $1.4 trillion in the first three quarters of the 2023 fiscal year, according to the latest monthly budget review from the Congressional Budget Office released Tuesday.
The deficit was $875 billion larger from October 2022 to June 2023 compared to a year earlier, with revenues 11% lower and outlays 10% higher. Revenues from individual income and payroll taxes fell by 10%, while outlays increased for Social Security (11%), Medicare (17%) and Medicaid (8%).
That means all the BORROWED $BILLIONS the government is giving Ukraine Today, will be paid by your Children’s Children’s Children, if the WAR doesn’t escalate to MUTUALLY ASSURED DESTRUCTION or MAD before then!
The Day After will be TOO LATE!
LikeLike
The source for the figures: https://www.thefiscaltimes.com/
LikeLiked by 1 person