In a week when US President Barack Obama has announced new air
strikes on Islamic State in Syria by a coalition of the US military and
several Arab nations, Church of the Brethren general secretary Stan
Noffsinger and the denomination’s Office of Public Witness have
reiterated a commitment to nonviolent means of change in Syria and Iraq.
In related news, Church of the Brethren member Peggy Faw Gish who
serves with Christian Peacemaker Teams (CPT) in Iraqi Kurdistan also has
published reflections on the military campaign in Iraq.
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Photo courtesy of Stan Noffsinger
General secretary Stan Noffsinger (at right) with a Russian Orthodox
representative at a consultation on Syria held in Armenia on June 11-12,
2014. Fr. Dimitri Safonov represented the Moscow Patriarchate
Department for Interreligious Relations of the Russian Orthodox Church,
while Noffsinger was one of the American church leaders to attend the
gathering.
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Ecumenical groups urge nonviolent means of change
Noffsinger was one of the religious leaders who have held three
international ecumenical consultations on the crisis in Syria over the
past months, organized by the World Council of Churches. He also was one
of the American church leaders to sign an ecumenical letter to
President Obama in late August urging the United States to lead out in
nonviolent measures in Iraq and Syria.
“Stop US bombing in Iraq to prevent bloodshed, instability, and the
accumulation of grievances....” headed up the letter’s list of eight
nonviolent ways the United States and the international community may
engage with the crisis. The letter, reported in Newsline on Sept. 2 (see
www.brethren.org/news/2014/us-religious-leaders-wcc-statements-on-iraq.html) suggested “better, more effective, more healthy, and more humanizing ways to protect civilians and to engage this conflict.”
The list continued with seven more items: to provide “robust”
humanitarian assistance to those fleeing the violence; engage with the
UN and all political and religious leaders in the area on “diplomatic
efforts for a lasting political situation for Iraq” and “a political
settlement to the crisis in Syria”; support community based nonviolent
resistance strategies; strengthen financial sanctions against armed
actors in the region through measures such as disruption of the Islamic
State’s oil revenue; bring in trained unarmed civilian protection
organizations; uphold an arms embargo on all parties to the conflict;
and support civil society efforts to build peace, reconciliation, and
accountability at the community level.
Noffsinger reaffirmed the letter this week, saying, “As a historic
peace church we have to evaluate the situation very carefully. This is
about the wellbeing of the whole planet, not just about American
interests.” He reported continuing contacts from ecumenical colleagues,
church leaders in Syria and elsewhere in the Middle East, who are
standing by the ecumenical commitment to seek the wellbeing of the
region through nonviolent means.
In Washington, D.C., the Church of the Brethren Office of Public
Witness continues to work on this issue with the Faith Forum on Middle
East Policy, which helped organize the letter that Noffsinger signed.
Director Nate Hosler echoed Noffsinger’s perspective.
“Here in Washington, lawmakers are debating how much the United
States should get involved without appearing to give much thought to the
long-term consequences of such an intervention,” Hosler said. “While
the situation is certainly dire, intervening militarily in Iraq and
Syria not only affects today’s reality, but sows the seeds for more
violence and instability in the future.”
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Photo by CPT
Peggy Gish serving with Christian Peacemaker Teams
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CPTer issues hard-hitting commentary on military action
Gish titled her reflections on the US air strikes in Iraq, “The new
military intervention in Iraq--on not repeating what has not worked.”
The hard-hitting commentary was originally posted on her personal blog,
and was published by CPTNet this week.
Acknowledging that many Americans feel President Obama is “finally
doing something” and that many people in Iraq are generally hopeful that
the bombing campaign will stop the militant fighters calling themselves
the “Islamic State,” she stated a warning that “I believe Obama’s plan
will not diminish global terrorism; it will only expand and strengthen
it.”
She noted that the Islamic State’s ability to capture areas of Iraq
“was possible because the US had destroyed its society and supported the
Shia government that excluded Sunni populations” and that “the US and
Iraqi forces bombed and destroyed whole neighborhoods and cities in the
name of anti-terrorism, generating more anger toward America,” she also
noted that “the US failed to support the progressive, mostly nonviolent,
uprisings, around the country, against government abuse and corruption.
“Throughout the years of occupation, it was clear to us that US
military actions in Iraq were not really directed at protecting the
Iraqi people, but for protecting American personnel and US economic and
military interests in Iraq and the Middle East,” she wrote, in part.
“Each time the US puts forth an alarmist scenario, and tells us there is
no other way but military action to stop an evil force, intelligent
people--who know that our wars have been robbing our society of money
for human needs and giving it to corporations--are once again seduced by
fear.”
Her list of “strong non-military measures” echoed much of the list in
the ecumenical letter to President Obama, including urging to stop the
airstrikes, “since they serve to strengthen the extremist movements”;
deal with underlying problems that fuel extremism and terrorism; develop
political solutions to the crisis such as pressuring the Iraqi
government to “reverse years of anti-Sunni sectarianism” and in Syria,
to “push the UN to restart real negotiations to end the civil war,
bringing everyone involved to the table--nonviolent activists, women,
refugees, armed rebels, and regional and global players,” among others.
Find Gish’s reflection in full at
www.cpt.org or on her blog,
http://plottingpeace.wordpress.com.
Source: 9/26/2014 Newsline
Philippians 2:1-8 teaches the importance of living in community and
putting one another’s interests above one’s own. In Philippians, Paul
writes about Christ’s perfect example of humility, which immediately
follows a call to communion with one another.
