After 2 decades in Iraq: ‘Ye who are weary come home’

December 25, 2011 by

CLOSING THE BORDER CROSSING on December 18, 2011. This symbolic closing of the border crossing between Iraq and Kuwait was staged by a handful of both American and Kuwaiti troops after the final vehicles in the exiting U.S. convoy had left Iraq. U.S. government photo in public domain.

KEN SEHESTED was the founding director of the Baptist Peace Fellowship of North America. His story and his writing are included in Daniel Buttry’s new Blessed Are the Peacemakers. Ken currently is pastor of the Circle of Mercy congregation in Ashevile, North Carolina, with his wife Nancy Sehested and Joyce Holiday. In 2003, Ken was part of a Christian Peacemakers Team in Iraq just before the US invasion. He also was one of the most effective voices against the Gulf War, engaging in fasting and other anti-war activism during a time when many Americans concerned about peace remained inactive.

‘Come Home’: The 20-Year War in Iraq

By Ken Sehested

“They’re coming home.”

The words penetrated my groggy reading of the Sunday morning paper as I sat at the kitchen table, the coffee maker’s final perks hacking like a smoker’s cough. I paused in my reading and turned up the radio:  They’re coming home. U.S. soldiers from Iraq. The remaining few thousand crossing the border into Kuwait just as the sun rose. A few will remain, along with a Marine guard unit and likely hundreds of $1,000-a-day mercenaries hired to protect personnel at the world’s largest embassy, in Baghdad, spread over a 104-acre site projected to house 5,500, costing three-quarters of a billion dollars to build and more than twice that in annual operating costs.

I remember that Kuwait border crossing, having spent 4 days there in late February 2003 less than three weeks before the U.S. invasion of Iraq. There were 30 or so of us in the Christian Peacemaker Teams delegation that drove from Baghdad to the border’s edge, pitching tents a few hundred feet from the check point on the main artery connecting the two countries. A 10-foot-high dirt berm marking the border, built after the 1991 Persian Gulf War, was visible as far as the eye could see in either direction on that desert landscape.

We began Lent a week early that year, watching and praying and fasting, offering conversation with interested reporters about politically realistic alternatives to war. A few of the flock of international media took the time to drive the route soon to be flooded with the invasion’s ground troops.

‘WE’LL GET BETTER AS WE DO THIS MORE OFTEN’

Now, nearly nine years later, I read a newspaper editor’s reflections on the war’s official end. He recalled asking readers in late March 2003 to answer a poll: How many Iraqis were part of the 9/11 terrorist attacks? Only 17% answered correctly: Zero. For at least two more years President Bush and other administration officials would continue to link “9/11” and “Iraq,” all the while admitting “mistakes were made” on intelligence about suspected weapons of mass destruction. Rarely has “my bad” covered so much catastrophe.

At a formal transition ceremony, held in a corner of the Baghdad airport, the U.S. force’s flags were furled as a small military band played. US Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta spoke, saying the war’s toll—4,500 deaths and 32,000 wounded, nearly $1 trillion in direct costs—were justified and that the 1.5 million men and women who had rotated through Iraq during the war could share in a “lasting pride.”

Economists who study the war’s cost argue over whether the final tab will be $2 or $3 trillion, once the ongoing costs for treating wounded soldiers (physical and mental—more soldiers now commit suicide, 18 every day, than die in combat) and interest on what amounts to our nation’s credit card that covers this bill. The Iraqi fatalities, whose estimate begins at 100,000, and many times that number of wounded, were not mentioned, nor were the 4 million refugees. No wonder that at this flag-lowering ceremony neither Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki nor President Jalal Talabani showed up to claim their reserved seats.

Although it may seem comforting to think of this long war as a single painful lesson learned, I am recalling the unnamed assistant to Defense Secretary Rumsfeld who told us all during the war: “”This is the future for the world we’re in at the moment. We’ll get better as we do it more often.”

‘JUNKYARD GIVES UP SECRET REPORTS OF MASSACRE’

On December 14, as US forces rapidly were shutting down operations, closing facilities and supposedly destroying sensitive documents, a New York Times headline revealed: Junkyard Gives Up Secret Reports of Massacre in Iraq. The story was based on 400 pages of secret interrogations conducted after the 2005 massacre of civilians by Marines on patrol in Haditha. An Iraqi contractor was supposed to destroy the files—but, like many expectations in this war, the destruction never took place.

The Haditha tragedy isn’t news. Time Magazine broke the gruesome story in 2006—and it was widely credited with forever deepening the chasm of distrust between U.S. forces and the Iraqis they supposedly were there to help. The harshest details of the bloodbath were never reported, until these documents turned up. In fact, the story had all but vanished and charges were dropped against six of the accused Marines, one was acquitted of charges and the last remaining case appeared to be indefinitely postponed.

The Marines were hit first on that day in 2005 in Haditha. A roadside bomb killed one and seriously injured two others. Then, the men went on a killing spree in the neighborhood, assassinating 24 Iraqi civilians, including women, children as young as 3 and a 76-year-old man in a wheelchair. Many of the dead were killed in their homes.

When he first learned of the incident, Major General Steve Johnson, the American commander in Anbar province at the time, thought it unworthy of further investigation. However, the classified documents found at the trash dump included a chilling transcript of in which Johnson explained his 2005 inaction this way: “It happened all the time … throughout the whole country. So you know, maybe, if I was sitting here [in Virginia] and heard that 15 civilians were killed I would have been surprised and shocked and done—done more to look into it. But at that point in time, I felt that it was—had been, for whatever reason, part of that engagement and felt that it was just a cost of doing business on that particular engagement.”

‘… because they have a hard time dealing with that’

The tragedy of this Haditha narrative is not that a squad of Marines went berserk, or that officers up the chain of command thought the story unremarkable. The tragedy is that we can be so naïve to think bloodlust and the slaughter of innocents can be avoided under such conditions. It is the exception, not the rule, for our moral compasses to stay intact during war.

The New York Times report drew the same conclusion, based on years of reporting in Iraq and on the new transcripts. Times reporter Michael Schmidt’s story explained that in the quagmire of Iraq, soldiers “feeling they were under attack constantly, decided to use force first and ask questions later. If Marines took fire from a building, they would often level it. Drivers who approached checkpoints without stopping were assumed to be suicide bombers.”

Sgt. Maj. Edward Sax, whose testimony was included in the hundreds of pages found in the junkyard, gave a common example: “When a car doesn’t stop, it crosses the trigger line, Marines engage and, yes, sir, there are people inside the car that are killed that have nothing to do with it. I had Marines shoot children in cars and (later I talked) with the Marines individually one on one about it because they have a hard time dealing with that.”

HOW LONG WAS THE WAR? DO YOU REMEMBER …

How long was the war? Everywhere you turn, these days, people are talking about the nine years of warfare. In fact, however, U.S. combat operations against Iraqis continued from our first war with Iraq through the outbreak of Shock and Awe in 1993. Remember the “no-fly” zones? In 1991, Saddam’s army was quickly dislodged from its occupation of Kuwait. There’s a hole in our public memory of the dozen years’ siege we conducted in and around Iraq. News reports rarely mention that conflict and, even while the seige was unfolding, its impact went largely unreported. Secretary of State Madeleine Albright confirmed the grisly conclusions of a UNICEF study revealing that half a million Iraqi children had died as a result of economic sanctions. When asked by 60 Minutes reporter Leslie Stahl if the deaths of 500,000 children—from causes including polluted water and inadequate nutrition—was worth the price, Albright said “Yes, we think the price was worth it.”

‘THEY MADE A DESOLATION, THEY CALL IT …’

This “lasting pride” Leon Panetta was describing apparently is supposed to stretch across a whole generation of combat operations: 19 years and 11 months. I can’t help but remember the ancient historian Tacitus’ comment about Roman imperial reach: “They make a desolation, they call it ‘peace’.”

Every empire claims divine sponsorship for its lasting pride. Rome, depicted as the beast in John’s Revelation, claimed “I rule as a queen; I am no widow, and I will never see grief” (18:7). Just as Babylon had previously claimed: “I am, and there is no one beside me” (Isaiah 47:8). Just as Egypt had claimed before Babylon: “My power and the might of my own hand have gotten me this wealth” (Deuteronomy 8:17).

Yet hundreds, maybe thousands, of choirs this Christmas season will announce by way of Handel’s “Messiah” the New Testament’s ultimate counter-claim to imperial hubris: “The kingdom of the world has become the kingdom of our Lord, and he will reign forever and ever” (Revelation 11:15).

And somewhere, someone is singing: “Come home, come home, ye who are weary come home.”

Care to see faces from Iraq in a video Ken Sehested produced?

A video screen should appear, below. Click the screen to view this 8-minute slide show of photographs, accompanied by D.E. Adams’ rendition of Bob Dylan’s “Lay Down Your Weary Tune.” If you see no video screen in your version of this story, then you also can click here to jump to YouTube and watch it there.

Care to read more on meeting violence with peace?

Nationally known peace activist (and World Sabbath co-founder) Rod Reinhart writes about his own pilgrimage from a life of faith and action on behalf of peace—to working arm in arm with returned U.S. military veterans. This is especially important as winter arrives across our hemisphere. Thousands of U.S. veterans are homeless nationwide.

Want to find peace in your reading—and group discussions—this winter?
Consider learning about Daniel Buttry’s Blessed Are the Peacemakers.

Please help us to reach a wider audience

We welcome your Emails at [email protected]
We’re also reachable on Twitter, Facebook, Amazon, Huffington Post, YouTube and other social-networking sites. You also can Subscribe to our articles via Email or RSS feed.
Plus, there’s a free Monday morning Planner newsletter you may enjoy.

Originally published at readthespirit.com, an online magazine covering religion and cultural diversity.

Interview with Philip Jenkins on ‘Laying Down the Sword’

December 20, 2011 by

Chances are you’ve heard about one of Philip Jenkins’ two dozen books. His research spans a vast range of contemporary history and culture—from the nature of white supremacy and global terrorism to the diversity of Native American culture. He even wrote a fascinating book called Decade of Nightmares: The End of the Sixties and the Making of Eighties America, exploring how our ’60s attitudes took some strange twists and turns in subsequent decades. Clearly, though, Jenkins’ best-known books are about Christianity and conflict. He has discussed that portion of his work on National Public Radio, more than once. In pastors’ offices nationwide, Jenkins’ books are likely to be found on the shelves with bookmarks noting where to find passages cited in sermons or newsletter columns. His books also show up on thousands of educators’ bookshelves. Jenkins’ books are lively choices for small-group studies, too.
ReadTheSpirit also recommends his earlier book Lost Christianity (an eye-popping history about “lost” branches of Christianity in Africa, Asia and the Middle East) and his more recent book Jesus Wars (another startling look at an era of Christian history completely unknown to most American churchgoers).

While Jenkins’ subjects may seem deeply troubling—his goal is quite the opposite. The inspiring theme that runs through all of Jenkins’ two dozen books is his belief that the world’s greatest tragedies—from horrific crime to lethal religious and cultural conflict—need to be carefully studied and accurately understood. Once we investigate these largely misunderstood chapters in global conflict, steps can be taken toward preventing further tragedies and, in many cases, some form of healing is possible.

The title of his newest book Laying Down the Sword: Why We Can’t Ignore the Bible’s Violent Verses may sound like an attack on Christianity—but, again, the opposite is true. The book leads readers toward pragmatic steps congregations can take to come to terms with this legacy of violence. If we engage in this process, Jenkins argues, we are much more likely to form healthy bonds with neighbors who practice other faiths. And, as a nation, we are less likely to demonize other world cultures.

CLICK ON titles of books (or the cover above) to learn more or to order from Amazon.
ALSO: Read an excerpt we have selected from Laying Down the Sword.
And now, ReadTheSpirit Editor David Crumm talks with Philip Jenkins …

HIGHLIGHTS OF OUR INTERVIEW WITH PHILIP JENKINS
ON ‘LAYING DOWN THE SWORD’ & THE BIBLE’S VIOLENCE

DAVID: Let’s start with a question from your Wikipedia page, which I know you didn’t write or edit yourself. The Wikipedia page currently has a summary of your latest research for Laying Down the Sword that boils down to this short passage: “Jenkins believes the Islamic scriptures in the Quran were actually far less bloody and less violent than those in the Bible, citing explicit instructions in the Old Testament calling for genocide while the Quran calls for primarily defensive war.” Now, having read your book, I would say that comes close to summing up one point you make, but it’s likely to confuse people if they visit your Wikipedia page and think that’s the main message. How would you respond?

PHILIP: The Wikipedia comments makes me sound like more of an apologist for the Quran than I am. Both the Quran and the Bible have problematic texts. Overall, what you’re reading from Wikipedia isn’t a bad summary of one point I’m making. But I would want to go on and emphasize that all of the world’s major religions have problems with people who believe the scriptures literally apply to their lives, because they will find texts that they read as encouraging violence. And, in what you just read to me, that’s actually not entirely correct about Islam and defensive violence. A reader can find the notion of holy war for the expansion of the faith in the Quran. The main difference between the Bible and the Quran is that the biblical passages are far more absolute in the forms of destruction they visit on people described as our enemies.

DAVID: For those who want to split hairs and determine which book has the most troubling passages encouraging violence, we should point out to Christian readers that the Bible is a lot longer than the Quran. The Common English Bible, the new mainline ecumenical version of the Bible, is somewhere around 1,500 pages. Most English translations of the Quran’s text are about 500 pages. Beyond the big difference in size and scope, however, you’re saying the Bible’s passages partciularly in Deuteronomy and Joshua are markedly more disturbing in the ruthless nature of the violence, right?

PHILIP: Absolutely. If you open a Quran randomly and look through the pages, you’re more likely to come across a passage about war or conduct in war, compared with opening the Bible in a similar way. But you won’t find anything in the Quran that is as extreme as the Bible passages in Deuteronomy and Joshua that say things like: Show them no mercy. Kill them all. Kill the women and children. And so on. Read literally today, these are extremely violent passages and they are actively genocidal.

Let me explain how I got into this research. Since 9/11, there have been a lot of discussions in this country about Islam being a singularly violent religion and the Quran being a uniquely violent book. I am certainly willing to talk about violence in Islam. But I know enough about the Bible to know that these claims about the Quran being uniquely violent are overblown. I used to teach a university course on terrorism and I know a lot about this problem. I’ve studied these issues for a very long time. And, it’s not accurate for people to claim that the Quran is somehow more extreme and violent than the Bible.

One of the difficulties is that most people are not even aware of these portions of the Bible. When I started working on this subject and began writing about it, the general reaction I got was that people wanted to deny that these biblical texts even existed. Then, among people who are aware of these troubling sections of the Bible, there’s also a widespread notion that what’s in the Old Testament somehow shouldn’t be considered a part of the Bible today. They dismiss these passages as not a relevant part of the Bible.

DAVID: But, as you point out in your book, these troubling passages can, indeed, come back to bite the people in vicious ways, right?

PHILIP: Yes. In one example, we’re talking about a very controversial passage in 1 Samuel 15 where God orders genocide against King Agag the Amalekites and King Saul fails to carry out the destruction completely. Saul’s disobedience leads God to remove the kingship from Saul and move it to David. But if you go to church, it’s unlikely that you will ever hear that story read or referenced in a sermon. All you might hear about Saul is that God was displeased with him and moved the kingship to David. Even if you’re a very pious church attender, and attend Bible study as well—as long as your church follows the Common Lectionary—you will never come across those extreme readings.

The problem with this passage is that, down through history, when Christians want to conduct a violent holy war, they say they’re fighting Amalekites. We find these references in the Crusades era and again in the Reformation era, when Catholics were killing Protestants and Protestants were killing Catholics. The practice continues to this day. In 1994, during the Rwandan genocide, one pastor urged his people to take part in the massacres referencing this passage from the Bible.

DAVID: It’s on pages 140-141 in your new book and it says this Rwandan pastor “compared the Tutsis to the Amalekites, and said Saul was rejected by God because he failed to exterminate all of the Amalekites. He said, ‘If you don’t exterminate the Tutsis, you’ll be rejected. If you don’t want to be rejected by God, then finish the job of killing the people God has rejected. No child, no wife, no old man should be left alive.’ And the people said: ‘Amen.’”

This isn’t merely an academic exercise. We’re talking about toxic texts that can fuel genocide today.

PHILIP: That’s right and that’s why, at the end of my book, I offer principles congregations can use to read and study and understand these parts of the Bible that most people have never read.

DAVID: In our excerpt of Laying Down the Sword, we will highlight that recommendation you make toward the end of your book. But, before we close this interview, I’m sure our readers will be curious about where you’re heading after this book. You’ve written about so many fascinating topics. What’s next?

PHILIP: I think this next book follows quite logically with others I have written. I’m writing about the Four Horsemen—about the first World War as a global religious revolution, in terms of transforming religion worldwide. One of the points I am arguing in this new book is that, by any reasonable standard, the first World War really is a holy war. It was seen, at the time, as a cosmic war among overwhelmingly Christian powers. It was a global holy war that wound up killing 10 million people and it happened not in the ancient past—but just one century ago.

DAVID: Well, when you complete that book, we’ll talk again. Our readers will stay tuned, I’m sure.

Care to read more on meeting violence with peace?

Nationally known peace activist (and World Sabbath co-founder) Rod Reinhart writes about his own pilgrimage from a life of faith and action on behalf of peace—to working arm in arm with returned U.S. military veterans. This is especially important as winter arrives across our hemisphere.

Want to find peace in your reading—and group discussions—this winter?
Consider learning about Daniel Buttry’s Blessed Are the Peacemakers.

Please help us to reach a wider audience

Please, tell a friend to start reading along with you!
We welcome your Emails at [email protected]
We’re also reachable on Twitter, Facebook, Amazon, Huffington Post, YouTube and other social-networking sites. You also can Subscribe to our articles via Email or RSS feed.
Plus, there’s a free Monday morning Planner newsletter you may enjoy.

Originally published at readthespirit.com, an online magazine covering religion and cultural diversity.

Why peace activists should care about military veterans

December 18, 2011 by

A young U.S. Army veteran tries two different kinds of artificial limbs at the Walter Reed Army Medical Center. Image via Wikimedia Commons.As the war in Iraq comes to a close at the end of 2011, ReadTheSpirit has heard from clergy nationwide struggling to discern their ministry toward military veterans. For millions of American churchgoers, there is no conflict at all. As a nation, we are proud of men and women who agree to serve our country. However, for Christians with a strong commitment to peacemaking, reaching out to military veterans can feel like glorifying war rather than preaching a message of peace. Beyond that challenge, surveys show that most Americans are not interested in news about our global conflicts or our veterans. A huge number of war-scarred men and women are being ignored by our nation’s leadership—and our religious communities, as well.

ReadTheSpirit invited a nationally known peace activist—the Rev. Rod Reinhart, founder of the World Sabbath of Religious Reconciliation—to write about how he has moved from decades as an anti-war activist to new ministries working with veterans. Was this a leap? As you will read, Rod says: Not really.

Concerned about this issue? Comment at the end of this story or Email [email protected]

Why I Work for Peace
Why I Work with Veterans

By the Rev. Rod Reinhart

ReadTheSpirit Editor David Crumm recently asked how long-time peace activists could devote so much time to caring for hospitalized and homeless veterans. He wanted to know how people who spent so many years opposing war could get so involved with the military and the VA hospitals trying to help veterans facing dire challenges get their lives back on track.

For Christians, the answer is simple, but our paths toward that answer are varied. These recent wars have cost our country far more in treasure and lives than any American could have imagined. We are not much more secure than we were ten years ago. Many of us had deep doubts before the war started. I stood among the activists who opposed war. Now, a decade later as the war in Iraq is coming to an end in late 2011, many more Americans now have deep doubts about what our faith tells us concerning war. Over the past week, National Public Radio opened its call-in lines concerning the U.S. departure from Iraq and a tidal wave of grassroots voices expressed a widespread disillusionment with this conflict.

This is a good time for those of us in the peace movement—and the many Americans who initially supported these wars—to pause and talk. But, we have to remember: A decade after these conflicts began, we are not alone. There’s a huge third group of Americans who must concern us: thousands and thousands of veterans and their families.

Of course, most veterans will return home unwounded. They will re-enter civilian life with great courage and success. But that will not be the story for all veterans. Vast numbers of American men and women have been deeply wounded by these wars. We recognize that our nation must make every effort to care for the soldiers who fight in wars. Our soldiers did not start these wars. They did not ask to be physically and emotionally wounded. The veterans of these wars, especially the wounded, handicapped and the homeless vets, are the most visible war victims of our wars—and we, as peace activists, like all other Americans, have an obligation to care for them.

HEARING THE CHRISTIAN MESSAGE WITH FRESH EARS

At the very center of our Christian faith, there is the deep realization that Jesus Christ suffered on our behalf. Isaiah prophesied that he would bear our grief and carry our sorrow. If you attend a performance of Handel’s Messiah in this holiday season, you will hear those famous phrases echo once again. The Apostle Paul tells us that through his suffering and death we are forgiven and made whole. There is a relationship between Christ’s redemptive suffering, and the suffering of our wounded soldiers.

In spite of our anxieties and doubts about the wars, all of us realize that our soldiers have been fighting and suffering on our behalf. Many of them have borne deep and terrible wounds. Many of them are suffering profound emotional trauma. Many of them are living in the anguish of poverty and homelessness.

Their suffering may not redeem us. We may not be healed by their wounds, but they received these wounds for us. We are certainly called to do what we can to heal their wounds. We are called to help them find a new life, new jobs, and new hope after they return from the war.

HOW WE BEGAN OUR MINISTRY WITH VETERANS

My two Episcopal congregations just south of Chicago believe that caring for veterans, and their families, is a vital part of our ministry. St. Clement’s, the church in Harvey Illinois, feeds many veterans every month through our weekly pantry program. St. Joseph/St. Aidan, the church in Blue Island, runs a veterans-winter-survival-gear drive every Christmas. The church works to make sure that homeless veterans have the warm coats and supplies they need to survive in Chicago’s bitter winter cold. This year, the families of veterans and congregations all across Chicago gave more than 300 large bags of coats, blankets and other gear to help our vets.

We often work with Chicago’s VA hospitals and with church and community leaders to raise awareness about homeless vets. The deacons and many parishes in the Episcopal Diocese of Chicago have become actively involved in caring for homeless veterans. Lutheran Churches and other denominations in our region actively work to help the vets. Christians and peace activists nationwide are called to help the men and women who gave so much for us.

The relationship between veterans and peace activists is long and complicated. While many people try to reject the military altogether, we should always remember that some of the most effective advocates for peace have been members of anti-war veterans groups. Many veterans and peace activists were deeply distressed with the ways that some governmental leaders, especially under President George W. Bush, ignored the needs of returning veterans. Therefore, justice for veterans had to become a deep concern for the peace movement.

LINKING ARMS AMONG ACTIVISTS

Many peace activists have a long history in the movement. Although growing up in a military family, my faith in God convinced me at an early age that I could not, in good conscience, support violence and war. Ever since the 1960’s I have been active in movements for peace, civil rights, and labor. As a member of the United Auto Workers in Detroit, I worked the assembly line and walked the picket line. I demonstrated against the war in Vietnam, and served on the local and national boards of several peace organizations. I have also been a long-time member of the Episcopal Peace Fellowship.

I stood on the front line with Coretta King and Ralph Abernathy at a Boston civil rights march. We faced an attack of club-wielding mounted police. I stood arm in arm with Dr. Spock and Phil Berrigan on the steps of the Pentagon. Across the years, I have run a variety of religious programs for peace and justice. In Detroit, I ran a vital ministry advocating for justice and respect for people with AIDS. I also created The World Sabbath, the first interfaith holy day of peace among the broad spectrum of races and religions of the world.

With all of my involvement in the peace movement, I also have been involved for a long time with veteran’s concerns. In the early 1980’s I was pastor of St. Andrew’s Episcopal Church in Detroit’s Cass Corridor. There, I met Rob Tyner, the former lead-singer with the MC5. Rob and I worked together to organize a series of community concerts at the church. Rob had been one of the most outspoken opponents of the war during the 1960’s and 70’s. After the war, he became an outspoken advocate for the veterans. Even though President Nixon and the nation generally ignored and mistreated veterans, I was proud to help Rob, and Chapter 9 of the Vietnam Veterans of America, create programs to bring justice and respect to the vets.

Many long-term peace activists are just as dedicated as I have been, and most of us realize that our soldiers have been deeply victimized by war. They have been trained to kill, and forced to serve many tours of duty in places of endlessly horrific violence. They have seldom been given the kinds of therapy, retraining and guidance they need when they return to civilian life. We are not surprised at the deep wounds and emotional conflict the vets exhibit. So we raise our voice and tell the world that we must care for these victims, just as we would care for any victims of war.

A NEW VETERANS FELLOWSHIP & TRANSFORMING CHURCH PRACTICES

CLICK THE IMAGE to visit the website for the Veterans FellowshipOur work in Illinois allowed me to become more involved with ministry to veterans. I met Adam Navarro-Lowery, and James Redden. Both of them are Episcopalians and both are Iraq-war era veterans. Adam and James were working with our friends from Jesse Brown VA Medical Center to make sure those veterans of the Iraq and Afghanistan wars received the best care and support possible.

The three of us established the Episcopal Veterans Fellowship (EVF) in the Diocese of Chicago. This Fellowship encourages the church to take a more active role in caring for troubled veterans. Three years ago, EVF wrote a new policy statement on ministry to veterans. This statement was accepted as official policy by our diocesan convention. This statement was accepted as national church policy at the last Episcopal Church General Convention. Our bishop, Jeff Lee, and many parishes around the Diocese of Chicago have become actively involved in ministry to veterans.

While the majority of veterans have successfully returned to their former civilian lives, many are still struggling. Leaders of government, churches, and medical and community organizations are deeply concerned with the rate of suicide, homelessness, PTSD and poverty among returning veterans. In the midst of this Holiday Season, let us remember that Christians, peace activists, military and governmental leaders all have a responsibility to speak out and take action on behalf of our veterans. They gave so much for us and we must do what we can for them.

NEAR THE MIDWEST? PLAN TO ATTEND WORLD SABBATH 2012

CLICK THE IMAGE to visit the Sabbath website.Our readers live across the U.S. and in English-speaking countries around the world. Small groups in countries as distant as New Zealand and Panama have discussed ReadTheSpirit books. The whole point of the annual World Sabbath, scheduled for January 29 in 2012, is to celebrate the spiritual ties that bind our globe. While the World Sabbath liturgies have been celebrated in many places—the original home base for the World Sabbath is Michigan and founder Rod Reinhart will be attending the Michigan event this year.
Read about the 2012 World Sabbath and plan to attend!

Please help us to reach a wider audience

Please, tell a friend to start reading along with you!
We welcome your Emails at [email protected]
We’re also reachable on Twitter, Facebook, Amazon, Huffington Post, YouTube and other social-networking sites. You also can Subscribe to our articles via Email or RSS feed.
Plus, there’s a free Monday morning Planner newsletter you may enjoy.

Originally published at readthespirit.com, an online magazine covering religion and cultural diversity.

Why we must see PBS ‘Where Soldiers Come From’

November 6, 2011 by

Young men who have been friends since childhood in northern Michigan wind up going to Afghanistan with the U.S. Army in the PBS documentary Where Soldiers Come From. Photo by Heather Courtney, courtesy of PBS-POV.Marking Veterans Day 2011, the PBS network’s POV documentary series is airing the deeply moving documentary Where Soldiers Come From—on Wednesday November 10, the evening before Veterans Day. (The PBS-POV website has more information about the film, including local showtimes.)

Why should we see this troubling documentary?

Where Soldiers Come From vividly brings to life the hard lessons we are learning, as a nation, about the legacy of a decade at war. The documentary follows a group of young friends, and their families, from the rural Midwest near Michigan’s Lake Superior. The filmmakers follow these young men for four years—into the National Guard, into Afghanistan, then back home where they struggle with the aftermath of war and invisible injuries to their brains from IED explosions.

We know these stories represent the experiences of thousands upon thousands of families. One of the most disturbing national reports, this autumn, is Pew’s War and Sacrifice in the Post-9/11 Era. Pew found that half of post-9/11 veterans “feel strains in family relations,” and “feel irritable or angry,” and “have problems re-entering civilian life.” More than a third say they suffer from post traumatic stress.

In the first hour of this documentary, we are won over by these good-looking, promising young guys. One is a talented artist. All of them seem to hold great potential. Then, in Afghanistan, they spend month after month on patrols to find and deactivate IEDs. They travel in heavily armored vehicles and are blown up repeatedly. None of them comes home with a visible wound. But, in the final half hour of the film, the trauma in their lives is obvious.

One of the friends is shown wandering along an icy Great Lakes shoreline with his friends. He says, “It’s tough to try to tell people that I’m now an anti-social nut case who doesn’t want to go anywhwere. You don’t want people to know that. You want to try to figure out why you’re like that …” He looks at his friends and admits, “We don’t even talk about it with each other.”

At ReadTheSpirit, we are not alone in drawing these kinds of conclusions about the film. Our friends Frederic and Mary Ann Brussat at the Spirituality & Practice website were so angry after watching the film that their review of Where Soldiers Come From concludes, “Given the bloated budgets of the military, it is a crime to see the cruel and inhumane treatment of these soldiers after they return from hell.”

Is the movie a downer that’s tough to watch?

Director Heather Courtney films the portion of the documentary Where Soldiers Come From that occurs in Afghanistan. Photo by Bryan Quello, courtesy of PBS-POV.If you are sensitive to R-rated language, you should know that the film is peppered with the “f” word. Truly, this film is a sharp-edged call to action on behalf of veterans. Now that our nation has fought these wars, we all need to demand greater assistance for our neighbors who agreed to serve in these campaigns.

But, there’s also something compelling about this story. If you enjoy slice-of-life buddy movies like “Clerks” or “Diner,” then you’ll appreciate this slice of real life. As the documentary opens, we see these guys scouting locations for their artist friend to spray paint graffiti. We see them casually talking about the good deal they’ve found in joining the National Guard. We watch them enjoying a training run in the National Guard as if they are facing hostlile outposts in Iraq or Afghanistan. Once they are in Afghanistan, the filmmakers show them both at their U.S. Army base and on patrol. Then, we come home with them and watch these guys try to resume everyday life.

You’ll get to know several of them by name and you’ll get to know their families. You’re likely to discover scenes that are a lot like your own life. And, when that happens, then Where Soldiers Come From has accomplished its mission. No longer are polling reports about the dire need for assistance among veterans’ families just impersonal facts on a page.

These are our neighbors. We can’t forget what we, as a nation, have done to them.

Originally published at readthespirit.com, an online journal covering religion and cultural diversity.

Love comics & animation? Meet Wham! Bam! Islam!

October 17, 2011 by

PBS’ 10th season of Independent Lens kicked off recently with a delightful and inspiring documentary: Wham! Bam! Islam! Our recommendation: Don’t miss this film! If you’ve already missed it on PBS, read this story to discover other ways you can enjoy The 99 and Wham! Bam! Islam! The documentary tells the triumphant story of one Muslim scholar—a Kuwaiti psychologist—who was driven to create new kinds of heroes for Muslim children around the world. Here is the PBS Independent Lens homepage where you can read more and check on PBS resources related to the film.

Dr. Naif Al-Mutawa realized that Islam strictly forbids any depictions of the Prophet Muhammad or of God—but Islam has one distinctive cultural feature known to Muslims around the world. Islam counts 99 “names” or “attributes” of God. These names include Rahman (compassionate or gracious), Rahim (merciful), Rauf (the kind). These 99 are as well known to Muslims as the first names of their friends and relatives, who carry these names chosen from the list of 99 with them throughout life as an inspiration to live as noble men and women.

In the new documentary Wham! Bam! Islam! Naif explains that, as a father himself and a psychologist, he was deeply disturbed by the culture of martyrdom he saw across much of the Muslim world. Instead, he wanted to create a Marvel Comics-class universe of comic books, cartoons and other products celebrating the 99, transformed into superheroes. Wham! Bam! Islam! tells about his rollercoaster ride over the past five years from huge success to near disaster to fresh new-media strategies and renewed success.

Who should make a point of seeing this film?
Anyone who … cares about cross-cultural competency,
… wants to understand the spread of new media,
… cares about the future of Islam in global culture,
… teaches children about diversity,
… loves comics, graphic novels and animation.

ReadTheSpirit has been following religiously diverse comics and graphic novels since our founding in 2007, when we first reported on The 99. Before becoming Editor of ReadTheSpirit, I reported on comics as part of my assignment covering religion in America for major newspapers. Comics rank among the most potent sources of fuel in popular culture around the world. Most of the 20 top-grossing movies of all time, now, are based on comicbook heroes. As a religion-news correspondent, I have traveled widely in Muslim countries and the culture of martyrdom that disturbed Naif is obvious everywhere one travels. Many major Muslim centers around the world commemorate martyrs—much like traditional Christian churches enshrine martyrs. The main difference is that many of the Muslim martyrs depicted in Muslim hot spots around the world are young men and women who died in various forms of political violence.

Naif is wise to try to move childrens’ eyes higher—to the noble heroes of their faith. Many Muslim children bear the names of the heroes in the 99. The potential here is powerful—so, watch this documentary! Get involved in promoting awareness of this alternative, inspiring cosmos of Muslim heroes!

WANT MORE ABOUT THE 99?

What are the 99 in Muslim tradition? Wikipedia is a good starting point, listing all 99 with further links to many of the names.

What is The 99 comic project? Again, the Wikipedia overview is packed with information and links.

Want more on religion and comics? ReadTheSpirit has published many stories on these themes since 2007. But, this early series on comics, which includes The 99, still ranks among our most informative.

Want to connect with The 99’s mother lode of news? If you’re drawn to this comics series, and especially if you are an educator or community leader interested in this creative idea, then visit and bookmark The 99 website, which is the portal to all new developments on this project.

Want The 99 in Facebook? Here’s the fan page in Facebook with links currently to the documentary film.

Want to buy the movie? Educators and community leaders may want to jump over to iTunes and buy the documentary, which currently is only $9.99. You’ll find this film useful in classes and small groups. You can search the title itself in iTunes—or, the 99 website and Facebook page also currently link to iTunes.

Originally published at readthespirit.com, an online journal covering religion and cultural diversity.

 

 

How your congregation can capitalize on class warfare

October 13, 2011 by

Iraq War scene from the new documentary The Shock Doctrine.Class warfare!?!
At ReadTheSpirit, we report on religion, diversity and cross-cultural issues—so, for example, we just published a week-long OurValues series exploring Americans’ attitudes toward the Occupy Wall Street protest movement. One major question keeps arising: Is this class warfare?

Our answer: While no one is firing actual bullets, the war of words clearly is raging on both sides. Tea Party and Occupy Wall Street movements both have marched in our streets. Most recently, we’ve seen the Wall Street protest banners. And, as OurValues just reported, Republican presidential candidate Herman Cain is dismissing Wall Street protesters as “jealous” of wealthy Americans. Cain doesn’t even credit the protesters with legitimately trying to speak for America’s growing millions of poor people. Meanwhile, a top Wall Street Journal editor appeared on National Public Radio saying that the two sides facing off across the income gap were “winners” and “losers”—not wealthy and poor people. Those millions of losers are just sore that they’re not wealthy and they should get over their griping, the WSJ editor sniffed.

Our recommendation: Congregations nationwide have a golden opportunity to discuss these issues in small groups, promoting civil dialogue and digging deep for underlying spiritual values that may provide a pathway toward some resolution. Jesus said far more about wealth than nearly any other subject he addressed. That focus in Jesus’ ministry sprang directly from his roots as a rabbi well-versed in Torah study. Judaism, to this day, has a great body of moral teaching about wealth and social justice. Right now, start organizing your small group. Feel free to copy the OurValues series to spark discussion.

TODAY: We also are recommending two sure-fire discussion-starting documentaries that you may want to watch with your small group.

CHARLES FERGUSON’S AWARD-WINNING INSIDE JOB

Inside Job is available either in DVD or Blu-ray from Amazon. In 108 minutes, this PG-13-rated documentary takes us on a supersonic-speed journey through the network of top players on Wall Street, into the halls of power in Washington D.C. and even down into some less-savory corners of high-rolling culture in America. Charles Ferguson’s basic thesis is that many of these power brokers are predators, even amassing wealth at the expense of their own clients and constituents. Why is Ferguson qualified to make such a film? He began his career by earning a doctorate in political science from MIT. In the mid 1990s, he founded and later sold a successful Internet company. In recent years, he has returned to his first passion and has been working on documentaries exploring social-justice themes.

We are not alone in recommending Inside Job as a discussion starter. Roger Ebert gave the film 4-out-of-4 stars and called it “an angry, well-argued documentary about how the American financial industry set out deliberately to defraud the ordinary American investor.” The New York Times’ A.O. Scott praised the movie, too. Scott said that the movie feels “like a classroom lecture at times, but by the end Mr. Ferguson has summoned the scourging moral force of a pulpit-shaking sermon. That he delivers it with rigor, restraint and good humor makes his case all the more devastating.” Then, of course, there’s the fact that Inside Job won the Academy Award for Best Documentary.

NAOMI KLEIN AND THE SHOCK DOCTRINE

The Shock Doctrine is newly available from Amazon on DVD. Because of the Oscar and rave newspaper reviews, Inside Job is well known nationwide. In contrast, The Shock Doctrine: Disaster Capitalism in Action is a less-well-known film by Michael Winterbottom and Mat Whitecross, based on a book by Canadian journalist and social activist Naomi Klein. (The 78-minute film is not rated and does contain some violent images from news footage.) The book by Klein is still available from Amazon in paperback and Kindle editions. Ebert, Scott and other top American news publications, so far, haven’t posted full reviews of Shock Doctrine. But, again, we are not alone in recommending this documentary as a great choice for small groups in congregations. Our colleagues Fred and Mary Ann Brussat at the website Spirituality & Practice also identified the potential for great discussion. The Brussats write, in part: 

If you are troubled by the growing gap between the rich and the poor in America and elsewhere, this documentary will clear some things up for you about how the powerful have rigged the political game to give themselves even more wealth. If you were angered by the use of torture by the U.S., you will see how it has been used for years as an instrument of oppression in various houses of pain around the world. If you have been turned off by American imperialism, you will see how the so-called spread of freedom has resulted in staggering profits for the favorite corporations of political leaders in Washington, D.C.

You can tell from this opening paragraph of the Brussats’ review that, compared to Inside Job, Shock Doctrine is a far broader examination of injustice and oppression in the 20th century. Klein and the filmmakers begin by taking us to Chile in the 1960s, where top American advisors helped Chilean military leaders roll out some of the late-20th-century’s most devastating strategies for toppling unpopular regimes and terrifying political opponents. Then, the film connects the dots with leaders inside President George W. Bush’s administration, the War in Iraq and Afghanistan, and the eventual Wall Street implosion.

Obviously, not everyone in your small group will agree with the arguments presented in these documentaries. That’s the whole point! Dig deep into scriptures. Encourage civil conversation. Your small-group members are likely to thank you for a refreshing opportunity to weigh these issues without … well, without actual Class Warfare.

Please help us to reach a wider audience

Conversation is far better than the dangerous shouting matches we’ve been witnessing in our global culture. So, please, tell a friend to start reading along with you!
We welcome your Emails at [email protected]
We’re also reachable on Twitter, Facebook, Amazon, Huffington Post, YouTube and other social-networking sites. You also can Subscribe to our articles via Email or RSS feed.
Plus, there’s a free Monday morning Planner newsletter you may enjoy.

Originally published at readthespirit.com, an online journal covering religion and cultural diversity.

Carrie Newcomer blends our melodies East and West

October 9, 2011 by

See the brilliant golden scarf blowing in the wind on the front cover of Carrie Newcomer’s latest album?
Envision that scarf circling the world and connecting the spiritual hopes of men and women everywhere. The golden fabric is a metaphor for the new music that Newcomer and her collaborators, the Khan family, are weaving with colorful threads from American folk and Indian classical traditions.
“Music is a common thread,” says Amjad Ali Khan, a world-renowned Indian musician and a chief collaborator.

These new lyrics weave images. The title song, Everything Is Everywhere, begins with vivid images of lentils, rice and hot-spiced tea in a typical Indian market—but quickly takes us halfway around the world to booths at an Indiana farmer’s market close to Newcomer’s home. Then, the music is performed on both American folk and Indian classical instruments, mainly the sarod, the specialty of the Khan family.

What does this East-West collaboration sound like?

BUDDHIST TEACHER JACK KORNFIELD ON MUSIC’S POWER

ReadTheSpirit just welcomed popular Buddhist teacher Jack Kornfield to talk about his new book, A Lamp in the Darkness. In the course of our interview, Jack talked about choosing uplifting music as an important way to shape our spiritual path. Here is what he said:
The music we play in our homes is part of the way we create sanctuary and refuge and this makes a huge difference. We are forming our inner sound track, the inner songs and voices we want to keep playing for ourselves. There is a New Yorker cartoon that shows a car crossing the Yukon and a sign says: Your Own Tedious Thoughts—Next 200 Miles. Some inner sound tracks are full of confusion and despair. Mark Twain once said: “My life has been full of terrible misfortunes—most of which never happened.” We can remain lost in fear and despair, or we can make a point of intentionally building our inner sound track. The music that we play is part of this. The very cells in our body can be nourished by music.

CARRIE NEWCOMER ON MUSIC’S POWER

We will publish our interview with Carrie Newcomer later this week, but here is one of Carrie’s descriptions of music’s influence In our lives and our global community:
With music and with story, people leave their hearts open just a little longer. They want to hear that song. That’s what I find. We could climb up on soap boxes and start expounding about the world—and people would close their doors right away. But if we greet them with a human-sized song and story, people will leave their hearts open just a little bit longer. They are willing to join you for a moment, to swim around in the music—and maybe discover this new water isn’t so bad!

To mark the tenth anniversary of 9/11, we published the lyrics to one song from this new album.
Today, we’re sharing the lyrics of the title song …

Everything is Everywhere

Words and Music by Carrie Newcomer

MARKETS AROUND THE WORLD: Top, a colorful market stall in India. Bottom, a farmers’ market in the American Midwest. Both images in public domain. Courtesy Wikimedia Commons.There were lentils, rice and hot-spiced tea,
The sunset on the Arabian Sea,
Women swayed in yellows, blues and greens,
The finest thing I’ve seen.

There’s rhythm to the rains they come and go,
I heard Bollywood and Dylan on the radio,
The driver’s quoting Sufi poetry,
There’s ribbons tied around the trees.

Would it be so wrong, could it be that bad,
To hope for a little more happy than sad?
This is more that I can hold or bare,
Cause everything is everywhere.

On Saturdays in Indiana,
There’s a farmer’s market in my town,
There’s always music, kids and corn and beans,
The finest thing that I’ve ever seen.

When I was troubled a good friend stopped by,
She brought some soup and then she sat awhile,
Love is love it’s here and there,
Everything is everywhere.

Would it be so wrong, could it be that bad,
To hope for a little more happy than sad?
This is more that I can hold or bare,
Cause everything is everywhere.

There is still so much work to do,
Armloads of sorrow yes, this is true,
But I take heart when I despair,
Miracles are everywhere.

I like sweet salt, soda lime,
I love the patterns of flowers and vines,
From the train I watch the new moon rise,
The reflection of my grateful eyes.

Would it be so wrong, could it be that bad,
To hope for a little more happy than sad?
This is more that I can hold or bare,
Cause everything is everywhere.

Remember: You can pre-order Everything is Everywhere from Amazon now.

Please help us to reach a wider audience

Conversation is far better than the dangerous shouting matches we’ve been witnessing in our global culture. So, please, tell a friend to start reading along with you!
We welcome your Emails at [email protected]
We’re also reachable on Twitter, Facebook, Amazon, Huffington Post, YouTube and other social-networking sites. You also can Subscribe to our articles via Email or RSS feed.
Plus, there’s a free Monday morning Planner newsletter you may enjoy.

Originally published at readthespirit.com, an online journal covering religion and cultural diversity.