Comments on: Resurrection and Iraq http://www.lookingforfaith.org/blog/2008/resurrection-and-iraq Religion and spirituality from a Unitarian Universalist perspective Tue, 13 May 2008 00:10:37 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.3.3 By: Shelby Meyerhoff http://www.lookingforfaith.org/blog/2008/resurrection-and-iraq#comment-13041 Shelby Meyerhoff Thu, 27 Mar 2008 17:43:50 +0000 http://www.lookingforfaith.org/blog/2008/resurrection-and-iraq#comment-13041 Hi Jules, Thank you for serving our country as a member of the Marines, and for sharing part of your experience here. I'm finding some hope in hearing that so many of us are heartsick at the loss of life and longing for an end. We're all struggling together to discern the path to peace, and to be a part of making that peace real, and it's not easy. Hi Jules,

Thank you for serving our country as a member of the Marines, and for sharing part of your experience here. I’m finding some hope in hearing that so many of us are heartsick at the loss of life and longing for an end. We’re all struggling together to discern the path to peace, and to be a part of making that peace real, and it’s not easy.

]]> By: julian zamora http://www.lookingforfaith.org/blog/2008/resurrection-and-iraq#comment-13037 julian zamora Thu, 27 Mar 2008 15:39:05 +0000 http://www.lookingforfaith.org/blog/2008/resurrection-and-iraq#comment-13037 This post hit pretty close to home. I used to believe the most effective way to have peace is to prepare for war. I was in the Marines at the time. I remember hearing in late 2001 about a Marine helicopter that went down in Afghanistan. It made me sick to my stomach because just a year early I had been part of the command that recruited one of those young men who died in that crash. I didn't know him personally but I helped get him in through my advertising efforts. I have hope for peace but I struggle like you said, with what is the best way to respond to the war in Iraq. It is so difficult to know what would maintain or resolve to peace in that region. It's difficult to respond internally and find peace within myself. This post hit pretty close to home.
I used to believe the most effective way to have peace is to prepare for war. I was in the Marines at the time.

I remember hearing in late 2001 about a Marine helicopter that went down in Afghanistan. It made me sick to my stomach because just a year early I had been part of the command that recruited one of those young men who died in that crash. I didn’t know him personally but I helped get him in through my advertising efforts.

I have hope for peace but I struggle like you said, with what is the best way to respond to the war in Iraq. It is so difficult to know what would maintain or resolve to peace in that region.

It’s difficult to respond internally and find peace within myself.

]]> By: Shelby Meyerhoff http://www.lookingforfaith.org/blog/2008/resurrection-and-iraq#comment-13011 Shelby Meyerhoff Wed, 26 Mar 2008 14:29:58 +0000 http://www.lookingforfaith.org/blog/2008/resurrection-and-iraq#comment-13011 Terri and Elizabeth, Thank you for sharing these reflections. It's comforting to hear from you that I'm not alone in the sense of being deeply committed to peace, yet unsure about what the best strategy is for responding to the war in Iraq. Elizabeth, "Sometimes the stone is rolled away and the body is gone. I just hope it starts happening a little more often." -- me too. As I was reading what you wrote, I thought also of Bill Schultz's speech at General Assembly several years ago in which he talked about the challenge of having a theology that deals with torture (and other experiences on that level of evil). Terri, I'm sorry about your childhood friend. "But this war has more than anything caused me to look internally, and to explore what it means to live nonviolently, to take on the practice of peace in my own life….when the world at large feels so complex and its riddle so unsolvable, it is in struggling with others in this that I find hope." That's very beautiful. It reminds me of Thich Nhat Hanh and some of his ideas about cultivating internal peace as a way of starting to make peace in the world. Terri and Elizabeth, Thank you for sharing these reflections. It’s comforting to hear from you that I’m not alone in the sense of being deeply committed to peace, yet unsure about what the best strategy is for responding to the war in Iraq.

Elizabeth, “Sometimes the stone is rolled away and the body is gone. I just hope it starts happening a little more often.” — me too. As I was reading what you wrote, I thought also of Bill Schultz’s speech at General Assembly several years ago in which he talked about the challenge of having a theology that deals with torture (and other experiences on that level of evil).

Terri, I’m sorry about your childhood friend.

“But this war has more than anything caused me to look internally, and to explore what it means to live nonviolently, to take on the practice of peace in my own life….when the world at large feels so complex and its riddle so unsolvable, it is in struggling with others in this that I find hope.” That’s very beautiful. It reminds me of Thich Nhat Hanh and some of his ideas about cultivating internal peace as a way of starting to make peace in the world.

]]> By: Elizabeth http://www.lookingforfaith.org/blog/2008/resurrection-and-iraq#comment-12972 Elizabeth Mon, 24 Mar 2008 21:44:49 +0000 http://www.lookingforfaith.org/blog/2008/resurrection-and-iraq#comment-12972 Thanks for this post, Shelby. I think it highlights this important tension between hope - of stones rolled away and resurrection, and acknowledging the thousands of lives and situations where miracles didn't happen - where on the third day, the body was there, the stone untouched. It is so hard to balance between those two places - somehow holding them both up as real and present. I was so so sad the other day on the fifth ann. walking through Harvard Yard and there was a small contingent with banners and megaphones (I thought of you, five years ago as an undergraduate) and just feeling how inadequate their response, and my own, has been to this war - to the world - in the face of injustice. Not inadequate in a moral sense, but in a practical sense - for those million plus who have died. But I suppose, as you point out, what other choice to we have but to hope for the possibility that chance can happen, might happen. Sometimes the stone is rolled away and the body is gone. I just hope it starts happening a little more often. Thanks for this post, Shelby. I think it highlights this important tension between hope - of stones rolled away and resurrection, and acknowledging the thousands of lives and situations where miracles didn’t happen - where on the third day, the body was there, the stone untouched. It is so hard to balance between those two places - somehow holding them both up as real and present. I was so so sad the other day on the fifth ann. walking through Harvard Yard and there was a small contingent with banners and megaphones (I thought of you, five years ago as an undergraduate) and just feeling how inadequate their response, and my own, has been to this war - to the world - in the face of injustice. Not inadequate in a moral sense, but in a practical sense - for those million plus who have died. But I suppose, as you point out, what other choice to we have but to hope for the possibility that chance can happen, might happen. Sometimes the stone is rolled away and the body is gone. I just hope it starts happening a little more often.

]]> By: Terri http://www.lookingforfaith.org/blog/2008/resurrection-and-iraq#comment-12969 Terri Mon, 24 Mar 2008 20:39:32 +0000 http://www.lookingforfaith.org/blog/2008/resurrection-and-iraq#comment-12969 Thank you for this post. As a lifelong pacifist (and a Peace & Justice Studies minor in college), I have struggled with my own response to this war as well...I lost a childhood friend in Iraq, and have had cousins over there, as well...advocacy for 'bring the troops home' has seemed an insufficient response to the root causes of violence. Particularly as this is a "lose-lose" situation. (I have also been unure of what to advocate...)I've been struggling on how to articulate my response to the war this past week too... hope is one response, and I do have hope. I have to. But this war has more than anything caused me to look internally, and to explore what it means to live nonviolently, to take on the practice of peace in my own life....when the world at large feels so complex and its riddle so unsolvable, it is in struggling with others in this that I find hope. Thank you for this post. As a lifelong pacifist (and a Peace & Justice Studies minor in college), I have struggled with my own response to this war as well…I lost a childhood friend in Iraq, and have had cousins over there, as well…advocacy for ‘bring the troops home’ has seemed an insufficient response to the root causes of violence. Particularly as this is a “lose-lose” situation. (I have also been unure of what to advocate…)I’ve been struggling on how to articulate my response to the war this past week too… hope is one response, and I do have hope. I have to. But this war has more than anything caused me to look internally, and to explore what it means to live nonviolently, to take on the practice of peace in my own life….when the world at large feels so complex and its riddle so unsolvable, it is in struggling with others in this that I find hope.

]]> By: Shelby Meyerhoff http://www.lookingforfaith.org/blog/2008/resurrection-and-iraq#comment-12957 Shelby Meyerhoff Mon, 24 Mar 2008 14:29:23 +0000 http://www.lookingforfaith.org/blog/2008/resurrection-and-iraq#comment-12957 Hi Terry and Ms. Kitty, Thanks for stopping by. Terry, I am hoping that Iraq can experience peace sooner than several hundred years from now. The situation looks bleak, for sure. But there are countries that have moved from civil war to peace in shorter periods of time, so let's hope that such an opening for peace presents itself in Iraq (and that our leaders act wisely when there is an opportunity to make peace). Hi Terry and Ms. Kitty, Thanks for stopping by. Terry, I am hoping that Iraq can experience peace sooner than several hundred years from now. The situation looks bleak, for sure. But there are countries that have moved from civil war to peace in shorter periods of time, so let’s hope that such an opening for peace presents itself in Iraq (and that our leaders act wisely when there is an opportunity to make peace).

]]> By: mskitty http://www.lookingforfaith.org/blog/2008/resurrection-and-iraq#comment-12936 mskitty Sun, 23 Mar 2008 20:48:10 +0000 http://www.lookingforfaith.org/blog/2008/resurrection-and-iraq#comment-12936 What a powerful statement, Shelby, thanks. What a powerful statement, Shelby, thanks.

]]> By: Terry http://www.lookingforfaith.org/blog/2008/resurrection-and-iraq#comment-12935 Terry Sun, 23 Mar 2008 20:37:04 +0000 http://www.lookingforfaith.org/blog/2008/resurrection-and-iraq#comment-12935 There is a cycle in life that requires winter before spring. That recognizes, as Ron White notes that "you cannot fix stupid" but over time, the world moves on. Hope is justified, not by faith but by experience and reason. I see no hope for near term "peace" in Iraq but I see long term hope for peace in Iraq as Religion fades as a major factor in Middle East culture. Long term it this case means several hundred years. There is a cycle in life that requires winter before spring. That recognizes, as Ron White notes that “you cannot fix stupid” but over time, the world moves on. Hope is justified, not by faith but by experience and reason. I see no hope for near term “peace” in Iraq but I see long term hope for peace in Iraq as Religion fades as a major factor in Middle East culture. Long term it this case means several hundred years.

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