No More Widows from War

A BIBLICAL SISTER IN SPIRIT IS the widow who importuned for justice in the parable of the widow and the unjust judge in Luke 18. After a judge had granted justice to the widow so she would stop bothering him, Jesus said, "Will not God grant justice to his chosen ones who cry to him day and night? ... I tell you, God will quickly grant justice to them."

I keep the image of the importuning widow in mind as I think about the women in the Middle East and the United States who are working for and demanding a just and peaceful resolution of the confrontation between Iraq and the United States. As women of faith in the United States, Church Women United, an ecumenical women's organization, is concerned about the impact of war on women's lives here in the United States and in the Middle East. We have been involved in peacemaking since our founding just days after Pearl Harbor, in December 1941. Our first official act was to send a telegram to the president, Franklin Delano Roosevelt, calling upon the U.S. government "to build a world order based on love and justice without which there can be no peace."

Today, in another time of tension and possible war, Church Women United is urging women of faith to "say no" to war by signing a peace petition opposing the massive military buildup in the Gulf. Our Palestinian sisters asked us to raise our voices against sending our young men and women to the Gulf. "As mothers, wives, sisters, and daughters of the young people already in the Gulf, spare your people and our people the tragedy of another war ... Let your voices be heard now, before it is too late."

It is critical that we, women of faith, raise our voices now to prevent a war. Like the importuning widow, we must stand firm before the authorities in our opposition to war. We know that it is our children and the children of our sisters in the Abrahamic faith traditions who will kill and be killed. Women know the fruits of war are death and destruction, not life. War creates prostitutes, refugees, orphans, and widows.

Bill Moyers, in a recent Frontline, provided a forum about the Gulf crisis for Springfield, Massachusetts residents. It was the women who stood up and said, "No, I don't want war, because of my son or my husband. It is wrong." No complex analysis or geopolitical justification but a straightforward, moral reflection: War is wrong.

I JOINED WITH other church leaders at the Sojourners press conference in October 1990 to raise my voice against a continued U.S. military presence in the Gulf. I raised my voice against military action and for diplomatic action.

The United States should trust the diplomatic and economic measures adopted by the United Nations as the means to resolve this conflict. The United States should urge the U.N. secretary general to make resolution of this conflict his highest priority.

Let the United States show real leadership in calling an international conference to work on the other peace and justice issues in the Middle East, especially the conflict between Israel and the Palestinians. If we want to be leaders of the world, let us renounce the use of force and take up the cause of peace!

Anthony Lewis in a New York Times editorial noted that women have doubts about a war but that these voices are not heard by the establishment press and TV talk shows. We, the invisible voices in this national debate about war, must raise our voices.

Church Women United is working to change the priorities of this society so that women and children aren't poor or, in biblical terms, that they can have an abundant life as in the realm of God preached by Jesus Christ. Women and children over the past decade have been busily entering the ranks of the poor, not just in the United States but everywhere. Military build-ups, continued troop presence, and a war mean that the peace dividend disappears before the American public ever had a chance to discuss what they wanted to do with it.

Women must raise their voices to say no to war, no to military interventionism, no to continued U.S. military presence in the Middle East, and yes to sisters and brothers everywhere who want a peaceful resolution to the conflict. Standing strong, we must pray, write, march, call, and talk, so that it is not another time when mothers are burying their children instead of children burying their mothers.

Patricia J. Rumer was general director of Church Women United in New York City when this article appeared.