Violence

"Let's listen in now to the Marine Corps Band," the CNN commentator says. The camera pans across the Washington Mall. People, as far as the eye can see, waiting for the historic moment, the inauguration of the 44th President of the United States of America, the first African American to ever hold this high office.

On the first day of the Obama administration, our newly elected president signed the order to close down Guatanamo. Scores of human rights advocates were in ecstasy. For those of us committed to peace and social justice, the words Guatanamo and Abu Ghraib invoke images of shock and horror. How could we as a nation have stooped so low? Where was the outcry from the Body of Christ?

I have been studying the civil rights movement for over a decade, and continue to be amazed by the stories of courage and sacrifice that marked that heroic era in United States history.

Peace actions often evoke disgust, anger, and fear from the uninvolved bystander. Epithets are hurled at the demonstrators, with coward and traitor perhaps the favorites. Why should advocating peace evoke fear from the bystander?