War is a road to nowhere, argues Archbishop

From Ekklesia 24/08/06

In one of the most outspoken statements against violence yet heard from a senior figure in England’s established church, Archbishop of York Dr John Sentamu has declared that war solves nothing in the long run, and contradicts God’s love embodied in Jesus. Dr Sentamu was preaching earlier this week at York Minster, following a seven-day vigil for Middle East Peace. Britain’s first black archbishop set up tent in his Cathedral, shaved his head, was anointed with oil, and went on a water-and-glucose only fast.

In his sermon, circulated by World Faith News and reproduced on the Ekklesia website, Dr Sentamu said he had been “humbled by the thousands of people - of faith and of no faith - who have supported me over the past seven days with their presence, prayers and solidarity. I have always known that violence is not on and after seven days of fasting and praying I am more persuaded than ever that wars and violence cannot lead to a long lasting solution,” he explained. “Hate cannot defeat hate; the only way to overcome an enemy is to make them a friend.”

The Archbishop said that “[i]n our peacemaking efforts the real problem is not one of re-inventing the wheel. The danger is re-inventing the flat tyre. This kills.” He went on: “God's voice is to be heard in the voice of an eight-year-old Lebanese girl, injured and orphaned who had lost her eye in an air strike and in the voice of an eighty-five year old Israeli woman, sick, poor and unable to move out of reach of the Katusha rockets.”

Responding to questions posed to faith by the terrible events in the Lebanon, he declared: “Where is God? Surely God is being violated with those who are damaged by the consequences of violence and being diminished with those who enact it.” Archbishop Rowan Williams has also spoken out against the idea that violence saves, and has said that the voices of the victims and the wounded are the ones that should shape our human and political responses. The Christian churches have traditionally been divided between pacifists (a minority) and those who pursue the limiting ethic of a ‘just war’.

But the fresh options of conflict transformation, active peacemaking and radical non-violence have been growing in Christian circles lately. Guardian newspaper commentator and religious affairs journalist Stephen Bates commented on Ekklesia several months ago that the official teaching of many churches, including the Roman Catholic Church, had moved closer to the wholesale rejection of violence in recent years. There has also been growing theological criticism of ‘the myth of redemptive violence’ that has grown out of deformed religiosity and assumed mainstream cultural significance in so-called secular societies. After the Iraq kidnap crisis, in which four Christian peacemakers were held hostage (and one eventually killed) the ISP Peacenik was created to encourage cooperation between people of faith and those of ‘good faith’ in the common quest for just peace.

[War is a really stupid way to try and solve anything. When will we learn that simple fact?]