Peacemaking

Peace making doesn’t mean passivity. It is the act of interrupting injustice without mirroring injustice, the act of disarming evil without destroying the evildoer, the act of finding a third way that is neither fight nor flight but the careful, arduous pursuit of reconciliation and justice. It is about a revolution of love that is big enough to set both the oppressed and the oppressors free.”

Shane Claiborne, Common Prayer: A Liturgy for Ordinary Radicals

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What do we do with evil?

Do we even know what evil is?

Do we know where it comes from?

Are things inherently evil

or do things become evil, 

when touched by something that emerges from 

the souls of human kind  (What evil lurks in the souls of me – and women)?

something that twists the natural order

transforming what is naturally good

into something destructive?

The Bible certainly knows that what we call evil exists

we see the concept of evil woven into the fabric of the Sacred story

from the Garden, to the apocalyptic end

But how did evil emerge, if God is good, if God is love, if God is

Omnipotent

Why did it emerge?

What is its nature?

The questions are endless,

But the real questions are practical…

What do with this reality we call evil, when it stares us in the face?

What do we do with brutality, abuse and violence, power twisted

What do we do with lies, the truth twisted?

What do we do with injustice and inequity, community twisted?

It is a tough question

But the more difficult question is this

What do we do with the people who perpetrate evil?

Who perpetuate evil?

Who tolerate or even enable evil?

I am not sure

What I am sure of is that evil tends to beget evil

As violence begets evil

Too often as we attempt to interrupt things that are evil

We start to reflect, in our own words and actions, that which we are attempting to resist

We call the name caller names, we hate the haters, we are intolerant of intolerance

So how do we counter those things that are destructive 

Paul had this suggestion:  “Don’t overcome evil with evil, but overcome evil with good”

Which sounds good

But man!

I suspect that this strategy

Is slow

Probably often painful

Costly 

I suspect it takes patience

and a lot of faith

in what (as one person put it)

God can do with dust

I think it involves getting down into the dust

of common humanity

most of all it requires separating that which is twisted

from the divine original that still lurks inside each person

separating the attitudes, and actions, from the person

because I believe

“There is no one who is completely evil as to lack some goodness in him.”

(Bangambiki Habyarimana, Book of Wisdom)

I believe it is there, even if I can’t see it, or feel it

Which is why we must do the hard work of love

the hard work of praying for those we want to hate

the hard work of not becoming what we resist

the hard work of staying with and for others, even when the fail to change

the hard work of accepting when we want to reject

and forgiving when we lust for retribution

I can rarely do it

I want to do it

But all too often I don’t

And so all I can do (when it comes down to it)

Is turn to the one who treats me the way I should treat others

Ask for help

And go from there