Good friend, scholar, and blogger David Opderbeck had several meaningful conversations with me about war and pacifism in which he shared with me the theory of just peacemaking. Just Peacemaking is a subversion of just war theory, in that instead of trying to guide oneself rationally into war the steps of just peacemaking guide the observers into rationally following the road of peace.
The ten practices of just peacemaking are found here.
Subverting common notions of war and peace is useful when discussing modern warfare, where the face to face interaction and quickened pace of travel speeds up the march to war so fast that no rational decision can be made. We too quickly forget how hard it would be to participate in long term, full scale war in foreign lands when the whole army had to walk and supplies were shipped via horseback.
Just as war has changed peace has changed. Everything is tied tighter in a web. Countries are not as insulated and thus more dependent on one another.
Nuclear war has changed the landscape as well. We can now create our own apocalypse. That’s scary.
I think the macro level stuff, the discussion of war and peace, is far bigger than the individual and the local community.
For me this is where the rubber meets the road, in the Christian not questioning the big picture but instead the little picture:
- should Christians serve in the military?
- how do my actions create peace? create conflict?
- how do my purchases create peace? create conflict?
- how do I participate in the American culture of violence?
- how do I participate in the American culture of peace?
These are the heady questions we need to begin to deal with as we walk the third way.