Tag: 9/11

Peace is not merely a distant goal

eucatastrophe
eucatastrophe | illustration by Jonathan Blundell

Peace is not merely a distant goal that we seek, but a means by which we arrive at that goal.

Through violence you may murder a murderer, but you can’t murder murder.

Through violence you may murder a liar, but you can’t establish truth.

Through violence you may murder a hater, but you can’t murder hate.

Darkness cannot put out darkness. Only light can do that…

We will not build a peaceful world by following a negative path. It is not enough to say we must not wage war. It is necessary to love peace and sacrifice for it. We must concentrate not merely on the negative expulsion of war but the positive affirmation of peace. We must see that peace represents a sweeter music, a cosmic melody, that is far superior to the dis-chords of war.

I believe that unarmed truth and unconditional love will have the final word.

– Martin Luther King Jr.

Today, I’m reminded of the speech President Bush didn’t give on Oct. 1, 2001.

The speech was written by Brian McLaren as an illustration on the different path America could have chosen in a post 9/11 world (the above quote from Martin Luther King was included in the speech).

I encourage you to read it the entire speech. To chew on it and consider how different the last 10 years might have been had the speech been given.

(read the speech)

May God bless the entire world.

A moment of surrender, a moment of eucatastrophe

September 11th, 2001
Sept. 11th, 2001 | Photo by nostri-imago

I understand hurt.

I understand pain.

I understand loss.

But may we as a country, as a people, as humankind learn to overcome our hatred for the unknown and for one another.

May we remember that even two brothers, whose descendants were sworn to fight each other for — generations to come — still came together to bury their dead.

Abraham’s sons Isaac and Ishmael buried him in the cave of Machpelah near Mamre, in the field of Ephron son of Zohar the Hittite, the field Abraham had bought from the Hittites. – Gen 25:9-10

May we, as Insurgents of Love, remember that hatred never wins — it has a 100% rate of failure.

May we, as Insurgents of Love, remember that we’re called to something greater.

May we, as Insurgents of Love, remember that there’s only one thing that’s ever won — and only one thing that will ever win — and that’s love.

May we, as Insurgents of Love, learn to love deeply, strongly and more generously than ever before.

May we, as Insurgents of Love, find moments of surrender, where we lay aside our own wants, needs and demands and build spaces of grace for all.

May our love outshine the hatred that surrounds us.

May our love permeate the darkness of night and may our love bring forth eucatastrophe.

eucatastrophe
eucatastrophe | illustration by Jonathan Blundell

“I’ve seen too much hate to want to hate, myself, and every time I see it, I say to myself, hate is too great a burden to bear. Somehow we must be able to stand up against our most bitter opponents and say: ‘We shall match your capacity to inflict suffering by our capacity to endure suffering. We will meet your physical force with soul force. Do to us what you will and we will still love you — But be assured that we’ll wear you down by our capacity to suffer, and one day we will win our freedom. We will not only win freedom for ourselves; we will appeal to your heart and conscience that we will win you in the process, and our victory will be a double victory.'” — Martin Luther King Jr.

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Want more? Listen to my interview with Eric Bryant as we talk about diversity and my interview with Jamie Moffett as we talk immigration and our country’s fear of the unknown.

Pearl Harbor (a.k.a. the start of the Vietnam War)

i heard a funny story on NPR yesterday afternoon
an author was talking about 9/11
she said she had to walk home that day because all the subways and such were shutdown
and she stopped in a bar
two business men were talking and one said, “man this is just like pearl harbor”
the other asked what pearl harbor was
he responded, “It’s when vietnam bombed the pearl harbor and started the vietnam war”

These folks vote. Beware. 🙂