Wartime Agenda

I get my news from the web now,

sports from television,

unless they too show us the war, which I

 

am sure not to watch.  Somehow, seeing

pictures without the sound keeps me calmer,

except the one in the Washington Post.

 

The Iraqi child there—reportedly injured by

gun fire—was comforted by a woman, while

she held him—face still bleeding—in motherly arms.

 

After seeing that, I penned some stinging words.

I actually wrote, “Can’t we ALL become people

who do not shoot each other’s children?”  That’s all.

 

I pick up the sticks, left by a storm,

weeks ago now, when a fury of ice invaded this town.

There is unsightly brush.  And it’s still on my lawn.  So.

 

“Should a poet impale her muse,

while the battle rages on, so that even brave soldiers

retain their right to die?”  Now you tell me,

 

having heard my wartime agenda.

 

first publsihed in Visions of War

Who’s Making the Decisions Concerning War?

“Hence it becomes more and more difficult to estimate the morality of an act leading to war because it is more and more difficult to know precisely what is going on.  Not only is war increasingly a matter for pure specialists operating with fantastically complex machinery, but above all there is the question of absolute secrecy regarding everything that seriously affects defense policy.  We may amuse ourselves by reading the reports in mass media and imagine that these “facts” provide sufficient basis for moral judgments for and against war.  But in reality, we are simply elaborating moral fantasies in a vacuum.  Whatever we may decide, we remain completely at the mercy of the governmental power, or rather the anonymous power of managers and generals who stand behind the facade of government.  We have no way of directly influencing the decisions and policies taken by these people.  In practice, we must fall back on a blinder and blinder faith which more and more resigns itself to trusting the “legitimately constituted authority” without having the vaguest notion what that authority is liable to do next.  This condition of irresponsibility and passivity is extremely dangerous.  It is hardly conducive to genuine morality.” [emphasis mine]

.

From Passion for Peace: The Social Essays of Thomas Merton, edited by William H. Shannon  (The Crossroad Publishing Company, New York, NY, 1995) pages 113-114.

 

You May Find It Hard To Believe

but I have a table in my kitchen 

More details coming soon!

Holding Our Ground by Henri Nouwen

In a world so full of social and political turmoil and immense human suffering, people of faith will often be ridiculed because of their so-called ineffectiveness. Many will say: “If you believe that there is a loving God, let your God do something about this mess!” Some will simply declare religion irrelevant, while others will consider it an obstacle to the creation of a new and better world.

Jesus often tells his followers that, as he was, they will be persecuted, arrested, tortured, and killed. But he also tells us not to worry but to trust in him at all times. “Make up your minds not to prepare your defence, because I myself shall give you an eloquence and a wisdom that none of your opponents will be able to resist or contradict” (Luke 21:14-15). Let’s not be afraid of skepticism and cynicism coming our way, but trust that God will give us the strength to hold our ground.