WHY I STAND VIGIL

I join other Episcopalians, Quakers, Buddhists, war veterans, ageing hippies, old-line radicals, business people, seniors and retired union officials standing vigil.

We hold anti-war signs on the corner of Golden Gate Avenue and Larkin Streets in San Francisco, each Thursday at noon in front of the United States Federal Building which houses the offices of government officials.

The answer to the question why I vigil is that I am a follower of Jesus. The call of the gospel is to bring love and peace to the sick, those in prison, the poor and to everyone. The constant cruelty and futility of war has been used by state and church, ironically enough, to bring peace to the world. War has brought more suffering, sickness, disease and homelessness to human beings than all of the natural disasters like earthquake, fire and flood combined. War has fattened the wallets of gun makers, airplane and tank builders, politicians and clothing manufacturers while protecting the investments of international corporations and nations.

War has disrupted the governments of nations, which do not threaten our country. The Christian churches, dioceses and parishes have remained quiet, encouraged young people to go fight and celebrated the return of veterans surviving war. They have done little for the millions of men and women blind, with no limbs, out of their minds who will be in hospitals for the rest of their maimed lives.

I stand vigil not because the government will stop the wars. I stand vigil because it is a specific, concrete, sacramental way to be a witness for peace. Soldiers put their bodies on he line for war. Others and I put ours on the line for peace. The church is incarnational, the word is made flesh. Our bodies enflesh the words, peace for all people.

I do not think that standing vigil will change the policies of the government, I do it to make sure those policies of the government don’t change me.

One sign that is held up at the vigil reads, “Imagine a Department of Peace.” Congress is so dedicated to war as a way to solve problems that a department of peace would never be voted into equal partnership with the War Department, the old and truer name of the Department of so-called Defense. Other signs read, read No War in huge black letters. Others read, Imagine a Department of Peace, It’s Not Over ‘til the Killing Stops, Quaker Witness for Peace, Episcopal Peace Fellowship, No Tax Dollars for War, No More Blood for Oil and Bring Home Our Troops.

There will always be war. Fallen human nature is so radically imperfect that war will never be stamped out. It is a profit-making venture for the perpetrator.

As a Christian I can do all I can to make sure war never happens. I also know war is inevitable. No arguments from history can convince me the next war is necessary. We just cannot predict the future.

War expresses the worst qualities of the human condition. Peace is the deep yearning of all human beings.