re: Tom Ramaker's article on the death of Tom Fox
By Letters To The Editor Charles Rathmann (03/12/06)
I just read Tom Ramaker's article in which he ridicules Quaker Tom Fox, who was killed while undertaking Christian missionary work in Iraq.
"'What would happen if Christians devoted the same discipline and self-sacrifice to nonviolent peacemaking that armies devote to war?," Ramaker writes. "This is the question at the top of the so-called "Christian Peacemaker Teams" website. The answer is...you get a lot of dead Christians and change absolutely nothing."
Like Tom Fox, I am a Quaker -- a member of the Religious Society of Friends, a group formed in the 1600s as an attempt to return to first-century Christianity. Ramaker's position on Tom Fox's death may well mirror the position of the first-century Zealots on the death of Jesus of Nazareth. Certainly violence is one way to change things -- but it does not last for long. To quote another Quaker, William Penn, "Force subues, but love gains." Whether it is missionaries like Tom, charitable workers in less politically charged scenarios, or even the US military, we are more effective in changing a situation when we give ... "win hearts and minds" ... than when we engage in violence. Violence sparks resistance -- if not in the immediate then in the long term.
One thing I likely share with Ramaker is a concern with the close relationship between various religious organizations like the Society of Friends and the Democratic party -- although Ramaker seems more critical of alliances between liberal churches and the Democrats than between conservative churches and the Republicans. But I too tire of some of the '60s-inspired rhetoric employed by many religious and secular peace organizations. I happen to believe that it is commerce and not social action that is the best remedy to world conflict and injustice. As we do business with each other, we become more interdependent and understand each other better.
There is a movement afoot in Quakerism towards a less ideological and more spiritual outlook. Many Quakers are theological liberals but fiscal conservatives -- although most all feel lead by God to refrain from killing. I personally believe that it is wrong for any truly religious person to cling too dogmatically to any political viewpoint. After all, are we to put our faith in men or in God? National and party boundaries do not determine good and evil. Good and evil reside in each of our hearts, and it is here that the battle must be fought.
Tom Fox died fighting that battle. A little respect, please.
Sincerely,
~ Charles Rathmann
www.rathmanncomm.com
Interesting links:
www.tqe.org
http://www.nffellowship.org/
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