Katie Geluso, is a Salter currently serving in Mexico City. This post was adapted from her personal blog.
Burundi’s president wants to run for an unconstitutional third term and the country might be on the brink of war.
The death toll in Nepal is over 8,000 and rising and thousands more are injured and homeless.
Violence and peaceful protests in Baltimore have the U.S. all the more divided on the issue of race.
ISIS is running amok and beheading people.
Nigeria and surrounding countries are still afflicted by violence between Muslims and Christians.
Mexico’s government has effectively suffocated the voices of the families of 43 missing students 7 months after the fact proving police violence and a corrupt government reigns supreme.
When I’m overwhelmed with big, monstrous problems and I can’t find words or thoughts to calm my mind and heart, my prayer inevitably becomes a meek “Jesus, come soon.”
When I spoke these three words to a friend, he reminded me, “We are his body.”
THAT’S NOT THE RESPONSE I WANTED, MARK!
But he’s right.
Central to the Anabaptist faith is pacifism. Anabaptists will be quick to remind you that pacifism is not passive – it is an active peace seeking and active peace building.
So, I am to claim to be a part of the body of Christ and claim the label pacifist, I have to quit praying “Jesus come soon” as an excuse to sit back and be hopeless. Instead I need to recognize I am the hands and feet of Christ and I must run into the action with all its weight and despair and bring Jesus with me, remembering Jesus is already there.
So I pose a question to myself and to the Body of Christ: we are all hoping and praying for peace, but what are we doing to bring that peace? I’m not talking about engaging in heated arguments online, posting news that confirms your view, or clicking “like” on posts and comments to virtually vote for whom you agree with. Facebook doesn’t prevent war, heal the wounded, end police brutality, tranquilize extremism, reconcile opposing religions, redeem corrupt governments, or smooth over political relations.
And neither does this blog post. But you know what does?
Advocacy. Education. Protests. Service. Aid. Improved policy. Relationships.
I’ll ask myself and my fellow Christians again: what are you doing to bring peace? Are you acknowledging your race and or/economic privileges and reconciling that? Are you giving money to NGOs that create real change? Are you serving in a community to educate and or serve people that need it? Are you participating in protests? Are you boycotting companies that take advantage of their workers? Are you preaching peace, justice, and reconciliation in the pulpit? Are you having meaningful, honest, respectful, face-to-face conversations with others about these issues?
Do I dare say what I really want to say?
If you aren’t actively bringing peace, you aren’t the body of Christ.
If I’m not actively bringing peace, I’m not the body of Christ.
A phrase often used in the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America.
Some resources for people that want to do peace:
Donate to the reliefs efforts in Nepal: http://www.pri.org/stories/2015-04-25/how-help-nepal-7-vetted-charities-doing-relief-work-following-earthquake or https://donate.mcc.org/cause/nepal-earthquake
Talk with your church leaders/congregation about how you can serve your community: Union Church in Seattle is a great example of this. The fourth Sunday of each month, congregants serve Seattle by sharing meals with cancer patients, preparing meals for the homeless, making cards for the women’s shelter they host in the church each month, picking up trash in Lake Union via kayaks, etc.
Think about how you can serve; within your community, country, or internationally: MCC accepts families, single adults, and young adults for service terms all over the world: http://mcc.org/get-involved/serve Currently, there are openings for the Seed program in Colombia. (Peace Corps, AmeriCorps, Jesuit Volunteer Corps, Lutheran Volunteer Corps are also great service organizations.)
Find a cause and a peaceful protest to attend in your area. You are bound to find other ways of getting involved by attending protests.
Write letters and make calls to your local representatives and/or companies to let them know about events/policies/products you approve and don’t approve of. Each call/letter represents about 1,000 other people, so your voice counts and these people really do listen!
Sign online petitions. There are tons of success stories from simple on-line petitions. This is one of the easiest things on this list (after boycotting, which involves not doing something) as it just requires your name and location. And if it asks for an email address, just do it and unsubscribe when you get an unwanted email. It takes no more than two mouse clicks. https://petitions.whitehouse.gov and https://www.change.org are great sites for convenient peace and justice work.
Actions specifically relevant to issues and ongoing work in Latin America and the Caribbean:
Look into visiting Latin America or the Caribbean as part of a learning tour or delegation to learn first hand about the issues and how you can advocate for them:
Guatemala: Community Development
Check out the Advocacy campaigns you can get involved with, including Days of Prayer and Action for Peace in Colombia
Stay informed on local issues by reading the Weekly Round-Up on this blog, an overview of news of the week.
The Third Way Cafe is continually publishing articles and blogs from around the world, with a Mennonite Perspective.
The MCC Washington and Ottawa blogs provide action opportunities and analysis.
Since when did I ever give you the response you wanted, Katie?