Hastings: 'Live in peace'
“Live in peace with each other.” — I Thessalonians 5:13 The Inclusive Bible
It’s a simple statement — but complex in practice.
The basic tenet of peace is central to all great faiths — the Golden Rule — of treating others as one would like to be treated. But to actually live in such peace is more complicated. Some specific areas come to mind which could use tending:
1) War. “Study war no more.” War destroys the lives and families of those who are killed and injured as well as those who do the killing. War is a lose-lose situation for everyone but the wealthy. War is the tool by which the rich become richer and the poor become poorer. This widening disparity gives rise to extremism which further threatens freedom, democracies and peaceful living around the world.
2) Food and housing. There was great peace in the great golden age under kings David and Solomon because everyone had their own “vine and fig tree” — house and garden; there were no hungry or homeless people. Today in our country and around the world, many are homeless and hungry and lack for life’s basic needs. While our country spends over half its discretionary budget on “defense,” expenditures for health, education and housing are in the single digits. To live in peace, the bloated military budget needs to be decreased while spending for health, education and housing is increased.
3) Equality. One of the biggest challenges our country faces is that of inequality, not only economically, but also on the basis of race and gender. The recent assault on women’s autonomy over their own bodies and health care is unwise. A country cannot enjoy peace when the liberty of half its citizens is jeopardized.
4) Justice. “Let justice roll,” wrote the ancient prophets. But in our justice system, too often “expediency in resolution” (money) is valued more than justice. Too many innocent people end up in for-profit prisons because of the practice of “going for a weak link” — pressuring the most vulnerable person to confess or plead rather than providing the time and expense of a jury trial to seek justice. It seems the only winners in the “justice” system are the attorneys who set it up — because they always get paid.
To achieve justice, laws which require a conviction for every case or which make people like medical billing specialists working from home (because of lack of child care availability) responsible for providers’ fraud must be changed. Such laws cause innocent people to end up in prison, disrupting the lives of families and communities and wreaking havoc on the social fabric of our country.
5) Focus. While some media outlets are moving towards values-based journalism and giving more air time to acts of kindness and community building, other media sources provide 24/7 coverage of wars. And in recent days there has been 24/7 coverage of an imploded submersible in which five wealthy people lost their lives but far less coverage of the deaths of hundreds of desperate asylum seekers on a capsized fishing boat. A focus on “the things that make for peace” is needed.
All people share in Planet Earth’s annual journeys around the sun; and everyone’s gifts and abilities are needed to care for one another and the planet and to “live in peace with each other.” This will take honesty, faith and courage as well as the willingness to change, innovate and share.
The Rev. Celia M. Hastings has a master's degree in religious education from Western Theological Seminary in Holland. She is author of “The Wisdom Series” and “The Undertaker’s Wife.”
This article originally appeared on The Petoskey News-Review: Hastings: 'Live in peace'
