June 23, 2018

“The confusion of peace with security is a daily routine in our violent state of affairs. Judicial peace, school peace, marital peace – all degenerate into security under the influence of violent methods. The use of violence , expressed in force, extortion, and control, destroys the the end and increasingly replaces it with violence itself as the only goal. Thus security, which we are supposed to receive in exchange when we forgo genuine peace, is increasingly neuroticized: our need for it becomes insatiable; one can never be secure enough.” Dorothee Soelle in The Window of Vulnerability: A political spirituality, p. 4.

We can see this playing out in America’s insatiable drive for security in the current abhorrent government actions towards immigrants, particularly immigrants of color, and in the ever increasing military expenditure which is bankrupting the nation. None of these things will make us truly secure. Only love of neighbor can do that.

“If we really want peace, we must begin disarming where we are – one one side, which is neither better nor worse than the other side, but has the advantage of being our side. It is rationalistic stupidity to think that mutual death threats can be abolished from the world through a kind of business deal…Change can only happen when one of the partners to the conflict begins to relinquish his or her threatening attitude and makes a tiny step forward alone. Soelle, 7.

Peace begins with you and me being peaceful and working for peace at the policy level. There is no way to peace, peace is the way…

Peace be with you.

Dillon Naber Cruz

Soelle, Dorothee. The Window of Vulnerability: A Political Spirituality. Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 1990.

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