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Women focus on peace, action, social responsibility

8/11/2003 News media contact: Linda Green · (615) 742-5470 · Nashville, Tenn

Photographs are available with this report.

By Linda Green*

LINK: Click to open full size version of image
The Rev. Evelyn “Tweedy” Sombrero (left) and other United Methodist Women from across the United States join with local peace activists at Vanderbilt University in Nashville, Tenn., in a silent vigil protesting war with Iraq. Participants in the national seminar, sponsored every four years by the Women’s Division of the church’s Board of Global Ministries, stood in support of Women in Black, an international network that stands in silence every week as a witness for peace. A UMNS photo by Mike DuBose. Photo number 03-273, Accompanies UMNS #400, 8/11/03


LINK: Click to open full size version of image
United Methodist Women from across the United States join with local peace activists at Vanderbilt University in Nashville, Tenn., in a silent vigil protesting war with Iraq. Participants in the national seminar, sponsored every four years by the Women’s Division of the church’s Board of Global Ministries, stood in support of Women in Black, an international network that stands in silence every week as a witness for peace. A UMNS photo by Mike DuBose. Photo number 03-272, Accompanies UMNS #400, 8/11/03
NASHVILLE, Tenn. (UMNS) - Making peace is an essential part of being a Christian, yet for too long, the church has not followed Jesus in that respect, according to a United Methodist human rights leader.

"Peace and being called to be peace and justice makers is an essential part of what it means to be a follower of Jesus," said David Wildman, staff executive on human rights and racial justice at the United Methodist Board of Global Ministries in New York. For too long, he said, "the church has only believed in Jesus and not followed Jesus. To be a disciple is to be a faithful follower."

The focus is about action, he said. "Jesus said blessed are the peacemakers, not those that study peace, but those that make peace."

Wildman was one of several study group leaders during the United Methodist Women's National Seminar, held Aug. 2-8 at Scarritt-Bennett Center in Nashville. About 250 women attended the event to focus on social justice issues and responsibility and answer the question: "If not me, who?" The event is held every four years.

Throughout the week, each participant studied a specific social issue, with leadership from experts on the topic. Wildman led an issue group called "Peace/War: Pushing Up Daisies."

Before the United States went to war with Iraq, leaders from around the world were championing peace, he noted. "I asked myself, 'If everyone is for peace, how come we keep marching toward war and waging war?'" Peace, he said, is defining the positive aspects and what it is you are saying "no" to. Peacemaking also involves saying "no" to war, he said.

"Peace is not the absence of open conflict but the presence of justice in people's lives," Wildman said. Justice materializes when people are given respect as equals, concerns and pains are acknowledged, and ways of gathering around the table in fellowship are emphasized, he said

The United States, he said, accounts for half of the world's military expenditures in a given year. That spending is to defend 4 to 5 percent of the world's population, he said. "Jesus said if there is a problem that you face, examine first the log in your own eye."

If Christians in the United States are concerned about violence and the spread of weapons in the world, including weapons of mass destruction, "we need to look at the log in our own eye," he said. "The United States has more weapons of mass destruction than any other country. The United States has more bases and more military personnel in other countries than any other country, and (it) is spending close to $12,000 a second on war and readiness for war. What is the United States devoting to peace?"

Christians and people of all faiths have different answers to the question of whether war is just, he said. It is difficult to find statements by Christ that support war, he said, adding that the just war theory itself didn't emerge until Christianity became the religion of the Roman Empire under Constantine. "The early church was often on the receiving end of violence and war."

Although the Bible contains violence, the overwhelming message is one of peace of justice, Wildman said. "Those stories that are most violent and seem to be calling on military action and resorting to war could be read as, 'war is the fruit of those who sow injustice.' So, if you mistreat or abuse people, the consequences of those actions will often be by military action."

Throughout the seminar, participants focused on concerns such as education, ethics, globalization, faith and health, and examined how those affect women and children.

Aruna Gnanadason, the World Council of Churches' justice, peace and creation program director in Switzerland, led Bible studies each morning. She discussed biblical and contemporary women who brought about change or helped end injustices, and she showed how women in Somalia, Latvia and India had the courage to face authority in non-aggressive ways. "Aggression only leads to more aggression," she said.

Gnanadason led the United Methodist Women in exploring how to use their vulnerability as women to address authority and power and counter injustice. Citing Samuel 25:2-42, in which Abigail keeps David from killing innocent people, she noted, "Women find power in their powerlessness."

Though conflicts rage around the world, Gnanadason said women "are ambivalent about what we should do, (and) we have stopped doing anything. In a way, we need to continue to show that we will not tolerate this. We will not allow our young people to die. We need to talk about how to become more (resistant to) military plans and not allow the military to use our young people in the way they have done so. There are many things we need to do because if we stop now, there will be another war."

Responding to a question of whether war is "sometimes good," Gnanadason said, "In my opinion, never.

"Violence can never resolve problems, and we have proof of that throughout history," she said. The solution, she said is a stronger United Nations, a respected body that can respond to the dictators of the world. " No government should think that they can police the whole world," she said.

At one point in the seminar, the United Methodist Women engaged in peaceful action by standing in solidarity with Women in Black. The international peace networks stages silent vigils each week in support of peace. The vigils began in Israel in 1988 by women protesting Israel's occupaction of the West Bank. The United Methodist Women also hosted the Kensington Welfare Rights Union as its members marched through Nashville on their way to Washington to raise awareness of poor people's plight.

The National Seminar, which once spanned five weeks, was inherited from the former Methodist Episcopal Church, South, and is based on the belief that the church and Christians have a responsibility to address political and social issues.

During the gathering, the women looked at the history of United Methodist Women's social justice efforts, engaged in problem-solving and skill-building activities, and made a commitment to return home ready to work for peace. They looked at United Methodist resolutions, how issues impact women and children, and the stories behind the issues. They also participated in hands-on social action throughout the Nashville area.

The hands-on events helped give the women "concrete action plans for being Christian activists," said Lois M. Dauway, who heads the Christian social responsibility section of the Women's Division, which administers United Methodist Women.

United Methodist Women is a million-member organization that seeks to foster spiritual growth, develop leaders and advocate for justice. Members raise approximately $20 million annually for projects and programs related to women, youth and children in the United States and in more than 100 countries worldwide.
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*Green is United Methodist News Service's Nashville, Tenn., news director.

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