Happy New Year ... Let's Hope It's a Good One ...

I was looking back through some old files and I ran across this, from a speech I gave on the night of the invasion of Baghdad what seems like a lifetime ago. It still amazes me how much of this remains both timely and largely ignored by the powers that be. It's not that we were right back then. Rather, it's that the information available then on which to make these judgments remains both available and, again, largely ignored. Why does a war lurch onward that was wrong to begin with, that was wrong in its reasons, wrong in its execution and wrong in its continuation? I'll say again what I said then: this war is wrong.
So, here's what I said then:

Let’s get one thing straight: this war is wrong! Let’s say it loud so the whole world can hear it: this war is wrong!

I’m a preacher, not a policy maker, but it doesn’t take a policy expert to see that this war is wrong strategically. The risks of attacking and occupying a country at the heart of the Arab world far outweigh the risks of isolating and containing that country. So tonight we say to the world, strategically, this war is wrong!

I’m a preacher, not a politician, but it doesn’t take a pollster to see that this war is wrong politically. It’s not just that American public opinion is so divided, or even that today’s attacks threaten to divide America more deeply than it has been divided since the Vietnam War. No, it’s not just that; it’s this: more than 90 percent of the world’s population opposes this war. That matters. So tonight we say to the world, politically, this war is wrong!

I’m a preacher, not a diplomat, but it doesn’t take a U.N. ambassador to see that this war is wrong diplomatically. President Bush is mistaken: this war is not rendering the United Nations irrelevant. The world’s desire for peace can never be irrelevant to the community of nations. No: what is irrelevant to the community of nations is the American empire’s desire for domination. So tonight we say to the world, diplomatically, this war is wrong!

I’m a preacher, not a historian, but it doesn’t take a scholar nor a great distance in time to see that this war is wrong historically. You see, the greatness of a nation is not measured solely by its accomplishments. The moral greatness of a nation is measured by the means it employs to accomplish its purposes. History will judge us according to the death and destruction that issue forth from the actions initiated today. So tonight we say to the world, historically, this war is wrong!

You know what? I’m a preacher ... but I am also a parent. Last Sunday evening we held a candle light vigil at Forest Hill, and my three-year-old daughter walked with a crowd of about 175 singing, praying, peaceful people of faith holding a flickering flame of hope against the darkness of these days. And when we ended, she looked up at her mother and said, “Mommy, what else do we need to do to stop the war?”

Why can’t our leaders grasp the wisdom in the heart of a three-year-old girl? She doesn’t know much about war, but when she asks about it we just tell her “war means that lots of children get hurt.”

Lots of women, men and children will die in Iraq, and so tonight we say to the world, morally, this war is wrong.

This war is wrong: strategically, politically, diplomatically, historically, morally. This war is just plain wrong!

Tonight our tears flow together into rivers of anguish that threaten to form a mighty flood tide of anger and outrage. Let us channel these rivers of anguish into a force more powerful until justice rolls down like a mighty water and righteousness like an everflowing stream.

I think I heard somebody once say, “blessed are the peacemakers!”

I want you to look at the people standing around you here tonight.

You are blessed! We are all blessed! It might not feel that way today, because war rages and some call us unpatriotic. But dissent in support of the values of freedom, justice and peace is the most patriotic response we can make. But even in the face of suspicion, we are blessed because we are makers of peace.

We’ve got some difficult days ahead of us. That much is clear. But now is not the time to despair, for though our generation is tasting the bitter curse of war, we know that the peacemakers shall be called the children of God. Now is not the time to despair, because there’s too much work to be done. Now is not the time to despair, because no matter how dark this midnight feels, joy cometh with the morning that breaks forth with the bright light of shalom. Now is not the time to despair, for though mighty and awful weapons have been unleashed today, we know that day is coming when we shall beat our swords into plowshares and study war no more!

We don’t need to study any more to know one thing for certain: this war is wrong! This war is wrong and we want peace now!