A Response to Last Night's Call by President Obama

A response to last night's call by President Obama for less strident rhetoric, and for commitment toward a better nation:

We who call ourselves Christians follow the lead of the One Whose birth we recently observed, who was called Prince of Peace. Not only do we follow-after Him; we try to follow His lead, imitating His practices and adopting His perspective as our own (a kind of holy "fusion of horizons," so to speak). Fortunately, for our trying to "get along together," we have a model given us by our earliest forbears in the faith.

The early Christian churches, in addition to scrapping amongst themselves all too often, for little or no reason, did do some things right. For example (and relevant to this issue today), the
"Passing of the Peace" was originally a "kiss of peace," which swiped a social symbol of reconciliation -- a public kiss, visibly symbolizing "peace between me and thee" (similar to the origins of the symbol of shaking right hands together, as in "look, no sword"). A smackeroo
on the cheek, men to men, women to women (to keep other tongues from wagging about those licentious Christians) -- but done intentionally as a part of every worship service in order to live out the reality of peace-making. In this case, it was a weekly opportunity to mend fences, and
become what the church was intended to be: a harmonious community reflecting the will of God for humans. People in conflict were expected to make up with each other; if you even suspected that somebody had a gripe against you, you were to go to them (pre-emptively!) check it out, and patch things up between you. And this was done not only to keep the peace on Sunday in the worship space. This was how folks learned God's ways of making peace -- by daring to mend fences, learning by doing, with every expectation that said practice would leak into our week.
Moreover, this was Christianity's public witness to the world not only that there are better ways to get along than by murdering each other, but that peace in society was eminently possible.

So, I urge those of you who belong to faith communities, and urge you to urge your friends of similar persuasions, to adopt the "passing of the peace" as a practice to show peace-making to the world, and train each other in the ways of peace, as a public witness in light of this tragedy. Make it more than a sort of second "hi, howya doin" backslapping time of greeting. Explain clearly the whys and wherefores, and then dare your community to do this in the name of the Prince of Peace who blessed peace-makers.

By such acts we declare that violence is against God's will for humanity, and we show our power to demonstrate better ways to get along (rather than simply bemoan this tragic world).

Otherwise, violence will be the only option folks perceive.

May God comfort all those who have been affected by this past weekend's violence in Tucson.

Bob