Nonviolent Ways Project:
Nonviolent networking for peace with justice ...

Witnessing as a sacred trust and vocation

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UM Bishop Violet Fisher on impact of current climate of violence

October 9, 2002

PASTORAL LETTER FROM
BISHOP VIOLET FISHER
NY WEST AREA

My Dear Sisters and Brothers of the New York West Area:

You will remember that children were special to Jesus. Jesus would surround himself with children. Jesus would speak with them. Jesus would bless them with his touch. Jesus' vision of the rule of God on earth was not a vision of satisfaction for adults alone, but included an orientation of the future to come in which children would still live long after adults were gone [See Matthew 19: 13-15, Mark 10: 13-15, or Luke 18: 15-16]. Indeed, Jesus called for openness to God found in the faith of children that adults would do very well to model.

I remember greeting with hope our President's promise as he began his term in office, "no child will be left behind". As a former schoolteacher, my heart thrilled with joy that all children would receive educational nurture and health care and a secure environment in which to live and grow in stature and mind and spirit. I believed then and believe now that our President was sincere in his passionate commitment to our nation's children and by extension all the children of the world.

However, national and international events that are violent and contain the possibility of violence on a massive scale now threaten the policies necessary to turn this promise into reality. The threat of violence erodes the capacity of adults to respond creatively to danger. Violence attacks the security children must feel to grow emotionally, physically, and spiritually. Violence subverts our families and destroys our neighborhoods and robs our schools and hospitals of precious resources. Violence and its consequences haunt our children. My son Marcus, in the midst of all the violence in Maryland has said, "I am scared." The child of one our pastors, following a discussion on the very real possibility of war in Iraq wrote in her diary, "I do not want to die."

Something is very wrong in a world where the conscious thoughts of our children are about death and the fear of going outside the safety of a home. Something is very wrong with our faith when, as people of God and the Body of Christ, the Church, we surrender our passion for the Prince of Peace with a passion for the illusory goal of self-protection through preemptive strikes against our enemy. Something is very wrong in a world when the only answer to violence that adults can find is more violence, using weapons more lethal that those your opponent has. Something is very wrong when our imagination fails us and our creative energies for the making of peace without violence are non-existent. Let us remember the words of Jesus spoken when, as his physical security was threatened, he said to his protectors: Put your sword back into its place, for all who live by the sword will perish by the sword [Matthew 26:52].

I call upon all of us, as the communion of God's people, to enter into a season of prayer and fasting, of contemplation and action, that we may discern with our minds and enact with our bodies those creative and just and grace filled steps of discipleship that will interrupt the cycles of violence so common in our society. I ask us to turn over to God for healing the anger and the fear and the desire for dominance that would lead us to harm another human being or acquiesce in harm done to another. I ask us to be willing to turn the other cheek in the hope that our enemy will be turned to goodness.

These are not easy requests to make and they may not be easy for us to do. To be a maker of peace and blessed as the children of God is not a discipleship one undertakes alone. The individual always needs community, and we are the community of the Church. To us have been given the keys of the kingdom, which we hold in trust for the children. Most importantly, we must support each other by prayer, with words of encouragement, and with gestures of love for the sake of the children.

We are also citizens of a great nation, which has an enormous capacity for goodness. I ask that you exercise your duty as citizens and engage in the public debate over violence, threats of violence, and what must be done to counter evil in our world. Let your elected representatives know of your values, your opinions, and your suggestions to make our land and all the earth fulfill the dream of Isaiah:

The wolf shall live with the lamb,
the leopard shall lie down with the kid,
the calf and the lion and the fatling together,
and a little child shall lead them.
The cow and the bear shall graze,
their young shall lie down together;
and the lion shall eat straw like the ox.
The nursing child shall play over the hole of the asp,
and the weaned child shall put its hand on the adder's den.
They will not hurt or destroy
on all my holy mountain;
for the earth will be full of the knowledge of the LORD
as the waters cover the sea.
[11: 6-9]

Your Sister in Christ and colleague in ministry,

Violet L. Fisher