Book Review: Waging Peace, by David Hartsough

David Hartsough will be at the Cathedral on October 8-9. He will give a peace workshop on Saturday the 8th @ 1-4 pm; and the Sunday forum on the 9th @ 9 am.  The Rev Canon Richard Lief shares this review of Hartsough's book.


WAGING PEACE: Global Adventures of a Lifelong Activist
David Hartsough with Joyce Holliday
2014 – PM Press - pp. 243

Non-violence works, if we give it a chance and are willing to promote and live it. Waging Peace is primer for all who seek peace in our war-worn and tragic world.

Author  David Hartsough, whose parents were devout Quakers, is a man with a mission – a mission to be involved where there is injustice anywhere in the world, where there is an opportunity to influence change.

In Waging Peace David shares his life’s adventure. Over the last fifty years he has led and been engaged in nonviolent peacemaking in the United States, Kosovo, the former Soviet Union, Mexico, Guatemala, El Salvador, Nicaragua, the Philippines, Sri Lanka, Iran, Palestine, Israel, and many other countries.

He is the executive director of Peaceworkers in San Francisco, and has a BA from Howard University and an MA in international relations from Columbia University. He is a Quaker and a member of the San Francisco Friends Meeting.

Born in 1940, David has dedicated his whole life to be where he can make a difference. In his forward to Waging Peace, John Dear describes David: “He’s so humble, simple, and gentle that no one would know the powerful force that moves within him.”

David Krieger, president of the Nuclear Age Peace Foundation, says that David’s “…guiding stars have been peace, justice, non-violence and human dignity… He has lived his nonviolence and made it an adventure in seeking truth, as Gandhi did.”

Given Gandhi’s book, All Men are Brothers, by his parents, on his 14th or 15th birthday, Hartsough was inspired with Gandhi’s experience - that nonviolence is the most powerful force in the world and that it could be a means of struggle to liberate a country. David was 15 when he met Martin Luther King, Jr.

David’s adventures in nonviolence are engaging and inspiring in their call to nonviolent action for the betterment of everyone on the planet. He co-founded the Nonviolent Peaceforce, which is recognized by the United Nations. He has met with people in all walks of life who have shared their yearning for peace and justice. And he has met with people in power – memorably with President Kennedy who responded and acted favorably on David’s thoughtful and encouraging viewpoints.

I was captivated by David when he spoke several years ago at a conference I attended, sponsored by the San Diego Peace Resource Center. Among the many personal stories he shared, there was one that particularly inspired me. When he was 20, he was trained to participate in a lunch counter sit-in in Arlington, Virginia. It was in the early days of the Civil Rights Movement.

He had just been reading Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount: “Love your enemies… Do good to those who hate you” when he heard a voice behind him say, “Get out of this store in two seconds, or I am going to stab you through the heart.” The man had a terrible look of hatred on his face, and a knife one half inch from David’s heart. Did Jesus mean to include this man?

Grateful for his training of the past two days, David turned around and tried his best to smile and said, “Friend, do what you believe is right, and I will try to love you.” The man’s jaw and hand dropped, and miraculously, he turned away and walked out of the store.

Chapter 14 of Waging Peace gives practical application and encouragement. Topics include: 1) transforming our society from one addicted to violence and war to one based on justice and peace with the world; 2) a proposal for ending all war: an idea whose time has come; 3) resources for further study and action: what you can do; 4) ten lessons learned from my life of activism.

As Episcopalians we are engaged in seeking the Christ in all persons, and respecting the dignity of every human being. I am grateful that David Hartsough continues to live and promote his life of nonviolence as he seeks peace and justice world-wide. Waging Peace is a primer which deserves to be read, marked, learned and inwardly digested – and most of all, with the help of God, lived.

The Rev. Canon Richard C. Lief,

Honorary Canon

St. Paul’s Episcopal Cathedral

San Diego, California

The God of Abram praise

I began reading Karen Armstrong’s book A History of God in an effort to understand more about Islam and perhaps learn why that religion has emerged in our minds in these latter days as a source of conflict and terror. I didn’t exactly find out much about the jihad business that impels some Muslims toward violence, but I did learn a great deal about all three of the world’s monotheistic faiths thus destroying the falsely comfortable ideas I had harbored up until now.

All three have much in common, and in particular, Christianity and Islam share an unsavory history. They both became state religions, and when that happened, they both became brutal, patriarchal, and repressive. Judaism never had a chance to play it big on the world stage, and that’s probably just as well, although it did fairly well in the suppression of women during its long history.

In their inceptions, the big three had these principles going for them: social conscience, truth, justice, and a view of God that transcended what we now see as simplistic fundamentalism. The Torah and the Koran were never meant to be taken literally, and instead, were designed to allow us as humans to approach the inaccessible God, to give us a metaphorical and symbolic glimpse of God’s glory. “Once the Bible begins to be interpreted literally instead of symbolically, the idea of its God becomes impossible. To imagine a deity who is literally responsible for everything that happens on earth involves impossible contradictions. The “God” of the Bible ceases to be a symbol of a transcendent reality and becomes a cruel and despotic tyrant.” (Armstrong, page 283) She shows this statement to be true with regard to Islam and the Koran as well.

Ah, but we Episcopalians have risen above such silly notions as the inerrancy of the Bible, you may well say while congratulating each other during coffee hour on our superior understanding of God’s grace and mercy. Karen has something for us to consider as well: “All too often, conventional believers, who are not fundamentalists, share their aggressive righteousness. They use “God” to prop up their own loves and hates, which they attribute to God himself. But Jews, Christians and Muslims who punctiliously attend divine services yet denigrate people who belong to different ethnic and ideological camps deny one of the basic truths of their religion. It is equally inappropriate for people who call themselves Jews, Christians and Muslims to condone an inequitable social system. The God of historical monotheism demands mercy not sacrifice, compassion rather than decorous liturgy.” (Armstrong, page 392)

Pretty harsh to think about as we process down the main aisle of St. Paul’s Cathedral, holding high the cross, breathing in the smoke of frankincense, and singing the entrance hymn on our way to the altar. But think on these things we must, using our liturgy not as an end in itself to satisfy our being in the divine presence, but as a vehicle to that indwelling presence, approaching God in an effort to eradicate complacency and self-righteousness, replacing both with justice and social responsibility. The God of Abraham, the God of Muhammad, and the God Jesus, the same God proclaims the same message: Isaiah tells us, “For the Lord is a God of justice;” Islam meant that Muslims had a duty to create a just, equitable society where the poor and vulnerable are treated decently. It is good to share the wealth of society fairly by giving a regular proportion of one’s wealth to the poor. Jesus talks of “the weightier matters of the Law: justice and mercy and faith.”

Armstrong goes into great detail as the history of all three faiths departed from these original and basic principles to become religions heavily freighted with their own historical accretions that have, in many instances, done more harm than good. She says that the Christian Church did not survive because of the Middle Ages, but in spite of it. As heirs of Western Christianity, we live with the history of the Crusades and the Inquisition, violent events done in the name of God, horrific eras about which we can now speak calmly because we did not live through them. Zealots of every century, not content with adhering to God’s call for justice and mercy have left us a world in which that justice and that mercy remain unfulfilled.

Her book is not an easy read although her style invites and engages; the unease arises from the reader’s sorrow over the history of human cruelty carried out in the name of the God of love. If you read her book, you will gain a greater overview of your own faith, of how humans have often missed God’s call to us, but also of how the work of the Kingdom must go on and that the God of Abram, “Immortal, invisible, God only wise, in light inaccessible, hid from our eyes,” gives us grace to further that work.

Robert Heylmun November 2013

Engaging Open Communion

The Forum last week discussed the concept of "open Communion", that is, what happens when Communion is restricted to the baptized, and what are the arguments for opening it to all.

A couple of years ago, the blog "Fr Jake Stops the World" reviewed "Take this Bread" by Sarah Miles. In this book, the author describes her experience with open Communion at St Gregory of Nyssa church in San Francisco. This experience was her epiphany: she joined TEC and went on to organize the church's food kitchen for the homeless and poor of SF. Fr Jake contemplated her conversion, and addressed it thus:

Some of us may not recall a particularly ecstatic moment of conversion. Others may have such experiences regularly, even daily. I think that difference has more to do with our personalities than anything else. What I hope we can all acknowledge is that God is madly, head over heals in love with each and every one of us, and is constantly wooing us into being. Sometimes, when the veil is thrown back, and we glimpse the depth of this love, "something outrageous and terrifying" happens...Jesus happens.

Regardless of where you find yourself on this question, it's a good book to read.

If you want to read the whole post and comments on Fr Jake's blog, click here.

Book Review: Hate thy Neighbor: How the Bible is Misused to Condemn Homosexuality

After being on the Holiness in Relationships Task Force for the Diocese, I have to admit I wasnt exactly anxious to read yet another book about the debate between those who use the Bible to uphold their prejudice (fear?) of gays and lesbians and those who feel scripture offers support for gays and lesbians. I was pleasantly surprised by the book because it was a cogent, easy to read survey on the subject. Of course, it was clearly written by a person with whom I agree. Ms. Patterson makes it very obvious that her agenda is to tear down the arguments most often used by those quoting Scripture to prove that there are many reasons to believe that gays and lesbians have no place in Christian churches. While many of her arguments can be found in other sources, her style of writing kept me interested and appreciative of her efforts.

If you'd like to read this book for yourself, you can click here or check it out from the Cathedral library.

-Jill Sanford

Book Review: Claiming The Beatitudes: Nine Stories from a New Generation

Our dean recently spent a week with some of the great thinkers in contemporary Western Christianity. The Rev. John Philip Newell, who led our congregation in last year's Celtic Spirituality retreat, invited Dean Richardson to join authors Barbara Brown Taylor, David Crumm and others to ponder a single question: What is the future of Christianity?

To no one's surprise, the great thinkers didn't converge on a single answer. But they agreed on one point: the future is in the hands of the young. Demographically, this point hardly raises eyebrows. In practice, however, each generation takes jealous hold of "our" church, wresting it from the grip of our parents while guarding it ferociously against our children's new ideas. As a teen I scandalized my rector by supporting women's ordination. Now I find myself scandalized by the U2charist. Do I not need, just as much as my "elders" did, to be confronted with the prophetic role of the young?

The Rev. Anne Sutherland Howard's book, Claiming the Beatitudes: Nine Stories from a New Generation (2009, The Alban Institute) does just that. Anne Howard directs the Beatitudes Society, a progressive Christian leadership movement centered in divinity schools and seminaries. The beatitudes, she writes, "give us a lens through which to see Jesus and the God he proclaimed."

And the prophetic work of young Christians gives us a lens through which to see the beatitudes. Each of the nine central chapters in Claiming the Beatitudes focuses on one of the beatitudes and on one young adult who is living it out. Howard lets these women and men tell their own stories. After each story, she adds her own reflections, drawing on her deep knowledge of scripture. Some of the stories:

• Chris, the privileged son of a San Francisco venture capitalist, now a Massachusetts youth minister, exploring poverty in spirit by creating a multi-year partnership with a Mississippi church devastated by Hurricane Katrina.
  
• Alex, a Berkeley theology student, a "Type A white male" living out meekness through nonviolence toward the planet and her creatures.
• Greta, who realized the human cost of cheap consumer goods while inventorying a warehouse full of t-shirts made in Central America, discovering her hunger and thirst for justice and leaving a successful CPA career in favor of ordained ministry.

While I was reading the book, I found myself wishing Howard had given her voice more rein while telling the stories of the young students and ministers. Their words, captured from conversation, are less articulate than her written reflection might have been. But is not my wish just one more insistence that the experience of the young be filtered through the "wisdom" of the old?

Anne Howard will be visiting St. Paul's Cathedral on Sunday, November 15. She will preach at the 8:00 and 10:30 services and will talk about her book (of which copies will be available) at the 9:00 forum. Don't just experience this fine author through my filter! Whether you are young, old, or in-between, you'll want to meet Anne Howard for yourself.

Claiming The Beatitudes: Nine Stories from a New Generation, by Anne Sutherland Howard. The Alban Institute 2009

-Catherine Thiemann