Department Of Peace?

[BrotherRog]

The following is some info. re: a proposed "Department of Peace" for the U.S. Government. I seem to recall that the U.S. has had such a Department in the past. Can anyone confirm this or not? Thanks. Also, I would find it hard to see how any person of most any faith (except perhaps worshippers of Thor or Mars) could be opposed to this proposal!

 

IMPORTANT CALL TO ACTION

Department of Peace TAKE ACTION TODAY!

 

A reminder that we need you help today as we begin our citizen lobbying at the Capitol in support of the Department of Peace legislation (H.R. 1673) introduced by Rep. Dennis Kucinich. The bill is currently in the House of Representatives (read below for details on the DoP legislation). If you want this legislation to become a reality, it is critical to our grass roots

campaign that we have your support. Please forward this information to as many people as you can. Together, we can make this happen!

 

WHAT YOU CAN DO: GET AS MANY PEOPLE AS POSSIBLE TO CALL, FAX AND EMAIL THEIR REPRESENTATIVE TODAY! The U.S. capital switchboard can be reached at (800) 839-5276 or (202) 224-3121. Congress is a reactive body, but if our members of Congress do not hear from us directly, then there is nothing for them to react to.

 

We can do this, and the time to do it is now!

 

For more information on our campaign and how you can become involved, please visit the Department of Peace campaign website at: www.dopcampaign.org

 

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THE DEPARTMENT OF PEACE:

 

The Department of Peace focuses on individual and group responsibilities for establishing nonviolence as an organizing principle in society. The Department would focus on nonmilitary peaceful conflict resolutions, prevent violence and promote justice and democratic principles to expand human rights. Domestically, the Department would be responsible for developing policies which address issues such as domestic violence, child abuse, mistreatment of the elderly, and other issues of cultural violence. Internationally, the Department would gather research, analyze foreign policy and make recommendations to the President on how to address the root causes of war and intervene before violence begins, while improving national security, including the protection of human rights and the prevention and de-escalation of unarmed and armed international conflict.

 

You can read the latest draft of the proposed legislation at www.dopcampaign.org

 

HIGHLIGHTS OF THE DEPARTMENT OF PEACE LEGISLATION

 

-Hold peace as an organizing principle in our society;

 

-Endeavor to promote justice and democratic principles to expand human rights;

 

-Strengthen non-military means of peacemaking;

 

-Work to create peace, prevent violence, divert from armed conflict, use field-tested programs, and develop new structures in non-violent intervention, mediation, peaceful resolution of conflict, and structured mediation of conflict;

 

-Address matters both domestic and international in scope;

 

-Submit to the President recommendations for reductions in weapons of mass destruction, and make annual reports to the President on the sale of arms from the United States to other nations, with analysis of the impact of such sales on the defense of the United States and how such sales effect peace;

 

-Encourage the development of initiatives from local communities, religious groups, and nongovernmental organizations;

 

-Facilitate the development of peace summits at which parties to a conflict may gather under carefully prepared conditions to promote non-violent communication and mutually beneficial solutions;

 

-Develop new programs that relate to the societal challenges of school violence, guns, racial or ethnic violence, violence against gays and lesbians, and police-community relations disputes;

 

-Sponsor country and regional conflict prevention and dispute resolution initiatives, create special task forces, and draw on local, regional, and national expertise to develop plans and programs for addressing the root sources of conflict in troubled areas;

 

-Provide for the training of all United States personnel who administer postconflict reconstruction and demobilization in war-torn societies;

 

-Sponsor country and regional conflict prevention and dispute resolution initiatives, create special task forces, and draw on local, regional, and national expertise to develop plans and programs for addressing the root sources of conflict in troubled areas;

 

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[PeaceAngel]

In addition to the items given by BrotherRog, the proposal would:

 

- Establish a cabinet-level department in the executive branch of the Federal Govern,ment dedicated to peacemaking and the study of conditions that are conductive to both domestic and international peace.

 

- The Department will create and establish a Peace Academy, modeled after the military service academies, which will provide a 4 year concentration in peace education. Gradutes will be required to serve 5 years in public service in programs dedicated to domestic or international nonviolent conflict resolution.

 

-The first day of each year; January 1st will be designated as Peace Day in the United States and all citizens should be encouraged to observe and celebrate the blessings of peace and endeavor to create peace int he coming year.

 

I do not believe that there has ever been such a department before, but the Peace Academy was proposed several decades back. Perhaps this is what BrotherRog was thinking about?

 

You can find and contact your representatives at: http://www.congress.org/congressorg/home/

[BrotherRog]

From the Christian Century, Sept. 20, 2003

 

From across the Pond, British writer Michael Northcott thinks that the U.S. is both the most religious country in the Western world and the most violent. (Since 1945, he notes, the U.S. has invaded or bombed 40 countries.) And he detects a connection between American religiosity and violence - a conservative Christian view of the atonement involving redemptive violence. Religion, he suggests, is all about mimesis - ritually actiong out the events by which God or the gods have made a people into the people of God. "If the central event of the Christian story of divine salvation is about violent death, then it would be unsurprising if over their history Christians had not begun to copy, to act out the violent death, in their relations with people of other faiths, and in their punishment of criminals and heretics." Northcott, it turns out, is not a rabid revisionist theologian; he's writing for Third Way, a progressive evangelical publication in the UK (summer 2003 issue). He argues that Christians should make the center of faith not the cross - especially not a cross deemed necessary to propitiate divine wrath or restore God's honor - but the resurrection, which demonstrates God's power over evil, violence, and death.

 

Would that more Christians grounded their faith on this basis!

[PeaceAngel]

BrotherRog writes:

>>Northcott ...argues that Christians should make the

>>center of faith not the cross - especially not a cross

>>deemed necessary to propitiate divine wrath or restore

>>God's honor - but the resurrection, which demonstrates

>> God's power over evil, violence, and death.

 

The cross and the resurrection cannot be separated. We can only get to resurrection by willingly joining in the crucifixion. The crucifixion and resurrection are not one time historical events, but exist in the eternal now. By joining with the crucified Jesus we die with to our dualistic, ego based selves which arises whenever we eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. (Something we are constantly doing unfortunately.) We must dare to walk past the two cherubim of duality so that we may eating from the fruit which hangs from the tree of eternal life, the Jesus fruit who eternally gives up its life freely for the love of us. And by eating that fruit, we ourselves become that fruit and can to arise with Christ into an all embracing unity and we dwell in the peace of Eden.

 

Peace and Joy

Edited September 20, 2003 by PeaceAngel

[pacigoth13]

"From across the Pond, British writer Michael Northcott thinks that the U.S. is both the most religious country in the Western world and the most violent."

 

I agree, that's the point I was trying to make in my futurism/preterism post. I really see the connection as coming from a distorted eschatology. For example, if the "warlike" and "violent" images in Revelation were originally intended to apply to the current persecution of Christians under Domition and Nero then there is only a description of violence and war not a prescription thereof. However, in the futuristic fundamentalist dispensationalist grid they become prescriptions for H'armageddon which in turn get applied to something like the current war on "terrorists". Therefore, extreme violence to the point of including nuclear war on behalf of America not only becomes a viable option but also what we should do. This kind of connection between Revelation and politics has been openly admitted by people like Jerry Falwell and Pat Robertson. Even Billy Graham seems to espouse a type of "left behind" theology. This explains why America would do something like fully support Israel, even when they do terrorist things.

 

It's not that I'm trying to be hypervigilant in my theology of Revelation, it just happens to be that immature understandings of it are causing a lot more problems than ecumenical disagreements and denominational divisions. It's not really even a conservative-liberal issue anymore. It's an academic vs folklore thing. Even conservative academics like RC Sproul and NT Wright insist on a preterist understanding of Revelation.

 

I realise some of us may be far removed from the dispensational scene. But the overwhelming majority of American Christians let people like Hal Lindsey and Tim LaHaye spoon feed them hysteria.

 

It is our responsible to help people understand the truth in this area, if not for theological correctness, then for the sake of peace and pacifism.