So first about me: I’m a do-gooder, nominally motivated by my
faith, preaching way more than I’m practicing, so, a hypocrite, if not a dangerous
one. I’m both mystified and disappointed by people and movements that turn their
words and actions increasingly toward misanthropy and away from the mother-love
they experienced in their infancy.
Oh, I
know. ‘Twas ever thus since Cain killed Abel (and way before that, actually), through
the Battle of Hastings, the Peasant Wars, the World Wars, and all the millennia
of political warfare, social and ethnic strife—it all bugles the mind (pun intended). Much like
all these have shown repeatedly, this rape of Ukraine by Russia will prove
again that violence begets violence, and that every shot fired at a neighbour
proceeds first through the shooter’s foot. “Therefore, never send to know for
whom the bell tolls; it tolls for thee!” (John Donne)
I donate
to Community Peacemaker Teams, Mennonite Central Committee, Amnesty
International, Mennonite Disaster Service, MC Canada Witness Program and to my
conference and church, presuming that the dollars will serve to bring the world
closer to Christ’s many appeals for love, peace, justice and mercy. It’s hard
to keep trusting that hope when my very neighbours are turning toward the
kick-ass view of the world and saying “To hell with ‘love your neighbour.’ I’m
gonna get me some. Me, me, me.”
Perhaps
the way of sorrows, the path of suffering is the only path there is. Perhaps
human nature is simply flawed to the point where Adam’s and Eve’s
disobedience—if you accept the allegory—was predictable, even predestined. If
not in their creation, then in their evolution.
And yet,
there are many men and women who are kind, generous and sociable, who practice
justice and mercy with strength and humility. Men and women who work well with
others, negotiate and compromise when they disagree. Know how to forgive and
accept forgiveness.
Does misanthropy, selfishness pop
up in members of the population like a gene mutation? Or does it hinge on
training principles, like the difference between a “bad dog” and a “good doggie”
reflects on the owner’s inability to train and educate? This seems to me to be
a critical question impinging on child rearing and educational practices.
If it’s all in the genes, well, we’re
obviously screwed.
As we watched the news last night, Agnes turned to me and asked, “What can we do to help?” The standard answer around here is that we should pray for the people of Ukraine. We’ve already personally donated two weeks of income to the Mennonite Centre in Molochansk; we could send more, and then even more than the more—our credit is good. I’ve put an appeal on Facebook for donations connected to International Women’s Day, March 8. I mused about finding a way to get over there (maybe to Zaporozhje[i] where my ancestors came from) and perhaps I could shout at the Russian soldiers to go home, hand out tracts like the leaflets dropped on competing armies in WWII telling soldiers that their wives and girlfriends were cheating on them at every opportunity.
But I am answerless. I’ve seen enough of war to know that contrary to much of the Christian world’s protests, no God makes us do wars, no God decides to allow us to practice brutalities on each other, and no God reaches down to pluck out the tanks and mortars and bombers in order to prevent the spilling of innocent blood. Our religions serve us only as far as they both energize and give us direction for our behaviours, and nobody else’s. You would like to see God? Just look down at your hands. Whatever they do is what your God does, from rescuing children to mowing them down in the street.
Is our
“peacemaker” role in this world, then, anymore than a pipe dream? Not at all. If
your hands and my hands reach out to the suffering, even in something as crass,
as small as writing a cheque for a few thousand dollars rather than buying a
newer car, haven’t we introduced the “God of Justice and Mercy” to the world?
What more can anyone do?
[i] The
spelling in English of this city’s name varies. I’ve even seen it spelled two
ways in one tourism website belonging to Ukraine.
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