Dear Ones,

We are heavy of heart as the nation prepares for war. Please keep us in prayer as we stand in solidarity with the people of Iraq and risk arrest for non-violent civil disobedience. We love you.

the simples

The Next Update from Shane in Baghdad, Iraq

Of Grace and Bombs by shaner

I went to worship at St. Rafael's Cathedral today in Baghdad. We sang familiar tunes, and the priest got up to give the homily. He had just served six months in prison for his faithfulness to the Gospel. What would his message be, at such a crucial moment?

He told the true story of a woman who's son and husband were killed by a police officer. In court, as the judge considered the sentence of the police officer, the woman spoke forth boldly: "He took my family away from me, and I still have a lot of love to give... So I would like for him to come to the ghetto twice a month, and spend a day with me so I can be a mother to him... so that I can embrace him, and he can know my forgiveness is real."

The priest urged the listeners to love their enemies. I have heard that a million times. I have traveled across the country preaching it. But now there was a twist, the enemy he spoke of was my country. The boundaries of God's grace were being pushed once again. Somehow it didn't seem fair to tell these beautiful people who were about to be attacked by the same enemy that killed many of their family members and decimated their city only ten years ago. We are to love those who bomb us? The priest led us to the cross, urging us to say to the Americans: "Father, forgive them for they know not what they do." He admitted that it is not based on logic - it is a love that does not make sense, a scandalous grace. And he urged this Iraqi congregation and their international friends to love those who persecute us. I wondered if perhaps our enemies will be witnesses before our Judge. Maybe as Psalm 23 says, the Lord will prepare a table before us "in the presence of our enemies" and they will be witnesses of our love. What will they say of our love? And what would dinner look like with Saddam or George W?

The service ended with the singing of "Amazing Grace". And I sat in tears, wishing I could be the judge of George W. Bush. I would sentence him to spend two days a month in the Al Monzer pediatric hospital in Baghdad.

"To our most bitter opponents we say: 'Throw us in jail and we will still love you. Bomb our houses and threaten our children and we will still love you. Beat us and leave us half dead, and we will still love you. But be ye assured that we will wear you down by our capacity to suffer. One day we shall so appeal to your heart and conscience that we shall win you in the progress, and our victory will be a double victory.'" - Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

[a random thought... The Franciscan priest reminded me of Francis of Assisi, with whom I have felt quite close in recent days, finding many parallels to his interruption of the Crusades by crossing enemy lines... I thought it worthwhile to recount the story. Consider moment we are in as you read it -- It was 1219, during the fifth crusade. Both Christians and Muslims were slaughtering in the name of God. War had become a necessity and a habit. Francis set forth as a soldier to Perugia. Centuries of Church history, where followers of the Way renounced their allegiance to the kingdom of the world and its Kings had been perverted by the seduction of "gaining the whole world but losing our soul". And then Francis had a vision of loving our enemies. He pleaded with the commander, Cardinal Pelagius, to end the fighting. Pelagius refused (sound familiar?).

Instead, Pelagius broke off all diplomatic relations with the sultan of Egypt, Malik-al-Kamil. The sultan in turn decreed that anyone who brought him the head of a Christian should be rewarded with a Byzantine gold piece. However, Francis continued in steadfast faith, surmounting all dangers in order to journey to the sultan. He traveled through fierce fighting in Syria, and inevitably was met by soldiers of the sultan's army who beat him savagely and put him in chains, dragging him before the sultan himself.

Francis spoke to the sultan of God's love and grace. The sultan listened intensely, and was so moved he offered Francis gifts and money. Having refused the riches offered him by the sultan (of course), Francis did accept one gift - an ivory horn used in the Muslim call to prayer, which Francis later used to summon his community to prayer (I saw the horn in Assisi!). While the sultan refused or perhaps did not dare become a Christian, he did undergo a radical transformation. He became known for his extraordinarily humane treatment of Christian prisoners during the war. One Christian prisoner wrote of the sultan: "Such kindness to enemy prisoners has never before been recorded." The transformative power of grace.]

Sneak peaks into Shaner's journals from Baghdad...

• I was asked by a reporter if I am scared of being here and I replied, "I am scared of NOT being here... and I am person of faith, believing in what I do not see." Not just Baghdad, but our entire world is a scary place to be... we have made such a mess of things. But I still believe that love is more powerful than hatred, that light can invade darkness, that grass can pierce concrete. I guess I have said that soundbyte for the press many times... but now it is real.
• I feel so close to the Invisible. When I walk down the streets, everything is surreal - I wouldn't be surprised to bump into the angel Gabriel - I hope he has good news! Sometimes it feels more real than the visible. It is almost mystical. I cling to the Lover Jesus. Sometimes it is hard to sleep, and I just ask the Spirit to wrap around me and rock me to sleep, cuddling. Words fail. I pray the Invisible will be more real than the visible, even if bombs fall from the sky.
• Guess who's in charge of cleaning up and watching over Iraqi oil after the US secures control of Baghdad... Halliburton - Dick Cheney's former company (which left him with a 35 million dollar package)!
• One of our "minders" (Iraqi intelligence) has been with our group for several years. Last night he met with us in a very solemn time, and told us that there is an old Iraqi proverb that translates something like this: You will discover your true friends in moments of crisis. And now, he said (on a personal, off the record, intensely moving time)... "I know that you are our friends."
• I had a chance to visit the Ameriyah shelter. In 1991 it was filled with families and children who desperately packed into it for safety. It was hit with two "smart bombs". One of them hit the water tank, flooding the basement with 400 degree water, scorching the people trapped inside. Children were blown so forcefully against the ceiling that you can still see their handprints in the wall. And you can still see the scorched remains of human bodies on the floors of the shelter. This is what war looks like.
     I wish George Bush could spend 6 hours in the Ameriyah shelter. (Another tragedy is many people are refusing to go in the shelters because they are scared of being trapped inside, remembering the Ameriyah.) Outside I could hear the voices of children singing and chanting - NO MORE BOMBS. I went out and blew bubbles with them by the graveyard of the victims who died in the shelter, and joined their chorus.
• In the taxi, one of my new friends said to me today: "Pray as if everything depended on God. Live as if everything depended on you."
• One of my IPT members is a 73 year-old Methodist minister from Australia. His granddaughter was asked why he came to Iraq and she replied: "My grandpa is going to comfort the Iraqi people while the Americans bomb them."

  In some cultures you bow to show deep respect. In Iraq, if you want to express to someone that you care intimately for them, you put your hand on your heart. Over and over when we walk down the street and into the hospitals, people greet us with their hands on their hearts. Today I was struck by how similar it looks to Americans saluting the flag with their right hand across their chest. Now every time I greet these beautiful people I consider myself pledging allegiance to them - not to their government, not to my flag... but to my sisters and brothers.

Love. -another Voice in the "Wildness" (as one of the hotel staff calls Voices in the Wilderness!!!) shaner