As America prepares for war, I hope that we can find the courage to create peace on earth. With the American president and his advisors attempting to lead the world into wars against the perceived enemies of truth, justice, and the American way, we need courage to speak and act for peace. When we speak against war, we may be accused of being unpatriotic or of not caring about the victims of September 11. We also need courage to believe that it is possible to create peace. It so often seems that nothing that we do can make a difference.
On February 15, 2003 about a thousand of us, residents of the Greek island of Lesbos, met in Sappho Square in Mytiline to protest the proposed American and British war on Iraq. The full moon and the planet Aphrodite or Venus appeared in the sky at dusk, seeming to bless our gathering. We who stood in the freezing cold that dark night knew we were part of an international outcry against war that had occurred all around the world. In the afternoon Greek television had carried the news. Over 100,000 in Athens. Over a million in London. Protests as far away as Japan. In New York tens of thousands would flood the streets, too many to crowd into the restricted area designated for the rally after permission to march had been denied by the city of New York. I know that many of you were in the streets too or with us in your hearts.
Though a statue of Sappho stood at the edge of the square where we had gathered to protest war, no one thought to invoke the spirit of Greece's greatest lyric poet who lived on our island. Yet Sappho is a foresister in the quest for peace. Having herself suffered war and exile, Sappho had the courage to challenge the heroic tradition that celebrates war and violence:
Some say a cavalry corps,
some infantry, some again,
will maintain that the swift oars
of our fleet are the finest
sight on dark earth; but I say
that whatever one loves, is.
(excerpt from #41, Mary Barnard, trans.1
In this poem Sappho makes the astonishing statement that the true hero of the Trojan War is not Achilles or Agamemnon, but Helen! Not because hers is the face that launched a thousand ships. For Sappho, Helen is the true hero of the Trojan War because she had the courage to follow her heart--choosing to love for Paris, against all conventions. For Sappho, not only Helen, but also an absent friend and student named Anactoria would be a more pleasing sight than all the trappings of war. Sappho writes:
...light glancing in your eyes
would move me more than glitter
of Lydian horse or armored
tread of mainland infantry.
(excerpt from #41, Mary Barnard, trans.)
In other words, Sappho was the first to say: Make love not war! Across the millennia, she can inspire us.
I believe that the Goddess path is the path of peace. Our motto must be: Make love, not war. In Rebirth of the Goddess, I named Nine Touchstones of the ethics of Goddess religion. Nurture life. Walk in love and beauty. Trust the knowledge that comes through the body. Speak the truth about conflict, pain, and suffering. Take only what you need. Think about the consequences of your actions for seven generations. Approach the taking of life with great restraint. Practice great generosity. Repair the web.2 If we think deeply about the meaning of each of these touchstones of our spirituality, we can see that war is very rarely if ever the solution to the problems we face.
I believe that one of the most important reasons the American president and his advisors are pursuing the course of war is a sense of outrage that America, allegedly chosen by God to model democracy to the world, was attacked on September 11, 2001 by Islamic fundamentalists. Many Americans share this sense of outrage with him. We have done nothing to deserve this attack, we say, and we are going to get the ***s who did this to us! This simplistic response, while understandable in emotional terms, is not the whole story. If we are to speak the truth about conflict, pain, and suffering, we must acknowledge that though we as individuals may not have done anything to provoke the attack on the World Trade Towers, there are reasons why it happened. And if we understand these reasons, we will see that a war with Iraq is likely to increase the danger of future attacks on America and Americans.
Let me name just a few of the causes of September 11. The men and women who are attracted to those strains of Islamic fundamentalism that picture the west as the enemy of Islam are reacting against centuries of western colonialist and capitalist attempts to plunder the resources of Islamic countries. To deny this is to bury our heads in the sand. They are also reacting against the perception that the United States supports Israel against the legitimate rights of the Palestinians. They are reacting against the historic and continuing racism of western Europeans and Americans who perceive darker-skinned peoples as inferior to lighter-skinned ones. The educated men who join Islamic fundamentalist groups while studying abroad have been victims of this on-going racism. Those who are attracted to Islamic fundamentalist groups are also reacting against the views of many Christians and secularists that Islam is an inferior and backward religion. If we acknowledge the truths underlying these perceptions, we can see that if we want to lessen the danger of attacks by Islamic fundamentalists, we need to look at the role that we, our governments, business leaders, educators, and religious leaders have played in creating them. Rather than responding to violence with violence, we might educate ourselves and others about the positive values of Islamic religion and about the efforts of Islamic feminists to promote a progressive Islam; work to end racism; support the resolution of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict; and struggle to create more just use and distribution of the world's resources. These are enormous issues and problems, and it is easy to see that the "quick fix" of a war against Iraq will do very little to resolve them. Indeed, such a war is more likely to strengthen the perception that Americans want to control Middle Eastern oil resources and that we have no respect for Islamic peoples and their cultures.
This is not to say that Islamic fundamentalism offers the most creative solutions to the world's problems. In my new book She Who Changes, I have written a chapter discussing the "theological mistake" of imagining that there can ever be an "infallible revelation."3 There is no doubt in my mind that Islamic fundamentalists are misled if they believe that those who die while committing terrorist acts against the alleged enemies of Islam will go straight to heaven. Nor is there any doubt in my mind that Islamic fundamentalism, like Christian fundamentalism, has scapegoated women who challenge traditional patriarchal norms. But the irony in the current situation is that the American president and his followers share the fundamentalist worldview. While Islamic fundamentalists insist that women wear the veil or chador, Christian fundamentalists are leading a campaign to deny women the right to birth control and abortion the world around. Which group is doing more damage to the cause of women's rights? More importantly, the American president and his advisors, like Islamic fundamentalists, divide the world into realms of good and evil. Both the American president and Islamic terrorists believe that their cause is good. Both believe that God will be on their side when they wreak violence on God's enemies. Those of us who disagree with this understanding of the world have our work cut out for us. It is important that we develop spiritual alternatives to all fundamentalisms.
Speaking the truth about conflict, pain, and suffering also requires us to acknowledge out that women and children are the primary victims of war. When we drop bombs on "civilian targets," women, children, and old people will be killed. Homes and kitchen gardens tended by women will be destroyed. Rape has always been one of the primary weapons of war. It is mentioned as such in both the Bible and the Iliad of Homer. Throughout history, soldiers have been taken out of the homes of mothers, sisters, wives, and daughters. Part of military training has always been to desensitize men and boys to the horrors of war by identifying the realm of "feeling" with women. Women have always been one of the "spoils" of war. As a reward for fighting, soldiers have been allowed and encouraged to rape and pillage. When soldiers return home, they bring these "values" with them. Another innocent victim of war, especially of modern war, is the environment. Modern weapons not only kill people, they poison the land, the air, and the water for years and years to come. How many migrating birds will fall victim if bombs are dropped on Iraq in March and April 2003? When we consider going to war, we need to talk about the true costs of war. War is never a good solution to any of the problems we face. It should never be something we do to assuage our egos and sense of outrage.
What can we do to change the climate in our country? I think it is important to do as much as we can while carrying on with our lives. We can march. We can contribute to Move On (www.moveon.org), the organization that put Susan Sarandon on the television speaking against the war. We can call the White House, write to our own representatives in Congress. We can speak to and e-mail our friends, families, and colleagues. We can pray for peace and create rituals for peace. We can teach peace in the home and in our schools (www.peaceathome.org). We can take back the political system by getting involved in politics and by working to end the influence of money in political campaigns (www.commoncause.org). We can express our solidarity with women working for peace and justice the world around by supporting groups like the Global Fund for Women (www.globalfundforwomen.org). We can read or listen to and support alternative media, remembering that those who control what we can know also control what we can do. We can do things that we have not thought of yet. It is important that we make love while opposing war. For in the long run, it is the deepening of our love for life that will inspire us to create peace.
On February 2, 2003, on a holiday called Candlemas, a traditional time of hope, I stood alone on a pier in the Bay of Mithimna and prayed for peace. New words to a traditional benediction came to me there.
May Goddess bless us and keep us.
May Her wisdom dwell within us.
May we create peace.4
The difference between this prayer and the traditional benediction suggests the importance of the women's spirituality movement in the quest for peace. In the traditional blessing the priest or minister says:
The Lord bless you and keep you.
The Lord make His face to shine upon you and be gracious unto you.
The Lord lift up His countenance upon you and give you peace.
This benediction reflects the understanding of divine power as power over. Is it any wonder that the American president who has heard this prayer untold times imagines American power in similar terms? In the traditional prayer, divine power is pictured as the light of the sun illuminating a dark planet. Is it any wonder that the American president imagines America as reflecting the divine light to peoples allegedly living in darkness? The divine power is identified with light but not darkness, a racist habit of thinking. Is it any wonder that America is preparing for war against a dark-skinned enemy? Attributing the power to give peace to God, the traditional prayer denies the roles played by human choice in the creation of both war and peace. Is it any wonder that the American president thinks about waging war, while leaving the creation of peace to God? In the new benediction, in contrast, the community asks the divine power as wisdom (Sophia) to dwell within us. It understands divine power as power with, inspiring us to co-create peace on earth. It states clearly that the power to create peace (or war) is in our hands. May we find the courage to know that we can make a difference.
Carol Christ leads the programs Goddess Pilgrimage to Crete and Sacred Journey in Greece through Ariadne Institute (www.goddessariadne.org). She strongly believes that this work of transforming values is part of the peace-making effort. Her new book She Who Changes: Re-imagining the Divine in the World was released in the summer of 2003.
*This essay was published in slightly different form in the spring equinox issue 2003 of SageWoman magazine (www.sagewoman.com).
1. See Sappho: A Translation by Mary Barnard (Boston: Shambala, 1994), 53-54.
2. See Carol Christ, Rebirth of the Goddess (New York: Routledge, 1998), 167.
3. See Carol Christ, She Who Changes: Re-imagining the Divine in the World (New York: Palgrave Macmillan/St. Martin's Press, 2003).
4. Please feel free to use this prayer, where appropriate attributing it to Carol Christ. Sophia or Shekhina may be substituted for Goddess in the first line.
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