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An invitation to a Book Study
Jay Beaman
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This evening on the news on PBS I listened to an interview with the Pakistan Ambassador to the United States. He thoughtfully stated the case for beginning a war with India all the while continuously saying, "We are a peaceful people." I immediately began to do what I do so often just now, I asked WWSHD, "What would Stanley Hauerwas do?" Hauerwas, a Methodist (Episcopalian wannabe) theologian, recently retired from Duke University, Time Magazine's greatest American theologian, self-described high-church Mennonite, and writer of the following book…
War and the American Difference: Theological Reflections on Violence and National Identity. In this book Hauerwas seems to riff on the irony that America and Americans might say, "We are basically very peaceful people." But, we seem to be at the center of so many military conflicts, if for no other reason as referee, arms supplier, or as we like to say, "bailing everyone's chestnuts out of every literal fire." How is it that the world's leading "christian" nation, followers of the prince of peace, is so heart and soul at peaceful rest with endless war? |
