CPTnet
March 26, 2004

IRAQ REFLECTION: Resisting the Darkness

by Peggy Gish

            "The light shines in the darkness and the darkness has not
overcome it." (John 1:5 )

            It was March 15, 2004, and our Iraq team was gathered for
worship. What does this scripture passage say to us in this society torn by
violence?

          I thought of the time one year ago in the last days leading up to
the war and during the bombing. With jets poised and an ultimatum given to
Saddam Hussein, war, driven by the circle of decision-makers in the Bush
administration, seemed inevitable.

But some of us resisted this way of thinking to the very end. We found
ourselves engaged in a kind of spiritual resistance. Some thought us
unrealistic and impractical. It wasn't that we had any illusions about the
Bush administration's capability of doing such a thing or thought it
couldn't happen. We didn't want to get caught into a mindset that bought
into it, got stuck in it, and could no longer see possibilities for creative
action. We did not want the culture of fear and hopelessness to paralyze us
and to swallow up the light in this intense unleashing of violence.

            Do we make statements of faith and then let the darkness creep
into our consciousness? Do we let the darkness take over and shape our
worldview and lead us to believe that the answer to the world's problems
lies with having superior force or that this war is the only way to deal
with or get rid of an evil dictator? Christians even create theologies of
how Jesus couldn't have really meant that we should love our enemy or that
nonviolent, suffering love was more powerful than violence or evil. "We have
to be practical in today's world!"

            One powerful way the Iraqi people defied the darkness during the
war was to start the call to prayer every time the bombing would start. Over
the loud speakers of the mosques, we would hear, "Allahu Akbar!..God is
greater" than the power of war and violence! God is more powerful than the
greatest military power in the world! It didn't stop the bombing, but it
helped prevent the bombing from breaking the spirit of the people.

Some of it may have been our own craziness or stubbornness mixed in, but I
couldn't help but think that our resisting the inevitably of war had some
connection with the passage about the light triumphing over darkness.

In our work today we resist getting caught in the mindset of the occupation
system, which sees the Iraqi people through the eyes of fear and suspicion.
We resist seeing either Iraqi or US soldiers as our enemies or believing
that violence is the only way to combat terrorism.

Is it possible to walk, live, and work in a system of horrendous overt and
structural violence without being overcome by it? How can we do it today
here in Iraq, the U.S. or any other nation?