Re-framing Peace pt. 2

Recently I was discussing with a friend the concept of war/violence with regard to peace and he asked me if there was war in the Bible and I said that there was, but that too needs to be re-framed. When we view the Bible, generally people split it into two parts with the first part being referred to as the Old Testament and the second part being referred to as the New Testament. This in turn causes some issues, because it means that we can ignore the Old Testament, except when it suites our purposes such as thoughts on war and God being violent and allows us to focus on the New Testament, except when it talks about peace and nonviolence, in which case we just skim over those passages until we read something that we want. Of coarse this is not the proper way to look at Scripture, because it is meant to be read from beginning to end; only by reading the Old Testament or as I prefer the Hebrew Scriptures, first can we begin to understand what the New Testament authors were thinking about when they wrote. Let's face it, they did not have the New Testament only the Hebrew Scriptures, so doesn't it make sense that we should start there and work our way forward?

When it comes to war/violence in the Bible we look at the Hebrew Scriptures particularly the parts talking about Israel being led by God to destroy the opposing nations and take the promised land by force, kind of like what the British did when they came to America. Again this is about framing and sense Israel was an oral community, meaning that they mainly used stories to talk about their history instead of writing it down, they would have to tell their history in a way that could not be forgotten easily. I believe that Israel framed their violence around God, saying that he was on their side, so they would be blessed by their violent actions. This may be difficult for many to hear because in our culture we place them, the Hebrews and the Bible authors, on a high pedestal, making them more god like and less human just because they are in the Bible. This is the way our framing looks at sacred objects, but I believe to truly understand them in their context we need to re-frame them to be fully human.

Granted someone will read this and ask me then if I believe the Bible is authoritative and inspired by God (which to be honest is a frustrating question to ask because no answer I can give will satisfy and nothing will be gained by our dialogue)? My answer would be yes, and even though I have re-framed the people in the Bible as human does not change the fact that the entire Bible is a narrative about a creator God who works within creation to bring about its renewal. The Hebrews were human and as such they were emotional, just as we are emotional. In order to make it appear that God was with them when they used violence against another nation all they had to say was that when they won that God had given them the victory and when they lost they could either say that they or someone among them was sinning and that is why they lost. It is easy to get lost in the details of such a narrative and see phrases like "God was with them" or "God ordered" etc. and miss the over all theme that starts back in Genesis and is continually weaving its way through the story as a cloth maker uses the loom to bring together all the pieces of string and make a whole fabric image. This type of view can be framed within a kingdom or imperial type mindset.

Once we re-frame the Hebrew Scriptures it is time to re-frame the New Testament thought...

Re-framing Peace pt. 1

People fascinate me, which is good because I got a degree that deals with people. One reason that I both enjoy and am frustrated with people is how we frame things. Let me explain this concept briefly: framing is essentially how we see the world and the people, places, and events within it. Generally no one has the same framing view as another person, your framing view is your own will continue to be shaped through your entire life, generally reaching it's climax view in your mid to late twenties, and only small tweaks of refinement after that. Our framing view starts at birth and is influenced by where we life, what we look like, our family's beliefs and values, and many different events that take place during your development (ie if you were born into slavery or elitism). The top 3 influences of our view are #1 family, #2 friends, and #3 religion, with 2 and 3 switching depending on what kind of family you were born into.

Part of the joys of watching people is that we share a lot in common with Transformers, that is that there is more that meets the eye. People generally know this but in a very broad sense. I came to understand this concept in a deeper way through my work on my Undergrad Degree. A few of my friends have talked about re-framing our view in order to understand others, and so a few years ago I began to do that, which has caused some controversy over my thoughts on what I found (read some of my previous thoughts and you'll understand why).

One of the subjects that has recently been on my mind is the whole war issue, which is a hot topic no matter where you are from, usually people are for war or against it, not in between. I do not believe that war is ever a solution to any problem and is especially not a means to an end as many people think. War/violence only leads to more war/violence, if we look back through history we can see this is true and history likes to repeat itself unless we change the way the game is played. I also do not agree with our war in Afghanistan or Iraq or where ever else we may be sending our troops. This does not mean that I do not support our troops, because I assure you that I do, but I can still not support a war that is being fought unjustly, because let's face it, there's no such thing as a just war! That is simply a way to frame war to make it positive instead of negative.

Now I'm sure that there will be some people who read this and say that if we do not strike first the terrorists will attack us and then we will be poor and destitute just like the people we are attacking, or more like the "casualties of war". However there is another option but our view of others has been framed by fear and by an ideology that we are "God's nation" and so we have to prevail over the "bad" in the world. I fully agree that we do need to do that, however there is a better way than war. I believe that we can come to that solution through true peace. We, however, do not know what true peace is because we have framed peace to mean "the way the world will be after we prevent future blood shed with present blood shed and when the whole world is 'Democratic'" which seems a little counter intuitive and is all the more reason to re-frame in a positive light.

Recently I was discussing with a friend the concept of war/violence with regard to peace and he asked me...