Peace. Everybody wants it, but there are many different routes to getting there. So much of war is caused by religious differences. It’s sad, but it is true. Conservatives are criticized because they want to stop violence with violence. Liberals are criticized because “all they want to do is talk”. Maybe you “don’t care about politics”, but I find that most people that say this still definitely care about things like peace and justice. This disconnect is frustrating for me to watch. Is our government going to solve the huge problems of this world? Of course not, but the government can serve as one source of helping (or what seems to more frequently happen, end up hurting the situation). So maybe you don’t care about politics and that is ok. But what do we tell our government to do when there is a genocide in Darfur (2,000 – 5,000+ dead since 2003)? What do we say when our government bombs innocent people because we are looking for a small terrorist group in a huge land? What do you think about abortion or gay rights?
Anyways, here is an old but interesting interview between Tony Campolo (president of Eastern University) and Shane Claiborne (a crazy, but interesting, hippie for Jesus). I learned a lot and more importantly, it confirmed a lot of of my beliefs of how to come to peace between our religious differences (muslim, christian, atheist, etc.). Maybe there won’t ever be peace between us, but that does not give us the excuse to stop trying.
