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Peace Building Messages

Key peace building messages are not the same as political "talking points." We're not trying to "spin" the political news of the day so that it is reported to particular political advantage.

Rather, the task for clergy and other religious and spiritual leaders is to call us publicly and in our faith communities to a new era of peace building in a time of cultural war, recognizing the depth of our differences, but refusing to respond to those differences with a politic of polarization.

Among those key messages are these, which can be used in sermons, op-ed columns, and other written and spoken communication within a particular faith community and within the larger civic community.

• Good and faithful people of conscience disagree about rights and recognition for lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender people, including equal civil marriage rights, and many faith communities continue to struggle over differences of biblical interpretation, spiritual leading, belief, and opinion.

• These differences don't make us enemies, and we reject the pressures in today's political climate that say we are.

• The divisive and demonizing politics of today make it impossible for us to come together across our differences, to meet each other as equally worthy human beings not as pre-ordained enemies. They make it impossible for us to talk across differences about what's important to us, what we hope for, what frightens us, what our faith means to us, and what our faith asks of us.

• Rather than enemies in a cultural war, we should regard one another as good neighbors. When differences come between us, we should come together as good neighbors to share our beliefs, understandings, and personal experiences so that we may better understand one another. At the same time, by coming together as people who care about and respect one another, we may gain new insights and discover new possibilities for addressing old conflicts.

• We urge other religious, spiritual, and civic leaders to join us in rejecting cultural war and in calling friends and neighbors to the work of building just and beloved communities, in which the religious liberty of all is guaranteed, equal rights under civil law are assured, and the rights of no person or group are abridged.

• This work will require the best we have to give. It's not simple work. It requires open hearts, open minds, a willingness to listen as well as to speak candidly, and the grace of God (or Spirit).

• When religious influence is politicized, we ought to be very certain that it is not going to be used in ways that restrict rather than expand the concepts of universal human and civil rights. We ought to be very certain that it is not going to be used in ways that restrict the free exercise of religion of those who disagree with us.

• It's hard to talk honestly about the interrelationships of religion, sexuality, morality, and law in ways that bring us together rather than tear us apart, within society and sometimes within our own faith communities. But our faith is not a faith that's there only for the easy tasks. Faithful people who want to find new ways about talking about these hard issues can do it. With the grace of God, or Spirit, we can find ways to have healing rather than polarizing dialogue.

• We're in a time of great economic, demographic, technological, and social uncertainties, shifts, and tensions in our society. It's a time when global civil strife, war, and rumors of war are endemic. We've got a crumbling educational and civic infrastructure in this country. Many of us are somewhat anxious about what the future holds for us, and for our children and grandchildren. At such moments, it's easy to find scapegoats for our anxieties, fears, and resentments. The call to cultural war always demands scapegoats. But going after a scapegoat never solves the problems. We never protect what's spiritually and socially good by demonizing other people or groups, or writing laws to keep them from getting the same things we've got.

• It's true that many devoutly religious people and communities oppose the idea that lesbian and gay people should be able to marry or have any of the legal recognition and benefits that come with civil marriage. It's also true that many devoutly religious people embrace lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender people as spiritual equals and bless their marriages. The challenge is not which religious view should triumph in a religiously diverse society, but how to accommodate religious liberty without codifying inequality in civil law. If we start honestly taking up that question, we might start to find some new ways to approach the marriage issue in the civic arena.

• Even if [or though] I believe that my faith is the only true faith, and that the way I understand Holy Scripture is the only correct understanding, I still have a spiritual and civic obligation to uphold the right of my neighbors to their religious freedom, though their beliefs may be different from mine. I am honoring my faith, not betraying it, by doing so. My faith reflects its beauty by example, not by legal coercion or codifying inequality in civil law.

• Every time one religious group has tried to impose its beliefs on all people, or singled out some for different treatment, we've produced a lot of pain, suffering, and injustice. That's not a spiritual result, even though the action might be taken with spiritual intentions.

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