“The soldiers then… brought Jesus before Pilate.” “Pilate then summoned the chief priests, the rulers” who “shouted out… Crucify him!” “The soldiers led Jesus away to be executed” on a cross. “When they came to the place called the Skull, the soldiers crucified him.”
Jesus lived as a peacemaker, intentionally so. He was not ignorant nor undecided about warmakers; about their soldiers and weapons, nor their religion of Militarism that sanctifies it all. Many of us today are ignorant. It is apparent in corporate news surrounding the warmaker Putin and Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. We are kept ignorant of the fact that the religion of Militarism is a business. It is operated by war plunderers who in Jesus’ time and still today, gain riches through soldiering and weaponry. They hinder any challenges to their plundering by sanctifying it all. For example, Militarism has sanctified its weapon of the cross used by its soldiers to torture and murder Jesus. As a result, all weapons are sanctified. Under this sanctification, war plunderers, especially since WWII, have been manufacturing weapons they claim are saving us. But the only savings are theirs in banks that trade in the spoils of their wars across the world. This weapons racketeering includes the ongoing West vs. Russia conflict. Over thirty years ago with the USSR imploding under the religion of Militarism, Mikhail Gorbachev shifted to a glasnost policy of peacemaking. It meant the dissolution or at least diminishment of war plunderers arming the USSR, the U.S., and NATO. The potential loss of trillions of dollars required much scheming amongst that era’s cross wielding war plunderers. They included oligarchs of the Russian Federation making a killing from the sale of Kalashnikov assault rifles (AK-47), Shilka anti-aircraft weapons, and MiG missiles. They included U.S. war plunderers making that same killing; Reagan (GE), Bush Sr. (Carlyle Group), Weinberger (Bechtel), and many others whose business is still enemy making for the plunder it gains. Thus, when Gorbachev asked for a Marshall Plan to aid the Russian people, Russian oligarchs did not support him and the U.S. declined the request. Diminished was the opportunity to nurture a fledgling democracy, integrate Russia into Western economies, and expand shared activities in the arts, ecology, health care, and the sciences because it would not gain sufficient plunder. Instead, the U.S. approved an on-going and ever-increasing weapons scheme benefitting its capitalist war plunderers. Currently these include Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley, and BlackRock, working with the U.S. and Russian capitalists, including Putin, all practicing the same weapons scheme. These weapons capitalists, many claiming to be ‘Christian,’ rule over all the world by arming both sides of conflicts in innumerable and highly lucrative wars. Ukraine is the latest example. Corporate scribes keep us ignorant of these interminable and global warmaking racketeers. They also keep us ignorant of peacemaking people, groups, and endeavors. Corporate scribes are members of the religion of Militarism. Their job includes depicting peacemakers as weak, naïve, ridiculous, or, ignoring them, rendering them missing in action because peacemakers will not sanctify any of it. The business of warmaking includes the torturing and killing of the spirituality of peacemaking. All people suffer as a result. We suffer from a lack of imagination and creativity as well as a lack of security, food, health, and more. We suffer torture and death still, inflicted by the weapons of the ruling class, be it the cross, the armed drone, or the nuclear warhead all sanctified by Western priests and Eastern Patriarchs. It is not only Democracy that is struggling to survive the war-plunderer class. All humanity struggles to survive.
“(Rulers), who live by other people’s work, need some means of dominating… this means… control of the army… (They) pretend that for the well-being or defence of their people they must (prepare for) war: which again brings profit… to the rich… (Rulers) have to pretend they hold the highest religious teaching known (Christian)… but… they pervert Christianity… The people are oppressed and robbed, poor and ignorant… for land is (owned by) the rich; and the people are enslaved… in factories… because (war) taxes are demanded from them, and the price of their labour is diminished while the price of things they need is increased… (if they) seize the factories / strike… soldiers will come, and will kill… The armies are always on the side of the capitalists. But who compose these armies… these same peasants… why shoot at their brothers? Because it has been instilled… that though it is generally wrong to kill people, it is right to do so on command of one’s superiors… How is it… people believe such an evident lie?” “(People) have from childhood been deprived of the proper use of their reason by a whole series of deceptions, a whole system of frauds, called the Orthodox Faith, which is nothing but the grossest idolatry… (Those who) acknowledge Christ… and especially the Sermon on the Mount-are not tricked by this deception… The Government knows this and is therefore exceedingly anxious (to support) the general Church.” “True Christian teaching… is very simple, clear, and obvious to all…” “(We) know Christ did not sanction murder, but taught kindness… love of one’s enemies.” (Letter to a Non-Commissioned Officer – Leo Tolstoy)
Prayer: Spirit, guide me in the wisdom of peacemaking.
Question: How am I sharing my spirituality of peacemaking?
April 10, 2022 Gospel Luke 22:14 – 23:56 Sixth Sunday of Lent / Palm Sunday