“WAR IS NOT PEACE” A sermon from The Unitarian Universalist Church Rockford, Illinois 9/19/04

Reading

from 1984 by George Orwell

         On the sixth day of Hate Week, after the processions, the speeches, the shouting, the singing, the banners, the posters, the films, the waxworks, the rolling of drums and squealing of trumpets, the tramp of marching feet, the grinding of the caterpillars of tanks, the roar of massed planes, the booming of guns – after six days of this, when the great orgasm was quivering to its climax and the general hatred of Eurasia had boiled up into such delirium that if the crowd could have got their hands on the two thousand Eurasian war criminals who were to be publicly hanged on the last day of the proceedings, they would unquestionably have torn them to pieces – at just this moment it ha been announced that Oceania was not after all at war with Eurasia. Oceania was at war with Eastasia. Eurasia was an ally.

         There was, of course, no admission that any change had taken place. Merely it had become known, with extreme suddenness and everywhere at once, that Eastasia and not Eurasia was the enemy.

         Winston was taking part in a demonstration in one of the central London squares at the moment when it happened. It was night, and the white faces and the scarlet banners were luridly floodlit. The square was packed with several thousand people, including a block of about a thousand schoolchildren in the uniform of the Spies. On a scarlet-draped platform an orator of the Inner-Party, a small lean man with disproportionately long arms and a large bald skull over which a few lank locks straggled, was haranguing the crowd. A little Rumplestiltskin figure, contorted with hatred, he gripped the neck of the microphone with one hand while the other, enormous at the end of a bony arm, clawed the air menacingly above his head. It was almost impossible to listen to him without being first convinced and then maddened.. . . The speech had been proceeding for perhaps twenty minutes when a messenger hurried onto the platform and a scrap of paper was slipped into the speaker’s hand. He unrolled and read it without pausing in his speech. Nothing altered in his voice or manner, or in the content of what he was saying, but suddenly the names were different. Without words said, a wave of understanding rippled through the crowd, Oceania was at war with Eastasia!. . . The hate continued exactly as before, except that the target had been changed.

THE SERMON

[Peace Day]

         In 1981, the United Nations General Assembly resolved that the opening day of the General Assembly each year should be observed as International Peace Day. In 2001, it was decided to move it permanently to the 21^st of September. Last year, I decided that I would observe International Peace Day in our service on the Sunday before, and I have decided to make it a tradition – twice is a tradition.

         There are people who, not understanding Unitarian Universalism, believe that ministers should address peace only in the abstract or transcendent sense – certainly not in a controversial, concrete way. The sixth of the seven principles of the Unitarian Universalist Association, the collective body of Unitarian Universalist congregations, declares our commitment to “The goal of world community with peace, liberty, and justice for all.” Now that does not have the weight of a creedal statement – you have every right to disagree with it as a whole, and we certainly can find disagreement among us as to how it is to be achieved. But this is not just a “pie in the sky” kind of statement for us –– it is a declaration of a core religious commitment with which most Unitarian Universalists agree.

[in times of war]

         It is particularly difficult to speak of world peace when our nation, the world’s most powerful, is in the midst of making war upon a third rate nation for reasons which have changed radically from time to time. At first it was all about weapons of mass destruction, then it had something to do with 9-11, and now we are told that it is about bringing “freedom” to the Iraqi people whom, we are told, overwhelmingly want to have nothing to do with the kind of freedom we are bringing.

         I began my ministry with the war in Vietnam, a moral disaster if ever there were. The real tragedy is that we, as a nation, learned absolutely nothing from it. We never resolved it. Many Americans are still convinced that the lesson of Vietnam was that you can‘t win a war unless you are prepared to bomb “the enemy” into the stone age. Actually, I guess I agree with that, except that since that would be, to me, immoral, the lesson is that even the most powerful nation on earth cannot defeat a guerilla war which is supported by the population among whom it is being fought, unless you suspend morality entirely.

         Countless leaders, among whom is the then Secretary of Defense, have testified, that they consciously misled the American people about that war, they lied repeatedly, and that there was no legitimate reason for losing the lives we, and the Vietnamese, lost.

         I do not expect to live long enough to hear that from the present leadership.

[not a partisan sermon]

         This is, by the way, not a partisan sermon when you come right down to it. The challenger to the incumbent has repeatedly stated that even if he knew then what he knows now, he would again vote to authorize this war – even though he is one of those who taught us much about Vietnam. He would just have conducted the war differently. It is, indeed, a strange world.

[links to 1984?]

         Several weeks ago, I received on the internet an editorial column on “The Ghost of Orwell is Upon Us” by Manuel Valenzuela linking the war in Iraq to George Orwell’s novel, 1984. [http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article6714.htm]

         Valenzuela observed:

[President Bush and his administration] have given life to a beast that has wrapped its malicious tentacles around the American psyche, breathing not oxygen but our exhaling fear, growing more powerful each day, feeding off our insecurity and continued dumbing down, enveloping our lives with our silent passivity, becoming omnipotent and omnipresent through our acquiescent complicity. Rolling down a snow-filled mountain as it gains unstoppable momentum, growing into a giant boulder intent on destroying 200 years of progress and hope . . .

The “War on Terror” is this malevolent demon called, a virus that is infecting America, catapulting us straight into the pages of a fiction – or a prophesy – long ago written by George Orwell. Immersed I the 1984 we presently find ourselves trapped in, living the chapters of a great book that today has become our reality.

[Orwell’s dystopia]

         I was in 4^th grade when Orwell’s dystopia appeared in 1949, 35 years before 1984. By the time I was in high school, it was, in essence, required reading for Unitarian Universalist kids. We all talked about it, and worried about it.

         A dystopian novel is the opposite of a utopian one. A utopian novel describes an ideal society; a dystopian describes a society that is more like hell.        The central theme of the novel is the use by the inner party that is in control of Oceania, one of the three controlling powers in the world, of technology to force the people into total conformity. History is constantly rewritten to conform to what is happening currently. People are watched constantly by two way television monitors in their homes that cannot be turned off. Even to think independently is a crime. One is required to love Big Brother, the head of the state. The hero of the novel, Winston Smith, who is employed at the Ministry of Truth, which is responsible for lying, is a rebel. He remembers when he rewrites news stories to coincide with later events. He falls in love with a woman, which is not permitted. He hates Big Brother.

         Given that it is a dystopian novel, in the end, Winston repents entirely. He is willing to believe that 2+2=5 if the party says so, and ultimately, after much torture in what is called the Ministry of Love, Winston discovers that he loves Big Brother. There is not a hint of hope.

[war was central]

         What I discovered when I reread 1984 this week is that I had forgotten, or ignored the importance of war to the society of 1984. The planet was divided into three major states: Oceania, Eurasia, and Eastasia – there was a small amount of contested territory that lay at the boundaries. The three states were of such a strength that even two aligned were really no threat to any third. And the alliances shifted from time to time, but whenever they did, history was rewritten so the current enemy had always been the enemy, as in our reading.

         The purpose of the war was not to defeat the enemy, but to consume the products of technology, so the people remained impoverished. The primary goal was maintaining the power of those in charge – if the largesse of the productivity were distributed among the people, those on top would lose their control.

         There is another virtue of war, however – to maintain a dictatorial state, the people must be kept in fear. It is amazing how little people think of liberty or even their well being when they are afraid of an enemy “out there.” And so, an important part of life in Oceania was the “2 minutes of hate” which people were led through daily, and the “week of hate” which was programmed at intervals. Keep them on edge. Keep them focused!

There were three slogans that were posted everywhere which communicated the central theses on which the government was based:

         War is Peace

         Freedom is Slavery

         Ignorance is Strength.

A constant state of war kept the people mollified. Freedom in that context would lead them nowhere but to grater misery. The strength of the government was dependent upon the ignorance of the people.

[chilling resemblances]

         Manuel Valenzuela is correct: reading 1984 in the context of today’s politics is chilling indeed.       It is clear that today, we have no governmental Ministry of Truth out there, rewriting the news – Fox News does it, but not for everyone. George Orwell could not imagine the creation of the internet which gives all of us constant access to a variety of perspectives on what is happening – from insider scoops to crackpot theories. And so when the White House Press Secretary says “The President never said that,” we can still quote back to him the President’s exact words in which he did say it.

         But what Orwell could also not have imagined is that many people could care less about the facts. “So big brother lied about the weapons of mass destruction.” “So he lied about the linkage of Saddam Hussein to that other guy whose name is no longer mentioned at the White House.” “So the intelligence reports show that there isn’t a chance in hell that we are going to bring freedom to the Iraqis.” It doesn’t matter. It doesn’t matter! “Well, he must have had a reason for doing what he did, and besides, we are a powerful nation and might makes right.” Something like half the American people love big brother. He makes them feel safe. He makes them feel good. “He’s a Christian, you know.” “He understands us.”

         In the face of the fear we feel, it becomes ok for the executive branch to deprive American citizens of their fundamental rights simply by applying the label “enemy combatant.” In their eyes, and the eyes of many Americans, nothing has to be proven. The government wouldn’t do that if they didn’t have a good reason.

         We have a right to take Iraqi citizens from their homes in the middle of the night, take them to the Ministry of Love, which is to say Abu Gharib prison, and submit them to tortures right out of 1984, that have been approved at the highest levels of the administration. We can even keep some off the books to hide them from the International Red Cross and move them around so the inspectors can’t find them. 

         We want to teach the Iraqi’s about Freedom of the Press, so we shut down a newspaper that does not follow our party line. We want the Iraqi people to have their own government, so we install one, headed by an Iraqi chosen by us who has been out of the country and on the payroll of the CIA and British Intelligence for years and has no credibility among his own people, and we claim that we have turned their country over to them. The UN official who was to have a role in this decision was left entirely out in the cold. And to many people, all of this makes perfect sense.

         And the caskets come home without ceremony. And the death toll rises for Americans and Iraqi’s, and the people chant, “4 more years.”

         Again, this is not partisan because there is no clear indication that this would come to an end any quicker under the alternate candidate. The issue here is not Republican or Democrat – the issue is War or Peace, because they are not the same. War is NOT peace.Some people were shocked this week when the Secretary General of the United Nations declared publicly that the US and Britain had violated international law by invading Iraq. That was no secret except to the White House, to which a group of outstanding scholars of international law had delivered a detailed brief prior to the invasion, showing precisely that.  

[where’s the hope?]

         Now, sermons are supposed to be about hope, not just about whipping ourselves into misery. Where’s the hope?

         As I noted earlier, my sermon began with the Vietnam War. We were “Knee deep in the big muddy” and there was little indication we would pull out, and then a miracle occurred, and we left, abruptly. It could happen again – not likely, but then it wasn’t likely back then either.

         The other thing is that, bad as it may seem, we are not living in Oceania in 1984. We have not lost all our freedoms – at least yet. I can still deliver this sermon. People can still read what the President said two years ago and compare it with what he is saying today, and ask, “Why?” And there are people who do remember what he said before that was not true, who do read, who are indignant, and who do ask, “Why? ” There are people who read the daily reports of what is happening, about how the situation is deteriorating and ask, “How long?” Are there enough such to bring about regime change in this country? At this point, that’s clearly not certain. Is the glass half empty or is it half full? I haven’t moved to Canada yet.

         No one ever said democracy was going to be easy. No one ever said everyone was going to agree about what was in the best interest of our nation or the world.

         Our charge as citizens is to be informed, as well informed as we can possibly be, and then to make a choice between the available candidates and chose whichever one you believe offers the best future. And beyond that, to use the information you find to engage others in conversations that may lead them to ideas they had not considered. For Unitarian Universalists, the cause of peace must be factored into those decisions.

[the warning]

         Valenzuela concludes his article on “The Ghost of Orwell” observing:

To live in 2004 is to live in Orwell’s 1984, and if the same road continues to be taken, the America of tomorrow will cease to parallel the one of yesterday. At the crossroads we stand, and the failure to act will no doubt condemn our future generations to the mistakes of the forefathers. The America they will in habit will be a vastly different land than the one enjoying its last remaining days. They will never miss what they never had, and they will never fight for what they always deserved. Our actions, our fear, and our complicity are helping to seal the fate of the millions that will come after us. History is being repeated, but not learned.

[a prayer for peace]

         At Chautauqua this summer, there was a Sunday evening Sacred Song Service devoted to peace. That service concluded with a prayer written by Rabbi Harold Kushner for Parade magazine, with which we will conclude:

         Let the rain come and wash away

                     the ancient grudges, the bitter hatreds

                     held and nurtured over the generations.

          Let the rain wash away the memory

                     of the hurt, the neglect.

          Let the sun come out and

                     fill the sky with rainbows.

          Let the warmth of the sun heal us

                     wherever we are broken.

          Let is burn away the fog so that we can see each other clearly.

          So that we can see beyond labels

                     beyond accents, gender, or skin color.

          Let the warmth and brightness

                     of the sun melt our selfishness

          So that we can share the joys and

                     feel the sorrows of our neighbors.

          And let the light of the sun

                     be so strong that we will see all

                     people as our neighbors.

          Let the earth, nourished by rain,

                     bring forth flowers

                     to surround us with beauty.

          And let the mountains teach our hearts

                     to reach upward to heaven.

AMEN.