I. Biblical Basis of Peacemaking

Adopted by Jeff Street Baptist Community at Liberty 10 March 2002

The biblical witness on issues of war and peacemaking is large and complex, but several central strands of that witness are clear. The Hebrew prophets all paint visions of peace in the age of the Messiah. For instance, the prophet Isaiah says, " . . . [T]hey shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruning hooks; nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war any more." (Isa. 2:4) Similar visions and commands of peace are found throughout the Hebrew prophets (e.g., Isa. 9:1-7; 31:1; Hos. 2:18; Micah:4: 3-4; Jer. 29:1-14, etc).

As Christians, we believe that Jesus is the Messiah and thus embodies this hope for a messianic peace. In Jesus' teachings, such as the Sermon on the Mount (Matt. 5-7) and the Sermon on the Plain (Luke 6:20-49), we are taught to love our enemies and pray for our persecutors, not to resist evil violently, but to take transforming initiatives for peace and reconciliation. Christ's reconciling death is the basis of our peace with God (Rom. 5:10) and with one another (Rom. 12:21; Eph. 2:13-16). Christ’s resurrection demonstrates God's vindication of his teaching and example of unarmed, noncoercive, delivering love.

II. A Heritage of Struggle for Justice and Peace

Since our beginnings in the 17th Century, a large number of Baptists have been peacemakers. Our earliest heritage as English Puritan-Separatists who were taught to be more Christ-centered by Dutch Anabaptists included a strong stream of pacifists and an even greater number of "near-pacifist" peacemakers.

Some of the strongest Christian voices for nonviolence and peacemaking are also among the most important shapers of Baptist life and thought, including Walter Rauschenbusch, Muriel Lester, Clarence Jordan, Howard Thurman, and Martin Luther King, Jr.

Peacemaking and nonviolence are also a part of the history of our own congregation: In the 1930s, we were one of the mission churches supervised by Baptist pacifist Clarence Jordan and among our former pastors is Henlee Barnette, a peacemaking Christian ethicist and an activist against the Vietnam War. More recently, we became a covenant congregation with the Baptist Peace Fellowship of North America and our members, sometimes as individuals and sometimes as a congregation, have been involved in many nonviolent movements for peace and justice.
Further, our church covenant already commits us to "promote peace and justice in all life circumstances."

Therefore, in identifying ourselves as a congregation of peace, we declare no new teaching, but name explicitly an identity we already possess. Our history and present life already demonstrate our developing convictions concerning violence, war, nonviolence and active peacemaking. In this declaration, we seek to name those convictions more concretely so that all will be clear about our stand.

III. Our Specific Peace Commitments

In most discussions of war and peacemaking, the debate becomes stuck between pacifists, who renounce all war and all use of lethal violence, and just war theorists who believe that war is sometimes a "lesser of evils" and, therefore, permissible under certain very limited conditions. While this debate is important, it often deteriorates into a debate over whether to go to war, and when, if ever. Lost in such discussions are the active practices which seek peace founded on justice. We affirm the emerging ethic of just peacemaking which advocates practices that actively promote peace and justice, practices which work to build a culture of true peace, peace which is the presence of justice and not simply the absence of visible conflict.⁴ Commonly agreed upon practices of just peacemaking include:

• Support nonviolent direct action in movements for social justice
• Take independent initiatives to reduce the threat to the adversary
• In situations of conflict, use techniques of creative conflict resolution
• Acknowledge responsibility for one’s own role in conflict and injustice and seek repentance and forgiveness
• Advance participatory democracy and democratic reforms
• Advance respect for human rights and religious liberty for everyone
• Foster just and sustainable economic development
• Work with emerging cooperative forces in the international system, including the United Nations
• Reduce weapons stockpiles and the weapons trade
• Encourage grassroots peacemaking groups and voluntary associations for justice⁵

We seek to state our peace convictions plainly and clearly, saying yes to God and no to the warring ways of this world:

III. Our Specific Peace Commitments, cont'd...

1. We declare that peace and peacemaking are the will of God and that all war is sin. As we seek to "wage peace" ⁶ and promote practices of just peacemaking, we aim to build a culture of peace. Therefore, we call upon all our members to learn methods of conflict resolution, practices of nonviolent defense, and to continue striving to become peaceable persons in both our inner and outer lives.

2. We urge all our members to refuse to participate in military service in any way:

a) We will support all men and women who would seek to become conscientious objectors to all war and military service, who seek legal recognition as conscientious objectors and, in the event of a return to military conscription, will perform alternative national service in voluntary agencies of compassion and mercy.

b) We respect the liberty of conscience of those among us who would serve in the military. If they seek to become noncombatant conscientious objectors, we will support them fully, upholding their legal right to be trained without weapons and to serve the military only in roles consistent with Christian practices of compassion, mercy, and love for enemies.

c) Some among us may be convinced by their consciences that they must not cooperate with the Powers and Authorities of war in any degree. Therefore, these persons will refuse even to register with the Selective Service Board (currently a legal requirement for all men from age 18-23). We will support those of our number who become nonregistrant conscientious objectors, even though, in so doing they are committing civil disobedience, breaking human laws in order to obey their understanding of the law of God.

We will support all these persons with our prayers and spiritual counsel. We will support conscientious objectors with our monetary support and legal counsel.

3. We proclaim that our first allegiance as Christians is to God even when obedience to God requires civil disobedience to human laws.

4. We condemn the outrageous expenditures of the government for military forces and weapons of destruction. We further condemn all attempts to rationalize or make palatable huge war machines in the name of "defense" or "security."

5. We call for complete abolition of all nuclear, biological, and chemical weapons. We call for independent initiatives for disarmament of these weapons of mass destruction.

6. We call on all governments to provide alternatives to heavy taxes for the military, including the creation of "peace tax funds" that allow conscientious objectors to war to pay all of their taxes without violating their consciences. We support fully those of our members who are "war tax resisters," that is, who resist paying portions of their taxes that would be used for military purposes.

7. We encourage all our members to seek employment outside those industries with heavy defense contracts. We further encourage our members to examine their purchasing patterns and boycott products produced and sold by companies that derive large amounts of their income from military contracts. We further encourage our members to live simply and use their investments, savings, and purchasing patterns to support those companies and practices that promote peace, nonviolence, and sustainable development for all peoples.

8. We recognize the legitimacy of government as an instrument that God often uses for good in the world. Although we dissent from the military practices of our government, we are reminded to respect the offices held by our government leaders. We must also give government leaders and members of the military the respect and dignity owed to all humans as bearers of the image of God. We will pray for members of the militaries of all nations -- pray that they come to no bodily harm, pray that they remember to be persons of mercy and compassion, pray that they never be ordered to commit atrocities or shed human blood. We remember our duty as Christians to pray for our governmental leaders and the leaders of all nations. We pray they will turn away from war and violence and learn practices of just peacemaking that the earth may become a more just and peaceful world.

9. All humans sin and fall short of perfection. We recognize the many areas of our lives that fall short of this declaration of our convictions. Through listening prayer we seek the guidance of the Holy Spirit on those areas where we still embody the spirit of the Powers of war and violence. We seek the Spirit's aid in repenting those shortcomings and in being re-fashioned into a people of peace. Amen.