Guest Column: Praying we get it right

By Guest

I write this at 10:49 p.m. on Thursday, April 18. It has just been confirmed by the Office of the President of the United States that Israel has launched a retaliatory strike against Iran for the latter’s attacks against the former last Saturday.

There will be a deluge of views on this issue. Some will side with Iran, even framing their aggression as a just response to the war between Israel and Palestine. Some will see this as the result of antisemitism. Some will see it as the spark that history knew would be lit someday. Other will view this in biblical terms: the beginning of the end. This could be the start of World War III.

Rev. Dr. John Tamilio III

Don’t laugh. You’re thinking the same thing. If I’m wrong, I welcome your scorn.

Such an apocalypse could unfold among those who could be brought into the fray, which includes (but is not limited to) Russia, China, and the United States. There will most likely be cyber-attacks, terrorist attacks, military attacks, or maybe a combination of the above. Maybe worse.

If I’m wrong, I welcome your scorn.

My fear is that we, as a country, are already at a loss. We are a nation divided. If our enemies have not defeated us while we’ve been glued to our iScreens, then they have at least planted the les graines de la défaite by making us a house divided.

Tomorrow, college students will march across America’s campuses waving Iranian flags. The irony of this is not lost on those of us who were alive in the late 1970s. Who will tomorrow’s enemy be? Maybe Pogo was right. Maybe it’s us. Maybe we’ve already been defeated without a shot.

Or have we? The choice is ours.

I am not saying that we have to take up arms, sound the battle cry, and march into the breach together with Old Glory fluttering proudly behind the ranks. Maybe we do — metaphorically.

I pray that a peaceful resolution arises with the sun. If not, I hope that we as a nation can see what really matters and finally get it right. All of us. I hope we get it right. Those of us who played baseball together as kids. Those of us who laughed with one another during study hall about something that happened at a party the weekend before. Those of us who may have run into each another during our college years. Those of us who may have become client and customer at some point. Maybe we’re neighbors. Maybe we’re strangers. Or maybe we’re enemies, because one of us wronged the other years ago, or at least we were told that this is what occurred. I hope we strive for peace and justice together despite our differences. If that fails (God forbid), I hope we defend one another, regardless of our distinct political affiliations.

I’m sick of living in a divided nation. It has trained us to be rabid ideologs. Bodies could follow. Our own. The Apostle Paul said, “I do not say this to condemn you, for I said before that you are in our hearts, to die together and to live together” (2 Cor. 7:3, ESV). The Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. said something similar: “We must either learn to live together as brothers [and sisters] or we are all going to perish together as fools.”

Wise words. They call us to envision international solidarity as well.

To follow the religious tone, many theists see us as created in the image of God. The atheist sees us as related, too. Different words. Same blood. All of us share the same dreams, too, as cliché as that sounds. We want to live in a world that allows all people to flourish. (Aristotle uses a variation of that word as part of his “virtue” ethics: eudaimonia.) We want to grow old with those we love. We want to watch sunsets and listen to music that can be felt as well as heard. We want to laugh and sing and dance. We want to tell stories to our children and our children’s children.

I’ll tell the story of a dream. Jesus embodied it. King preached it. It is up to us to live it or not.

Lord, have mercy. May your peace prevail upon Israel, and Iran, and Palestine, and Ukraine, and Russia, and every land and people who struggle with war or shudder at rumors of war.

Lord, have mercy.

The Rev. Dr. John Tamilio III is the pastor of the Congregational Church of Canton and is a professor in the Department of Philosophy at Salem State University.

Share This Post

Short URL: https://www.thecantoncitizen.com/?p=123777