The Council on Christian Unity, in partnership with Disciples Peace Fellowship, engaged Disciples in vigorous, robust discussion on the challenges of putting faith into practice while addressing issues of unity, war and peacemaking with a new discussion model called “Faithful Conversations.”
The process was introduced at the first business session on Sunday, July 10 by Robert Welsh, president of CCU, and several speakers who shared their stories about war and peace from a variety of Christian perspectives. On Monday afternoon, July 11, three standing-room only resource sessions took place, which allowed participants to look at understandings and personal commitments on the war and peace issue.
In one of the discussion rooms, Sharon Warner, a professor at Lexington Theological Seminary, talked about the roots of the “just cause” theory of warfare. Down the hall, Doug Skinner, pastor of Northway Christian Church in Dallas, read a letter from the father of a U.S. Marine deployed to Iraq, who said too many Christians are forced to choose between their love of the church and their pride in their sons, daughters, and other relatives who embrace the task of defending the nation. “How can a church comfort its children, the father asked, when it condemns them and takes sides in political debates?”
In another room, a group of Disciples historians discussed the anti-war origins of the Stone-Campbell movement. Craig Watts, minister of Royal Palm Christian Church in Coral Springs, Fla., said Alexander Campbell believed that war is against God’s design for people, but as the slavery issue divided his church, Campbell still held Christian unity as the priority, to the consternation of those Disciples who believed war was the only path to eradicating slavery.
Ultimately, the speakers argued the decision to take up arms against fellow human beings is one of the most complex and difficult decisions Christians can undertake.
In closing comments on Wednesday, July 13, John Richardson, regional minister of North Carolina, who had served as a recorder at the Monday afternoon sessions, noted some of the learnings from the conversation model, including: “There is a clear and urgent call for Disciples to educate themselves both to the historic Christian positions around war and peace, and especially to our own Disciples understanding, and that peacemaking is a bigger topic than what is simply identified as situations of conflict and war. We must address critical issues and challenges of peace among all people, peace in the community, the marketplace, and in care of creation.”
There was a call to continue the conversations started in Nashville across the life of the church, especially within congregations, and the possible creation of a “faithful conversations” website with specific resources for study and worship.
“Somehow, somewhere, we need to model honest, genuine disagreements as Christians, and still claim each other as members of one family,” said Welsh, CCU president.
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