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In Times of War

By Michael Gibson-Faith

{HEADER "I am not suggesting we sit back and do nothing, but does disagreement mean we must go to war over those differences? The call to "cultural war" does violence to us all, turning neighbors into enemies and substituting demonizing and divisive rhetoric for honest and engaged dialogue."
Michael Gibson-Faith}

{ITAL "In times of war, we're all the losers, there's no victory."
–From the song War Child by the Cranberries}

As I look around today I see war everywhere. While the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan get most of the attention, we are surrounded by a culture of war throughout the world and here at home from the "War on Terror" to the "War on Drugs." There is also an ever increasing war being declared against an entire class of people: the Cultural War being declared against Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender people and our families.
LGBT people are not the only ones being singled out and hurt in the cultural wars. There are also cultural wars being waged against affirmative action, multicultural education, immigrant rights, reproductive choice, and single parents. These wars, too, are causing us to view one another as enemies across racial, gender, and economic lines.
Through the work I do with the American Friends Service Committee, I know that good and faithful people of conscience disagree about LGBT rights and recognition. I also know that many faith groups are using this time for renewed moral searching on this issue, and are confronted in this process with questions about their spiritual integrity in such times of social and economic change and upheaval.
However, I also know from history that in times such as these, there is often a tendency to want to manage fear, uncertainty, and anxiety about our own futures by declaring war against a selected "enemy," an abstract embodiment of all that we fear and dislike, and against whom we can all unite. A call to arms always strengthens the age-old dualism of a supremacist "us" and a subordinate "them." Today, many people of faith are being told that there is an attack by LGBT people on faith itself and that the only way to protect and preserve faith is to declare the religious and civic equivalent of war against the LGBT claim to spiritual and legal equality.
This war's main focus as of late has been on the question of LGBT marriage equality which has been almost completely polarized between ardent supporters of the "marriage amendments" and equally ardent opponents of the amendments. Regrettably, promoters of the amendments have dominated public discourse, so that the anti-LGBT stand is seen as the "religious position." At the same time, pro-LGBT groups and religious organizations have taken up "arms" and are "fighting" back.
I am not suggesting we sit back and do nothing, but does disagreement mean we must go to war over those differences? The call to "cultural war" does violence to us all, turning neighbors into enemies and substituting demonizing and divisive rhetoric for honest and engaged dialogue. I personally and professionally cannot accept that this is the way. I believe that there is another way forward, a way that calls us to a new era of peace building in a time of "cultural war," and renewed spiritual commitment to the creation of a just and beloved community in which religious liberty and equal rights for all are assured, and no one's rights are abridged.
That is why I am asking you to join me and the AFSC in our upcoming campaign titled "Peacebuilding in a time of culture war." The AFSC campaign is designed primarily to reach people in faith and spiritual communities who are part of the "moveable middle."
I feel, as does AFSC, that the only way to try and reach people is not by forcing them over to "our side" nor to convince them by using our crossfire style political talking points, but by trying to come together as human beings, not as abstract and demonized enemies, in which we can create new ground, new space in which all of our voices can be heard in an atmosphere of safety and respect. This, in turn, changes the tone of discussion to one in which we become neighbors rather than enemies. Neighbors try to find ways to address differences without hurting one another. Enemies simply try to annihilate one another.
This campaign is going to take several forms, the first one starting within the next week through monitored and closely watched online small group dialogues. The dialogues are aimed at creating a demilitarized zone in the culture war, one in which we can dialogue across differences and hopefully all be transformed from the experience.
AFSC and I are for full equality for LGBT people. However, I know that participating in a war, whether or not I started it, is not the way to achieve equality. We will not get there by force, or in this case what could be defined as "self defense." I am not saying DO NOTHING, but we will only get there if we step out into this raging and bitter storm with a bold and creative force of active love and nonviolence. Together as neighbors, not enemies, we can all be brought safely home into the communities in which we ALL truly want to live in.

Some portions of this have been adapted from AFSC's "Only Love Can lead Us Safely Home" Document written by Katherine Whitlock, AFSC National LGBT Representative.

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