(Boston, MA - Oct. 11, 2001) One month after the terrorist attacks
on the US, we find our nation in a kind of war never known before. Unitarian
Universalist congregations are filled with people who seek to understand
the ethics of war and the need for a just response to tragedy in an
environment needing the balm of peace and understanding.
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Amundson Family
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Amber Amundson,
whose husband, Craig, was among those Unitarian Universalists killed
in the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, writes, "Craig enlisted
in the army and was proud to serve his county. He was a patriotic American
and a citizen of the world [who] believed that by working from within
the military system he could help to maintain the military focus on
peacekeeping and strategic planning - to prevent violence and war. For
the last two years Craig drove to his job at the Pentagon with a "Visualize
World Peace" bumper sticker. This was not empty rhetoric or contradictory
to him, but part of his dream."
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Craig Amundson
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She continues, "I do not know how to begin making a better world:
I do believe it must be done, and I believe it is our leaders' responsibility
to find a way. I urge them to take up this challenge and respond to
our nation's and my personal tragedy with a new beginning that gives
us hope for a peaceful global community."
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Davidson
Loehr
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In Austin, TX, the Rev. Davidson
Loehr said in his sermon of Sept. 16, "The wisest teaching
I know of that still applies to these murders comes from Confucius.
2500 years ago, he said we should repay good with kindness, but repay
evil with justice. That seems the noblest and most humane goal here.
We should strive to repay these deeds not with vengeance, but with justice.
But what is justice here? Justice might be defined as truth plus compassion
plus power. And while it does not require that we love our enemy - a
teaching for calmer situations that would be vulgar here - the quest
for justice does require that we try to understand these people who
threw away their lives, and more than 5,000 American lives with them."
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Rev.
Mary Harrington
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And in Marblehead, MA, the Rev. Mary
Harrington writes of the need to reach out to one another to form
a community of understanding and peace: "As we keep sifting through
the rubble in New York, as we watch the news and hear about the attacks
on Afghani targets, anthrax, and the anti-American demonstrations taking
place across the globe; as we struggle to comprehend what is going on
still, even so, when your mind and heart reach the limit of human understanding,
don't forget: There is a Love holding All. May you find, here and there,
a moment to rest in that Love. "
