FARESPITHE THOUGHTS ON BUILDING SCHOOLS, NOT USING BOMBS AND BULLETS
(FARESPITHE stands for faith, religion, spirituality, theology: “fare” like fair; “spithe” like with)
With serious, even violent, ongoing protests in Egypt, and even some, though not as widespread as yet, in Jordan, Israel must be exceedingly on-edge worried, which likely means all its military, and the US Fleet in the Mediterranean, have been placed on high alert. When I saw what was happening in Egypt I immediately thought, “If this spreads to Jordan this could really be a terrible mess.” Those two countries have peace treaties with Israel, yet also have the longest borders with Israel. Egypt also has the Suez Canal and if that were threatened the western world’s oil supply could become very limited and very expensive. Both countries function as allies of the US. Yet if either government collapses and is replaced by those thought to be radicals strongly opposed to Israel and the US, then I suspect Israel, under the aggressively conservative leadership of Prime Minister Netanyahu, would not hesitate even minutes before launching a preemptive strike if they felt seriously threatened. That this threat could easily be supported by many other regimes in the area, like Syria, Lebanon, Iran, and even fundamentalists from within Saudi Arabia, is not unthinkable. Then the US would almost certainly become involved in a military conflict on the side of Israel. While some would ask why the US would become involved, many know that the political realities are that no US president could not help our strongest and longest ally in the Middle East. To even pause while the possibility existed that the Jewish nation could be annihilated is simply not possible for any American president. Because I intensely do not want to see such a war, I intensely do not like the developing situation. I think it is the worst-case scenario, but it is very possible, as I see it.
Now there are some who would immediately think—“Armageddon”. I am not one of those because this is not about that ancient prophecy which only reflected the fact that the Plain of Armageddon/Megiddo just happens to sit at the conjunction of three continents—Europe, Africa, and Asia, and in the ancient world of huge land armies marching toward each other to do battle, it made sense to that prophecy writer to think that huge plain was the most likely site for the last battle of good versus evil. With missiles, air forces, and even, most frighteningly destructive and deadly, nuclear weapons, that plain will not be the site of any final battle of any kind. While we all know nuclear weapons could indeed cause an end to the world as we know it—it still wouldn’t be a battle between good and evil as in that ancient prophecy—it would be a battle between bad and bad, as any nation deciding it’s existence is more important than not to use nuclear weapons is as bad as those they use them on, from any moral or ethical position I can consider worthy of the meaning of those words—because nuclear weapons are immoral and unethical by any definition that is true, authentic, and real. While the result would certainly be demonic, it would not be of the devil’s making, but of human! But there is a so much better way, and we all know it—and that way is the way of peace! I will illustrate how it can happen.
Three Cups of Tea tells the story of Greg Mortenson, the American who got lost on his descent of K-2, the second highest mountain in the world, and ended up in a high mountain village in Pakistan, where he was nursed back to good health by the people of that village. When he was ready to leave he told the village elder that he would build him a school, and he came home, raised the money, went back and did build that school. That was in 1993. Through the Central Asia Institute he founded he has now built, with the local people in each village, 155 schools in Pakistan and Afghanistan, and every one of them teaches girls, and not one of them has ever been attacked by the Taliban, or any other radical or fundamentalist Muslim group. I heard him speak last Monday night at TCU. One of the last schools he built was in a very isolated part of Afghanistan that is inhabited by fierce mujahadeen fighters. It is so isolated and fierce that few westerners have ever been there, and he wasn’t even sure he should go there when invited by the village, and he said it was a place he would not have advised anyone else to visit. After the visit he invited them to visit one of the schools he had built so that they could see with what they were getting involved. The men came heavily armed with their AK-47 Kalashnikov rifles and bullet bandoliers across their chests. When they saw the playground of the school they dropped their weapons and got into the swings and started to swing (he showed us the pictures). They proceeded to swing for over an hour. One of the men later told Greg that they had always been warriors, always fighting somebody—the Russians, then the Taliban, so that they had never been allowed to be children, and when they saw that swing set they were finally free to be children for awhile. They told him they wanted him to build their village a school and that it had to have a playground like the one they had just used. Greg said he hoped the children got to use the swings as well. Greg Mortenson has shined the light of truth, understanding, knowledge, and compassion into dark places and had more good effect and created more good will for Americans than all the thousands of bombs and millions of bullets we have used there ever could. His book is now required reading by all the commanding officers and Special Forces sent to Afghanistan. He became like a child wanting to go to school and built schools for children, so that even hardened warriors could become like children!
I told this story in a sermon and a woman said to me afterward, “Why can’t we learn that lesson that schools are better than bombs, and apply it?” I said, “Well, we are, at least somewhat. Mortenson told us another story.” The US military, under the leadership of General McChrystal, was planning a major offensive in a wide swath of Afghanistan, to drive out as many of the Taliban as they possibly could. When he was removed due to his insubordination, General Petraeus took command and was going to proceed with the operation since it was already planned and ready to be implemented, but first he asked Mortenson to set up a meeting with tribal and village elders. After that meeting, where those elders asked the general not to kill civilians, Petraeus cancelled the entire operation. He knew it would not be what would be best in the long term for the people of Afghanistan, nor for US soldiers and the mission in Afghanistan. The builder of schools had such connection to the people there that they trusted him enough that they went to that meeting, and because of that trust, a US general realized that listening to people, respecting them, and building schools, as Mortenson has done, could be a better option than mere military might!
There is now a song, “Three Cups of Tea”, with words and music by Jake Fleming, though all the words convey the truth of Greg Mortenson’s words and experiences.
A-ssa-la-m A-lai-ku-m A-ssa-la-m A-lai-ku-m [the traditional Muslim greeting that means
A-ssa-la-m A-lai-ku-m A-ssa-la-m A-lai-ku-m “Peace be with you.”]
I see a hero. A child of the times.
A girl who lives with joy. Who’s not afraid to speak her mind
and thinks the world is divine.
I see a young boy etching letters in the sand.
In this land of ancient scars a promise still remains;
When darkness comes you can see the stars.
Three cups of tea. First cup, you’re a stranger.
Three cups of tea. Second cup, a friend.
Three cups of tea. By the third you’re family.
How long to trust a stranger? How long to share three cups of tea?
A-ssa-la-m A-lai-ku-m A-ssa-la-m A-lai-ku-m
A-ssa-la-m A-lai-ku-m A-ssa-la-m A-lai-ku-m
A light burns bright across the ocean
A light shines warm before the sun.
I’ve got to find a way to build a bridge, join us to them, and be the change I wish to see.
If I give a penny for a pencil,
My hero writes a word.
Her words become great tools, his stories make wise the fools,
and I believe it’s just three cups of tea away.
Three cups of tea. First cup, you’re a stranger.
Three cups of tea. Second cup, a friend.
Three cups of tea. By the third, you’re family.
How long to trust a stranger? How long to share?
I will call you friend, sit with you
Here to build a bridge, share the dream in this circle of friends.
Three cups of tea. First cup, you’re a stranger.
Three cups of tea. Second cup, a friend.
Three cups of tea. By the third you’re family.
A-ssa-la-m A-lai-ku-m A-ssa-la-m A-lai-ku-m
A-ssa-la-m A-lai-ku-m A-ssa-la-m A-lai-ku-m
Yes, “Peace be with you”, peace be with us all, indeed! For, yes, there is a tremendously better way than violence and military action—and we all know it! It is the way of peace that builds schools that builds a bridge between them and us. While I am sure that US officials are working feverishly to accomplish their best possible diplomatic solutions to the unrest in Egypt and Jordan, they also need to work just as feverishly on the ways that make for peace, for the good of all the people in that part of the world, and for the good of every part of the world that could be drawn into that conflict. It should have been our policy for decades, but it must be our policy now—for the good of us all! We need the kind of efforts and actions that allows hardened warriors to be children for awhile as they swing on playgrounds! May it indeed be accomplished again and again as Greg Mortenson has demonstrated convincingly it already has!
Love, grace, hope, joy, compassion, peace,
Rodney Noel Saunders January 30, 2011
