Thoughts about a peace train - part one...

NOTE:  For the next week, I am going to post my thoughts, reflections, concerns as well as an alternative action to the current BDS strategy of boycotting, divesting and sanctioning all of Israel in pursuit of Palestinian justice Not only does the BDS shotgun approach denigrate the whole of Israeli society rather than focus upon the ugly actions within the Occupied Territories, I believe the movement's ambiguous goals can all too easily be manipulated to advance genuinely antisemitic objectives.  Further, as a Christian contemplative, I have been persuaded that a bold people-to-people strategy - along with prayer, creative economic incentives and real political pressure directed towards US legislators - introduces effective, albeit costly nonviolent strategies geared towards long-term change rather than symbolic actions that create the illusion of righteousness without significant results. Let me state at the outset, however, that I don't pretend to have a monopoly upon wisdom. I also recognize that people of good will are likely to disagree with my conclusions. I welcome your insights but ask that you share them in the spirit and tone of peace and respect.

introduction

Over the past ten years there has been a shift in my soul.  It has affected not only my music, but my politics, my prayer, my sense of vocation as well as my daily priorities.  You might call it the Yusuf Islam/Peace Train effect: an older musician renews his calling to peace-making through community-building, songs and faith.  Yusuf’s “Peace Train” is the paradigm – especially in its contemporary gospel incarnation – that bends musical genres in pursuit of common ground. “Well, I’ve been crying lately, thinking about the world as it is; why must we go on hating, why can’t we live in bliss?”

In an interview with Rolling Stone after his induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2014, Yusuf spoke of his return to music and peace-making. After a long silence born of prayer, questioning, study and contemplation, he gave in to his children’s request for a song. “A few months after 9/11, Yusuf found himself holding an acoustic guitar his son had brought home. It was late at night and his family was asleep. "I just thought, 'Let's have a go and try,' ”he says.”I looked for F, and I found it. I don't remember what songs I played, but when it was done I began crying." (Rolling Stone, January 13, 2015)

The tears were a clue – an invitation to reclaim a sacred commitment to living out the values of his heart in public – and music was his guide. Given the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, the artist formerly known as Cat Stevens concluded that “the world needed to see at least one nonviolent Muslim on TV. There was so much antagonism in the world. Many Muslims have come up to me, shook my hand and said, 'Thank you! Thank you.' I'm representing the way they want to be seen. So much of the middle ground gets forgotten in the extremities we witness around the world."

I get that – the tears, the lure of living deeper into my core values, the promise and limitation of music-making for peace, the sacred calling of the elder to mentor and encourage youth in all that is “true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is pleasing, whatever is commendable… whatever is excellent and worthy of praise.“ (Philippians 4:8) At this moment in my life, I am exploring anew what it means to live into a public and private commitment to Jesus. I want to be in the world in a way that encourages beauty, truth, faith, hope and love. And, I yearn to do this in a manner that is a conscious alternative to my tradition’s historic anti-Semitism as well as our current Islamaphobia.  As Yusuf Islam sang:  “Out on the edge of darkness,  there lies the peace train:  so come and join the living, it’s not so far from you; and it’s getting nearer, soon it will all be true."

Given the ferocious fighting between Palestine and Israel in Gaza last summer, the rise of ISIS throughout the Levant, the March elections in Israel (during which time PM Benjamin Netanyahu played the race/fear card in his bid to win the votes of the religious right) and the current machinations of Las Vegas political king-maker, Sheldon Adelson, the urgency of such peace-making has increased. Especially so given the escalating international chorus calling people of good will to declare their support for the Boycott/Divest/Sanction (BDS) movement against Israel. My religious denomination, the United Church of Christ, is currently preparing to vote on such a resolution later this month at their General Synod in Cleveland, OH – and so my concern deepens. Because, while I stand in solidarity with Israel and Palestine, BDS strikes me as both a distraction from action that matters and a distortion of compassionate peacemaking. 

(In the next installment of this essay I will attempt to summarize: a) my analysis of the flaws in the BDS strategy; b) an overview of the complexity of history that is too often absent in BDS arguements; and c) a creative alternative strategy.)