War, peace, and our idea of God

The Christian Science Monitor

As the terrible machinery of war rumbled, and roared, into place in the Persian Gulf, there was another sound to be heard. It was the silent cry, in the hearts of hundreds of thousands of fathers, mothers, wives, husbands, and children: "Please God, let there be no more war. Let our loved ones come home safe. Let there be peace."

Surely this heartfelt prayer for peace is a prayer every believer can join in, regardless of whether he or she is Muslim or Christian or Jew. The Middle East is the birthplace of three of the world's great religions, the place where God, by whatever name, spoke in the stillness of the desert and prophets called mankind to love and obey the one God, a God who is good, merciful, and just.

Yet this vision of God has often been distorted by a material perception of God that would make Him into a wrathful, tribal warrior-God, slaughtering His enemies and the enemies of His people. When the highest, clearest vision of God breaks through in human consciousness, it shows something quite different. God reveals Himself as our loving Father, as divine Love itself, incapable of evil or harm and able to do all good for His children.

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