Article January 16, 2006 Issue

LESSONS I'VE BEEN LEARNING IN THE SEARCH FOR WORLD PEACE

Jesus told us that peacemakers are blessed. What does it take to honor that role?

BY TONY LOBL

IN 1985, The Christian Science Monitor ran a competition called "Peace 2010." The newspaper invited entrants to stretch their imaginations ahead 25 years and look back from 2010 to describe how peace had come to the world by that year. Some of the 1,300 thoughtful entires were published in the Monitor, and 40 were compiled into a book called How Peace Came to the World.

The response of many onlookers to the competition—and, no doubt, of many participants—went beyond political essaying into the realm of metaphysics. "Peace 2010" in effect invited spiritual thinkers across the globe to unlimit their conceptions of the world's prospects for peace and unite in purposeful prayer to help bring about that peace. I felt we were being asked to give mental consent to the idea that warfare truly could be eliminated, and that this could happen sooner rather than later.

Since then, many things have improved. The "Iron Curtain" has for the most part come down, and the associated threat of "mutually assured destruction" has largely dissipated. The evil of apartheid has been overturned in South Africa. Many fledgling democracies have replaced autocratic governments and military regimes. There are 40 percent fewer wars today than when the Cold War ended ("The Human Security Report," Human Security Centre, University of British Columbia, October 2005).

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LESSONS I'VE BEEN LEARNING IN THE SEARCH FOR WORLD PEACE

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