By Philip Eaton,
President
President Eaton was recently singled
out
by a Seattle Times editor as an influential voice of leadership in
Seattle.
"We want our work at Seattle Pacific University to model a path beyond
dividedness,"
says Eaton. "We want to bear witness to the light."
What Is the Way Out of Our Tragic Dividedness?
And we ask: Is there a vision of human unity that can guide us out of this
intractable
and tragic dividedness? Even as we support our leaders in these
extraordinary times,
we long to understand the path to peace and common humanity.
Is it possible, in these times, to evoke that ancient, powerful longing of
Isaiah
where "the wolf will live with the lamb, and the leopard lie down with the
kid"
and "there will be neither hurt nor harm in all my holy mountain"? Is this
naíve
idealism, sheer fantasy? Or can we claim this longing as a promise?
Isaiah articulates "the biblical vision," says Yale theologian Miroslav
Volf, of
a "world in which peace rather than terror has the last word." Vision is the
right
word — not longing alone, not fantasy disconnected from reality, but
vision.
This vision says that all of God's children will flourish, that all of God's
children
deserve to share in his love and grace. But how do we square such a promise
with
what we witness day in and day out?
True vision shows the way. True vision empowers even in the face of immense
discouragement. True vision brings hope. Vision is not a plan of action, but
a
plan of action without vision is a mere whistling in the wind in the long
run.
"There will be neither hurt nor harm in all my holy mountain" — this
is
God's vision for his children. And how do we get there from here? This is
the
big question for our time. What can we do? How should we take action as a
nation,
even military action, in a way that creates for us and for the world a
vision of
God's flourishing love? How can we at Seattle Pacific University model peace
on
our campus or in the Seattle community? How should our actions as
individuals
change as we seek to do something about this tragic dividedness?
My first impulse is to start with learning. We must learn everything we can.
We
must learn about each other across our dividing lines. We must learn
everything
we can about those whom we do not understand. We must learn everything we
can
about who we are, where we stand and why. Learning may create the
possibility,
in Volf's language, for "embrace" rather than "exclusion." Learning builds
the
foundation for common humanity, and without such learning there can be no
understanding.
Next, we must act peacefully. It is not good enough to call our nation and
its
leaders to the path of peace when we do not live as people of peace. We must
bring
kindness to others. This is an act of protest against dividedness. There is
no
hope for peace in the world unless our lives are peaceful. We must build
grace-filled
communities if we are going to contribute to a world where God's love may
flourish.
And finally, let us "bear witness to the light," as John says in his gospel.
In
John's first letter, he reminds us that if we "live in the light … we
share a
common life." The light requires, he says over and over, that we must love
across
the dividing lines. The light allows us to catch the vision for human unity
—
and that means risking love, risking embrace, shining the light on all that
divides,
and ultimately claiming the promise for "common life." The light of the
world shows
us the path out of dividedness.
We want our work at Seattle Pacific University to model this path beyond
dividedness.
We want to claim the light of Christ in all of its brilliant and demanding
truthfulness.
We want to live in that light. And then we want to understand, more now than
ever,
that we do indeed share life with all of God's children and that we are
called to
participate in God's flourishing love and grace.
"Our attention these
days is riveted on a world locked in brutal conflict. If we did not
know before September 11, we know now that our world is painfully and
tragically
divided. We watch in horror and helplessness the scenes from Afghanistan,
Jerusalem,
Northern Ireland, Chechnya, Colombia and elsewhere. We recall as well the
surprising terror of attacks against our own people in New York, Washington
and
Pennsylvania. And sadly, we experience too much dividedness in our daily
lives,
split as we are so often by race, ideology, politics, religion and
economics.
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