Wednesday, August 13, 2008

The Light and the Darkness

I have been deeply troubled by how so many people who call themselves Christians seem so warlike. The Christian right has provided Bush with his most dependable base of support for the war on Iraq. I have come to believe that they support war because
they see the world as a stage for the war between good and evil. They see God in a
perpetual battle with the power of evil, a war between the light and the
darkness. They give great power to the darkness and essentially worship a God
of War that they believe can destroy the darkness. Their worship of a God of War
leads them to support violence and the use of military force. They see everything in terms of battle and personify their enemies as the agents of darkness. They believe that their enemies must be completely destroyed.
However, as a Quaker, I believe in the God of Love, not the God of War. Evil is not the presence of some dark power outside of us. Evil is the absence of the light of God within us. The fundamental Quaker belief is that the light of God is present within each of us and is only revealed by love which is why we are commanded to love our enemies. Only the light of God can displace the darkness.
It's hard to explain what I mean by saying that evil is the absence of the
light. The best I can do is the plant analogy. Plants are created to grow
and flourish in the light of the sun. They do nothing to receive that light.
Humans, however, are created with consciousness and free will that gives us
the power to control the amount of light from God that we receive. Every
act of hate, violence, greed, and selfishness closes the aperture of our spirit that
receives the light. As the light fails, we, like the plants, struggle,
wither, and die spiritually. God created us to grow and flourish in the
light of the spirit. God did not create the darkness. That is our own doing.
Violence is useless because it shuts out the light and serves only to
produce more darkness. The fundamental reason why force does not work is because there is nothing to be destroyed. Evil is an empty state, the absence of God’s light. Shine a light on the darkness and it disappears! No amount of force can destroy that which does not exist. The reality is that there is nothing behind Darth Vader’s mask. Our calling is not to kill our enemies because we see them as servants of darkness. Our calling is to help bring more light into the world through the power of love, understanding and forgiveness. We are called to increase the light that will ultimately fill the darkness. Violence blocks the light that is in each of us. Non-violence allows the light of God to shine through conflict and to illuminate the path to peace and reconciliation.