"Living the Peace of Jesus in a Time of War" The Parmelee Room With the dedication of the new Todd M. Beamer student center Speakers included: Ashley Woodiwiss, Ph. D.m Politics and Int'l Relations Department Edee Schulze, Ph. D. Dean of Student Life Gary Burge, Ph. D. BTAWR Department James C Kielsmeier '65, Vietnam Era Veteran John David Borgman '64, Vietnam Veteran Tegan Strickland '05, ROTC, Int'l Relations Major Claire Johnson '05, Bible, Theology Major Moderated by Kenneth Chase, Ph. D. CACE Director, Communications Department

CACE co-sponsored a Homecoming Weekend event with the Alumni Association and the friends of Jim Parmelee. We inaugurated the use of the Jim Parmelee Room in the Todd Beamer Center by hosting a worship-based discussion on the theme: "Living the Peace of Jesus in a Time of War." This meeting featured a thoughtful, impassioned, and challenging reflection by James David Borgman, '64, on living fully in the peace of Jesus and in resistance to the fears and hatreds characterizing much of geopolitical discourse and activities today. We have placed a statement he made at an antiwar rally in 1980 here. In addition to James David's extended reflection, we also heard brief statements from two faculty, two students, and another alumnus, James Kielsmeier, '65. Jim was the organizing force behind the events dedicating the Parmelee Room during Homecoming. The student reflections on the worship theme are brief and thoughtful. They are posted here. The longer statements by the faculty and by Jim can be found here. CACE is grateful to the Alumni Association and the friends of Jim Parmelee for providing this sacred space for a discussion central to the moral growth of Christians in today's world. This worship discussion was part of CACE's ongoing commitment to the Moral Formation of Wheaton students.

James C Kielsmeier and Dr. Gary Burge at the sunday service

Dr. Edee Schulze has served at Wheaton College for 17 years in various positions in Student Development and is currently the Dean of Student Life. Her responsibilities include working with the Directors of Residence Life, the Counseling Center and Student Activities, as well as caring for female undergraduate students. Edee has held many ministry positions at her church and has a heart for children at risk, particularly in Latin America. Edee works for spiritual and emotional peace for students who are hurting, for peace within the church community and for the "shalom" wellbeing for kids who deserve a chance to live in a world not marred by war, poverty, or pain. "Dr. Ashley Woodiwiss has been on Wheaton's faculty since 1989 teaching political science. His interests include the integration of theology with political issues with a focus on democratic thought and practice and the role of the Church in both. Ashley grew up in a military family, with a father who is a WWII veteran and a brother who was in the Navy during Vietnam." "Dr. Gary Burge has been on Wheaton's faculty since 1992 teaching New Testament theology. His interests include the integration of theology with political issues and this has been applied most directly with American foreign policy in the Middle East. From 1987 to 1996 he was with the U.S. Navy Reserve as a chaplain, serving both in the Marines and the Navy. He retired in 1996 as Lieutenant Commander." Jim Kielsmeier A four year varsity letter winner and captain of the football team, Jim earned a BS in Zoology and US Army commission from Wheaton in 1965. Following Infantry Officer, Ranger and paratrooper training in the apartheid American South, he was assigned to the DMZ in South Korea. After four months as a platoon leader he was asked to create a human relations program for the 10,000 member 2nd Infantry Division - an experience that fundamentally changed his life. Returning to civilian life questions concerning American involvement in East Asia and human rights issues became the core of a masters degree in International Relations and later PhD in Education. Work Outward Bound, high school and university teaching, a stint with Young Life and the founding of the National Youth Leadership Council - a 21 year old service-learning organization - have been the venues where he has pursued many of the questions raised as a 20 something in Korea. God's faithfulness has been manifested throughout Jim's life - particularly through the gift of marriage to Rev Deb Kielsmeier and daughters Lauren, Sarah'04 and Stina'06. Tegan Strickland is a junior ROTC and International Relations student at Wheaton College. She has written articles for the Wheaton College newspaper regarding attitudes towards Christians in the military, and will serve a 4-year active duty assignment after graduation in 2006. Claire Johnson is a senior at Wheaton studying Bible and Theology. She is the president of Students for Biblical Equality and a member of Social Justice Coalition. Her interest lies in exploring social justice in the context of gender relationships, as well as examining the pragmatics of theology as it applies to both the church and the individual.

Statement by Claire Johnson ('05): Habakkuk 1: 1-4 1 The oracle that Habakkuk the prophet received. 2 How long, O LORD , must I call for help, but you do not listen? Or cry out to you, "Violence!" but you do not save? 3 Why do you make me look at injustice? Why do you tolerate wrong? Destruction and violence are before me; there is strife, and conflict abounds. 4 Therefore the law is paralyzed, and justice never prevails. The wicked hem in the righteous, so that justice is perverted. Social Justice Coalition meetings wear me out. After spending an hour and a half discussing and praying about injustice in the world and the ways in which a small Christian college can even begin to be a part of the fight against it, I begin feel despair's insidious fog creeping into my thoughts. Are a few blankets sent to Sudan or school kits to Iraq really part of a cosmic war in which my side has the winning team? When John the Baptist began to succumb to despair in prison, Jesus did not send the good news that thirty more people had accepted him into their hearts. Rather he reported that the blind receive sight, the lame walk, the dead are raised and good news is preached to the poor. For the kingdom about which Isaiah prophesied is a kingdom in which the power of God wars against the power of Satan, and human suffering is eased. Jesus' life, death and resurrection has called us to radically alter our notions of who our enemies are. No longer can our nation's enemies be our enemies, for we have been taught that the Samaritan, or shall we say the Arab Muslim, is our neighbor. Blankets and school kits many times still seem insignificant to me as I hear of the magnitude of global suffering, but they are an entry into my responsibilities as a citizen of heaven and a realigning of my allegiance to my enemies, who have become my neighbors. Habakkuk 3:17-19 17 Though the fig tree does not bud and there are no grapes on the vines, though the olive crop fails and the fields produce no food, though there are no sheep in the pen and no cattle in the stalls, 18 yet I will rejoice in the LORD, I will be joyful in God my Savior. 19 The Sovereign LORD is my strength; he makes my feet like the feet of a deer, he enables me to go on the heights.

Statement by Tegan Strickland ('05) We call Christ the Prince of Peace, and in the Evangelical subculture we live in, I know personally how we have subverted this term to refer to "inner peace" and made it a "spiritual" term. Who can blame us? This is a world where neighbors are hacked to death with machetes and nations go to war for resources. But the Prince of Peace did not suffer and die merely to put souls at rest for the hereafter. I am a realist. The fact of conflict is seared into my brain in all its illogic. But I am a Christian, and I believe that He who suffered and died continues to work in and through His people to redeem what sin has broken. And in light of this redeeming work, I understand that someday God will set all things right again. So we should rejoice in the hope of the Glory of God. Revelation 21:1-7 Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away… And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, "Now the dwelling of God is with men, and he will live with them. They will be his people, and God himself will be with them and be theirr God. He will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away." He who was seated on the throne said, "I am making everything new!" Then he said to me… "It is done. I am the Alpha and the Omega, the Beginning and the End. To him who is thirsty I will give to drink without cost from the spring of the water of life. He who overcomes will inherit all this, and I will be his God and he will be my son." Statement by Dr. Gary Burge: "Living the Peace of Jesus in a Time of War" The Parmelee Room Dedication Beamer Center, Wheaton College October 3, 2004, G.M. Burge Christians have often been conflicted about war. During the first 300 hundred years of the church's life, Christians were at best marginalized and often persecuted. And participation in the military - or giving the oath - was one way they could have shown their allegiance to Rome. But Christian theologians rejected it. Justin Martyr and Irenaeus each echoed Isaiah and called all Christians to pound swords into plowshares. Tatian, writing in about 160, explicitly refused military participation and compared it with a long list of evils. Instead, with Clement of Alexandria, he said the Christian's weapon was to be prayer. He wrote, "For it is not in war, but in peace that we are trained. Peace and love, those simple and quiet sisters, require no arms." Everything changed in the 4th century with the conversion of Constantine. The historian Eusebius showed his accommodation to war by telling a story about the 12th Roman Legion, the Thundering Legion [or Fulminata]. In about A.D. 173 in a war in Germany the prayers of Armenian Christian soldiers led to a divinely guided victory. It is in the 4th century that Christians for the first time had to make some accommodation to the state because it now might stand not as the church's opponent, but as its protector and aid. And if this were true, full participation with the state - even in the military - was a possibility. But Eusebius went on to say even more. The military successes of the empire against barbarians was evidence of God's hand on Constantine's rule. The dangers of this sort of thought were not missed by Augustine. And it is no doubt to him that we look for the notion of a "just war" that is so prevalent in conversations today. He wrote a series of rules to regulate violence and permit believers to fight for the empire. These rules are well-known and it would serve us well to review them regularly. Legitimate war must have a just cause, stem from a legitimate authority, have a good intention, hold a reasonable chance of success, limit violence (the rule of proportionality), and be used as a last resort. What Augustine failed to do was diagnose the political atmosphere in which Christians should be alarmed; where patriotism and piety merge to form a dangerous national militancy. This is precisely what happened during the crusades. A report from the 11th century describeed it nicely, "We attacked the city of Jerusalem from all sides, day and night… But before we attacked the city, the bishops and priests, by preaching and exhortation, ordered everyone to hold a procession in honor of God all around the city and arranged for prayers, almsgiving and fasting. At dawn our men went up to the roof of the Temple and attacked the Muslim men and women, beheading them with naked swords…" July 17, 1099. Guibert, Abbot of Nogent When I was a reserve chaplain during the Gulf War, I served in both Navy and Marine units. And one message came clearly from commanders: the role of the chaplain should be to endorse the mission and comfort the soldier. Thoughtful chaplains rejected such advice. The church must always protect its prophetic voice and never confuse its mission with that of the state. And when called upon to fight, the Christian soldier must do so with caution and sorrow, always asking questions about a war's just cause, holding conscience fast at all costs, and being ready to refuse the one order that will cost him his soul. The church must be ready to sound the alarm when patriotism is labeled a Christian duty; when fear is used as a call to arms and a catalyst for military action. The church must claim its prophetic voice when enemies are stereotyped and dishonored, when they are attacked without posing a threat, when even their dead are not counted. The wedding of patriotism and piety is perhaps the church's most dangerous temptation. And at no time is that temptation more real than in a time of war.

John Borgman's Anti-war letter- 1980 i am john david borgman (usmcr 089559 inactive). i.am the seventh son in a family of ten. i served for 10 1/2 months in Vietnam in 1967 and flew 181 missions as a pilot of an f-8 with the rank of captain. my father's death of a heart attack brought me home early. when i was an officer in the marines, i believed in what i was doing and gave myself to my responsibilities with all my body, mind, and spirit. i come to the pentagon today as the culmination of thirteen years of deep soul searching which ends in my public act of repentance today. i have come to see that I violated God's law to "love God with all your heart and soul and love your neighbor as yourself." i am forgiven by God's grace through Jesus when he said "Father, forgive them, for they know not what they are doing." i have come today to break my thirteen years of silence. i have come for public confession and repentance. i am burning my captain's uniform as a visible end to the john david borgman of this uniform. God's call to this government and military is to an act of repentance. from the beginning as a nation, we have, in the name of God, killed native americans, enslaved african people, exploited the peoples of the third world countries to satisfy our greed and our lust for power. as a nation we remain unrepentant for sins in vietnam, our sins in iran, the philippines, and wherever we have served economic power rather than serving fellow human beings. we have the material desires of our hearts, but our souls are lean. my act of today is to break with this system which pertetuates fear and violence. i do not act out of hatred for individuals in the military, government, or big business. i act out of a deep love for my beautiful wife and our two children and for the future generation of human beings. i am proclaiming an end to my allegiance to this particular government and announcing my place in the kingdom of God. i aspire to be a non-violent citizen of this planet. all people are my sisters and my brothers (including those who could arrest me). i am a child of God with allegiance to him alone. thanks be to God. all glory and honor to him.