'Without an adequate vision of human life, it is easy to lose sight of our interconnection with each other and become vulnerable to an inner slavery that not only ignores human need but even rewards human greed. Structural reform is certainly needed, but politics and economics alone are insufficient to bring about the renewal and reordering of society. Nor can they map out the contours of a liberating human anthropology. Fundamental structural reform must be accompanied by a more fundamental inner change that originates in the human heart.iv

 

'Fear not little flock; for it is your Father's good pleasure to give you the kingdom.' Luke 12:32

If you dare to believe in me and wholeheartedly proceed to follow after me, you shall most certainly by so doing enter upon the sure pathway to trouble. I do not promise to deliver you from the waters of adversity, but I do promise to go with you through all of them.viii

From the abundance of the heart spring the issues of life and not scripture. The self deceived heart may endeavour to make its foul intentions acceptable by wrapping them up in the righteousness of scripture but excrement wrapped in gold is still excrement. To dress one’s evil intentions up in the words of scripture is to come as a wolf in sheep’s clothing. The shallow are fooled by such pretence; are content with the surface of things, with the appearance of wealth, nobility, culture, education, but never dare to venture below the surface. They clamour for conformity and revile the individual, revile the prophets that dare to pierce the façade and expose the rottenness within. They are the children of the shadows and not the light.

War has never been fought for a noble cause. Not once. Not ever. The roots of war are to be found in the bestial and self deceived human heart. Have you ever noticed how those who are quick to violence are even quicker to justify themselves and their actions? Fast, indeed, is the fist but faster still is the hate filled heart. But pause for a moment and consider deeply what they say and soon you will discern the disingenuous nature of their words and the wretched stench of hypocrisy. Is there not something to be learned from the fact that those who love violence will act on the slightest excuse, while those that love peace can find nothing that will justify violence against a brother?

Violence, be it between brothers or nations, is always about domination and control – the very antithesis of the ideals of spiritual living which are service and love. The waging of war then, being rooted in the flesh, can never be a service to God [who is spirit] it is, moreover the waging of grievous sin.

The call to WAR is always subterfuge; it is, without exception, a lie. No one would send their children off to war if they knew the real reasons behind them. War is merely a game played by the super rich, a game which reduces our homes and cities to ash and in which our children’s lives are thrown out like chips on a poker table. The great irony is that real, behind-the-scenes, players never get harmed, they just get richer.

As the man that is given to violence readily deceives himself that his actions are righteous, even so do the leaders of nations summon their army of soothsayers [the media] and ‘prophets-for-hire’ [experts] to lead the nation’s children into war. So strong is the spell cast by these fiends that that the nation’s children volunteer to lay down their lives for “this noble cause” and when these children return home – dead, or worse than dead, wrapped in a flag their parents weep proudly at the nobility of their sacrifice, all the while blind to the real tragedy – that they died, and continue to die, for nothing more noble than ensuring rich men can have a bigger pools and more private jets. They have become the unwitting instruments of thieves and long distance murderers. The cognitive dissonance generated by this calumny is profound. Is it any wonder that people have a hard time accepting truth when it is so at variance with the vision they hold dear to their hearts, when it reveals them to be worse than fools? Who has the stomach for that?

These so-called leaders are creatures of negotiable virtue; moral chameleons, appearing as creatures of light when they walk among the noble and as creatures of night when among the children of the shadows. They know well that we would not send our children to die in the service of ignoble men – to die so that these soulless, black hearted, wretched excuses for humanity can attempt to fill their bottomless pockets but there’s a lot, an awful lot, of money to be made. They have no compunctions whatsoever about trading blood for diamonds, gold, land, and oil…well, once it’s not their blood that gets spilled. But when you already own the media and the government and you are safely ensconced behind an impenetrable wall of money and power you need not worry too much about what people think. After all, you have enough money to make sure people [the vast majority of them anyway] think what you want them to think.

For the Hawks of War FEAR is everything. It is for this reason that the media constantly fosters anxiety; a couple of well placed bangs and you can be reasonably assured that the sheep will race off in the desired direction.

However, the Prophets-for-Higher – the prophets of peace, equality, justice, fairness, integrity, honesty, of social responsibility and service, who are the very destroyers of fear are a source of endless torment for the hawks. The Prophets-for-Higher, the passionate advocates of higher and better ways, always end up condemning and exposing the weakness of the version of reality being peddled by the hawks. They are tirelessly dedicated to highlighting the bankruptcy of the current system and the insanity of attempting to maintain such doomed systems, even going so far as to proclaim that better ways are not only preferable but actually possible and, in the long run, far less costly! The prophets come to a weary, desperate, and fearful generation preaching words of hope, consolation, and healing and for this service they are castigated, vilified, ridiculed, beaten, imprisoned, tortured, and murdered. The hawks are jealous gods.

Indeed, what could be worse for the hawks of war than for the people to become truly enamoured with the idea that we are one family on one earth and that we should love and care for one another and that we should establish systems that foster such ideals?

For the hawks FEAR is the only reality.

They cling to FEAR as though it were life itself, as though it were salvation. To reject or discountenance it is heresy, insanity, even suicide! Their world cannot exist without it and that is why the elimination of fear is the first step to a better world. Indeed, the first duty of all spiritual leaders should be to liberate their fellows from the fetters of fear; to teach people not to be afraid, loose them from the shackles of fear and establish them on the path to liberty which is faith, for a better world is not possible without faith.

When our choices are based on fear we are the bondservants of fear [the flesh] and become locked in a cycle of Doom and Destruction. When we dare to make the choice of faith [become enthused by a vision of a better world] we affirm for the world our liberty from the shackles of fear and establish ourselves on the way of Hope and Healing.

When the Prophets-for-Higher come the hawks rush to rattle the cages and attempt to set the world on edge – filling it with fear: white afraid of black, black afraid of white, old fearful of the young, the young contemptible of the old, the wealthy in dread of the great unwashed, the great unwashed resentful of the wealthy. The world becomes infused with mistrust, suspicion, and paranoia. Trust no one, they say, except US. They, the very one’s that have created, fostered, and promoted this constant state of fearful anxiety, claim to know the way to brighter and better tomorrows. All our woes, they say, have their roots in X [insert appropriate outsider ‘HERE’]. Destroy X, it is claimed, and our troubles will melt away. Violence and war, these are the instruments wherewith we shall build enduring peace!

The Prince of Peace spoke of these fools before and named their sin: “They say that which is good but they do it not!” and warned us not to pattern after their works, lest we follow them into the pit [imagine the fate of Israel at the hands of the Romans but on a global scale].

The Prince of Peace came proclaiming peace on earth and good will toward all men and preaching the glad tidings that we are all one family, the children of the Almighty One, and that the rule of this family is simple: Love.

Indeed, what could be worse for the hawks of war than for the people to become truly enamoured with the idea that we are one family on one earth and that we should love and care for one another and even that we should establish systems that foster and promote such ideals? What could be worse for the hawks than for the people to discover that fear is an illusion which robs them of peace, joy, and hope and that peace, joy, and hope were within easy reach through faith, fellowship, and service?

The spiritual ideals of the divine family can illuminate a better way for us. Love is the law of the divine Kin-Dom and service is its lifeblood. In the ideal family the strong protect and nurture the vulnerable, and abundance is used to nourish the whole family, not just the chosen few. Those that cannot abide by such ideals are little better than beasts, craving a world where savagery is rewarded and the strong are allowed to prey upon the vulnerable.

Between the Savage and the Sage there lies a long road, from the darkness of ignorance, fear, control, and domination to the light of wisdom, faith, love, and service. What’s it going to be? Will we yield to fear and the darkness within or will we take up faith and follow the light of a better way, a better world?