DARKNESS INTO LIGHT

Hanns F Skoutajan

“It was a dark and stormy night” - well, in fact, it wasn’t. The surface of the

Straits of Dover were as calm as a mirror. It’s surface reflected the starry sky

above. On either side of the ship, not too far away, lighthouse beams swiveled,

winking at each other in what seemed a friendly manner.

Of course, I was aware of the stormy history of this body of water that connects

the North Sea and the Atlantic Ocean, two continents, one might say. Nor was it

just the weather but politics that had often disturbed this sea.

As I stood on the deck taking in this nocturnal splendour I recalled that a little

more than ten years ago this was a no-man’s land, or sea to be more exact. It

was indeed a dark and stormy time. Britain and Nazi occupied Europe had made

this area a “no sail zone.” U boats, like eels, slunk through the murky depth

looking for their prey. Only occasionally refugees and Canadian airmen prisoners

of war, had managed to escape across in darkness to freedom. Then one day the

Channel teemed with ships and landing craft supported overhead by flights of

bombers and fighters invaded the Nazi fortress and eventually subjugated it.

However, now it was September 1956 and all was still. I was returning to

Germany for the first time to study Christian Social Ethics at the University of

Muenster. I was to delve into the writings of Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Karl Barth and

Helmuth Thielliche. I was, of course, also excited to meet my relatives, those

who had managed to survive the war and their subsequent deportation.

This scene from the deck of the good ship Seven Seas has played on my mind

as I watch, read and hear about the turbulence that is engulfing many parts of the

world , particularly the Middle East. It is the home of the three monotheistic

religions who have peace as their theme.

Thinking about those beacons of friendship from the opposite shores leaves me

wondering if and when peace will descend on those areas of conflict as it had in

Europe. It seems far from possible at times. What will it take to be accomplished?

I am a pacifist at heart but also very conscious that there are limitations to that

ideology. But I have grave doubts, and I emphasize the word “grave,” about the

efficacy of weapons to bring peace to our world. The recent examples of military

action in Iraq, Afghanistan and Libya have demonstrated the futility of war to

bring peace.

We are not alone in our craving for peace. There are people all over the world

and in every age and of every faith who are harkening to the leadership of people

like Albert Einstein, “Peace cannot be kept by force, it can only be achieved by

understanding,” and Martin Luther King “Peace is not merely a distant goal which

we seek but a means by which we arrive at the goal.” These and others refused

to give up on peaceful actions to bring about change often by their own sacrifice.

Don’t argue with me, listen to them.

In a few days time people in this country and abroad will gather at war memorials

to pay tribute to the many who had been robbed of their lives in the dreadful

conflicts of the last 100 years. Prayers will be said and hopefully we will also

petition for an end to all hostilities wherever.

Our world is beset by many problems: epidemics, climate change and its impact

on the environment, food and water scarcity, homelessness and much, much

more, all of them exacerbated by warfare. Nations seem only too ready to spend

vast sums on arms and bomb each other into some primal state leaving millions

starving in refugee camps.

Sorry, I have few answers, but I insist that answers must be found if humanity is

to survive on this planet, and if the resources of Earth are to be equitably shared.

We of the affluent West can’t seem very genuine to those who struggle to survive

on $2 a day while we indulge in ever more frivolous ways of spending our money.

Call me naive but I do not believe that wars will cease until the disparities among

the people of the world are alleviated. The front is not just “out there” in the

deserts and mountains far away. It is here among us. It is not enough to pray for

peace as a cessation of bloodshed, we must also pray for the end of poverty and

for the integrity of creation, else it will be “a dark stormy night” not just out there

but right here among us all.

Spirit Quest

22/09/2014

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