On Tuesday, January 30th Detroit Bishop Thomas Gumbleton spoke at Aquinas College on the theme of "Forgiveness & Non-violence." A variety of groups were involved in hosting this event, particularly the Aquinas Campus Ministry and Pax Christi Michigan. Gumbleton centered his lecture on a call for people to "build peace" based on what he called the "pillars of love and justice."

This was a follow up to last year's lecture based on Pope John Paul II's article on peace. As usual, Bishop Gumbleton pointed out many aspects of war and violence in the world, even the violence of unequal distribution of the world's resources. He said that what the Christian community needed to do was to practice "Enemy Love." He gave the example of Apartheid in South Africa and how brutal that policy was towards Black South Africans. He stated that Nelson Mandela's participation in the violent wing of the African National Congress (ANC), the violent wing of the party, wanted to create chaos in the Apartheid system by using violence. Mandela went to prison for 27 years. It was in prison that Mandela had a conversion and began to believe that he had to work as hard for the freedom of the oppressor as the freedom of the oppressed. So Mandela came out of prison committed to non-violence, worked on reconciliation and became president. Gumbleton stated that South Africa is now at peace, but would not have been if the politics of the ANC continued. The speaker did not substantiate his claims with anything other than the autobiography of Mandela. If South Africa is at peace now why are so many people, particularly Black South Africans, living in poverty? Gumbleton did not mention that Mandela embraced the neo-liberal economic model in South Africa, which many critics believe is worse now than during the Apartheid years.

The Bishop then gave the example of the recent murder in Amish community in Pennsylvania. The response by the Amish was to comfort the widow of the murderer. The Amish community is a Christian community that has maintained a commitment to the non-violence that Jesus lived, according to Gumbleton. "This is what all of us are called to if we are Christians." He discussed the example of Jesus in further detail and then said that the Church has instead "adopted the Just War theory for the past 1600 years" that has attempted to provide a theological justification for war rather than adopting the non-violence epitomized in the life of Jesus Christ. He explained that Just War Theology occupies a tenuous place in contemporary society, as the nature of war has changed so drastically that war now means total destruction. Gumbleton cited prominent military scholar James Keegan to back up his assertion that warfare has changed dramatically since World War II, with it now being "total war." Gumbleton cited the example of Winston Churchill's campaign in Hamburg against civilians, the bombing of Dresden, the US fire bombing of Tokyo, and Hiroshima and Nagasaki, which he calls perhaps "the worst acts of terrorism ever."

Gumbleton then moved to more recent examples and spoke of the devastation wrought in Iraq from the first Gulf War, the US imposed economic sanctions, and the current US occupation of Iraq. Gumbleton cited Pope John Paul II's writing following the Gulf War and his call for war "never again" as a proper response to a war that has destroyed Iraq's infrastructure, killed tens of thousands of civilians, and displaced over a million people. He talked about the types of weapons the US military uses and their devastation, specifically focusing on depleted uranium munitions. Depleted uranium is a bi-product of the nuclear process and is used in bullets, tank armor, and shells and spreads radiation on impact. It is because of the depleted uranium that "56% of all cancer in Iraq is amongst children under the age of 5," that cancer rates have risen 300-400% in Iraq since the Gulf War, and that there has been a dramatic increase in the number of children born with severe birth defects. Gumbleton explained that he had visited Iraq numerous times, both to visit children injured or dying as a direct or indirect result of the United States' military operations and as part of a delegation with members of the 9/11 group Families for a Peaceful Tomorrow. He described how that delegation met with the Iraqi families affected by the war and the way in which that experienced affected both groups.

Despite the good information about the consequences of war, the speaker did not address any tactics or strategies to combat war and militarism other than through pleas that the audience should reject war. During the question and answer period there were some questions posed about the cases of genocide in Darfur and Rawanda -- could non-violence work in those cases? Gumbleton thought it was possible, but not without great loss and it would take time. He mentioned the example of the Christian Peacemaker Teams in place like Palestine who are trying to put themselves in the midst of conflict to deter violence, but even this oversimplifies a conflict like that. Not everyone can and will do that kind of work, but people could challenge US policy that funds the Israeli occupation of Palestinian land. There were several groups involved in anti-war work at this event, but there was not a conscious effort to state clearly what those groups were working on to end the war in Iraq or other anti-war efforts. The only organizing effort mentioned by Gumbleton was the campaign to establish a United States Department of Peace. Such a department, proposed by Ohio Congressional Representative Dennis Kucinich would provide a "counter" to the Defense Department (formerly called the Department of War) and would engage in activities such as teaching nonviolence to children, rehabilitation of prison populations, and build peacemaking between conflicting cultures. However, Gumbleton made no mention how people could get involved in that movement, meaning that his talk essentially told people to oppose war but gave no clear strategies as to how that should be done.