Prior to deserting, Camilo Mejia served in the Florida National Guard. (Photo credit: Flickr) |
Three-hundred registrants meet in Harrisonburg, VA for the Baptist Peace Fellowship of North America Annual Conference, or “Peace Camp” as it is lovingly named by its regular audience. Beginning on July 4th and lasting until the 8th, the conference promises an entire week of pacifist teaching, anti-Zionism, progressive theology, and homosexual recognition. This comes as no surprise when one observes the audience: aging fanny-packed flower children and their families. Even though the conference has some middle-age and child attendees, it seems to be led and dominated by social activists from the 60s generation. Regardless, it is their mission to push the message of peace (as well as a host of other doctrines) into Baptist congregations across America.
The conference started with a powerful evening presentation by Kim Phuc, whose famous picture haunts the memory of the Vietnam War. Phuc’s beautiful oratory provided the emotional impetus behind most of the conference. The next morning, Rob Voyle provided a session on Appreciative Inquiry, a technique that pulls from “positive emotions” so that one can make clear decisions from “out of the box” thinking. “You are the children of God,” he said, “creating a kingdom of joy.” Such a kingdom is created by evangelism, which in the broadest sense, according to Voyle, is “sharing what you love with the people you love.” Voyle believed that the clear preaching of the Gospel message outlining Christ’s salvific provision seemed to be a predominately “apostolic duty.” The rest of the church members do what they like to do and share it with the rest of their group. The power of feel-good thinking helps end conflict, providing the psychological resources for forgiveness and even reconciliation (if the other party “shares the same values”). For Voyle, negativity is the handmaid of error. He believed “AI” can restore broken relationships and establish justice, which he defined as “whatever is life-giving to someone.” This should strike the thoughtful Christian as an unhelpful if not wholly erroneous definition for a cardinal virtue. The audience, however, received the Episcopal priest’s message with great enthusiasm, sharing their reflections throughout the rest of the day.
Workshops followed the plenary. One, entitled “Headlines from the Holy Land: and the News Isn’t Good,” was part of a series on the Middle East and Zionism. The lecture wove together a conspiracy of corporate advertisers, the censored mainstream media, and premillennialist Christians. These forces work together to preserve the Jewish state of Israel. The presenter, Barbara Taft, quoted from editorials, “what the rest of the world hears in the news.” Both speaker and listeners assumed that a nation-state must be built around a liberal constitution which received consent from a vast majority of the country. A nation built around race (birth as the very term “nation” implies) or religion is inherently fascist or theocratic. In reality, America is one of the few countries that actually meets this progressive standard. With this significant assumption, Israelis are hostile occupiers of Palestinian land; the original Arab inhabitants are victims of Israeli cruelty. For this reason, Taft complained how orthodox Jewish parties menaced the inhabitants of Israel by “a call from the American model to a theocratic model.” Criticisms against Israel’s problematic war tactics and certain narrow eschatologies would be more welcome if they were made in a spirit of nuanced charity. Both theological and political inquiry are limited when a party holds with an unfeigned belief that “Israel’s Arab neighbors want peace” and that all premillennialists are fundamentalist maniacs. Taft mourned, “If only Israel followed Martin Luther King and Gandhi.”
The afternoon witnessed a presentation of the documentary Soldiers of Conscience. The conscientious objector film found eager acceptance from the audience. This comes as no surprise since the movie was introduced by Irving Hall, who boasted 50 years of political activism. During the Vietnam conflict, Hall had “trained and counseled” draft dodgers. Before playing the movie, he bemoaned the great sham of the Iraq War, which “we now know was based on lies.” Soldiers made out the U. S. Army and Marines to be conditioned killing machines rather than ethical human beings. In fact, the movie seemed to imply that most combat soldiers are moral eunuchs unless they become objectors. Through well-placed photographs, the documentary implied that America was responsible for massive civilian casualties. The film juxtaposed active Army personnel with Iraqi veteran pacifists. Like total war theorists, the pacifists believes there can be no morality in a practice as wicked as warfare. As one Buddhist veteran said, “to kill someone in war one must consider them subhuman.” An army military ethicist in the film contended that soldiers fight because they have a conscience. He added, “You can’t say you support human dignity or human rights if you’re not willing to defend it.” The last remark met angry hisses and cynical snickers from the listeners. This reaction almost matched the laughter at an Army spokeswoman who observed that even conscientious objectors need to obey orders to report for duty since the military depends on discipline. The documentary, however, continued to portray objectors as persecuted yet brave martyrs for the cause of peace. Fellow soldiers and especially leadership saw these objectors as cowards and traitors, mistreating the outcasts for their deeply-held beliefs. The film belittled the fact that the current military is all-volunteer.
After the movie concluded, the audience had a Q&A session with Camilo Mejia, the first Iraq War veteran to openly revoke the war. When Mejia became convinced that war was in essence immoral, he abandoned his post at the front lines. After going AWOL for some time, he returned to the Army, where he received a court marshal and a one-year sentence of imprisonment. The BPFNA listeners, however, lionized his courage in the face of an unjust war and prejudice.
The week will finish out with a visit from the Association of Welcoming and Affirming Baptists (AWAB), the strong-arm for homosexual agendas within the Baptist conferences. Peace camp will be offering several AWAB-themed events throughout Thursday and Friday. The group is sponsoring the Prom for ALL, a “way to forgive ourselves for not measuring up in those ‘golden’ day of high school.” The invite asks conference attendees to “Come as you are or as you want to be. Come in drag or come in your PJ’s!” This IRD reporter is not disappointed that he will be missing said event.
Peace Camp’s participants see themselves in the same line as Martin Luther King, Jr. and Gandhi, whom they magnify along with Jesus as history’s greatest peacemakers. Indeed, BPFNA members see themselves as prophets, calling upon this comparison more than once. Southern Baptists beware: the SBC is seen as a lost cause, whose members adhere to a powerful, intolerant civil religion. The Sermon on the Mount is to be applied here and now, calling for an open and tolerant culture even on the ecclesiological level. The BPFNA seems to think that Christians and non-Christians alike should be able to get along together on all levels of society. The Gospel to them is a message of social reconciliation; nothing could be more harmful to Christianity than mention of the Law and its punishments. On the first day at least, Christ was mentioned almost as much as Buddha, Gandhi, and MLK. It’s good to know that the divine Son of God makes the top four in the Religious Left. The complete lack of crosses or crucifixes hinted at this tendency. In Harrisonburg, peace and forgiveness are the stars of the show; not so the Prince of Peace.
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