If we want to eliminate violence, it is not enough to say we want peace and to pray for peace; we must be committed to eliminating the systems and conditions within our societies that create human deprivation and human desperation, that perpetuate injustice, and that treat some groups of persons as less than other groups of persons.

Peace must not be conflated with an unjust order that perpetuates the interests of the powerful over those of the most vulnerable in our societies. As Martin Luther King Jr. reminds us, “True peace is not merely the absence of tension; it is the presence of justice” (King, A Martin Luther King Treasury). We will not gain true peace without overcoming the triple evils of racism, greed, and militarism (King, Where Do We Go From Here: Chaos or Community?).

Absolute and thoroughgoing pacifists are often critical of the concept of a “just war” because for an absolute pacifist, the use of all military force and violence is considered morally wrong, but I don’t think we should dismiss the criteria of Just War Theory too quickly when we look at whether we should ever use military force in a very complex, unjust, and violent world.

So often those who use “Just War Theory” to justify war and violence simply cherry pick the criteria they want and ignore the criteria that would question the validity of the war they want to wage. If we actually took all of the criteria of just war theory seriously, there are very few wars that could actually be justified. Unfortunately, there may be times when the use of military force may be necessary for self defense or for the defense of the innocent and vulnerable, but those times are much fewer than many would imagine.

One need not be a pacifist to reject the use of violence by Hamas and by Israel. The actions of neither Hamas nor Israel can be justified by a thorough application of just war criteria. Nothing in just war theory allows for the torture and killing of innocent civilians, and nothing in just war theory justifies a collective punishment that kills thousands of innocent persons as a response.

The murderous violence that is happening in Palestine and Israel right now is being fueled by hate, and hate has very little to do with justice, and nothing to do with reconciliation. Hate is a consuming fire. Hate dehumanizes. It will lead to nothing but more hate and more death. Hate is not the way out of this hell of our own creation. Love and justice are the only way out.

It seems so difficult, almost impossible, to move from the hate and violence of this world to a more loving, just, and peaceful future, but we must remind ourselves that love is not powerless in the face of hate. There have been times in the past when love overcame hate, and there can be times in the present and future when the power of love can and will overcome hate again. Love has a way of being resilient. It has a way of not dying even when others think that they have killed it dead.

Most of our problems and conflicts in the world are caused by greed for power and/or money and by those who use force and fear to hold on to their power and wealth. Insofar as hate keeps the rest of us divided, distressed, and distracted; hate becomes a tool for those in power to maintain and expand their power. If we can finally recognize that our hatred for one another benefits no one but the powerful, then the power of love of the people might have the ability to rise up and be actualized in beloved community.

And the love we need for today is not only love for our human siblings, but also a love for the whole earth and all of the life therein. We will never be able to fully love and be at peace with each other unless we are also able to fully love and be at peace with all life on earth.

As I have been reflecting on the war and violence in our world, I could not help but think that John Lennon and Yoko Ono were on to something with the “imagine no religion” idea, at least based on religion’s track record up to the present moment. When religion is used to differentiate, devalue, and divide members of the human community rather than lifting up our common humanity; religion is a problem. This is one of the reasons I am personally much more interested in following the way of Jesus, the one who said “blessed are peacemakers,” than I am in identifying with the Christian religion that compromised with empire and has so often embraced the use of war and violence to further its interests.

Last night, I listened to the song “Now and Then” by the Beatles for the first time, and I was overcome by a memory from 1990 when I was a student at the Bossey Ecumenical Institute of the World Council of Churches in Celigny, Switzerland where I was one of 51 students from 33 countries from all over the world. One night we were all gathered after dinner, and one of the German students who was a Beatles fan began playing The Greatest Hits of the Beatles on the stereo system, and just wow! Dozens of us started singing along at the top of our lungs followed by the most joyous dancing I think I have ever witnessed. We sang and danced for hours. We were Africans, Asians, Europeans, North Americans, and South Americans – we were all one humanity, and I remember tears in my eyes as I experienced this gift of exuberant joy. Oh how I wish the whole world could experience such joy in beloved community.

The world has everything to gain from humanity living together in peace and everything to lose if we don’t. The ongoing challenge for us all is: “How do we cultivate the courage to love each other and be peacemakers in a world that seems so overcome by hate and violence? I don’t know the answer, but I do believe it begins with loving each other where we are and doing all we can to work for peace with justice in our own communities and somehow not succumb to the consuming fire of hate in our world. Then perhaps some day we might all be able to dance and sing together as one in exuberant joy, or at the very least stop waging war against each other.