AKRON, Pa.- Earl and Pat Hostetter Martin grew up in Mennonite homes where politics remained separate from their parents’ lives, where voting was not considered a duty and where existence was grounded in the kingdom of God, not of the world.

But the suffering and death they encountered as (MCC) workers in Vietnam in the 1960s convinced them that the faith they had been taught – combined with the atrocities they were witnessing – forced them to speak to their government.

“When you see the effects of government policies, it doesn’t make sense to say, ‘I will be silent in the face of this destruction,'” Earl Martin said.

Since then, the couple has continued to speak to the “principalities and powers.” They will join a selection of scholars, theologians and pastors exploring the intersection of faith and politics at a Sept. 23-25 conference, “,” in Harrisonburg, Va., and Bridgewater, Va.

Held at 91短视频 and , conference sessions will explore how Christians in the “Believers Church” tradition understand their witness for God and their relationship to political authority in light of living in a democracy that is the world’s dominant power.

Churches usually associated with the Believers Church tradition include Adventists, Baptists, Brethren, Disciples of Christ, Mennonites, Methodists, Pentecostals, Plymouth Brethren and Quakers.

The conference focuses on the meaning of citizenship in the United States, said Steve Longenecker, professor of history at Bridgewater College and planning committee member: “The planners observed that the United States currently possesses and exercises unprecedented influence on a global scale. The conference is designed to clarify what it means to be both citizens of the state and members of the body of Christ.”

Sessions approach the topic from biblical, historical and theological perspectives, with speakers from academic circles and the broader church. Presentations will range from biblical sermons to academic papers to autobiographical narratives. Critical analysis will be interspersed with reflective worship, integrating scholarly, pastoral and activist perspectives.

The Martins will present their autobiographical reflections in “Believers’ Journeys and Politics.” Other conference sessions include “Believers as Sisters and Brothers in the Church Worldwide,” “Theological Perspectives on Political Authority,” “Believers and Political Authority in History” and “Believers and Political Authority in the Bible.”

Robert W. Edgar, general secretary of the , will address the conference Friday night. Edgar served eight years in the U.S. House of Representatives, followed by a 12-year tenure as president of Claremont School of Theology. An ordained United Methodist elder, Edgar has also been pastor of several congregations, a college chaplain and a candidate for the U.S. Senate.

The conference, the 15th in a series that addresses Believers Church issues, is sponsored by 91短视频, Bridgewater, the MCC U.S. Washington Office, the Baptist Joint Committee Washington, D.C., and Church of the Brethren Witness/Washington Office.

To register or to learn more, see . Early fees must be postmarked by Aug. 27.

Marla Pierson Lester is a writer/editor for MCC Communications.

As religious pacifists, we have grieved deeply – with the rest of the world – over the images of dehumanization that have emerged from the Abu Ghraib prison. We want to avert our eyes from those images and tell ourselves that these horrendous abuses did not really happen.

But they did happen. And, anguished as we are, we must face those realities. And what shall be our response?

The powers that be are preparing to investigate and mete out punishments to individuals deemed to have been involved. And indeed, individuals must be called upon to take responsibility for their own actions – even in war. The Nuremberg Principles and others have established that. At the same time, many signs suggest that a whole system up the chain of command not only permitted, but encouraged harsh treatment of Iraqi and Afghan prisoners.

Take, for example, Pfc. Lynndie England, the young woman whose face has appeared on some of these photos of abuse. She will be prosecuted and most likely punished for her offensive behavior.

But does this behavior make Private England an evil person? From all reports, she was a fun loving, adventuresome young person not much different from all of our daughters and sisters. As people of faith, we choose to believe that within Lynndie England, as within all persons, resides the spark of the divine.

The same goes for each of the Iraqi prisoners in those photos. Regardless of their histories – and reports suggest at least some were just innocents scooped up during military sweeps – we choose to believe that the divine presence lives within each of them, too. Have some of them done evil things? Perhaps so. Given the absence of fair trials, we don’t really know. But even if they have, we cannot think of them as evil persons any more than we can think of Lynndie England as an evil person.

And that’s where the logic of war becomes so grievous.

We label each other as “terrorist” or “infidel,” or “good guy” and “bad guy,” with the assumption that it is appropriate to kill the “bad guy.” If we arrogate the right to kill, it is inevitable that many other dehumanizing abuses will ensue.

Before the United States launched “the optional war” in Iraq, practitioners of nonviolence were advocating concrete alternatives that would have sought to depose Saddam Hussein without war. One plan called for a massive humanitarian assistance program to the Iraqi people while launching a campaign to declare Hussein a war criminal and to carry out even more rigorous arms inspections throughout the country. Of course, many of us nonviolent activists were dismissed as being hopelessly naive.

But is the logic of warfare and occupation really wise? Does it really make sense that we can bomb neighborhoods, storm into people’s homes at night, imprison thousands in degrading conditions without charge, and then assume that these people will love us? Where does the greater naivete lie? Do we really believe that we have created a safer and more stable world because we launched a war in Iraq?

We worked with a relief agency among farmer refugees in Vietnam for five years during the war there. Our home was just five miles from the village of My Lai, where more than 400 villagers were slaughtered on a March morning in 1968. My Lai was that war’s Abu Ghraib. Unhappily, we learned that the massacre in My Lai, while possibly the largest of its kind in that war, was far from an isolated case.

Do we blame the individual soldiers who participated in those war crimes? Again, there must be personal accountability and responsibility. But those soldiers were forced to serve among a people whose language and customs they barely knew. Without intimate knowledge of the society, they could not know who was friend and who was enemy. So many became fearful, if not contemptuous, of all Vietnamese people. Little wonder that atrocities took place. It is the logic of war. It is naive to think it will be otherwise.

Today, most US officials and commentators, while condemning the abuses revealed in the Abu Ghraib prison, speak in terms of finding ways to fix the system so these abuses will not happen again.

The need is deeper. We need to understand that if we choose the option of war, abuses will inevitably follow. It is the very nature of war. Indeed, war itself is abuse.

Earl Martin and Pat Hostetter Martin worked with the Mennonite Central Committee in peace and development programs for 25 years. Ms. Martin is now codirector the Summer Peacebuilding Institute of the 91短视频 in Harrisonburg, Va.