PEACE at any price

Kelly Starling-Lyons, Staff Writer, The News & Observer
Featuring an interview with Tom Munk
January 17, 2003

On a day that a nation clenched its fists and cried for vengeance, Tom Munk prayed for peace. On Sept. 11, 2001, he thought about the thousands who died and how President Bush might respond. Then he helped organize a silent walk through Chapel Hill.

"In a sense, September 11 energized me," said Munk, a 44-year-old father of two. "I felt this need to witness to the nation that a peaceful response would bring the end of war rather than the violent response the nation was planning."

His Quaker faith teaches that God is in every person. He never gives up on anyone.

Munk's beliefs follow a tradition of pacifism that has influenced people of faith throughout the ages. Mohandas Gandhi, a Hindu, drew strength for his commitment to nonviolence from his religion. Martin Luther King Jr. found moral grounding in the life of Jesus Christ. For many pacifists, there's never any defense for war. Following God means abhorring violence even when it puts you in danger. The call to peace is a passion worth enduring scorn, going to jail, dying.

"I think Jesus has called us to care for others as much as we care for ourselves," Munk said. "I can't control what others do. It's more important for me not to murder than for me not to be murdered. That's what pacifism is all about."

An eye for an eye, and soon the whole world is blind.

-- Mohandas Gandhi

Most faiths advocate peace. But religious pacifists see it as the path to ending the world's conflicts. At its most absolute, pacifism means opposing war under all circumstances and living a nonviolent life. Munk said his faith teaches that every life has equal value. That leads him to decry violence of all kinds, whether it's the bombing of Afghanistan or the looming war with Iraq. "I have a strong belief that Afghan and Iraqi life is just as important as American life," he said. "One of my favorite bumper stickers is 'See Iraqi children.' "

Munk has helped draft letters to members of Congress advocating peace. He has rallied and led young people in discussions about peace.

Within the Chapel Hill Friends Meeting, he finds support for his beliefs. Even sitting in the empty meeting room, a solemn space with white walls, wooden pews and a fireplace, Munk said he could feel peace enveloping him. The Meeting House's lobby has signs of pacifism everywhere, from its front table of pacifist newsletters and fliers to its decorations. "Paths are made for walking, take a big step for peace," reads a poster in a stairway. "Peace is Patriotic," reads a sign hung on a corkboard in the basement. "I think the way to peace is peace," Munk said. "Our president says he's being led by Jesus, but it's hard to see that."

Suzanna Stockwell feels her spirit for peace fed at the Unitarian Universalist Fellowship of Raleigh. "I go to places where my instincts for the well-being of all people are nurtured," she said. "One of the ways I know it's spiritual is that it's not quantifiable. I can feel it in the room."

Roger Ehrlich understands how important it is to feel affirmed. He's a member of the Unitarian church even though he follows his own religious tradition. Rather than embracing one faith, he is guided by a religion of universal love for all people and activism, he said.

That belief system called him to pacifism too. Each Sunday, Ehrlich stands near the entrance of Crabtree Valley Mall and encourages people to honk for peace. What good can honking do? Ehrlich said a lot of people have thought about the war, but honking the car horn may be their first active step for peace.

"The first honk is always the hardest," he said. "Once one person starts honking, the majority of cars will honk. People are joyful, smiling. It's like a feeling of liberation. As if they're saying, 'I'm not all alone here in having doubts about this war.'"

Ehrlich said that something divine inspired him to design "peace parasols," black umbrellas painted with a white peace sign on top and a golden sunflower blooming through the spokes underneath. He carries them at protests, holds them proudly in front of churches. He has encountered a few angry people among the majority who offer words of support. But for him, there's no other way.

He uses his four children as examples when talking about what his idea of God calls him to do. Recently, Ehrlich drove his 19-month-old daughter, Celina, to the library, where she smiled at strangers who passed by. "Young children feel one with everything," he said. "They not only love their family, but they're fearless with all people. We need to feel that."

If a man has not discovered something worth dying for, he isn't fit to live.

-- Martin Luther King Jr.

Some people associate pacifism with being passive. But Patrick O'Neill of Garner said it can require risks. He attended his first peace rally in 1977 and was arrested for the first time five years later. Since then, he has been jailed more than two years for civil disobedience. "I missed two Christmases," said O'Neill, who runs the Catholic Worker House, a safe haven for women in Garner, with his wife, Mary Rider. "I'm not saying I should be viewed as heroic. Pacifists have to be willing to make some sacrifice to bring about the type of world that we want."

O'Neill prays for a world without a military or guns. He knows some people think his position is foolish. But using Christ as his example means he accepts that ideal, he said. At Catholic Worker House, O'Neill and Rider have encountered crisis situations -- threats, fights between boarders, angry boyfriends who show up at the door. But so far O'Neill has always found a way to resolve it without involving the police. Even with seven children, the couple continue to put their freedom on the line for peace. Most recently, O'Neill was arrested for trespassing at Seymour Johnson Air Force Base.

"Pacifism is not a risk-free ideology," said O'Neill. "Jesus, King and Gandhi were all killed, executed for their beliefs."

Being a pacifist means you won't hurt others, but it doesn't stop them from hurting you. "You have to stick to your principles and accept the consequences of that," he said.

Munk said his faith hasn't been tested yet in that way. He can't say for certain what he'd do in every situation. His eyes mist as he talks about a scene in the 1982 movie "Gandhi" when Indian people, who were taxed for salt the British manufactured in India, demonstrated nonviolently in the face of soldiers blocking the gate. The people walked toward the blocked entrance with resolute faces, arms held powerlessly at their sides. Soldiers bludgeoned one person after another. When one line collapsed, the wounded were taken away and another wave walked forward to take more blows.

"King demonstrated that courage in the face of dogs and fire hoses," Munk said. "That's what impresses me."

For some pacifists, that's the ultimate test.