Two of the overlooked anniversaries in the United States are those of the atomic bomb attacks made by our country against the Empire of Japan on August 6 and 9, 1945. At the time of this writing, these anniversaries have come and gone. As in prior years, I lament that very little reflection on the role and place of nuclear weapons has occurred.

Recently, President Obama became the first sitting American president to visit Hiroshima. While he did not formally apologize for the attacks which killed tens of thousands of civilians, he did hold out the vision of a world without nuclear weapons.

On June 14, 1982, I was arrested in an act of civil disobedience in New York City along with 1600 other people, where we sat in prison cells because we demanded nuclear disarmament. There were those, of course, who frowned on our protest and cited Romans 13 when they said we shouldn’t disobey authorities. Most of those folks believe nuclear weapons were, and are a necessity. I have always been amused that Paul wrote his letter to the church in Rome from his prison cell — in which he sat because he had gone to the temple in Jerusalem with a Gentile, Trophimus, in protest of the notion that Jews and Gentiles should not mix.

In any event, we have a long way to go to rid the world of nuclear weapons. When the Non-Proliferation Treaty was signed in 1968, the idea was this: those nations that did not have nuclear weapons would not acquire any and those that did have them would get rid of them. It didn’t work.

More nations now possess nuclear weapons. The United States plans to spend $1 trillion to “modernize” its arsenal. The danger to the world remains high. Nuclear tensions exist in the Middle East, between India and Pakistan, and on the Korean Peninsula.

As I have mentioned in previous columns, it bears reminding that on August 9, 1945, the general secretary of the Federal Council of Churches, Samuel McCrea Cavert, sent a telegram to President Harry Truman to beg for no further use of atomic bombs on the Japanese people. Truman replied with evident anger and justified the use of the bombs by citing Pearl Harbor and Japanese mistreatment of American prisoners of war. He said the Japanese only understood the use of force and that a beast must be treated like a beast.

It seems little has changed over the decades. The myth of redemptive violence continues to hold sway. A few years ago, the National Council of Churches renewed its commitment to a world without nuclear weapons. The conclusion of that statement remains powerful and timely:

The prospect of what might happen if we do not act is too terrible to contemplate: nuclear winter, the end of all human life on earth, and the transformation of much or all of our planet into a radioactive hell. This far outstrips the potential damage that could be done by any other environmental threat.

The end of the Cold War did not make the world safer; quite the opposite. It is time to finish what Ronald Reagan and Mikhail Gorbachev began in Reykjavik. It is time to realize that we cannot ensure our own security by force of arms, even if they are the most powerful weapons ever created. Our lives are in God’s hands. For once, let us put our trust in those hands as well. “Behold, now is the acceptable time; behold, now is the day of salvation.”

(This week the NCC hosted a delegation from the National Council of Churches in Korea.  The delegation came to Washington, DC, to meet with White House, Congressional, and State Department leaders to advocate for a permanent peace treaty between North and South Korea.  Below is the statement by Jim Winkler, given as part of a consultation between NCCK and US faith leaders:)

There have been many consultations between the National Council of Churches of Korea (NCCK) and the National Council of Churches in the USA (NCCCUSA) over the years. Many statements and resolutions have been issued. 30 years ago, the NCCCUSA Governing Board said, “As Christians we regard the need to overcome division not primarily from diplomatic or military perspectives, but rather from the side of a suffering, divided people whose pain we are coming to know well: we confess that we share responsibility for their plight and for this we are truly sorry.”

These words remain appropriate today. Since that statement was issued in 1986, the Berlin Wall has fallen and East and West Germany have been reunited. The US has reestablished diplomatic relations with Vietnam. The Cold War has ended, apartheid has collapsed in South Africa, and we have entered into a new era of relations with Cuba. A new wall has been erected by Israel against the people of Palestine. And, Korea remains divided and the prospects for a peace treaty remain dim. 

We Christians know what long wars are all about. 2 Samuel 3:1 reads, “There was a long war between the house of Saul and the house of David; David grew stronger and stronger, while the house of Saul became weaker and weaker.”

That long war was filled with recriminations, accusations, and betrayals, as are all wars. It is exhausting to read accounts of the dispute between the houses of Saul and David. David’s reign was long, but it was not always peaceful.

We have experienced more than 60 years of war, sanctions, and tension in Korea. Despite our best efforts to bring about a peace treaty, we remain unsuccessful.

It occurs to me that the United States has been at war my entire life. Not only has the Korean War continued over all these years, but my country has invaded Vietnam, Lebanon, Grenada, Panama, Afghanistan, the Dominican Republic, Iraq, Laos, and Cambodia, among others. We have carried out covert operations against countless nations and we have spent trillions of dollars on the military and on an enormous spy apparatus. We maintain more than 700 military installations around the world. The United States has been and is intent on global domination.

I live in a national security state, and Capitol Hill is the belly of the beast. Those of us meeting with you in this important consultation from the National Council of Churches and all the other denominations present have been seeking peace for Korea for a long time.

We confess we have been diverted many times from this task by other wars, such as those with Afghanistan and Iraq. In fact, in these very rooms, we worked hard to stop those wars from taking place and to bring them to an end. We fully recognize the US remains a superpower and is plays a key role in helping bring peace to the Korean peninsula. We desire to work closely with you to strategically advocate for peace, and we deeply appreciate your presence which will help raise the awareness in Congress, at the State Department, and at the White House.

Formerly, we had the North American Coalition for Human Rights in Korea. Many people including my friends Pharis and Jane Harvey and George and Dorothy Ogle helped give leadership to the Coalition, but once the military dictatorship in the South ended and Kim Dae Jung was elected president we were not able to provide the grassroots support and funding needed to keep the Coalition alive.

Fortunately, the Asia Pacific Forum has been faithful in giving leadership on behalf of the NCC and its member communions.

I pray through this consultation we will again affirm our unity in Christ and our commitment to peace in Korea. We affirm that a more hopeful future will one day come to all of the people of Korea. We affirm the commitment of the churches to take a stand in solidarity with the Korean people and to take actions to support reunification and peace. We give thanks to God that in the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus, God has promised a new humanity, in which we are no longer strangers to one another but citizens and members of the house of God, with Jesus Christ himself as the cornerstone. (Ephesians 2:14-20)

I am shocked and sickened by the violence plaguing U.S. society, including the killings recently of 49 people in Orlando, those of Philando Castile in Minnesota and Alton Sterling in Baton Rouge, and the murders of police officers in Dallas and Baton Rouge. Numerous others have died violently in our nation during that same time frame.

Ours is an intensely violent, racist society. Can we be surprised so many people are killed by guns and rifles each year when hundreds of millions of weapons are owned by our populace, and when millions of Americans have been militarily trained in advanced tactics, deployed in war zones, and now suffer from post-traumatic stress? No. We have established the conditions for massive violence and are now enduring the consequences. 

Will it always be this way? I pray not. The Onion, my favorite online satirical news source, recently ran an article positing that perhaps if we work at it over the next several hundred generations, we might be able to live peacefully by the year 8000. As a Christian, my faith keeps me optimistically believing it can be on earth as it is in heaven. As a student of history, I accept it is unlikely it will be so during my lifetime.  

Should we be surprised that a nation with a legacy of slavery and racism continues to experience serious racial tensions each and every day? No. Last week, I sat in a bagel shop in Rapid City, SD and overheard a police officer and a local businessman describe Black Lives Matter supporters as criminals, and state that a bloodbath is inevitable. I fear their views are held by many others. 

You may have read about the Dallas trauma surgeon, Brian Williams, who helped save the lives of some of the police officers who were recently shot there. Williams is known to pick up the restaurant tabs of police officers as a way of expressing his appreciation for them.

Brian Williams is African American and says about the police, “I support you. I defend you. I will care for you. That doesn’t mean I will not fear you.”

I maintain a file on racism. Here are just a few headlines from that inbox folder:

• Poor whites live in richer neighborhoods than middle-class blacks and Latinos;
• Exclusion of Blacks From Juries Raises Renewed Scrutiny;
• Racial Wealth Gap Persists Despite Degree, Study Says;
• Analysis Finds Higher Expulsion Rates for Black Students;
• The Disproportionate Risks of Driving While Black;
• Obama’s skin looks a little different in these GOP campaign ads;
• The disturbing reason some African American patients may be under-treated for pain;
• Machine Bias: Software used to predict future criminals is biased against blacks.

We know we have a violence problem and a systemic racism problem in the United States. What we lack is the willpower to address our problems. May God help us.

In the midst of the awful news of the shootings of Alton Sterling in Baton Rouge, LA, of Philando Castile near Minneapolis, MN, and of five Dallas police officers, I pause in the midst of a family vacation to reflect briefly on the Chilcot Inquiry, also known as the Iraq Inquiry, a high-level British government investigation into Britain’s involvement in the invasion of Iraq in 2003.

The inquiry amounts to about one million words in twelve volumes. I have not read the report, which is longer than the Bible, but I have followed the news accounts with interest, for in the year preceding the invasion, I was deeply involved in efforts to stop it from taking place.

Just as Iraqi Christians warned an invasion would have dreadful consequences for their community, so too did American Christians. Indeed, Christians around the world cautioned that an attack on Iraq was unnecessary.

No one was defending the horrid regime of Saddam Hussein. Rather, there was general recognition the international weapons inspectors deserved an opportunity to complete their search for the nonexistent weapons of mass destruction, that Iraqi forces were not massed on the borders or threatening to attack other nations, that international sanctions had weakened the nation of Iraq over the course of many years, and that the government of Iraq, no matter how tyrannical, was not carrying out genocide of its own people.

Over the course of a number of months from the spring of 2002 until the invasion in March of 2003, churches around the world attempted to stave off war. I participated in National Council of Churches peace delegations to the Middle East, to Iraq, and to Germany. We sent church leaders to meet with British Prime Minister Tony Blair, Pope John Paul II, President Vladimir Putin of Russia, French Foreign Minister Dominique de Villepin, and German Chancellor Gerhard Schröder. Indeed, the only international leader who refused to meet with credible church leaders was US President George W. Bush.

On February 15, 2003, we helped coordinate the largest peace march in human history in which 10 million people in 600 cities around the globe opposed the plans to invade Iraq. However, George Bush and Tony Blair, we now know, had made up their minds months earlier to wage aggressive war against Iraq.

In the aftermath, the Christian population of Iraq, numbering some 600,000 people, was decimated, hundreds of thousands of Iraqis were killed, millions were displaced, the entire Middle East was destabilized, and Iran won huge influence over Iraq. A greater calamity could not have occurred if it had been planned. Mr. Bush and Mr. Blair were never held accountable for their actions.

Church leaders, such as myself, were repeatedly denounced for our opposition to the war on the grounds we were unpatriotic, that we supported Saddam Hussein, and that we simply didn’t know what we were talking about. I learned from this tragedy that the international Christian network of leaders in councils of churches and reputable denominations have extensive knowledge of what is taking place around the world, and are fully capable of making reasoned judgments. Governments would be wise to give heed to the counsel of faith leaders.

Father’s Day sermon
Delivered at Fairlington United Methodist Church
By Jim Winkler

June 19, 2016

When I was invited to preach today I was informed the decision was made to choose a theme that is relevant and challenging this year—immigration—and asked to reflect on what our faith says about how we should view and treat those on the margins.

Well, the Bible has a lot to say about immigrants and immigration. Here are but a few passages:

“For the Lord your God is God of gods and Lord of lords, the great God, mighty and awesome, who is not partial and takes no bribe, who executes justice for the orphan and the widow, and who loves the strangers, providing them food and clothing. You shall also love the stranger, for you were strangers in the land of Egypt.” (Deut. 10:17-19)

“You shall not oppress a resident alien; you know the heart of ann alien, for you were aliens in the land of Egypt.” (Exodus 23:9)

“There shall be one law for the native and for the alien who resides among you.” (Exodus 12:49)

Like everyone  in this nation who is not descended from the native people who lived here before us, I come from a family of immigrants. Although my surname, Winkler, is German, most of my family tree is English and Scots-Irish.

In my role as head of the National Council of Churches, I have the opportunity to interact with councils of churches around the world. I have learned it is now standard practice in Canadian church gatherings to acknowledge and discuss the native peoples who lived in the area where the meeting is taking place.  I think we should follow their example. In Canada, they refer to native peoples as the First Nations.

It turns out that in July 1608, just over 400 years ago, John Smith and 14 other Englishmen arrived in these parts and found a Necostin village called Nameroughquena just a few miles south of here. There were other villages around here speaking an Algonquian dialect. It is estimated there were about 500 men, women, and children in this area. They received the Englishmen in a friendly manner, but when a Captain Argall returned two years later to buy corn from them, they refused so the English burned their villages and stole their food.

I’m not sure what they would have done with the money anyway and for all we know, they may have been short of food themselves, but a pattern of hostility was established. In 1669, John Alexander purchased from Robert Howson 6000 acres extending from Hunting Creek, south of Alexandria, to about where Fort Myer is now.

So, let’s just be honest about things and acknowledge humbly and repentantly that we worship on land that was stolen from its native people. That’s not a very pleasant thing to think about–which is probably why we don’t do so very often.

About two hundred years later, my great great grandfather, Christopher Philip Winkler, came to the United States from the village of Guttenstetten in the province of Mittelfranken in the kingdom of Bavaria in what is now southern Germany. He settled in Memphis, TN where he taught music at a Catholic girls’ school during the week. On Friday nights and Saturday mornings, he was the organist for Poplar Street synagogue. On Sunday mornings, he was the organist and choirmaster for St. Peter’s Catholic Church. Christopher Philip was a Lutheran from a predominantly Catholic country who married a Scots-Irish Cumberland Presbyterian. They raised their six boys as Methodists.

Although I was born and raised Methodist, I like to think Christopher Philip’s example set the stage for my current work in the ecumenical field.

During World War I, my great grandfather, Eugene Winkler, was a medical doctor in southeastern Arkansas, about 100 miles south of Memphis. Dr. Winkler was proud of his German-American heritage, but this quickly became suspect when war broke out with Germany.

Remember, it was Teddy Roosevelt (not Donald Trump) who said,

“There is no room in this country for hyphenated Americanism. When I refer to hyphenated Americans, I do not refer to naturalized Americans. Some of the very best Americans I have ever known were naturalized Americans, Americans born abroad. But a hyphenated American is not an American at all.”

He went on to say:

“This is just as true of the man who puts “native” before the hyphen as of the man who puts German or Irish or English or French before the hyphen. Americanism is a matter of the spirit and of the soul. Our allegiance must be purely to the United States. We must unsparingly condemn any man who holds any other allegiance.”

The local townspeople insisted Dr. Winkler raise the American flag each morning in his front yard to prove he was loyal to the United States and not to Kaiser Wilhelm of Germany. The duty to raise that flag fell to his teenage son, my grandfather, also named Eugene Winkler.

Now, I don’t know whether my great grandfather and grandfather felt humiliated or persecuted by this demand or not. Because my family is white, we were able to easily de-emphasize our ethnic background.

I know that quite often immigrants try extra hard to prove they are loyal to the United States. Last month, I received an award from the Islamic Society of North America for my efforts to advance Christian-Muslim understanding. At the ceremony, an Islamic Boy Scout troop brought in the flag, we said the pledge of allegiance and sang the national anthem.

But we see all around us racist and bigoted talk and assumptions made about Muslims and Hispanics, some of whom are immigrants but many of whom have been born and raised in our nation. My wife and daughter are of Mexican and Central American descent and often feel people look differently at them as they move about our daily lives.

Scripture, however, is clear on how we are to treat the foreigner and the stranger:

“You have become guilty by the blood that you have shed, and defiled by the idols that you have made; you have brought your day near, the appointed time of your years has come. Father and mother are treated with contempt in you; the alien residing within you suffers extortion; the orphan and the widow are wronged in you.” (Ezekiel 22:4,7)

“For if you truly amend your ways and your doings, if you truly act justly one with another, if you do not oppress the alien, the orphan, and the widow, or shed innocent blood in this place, and if you do not go after other gods to your own hurt, then I will dwell with you in this place, in the land that I gave of old to your ancestors forever and ever.” (Jeremiah 7:5-7)

“Do not neglect to show hospitality to strangers, for nby doing that some have enterained angels without knowing it.” (Hebrews 13:2)

I could cite many other verses, but I think you understand the point. Now, there’s a sad part to the story of my grandfather’s experience during WWI. Just a few years after he experienced some degree of persecution, he joined the Ku Klux Klan and visited persecution on African Americans, in particular, although I can guarantee you my grandfather, who I loved, was an equal opportunity hater of all minorities as well as Jews and Catholics.

My father, I am happy to report, did not follow in the footsteps of my grandfather. Dad grew up in Arkansas, Mississippi, Louisiana, Texas, and Oklahoma, the Deep South, and the Southwest. He moved around because my grandfather, who worked in local Ford dealerships, fought a continuous battle with his temper and with alcohol. Most of the time alcohol and his temper won and grandpa would have to look for another job. Because good mechanics were always in demand, he found work.

The story goes that grandpa would call my grandmother to let her know he’d found a job and a place to live and tell her to bring the children. Then, on the first week they’d visit First Methodist Church, the second week they’d join, and the third week my grandmother would be elected president of the UMW.

It was my grandmother, the United Methodist Women, and the Methodist Youth Fellowship that kept my father from becoming racist and anti-immigrant. When he was in his late teens, Dad went to a camp for young Methodist leaders. His car broke down on the way so it was late when he arrived.

He was taken to his cabin and saw he would be sharing it with 3 other young men, all of whom were at an evening worship service. Since he was exhausted, dad fell asleep and when he woke up the next morning he learned he was sharing a bed with an African American for the first time in his life.

It was not just any African American. It was Rev. James Lawson, who went on to be one of the most significant leaders of the civil rights movement. Rev. Lawson was a disciple of Gandhi and taught nonviolent civil disobedience techniques to Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., to John Lewis—now a congressman from Georgia—and to those who participated in the sit-ins at lunch counters throughout the South.

Jim Lawson had a profound impact on Dr. King, and on my father and his understanding of racial equality. This carried over not only into his ministry—he served local churches in Arkansas, Oklahoma, Missouri, and Illinois for 55 years—but into the values he instilled in his children. I am and will always be grateful to my dad for raising us in such a manner.

I grew up in the church and in an anti-racist household. Don’t get me wrong. I believe if you are a white person living in this country you are a beneficiary of white privilege whether you want it or not. Therefore, although it’s impossible to avoid complicity in a racist society, you can strive to be an anti-racist. Similarly, you can live out the biblical values and do justice, love kindness, and walk humbly with God.

The National Council of Churches and its member communions, as well as Roman Catholics and many evangelicals, are united in speaking on behalf of justice for immigrants.

I have hope for our nation and for our future and I know it will require hard work and commitment from people of good will. We need to be a non-anxious people in an anxious time.

Above all, we must remain faithful to God.

My schedule has been hectic over the past several weeks ranging from the NCC’s recent Christian Unity Gathering, meetings of our Governing Board and Convening Tables, participation in the 75th anniversary of the Cuban Council of Churches, and the ongoing United Methodist Church General Conference.

We have now held three Christian Unity Gatherings and have a good idea of what works and does not work well. Evaluations completed by participants strongly affirmed worship and bible study, the Convening Tables, and several other aspects of the Gathering. We know we have to do a better job with logistics and promotion.

More to the point, the questions arise as to whether to hold organizational meetings in conjunction with the Christian Unity Gathering is the best way to proceed. How might we hold a Christian Unity Gathering that includes Christians from beyond the National Council of Churches? How might we ensure significant numbers of youth and young adults are present? How might we best maintain flexibility to respond creatively and in a timely manner to various matters in the world—an American presidential campaign, seemingly daily incidents of racial injustice and intolerance, church-dividing issues, or the Flint water crisis—when it’s necessary to sign contracts for food and lodging and give people ample time to make travel plans?

We’ll continue to perfect, I pray, the Christian Unity Gathering in future years. Someone once told me they felt they had attended a successful conference or convention if they made one new friend, heard one good speaker, and learned of one interesting book to read. Judged by those standards, our Gathering was wildly successful—for me, at least.

Immediately after CUG, I boarded a plane to Cuba. I have now had the opportunity to visit Cuba three times and remain deeply grateful for the solidarity that has existed for decades between the Cuban Council of Churches and the NCC here. The Cuban Council has an amazing and wide-ranging ministry ranging from Christian education to disaster response to active efforts to help the nation prepare for a new era. Some refer to the imminent tsunami of engagement with the United States—tourists, businesses, the Internet, capitalism, etc.—and everyone knows there will be positives and negatives.

One thing is crystal clear right now: the U.S. continues to maintain a blockade against Cuba. Until Congress acts to lift it, the resumption of diplomatic relations is mere window-dressing. The U.S. Chamber of Commerce (not exactly a communist organization) estimates the blockade costs the United States more than $1 billion annually. Imagine, then, how many more billions it costs the Cubans. The restrictions have created enormous hardships for the people of Cuba. The National Council of Churches will continue to push for the lifting of the blockade.

I am thankful for the ecumenical witness of the National Council of Churches and the Cuban Council of Churches. In the midst of giant societal changes, we have remained true to Jesus Christ, continue to share the Good News of the Gospel, and remain committed to justice and peace.

If you were asked, “What does love motivate you to do?” what would be your answer?

 

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Like millions of others, my mother has Alzheimer’s Disease. Her illness has progressed to the point that it is taking a tremendous toll on my father and placing significant pressure on my siblings, especially my sister.

Because mom is the center of our family, her slow descent into dementia has altered our family’s dynamics in many ways. Most obviously, younger members of the family have had to take on many difficult decision-making responsibilities.

Illness plays a prominent role in the Bible including skin and wasting diseases, fevers, hemorrhages, stomach ailments, mental illness, leprosy, plague, and tumors. Sometimes sufferers, particularly those with leprosy, were quarantined. Yet, there are instances of healing and solace throughout scripture. Psalm 23 reminds me that the Lord will be with my mother throughout the travails she experiences. Even though this beautiful psalm gives me comfort, I know things are not likely to change: it is apparent mom will not be restored to full health.

Alzheimer’s unfolds and deepens over the course of years. In a sense, this has permitted us to say goodbye to mom in slow motion. We’ve all adjusted as her capabilities have diminished. At first, it just seemed like the kind of forgetfulness that often comes with aging. Over time, it became apparent she simply couldn’t remember even what she had just eaten.  If you have a loved one with Alzheimer’s, you know what I’m talking about.

During the some 50 years dad was a pastor in local churches, mom served as an elementary school secretary and kept the three kids in line and on task. She isn’t a public figure or speaker, but she is shrewd and has been our greatest supporter.

Mom has always been extraordinarily generous. Although she and dad had little money for years and years, they always made sure their children and grandchildren were cared for. They felt the best vacations were family vacations, and the best Christmases were celebrated with everybody present.

I remember once, while in my twenties, I was visiting home and attending church with mom and other family members on Sunday morning. The long pew was filled with Winklers. Mom whispered proudly in my ear, “I bought every stitch of clothing on every person in this pew.”

Disorientation troubles the soul. Over the past few years, it has become increasingly difficult for her to be comfortable in large family gatherings. She does much better one-on-one. For me, who does not see her often, it’s easy to be patient when she asks the same questions over and over. On a daily basis, however, that is more challenging.

The wonderful memories we share of countless occasions and events can no longer be recounted with ease. She cannot summon them. In recent years, I attempted to get her to reflect on her own childhood, but that hasn’t worked well. It is said that those with dementia have good days and bad days. I haven’t seen the good days. Soon, she likely won’t be able to recognize me or my children.

I miss the mom who was strong, vibrant and funny. I love the mom I have. I am grateful she knows the love of God.