Iraq: Faith reflection

It is in the inter-personal, human-to-human contact where we find the greatest wisdom about what it means to love our neighbor, for this is exactly the way Jesus illustrated it for us. It’s not only that Jesus looked into the eyes of the people he encountered and felt compassion; he also looked deeply to understand the way they were feeling, what they were thinking, and how the world looked through their eyes. He knew that the key to loving is found in the ability to understand the heart and the experience of another, and he tried to translate the wisdom of this truth for us when he taught, “do unto others as you would have them do unto you.”

Following Christ’s example, understanding Iraqis and the way they see things is essential for being faithful to the call to love our neighbors. It is easy to feel that we already understand the basic teachings of Jesus, so we know what constitutes moral (and amoral) foreign policy. Clearly violence, destruction, and war are the opposite of love, so it is logical to say that our government must not participate in such acts. Of course this is true. At the same time, until we get to know and understand intimately the human beings who are called Iraqis, the wisdom of the voice we raise for peace is vulnerable to assumptions about Iraqis we make on their behalf.

How would we treat an Iraqi family if they were visitors in our home? What would we say to them about the war? How would we think and act toward them as our guests? Likewise, what if our family were guests in an Iraqi home in Iraq: How would we act toward them as our hosts? How might they think and act toward us? Or, perhaps, what would Jesus himself talk about with Iraqis in Arabic, Kurdish, Syriac, or Turkmani if they were to casually chat about the American presence in Iraq over cups of tea? What sort of foreign policy recommendations might they come up with together?

It is not easy to know how to best reflect authentic love on the scale and complexity of something like relations between nations. Yet we are compelled to participate in that uncomfortable process because we wish to see love succeed in the world. As we do, we must take notes from the great Teacher about how to create genuine human-to-human connections with our neighbors and look deeply to understand how the world looks and feels to them. Peace promises to follow.

- Reflection by John Filson, who served as MCC Iraq Program Coordinator from 2007-2009.