- Anti-War Memorial in Lafayette, California

by Kim Montenegro

Crosses speak louder than words!

There is a memorial of crosses in Lafayette, California, that is sparking debate and more conversation. Some parents who had their soldiers killed in the war asked for their child’s cross to be taken down. Are there ethical implications to this memorial? Also, as a Christian who is against the war, is there larger issue of fallen soldiers being memorialized with a symbol from the Christian faith? I am aware of it being a tradition, but, thinking systemically, what are the inter-faith issues that arise?

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more from Kim:

As an eighth grader I was picked to lay a wreath at the tomb of the unknown solider in Arlington National Cemetery. As for most people, visiting the tomb was very emotional. I remember at that time having a difficulty seeing row after row of white crosses rolling over the hills overlooking Washington, D.C.. The crosses, which number over 290,000, seem to be unable in representing people who have died in war.

The crosses in Lafayette as well as Arlington deserve a closer look. What is the basic meaning of the crosses? For many Christians, I would venture to say, a cross is an identifiable metaphoric symbol of their faith tradition. To what ends is the symbol of a cross being used and by whom? In the case of Arlington National Cemetery, it is the United States Government that is using the metaphor. In the case of the memorial of crosses in Lafayette, California, it is on the property of by 81-year-old Louise Clark and her husband, Johnson Clark, a WWII veteran and paid for by the Lamorinda Peace Group and Grandmothers for Peace.

The presence of the crosses has become a disturbance for many not only in the affluent area; the controversy has been on news stations throughout Northern California. Part of this issue may be due to the fact that the goal of the memorial is unclear. Is it an anti-war statement? Is it a memorial to soldiers? Is it a critic on the U.S. foreign policy? All that accompanies the crosses is a sign that reads “In Memory of [insert number] U.S. Troops Killed In Iraq”. As a seminarian I must ask myself how does this display shape the image of God and World? What are the implications of having crosses adorning the hillside?

- Mother’s Day as Pacifist Action?

Alexander Carpenter writes about the origins of Mum’s Day on the Beatitudes Society blog:

Did you know that Mother’s Day started as an antiwar proclamation?

As Dibgy writes:

It’s unfashionable and vaguely unpatriotic these days to talk about “peace” but back in 1870, it was a pretty compelling concept. As the country was still reeling from the effects of the civil war and still dealt daily with its consequent illness, poverty, injury and death, feminist Julia Ward Howe wrote the following proclamation creating a Mother’s Day convention and a demand for “the amicable settlement of international questions, the great and general interests of peace.” How quaint.




Mother’s Day Proclamation – 1870
by Julia Ward Howe

 

Arise then…women of this day!
Arise, all women who have hearts!
Whether your baptism be of water or of tears!
Say firmly:
“We will not have questions answered by irrelevant agencies,
Our husbands will not come to us, reeking with carnage,
For caresses and applause.
Our sons shall not be taken from us to unlearn
All that we have been able to teach them of charity, mercy and patience.
We, the women of one country,
Will be too tender of those of another country
To allow our sons to be trained to injure theirs.”

 

From the voice of a devastated Earth a voice goes up with
Our own. It says: “Disarm! Disarm!
The sword of murder is not the balance of justice.”
Blood does not wipe our dishonor,
Nor violence indicate possession.
As men have often forsaken the plough and the anvil
At the summons of war,
Let women now leave all that may be left of home
For a great and earnest day of counsel.
Let them meet first, as women, to bewail and commemorate the dead.
Let them solemnly take counsel with each other as to the means
Whereby the great human family can live in peace…
Each bearing after his own time the sacred impress, not of Caesar,
But of God -
In the name of womanhood and humanity, I earnestly ask
That a general congress of women without limit of nationality,
May be appointed and held at someplace deemed most convenient
And the earliest period consistent with its objects,
To promote the alliance of the different nationalities,
The amicable settlement of international questions,
The great and general interests of peace.