War No More

The memos to President Obama in the January issue are interesting for what they omit as well as for what they include. Twenty-four leaders wrote to the president of the world’s greatest military “superpower,” and 18 of them did not mention war or peace. A good number of the total focused on a single issue, but not one focused on war and peace, or violence and nonviolence.

War is the elephant in America’s room. We can try to ignore it, but in the end it will not ignore us. There is a movement afoot in the world to redefine power itself. If people of faith are not a willing—indeed a leading—part of that movement, they have copped out.

John K. Stoner, Akron, Pennsylvania