This week I had the opportunity to talk with members of Peace Action Michigan. This seems to me an urgent moment for all of us to think more deeply about how to move toward a deeper practice of peace.  Here is some of what we talked about.

The dangers of this moment are evident. Not only are conflicts spreading across the world, but the possibility of nuclear war is closer than at any time since the bombs were dropped on Japan. The Doomsday Clock is now 90 seconds from midnight. 

It is commonplace to hear people talk of fascism, the growth of white Christian nationalism, the fallacy of democracy, and the virtues of authoritarianism.

We are facing three interlocking crises: ecological catastrophe, economic inequality, and the accelerating uses of violence by state actors, corporate powers, and individuals. Any one of these has the potential to end life as we have come to know it. At such a moment, what do we do? What is our responsibility? How do we think most clearly? 

One way to answer these questions is to turn to those who have lived through dangerous times and sought ways to a better future.

Dr. Martin Luther King has much to offer us. In his speech opposing the Vietnam war he invites us to think about more than a momentary conflict, but to see war as “a symptom of a far deeper malady within the American spirit.” 

Part of the spiritual hollowness he identifies is our attachment to individualism, racism, and material wealth. He says” 

“[our refusal] to give up the privileges and the pleasures that come from the    immense profits of overseas investments. We as a nation must undergo a radical revolution of values. We must rapidly begin... the shift from a thing-oriented society to a person-oriented society. When machines and computers, profit motives and property rights, are considered more important than people, the giant triplets of racism, extreme materialism, and militarism are incapable of being conquered.” 

King is raising something more than simply shifting the money we spend on the military to programs to improve the health, welfare, education, and lives of our people. He is looking not at an economic crisis, but a spiritual crisis. He is concerned for the “soul of America.”

He invites us to think in new ways about economies that depend on the stealing of people, land, and resources. And he is asking us to seek just relationships that honor the traditions, lives, and perspectives of people around the world.

While it can be argued that the US has always been at war since September 11, 2001, war has become a perpetual state of being. The US corporate/military establishment has been refining ways to control dissent, limit media, and create propaganda.

As Dr. King predicted, we in the peace movement have found ourselves resisting war after war for more than half a century.

This drive to justify continued military might rests on four elements that have emerged in the last twenty years:

• The doctrine of preemptive war

• The use of advanced technologies of death and control, from bombs to drones, to limit the use of US soldiers, while increasing the murder of civilians

• The justification of kidnapping and torture

• The increased militarization of daily life

In such a moment, it is not enough to demand negotiated settlement in Ukraine. We need a reckoning with war, the crimes we have committed, and how violence has always been our ultimate response to all conflict.

King calls us to “a worldwide fellowship” that embraces unconditional love.” He is not speaking of “some sentimental and weak response.” Rather, he is calling on “that force which … is somehow the key that unlocks the door which leads to ultimate reality.” He explains:

"Love is the ultimate force that makes for the saving choice of life and good against the damning choice of death and evil. Therefore, the first hope in our inventory must be the hope that love is going to have the last word."

If we are to have a future, we must place radical love at the center of our strategic thinking, our relationships, and our practices.