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Creating "Send Judah First: A
Pentecostal Perspective on Peace" I have the privilege of running a listserv dedicated to pastors, scholars and laypeople who want to talk about Pentecostalism throughout the African diaspora, including Oneness Pentecostalism. We have discussed and debated various issues since the listserv was started almost two years ago, especially the need for Pentecostals to engage in more collective action. During the one-year anniversary of September 11, I noticed that white Evangelicals were endorsing President Bush's plan for a preemptive war with Iraq via open letters and opinion articles. They couched their endorsements in Christian language, giving the impression that to not support war was not just un-American, but non-Christian. I knew many good Pentecostals (white, black, other) who felt otherwise, but had not voiced their opinions; so I initially crafted “Send Judah First: A Pentecostal Perspective on Peace.” I went through three or four revisions, gaining input from various persons, and learning more about Pentecostals' history of pacifism. Finally, the letter was completed in early October and we started an all-out blitz to get signatures. I contacted over 30 bishops, or leaders of Pentecostal and Apostolic organizations, especially Apostolics (PAW, COOLJC, Bibleway) because this is my tradition. I was sorely disappointed by the bishop’s general lack of response. We deliberately reached across many denominational barriers, but most of the signers are Pentecostal, including several academics in the Assemblies of God, and one Hispanic Oneness group. The most important ecclesiastical leaders to sign the letter are Bishop Charles Ellis, Bishop of the International Young People's Union of the PAW, and pastor of Greater Grace Temple in Detroit, and Bishop James Clark, presiding Apostle of the Church of Our Lord Jesus Christ of the Apostolic Faith, and pastor of Christ Temple in New York. The letter was delivered to the White House by an official lobbying firm in November 2002, but we received no official response. I think this lack of response is, in large part, because they know Pentecostals tend to follow Evangelicals politically so they have nothing to lose. If Bush could basically brush aside the protests of millions in early February 2003, a letter with 40 names is not going to turn this thing around. One of the key themes of the letter is that if Pentecostals are so different than Evangelicals because we are actually "baptized" in the Holy Ghost, we ought to have a different opinion about war. Our history indicates that historically, we have, but we have lost that zeal as we have become comfortable with the world. We have pressed on, and now many of us are a part of an effort to form the Pentecostal Peace Fellowship, not a new denomination, but an alliance of Pentecostals and Spirit-filled Christians who are concerned that our witness includes a manifest commitment to peace, reconciliation and justice. If being baptized in Jesus' name and baptized in the Holy Ghost, with the initial sign of speaking in tongues, truly makes any difference while here on the Earth, this is one of those times it should. I encourage Oneness Pentecostals to be more informed. We need Pentecostals and Apostolics by the millions to pray, praise, and protest. We need to harness our Holy Ghost resources to combat this evil if we believe we have the power to "bind and loose." If Jesus knew His power laid not in dispatching angels to eradicate the “Evil Ones,” but in suffering to redeem those controlled by the powers of darkness, He offered the primary biblical example, more than Exodus, more than I Chronicles, more than Jeremiah, more than Galatians, more than any other source in the Bible, the Gospel of God provides the resources for not living in fear, but in staying in the middle of God's will, even in the face of death. Being that we believe this is the “end time,” why would we support a war to “preserve our safety” and the current order of this world, which is sinful? We should pray “Come Lord Jesus,” and stand against violence in the confidence that God himself will radically manifest Himself when we declare the name of Jesus and refuse to take human life, and even suffer death, rather than inflict it.
ninetyandnine.com © 2003, Marlon Millner --------- Marlon Millner is a student at Harvard Divinity School and a minister at the Apostle Church of Christ in God in Washington, DC/Winston-Salem, NC. |
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