women war and peace

I went to a lecture by Sr Joan Chittister last night at Trinity Episcopal Cathedral. The topic – "Women, Religion & Peace: Invisible Triangle and Eternal Difference." As you would expect, she was a strong, prophetic voice and the audience packed the cathedral to the gills. Yes she was, as they say, preaching to the choir. But as a member of that choir, even I’m feeling especially challenged this morning.

Her main questions were 1) what does religion have to with war (since many wars are fought in the name of religion, quite a lot), 2) What does war have to do with women (since most casualties of war are civilian women and children and women are traffiked and raped again as the spoils of war, again quite a lot) and 3) What do women if anything have to do with peace.

That last one is not so obvious, and yet perhaps the answer? Check out this website – the UN Development Fund for Women Portal on Women, Peace & War. For one thing the Interactive Map of Conflicts on the front page wakes you up to the realization that we are a world at war. Not just the US led wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, but across the globe. And women are there, not "saved" from fighting the wars, but thrust into the middle ill prepared and defenseless as their homes, families and futures are destroyed.

As Sr. Joan said, we take war for granted. It’s natural. A part of life. Well, we once took slavery for granted once. It’s natural. A part of life. But we grew beyond it. Wars are planned. Wars are chosen. I think God expects more of us.

Back to the question, what do women have to do with peace. Sr. Joan told us the story of Moses’ mother and Pharaoh’s daughter to get us thinking about the possibilities. I can’t do the story justice, but just think about it. These two women worked together, crossed boundaries, defied patriarchal authority to save a child. And in saving a child, to save a people who he would grow up to lead to freedom. There’s power there.