George Regas launches
organization of Christians, Muslims, Jews after Sept. 11 attacks
BY PAT McCAUGHAN
George
Regas, rector emeritus of All Saints’, Pasadena, who has been making peace
since Vietnam and the 1960s, is at it again. This latest effort, the
Interfaith Communities United for Justice and Peace (ICUJP), sponsored an
Oct. 13 “Peace Conference: on the Immoral and Illegal U.S. War Against Iraq”
at Loyola Marymount attended by 700.
ICUJP was born out of a need to address the
government response to the September 11 attacks, Regas said.
Even as he was “overwhelmed with grief at the
enormity of destruction and death and suffering of that terrible tragedy,”
he sprang into action. He called together a multifaith group of Jews,
Muslims and Christians, “to find out what we are going to do for what we
knew would be a violent response.”
The group first met several days later, Sept.
14, and has continued to meet nearly every Friday since, sponsoring an
impressive array of public events, including ongoing Saturday evening
candlelight peace vigils at Fairfax and Third in Los Angeles. Other events
include a Nov. 10 commemoration of freedom and responsibility at the Hsi Lai
Temple in Hacienda Heights and a Dec. 8 Celebration of Light.
“We began to look at various things that
could be done and out of that, the one clear note that emerged from our
anxieties and fears and apprehensions was that we had to stay together and
meet and talk and struggle and pray. We trusted that something good would
come of that,” Regas said.
Meetings are usually at 7am on Fridays at First Baptist Church, 760 S.
Westmoreland in Los Angeles and include reflection and educational
opportunities.
Guest speakers have included Fr. Tom
Bourgeois, a Roman Catholic cleric and founder of the School of Americas
Watch, which seeks to close the U.S. Army School of the Americas (SOA). The
SOA, based in Fort Benning, Georgia, trains Latin American soldiers. Its
nearly 60,000 graduates include former Panamanian dictator Manuel Noriega
and others allegedly implicated in the assassinations of Archbishop Oscar
Romero, and of six Jesuit priests, their co-worker and her teen-aged
daughter in El Salvador in 1989 and in the El Mozote Massacre of 900
civilians.
Other speakers have included Rabbi Steve
Jacobs and Dr. Nazir Khaja, a Muslim physician, who described their recent
Middle East trip with the Rev. Jesse Jackson, and a Ugandan land mine
survivor who is part of the ‘End the Land Mine’ movement.
Stephen Rohde, a constitutional lawyer and
former director of the ACLU of Southern California, is among approximately
35 who regularly attend. A social activist for many years and a member of
the Progressive Jewish Alliance, Rhode says ICUJP offered him a place to
expand personally and professionally.
“I realized on September 11 that I had no
Muslim friends,” says Rohde. “I was filled with grief and fear and sadness.
I made my way to All Saints Church for an interfaith service. It was
extraordinarily uplifting, with Christians, Jews, Muslims, Buddhists and
Native Americans and others coming together.” When ICUJP was formed, he
joined immediately.
“I’m disappointed if I miss a Friday meeting
or program,” Rohde said. “I learn every time I’m with them. As a result of
this work, I have been invited to speak at mosques. I think we have become,
in one year, a key new organization in this community. People are beginning
to recognize ICUJP and are asking us to join in coalition with other
activities.
Iman Saadiq Saafir, of the Ibaadillah Mosque
in Los Angeles, said ICUJP has been a tremendous personal experience.
“It represents the strength of America, of
‘we the people’,” he said. “It’s been very motivating to enable us to become
activists to protect the rights of all people, to be concerned for the
welfare of all humanity. And it’s also allowed us to stay away from our
historic grievances.”
“When there’s a stand against the war,” he
said, “it is not a stand against America. It is a stand against the innocent
loss of life, a stand against the historical evidence that war has always
resulted in grievances that breed more war.”
Says Regas: “It’s a very lively and important
experience, with a hugely diverse group of people, it’s not simple to gain
consensus on things.” More than 80 faith groups are members of ICUJP.
Regas says undertaking peacemaking is
essential. He sees evidence of a growing peace movement in the nation and
the world. And, while he believes that war with Iraq is certain, he is
adamant that “religious communities must stop blessing war and violence and
instead become advocates for alternative ways to deal with national and
international conflicts.”
He acknowledges the difficulty of such an
undertaking, particularly in a climate where dissent is considered
unpatriotic.
“It’s hard, hard, hard work. It takes a lot
of courage, a lot of energy, a high level of commitment to the deepest
things that our religion places before us,” said Regas, who in 2001 also
formed the Progressive Religious Partnership (PRP) which collaborates with
People For The American Way to include progressive religious voices in the
national dialogue on politics and morality.
Ultimately, it depends on which questions we ask ourselves, says Regas.
“If the questions being asked are which political party is right, or what is
the best way to liquidate the enemy, or even how do I stay supportive of the
President during this time of crisis, then it’s awfully hard to be an
opponent of war,” said Regas.
But, he said, if the question is, what is the
central call upon me that my faith is making, the conversation changes.
The starting place for peace begins when “at
the deepest levels we appropriate those qualities that we see in Christ as
the way we’re going to deal with war and violence,” said Regas.
“Then, we start talking about defense and
security and how to break the back of terrorism. Then you begin to say how
do we deal with a monstrous evil let loose in the world, blowing up
nightclubs and destroying the World Trade Center.
“No one wants us to be vulnerable to those
terrorist attacks but what concerned me is that we could get so caught up in
the death of 3,000 people when in Iraq over the last decade there have been
500,000 children of the one million-plus who have died because of the
sanctions. The 1991 war with Iraq totally destroyed the infrastructure of
the country. It indicates that somewhere in us we believe that ‘we’
Americans are different than ‘those’ Iraqis and that belief is a violation
of the central reality of all the major religions.”
After serving 28 years as All Saints’
rector—much of it in justice and peace work—Regas is a passionate believer
in the peacemaking ministry. “It is the foremost, preeminent call of God on
my life. I don’t think I have an option. There are no escape clauses in that
contract.”
He retired from All Saints in 1995, founded
the Regas Institute three years later, and continues his service “because I
think I’m making a difference. A year ago, meeting week after week trying to
coalesce a group of people around this peacemaking imperative, we would
never have thought that on Sunday, Oct. 13 we could have nearly 700 people
come for Sunday afternoon struggling with the immorality and illegality of
the war in Iraq and how we stand against it,” he said.
“It was an overwhelming response that just
didn’t come out of a vacuum. It came out of lots of hard work and prayer and
collaboration. And so I think that by giving myself to the peace work I can
make a difference in this world, save a few lives maybe.”
And peacemaking brings renewal.
“If I was trying to do it all by myself, I’m
not sure about the level of energy I’d be able to sustain. But, to be a
collaborator with all these wonderful people who have given themselves to
the work of peace, is inspiring and energizing. And, the incredible
friendships that have come out of just this past year, the wonderful kinship
I feel is very enriching to my life. A lot of people just wouldn’t miss
Friday mornings because we need each other, we love each other and we keep
coming to get strength for another step . . . so I hope I don’t lose it.”
For information about ICUJP activities, visit
its Web site at www.icujp.org
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