By David Myers

Southwest Kansas Register

We live in a society where it is not "swords into plowshares," but rather "metal into missiles and oil into weapons," according to Rabbi Michael Davis of Temple Emanu-El in Wichita.

Rabbi Davis was one of three panel members who spoke March 11 at the Cathedral of Our Lady of Guadalupe during the day-long interfaith dialogue, "Swords into Plowshares: The Call to Peace and Justice in the Hebrew Scriptures."

Also speaking to the audience of approximately 120 was Rev. Gary Cox, Senior Minister of University Congregational Church in Wichita, and Msgr. Brian Moore of the Diocese of Dodge City.

"As the bishop of the diocese, I certainly welcome all of you from around the diocese and around the state to this third annual ecumenical conference here at the Cathedral of Our Lady of Guadalupe," Bishop Ronald M. Gilmore told those gathered. "We have these conferences annually so that we might, as a Roman Catholic Church, deepen our understanding of the one God…. We have these conferences to foster understanding …, tolerance, and to carry on the long tradition of reaching back into the past centuries. …"

Panel members discussed issues ranging from war and peace, to racism and poverty. Each panel member was given 10 minutes to speak on a given subject.

"When we teach about the results of the Holocaust," Rabbi Davis said, "one of the lessons that we try to teach is to get out of the mind, at least momentarily, the numbers. Six million Jews were slaughtered by Nazis. Millions of people killed. We have to remember it’s not just a number. It is one, by one, by one, by one. … Each one is a life. Each one has a life. …"

Both Rabbi Davis and Rev. Cox stressed that their views did not represent all others in their community. Rabbi Davis drew laughter when he said, "If you have 10 Jews in a room, you have 12 opinions."

Rev. Cox pointed out that "95 percent of Jesus’s teachings were about life on this world. … God is responsible for the kingdom on the other side of the grave. And God has given us responsibility for the kingdom on this side of the grave. Life is a gift beyond measure, and we should treasure it with every single breath. It is, after all, the very breath of God."

According to Msgr. Moore, "We happen because God chooses to make us happen. … Until we respect what God has done in making us and making the rest of creation around us, we can never learn lessons that he wants to give us, grown from the life he has made possible for us."

"There’s the story of a man who asked a rabbi, ‘If God loves the poor, why doesn’t God take care of them?’" Rabbi Davis said. "The response is, ‘God is taking care of them. God is giving us the commandment to care for them.’

"We are told that charity is greater in importance than all the Jewish commandments in the world. We have a responsibility to reach out to the world, to create justice. In America we can still supersize our meals, and yet there are people going hungry. ...We have mega-rich and the destitute in the same [country] and this should not be. This is not justice."

"There is no such thing as enough riches," Msgr. Moore added, "and even those who earn a million dollars feel poor compared to those who earn $10 million.

"The problem is that we hoard," he said. "The whole revelation of Christ is that there’s no need to hoard; we don’t need to do that. Hoarding comes out because we don’t trust the God who made us, who cares for us, and so I’ve got to care for myself, because nobody else is going to care for me.

"How much did we put of our earnings into a Kansas sunset? Try to bottle up a Kansas sunset and keep it for yourself and see how far it will take you. …"

Rev. Cox asked those gathered to imagine a holy person they admire from the past, and to envision a sick person brought before him.

"Now imagine the crowd asking this person of faith, should we treat him? Should we heal this injured man? Is there anyone here who can picture that holy person saying, ‘Treat him if he has the money’?

"That’s the society we live in. Health care is not a right of citizenship, it’s a privilege for those who can afford it.

"The work of the church is not to build a better soup kitchen or shelter, it’s to put soup kitchens and shelters out of business. We have shredded the safety net for the poor, for women, children and elderly in the past decade, and we refuse to acknowledge that our health care system’s in crisis and in danger of imminent collapse.

"We seem to have lost our sense of compassion. A nation without charity is a nation that is losing the struggle with its soul."

A woman was brought into court for stealing food to feed her family, Rabbi Davis said.

"Because of the crime, the judge fined her $10. And then he fined everyone else in the courtroom 50 cents for living in a city where people have to steal to eat. So he collected 50 cents from everyone, paid her fine, and the rest of the money went to her. That way, justice was done."

Rev. Cox called the message of Jesus one of "radical inclusiveness."

"We look at the justice issues in the forefront of the justice ministries today, and we see health care, Medicaid reform, education reform, and welfare reform.... They hand the EPA over to the polluters and call it the Clear Skies Initiative. Hand the forest over to the loggers and call it the Healthy Forest Program. …

"People often say to me, Jesus wasn’t political. My answer is, why did the Romans kill him? People don’t get themselves killed for telling everyone to be nice and to love each other. Jesus was charged with sedition, treason. He looked at the political and religious authorities of His day and he pointed out the corruption that had overtaken them.

"As His followers, we think we have to do the same thing. We cannot live in a nation where one percent of the people control over half the wealth and ignore the injustice of that fact. We cannot watch as more than 30,000 children under the age of 5 die of starvation and preventable childhood illnesses every single day on this planet we share with them, and not cry out for justice."

"We live in a society where it is not swords into plowshares," Rabbi Davis said, "but rather metal into missiles and oil into weapons. And the causes of war are perhaps as innumerable as the war themselves. It usually comes down to ‘I want; you got; I’m going to get it.’"

All nations have disputes, he said. The difference is in how they resolve them.

"If we seek common good …, justice for you and for me, then we are pursuing the same goals and we will have greater success. So when Isaiah says they will beat their swords into plowshares, the image I have is of nations helping nations feed the people, nations helping nations to live lives of justice…."

Msgr. Moore said that centuries ago, when battles could not be fought on holy days, the Church simply "made [a lot of] holy days and reduced the number of days available for warfare.

"If you really want to alleviate poverty … the suffering that goes along with it, and the dislocation it causes …, stop having wars. … The more one accepts the Lord as the one who has loved us utterly, the less one needs to go to war and to develop all sorts of defenses and structures. War in itself is unnecessary; war in itself is almost invariably a habit of sin and a sign of the destructive tendency that the Lord himself was working to overcome."

Rev. Cox admitted that his anti-war sermons aren’t always well received.

"When I preach a message of peace in Wichita, it is not received with joy," he said. "The three biggest employers in Wichita — and the three biggest factions in my congregation — are employed by McConnell Air Force Base, Boeing, and Raytheon Aircraft. War is good for business.

"Could we justify going to war with Saddam Hussein?" Rev. Cox asked. "Of course. Look at the history of humanity. It’s the history of evil justifying going to war. It has never been, and never will be difficult to find justification for war. But aren’t we asking the wrong question? As people of faith, instead of asking if we can justify war, shouldn’t we be asking, can we create peace? Most times the answer to both questions is yes. And as people of faith, we need to be sure that our society is asking the right question."

"Swords into Plowshares: The Call to Peace and Justice in the Hebrew Scriptures" was organized by Michael Dorsey, ecumenical interfaith officer for the Diocese of Dodge City, and sponsored by the Diocese of Dodge City and St. Dominic Parish, Garden City. Dorsey has also brought to the cathedral the programs "Understanding Islam," and "A Day of Prayer With Taize."