Truth is an essential component of peace and of peacemaking because it is necessary to the establishment of justice.  No justice; no peace.  On Sunday, March 21, a group of some 80 commissioners will hear testimony on conscientious objection in war.  The public session will be held at The Riverside Church in New York City beginning at 4 p.m.   I am one of the commissioners. (http://www.conscienceinwar.org/)

The wars in Afghanistan and Iraq have stretched our military to its limit.  Military personnel and their families are suffering from a burden of war that they are carrying basically without the help of the majority of citizens of the United States of America.  What does justice require of and for warriors in war?  When ought our service members and their families say enough? Is war violence to the families of warriors? When ought our warriors assert the right of selective conscientious objection—that is an objection to particular wars and not to all wars?  The truth commission will seek answers to these questions.

Most of us are familiar with the concept of truth commissions in the wake of some conflict or protracted national or societal trauma.  One of the most famous truth and reconciliation commissions was the one in South Africa after the end of apartheid.  The work of the commission was to take testimony from people on both sides who had committed violence.  The idea was that truth-telling would lead to reconciliation and to national healing.  Truth commissions are a vehicle for exposing some violence, some injustice to the light of public scrutiny with the intent of bringing about change.

The Truth Commission on Conscience in War will provide a forum for testimony by United States service members regarding their experience in seeking conscientious objector status.  The obvious question is:  why would a person who is opposed to war join the military?  In the PBS documentary Soldiers of Conscience, several warriors tell their stories of conscientious objection.  They joined the military in good faith with a desire to serve their country.  When they saw the realities of war, when they faced the fact of their personal responsibility in taking another human life, a noncombatant’s life, when they asked themselves the question about whether their work in war was consistent with their religious beliefs, when they looked into the face of the enemy and saw a young man not unlike themselves simply trying to do his duty, when they saw the effect of war on civilians, their conscientious objection crystallized.  They wanted out of the military.  Two of the conscientious objectors featured in the movie will testify before the commission.

Further, the commission will also examine selective conscientious objection.  Here the question is whether or not it is feasible for service members to object to particular wars.  If a service member deems in h/er own conscience that a particular war is unjust or illegal according to international law, ought s/he have the right to refuse orders to fight in that war?  How would this affect the ability of the president and military commanders to strategically deploy forces to a particular conflict?

The act of giving and of hearing testimony is an act of giving voice to a problem, of giving voice to the voiceless.  It is a way to educate the nation and the world.  It is the catharsis of lamentation.  It is living history.  It is a contribution to collective memory.  It is an open door to transformation.  It is a clarion call for change.

When we count the cost of war, it is important that we not only reckon the price of weapons and ammunition, food, clothes, transportation, and other battlefield necessities.  It is important to count the human cost both on civilian populations in the theater of war and on the home front.  It is important to imagine the impact on nations not involved in the war. (Iraqi refugees have landed in places as far away from Iraq as South America.)  It is especially important to count the cost to the men and women serving in the military and to their families.  The commission will hear testimony from a psychiatrist and from a Gold Star Mother among others.  The commission is an interreligious group of activists, clergy and scholars representing pacifist, just peace and just war traditions.

I look forward to the day when they give a war and nobody comes.  I await the day when jihad only means the great struggle that each person wages with h/er own person demons, and the lesser struggle of the non-violent work of social justice.  I dream eyes-wide-open dreams of the day when warfare means spiritual engagement, and a commitment to provide sustenance and joy for all of humanity.  I sing of the day when we will lay down our weapons down by the riverside and study war no more.

However, right now, at this moment, there are difficult and urgent questions of conscientious objection to answer.  We will continue this work on Sunday.