God, Noah and Barack Obama

Dear Mr. President,

I just finished reading the transcript of a talk-sermon-lecture given last month at a peace conference in North Carolina by Alan Storey, a young Methodist minister from South Africa. In it, he drew from the story of Noah and the ark that not even God can eradicate evil with violence. The purpose of the Great Flood, he points out, was to save the good guys and do away with the bad guys by drowning them. Storey calls the flood a weapon of mass destruction which did indeed kill every living thing except the chosen people and animals safely locked inside the ark, but when the sun shone once more and the waters receded, evil was still present on the earth. God had failed and He made a covenant with man never to do this again. It struck me as I read Storey’s take on the tale, that the same is occurring today; the notion that we can rid the world of evil—the bad guys—using violence. Bush the Lesser put it in simplistic terms after 9/11: it is good vs. evil, you’re either with us or against us, it’s the freedom-lovers vs. the freedom-haters. And you, Mr. President, as Noah, have tried to turn America into an ark, a safe refuge from evil at the same time you play god (with a small g), ridding the world of bad guys with your Kill Lists (today is Kill List Tuesday!) and targeted assassinations, your drones and Hellfire missiles, your U.S. military and CIA assassins. But if God failed to rid the world of evil using violence, isn’t it presumptuous and arrogant to think you can succeed? As Storey points out, we are the most violent nation on earth; we are addicted to violence and the first step to recovering from any addiction is to admit it—“Hi, I’m President Barack Obama and I’m addicted to violence.” We all need to say that and we all need to stop thinking in terms of us and them, the good guys and the bad guys, the kind of thinking that got us into war in the first place and has kept us there for the past 11+ years. For 4 years you have failed to lead us out of war and into peace. For 4 years you have trod the same old worn path that leads to unending war and violence. For 4 years you have failed to reckon with the consequences of our history, a bitter history of turning a blind eye to atrocities and supporting tyrants who suppress freedom and human dignity. For 4 years you have not taken a single risk, Mr. President, and you have accomplished nothing. Nobel Peace Prize winners take risks. It’s time to step up to the plate and earn your prize.