To the churches: The War is Over!

"The pity of it!" George said. "Finding only such rare occasion (to have to wait for there to be a war, and then for it to end!) for them to relax their fears long enough to admit in public that they are enjoying themselves, to smile at strangers, to feel justified in having the actual freedom of a street-width in which to walk, rather than the narrow, crowded sidewalks."

I felt then, while listening to George, how good it would be--he made me see it--if that stretch of street could remain forever closed to automobiles, if for six blocks of a city's shopping center people could again have spaciousness. If they could sometimes get that feeling we often got on the truck, rolling along through the open country, gesturing broadly around at the mountains and the tall trees, knowing that we could relax with friends and confess our doubts, fears, ambitions and confusions--and that just over the hill was the back country, or rebellion, or any other adventure endless with possibility and serenity.

William Stafford, Down in my Heart. Elgin, IL: Brethren Publishing House, 1947: 83.


In this passage from William Stafford's memoir of his Civilian Public Service years, the celebrations of D-Day filled the streets. The Second World War was over, and everyone but the CPS men were ecstatic. Having lived in military-style camps for four years to perform "work of national importance" on the homefront--preventing soil erosion, extinguishing forest fires, serving as mental hospital orderlies--in exchange for exemption from donning a uniform and carrying a gun overseas, these pacifists knew that the world they hoped to see was far from being fulfilled. From their standpoint, military victory was not only not enough to sustain genuine peace, but was in fact antithetical to the establishment of the kingdom, defined by Stafford in the opening dedication of the book: "the society of human beings who have a common life and are working for a common social good." War does not usher in this kind of kingdom, but runs counter to it. The men of CPS saw themselves as seeds of the kingdom, but knew that it would take more than a cease-fire for the seeds to take root. War brings anxiety. The end of any war may bring about a collective release of this emotion, but for the men in this story, it is too little too late.

The spaciousness that Stafford wishes for in the midst of the crowd relies upon the absence of automobiles. He dreams of the day when people will not have to hide away in their cars, but can be out in the open, walking in the streets, seeing and approaching each other with nothing but the common air between them. It is significant that this is realized in the marketplace, the area outside temples in ancient days, or churches in medieval (and even modern) Europe. Inside the temple or church has historically been safe-haven. Criminals or anyone else being pursued could enter a religious building and, in most cases, be assured of protection. Likewise, today, we go about in church glad that it is safe--social convention says that we don't ask personal questions, we don't openly confess, face to face, our hopes or fears. Instead we sit through the prescribed, predictable worship. If we meet any member of the congregation outside of Sunday morning, it can be awkward--we might reveal something about ourselves we don't want others to know. We try to avoid this at all costs, and behave well--not out of of any religious motivation, but merely because it would embarrass us if the "wrong" news got out. But Stafford is praising the marketplace and all of its spontaneity, favoring it over the safe distance that the automobile affords. And George is correct--it shouldn't take some great collective victory for us to be able to genuinely see each other as fellow humans with a common good. Our world, and our church, will not have a moment so energizing that it sustains us throughout the rest of our time on this earth. We must start doing this now, getting out of our cars, our predictable church religiosity and anxieties, and take a look around. We might just see a few seeds sprout.