Eberhard Arnold

From an August 1934 address given at the Rhoen Bruderhof (near Fulda, Germany), with visitors from England who had reported on the peace movement there.

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I really believe that there is much good said and done for peace and for uniting the nations. But I think that this is still not enough. If you feel yourself urged to try to hinder or postpone a serious European war, we can only rejoice. But we are extremely concerned whether you will be able to struggle against the war which even now exists.

When over a thousand German citizens have been killed by Hitler – without a trial – isn’t that war?

When hundreds of thousands of people in concentration camps are robbed of their freedom and stripped of all dignity, isn’t that war?

When hundreds of thousands are sent to Siberia and freeze to death while felling trees, isn’t that war?

When in China and Russia millions of people starve to death while in Argentina and other countries millions of tons of wheat are stockpiled, isn’t that war?

When thousands of women prostitute their bodies and ruin their lives for the sake of money, isn’t that war?

When millions of babies are murdered by abortion each year, isn’t that war?

When people are forced to work like slaves because they cannot otherwise feed their children, isn’t that war?

When the wealthy live in villas surrounded by parks while other families don’t even have a single room to themselves, isn’t that war?

When some people build up enormous bank accounts while others earn scarcely enough for basic necessities, isn’t that war?

When automobiles, driven at speeds agreeable to their owners, kill thousands of people a year in the United States, isn’t that war?

These questions could be increased a hundredfold, but most of us will have already asked them and have felt that pacifism is something very weak without any clear solution for this war. We find, therefore, that Jesus did not speak about the warfare between nations. Jesus always represented the whole, all-embracing truth and had no interest in part-truth. He did not put value on improving any one area through any kind of compulsion. The reason is clear enough: an attack upon one area is only an apparent success.

We experienced in Germany, at the beginning of the [First World] War, that a great many friends of peace and pacifism disappeared without a trace. What will happen if war breaks out again–and the governments tell us with clever words and well-considered motives and reasoning that a war is necessary? What happened in 1914 to the pacifist movement–to all movements with socialist interests? They all disintegrated, apart from a very few who were strongly convinced.

To the question of vocation and calling we must say that for us it is something greater and deeper than that the vocation becomes filled and animated. It is such more the question whether the call of Jesus has really touched and reached us. It is not so much whether this or that group understands and fulfills little or much of God, but much more whether God himself, with his Holy Spirit, touches our hearts. For then it is a whole calling, concerned with all aspects of life.

The Sermon on the Mount is concerned not only with questions of peace and war–although it is certainly said, “Love your enemies”, and “Turn the other cheek”. But at the same time it is also said, Do not go to law or the judge to complain, but rather allow all to be taken from you. The same Sermon also says, Do not speak great or long words; give no oath but say yes or no. Kill no one; also humiliate and despise no person. Take no part in the despising of any soul. The Sermon on the Mount says further, You may have no property–gather no treasures unto yourself. You can own nothing if you want to go the way of Jesus–otherwise you will take part in war and injustice. Your hearts must be completely directed to the Kingdom of God and his justice in all matters. You have no other goal, no other meaning in life, than the Kingdom of God and his justice. That means that when your inner eye is single and clear you should not be turned aside by fears and worries for existence. You should not allow anxiety for the care of your wife and children to turn you aside from the Kingdom of God and his justice. For that reason the Sermon on the Mount says that you should not worry about existence because you strive for the Kingdom of God and his justice.

This is only possible when we stand with God. God wants to be our Father and to care for us, to forgive us, to free us from the devils of the world. He wants to protect us in the hour of temptation. But he can only do this if our life has only one object: Thy Kingdom come, thy will be done.

Jesus says therefore, Your words must be your deeds; your faith for the future must be here in the present. In this way you will find the right attitude to people and to things. You will not judge, but you will be able to sense that people are ruined by social injustice; you will feel that all guilt represents a moral decline of men, and you will therefore take care not to express the holiest things before eyes and ears that do not understand. Your will must be only, “What I wish for myself I will want all men to have.” If you should need a house or a bank account–good, make it possible for all. What you expect others to do for you, do the same for them. Love your neighbor as yourself; that is the truth and is reality, the reality of Jesus. Therefore, he says right afterwards, Enter the narrow gate, the narrow path. Beware of the way of compromise which many–far too many–go; for that is the broad way. Beware of false prophets. They speak of peace and work for peace, but they are not free from Mammon, lies and impurity. Whoever is not completely free of Mammon had rather not speak of peace; otherwise he will be a false prophet. Mammon is the murderer from the beginning and whoever has not broken with this should not speak of peace, for he is a partaker of the eternal war in which the dispossessed must perish by the ownership and possession of property and power.

And so Jesus concludes with the challenge: It is of no avail to hear these words if you do not also do them. And the finest palace of peace will collapse if it in not embodied completely in the will of Jesus in all things. For that reason the call of Jesus goes right to the core of the heart–Leave everything and go my way. Sell all that you have and give to the poor. Go with me!

Reprinted from http://www.bruderhof.com/, used with pernission