To open the way, a cultural breakthrough need not involve masses of people but must be done decisively by someone.
That quote isn’t from Tom, but Jim Corbett, another Quaker working in human rights on the frontier during a time of war. Tom’s advice on peacemaking in the Middle East was somewhat more practical: “When it’s hot, drinking hot beverages actually cools your body down better than cold drinks,” he said, quoting the folk wisdom of desert-dwelling people. That’s just the Tom I know from having him as my supervisor on the job, and from our hikes through Prince William Forest over the past five years.
As we meet, an undistinguished Quaker is under the threat of execution for his faithfulness to our covenant of peace. On November 26, 2005, Tom Fox was taken captive in Bagdhad along with three other members of Christian Peacemaker Teams: Harmeet Singh Sooden, James Loney, and Norman Kember. They remain missing at the time of this writing. Some time ago, Tom agreed to join us for today’s Adult Religious Education meeting; I can’t speak on his behalf, but I would like to say a few words to introduce him.
Tom is a quiet, low-key guy dedicated to serving others in our workplace and community, and he has mentored me more than any other boss I’ve ever had. I can’t tell you how much I’ve learned from his presence in my life. The thing that stands out most right now was transmitted more by example than by words, and I have to turn back to Jim Corbett’s “Quixote Principle” to articulate it.
One time Tom told me: “I think sometimes you tie yourself in knots going over all the different aspects of a decision. Try not to think yourself into a corner – sometimes your first reaction is the right one.” Tom always advocated looking at the big picture, but here he talks about what Dr. King called “the paralysis of analysis.” I feel that many of us spend too much time mucking around asking “am I indecisive?”
A lot of people have asked me what the heck Tom is doing in Iraq. People don’t understand how any value could outweigh the risk that is presently realized. On a practical level, Tom’s work involves meeting with all kinds of people, recording their stories, sharing meals and sharing in their suffering, building fellowship with people, and building communion. Establishing the Peaceable Realm of God, as Tom put it, means building civility and tenderness on the frontier between friend and alien; it means loving, serving, and healing your neighbor through real human contact.
“To open the way, a cultural breakthrough need not involve masses of people but must be done decisively by someone.” The masses do not share this practical vision of the Peaceable Realm. But, as a community, we have broken bread with Tom, and his work is part of a covenant that we share.
“Individuals can resist injustice and refuse to collaborate with violence,” writes Corbett, but only a community can do justice and practice peacemaking. That means the contradictions between the professings and practices of individual friends are just more slivers. To denounce one another’s failure to choose saintly self-sacrifice would cause fruitless guilt–or even fruitless self-sacrifice–and would even distract everyone from the task at hand. Members of a faithful community can practice their allegiance to the Peaceable Kingdom one way or another as their way opens.”
All of us are held captive to some degree by the widespread menace, mistrust, and uncertainty that characterize the society at war. While our Friend sits in the shadow of death witnessing to the Light’s transforming power, our covenant of peace is on trial.
As stewards of Tom’s leading and servants of the Peaceable Realm, there are many challenges before us that demand our faithful attention. Providing spiritual, social, and tough-minded intellectual support for peacemakers like Tom and their loved ones is just as vital as the work they do. Even now, wrestling with this covenant and its practical implications may give rise to decisive leadings if we do not indulge in distraction.
Tom’s colleagues Harmeet Sooden, Jim Loney, and Norman Kember were rescued on 03-23-2006 after one hundred eighteen days of captivity during which Tom Fox was killed. Additional information may be found here.