70 years ago, Martin Luther King Jr responded to the cessation of violence on the campus of the University of Alabama, which brought peace by rewarding the perpetrators of violence, with his sermon “When Peace becomes Obnoxious” (Dexter Avenue Baptist Church). He declared this ‘peace’ as a ‘peace that had been purchased at the price of capitulating to the forces of darkness. This is the type of peace that all men of goodwill hate. It is the type of peace that is obnoxious. It is the type of peace that stinks in the nostrils of the almighty God’.
Over the past year, the rules-based international order has been dealt a series of fatal blows making the world a far more dangerous place where, in the words of the Athenian general in Thucydides, History of the Peloponnesian War: ‘you know as well as we do that right, as the world goes, is only in question between equals in power, while the strong do what they can and the weak suffer what they must.’
In the 80th anniversary year of the United Nations we urge the permanent members of the UN Security Council to uphold Article 2 of the UN Charter:
● All Members shall settle their international disputes by peaceful means in such a manner that international peace and security, and justice, are not endangered.
● All Members shall refrain in their international relations from the threat or use of force against the territorial integrity or political independence of any state, or in any other manner inconsistent with the Purposes of the United Nations.
The murder of Venezuelan citizens accused by the US of trafficking drugs, without any supporting evidence. The piracy of seizing Venezuelan oil tankers in international waters, the overthrow and kidnapping of the Venezuelan president represent the antithesis of peace making. An obnoxious peace in which the powerful demand fealty from countries in their sphere of influence and unilaterally seize their resources, daring the international community to respond.
As a peace organisation committed to Jesus’ way of peace and nonviolence we urge members to pray for the Venezuelan people for peace and justice to prevail and to write to the British Prime minister Keir Starmer to urge him to stand up for international law enshrined in the UN Charter.
