"Our job is to break things and kill people," explained a Christian military officer as he described the purpose of the army at a seminar at the United States Army War College. An officer of the elite Rangers, he was headed back to Afghanistan in summer 2003 to supervise clandestine operations in search of the elusive Osama bin Laden lurking in the shadows of American security. When I asked how he as a Christian could devote his life to "breaking and killing," he explained that there are "good guys and bad guys in the world and, if the good guys don’t take responsibility, the bad guys will take over. We’re the good guys and we must do all we can to get rid of the bad ones." He was baffled as to how I could be a pacifist and not trumpet the cause of anti-terrorism in a post-September 11 world. The young Ranger is a living witness to the seductive power of war as a force that propels people to break and kill but also gives them, in Chris Hedges’ words, "ultimate meaning." If military actions are about breaking and killing, this book is about preserving and healing—preserving life and healing broken relationships. In the pages of this book, Paul Dekar offers a very different view of the world as he tells the engaging story of the Fellowship of Reconciliation in the United States (FOR). In lively prose, he traces the emergence and empowerment of a vision dedicated to healing and justice through the power of nonviolent witness rather than the power of breaking and killing with high tech toys. FOR’s vision did not divide the world into good guys and bad guys, indeed it argued that it was even possible to love purported bad guys—rather than kill them. Paul Dekar takes us on a grand tour not only of the Fellowship of Reconciliation but indeed of the big moral questions that haunted the twentieth century. Creating the Beloved Community is a book about hope and despair. It is about despair because it exposes the hatred in the collective human heart in the twentieth century and because it chronicles the hundreds of failed initiatives for preventing war. It is also laced with despair because it shows how the powers of domination—the powers of breaking and killing—have prevailed in the twentieth century, littering it with hundreds of wars, millions of dead and maimed, and millions of broken buildings, all in what was supposedly the most enlightened and technologically advanced era of humankind. More deeply, this is a book about hope. It is about hope because it tells the story of hundreds of deeply committed people who gave of themselves courageously and selflessly because they were moved by a deeper force than war. They were empowered by a vision of a beloved community, a worldwide community that embraced dignity and justice for every person regardless of skin color, national origin, or religion. It is a story of the relentless quest to embody a beloved community that respected but transcended all the walls of nationalism, religion, race, and class that splinter and kill human communities. I find this story of the beloved community engaged in promoting the vision of reconciling and healing remarkable in many ways. Much more than the story of FOR, it also provides an account of the gigantic moral issues that confronted the twentieth century: the prospect of nuclear war, the oppression of racism, the religious violence that killed in the name of "God," the growing environmental degradation, the devastation of hunger and poverty produced by economic injustice, and the sinister power of nationalism. It is the story of a small network of devoted people who confronted the hatred and violence—the breaking and killing—throughout the century, sometimes in big but more often in small ways. That is only part of the story. The vision that empowered the Fellowship of Reconciliation for nearly a century was both global and ecumenical. Rooted in Christian convictions about the centrality of peace in the Christian faith, the circle of fellowship gradually enlarged to include participants from other religious traditions as well. The movement became, in many ways, an incubator for ecumenical collaboration. In this sweeping overview of the history of FOR, Paul Dekar chronicles the challenges, the failures, and the achievements of some of the most deeply committed leading-edge prophets of the twentieth century. The FOR prophets spoke out on all the big moral questions of the century. They cut through the lies, debunking the distorted logic of nationalism, destroying the myths that supported oppression, and unmasking the labels of "enemy" that dehumanized people. For example, long before it became fashionable to do so in the wake of September 11, FOR convened discussions to temper anti-Muslim sentiments and prejudice. This book is not a boring account of organizational history and internal FOR politics but a lively chronicle of the efforts of many individuals collaborating together in loose networks to engage the big moral issues of the century. Dekar peppers the pages with poignant quotes and powerful vignettes. He takes us inside the lives of dozens of volunteers and staff as they struggled, often at great risk, to unmask the powers of darkness, domination, and violence that sought to rule the twentieth century. He holds up these voices of truth, these actions of nonviolent love, and these prophets who enacted the truth through suffering love regardless of the consequences because they were empowered, yes overwhelmed, by a vision of the beloved community. In its deepest level, this is a book about hope because it is a book about love—love for the global human community. We are deeply indebted to Paul Dekar for spending endless hours sifting through the voluminous historical files of FOR to construct this succinct story of the key themes and initiatives that shaped the witness of this movement. Not only a story of some of the prophets of the century, it is also a powerful testament that will inspire new generations of peacemakers with vision and hope because they will discover that they are not alone, that they are members of a larger ongoing struggle to create an international community of peace and justice. Creating the Beloved Community is a history, but not just one for the seasoned veterans; it speaks to all ages, to all who reject the means of violence to break and kill and the simplistic bifurcation of the world into good guys and bad ones. It is a story for all who live and witness in the enduring hope of reaching the beloved community. —Donald B. Kraybill, Author of The
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