Two blog entries in one day. I felt I had to react or respond to the surprising news this morning that President Barack Obama of the United States has been awarded the Nobel Peace Prize. To put it as eloquently as I can, "Huh?' I am an admirer of Obama, although I have the impression that his agenda has been overly ambitious during the first months of his presidency.
Still, I am struggling with this award. The United States has the largest nuclear arsenal of any nation and is still engaged in a questionable war in Iraq. The American war machine is formidable, and peace often seems to be viewed down the barrel of a gun. While Obama's intentions are good it is hard to find concrete examples of a diplomatic movement toward what we might define as peace. He hasn't achieved anything yet!
We have to assume that the Nobel committee has based this award on the shift away from the Bush regime's bully-boy approach, and toward international cooperation under Obama. My first reaction is that a peace prize shouldn't be awarded on the basis of good intentions. On the other hand, many Christian peace activists of our era and others have persevered on the basis of what might be, rather than what is.
We could argue that the Prince of Peace, the One who taught "blessed are the peacemakers" was a magnificent failure because two thousand years later there is still so much strife in the world. Yet we continue to live with this hope of a peaceful world, despite what we see around us. Christian activist Clarence Jordan offered decades ago that "hope is believing in spite of the evidence and watching the evidence change."
We'll just have to hope and pray that this peace prize will lead to a more peaceful planet. What was your reaction to this announcement?
2 comments:
I agree with every word you said. He is huge improvement over Bush, but almost anybody would be.
I felt Obama was trying to trick the public when he often said he would pull the troops out of Iraq. He knew that would resonate with the voters. But what he failed to mention was that he would shift those troops over to Afghanistan - in my opinion, another war that should never have happened. And it looks like the US will be there for some time to come.
Meanwhile, stay tuned for the next video from Bin Laden.
I think there would be many, many people who would be better qualified for the Nobel Peace Prize.
I,too, wondered what Obama had done to merit the Nobel Peace Prize. It has been interesting to hear and note the various comments coming out of the USA and Canada. I am certainly hearing a mixed reaction.
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