Letters to my niece series: Cosmopolitanism, a new world view

Dear Sarah,

I’ve been reading Nigel Dower’s book, The Ethics of War and Peace and Shane Claiborne’s, The Irresistible Revolution. I can’t help but think back on the months immediately following the attacks of September 11, 2001 as Dower talks about pacifism, pacificism, and cosmopolitanism. Pacifism takes several forms, but basically it is an objection to violence and killing. Pacificism, in general terms, has more of a peacemaking emphasis, while cosmopolitanism is concerned with global citizenship. In Dower’s philosophical approach, he weighs the pros and the cons to every argument. I suppose I had never really thought about pacificism before, even though I believe that we should be peacemakers.

All of these concepts remind me of the dangers of nationalism. That’s not to say that nationalism is inherently evil. In fact, it’s natural in the sense that we all want to belong to something greater than us, to feel kinship. I love America. I feel lucky to have been born here. But even when I was about your age, I remember questioning if my allegiance was supposed to be directed at one nation only. I said the Pledge of Allegiance to the flag every morning in school, but the part of it that thrilled my heart was the “one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all” part.

In a sense, we are all global citizens. As citizens, we have a responsibility to care for one another, regardless of nationality or language or tribe or color. As a Christian, I found it disheartening after 9/11 to see so many followers of Christ “rally around the drums of war” (Claiborne, 2006). Jesus called us into his kingdom, to follow him, to love God and to love people (everyone, including our enemies). When we chose to follow Christ, we were adopted into a new tribe; one without borders or nationalities or race. What grieved me about the American Christian response to 9/11 was that we became stingy with the love of God. Claiborne says it like this, “Patriotism is far too myopic. A love for our own relatives and a love for the people of our own country are not bad things, but our love does not stop at the border….These earthly allegiances create a myopia that stands in the way of God’s vision and justice…Violence is always rooted in a myopic sense of community, whether it be nationalism or gangs” (2006, pp. 202-203). Martin Luther King, Jr said God has called us to a worldwide fellowship and unconditional love for all.

Jesus warned us that everyone “who lives by the sword will die by the sword” (Matthew 26:52). We believe that violence can save us; that violence can force peace to happen. But violence is like a cancer that eats at our hearts, our homes, and our world. Gandhi once said that we forget that the means become the ends.

So what does this mean for us? The Apostle Paul was proud of his “dual citizenship”. He was a citizen of Rome, but he was also a citizen of the kingdom of heaven. We can still be citizens of the United States of America and enjoy the responsibilities, privileges and joys that come with citizenship. But we are foremost citizens of heaven and we share that citizenship with people all over the planet (even the ones we would like to write off as “evildoers”). God loves them, too. And that’s the kind of radical love which is powerful enough to turn the world right side-up.

In peace,

Your loving Aunt Gigi