We call upon U.S. citizens (and all others) to fast: to reflect, to seek a truer peace, to pray In the name of the God of compassion, Who commands us to seek peace and justice -- In times of profound spiritual crisis, our traditions teach us to fast. Whether it is Jews on Yom Kippur, Christians during Lent, or Muslims during Ramadan -- we turn away from filling our bellies to opening our hearts.

We are in spiritual crisis now, and we call all Americans to address this crisis through a fast that opens our hearts to compassion, our minds to wisdom, and our hands to acts of peace.

God calls on us all to seek peace and pursue it. Yet with deep concern we see the danger that neither the government of Iraq nor the government of the United States is taking this calling as its primary goal. We see that Iraq may have been secreting weapons of mass destruction despite express decisions of the Security Council, and call upon it to fulfill its promise of open inspections. And we see that our own government seems ready to ignore our sacred obligations under the United Nations Charter, to abandon deterrence in favor of preventive war, and to use "conventional" weapons that bring on massive destruction, instead of pursuing peace through negotiations and inspections as the first steps in weaving a much stronger fabric of international law and planetary community.

God calls us to love our neighbors as ourselves, to love the stranger and the foreigner, to do nothing to others that would be hateful to ourselves. This we know is not only an ethical obligation but a political truth: The way in which we love or hate our neighbors is the way in which they will respond to us. If we treat our neighbors with contempt and hatred, we will reap their rage and hatred in return. Yet we see that our government is preparing to sacrifice God's compassion and community on the altar of war -- and may win not wealth, not security, not power, but only danger, debilitation, and death.

God calls us to feed the hungry, house the homeless, clothe the naked, heal the earth, free the mind and spirit. Yet with deep concern, we fear that to seek a false security, our government may turn away from these tasks at home and overseas, and pour our resources into death and destruction when the path of life and peace may yet be possible.

God calls us to reflect --to think, to feel, and to pray before we act. Yet we see that with no evidence of any imminent and urgent danger, our government is rushing into a war that threatens to bring death to many families "our own" as well as those who live in another country. A war that may engulf in rage and destruction an entire region of the world, one that all our traditions hold especially dear.

At this moment of great danger, we turn toward God, Whose wisdom calls us not to old habits, not to wider destruction, but to fuller creativity. For Muslims, Ramadan is approaching and with it a month of daytime fasting, reflection, and self-transformation. In the Western calendar, it will begin, according to sighting of the new moon, between November 5 and 7. This year, the Muslims among us will additionally dedicate their fast, always done for the glorification of God, to seeking peace, for Peace (Salaam) is one of the beautiful Names of God sought by the Muslim spiritual seeker.

In Jewish tradition, a communal fast --Ta'anit Tzibbur -- is called especially in a time of impending calamity, to implore God's compassion and turn human concerns toward the Spirit. The Jews among us will renew this tradition by fasting from dawn to dusk on November 4, the day preceding the New Moon of Kislev. Some may choose to fast on other days as well, especially the Tenth of Tevet (December 15), a traditional fast day mourning the onset of war.

For Christians, the time of Advent is approaching, traditionally a season of inner and outer preparation to welcome the birth of the Prince of Peace. For some, it has been, and for the Christians among us, it will be, a time to fast, making room in busy lives and overly-full selves for the incarnation of God's love.

We invite all people in the U.S. (and elsewhere) to join in turning toward our holiest wisdom. For the jagged rhythms of our history now call us all toward a time of fasting and reflection even if our ordinary calendars do not. We call upon us all to make this fasting a time to share our bread with the hungry, to study more deeply the consequences of war overseas and at home, to actively seek the fullness of peace, to gather with others of different religious communities, and to open our hearts to our God of compassion, community, and peace.

Signed:

Rabbi Avruhm Addison; Rabbi Rebecca Alpert, Temple University; Naeem Baig,Islamic Circle Of North America; David B. Burrell, CSC, Hesburgh Professor, University of Notre Dame; Rabbi Pamela Frydman Baugh, Ohalah; Rose Berger, Sojourners; Barbara Breitman; Cherie Brown, National Coalition-Building Institute; Joan Brown Campbell, Chautauqua Institution; Joan Chittister, OSB, Benetvision; Rev. Harvey Cox, Harvard Divinity School; Rev. Richard Deats, Fellowship of Reconciliation; Marie Dennis, Maryknoll Office for Global Concerns; Rabbi Elliot Dorff, University of Judaism; Rev. Bob Edgar, general secretary, National Council of Churches of Christ; Rabbi Amy Eilberg; Bishop Christopher Epting, Deputy for Ecumenical and Interfaith Relations, Episcopal Church USA; Rabbi Ed Feld; Merle Feld; Richard Foltz, Muslim Studies, University of Florida; Rabbi Laura Geller; Rabbi Shefa Gold, Center for Devotional Energy & Ecstatic Practice; Dr. Arthur Green, Brandeis University; Dr. Susannah Heschel, Dartmouth University; Maryam Kabir; Dr. A.S. Mahdi Ibn-Ziyad, Africana Islamic Institute --Dar al-Salaam, Camden, NJ; Rabbi Michael Lerner, Tikkun; Rabbi Mordechai Liebling, The Shefa Fund; George Lopez, Joan B. Kroc Institute, University of Notre Dame; Dr. Ingrid Mattson, Muslim Studies, Hartford Seminary; Ched Myers, Bartimaeus Cooperative Ministries; Will O'Brien, The Other Side; Abdul R. Omar, Joan Kroc Center, University of Notre Dame; Imam Feisal Abdul Rauf , American Sufi Muslim Association; Rev. George Regas; DeeDee Risher, The Other Side; Rev. Meg Riley, Unitarian Universalist Association; Rev. Jay Rock, National Council of Churches of Christ; Rabbi Zalman Schachter-Shalomi, P'nai Or Religious Fellowship; Rabbi Gerry Serotta; Duane Shank, Sojourners; Rabbi David Shneyer, Am Kolel; Ronald J. Sider, President, Evangelicals for Social Action; Christine Vladimiroff, OSB, Prioress, Benedictines of Erie; Rabbi Brian Walt, Mishkan Shalom; Rabbi Arthur Waskow, The Shalom Center; Rabbi Sheila Weinberg; Rabbi Simkha Weintraub; Bill Wylie-Kellerman, Seminary Consortium for Urban Pastoral Education; Ronald J. Young, U.S. Interreligious Committeefor Peace in the Middle East

Organizations listed for identification only

FROM THE SHALOM CENTER FOR JEWISH/MULTIRELIGIOUS RENEWAL

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