Christian Solidarity Worldwide (CSW) has welcomed the Colombian Supreme Court’s decision to allow Colombians to opt out of obligatory military service because of religious, moral, or philosophical objections.

Josh, an Iraq War Veteran turned conscientious objector, is walking across the country to raise awareness for organizations that work for peace.

The following is an excerpt from his blog, Contagious Love Experiment

The basic idea is this…

When I got out of high school, I saw some real problems in the world and figured I’d do what I could to solve them. So I joined the US Army as an infantryman, wanting to be on the front lines of destroying my nation’s and my religion’s enemies. Back then, I thought military action was one of the only legit ways to solve problems; back then, I thought military might was synonymous to God’s will.

The superb film, "Soldiers of Conscience," is now available in its entirety for free as a streaming online video until November 18th: http://www.pbs.org/pov/pov2008/soldiersofconscience/fullfilm.html

"Soldiers of Conscience is a dramatic window on the dilemma of individual U.S. soldiers in the current Iraq war — when their finger is on the trigger and another human being is in their gunsight. Made with cooperation of the U.S. Army and narrated by Peter Coyote, the film profiles eight American soldiers, including four who decide not to kill, and become conscientious objectors and four who believe in their duty to kill if necessary. The film reveals all of them wrestling with the morality of killing in war, not as a philosophical problem, but as soldiers experience it — a split-second decision in combat that can never be forgotten or undone."

PC(USA) takes strong action for peace.

As divisions around issues of sexuality continue to dominate conversations in the wake of the 218th General Assembly of the PC(USA), our church has demonstrated remarkable unity in its collective call to peacemaking. In fact, on many issues there was such consensus among commissioners that little or no discussion was offered in plenary sessions. We want to highlight the many ways our denomination adopted policies that will strengthen its larger witness for peacemaking in our broken world.