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Put on the Spot

Hello friends, Put on the Spot November 27,2011

" What would you do if you were president when the Japanese invaded Japan? ask a sister a number of times putting me on the spot at the Mt. View Mennonite Church in a suburb of Los Angeles, I hesitated trying to think what to say, I finally responded, "I don't know what I would do, I would have to think about that. I have heard that our government knew it was going to happen but they wanted to let it happen so they could rally the people of the united States to support the government going to war. I wonder if that was not the truth."

Afterwards a brother from the audience who had obviously studied that history, said to me in detail,"You were right the government did know about it beforehand."

I went on to say, " Often people ask, " What would you do if someone attack your family?" We are putting lots of effort in to how to make war and so little into how to make peace nonviolently. We as Christians should be reading about that, preparing ourselves for that kind of situation. There are lots of examples of people saving many lives in WWII using nonviolence that we never hear about in our history books. Gene Sharp has written a book full of stories about that."

I also added, " Jesus is always the example I try to follow, he calls us to love our enemies and as my bumper sticker here says " I don't think he meant to kill them" Our culture tells us that Jesus's way just isn't practical. It seems pretty clear all these wars are the impractical thing, Have they created peace and security? To me it seems pretty clear they haven't."

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Here in the mist of a question and answer time at Tujunga high School , the teacher interrupted me to tell the class, " I don't agree with everything Jim is saying." I shot back, " Yes I am right and he is wrong." than the whole class laughed and clapped very vigorously for me. It really shows the healthy lightness and freedom in that school. I was very impressed with the obviously close student/teacher relationship too. That made it all fun.

This is the third time I spoke at this school. And when my friend Cordell ask the teachers about when they could work me into there classes, they said, we will can always work Jim in anytime. he always has 1st hand experiences to share about peacemaking our students are not aware of. This is very important education and it really grabs their attention.

Many of the teachers told me personally how much they appreciated the opportunity to have me share in their classes and that I have a standing invitation to come back.I shared 9 times in in 3 days at that school. One teacher is pastor and he invited me to share in his church.

Pray for the sprouting of the seeds planted in this speaking trip. Next I head to Fresno University.
Thank you very much,
Jim

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