John Cope a member of Keighley Quaker's Church

One of the things a Christian has to contend with is living with conflict. How do we reconcile the love and example showed by Jesus with the paucity of our own life and witness?

As a small boy I remember relatives coming back from the Second World War. An uncle who lived across the street from us was disabled for the rest of his life after war service. As I grew older I came to understand the sacrifice he and millions of others made for their country. I was proud of his efforts and continue to remember.

It contrasts with the views I now hold that something better than war and the vast amount of scarce resources that are devoted to the arms trade is needed, if the world is to fight wars on poverty and the challenges of the environment. The prophet Micah talks of the need to, “beat their swords into ploughshares and their spears into pruning hooks”. In more modern times the former United States president Dwight Eisenhower said in 1953 that: “Every gun that is made, every warship launched, every rocket fired signifies, in the final sense, a theft from those who hunger and are not fed, those who are cold and not clothed”.

We know that in 2008 we are falling behind the millennium development goals to help the world’s poor. Three billion people live on less than US $2 a day, about 75 million children are not in school and ten million children continue to die each year from avoidable diseases.

There has been some progress since 2000. Tanzania has brought four million children into school and Zambia has provided free health care for people living in rural areas. With the diminishing of the Earth’s resources, care of God’s creation becomes more critical and therefore the necessity for Christians to think afresh.

When Remembrance Day comes in November, I want to salute the sacrifices of soldiers of all nations but also to remember as a Christian that the example of Jesus calls for something different than the pursuit of increasing armaments and the glorification of war.

Christ's way is that of justice and peace.