On Monday I was unable to check the latest news stories as I generally do in the morning. In fact, the first glimpse of any news that I got was from a copy of The Independent lying around at a local grocery store Monday night. On the front page were the words ‘Peace at Last’ and below them the black and white picture of a somewhat grizzly, leather-skinned man wearing a hat covered in pins and badges. A smaller headline announced the death of the Parliament Square peace protester Brian Haw, who in 2001 left his wife and seven children, and his job as a carpenter to protest across the street from the House of Commons British and American policy in Afghanistan and later, Iraq. For 10 years he slept rough, surrounded by placards and pictures detailing his opposition to the War on Terror. And then Sunday night, June 19, he died in his sleep from lung cancer.
From the first time I had come to London Parliament Square
Nearing a year ago I had talked with this man, the thoughtful and somewhat pained expression of the face on the newspaper almost identical to that in a photo I had taken. As I approached his encampment, he did not so much as glance up at me. Wishing to be as subtle as possible I surveyed a board covered in a large collection of disturbing photographs, mainly of the dead and disfigured, hoping that Mr. Haw would approach me and our conversation would start. He continued to sit in his camping chair, jaw set, hard eyes staring out into nothingness. Finally I decided to ask him if I could take a seat next to him. He gestured to his side and nodded. I sat down and he began to roll a cigarette.
“Are you Brian Haw?” I said, asking the obvious. Again he simply nodded, as if playing the silent strong man in a motion picture.
“How long have you been out here?” I’m not sure that he heard me, as he had reached for a tin with slips of paper and was now handing me one of those slips – ‘Brian Haw and Company’ and then a slogan about love, peace, and justice for all. It was clear that I wasn’t getting anywhere.
I was surrounded by the answer to my next question, but still I asked “What do you think about the War on Terror and war itself? Is it not at times necessary to in showing love for people to declare war on others? And must there not be war at times, in order for peace to be established? What is justice, if it is not the governing authorities rewarding that which is good, punishing that which is evil, and indeed being a terror to those who are evil?” That is when he finally got started. For 30 minutes or so he gave a rambling survey of the history of warfare, talked me through the statistics of the War on Terror, and explained the pictures which covered most every placard in his display. Such was the detail he gave, and the language he used in giving it, that I for a moment assumed he had himself once been a soldier. Perhaps I could respect him more if he was speaking from first hand experience.
He was just wrapping up a graphic account of the Killing Fields of Cambodia and how the West was more to blame than Pol Pot, when I asked him: “Have you been to war, yourself?”
His gruff voice was by now shaking with emotion as he said with a dark tone: “I have been to places of war.” Classic Clintonian rhetoric. Add one word and most people won’t notice.
“But have you fought in a war yourself?”
“Son, there’s one thing you ought to know about war…” and he led me to more photographs.
He referenced at some stage Jesus Christ, and I recalled that Mr Haw professed to be a Christian. I therefore asked him his thoughts on passages like Romans 13, where Paul speaks of the government the authority to inflict justice. Apparently, though my understanding of “They bear not the sword in vain” was not worth considering. He saw this as an opportunity to rail against Augustine and C.S. Lewis and others who have believed in the idea of a ‘Just War’ as well as police brutality. Instead he gestured to a lady sitting nearby whom he said had days earlier been assaulted by police for no reason. She now entered the conversation, and quickly began to blur the lines between good and evil. According to her, if we could just get along with people everything would be OK.
“I agree that so much as it depends on us we should be at peace with all men, but we have been attacked and our citizens have been victims of terrorism. Should our government not act justly against our enemies and bring justice to the oppressed of other nations?”
“But if we could just get along with others…” I must have heard her say that twenty times in my interview.
It had become apparent to me that Brian Haw and Company were not just against the current War on Terror. They were against war. I wanted to make sure that I was understanding them correctly.
“Were Britain and America
“We created Hitler. Besides, Hitler was doing with the Jews what Churchill wanted to do with Africans.”
“You are saying that Winston Churchill, to many the greatest leader this country has known, was an advocate of genocide?”
He sought to provide verbal evidence for his claims that Churchill called for the Africans to be exterminated, but soon returned to the theme of World War 2. I agreed with him that the treaties signed at the end of the First World War had a role to play in creating the hostile, nationalistic spirit of Nazi Germany. But when a toxic environment is created, those who may well be in some way responsible must clean it up.
“But if only we could get along with people…” the lady (I think her name was Rose) said again.
However much he called for peace, Brian Haw was perhaps one of the most bitter men I have ever spoken too: at war with the government, at war with his family (from whom he had now been estranged for several years), at war with the United Kingdom and the United States – the people those entities represent and the forces that defend them… While Mr. Haw professed to be a Christian, that name seemed to be sapped of all meaning as I spoke with him. He seemed to believe in universalism, or at least an eternal destiny based on who is good and who is bad – although those terms were butchered before my eyes by what he said. His language was often extremely profane and always vitriolic. At one stage he decided to quote a poem penned by a 17 year-old American girl whom he had recently met. Her soldier boyfriend had been killed and this was a tribute to his memory. At first I thought I might go two minutes without a four letter word, but whether they were original or added by Brian Haw, this piece was filled with them.
He seemed to be at war with everyone and everything except terror and terrorism. For him the terrorist of 9/11 was George W. Bush. The terrorist of 7/7 was Tony Blair. His hatred was so violent that it is only by the grace of God that he was not more radical in his behavior.
“If only we could just get along with people…” If only indeed…But this is a fallen world and in a fallen world there exists both good and evil, the one to be rewarded the other to be punished. The only love, peace, and justice “for all” that can truly be had in this life is for all who repent and believe in Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior. In him these three things meet. If we experience these graces in Christ by faith, our understanding of social issues should not go the way of Brian Haw’s philosophy, where good and bad are blurred and aggressive, physical justice on the evildoer is sinful. These truths were not diminished, but reinforced, as I walked away from Parliament Square
The above photograph was taken by Ryan King on Saturday, 24 July, 2010.
So sad to read about these people, just have to pray for them so much.
ReplyDeleteOn a more positive note though, Ryan, you have a real gift for communication - this stuff is not only helpful and thought provoking reading but really well written too :) keep it up!