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I grew up in family with two brothers and one sister. It wasn?t out of the ordinary to engage in a little brotherly roughhousing from time to time, which usually resulted in one brother harmlessly punching another in the shoulder.

To which that brother would often respond by harmlessly punching the first brother back.

To which the first brother usually put a little more mustard in the swing and punched back. To which the second brother would respond with an even harder punch.

Which would then, usually, escalate into a pushing and/or shoving and/or wrestling match, depending on location of the brothers, and the location of my father. Because it would only take one sharp whistle from my dad (he?s very good ? and loud ? at whistling) to get the action to stop. And, of course, the first words out of our mouths after the whistle would be, 'But he started it!'

I?m recalling these scenes today because they appear to be similar in nature to the wars and conflicts going on in the world today. We have Israel and Hezbollah going at it, rocket to rocket. We have Iraqi insurgents and the United States and its coalition forces going at it, improvised explosive device to massive troop deployments. We have the Sri Lanka Army and the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam going at it (again), gun shot for gun shot.

I?m not sure who started what. Frankly, I don?t care. The fact is, they?re going at it and people are dying. The fact is, it must stop. It?s time for someone to blow the whistle.

The United Methodist Church has long stood against the evils of war. Our church has consistently spoken out against war, calling it 'incompatible with the teachings and examples of Christ.' (2004 Book of Discipline, ?165C) Only in the last couple of years did the church add the verbiage that in extreme cases, such as 'unchecked aggression, tyranny and genocide,' and only after all other avenues for peace have been exhausted, is war allowable. (?164I)

People die in war. When soldiers die, that is tragic but you can?t really say it?s a surprise. Soldiers, after all, are prepared and paid to fight wars. Dying is within the realm of possibility for them.

When civilians die in war, that?s another story. When this line is crossed ? when people pay with their lives for something they had no part of ? that is when moral outrage is heard across the land.

In Israel and Lebanon today, innocent people are dying. More than 60 civilians alone died July 30 as a result of that fighting. Day after day, rockets are lobbed from both sides of the conflict into neighborhoods, schools, market places, all with deadly result.

In northeastern Sri Lanka, where the clean-up efforts after the tsunami are still on-going almost two years after the wave hit, fighting has escalated to the point where half of the population the United Methodist Committee on Relief works with is displaced, not because of the natural disaster, but because of bullets.

In Iraq, the news reports continue to tell the tale of woe as soldiers and civilians are slaughtered, oftentimes by suicide bombers and road-side devices.

It is enough to get anyone depressed.

But then I remember the words of Bishop Forrest Stith, who I had the pleasure of hearing recently at the School of Christian Mission (see story, page 1). Bishop Stith, now retired, left words about war and peace ringing in my head and I just can?t seem to shake them.

'How many issues have really been solved by war?' he asked. 'War and violence can bring relief, but they can never solve the dilemmas that caused the issue in the first place.'

He went on, offering us hope found in the person of Jesus.

'Peace is a paradoxical word,' he said, 'that seems to make no sense. In Isaiah, we have the image of peace being the lion lying down with the lamb. Later, we hear peace being compared to turning spears into pruning hooks.'

This seems to make no sense, Bishop Stith said, because when you look at the world, especially today, you see nothing but winners and losers.

'Instead of giving us strategies for climbing the corporate ladder, Jesus said, ?Blessed are the meek; blessed are the merciful.? Jesus turns our culture around; it becomes the antithesis of the world you and I know.'

Addressing the situation beginning to boil over in the Middle East, the bishop said that each side, throughout history, has tried to find a way to win, through force, many times over. 'Talk about slow learners,' he said.

Israel and Hezbollah. Tamil Tigers and Sri Lanka Army. Iraqi insurgents and U.S.-led coalition forces. Take your pick.

Slow learners, indeed.