Erie Peace Initiative presents Iraq Veteran Josh Stieber
Erie, Pennsylvania – Iraq veteran turned conscientious objector, Josh Stieber, will speak at the Unitarian Universalist Congregation of Erie on Tuesday, July 28 at 7pm.
Josh is an Iraq Vet turned Conscientious Objector journeying across the country, waging love instead of fear.
“I was in middle school when I saw 9/11 on the news." he recalls. "I saw the hole in the Pentagon firsthand. My religion (church, religious school) promoted war and I made a deal with God that if the war was still going on when I graduated high school, I would be honored to enlist in the army as an infantryman. I left for basic training in July of 06 and was deployed to Baghdad by Feb of 07.”
“It took a few wake up calls and the examples of other historical figures like Gandhi, Tolstoy, and MLK for me to run out of excuses for not living up to the man I claimed I believed in. He said ‘love as I have loved you’. And the things I was doing and contributing to were showing just the opposite. After times of desperation and depression, the answer I found was love; it’s stronger than fear, hate, suffering, and death.”
Join us to hear his amazing story in person on Tuesday, July 28 at the Unitarian Universalist Congregation of Erie!
On YouTube:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FqsgL1ql8mg
Josh's blog http://contagiousloveexperiment.wordpress.com/about/