An Open Letter to Pope Francis: “On Vision-2020: The Pursuit of Peace in 2020 and Beyond”
Your Holiness
On Christmas Day, I took a long hike at a California state park in the Diablo Mountain range near my home. The sun barely made its way through the overcast sky as I walked along grassland dotted with leafless oaks. It’s a tradition for me on the day where the world celebrates Jesus’s birth to do a hike and think about the mission and message of the man from Nazareth.
The year 2019 was difficult for me. I was disturbed by much that I saw in the news media. In my spiritual trek through the wilderness on Christmas Day, I pondered what we could do to bring America back to a state of civility and sanity. The answer hides in the gift of Christmas. Agape: a true love of humanity. It’s the basis of the “Golden Rule” followed by many faiths – to worship the Lord by loving and caring for other people as fellow members of the human family.
It is a simple command given to us by God. Unfortunately, many of the leaders of the world — the men and women in politics, business, media and even religion — seem to focus more on the love of power than the power of love.
I’m sure, Holy Father, that you share my concerns about the state of humanity. We live in turbulent times. But I also see an amazing opportunity for our world . . . a hope for humanity.
I would like to ask for your assistance in changing the course of the human story. I ask you to help in starting a global movement open to all people, a movement to achieve true and lasting peace on earth and goodwill toward all humanity. I challenge you to be a part of the team to strive for and bring an end to all wars and acts of terrorism and other social violence by Christmas Day in the year of our Lord 2040.
Some people no doubt will say that this ambitious and audacious goal is impossible for humanity to achieve. I disagree. We’re at a point in time where technology and other benefits empower us to finally achieve world peace. For the first time in human history, the people of the world are connected in one global industrial civilization. I have a hunch that peace on Earth is a blessing God in his heart truly wants for the human race.
Perhaps it will take a miracle. But divine intervention alone will not bring this goal into reality. We need to use the intelligence and imagination in our brains — our mind power — to make this long-held dream a reality. On my Christmas Day stroll in the wilderness, I considered the region of Northern California where I live — the San Francisco Bay Area. It was named after a good man. You took on that good man’s name when you took on the service to the world as the Holy Pontiff.
Your job title is to build bridges for God between all people. It was a job Francis of Assisi also took on — bringing together the rich and poor, bringing together Christians and Muslims, bringing together those with power over the world and the nobodies of the world. Francis understood that all people share a common humanity. That’s something many people of power have forgotten. I live in the southern region of the Bay Area, a place called Silicon Valley. It’s a region of high economic contrast.
Millionaires and billionaires live in massive mansions while just down the street under highway overpasses or along creeks the poor and homeless scratch out an existence without much hope for help. The man beloved by Catholics as St. Francis would no doubt be deeply ashamed that the region of Northern California bearing his name holds such an extreme financial disparity.
Francis was a man of peace. He would look at America today and wonder how people in power — men and women who hold in their hands an opportunity to make the world better for all — could spend so much of their time abusing their positions of trust. He would be disgusted by the corruption in the leadership of our politics, our business world, our media and even, I’m sorry to say, our religious organizations — and that includes the Catholic Church that you head as Pope.
The corruption in our political leadership is taking the nations of the world down the path to war. Between the years 2030 and 2050, if we continue along this road America and China will highly likely find themselves in a global conflict, a war far worse in casualties and destruction than the death and devastation we saw in the 20th century. It’s a war no one wants and no one can win. With the threat of nuclear Armageddon, the Chinese-American War might be a conflict that leads to the annihilation of our civilization — and maybe even the extinction of the human race itself.
Francis would encourage us to follow a wiser way — the way to peace. If we wish to take that path, we must start the journey now. What is the key to opening the door to follow this path to peace? It comes down to a virtue that seems hardly preached by faith leaders anymore. Agape. It’s a Greek word. It defines the highest kind of love: charity. It’s the love God holds for humans and the love humans hold for God and each other. It’s a love willing to sacrifice everything — fortune, reputation and even life — for the benefit of others. It’s a love that drives people to do the right thing for the common good.
As an example of agape, consider my grandparents, Kurt and Margarete Drückler. Eight decades ago, they lived in Berlin during a time of fascist leadership. They owned a tobacco shop exactly one mile from the Prussian Academy of Sciences where many brilliant scientists gathered to discuss the nature of the universe. I imagine maybe a young Albert Einstein once or twice stopped by the tobacco shop to fill his pipe. When the Nazi political party took control of Germany’s government, Kurt and Margarete saw their young teenage son, Gerhard, drafted as a soldier and sent to war. My uncle was killed fighting in the German Army in Libya. Maybe as a way to ease their pain, my grandparents secretly helped another Lutheran couple hide a Jewish family in a basement in Berlin. They risked their lives to save lives. That took courage. That courage came from a belief that the world would be a much better place if good people stood up and took action against evil during a time of incivility and insanity.
America is now declining into a time of incivility and insanity. We’re seeing more acts of anti-Semitism and Islamophobia and gun violence against people. And in the year 2020, with a contentious election, we will no doubt see even more violence stirred by hatred. The soul of America is at stake. Democracy might be lost, as it was lost in the Germany of my grandparents.
How do we achieve agape? How do we achieve love for humanity that brings a permanent and global end to war and terrorism to the world? I see part of the answer in the power of media. We saw in recent years how media — news, marketing, social and other forms of media — has been used by people in power to sway others toward hatred and violence and greed. What if we can use media innovations to transform society and politics and economics and culture toward the benefit of humankind?
That’s the reason seven years ago, on New Year’s Day 2013, Life Media Group was started as a human-benefit company. We seek to develop media innovation in news, marketing, education and the arts and entertainment to transform society, culture, economics and politics in ways that enhance the quality of life for all people on our planet.
And among the projects we developed is Vision-2020. Vision-2020 is a movement starting in the year 2020 and spanning the next 20 years to use agape and the Golden Rule to achieve global peace that will last forever. Vision-2020 is 100 percent possible. Without support from the people of the world, however, it’s unlikely we’ll achieve its goal of ending wars. The alternative, the end of civilization and the extinction of the human race, is not an option most people will choose, however. We must make our choice now.
If you happen to receive and read this letter, Holy Father, I ask you for a blessing. Please commit yourself to the cause of achieving Vision-2020’s goals. You hold great spiritual influence over one billion Catholics. Many of them would encourage you, as the shepherd of their faith, to fulfill your obligation to Jesus and guide the world along the path to peace.
With your help, a miracle or two from God, and the power of agape, by Christmas Day 2040 let us give the world the greatest gift in human history — true global peace lasting forever.
Best regards,
Marty Cheek
Morgan Hill, California
New Year’s Eve 2019