The Price of Peace Without Justice

A Meditation by Rev. Cameron Trimble

“There is no peace because there are no peacemakers. There are no makers of peace because the making of peace is at least as costly as the making of war—at least as exigent, at least as disruptive, at least as liable to bring disgrace and prison and death in its wake.” — Daniel Berrigan

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Photo by Patrik Velich on Unsplash

There are some kinds of peace that are not peace at all. They are surrenders dressed in diplomacy, betrayals disguised as negotiations. This so-called “peace deal” being forced upon Ukraine by the US Administration is one of them.

A plan brokered by Russia, billionaires, and autocrats, written in the language of profit, and translated from the syntax of empire — it sells the future for a fleeting illusion of stability. It asks the wounded to thank their aggressor. It calls the amnesia of power “reconciliation.”

To accept such a deal is to mistake quiet for peace, silence for healing. The biblical prophets understood this: “They dress the wound of my people as though it were not serious. ‘Peace, peace,’ they say, when there is no peace.” (Jeremiah 6:14). The peace of appeasement is always purchased with someone else’s blood.

Every wisdom tradition that honors the sanctity of life teaches that peace cannot be built atop injustice. To call domination “resolution” is to break covenant with the sacred. It is to forget that every human being carries the spark of the Divine, the image, the breath, the presence of the Holy.

When President Volodymyr Zelensky warned last week that Ukraine may face “the loss of dignity or the risk of losing a key partner,”¹ he was invoking more than geopolitics. He was recalling Ukraine’s Revolution of Dignity in 2014, when citizens filled Kyiv’s Maidan Square to demand freedom from corruption and Russian influence. That uprising, known as Revolyutsiya Hidnosti, was not merely political; it was a spiritual declaration that a people’s dignity is not for sale.

History and myth echo each other here. In every age, the gods of empire promise peace if only we will stop resisting. Pharaoh promised order; Rome promised civilization; modern autocrats promise security. But theologian Reinhold Niebuhr warned, “If we survive, it will be because men have learned to discipline their passions by the moral sense of responsibility for others.”² What we call “peace” without justice is simply the stillness before collapse.

In the mythic imagination, false peace is the spell cast before the fall — the moment when heroes are lulled into sleep while the walls tremble. True peace, by contrast, is not the absence of conflict but the presence of right relationship. It’s what Buddhists call right intention and what the Hebrew prophets named shalom: wholeness, harmony, interdependence. Such peace is not given by rulers but forged by the courageous.

Howard Thurman once said, “In the stillness of the quiet, if we listen, we can hear the whisper of the heart giving strength to weakness, courage to fear, hope to despair.”³ That is the peace Ukraine is fighting for: not the hush of defeat, but the calm at the center of courage.

This is not a distant war. It is the testing ground of our collective soul. Every concession to cruelty, every deal that rewards violence, writes the moral code of the century to come. The question before us is ancient: What shall it profit a nation to gain the world and lose its soul?

We are in this together,

Cameron

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Reflection Questions

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1. Where in your own life are you tempted to choose comfort over integrity, silence over truth?

2. What’s the difference between calm and true peace in your own spirit?

3. How might we become, in our daily lives, makers of peace rather than managers of quiet?

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A Prayer for the Day

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A Prayer For A Just Peace

God of every nation,
Our hearts ache as power brokers trade lives for profit.
We remember the faces of the innocent—
the children under rubble, the mothers searching fields, the soldiers who never wanted to fight.

Do not let us grow numb.
Do not let us confuse appeasement with peace.
Give us the courage to name evil when it smiles for the cameras.
Give us the strength to stand with those who choose dignity over comfort.

May our leaders be haunted by conscience.
May our churches, synagogues, mosques, and temples refuse to sanctify injustice.
May we remember that true peace is forged not by surrender,
but by solidarity.

Amen.

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Spiritual Practice

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Holding the Line

Light a candle for Ukraine — or for any community resisting domination — and sit with its flame for three minutes.

Notice how it wavers, bends, and steadies again. Let it teach you that steadfastness does not mean rigidity; it means faithfulness in motion.

Then, write one sentence of refusal: something you will not consent to in your own life or community — a small act of empire you will not normalize.

Read it aloud.

This is how moral lines are drawn: one human heart at a time, holding the light when the world bargains it away.

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Upcoming Events That Might Be of Interest…

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January 6, 13, 20, 2026 - Protest and Action Chaplaincy Training with Rev. Anna Galladay. This live, online training offers a framework for providing compassionate, grounded spiritual care during protests, advocacy gatherings, and social movements. Learn more here.

January 15, 2026, 7-8pm EST - FREE Online Webinar: When the Internet Hurts: The Hidden Online Dangers Facing Our Teens and How Faith Communities Can Respond, Join me in conversation with Sharon Winkler, survivor parent and nationally respected youth online-safety advocate. Sharon’s son, Alex, died at age 17 after experiencing cyberbullying and algorithmically targeted pro-suicide content. Since then, Sharon has dedicated her life to helping parents, educators, and faith leaders recognize online dangers and build safer communities for young people. Register here.

February 11th and 25, 2026 - Join Our “Building a Culture of Leadership Within Congregations” Cohort facilitated by Rabbi Benjamin Ross and me! A two-session course for ministers and faith leaders ready to strengthen how their congregations and ministries identify, develop, and support leaders. Learn more here.

July 19-24, 2026 - Join me and amazing co-facilitator, Victoria, on retreat in the back-country of beautiful Wyoming. The Art of Wilding is a 5-Day Expedition for Women Leaders. We will spend the week reconnecting to nature, exploring our inner landscapes for change, and engage the wisdom of spiritual teachings. Click here to learn more.

I drafted a Strategic Framework for Congregations as we move into the coming years of increased authoritarianism around the world. If interested, you can download it here.

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If you are a leader or member of a congregation looking for consulting support in visioning, planning, hiring or staffing, please consider Convergence.

1. https://thehill.com/policy/international/volodymyr-zelenskyy-ukraine-russia-us-peace-plan/

2. Reinhold Niebuhr, The Irony of American History, 1952

3. Howard Thurman’s Meditations of the Heart (Boston: Beacon Press, 1953), page 57.