Just Peacemaking Initiative

Tonight: Kinyarwanda screening

2012-03-02T08:21:00.000-08:00

Statement by the Rev. Robert Moore on North Korea Nuclear Agreement

2012-03-01T13:34:00.000-08:00

March 1, 2012

Rev. Robert Moore, Executive Director of
Coalition for Peace Action

"The welcome news that North Korea has agreed to a moratorium on its production of nuclear weapons grade uranium, nuclear weapons testing, and long range missile tests, as well as re-opening its facilities to International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) inspectors demonstrates that sustained, determined diplomacy produces positive results.

That is a lesson that urgently needs to be applied to Iran’s nuclear program. Saber rattling with threats of attack if Iran crosses the “red line” of nuclear weapons capability is dangerous and counter-productive. US intelligence is unanimous in its judgment that Iran hasn’t yet decided whether to pursue its own nuclear weapon. If, God forbid, there is a military attack on Iran, it will almost guarantee that they will—the exact opposite of what the saber rattlers say they want.

We didn’t impose such a red line on any of the other nations that have obtained nuclear weapons in recent years, including Pakistan, India, and North Korea. In fact, it was after North Korea saw that the US launched a preemptive war on Iraq, which didn’t have a nuclear weapon, that it built the 6-10 nuclear warheads it is currently estimated to have. If we had attacked North Korea for crossing that red line, the results would have been catastrophic.

Earlier, sustained diplomacy resulted in an agreement with Libya—which, like Iran and North Korea, had a repressive government—to give up its nuclear weapons capability. When the former Soviet Union had a repressive, undemocratic government, we nonetheless had a bipartisan policy for decades to use diplomacy to deal with their nuclear arsenal. As a result, the nuclear arsenals of the US and Russia have been reduced from tens of thousands each to 1,550 deployed warheads under the latest treaty.

Sustained diplomacy is the only thing that can succeed in moving back from the precipice of nuclear holocaust. War is not the answer, and will only make a difficult situation infinitely worse. It is time for the American people to join people of good will in Iran, the Middle East, and around the world in demanding Diplomacy Not War in Iran and everywhere.

Those wanting to learn more and/or get involved in such advocacy for Diplomacy Not War can visit the Coalition for Peace Action web site, www.peacecoalition.org or call their office (609) 924-5022."

The Rev. Robert Moore

The Rev. Robert Moore is Executive Director of the Princeton-based Coalition for Peace Action and Pastor of East Brunswick Congregational Church.

Yoder on why the Jewishness of Jesus matters

2012-03-01T08:22:00.000-08:00

"It was the Jewishness of Jesus, the rootage of his message in the particular heritage of Abraham, Moses, and Jeremiah, that, as we have seen, made it good news for the whole world. There were other peace philosophers and peace prophets in the Ancient Near East. Only the Jewish world vision, effective in Jochanan and the entire stream of non-Zealot rabbinism, which he catalyzed, could make of accepting powerlessness not only a viable compromise but an identity, to make Jewry, beyond the collapse of the Jerusalem polity, into a new kind of culture viable without a state. Only the Jew Jesus, by announcing and accomplishing the fulfillment of God's promises to the Jews, could send out into the world a people of peace open to the Gentiles. Only the Jewish claim that the one true God, know to Abraham's children through their history, was also the Creator and sustainer of the other peoples as well, could enable their mission without provincialism, cosmopolitan vision without empire..."

John Howard Yoder, The Jewish-Christian Schism Revisited, 75

Viewing Israel Through a Complex Lens

2012-02-29T10:41:00.000-08:00

By Peter M. Sensenig, Fuller Theological Seminary

Fuller President Richard Mouw, Jonathan Freund,
Rabbi Mark Diamond

The February 28 event "Viewing Israel Through a Complex Lens" at Fuller Seminary featured Rabbi Mark Diamond and Jonathan Freund of the Board of Rabbis of Southern California. They spoke in response to the documentary film With God on Our Side and the larger trends in perception of Israel that the film represents.

Rabbi Diamond shared seven elements of the complexity of Israel as a Jewish state/homeland:
1. Israel represents the dreams of at least three historical figures, each different in their aspirations and views of Israel: Theodor Herzl, the father of modern political Zionism; Ahad Ha'am, the founder of cultural Zionism; and Rav Kook, the first Chief Rabbi of Palestine
2. The Bible is not a real estate deed; the boundaries of modern states should not be set by biblical texts.
3. Solidarity with Israel does not imply negation of the interests of Palestinians, or the need for a Palestinian state.
4. Criticism of Israel is not itself antisemitic; Israelis themselves are quite critical of the state. Rather, outright denial of the right of Jews to a state, while granting the right to other groups, is antisemitic.
5. The comparison of pain and suffering is not helpful; all sides have suffered too much from this conflict.
6. We must avoid the temptation to embrace easy answers; the situation is complex and requires skepticism toward any simple solution.
7. This conflict is a dispute between relatives; God wants us to strengthen the voices of moderation and peacemaking.

Jonathan Freund's response to the theological and historical assertions of With God on Our Side can be viewed here. Among Freund's concerns are Stephen Sizer's representation of Zionism as a political system, the straw man of the biblical borders, the manipulative use of graphics, a fabricated quote from Ben-Gurion, and the supersessionist reading of the New Testament that transfers the status of "chosen people" from Jews to Christians.

New Book: Christ at the Checkpoint

2012-02-27T08:18:00.000-08:00

Christ at the Checkpoint: Theology in the Service of Justice and Peace

Edited by Paul Alexander, Wipf and Stock, 2012.

What does the evangelical church in Palestine think about the land, the end times, the Holocaust, peace in the Middle East, loving enemies, Christian Zionism, the State of Israel, and the possibilities of a Palestinian state? For the first time ever, Palestinian evangelicals along with evangelicals from the United States and Europe have converged to explore these and other crucial topics. Although Jews, Muslims, and Christians from a variety of traditions have participated in discussions and work regarding Israel and Palestine, this book presents theological, biblical, and political perspectives and arguments from Palestinian evangelicals who are praying, hoping, and working for a just peace for both Israelis and Palestinians.

"Few international issues are more urgent than a just settlement of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. And few issues divide evangelicals so severely. This is an important book where key evangelical scholars with differing views dialogue respectfully and carefully about central disagreements. The result clarifies difficult, complex issues and points the way toward a just solution."
—Ronald J. Sider
Professor of Theology, Palmer Theological Seminary, Eastern University
President, Evangelicals for Social Action

President Mouw and Board of Rabbis: "Viewing Israel Through a Complex Lens"

2012-02-27T07:35:00.000-08:00

Representatives from the Board of Rabbis of Southern California will be at Fuller on Tuesday, February 28, for a discussion with President Richard J. Mouw on the topic, “Viewing Israel through a Complex Lens,” in Payton 101 at 7:00 p.m.

This dialogue will serve as a response to the film, With God on Our Side, a documentary about Christian Zionism, which was featured last fall at Fuller in a screening sponsored by Reel Spirituality and the Peace and Justice Advocates student group.

Pizza dinner will be provided at 6:30 at Payton 101.

RSVP here:https://www.facebook.com/events/377806958913863/

Just Peacemaking in Israel-Palestine: Practice 3

2012-02-24T15:48:00.000-08:00

By Peter M. Sensenig, Fuller Theological Seminary

Practice 3: Use Cooperative Conflict Resolution

Marc Gopin

The goal of cooperative conflict resolution (CCR) is to seek beneficial outcomes for all parties. This requires careful listening, withholding judgment, and challenging power asymmetries. It also means looking behind positions to identify needs and fears finds common ground (Glen Stassen, ed., Just Peacemaking, 64-65). Marc Gopin points out that dialogue is not always the same as conflict resolution or peacemaking. Suspicion of motives is very common, hindering any fruitful results. Likewise, failures in communication occur when we expect our enemies to bring our own highest selves and expectations to the table, rather than their own. For example, in Arab culture honor comes first, but for Israelis security is primary; they therefore miss each others’ cues and are offended. So one role of CCR is to bring out peacemaking gestures and make them discernable to the other. Gopin finds that the larger the group, the less people’s behavior is their own and the more aggressive they are. The most effective peacemakers focus on relationships bigger than just dialogue, which is why dialogue needs to be extended not just to leaders but also to laity who have a variety of networks. Words can help transform attitudes of large numbers of people quickly, which is why they are so important (Holy War, Holy Peace, 144-159).

Mohammed Abu-Nimer

Mohammed Abu-Nimer identifies an Islamic equivalent of CCR that calls for inclusivity and participatory processes in decision making. Shura (mutual consultation) and ijmā' (consensus building) allow for all to participate in decisions for the good of the community. It also means that rulers depend on the umma; everyone is responsible to do right, freedom is for all, and all people are equal. Respect is extended to non-Muslims, oppression is prohibited, and both the rulers and the people are accountable to law. Pluralism and diversity are also important concepts in relation to the umma. Differences are recognized in the Qur’an as an integral feature of humanity. Islam spread under pluralism, and the early Muslim community was pluralist in the sense that there was no single law or constitution (although Abu-Nimer recognizes that there has been intolerance for non-Muslims throughout history). The Medina Charter can serve as a guide for healthy tolerance; the document establishes people as one community, but with their own identity and customs. Islam has strong foundational principles for pluralism: the unity of humankind under God, the particularity of the religions brought by the prophets, and the wealth of support from the Qur’an for coexistence and tolerance. The goal of peace building, Abu-Nimer writes, is the realization that differences exist and are not a basis for discrimination (Nonviolence and Peace Building in Islam, 74-82).

Riffat Hassan affirms that the principle of no compulsion applies to both Muslims and non-Muslims. Diversity is God’s plan for humans (Sura 2:148, 5:51), and the Qur’an advocates gracious tolerance toward other views (Sura 5:86, 8:61, 9:6).[1] Osman Bakar likewise acknowledges that the Qur’an celebrates diversity. The umma must engage in dialogue to fulfill its role as the “community of the middle path.” The Qur’an calls for the quest for the common good and for worshipping God alone along with the people of the Book. Bakar identifies four principles of dialogue from the Qur’an: invitation, exposition, wisdom and beautiful discourse, and a spirit of love for God and neighbor.[2]

Muslims, Christians, and Jews all have a theological and practical basis for utilizing CCR in pursuit of a peaceful solution. The central goal of CCR is always a mutually beneficial outcome, and when the conflict is seen in that light the voices from all sides sound remarkably similar. Jimmy Carter, a successful CCR practitioner for decades, notes that the assessment by both Palestinians and Israelis of what needs to be done is strikingly parallel. He quotes Jonathan Kuttab, a Palestinian human rights lawyer, and Naomi Chazan, professor at Hebrew University and former deputy speaker of the Knesset, who both agree that a two-state solution, Palestinian self-determination, and the 1967 borders with land swaps are the only foreseeable solution (Palestine Peace Not Apartheid, 212-213). Only continued dialogue in the form of CCR can evoke the common goals and hopes from all people involved.

[1] Riffat Hassan, “The Qur’anic Perspective on Religious Pluralism,” in Mohammed Abu-Nimer and David Augsburger, eds., Peace-Building By, Between, and Beyond Muslims and Evangelical Christians (Lanham, MD: Lexington Books, 2009), 97-99.

[2] Osman Bakar, “Theological Foundation for Interfaith Dialogue and Peaceful Coexistence: The Qur’an’s Universal Perspectives,” in Abu-Nimer and Augsburger, eds., Peace-Building By, Between, and Beyond Muslims and Evangelical Christians, 137-151.

Nonviolence Workshop with Rev. James Lawson - Sat, Feb 25

2012-02-22T16:57:00.000-08:00

Holman United Methodist Church hosts a Nonviolence Workshop with Rev. James Lawson this weekend:

Glen Stassen writes: "James Lawson was a seminary student at Vanderbilt Divinity School when he became a major student leader in the civil rights movement and ally of Martin Luther King, Jr. He is also highly articulate as well as passionate. Recently retired as pastor of Holman United Methodist Church."

Date and Time: This Saturday, February 25, 9:00 AM to Noon

Location: Holman United Methodist Church, 3320 W. Adams Blvd., Los Angeles, CA 90018

This is a free event. Refreshments will be provided.

RSVP not required. We have room for you!

Screening of "Home Front" with Film-maker Ronit Avni - Pasadena Jewish Temple and Center

2012-02-14T13:47:00.000-08:00

“Home Front: Portraits from Sheikh Jarrah”

Film Screening and Discussion

Thursday, February 23, 7:30 PM, Galpert

Please join us for a screening and discussion of Just Vision's latest short film series Home Front: Portraits from Sheikh Jarrah. The series, made by the award-winning creators of Budrus and Encounter Point, tells the stories of two Israelis and two Palestinians involved in a remarkable nonviolent campaign taking place in the heart of Jerusalem. Home Front chronicles the resolve of a neighborhood, and the support it receives from the most unexpected of places.

Ronit Avni is an award-winning filmmaker and human rights advocate. She is the Founder and Executive Director of Just Vision, an organization dedicated to increasing media coverage and support for Palestinian and Israeli efforts to end the occupation and the conflict without arms.

Pasadena Jewish Temple & Center

1434 N. Altadena Dr., Pasadena; (626) 798-1161

March 2: JPI Co-sponsors Kinyarwanda Film Screening

2012-02-14T13:16:00.000-08:00

Just Peacemaking in Israel-Palestine: Practice 2

2012-02-13T09:59:00.000-08:00

By Peter M. Sensenig, Fuller Theological Seminary

Practice 2: Take Independent Initiatives to Reduce Threat

Salim Munayer asserts that politicians in power in Israel-Palestine know what needs to be done, but do not implement it in order to stay in power. “You must fight against the myth that there is no solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict,” he writes. “We know the solution and we have the solution. Reconciliation is the only way, even thought it is not easy. It is still far preferable to continued hate and violence.” What Munayer means by reconciliation, in terms of just peacemaking, is independent initiatives for peace that are intended to reduce threat and to build trust. For Munayer, the followers of Jesus are meant to be the clearest example of reconciliation:

The unity of the Body of the Messiah is a major step towards reconciliation in a time that is very challenging. …We have seen many believers from both sides rising to follow the teaching of Jesus about loving their neighbors and loving their enemies, as an indication of their love to God (1 John 4:21). Many are standing on the actions of Jesus on the cross, reconciling us to God and to each other, fulfilling what Paul taught in Ephesians 2 about the wall of hatred and enmity. Through the years of Musalaha,[1] a greater and greater number of believers from both sides are choosing, in an act of obedience, a path of reconciliation in the midst of conflict and division (Munayer, Journey Through the Storm, 42-45, 52).

The family metaphor plays a prominent role in Munayer’s framework. Marc Gopin argues for its application even beyond the fellow members of one’s faith. The family metaphor can result in revenge on enemies, internalized persecution, and a sense of uniqueness and superiority. Yet despite these drawbacks, the family motif contributes to good outcomes because “Families can be beloved and privileged in their self-definition but care for others precisely because their own belovedness gives them the emotional strength to take care of the outsider.” In the Israel-Palestine context, the family metaphor can breed a powerful vision of coexistence in the land such as that held by Rabbi Frohman. It can combat the “no peace with no war” ideal of many Zionists, which sees security as central but prefers not to resort to the violent destruction of war (Gopin, Holy War, Holy Peace, 32-33, 47). Independent initiatives loudly proclaim that the status quo is unacceptable for both Palestinians and Israelis.

One independent initiative emerging from the family motif is the “Jerusalem Accord.” The text of the treaty between conservative leaders focuses on finding brotherhood in Torah and Qur’an. The accord highlights the ideals of both religions and their shared mythic origins. What the Jerusalem Accord did so effectively was to address the “reasonable rejectionists” who are a majority on both sides but see peace as central to their faith. “Remove fear and everything else becomes possible” Gopin writes, reflecting a principle central to just peacemaking. Gopin insists that treaties must accompany broader initiatives for peace, and requires courage from leaders. President Bill Clinton was ready to act for peace, but was spurned by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Gopin responded with a letter to Clinton, asking him to meet with conservative religious leaders on both sides. He received a positive response from both Clinton and Yasir Arafat, but a lack of follow up missed the crucial timing for such a meeting (Gopin, Holy War, 49-57).

Another independent initiative advocated by Gopin is “radical remythification.” By this he means that the meanings of powerful symbols are understood in more inclusive terms. One place where this must occur is the centerpiece of the conflict, the Temple Mount. The fact that the Dome of the Rock has begun to disappear from Jewish renditions of the Temple Mount indicates that fundamentalism is overtaking a multicultural perception of Jerusalem. This phenomenon is fostered by the strange alliance between conservative non-haredi Jews and conservative Christians, which is not a true alliance but only the enemy-of-my-enemy type (Gopin, Holy War, 82-83). The alternative is a more creative view of Jerusalem that sees it as a holy space for all people, with equal access and coexistence. Jimmy Carter notes that both the 1947 U.N. partition plan and Clinton’s 2000 proposal advocate this kind of sharing of Jerusalem in different ways (Palestine Peace Not Apartheid, 57, 150).

Gopin laments that all religions begin with creativity but becomes increasingly less open to innovation over time. A peacemaking method, once set in stone, can actually perpetuate asymmetry of power if it favors one group’s set of skills over another’s. The perception of asymmetry is even more important than reality because every party feels it, both Jews and Arabs in the Middle East. This is only heightened when cultures who are neighbors resemble each other, both in identity and in hate. This cycle of familiar hostility and perceived power asymmetry can be broken by independent initiatives that build trust. Gopin notes the potential for both conflict and peace in the fact that the Palestinian situation is like the Jewish situation in history:

Often, one of the more bitter ironies of enemy systems is that one’s enemy is in the best position to provide comfort because he knows exactly how you are feeling. For this reason, sometimes enemy systems and reconciliation systems are a hairbreadth away from each other, if only the relationships can be built (Gopin, Holy War, 87-90).

Closeness therefore becomes both a tantalizing goal and a source of frustration for those near both sides.

Gopin presents a wealth of creative ideas for independent initiatives under what he calls the “Cultural Conflict De-escalation Plan.” At the holy places both Jews and Muslims could make gestures of regret for violations. Fear must be communicated to the other side so that it can be heard. High level religious meetings, statements, and gestures show the value of the enemy. There must be a shift from a culture of military force to morally trained, culturally sensitive policing. Contested lands must be offered in exchange for Arab care of Jewish holy spaces. Perhaps most important, both parties must feel that their existence is honored by the other and by the world. Gestures, not simply words, are the best and sometimes only way in which honor is communicated. Reconciliation processes can be the jolt out of the numbness of the conflict into new possibilities. This honor and care for enemies looks different for each side – for Israelis, it means compassion at the borders; for Palestinians, education in a more humanized picture of Jews, Israelis, and Judaism (Gopin, Holy War, 191-216). In all cases, these independent initiatives will be driven by a moral imagination that is able, in the words of John Paul Lederach, to “find the narrative that gives meaning to life and ongoing relationships” (The Moral Imagination, 148).

[1] Musalaha is the Arabic word for reconciliation. It is also the name of Munayer’s organization that seeks to build positive relationships between Israelis and Palestinians.

Feb 10: Society of Christian Ethics at Fuller - Sessions on Just Peacemaking

2012-02-08T11:03:00.001-08:00

Society of Christian Ethics

Pacific Section Meeting, February 10, 2012

Fuller Theological Seminary, Pasadena, CA, Payton 102

Program Schedule

9:00am-9:55am: Dr. Judith W. Kay, University of Puget Sound: “Tensions between Habituation, the Disordered Will, and Sins of Malice in Aquinas”

10:00am-10:55am: Dr. David VanDrunen, Westminster Seminary California: “Wisdom and the Natural Moral Order: The Contribution of Proverbs to a Christian Theology of Natural Law”

11:00am-11:55pm: Panel: “Martin Luther King, Jr. and Just Peacemaking in a Global Society: A Panel Discussion on Hak Joon Lee’s book, The Great World House: Martin Luther King, Jr. and Global Ethics”

Panelists:

Dr. Miguel A.De La Torre: Iliff School of Theology

Dr. Love Sechrest: Fuller Theological Seminary

Dr. Hannah Ka: Claremont School of Theology

Responding: Dr. Hak Joon Lee (Fuller Theological Seminary)

12:00pm-1:00pm: Lunch (on your own)

1:00 pm-1:55pm: Dr. Glen Stassen: “Formation for Just Peacemaking”

2:00: pm-2:55pm: Dr. Najeeba Syeed-Miller, Claremont School of Theology

2:55pm-3:20pm: Break

3:20pm-4:15pm: Dr. William O’Neill, S.J., Jesuit School of Theology in Berkley, Santa Clara University: “First be Reconciled (Mt. 5:24): Restorative Justice and a Little Common Sense”

4:20pm-5:15pm: Dr. Victor Thasiah, California Lutheran University: “Second Realities: Karl Barth’s Ethics and Socially-Engaged Art”

5:15pm-5:40pm: Business Meeting

6:30pm: Dinner (provided), followed by address by SCE President Miguel De La Torre

“No Cheeks Left to Turn”? Nigerian Peacemaker Sunday Agang Rejects Retaliation

2012-01-31T09:53:00.000-08:00

By Peter M. Sensenig

Sunday Agang, academic dean at ECWA Theological Seminary in Jos, Nigeria, claims that the escalating violence in the country requires a deeper, more comprehensive approach to peacemaking.

A graduate of Fuller Theological Seminary, Agang recently published his doctoral research on the violence in northern Nigeria, where he teaches. He makes the case that returning violence for violence is not only unfaithful to the way of Jesus but also obscures the true avenues to peace.

The situation is dire and growing worse; in the past year hundreds of Christians have been killed and dozens of churches burned in attacks carried out by Boko Haram, an extremist militant sect of Islam whose name means “Western education is sacrilege.” The controversial election of Christian president Goodluck Jonathan in April 2011 contributed to the discontent of northern Nigerians.

Some Christian leaders are beginning to urge violent retaliation, or at least violent self-defense. According to Ayo Oristejafor, national president of the Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN), the time has come for Christians to defend themselves: “I have a responsibility to defend myself and my family. Christians in the nation have suffered enough.” John Praise, who oversees the Dominion Chapel International Churches in the capital, wants to see “young people to defend the church because nobody has the monopoly of violence. People say, ‘When they slap your cheek, you turn the other.’ We have turned both, and they have slapped us. There is nothing else to turn.” Thought not supported by the broader Christian community, a fringe Christian militia named Akhwat Akwop has emerged whose stated goal is to match “blood for more blood” (Christianity Today, Dec. 2011, 14).

Yet some pastors and other leaders recognize that vengeance is an endless cycle. Agang, whose work draws from just peacemaking theory and practices, urges a redefinition of defense against violence: “Self-defense is engaging the issues of political, economic, and religious injustice and bringing them to public discourse. Christians must do anything they can to make the Muslims understand our shared humanity. This is what Jesus means when he said that we should turn the other cheek” (CT, Dec. 2011, 14).

See Sunday Agang's October 2011 video address to the "Peacemaking in Africa" conference at Fuller Seminary.

JPI to co-sponsor film screening: "Kinyarwanda"

2012-01-27T17:03:00.000-08:00

Kinyarwanda

Just Peacemaking Initiative is helping to sponsor Reel Spirituality's screening of a powerful film about peace and reconciliation in war-torn Rwanda.

Reel Spirituality

is proud to present

Kinyarwanda

Featuring a post-screening discussion with the filmmakers

Friday, March 2, 2012
6:30 PM

Travis Auditorium
Fuller Theological Seminary
Pasadena, CA

Winner of the Audience Awards at both the 2001 Sundance Film Festival and the 2011 AFI Film Festival, Kinyarwanda is a mosaic of forgiveness and reconciliation in the wake of the 1994 Rwandan genocide.

Roger Ebert even named it to hislist of "The Best Films of 2011." From Roger Ebert:

I was moved by "Hotel Rwanda" (2004), but not really shaken this deeply. After seeing "Kinyarwanda," I have a different kind of feeling about the genocide that took place in Rwanda in 1994. The film approaches it not as a story line but as a series of intense personal moments.

In an independent film of great emotional impact, the film's director, a Jamaican named Alrick Brown, establishes a vivid group of characters. A young couple from different tribes who are in love. The female head of a military unit trained in Uganda, hoping to bring peace. A Catholic priest. The Mufti of Rwanda. Most memorable, a small boy named Ishmael. Their personal stories are entangled in the ancient conflict between tribes, while the UN regards the genocide from afar. The title may put some people off. It is the name of the language both tribes speak, although the film is largely in English. I'm inviting "Kinyarwanda" to Ebertfest 2012.

A Note on Peace and Justice Advocates

2012-01-23T09:35:00.000-08:00

Here is all the latest on PJA events. PJA welcomes a new faculty adviser, Tommy Givens. You can hear Tommy this week at PJA's Weekly Forum.

UPCOMING EVENTS

PJA: Weekly Forum - Civil Rights and the National Defense of America Act
Jan 24, 10-11am
Payton 100/Garth
Speaker: Tommy Givens

Join us for a conversation led by Dr. Tommy Givens, Fuller professor of New Testament, passionate ethicist, and PJA's new faculty adviser on this new highly controversial legislation related to war, terrorism, civil rights, and the American public. You can read more about Tommy and his work here.

PJA: Weekly Forum - Christian Missions: The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly
Jan 31, 10-11am
Payton 100/Garth
Speaker: Juan Martinez

In conjunction with Fuller's Missions Week festivities, PJA will be hosting a Weekly Forum centered on moral concerns related to missions, particularly the destruction of native cultures. The Forum will be led by Dr. Martinez, Fuller's Associate Provost for Diversity and International Programs and Associate Professor of Hispanic Studies and Pastoral Leadership. Learn more about him here.

COMMUNITY: Ensure Justice Conference
March 2-3
Vanguard University, Orange County

Ensure Justice embodies the Global Center for Women and Justice's values for dignity, advocacy, and responsibility. Standing Together to End the Exploitation of Girls is a strategic plan: to proclaim dignity, train advocates, and educate communities to respond to commercial sexual exploitation of girls and young women. This conference will bring together leaders from the front line in communities across our country to learn from the experience and expertise of judges like Las Vegas Juvenile Justice William Voy and Orange County Juvenile Justice Douglas Hatchimonji, as well as law enforcement, doctors, nurses, social workers, educators, and community faith leaders.

Fuller Students are offered a special student rate of $35 (instead of $89). Read more here.

COMMUNITY: LaPaz Peacemaking and Justice Summit
April 20-21
Pasadena First Church of the Nazarene, 3700 E. Sierra Madre Blvd, Pasadena, CA 91107

A coalition of faith, academic, and community partners (Fuller Theological Seminary, APU School of Theology, Community Clergy Coalition, Compassion Creates Change, Los Angeles District Church of the Nazarene, San Gabriel Valley Housing and Homeless Coordinating Council) will sponsor "LaPaz: Peacemaking and Justice Summit." LaPaz Summit will gather together church and community leaders across San Gabriel Valley in common purpose. This event will provide learning, capacity enrichment, and networking opportunities under leadership learning tracks that will include transformational leadership, humanity and justice, community development, community organizing, peacemaking, and the missional church.

For more information, go to http://www.lapazsummit.org/LaPazSummit/Home.html

Just Peacemaking In Israel-Palestine: Practice 1

2012-01-20T10:10:00.000-08:00

By Peter M. Sensenig, Fuller Theological Seminary

Practice 1: Support Nonviolent Direct Action

If violence demonstrates a lack of imagination in seeking a solution, as John Paul Lederach asserts, then nonviolent direct action opens up the creative possibilities for engaging in conflict. The effectiveness of nonviolence has become an indisputable sociological claim, backed up by powerful examples such as the recent coup in Egypt. Poland, India, the Philippines, South Africa, Palestine, and the United States all have well-documented nonviolent movements that produced unforeseeable results.

Yet for Christians the effectiveness of nonviolent direct action should not be the only or even the primary argument for its use. John Howard Yoder argues in The War of the Lamb that suffering love is not right because it “works” in a calculable short-run way, but because it goes with the grain of the universe. The rejection of violence in seeking social change is so strong and so pertinent that it can be politically effective even when its practitioners do not necessarily base their actions on the example of Jesus. The cruciform life “works” because it is the way the universe functions, and is therefore both translatable and effective (62, 182).

Yoder argues further that nonviolence is central to Jewish history and identity, perhaps even more than for Christians. He notes that Christians since the fourth century have not been mostly peaceable, whereas Jews have never been violent from the second century until the twentieth. The Israelites nurtured a collective memory of God’s miraculous deliverances, and by the time of Jeremiah trusting God had come to mean the renunciation of statehood and the acceptance of Diaspora as the fitting way for the people of God to live. The Maccabeans were not seen as blessed by God, and after 135 CE there was no more rabbinic interest in solutions following either the Herodian, Sadduceean, or Zealot models (War of the Lamb, 71-73).

A broader view of land and promise and a theology for the whole earth that Yoder and Gary Burge (Jesus and the Land, Baker Academic 2010) advocate can alleviate the need for violent conquest and defense, but it still does not answer basic questions of justice, especially for Palestinians who have lost their land and their rights. Naim Ateek and Mohamed Abu-Nimer are particularly strong in their account of nonviolent direct action in a Palestinian context, where injustice and oppression have such deep roots. Ateek notes the courageous nonviolent resistance of archbishop Joseph Raya to the expulsion of Arabs. Just War Theory has influenced Western Christians, but because Palestinian Christians still live in a pre-Constantinian world “The only way of life that really makes sense to Eastern Christians is the way of Jesus” (Justice and Only Justice, 58, 135). Any resort to violence has resulted in disaster. Yet the shift from quiescent resignation to dynamic action is difficult because it is bitterly opposed by Zionists. For this reason, Ateek calls for a Center for Peacemaking that can facilitate both a theology of action and the practices of nonviolent resistance (156-158).
Two events, the 1967 war and the Intifada, demonstrated the expansionist policies of Israel and the futility of violent resistance, paving the way for nonviolence. Israel stirred up religious rivalries between the Islamic Hamas and the Christian Hamam, and also had a part in creating both Hamas and Hezbollah, who unlike the PLO’s Fatah were unwilling to make peace. In spite of these challenges, “The first intifada still stands as one of the rare moments in Palestinian history when the nonviolent power of the people was exhibited at its best”(Ateek, A Palestinian Christian Cry for Reconciliation, 6-8).

Ateek’s organization Sabeel was created as a nonviolent alternative to Hamam, focusing on way of Jesus. He makes the case that Jesus advocated nonviolent resistance as a way of resisting Roman Empire. Like Yoder’s “grain of the universe,” Ateek argues that unjust systems will collapse; “Injustice always carries within it the seed of its own destruction.” In this sense the practices of nonviolent direct action are part of a broader struggle that is already won. In keeping with Just Peacemaking theory, the strategies are diverse and context-specific; Ateek advocates divestment from settlements as one nonviolent strategy (which has been embraced by some churches and other groups in the West). Other strategies include the work of Christian Peacemaker Teams (CPT) and other accompaniment groups. Reminiscent of Ron Sider’s 1984 Mennonite World Conference speech in which the idea for CPT was born, Ateek calls for an “army” trained in nonviolent techniques; “Palestine needs a new peaceful and nonviolent intifada that is willing to accept suffering rather than inflict it on others”(Palestinian Christian Cry, 137-139, 179).

New Series: Just Peacemaking in Israel-Palestine

2012-01-13T11:33:00.000-08:00

By Peter M. Sensenig, Fuller Theological Seminary

One of my most memorable moments of traveling in the Middle East occurred on a Friday night in a small town in southern Jordan. My travel companion and I were strolling the streets after attending prayers in a mosque. A young man dressed in a white robe emerged from another mosque, greeted us, and immediately invited us to his home for tea. We spent several hours there, discussing our journey and his education plans, drinking tea and coffee which he served us on the floor, and playing with his young nephews. His hospitality was warm and unforced, a trait we came to expect among the Arabs we met.

Several days later I was in Jerusalem, sitting in the main square in front of the Hurva Synagogue in the Jewish Quarter. A friendly Jewish man from Virginia told me that living in the Holy City is a dream come true. As we parted ways he informed me, “Just be grateful that you can walk around here freely; if the Arabs were in charge you couldn’t.” I was too dumbfounded to respond in the moment, but I continued to play out the conversation in my head later. I wanted to ask him how many Arabs he knew personally, to justify such a sweeping generalization about what “the Arabs” are like. His characterization was starkly opposite everything I had experienced in the West Bank, Jordan, and Egypt. Assumptions abound on the other side as well, convincing Palestinians and other Arabs that all Jews think and act a certain way, and therefore cannot be trusted.

The incident revealed to me the huge gulf, striking in light of the façade of diversity in Jerusalem, that exists between Israeli Jews and Palestinians. The degree of separation, in part a result of policies of segregation implemented by the Israeli government, has been growing in the last several decades. Consequently it has become increasingly difficult for people on either side to engage the “enemy” without being labeled traitors to the causes of their own people.

How does one respond to such a complex, intractable conflict? John Paul Lederach describes the “moral imagination” that is required in terms of the ability to imagine a web of relationships with our enemies included. The violence that has characterized this conflict on both sides betrays a lack of imagination in seeking a solution. The alternative, he argues, is to develop “Schools for Moral Imagination” that mix people of different backgrounds together (The Moral Imagination, Oxford University Press, 2005).

The practices of just peacemaking provide just such a catalyst for imaginative solutions to the conflict. In this series I will explore the particular emphases placed on the practices by Muslim (Mohammed Abu-Nimer), Christian (Naim Ateek and Salim Munayer), and Jewish (Marc Gopin) writers on the subject. Among the most important practices for this context are nonviolent direct action, independent initiatives to reduce threat, acknowledging responsibility for injustice, and strengthening the United Nations and international efforts.

An emphasis on practices may provoke the objection from people of faith that it shifts focus toward what we do as humans and away from what God does; in effect, peacemaking practices veer toward legalism, humanism, or idealism. Salim Munayer denies that making peace is humanist, stating that “Any attempt to rise above the earthly conflict is necessarily a spiritual affair, for it is impossible without God” (Journey Through the Storm, Musalaha, 2011). This is true of the practices of just peacemaking; the moral imagination required to formulate creative responses to conflict (which is in essence what just peacemaking is) is a gift from God. Conversely, practices open up our ability to imagine solutions. God as the creator of human sociality is at the center of the reciprocal relationship between peacemaking practices and the moral imagination.

Fuller Peace and Justice Advocates Returns - Winter Quarter

2012-01-10T09:05:00.000-08:00

The PJA weekly forum begins January 10 at the same day, location, and time as last quarter (10a-11 Tuesdays, Garth/Payton 100).

UPCOMING EVENTS

PJA: Weekly Forum - Sex Trafficking In Los Angeles
Jan 10, 10-11am
Payton 100/Garth
Speaker: Sandi Morgan

In conjunction with the National Human Trafficking Prevention month declared by President Obama, Sandie Morgan, Director of the Global Center for Women and Justice and Professor at Vanguard University will lead a discussion on sex trafficking that is occurring in our own back yard. Learn more about Sandi and her work here.

PJA: Weekly Forum - The Faith and Justice of Dr. King
Jan 17, 10-11am
Payton 100/Garth
Speaker: Joon Hak Lee

In recognition of Martin Luther King Jr. Day, Fuller's newest professor of Christian Ethics and Theology - Joon Hak Lee - will be sharing on how Dr. King's faith inspired his work in fighting for civil rights, and how its affects linger on. Dr. Lee has written extensively on Dr. King, We Will Get to the Promised Land: Martin Luther King Jr.’s Communal-Political Spirituality (2006), and the forthcoming, The Great World House: Martin Luther King, Jr. and Global Ethics, and as well as many articles - all in addition to his writings on other topics. He is also a sought after key note speaker for Martin Luther King Jr. Day festivities in cities across the US. You can read more about Dr. Lee here.

PJA: Weekly Forum - TBA
Jan 24, 10-11am
Payton 100/Garth
Speaker: TBA

PJA: Weekly Forum - Christian Missions: The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly
Jan 31, 10-11am
Payton 100/Garth
Speaker: Juan Martinez

In conjunction with Fuller's Missions Week festivities, PJA will be hosting a Weekly Forum centered on moral concerns related to missions, particularly the destruction of native cultures. The Forum will be led by Dr. Martinez, Fuller's Associate Provost for Diversity and International Programs and Associate Professor of Hispanic Studies and Pastoral Leadership. Learn more about him here.

Havel and Hussein: The Necessity of Just Peacemaking

2011-12-22T06:40:00.000-08:00

By Peter M. Sensenig

Two events this week serve as poignant reminders of the necessity and relevance of the just peacemaking ethic.

On Sunday the last convoy of U.S. soldiers pulled out of Iraq, marking the end of nearly nine years of war. Almost 4,500 Americans and many thousands of Iraqis (estimates range between 100,000 and 700,000) have died in the war, and Iraq is left in a state of fragility and sectarian tensions. On December 22, just days after the U.S. withdrawal, bombs across Baghdad killed more than sixty people, evidence of ongoing Sunni-Shiite violence that threatens the fragile government.

The war was instigated in March 2003 by the U.S. and the United Kingdom under the stated pretense of removing the threat of Iraq’s weapons of mass destruction. President Bush and Prime Minister Blair both used language of exhausting all diplomatic options, claims that have been called into question by evidence that they intended to invade Iraq regardless of the existence of WMDs.

Bush and Blair ignored strong protests from around the world, citizens of their own countries, the United Nations, allies, and other Arab nations. In other words, in spite of widespread calls for solutions besides war, they ignored both the criteria of just war and the practices of just peacemaking.

In addition to the lies about WMDs, the other rationale for invasion supplied by the Bush administration was the necessity to dispose of the dangerous dictator Saddam Hussein. Hussein’s own people, it was argued, would celebrate his overthrow at the hands of foreign invaders. And the only way to accomplish this was a full-scale military procedure, which began on March 20, 2003 with a barrage of bombs on Baghdad.

This was the second lie told to the American people, but one which has been told and believed for far too long: that the only way to topple an unjust dictator is through overwhelming military force. The Arab Spring, not least the astounding revolution in Egypt that demonstrated the power of the people in solidarity against President Hosni Mubarak, is overwhelming testimony to the efficacy of the just peacemaking practice of nonviolent direct action. Mass demonstrations, strikes, and other tactics, performed across religious and class lines, brought down Mubarak’s regime nonviolently.

There is an alternative to the destructive nine-year ordeal in Iraq (with the ongoing toll continuing for generations in the instability, loss of life, PTSD, and health care and financial effects of the war). That alternative is the practices that make for peace, the practices of just peacemaking.

What the Arab Spring demonstrated in the Arab world, the power of nonviolent direct action for social change, has been seen all over the globe in various contexts. This week we were also reminded of another example of nonviolent revolution against a brutal regime. Václav Havel, the first president of the Czech Republic, died on December 18. He leaves behind a legacy of just peacemaking.

Havel co-authored a Human Rights charter in 1977, bringing him recognition as the opposition leader in Czechoslovakia, as well as persecution by the police state and repeated imprisonment. The Velvet Revolution, a nonviolent movement in Czechoslovakia that took place from November 17 to December 29, 1989, resulted in the collapse of the Communist Party and in Havel becoming president. The revolution consisted of peaceful popular demonstrations and civilian strikes against the one-party government. The violent response of riot police to suppress the movement only caused its ranks to swell, reaching half a million protesters in Prague on November 20, 1989.

In one sense Havel is a remarkable icon of just peacemaking, and former Polish president and Solidarity leader Lech Wałęsa has stated that he should have been awarded a Nobel Peace Prize. But in another sense Havel is simply another practitioner of what is increasingly recognized as the only path to lasting peace: the practices of just peacemaking, including the effective, ubiquitous power of nonviolent direct action.

Havel’s motto, “Truth and love must prevail over lies and hate,” is relevant all over the world. Nonviolent revolution led to the bloodless end to communism in Czechoslovakia in 1989. It would have overthrown Saddam Hussein in Iraq, if only the West had given it a chance. And it will continue to prove that unjust dictators lack any real lasting power on God’s good earth.

Fuller News - Peacemaking in Africa Conference

2011-12-16T09:52:00.000-08:00

Fuller's Bryant Myers and Congo church leader Kisongo Mbeleulu discuss strategies for peace :: 10/04/11

Friday evening speaker Bryant Myers

Fuller students, faculty, and staff gathered at Travis Auditorium on Friday and Saturday, September 30 and October 1, to participate in a conference on “Peacemaking in Africa.”

Hosted by Fuller’s Just Peacemaking Initiative, Peace and Justice Advocates, and William Carey International University, the Peacemaking in Africa conference included worship and prayer for Africa, along with a wide range of speakers addressing ways to promote the practice of peacemaking across the African continent.

“We love Africa and see the beauty in it,” said Peter Sensenig, leader of Fuller’s Just Peacemaking Initiative, which aims to further a paradigm for building peace and lessening the likelihood of war. “God intends much more than war and poverty for Africa.”
Fuller Professor of Transformational Development Bryant Myers kicked off the conference on Friday evening by introducing three development tools for peacemaking.

Following Myers’s presentation, keynote speaker Kisongo Mbeleulu discussed how we can understand violence in the war zones of the D.R. Congo. Mbeleulu has served with the Mennonite Central Committee and Eglise du Christ au Congo—an association of Congolese Protestant churches—in relief efforts and long-term development programs, such as an important peace and reconciliation program for Rwandans and the Congolese.

Saturday’s list of speakers included Anne Nyarangi, coordinator of women’s ministries at the Leadership Development Initiative Africa, an organization based in Kampala with centers in Uganda and Kenya; Faustin Ntamushobora, a Rwandan who survived his country’s1994 genocide and writes and speaks about forgiveness and reconciliation; and James Butare-Kiyovu, associate professor of applied linguistics at William Carey International University.

The conclusion of the conference included corporate prayer along with closing reflections by Martin Accad, associate professor of Islamic studies at Fuller. His reflection challenged the Church to build a relationship with Islam.

Stassen on Hybels' "A Common Friend to Arabs and Jews"

2011-12-14T16:00:00.000-08:00

Posted by Glen H. Stassen

Lynn Hybels, in her article in the Huffington Post, says exactly what I want to say, and I warmly commend her nicely stated post on justice and peace for Israel and Palestine. It helps answer respondents to David Gushee's and my two postings on Christian Zionism.

Here's the post, available at http://www.huffingtonpost.com/lynne-hybels/friend-to-palestinians-and-jews_b_1128290.html :

Recent news articles have noted my ministry engagement in Israel and Palestine. Some have questioned my support for the State of Israel because I don't espouse the theological position called Christian Zionism.

It is true: I am not a Christian Zionist. Nor am I a Christian Palestinianist (though that term has recently been used by journalists to describe me). I am, simply, a Christian, a follower of Jesus. I believe that in Jesus there is neither "male nor female, Greek nor Jew, slave nor free." I believe that God has granted all human beings the same degree of dignity and that at the foot of the cross we are all equals. I believe we are called to worship God in spirit and in truth, and that when we do, wherever we are becomes sacred space.

I do not hold to a theology asserting that the modern State of Israel represents a divinely mandated return of ancient Israel to the Promised Land, but I do wholeheartedly support its existence as a place where Jews can live in freedom and security. I cannot listen to the deep and legitimate fears of Israeli Jews -- as I did just last week in Israel -- without joining them in celebrating the existence of the State of Israel. I cannot walk quietly through the halls of Yad Vashem (the Holocaust Memorial) in Jerusalem -- as I also did last week -- without being horrified by what the Jews experienced in Europe in the 1930s and '40s. I earnestly long for the day when Jews can live in Israel -- and anywhere -- in security. I believe followers of Jesus ought be outspoken in their support of peace and safety for all Jews, and the right of Israeli civilians to live without being subjected to rocket fire and suicide attacks.

At the same time, I wholeheartedly support justice for the Palestinians. In 2008, at a conference in Amman, Jordan, Arab Christians challenged me to broaden my understanding of the Arab-Israeli conflict, to listen to the stories of Palestinian Arabs forced from their homes and villages during the founding of the State of Israel, and to see for myself the current plight of Palestinian Christians and Muslims living under Israeli military occupation in the West Bank. Since then, I have made repeated trips to Israel and the Palestinian Territories.

I was shocked to see the reality of daily life under military occupation. A shattered economy, land seizures and house demolitions, settlement expansion, Israeli-only roads networking through Palestinian land, and hundreds of military checkpoints on Palestinian roads -- all these make daily life difficult and frustrating for Palestinians. Because of delays at checkpoints, produce rots in the back of pickup trucks before farmers can get it to market. Other farmers are permanently separated from their land by the path of the Israeli-built security wall; while the wall was created to protect Israelis from terrorists, in many places it is built not on the internationally recognized border between Israel and Palestine, but deep inside Palestinian territory.

I've heard stories of Palestinian women giving birth in their cars because of lengthy checkpoint delays, and of critically sick children being denied health care because they can't get Israeli-issued permits to travel to the hospital in Jerusalem. I've learned that the best and brightest of Palestinian Christians are leaving the Holy Land, not because of tension with Muslims, but because energetic, educated young people see no future for themselves under ongoing military occupation.

I know there are religious Jews and Christians who do not consider Israeli presence in the West Bank as "occupation." They believe God gave the land to the Jews centuries ago, so the Palestinians are actually the "occupiers." They feel completely justified in building Jewish "settlements" -- or cities -- on Palestinian land because, they believe, the land is not really Palestinian land anyway. Though the international community considers the settlements illegal -- as do many Israelis I spoke with -- the settlers and some Israeli leaders believe they are legal. Some extremist settlers even believe they are justified in using violence to move the Palestinians off the land. Sadly, there has been an upsurge of such violence in recent months.

I respect the perspective of these religious Jews and Christians, but I do not agree with the actions that flow from their theology. I denounce the violence of the extremist settlers, just as I denounce the violence used by Palestinian extremists. I believe the Holy Land can and should be a place where Jews and Arabs can live as neighbors. I've talked with Israelis and Palestinians who are committed to mutual understanding and reconciliation. These Christians, Muslims and Jews have begged me "not to take sides." They have said, "Please, be a common friend to all of us. Either we will learn to live together or we will die together." I have become convinced that the best way to be a friend to Israel is to also be a friend to the Palestinians, and the best way to be a friend to the Palestinians is to also be a friend to Israel.

Some people have recently accused me of moving from an accurate "Zionist theology," which supports the State of Israel, to a dangerous "Palestinian theology" that delegitimizes Israel. That is not true. I hold the same theology regarding Israel, the land, the church and Jesus that I have held for 30 years. What has changed is my personal engagement with the living people of the Holy Land -- both Israelis and Palestinians -- who have suffered from the ongoing conflict.

Many people ask why I continue to travel to the Holy Land. I always explain that I go to listen and to learn. I'm a beginner on a journey of understanding what it means to be "a common friend" to Jews and Arabs. What better way to learn than to listen to a wide range of experiences? As I listen to these diverse voices, I pray for discernment. I pray to be able to hear the fear or the longing behind the words. I pray that my heart will break like I believe the heart of God breaks over the pain of all his children.

Most peacemakers on both sides are discouraged as they watch the inability of Israeli, Palestinian and American politicians to move toward peace. I share their sadness about the present and their fears for the future. But I find a call to action in Psalm 34:14 that challenges us to "seek peace and pursue it." I've discovered people on both sides of this conflict who are committed to that calling, and I am committed to partnering with them and lifting up their voices.

I invite all people of faith to join me in praying that the acts of violent people will be thwarted, that people committed to nonviolence will be protected, that reconcilers will be sustained as they seek mutual understanding and friendship, and that politicians will have the maturity and grace to become true moral leaders.

I think of the children I saw last week in Tel Aviv, in Haifa, in Jerusalem, in Ramallah, in Hebron, in Bethlehem -- and I am reminded of Jesus' tenderness toward them. May the good tidings of his love surround them today.

Christmas, God’s OWS (Occupying the World with Shalom)

2011-12-09T11:24:00.000-08:00

By Hak Joon Lee

This past October, my trip back to New York felt like a pilgrimage. A major event happened after my move to Fuller Seminary in August after twenty-five years of living in the New York metropolitan area: the Occupy Wall Street Movement.

The movement had been percolating for several years. Feelings of massive frustration and signs of despair and anxiety have been growing everywhere except for those who are extremely rich. Outsourcing, financial meltdowns, massive home foreclosures, government bailouts, pay cuts, layoffs—it is no surprise that the Oxford English Dictionary chose “squeezed middle” as the word of the year for 2011. Quick global spread of the Occupy Movement, uprising of young people in Arab countries—the world seems to be in a revolt today, yearning for a new order of global democracy and justice.

The evening when my wife and I visited Zucotti Park, the epicenter of the movement, was in the middle of a record-breaking October snowstorm; the hotel where we stayed was blacked out by power failure. It was freezing with day-long sleet and the bladelike cold Manhattan wind cutting deep into our bones. The campground of the park was quite surreal: a labyrinth of poor, make-shift, some even crumbling tents huddled under the long shadows of surrounding tall, imperialistic finance buildings—the wilderness at the heart of modern civilization. However, despite the intemperate weather, many young occupiers were there still refusing to give up their passion for justice and change.

And there I both prayed and pondered: Who is Jesus to these young people? What does the church mean to them?

Christmas celebrates God’s incarnation in Jesus Christ—Immanuel (God with us). God became human so that we might become like God (theosis). Paradoxically, however, the incarnation of the Almighty took place in an animal shed—a sort of wilderness closed out from the “civilization” of the inn with its basic comforts; Jesus was born in a manger surrounded by animals and aliens—one may say, a place like an occupier’s tent in the park. God in baby Jesus encamped outside the Roman Empire to deliver people from despair, injustice, and greed. Christmas is God’s OWS. God chose the place of the outcast to occupy the world with His shalom.

A transformative ministry starts in the wilderness by questioning even the very assumptions of civilization itself and dreaming of a radically new society. Moses heard God’s voice in the wilderness. John the Baptist preached the message of repentance in the wilderness. Jesus went to the wilderness after his baptism; there he wrestled with and overcame Satan—the powers, authorities, and spirits that seized the world. Then with a new sense of mission and determination, each of them went back to society: temple, city hall, palace, and market. Following them, we Christians are permanent OWS, challenging and renewing our world with God’s shalom.

On my return trip, I decided to count my day at the park as this year’s Christmas—the day that I went out to the wilderness to see Jesus among occupiers (Matt. 25: 31-46). Even through that out-of-season cold weather and snow, my early out-of-season Christmas day seemed perfectly fitting because I must admit that I will certainly miss them here in Pasadena.

Hak Joon Lee is Professor of Theology and Ethics at Fuller Theological Seminary, Pasadena, CA.

Photos from Interfaith Peacemakers Event at All Saints

2011-12-09T11:15:00.000-08:00

Rabbi Eliyahu McLean and Sheikh Ghassan Manasra address the gathering at All Saints Church, December 9, 2011.

McLean describes the annual "Jerusalem Hug," which brings people together across traditions to work and pray for peace in Jerusalem.

Occupy Movement Is About Changing the Conversation

2011-12-07T11:14:00.000-08:00

By Bert Newton for Pasadena Weekly

The corporate media and established political class complain that the Occupy Wall Street movement has no clear demands. In response, Dahlia Lithwick, in her brilliant editorial in Slate last month, “Occupy the No Spin Zone,” points out that the movement refuses to fashion its message for the political and economic elite, who daily demonstrate their refusal to hear anything that does not fit their formulation of reality. Read more.

This Thursday - Interfaith Peacemakers from the Holy Land

2011-12-03T14:51:00.000-08:00

Don't miss this event featuring Eliyahu McLean and Sheikh Ghassan Manasra.

All Saints Church, Pasadena - 7pm.

Click here for more information.

Tomorrow: OCCUPY L.A.

2011-11-21T19:22:00.000-08:00

PJA: Weekly Forum - The Occupy Movement

Nov 22, 10-11am

Payton 100/Garth

Speaker: Carol Francis Likins of Occupy L.A.

Interfaith Peacemakers from the Holy Land - Dec 8 Event

2011-11-20T19:02:00.000-08:00

Reply to the many responses to David Gushee’s and Glen Stassen’s Open Letter to Christian Zionists:

2011-11-12T17:22:00.001-08:00

Thank you so much for paying our letter the honor of your responses, pro and con. Healthy dialogue is important for the healing we need in the Middle East and here at home.

The point of our letter was to challenge biblically the claim of Christian Zionists that God’s covenant with Abraham in Genesis says all the land should belong to Israel. We were hoping for dialogue on the clear meaning of the biblical covenant with Abraham. Our claim is that misconstruing the biblical teaching is misleading many Christian Zionists to support settlements on Palestinian land that are unjust, that violate God’s will as well as international law, and that cause dangerous hostility against Israel. We ask responses to focus on the biblical teaching.

We focus first on Genesis 15 and 17, and then on a few of the fifteen passages in the prophet Jeremiah that discuss the prerequisite for being able to stay in the land.

The responses that disagreed did not discuss the biblical passages, but shifted the topic to the politics of the present government of Israel and the West Bank, and Hamas, and whether Israel forced Palestinians out of their homes or not.

These are important topics, but we are hoping for biblical discussion.

What we are asking is whether our readers see Genesis 15 and 17 saying that Abraham is the father of many nations, with descendants as many as the stars of the universe. And whether the territory includes all the land between the Nile and the Euphrates, which of course includes many nations, most all Arab. We believe ours is the plain, literal reading. No one has explained a different reading in response.

And whether our readers see Jeremiah's warnings differently than we do? And if so, how?

We are sincere in raising these biblical questions and hoping for a sincere answer. We are deeply serious about biblical authority.

Genesis 15:18 reads: “The Lord made a covenant with Abram, saying, ‘To your descendants I give this land, from the river of Egypt to… the river Euphrates.’” That territory includes something like modern-day Lebanon, Syria, Jordan, half of Iraq, half of Egypt, parts of Turkey and Saudi Arabia, Israel, and the occupied Palestinian territories. This verse must not mean all that land belongs only to Israel, because then the population of Israel would be 90 per cent Arab, and Israel would be an Arab country.

The next verse names the various peoples to whom the land belonged. Genesis 15:4-5 and 17:4 promise Abraham that his descendants will be a multitude of nations, as numerous as the stars of the heavens. The land belongs to many nations—Arabs as well as Israelis. Both Israel and Palestine have the human right to a state of their own, without occupation, and without violent attacks.

The promise to possess the land includes the offspring of Isaac, and the offspring of Isaac includes Esau, with his five Edomite sons and their offspring, and that includes multitudes of Canaanites (Gen. 17:19, 28:6-9, and chapter 36).

The prophets warned repeatedly that Israel’s ability to stay in the land depends on doing justice to the aliens in the land. We cited a few verses that say that (Jeremiah 6:6-8; 7:9-10 and 15), but in our longer version, we cite about fifteen different places where Jeremiah warns this repeatedly. Jesus prophesied that Jerusalem would be destroyed because they did not know the practices that make for peace (Lk 19:41-44). That is a call for all of us to learn the practices that make for peace, and prevent dangerous war.

What we deeply yearn for is an Israel that recovers the biblical vision of a nation that does justice and peace for its neighbors, and therefore that we all—Israelis and outsiders—can celebrate. So we can come streaming to Zion to learn the ways of the LORD, and nation will not take up sword against nation or learn war anymore (Isaiah 2:1-4).

We yearn for security for Israel and justice for Palestinians, and it seems clear that the way to that outcome is for Israel to make peace with Palestinians, and Palestinians to adopt the way of nonviolence. Many in Israel and Palestine are urging exactly that.

It is hard to think of evangelical scholars more truly pro-Jewish than we are. But real friends don't let friends drive off the cliff without trying to warn them.

David Gushee's PhD dissertation became his first book, Righteous Gentiles of the Holocaust. It is a study of those gentiles named at Yad Vashem, asking what features of their theology and ethics helps explain their coming through rightly, rescuing Jews during Hitler’s Holocaust, while so many others failed. It advocates that the rest of us learn from their ethics to form ourselves in similar ways. David is deeply committed to opposing anti-Semitism. This helps explain his organizing and leading Evangelicals for Human Rights, which focused on opposition to torture, and has now expanded to New Evangelical Partnership for the Common Good. He has engaged in extensive conversation and learning from many Jewish scholars, including in conferences organized to study the Shoah and prevent something like that ever happening again. His book presently in press at Eerdmans is on the Sanctity of all Human Life--a consistent life ethic.

Glen Stassen’s father was given the national Bnai Brith Award for support for Israel. Because his father was then negotiating with the Soviet Union on nuclear arms control for the Eisenhower administration, Glen received the award on his behalf and spoke for him. His father took many actions throughout his career to break barriers for Jews, to support Israel, and he set that example for Glen. Both supported the founding of the state of Israel, but hoped it would respect its borders. Glen’s seminary teacher of New Testament was W.D. Davies, who influenced many of us to recover the roots of the New Testament in the Hebrew Bible and in rabbinic Judaism. Glen is known for his work showing Jesus' roots in the prophet Isaiah. He specializes in the Christian ethics of Dietrich Bonhoeffer, who was the earliest and clearest to speak out for all Jews from the beginning of the Hitler regime. His brother in law was Martin Berger, now deceased, and his four nieces are all Jews.

We told our students the theme of our course was to get inside both an Israeli narrative and a Palestinian narrative, because peace requires that understanding. We spent extensive time at Yad Vashem. Glen wept. Rabbi Marc Gopin and professor Rob Eisen were faculty throughout our whole course.

For years we have also supported Christian Palestinians who have been successfully persuading Palestinians to switch to nonviolence in their strategies, and that was a major theme of our course. Glen was deeply involved in the nonviolent strategies of the U.S. Civil Rights Movement, and also to some extent in East Germany's nonviolent revolution. Nonviolence and just peacemaking are his deep commitment.

Again, we ask that responses discuss the biblical covenant with Abraham in Genesis 15 and 17. That is the basis of all these claims.

David Gushee and Glen Stassen. November 11, 2011.

Read the Open Letter to Christian Zionists.

Special Event at Fuller: Joseph Montville on Interfaith Peacemaking

2011-11-10T17:01:00.000-08:00

Wednesday, Nov 16

11am - 1pm

Psych 314

Dr. Glen Stassen and Dr. Joon Lee invite you to a public forum hosted by their Faith and Politics class.

Joseph Montville is that rare former foreign service officer of the U.S. State Department who understands the role of religion, and also the need for healing in relations between religions, if we are to make peace. He is Chair of the advisory council of Marc Gopin's Center for World Religions, Diplomacy and Conflict Resolution at George Mason University. (Marc Gopin co-taught the summer course on peacemaking in Palestine and Israel, and his Center organized the interviews, visits, lodging etc. for the course.) Joe works on healing between the Abrahamic religions, and also Polish Catholic-Jewish reconciliation; reconciliation with Iran; and healing in America from the Civil War. He writes on respect for Jewish and Muslim traditions, and is publishing an edited volume, History as Prelude: Muslims and Jews in the Medieval Mediterranean.
He does not simply lecture; come prepared for deep interaction in discussion. Come to this one-time forum on peacemaking, faith, and politics between Christians, Muslims, and Jews in the face of the Palestinian-Israeli conflict.

Sunday Agang addresses Peacemaking in Africa conference from Nigeria

2011-11-08T09:53:00.000-08:00

Sunday Agang, a PhD graduate of Fuller Seminary, is Academic Dean of ECWA Theological Seminary in Jos, Nigeria. Here he discusses the biblical basis for peacemaking and its application to Muslims and Christians in Nigeria.

Tonight: PJA OUTDOOR SCREENING & PANEL: With God On Our Side

2011-10-21T16:45:00.000-07:00

With God On Our Side
Friday October 21, 7pm - Behind the Catalyst building

This important film addresses the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and particularly the role that Christian Zionism has played in the struggle. We will be viewing the film outside in "screen on the green" fashion to enjoy the early fall weather. We will be concluding with a panel discussion that includes Glen Stassen, Martin Accad, and Fuller student Joey Taylor who has worked extensively in Israel-Palestine. Don't miss it!

Oct 26 - Ami Ayalon and Jeremy Ben-Ami

2011-10-21T15:51:00.000-07:00

Pasadena Jewish Temple & Center hosts

Ami Ayalon, former Member of the Israeli Knesset, Commander of the Israeli Navy, and director of the Shin Bet, Israel’s internal security service

Jeremy Ben-Ami, President and Founder of J-Street

Wednesday, October 26, 7:30 p.m.
in Galpert Sanctuary

Ayalon served as the Director of the Israeli security agency Shin Beit from 1996-2000. A military commander who achieved the rank of Admiral in the Israeli Navy, he was decorated with Israel’s highest military honor, the Medal of Valor, in 1969. From 2007-09 MK Ayalon served as Minister without Portfolio.

Jeremy Ben-Ami, president of J Street, spent 25-years in government, politics and communications, in the United States and in Israel. Jeremy has served in a number of senior government positions including as President Bill Clinton’s Deputy Domestic Policy Adviser. Jeremy’s father was born in Tel Aviv, and much of his family lives in Israel.

1434 North Altadena Drive · Pasadena, California 91107 ·
Phone: 626.798.1161 · Fax: 626.798.8410 · www.pjtc.net

2011 Nobel Peace Prize Winners

2011-10-07T16:43:00.000-07:00

Eastern Mennonite University alumna Leymah Gbowee is one of three women jointly awarded the 2011 Nobel Peace Prize, the Norwegian Nobel Committee announced today. She shares the prize with Liberian President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf and women’s rights activist Tawakkul Karman of Yemen.

Gbowee, who earned a master’s degree in conflict transformation at EMU, received the Nobel Prize for her work in organizing a peace movement to end the Second Liberian Civil War. She has become famous in her country and across the globe for mobilizing women.

Only 11 other women have won the peace prize in its 110-year history.

How to Win Peace in Afghanistan For Half the Price of War

2011-10-07T16:32:00.000-07:00

By Zaman Stanizai

A reassessment of the situation in Afghanistan is underway as the uncertainty of the upcoming runoff election amidst looming fears of a civil war have spawned jitters over troop deployment levels in Washington.

At the heart of the crisis is our inability to define our objectives in the conflict. We plunged head on into the crisis knowing nothing beyond the initial attainable goal of dislodging the Al-Qaeda, whose numbers have since dwindled to fewer than a hundred according to General Jones, and toppling the Taliban government in Kabul.

But somewhere along the way we forgot our mission and at the behest of the Northern Alliance identified the entire Pashtun population in Afghanistan as the enemy and conveniently vilified them as the Taliban. By transferring blame from one party to another and from a few to the many, we lost track of identifying the enemy, ours and by extension theirs, as we resorted to our oft-failed tactic of applying a military solution to political problems and by using urban war tactics to a rural insurgency. This gross negligence turned the situation into a paradox of failing military strategies, inherently contradictory political propositions, and conflicting regional interests that it is Afghanistan:
--In Afghanistan, we insist on winning a war for which our military presence is the cause and not the solution.
--We are protecting the façade of a government that represents the tyranny of the minority rather than the will of the majority.
--We are identifying Taliban ideologically, whereas in Afghanistan they are defined ethnically, as Pashtuns, so our campaign against them amounts to our participation in a civil war.
--We are training an army dominated by the Tajik minority to fight an insurgency in areas of the country dominated by the Pashtun majority.
--We are planning to expand the Afghan security forces to 400,000 at an unsustainable cost of $3.5 billion that is four times the entire annual GDP of Afghanistan.
--We are militarizing a country at an exceptionally high civilian/military ratio amidst ethnic tensions that linger after a three-decade long civil war, lest we forget future ‘blowbacks.’

Against these odds, can the U.S. avoid the fate of previous invaders and prevent the Afghan crisis from becoming Obama’s Achille’s heel? It is difficult to answer history in the affirmative unless we genuinely pursue a drastically different path—in line with the advocacy of ‘change’, and Obama’s status as the Nobel Laureate for peace. The way to win peace without losing the war is to think outside the box for a practical solution based on trust and sincerity to show that we are a ‘helping hand’ and not an ‘occupying force.’

Afghanistan’s enemies are poverty, political disenfranchisement, religious manipulation, and social alienation. Through the peace alternative we can give the people the hope and opportunity for a life style that doesn’t feed on the miseries of war—“Nothing stops crime better than a working hand.” We can drain the pond in which the extremists fish by denying them their most formidable resource—the human resource.

Such a strategy demands that our 21st century expectations meet the 19th century life style of the Afghans at the juncture of peace and reconciliation so that for once we can apply their solutions to their problems. They can be independent within the modern world, but not isolated from it. The starting point can be the Pashto saying, “You can’t win villages by force,” as we direct our efforts towards village building instead of ‘nation building.’ We can do this by building village community centers to introduce modernity to them on their terms.

The benefits of an enduring peace will always out weigh the miseries of perpetual wars. By making a tangible and visible investment in their lives, as the U.S. did in the 1960s, we can win the hearts and minds of the economically neglected and politically marginalized Pashtuns in the war-torn areas of rural Afghanistan and Pakistan.

The safety of these community centers can be guaranteed through a priority of built-in immunities. Mosques that have a built-in protection against extremists’ attacks should be built first and schools, libraries, and health clinics should be phased in according to a similar safety assessment. These facilities should be Internet-connected to broaden the people’s worldview by providing access to a more progressive Islam that is not in conflict with modernity and a spiritual rather than the doctrinal dimension of Islam. There should be electronic libraries on history, literature, arts and sciences that revive a sense of cultural pride in a heritage that inspires a sense of responsibility through relevant historical narratives.

In due course, sports facilities should be built to draw the youth away from battlefields. Arts, crafts, and cottage industry modules should be built with micro-lending banking; agribusiness cooperatives to subsidize alternative crop substitution replacing opium poppy cultivation. Pharmaceutical plants should be built to turn the local poppy harvest into medicinal drugs that will not only eliminate narco-financing of the insurgency, but also provide opportunities for sound economic investment.

Because the community will have a vested interest in these projects, they will protect with their blood that which they have built with their own hands. Nonetheless, a contingency of rapid re-building plans should be in place in the event of attacks and sabotage.

As extensive as this may seem, it can be done with a fraction of the cost of military operations and will certainly have better prospects of success.

They say a republic loses its soul when it becomes an empire. The opportunity awaits a new American leader like Barack Obama to convince the world that our imperial reach can be soulfully democratic.

Zaman Stanizai is professor of Islamic Traditions at the Pacifica Graduate Institute in Santa Barbara, California.

Charles Kimball Lecture - Oct 3, 2011

2011-10-03T07:19:00.000-07:00

From Lame to Lethal: Religious Diversity in Judaism, Christianity & Islam

In collaboration between SIS Islamic Studies & Fuller’s Just Peacemaking Initiative

A Lecture by

Prof. Dr. Charles A. Kimball

author of

When Religion Becomes Lethal

October 3, 2011 at 6:30pm

Travis Auditorium

Dr. Charles A. Kimball, Director of Religious Studies, University of Oklahoma

2011-09-22T11:25:00.000-07:00

An Open Letter to America’s Christian Zionists

2011-09-19T09:28:00.001-07:00

From David P. Gushee and Glen H. Stassen

Dear Christian Brothers and Sisters,

Greetings in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ. We write to you about an urgent matter of common concern.

In just a few weeks, unless their plans change dramatically, Palestinian leaders will make a unilateral declaration of a State of Palestine based on the pre-1967 borders and will turn to the United Nations for a vote to recognize their new state.

The present Netanyahu government of Israel is, of course, totally opposed to this course of action on the part of the Palestinians. The United States government (predictably) shares this opposition. Both nations tell the Palestinians that the proper path to a state is through negotiations leading to an agreement that can settle all outstanding territorial and political issues. Palestinian leaders respond that they continue to support negotiations but that they can no longer pin all of their hopes on them.

This is because progress on that elusive peace agreement has been nonexistent for years. Of course, both sides blame each other for that lack of progress. But meanwhile, on a visit to the Occupied Territories this summer along with 50 students from Fuller Seminary who were studying just peacemaking (see http://justpeacemaking.blogspot.com/p/just-peacemaking.html), we were shown repeatedly how Israeli settlements (actually, planned cities and towns on occupied Palestinian land) are eating away at the land that would belong to any viable Palestinian state. The Palestinians are convinced that the Netanyahu government in Israel is pursuing a strategy of delaying negotiations while creating facts on the ground that will make a Palestinian state impossible. A visitor to the increasingly encircled and truncated Palestinian territories can see these facts on the ground with his own eyes if he is willing to look. The Palestinian leadership believes that they had better declare statehood now before the territory for such a state completely disappears. It could be a high stakes showdown at the UN, with uncertain consequences in the aftermath.

Officially, Israel long ago entered into negotiations with Palestinian leaders toward a two-state solution. Unofficially, it appears that the current government in Israel is renouncing this path. Ideological rather than pragmatic factors are clearly contributing to this unofficial but visible renunciation. The most important ideological factor is the belief that Israel deserves the entirety of the land and that Palestinians have no legitimate claim on any part of it.

As you know, this belief is one form of what goes by the name “Zionism.” When it is religiously motivated, it is an especially stubborn belief, because Israel’s “title” to every square inch of the land is believed to be granted by God in the Bible. We were told in Israel that the number of religious Jewish Zionists in Israel is today growing appreciably, and that many are to be found in the settlements on Palestinian land (which they do not accept is Palestinian land). It is hard to see how they will ever voluntarily leave their homes, even if Israel signs a peace agreement. In short: Israel has created the conditions for a civil war if they try to dismantle settlements, and for a Palestinian revolt or a wider Middle East war if they never end their occupation.

This letter, though, is not about religious Jewish Zionism and its destructive effects on Israeli policy. It is about the Christian version of the same belief. This Christian version of Zionism matters deeply, not just because theology intrinsically matters, but because it is overwhelmingly clear that American evangelical-fundamentalist Christian Zionism affects US policy toward Israel and the Palestinians in distressing ways. It is one reason why the United States stands almost alone in the world community in supporting Israeli policies which our international friends generally find intolerable if not immoral and illegal.

Not to put too fine a point on it, we wish to claim here that the prevailing version of American Christian Zionism—that is, your belief system—underwrites theft of Palestinian land and oppression of Palestinian people, helps create the conditions for an explosion of violence, and pushes US policy in a destructive direction that violates our nation’s commitment to universal human rights. In all of these, American Christian Zionism as it currently stands is sinful and produces sin. We write as evangelical Christians committed lifelong to Israel's security, and we are seriously worried about your support for policies that violate biblical warnings about injustice and may lead to the outcome you most fear—serious harm to or even destruction of Israel.

We write as evangelicals to you, our fellow evangelicals. On the shared basis of biblical authority, we ask you to reconsider your interpretation of Scripture, for the sake of God, humanity, the United States, and, yes, Israel itself, the Land and People you love.

II A Question of (Whose) Holy Land

We acknowledge that your evangelical-fundamentalist American Christian Zionism (henceforth simply “Christian Zionism”) is a product of a Christian community that loves and reads the Bible. This is on its face a good thing--for there appear to be fewer and fewer American Christians whose love of the Bible and whose devotion to reading it can be taken for granted. We commend your love for the scriptures.

Both now and in the past, whenever Christian Zionism emerges its essential origin is simply Christian reading of the Hebrew Bible, or what Christians call the Old Testament. Our love of the Bible takes Christians into the pages of the Old Testament; there we cannot help but discover the centrality of a Promised Land for the Jewish people. The trajectory of the canonical Old Testament moves inexorably toward and away from the Promised Land—the patriarchal narratives in which a people and land are promised despite humble origins; enslavement in Egypt; the miraculous Exodus and grim wilderness wanderings under Moses; the conquest of the Promised Land; the establishment, split, and eventual conquest of Israel as a political entity; the Babylonian exile and dispersion of the Jewish people; and a partial return to the land, at which point the OT historical narrative ends.

Our Christian love for and identification with “the Holy Land” can and often does deepen through reading of the New Testament as well. The four Gospels, in particular, detail the journeys of Jesus through (Roman-subjugated) Israel, and many millions of Christians have cut their spiritual teeth on those stories. We have come to know and love Nazareth and Bethlehem, Capernaum and Cana and the shore of the Sea of Galilee and of course Jerusalem, because those are the places that Jesus walked. Having just visited Israel this summer, we can attest to the continuing power of these places to connect spiritually with Christians in surprisingly profound ways. Both of us found ourselves deeply affected, for example, by standing on the shore of the Sea of Galilee where tradition holds that Jesus reinstated Peter after his denials. The intense spiritual impact of “walking where Jesus walked” continues to draw millions of Christians to Holy Land tours. Even in our jaded age, there is still power in spiritual pilgrimage to Holy Land—the Holy Land.

As devoted Christians, we share this love of the sacred lands of the biblical tradition with all who hold such love. We think that love of the Holy Land is far better than indifference to it. And both of us, as students of the long and terrible history of Christian anti-Semitism, which culminated in the horrors of the Holocaust, far prefer a strong sense of Christian kinship with the Jewish people and their historic homeland than the centuries-long Christian pattern of theological disdain and even hatred that so long predominated. The question then becomes not whether to love “Israel”—understood as the People and the Land—but how best to do so. We think this is a question that you will understand and want to answer properly, as we do.

We suggest to you that contemporary Christian Zionism is well-intentioned but needs correction at some very important points. This requires some careful biblical and theological work—from within the basic framework of evangelical Christianity. This means that the relevant scriptural texts need to be studied in detail, and that Christian theology needs to do its proper work with those texts.

For example, we suggest that Christian Zionists who move from a generalized love of Israel to a specific claim that the contemporary state of Israel has divine title to the entire Holy Land, need to take more seriously the complexity of what the Bible actually says about God’s promises to Abraham.

Genesis 15:18 reads: “On that day the Lord made a covenant with Abram, saying, ‘To your descendants I give this land, from the river of Egypt to the great river, the river Euphrates.” The next verse goes on to name the various peoples to whom the land belonged at the time.

The territory denoted by the space between these two rivers includes modern-day Lebanon, Syria, Jordan, half of Iraq, half of Egypt, parts of Turkey and Saudi Arabia, the modern state of Israel, as well as the occupied Palestinian territories.

A literal reading of the text that assumes that the descendants of Abram are only the Jewish people faces a problem here. Either God is not very good at keeping his promises, or God’s plan is for contemporary Israel ultimately to conquer all of these other countries and occupy their land. That would result in an Israel ruled by its 90% majority Arabs, or an Israel attempting to subjugate that 90% by force.

But the promise looks very different if we take seriously all of the offspring of Abraham. Genesis 15:4-5 has God taking Abram outside and telling him that his descendants will be as numerous as the stars of the heavens. Genesis 17:4, probably the pivotal text, has God saying to Abraham: “This is my covenant with you: You shall be the ancestor of a multitude of nations.” Many nations, a multitude of nations; many offspring, many kings—read Genesis 17 again and see the plural nouns here.

Close readers of Scripture will know that in fact Abraham did become the father of many nations. With Sarah he became the father of Isaac and the ancestor of all in his line, via Jacob and Esau. With Hagar he became the father of Ishmael and all in his line. And with the long-forgotten Keturah (Gen. 25:1) he became the father of Zimran, Jokshan, Medan, Midian, Ishbak, and Shuah. The Old Testament clearly positions Abraham as the father/ancestor of not only the Jewish people but of a vast number of other peoples, all scattered through the territories promised in Genesis 15. Abraham becomes the father of dozens of peoples, exactly as the Bible says! It is certainly true that the Old Testament primarily tells the story of the line of Isaac and therefore of what became the Jewish people, but that cannot cancel the significance of the promises to Abraham and the many peoples credited to him in Genesis.

The New Testament makes an important move here as well. In Romans 4, Paul says that by faith non-Jews become Abraham’s descendants too: “The purpose was to make him the ancestor of all who believe” (Rom 4:11). Europeans and Asians, Africans and Latin Americans, any who believe in Jesus enter the line of Abraham. This is why it is correct to say that (at least) Jews, Christians, and Muslims are all descendants of Abraham, all part of the Abrahamic family tree, some by birth, some by lineage, some by faith.

Perhaps you will respond by saying that God promises the land of Canaan specifically to the Jewish people. You might cite here Genesis 17:8: “I will give to you, and to your offspring after you, the land where you are now an alien, all the land of Canaan, for a perpetual holding.” This interpretation would require restricting the “offspring” in question to Abraham’s offspring through Sarah via Isaac and then on to Jacob and excluding Esau. But the promise to possess the land includes the offspring of Isaac, and the offspring of Isaac includes Esau, with his five Edomite sons and their offspring, as Genesis 36 states, and that includes multitudes of Canaanites, not only Jews. It would also require the assumption that we know what Gen. 17 means territorially with the term “Canaan” and that it corresponds with the Zionist’s version of the proper boundaries of the modern state of Israel.

One other point from later in the Old Testament seems important to mention here. Even when the narrative moves forward into the book of Joshua, and the twelve tribes of Israel “conquer” the “Promised Land,” it is striking that the scriptures themselves acknowledge the ongoing presence of non-Hebrews in the land. Texts like this recur: “But the people of Judah could not drive out the Jebusites, the inhabitants of Jerusalem; so the Jebusites live with the people of Judah in Jerusalem to this day” (Josh 15:63; compare Josh 13:13, 16:10, 17:12-13, 19:47).

Christians, even those who know their Bibles well, tend to think of the book of Joshua as containing the (bloody) fulfillment of the promise of the whole Land to Israel—the entire land is conquered by war, and then divided up among the tribes. A close reading shows that the Hebrew tribes shared the land for centuries with other groups, and that even when tribes were assigned certain portions of land, they didn’t necessarily control every square inch of it. The point is obvious later when it comes to the challenge posed by the Philistines. It is not an overstatement to say that the Israelite/Hebrew/Jewish people never had exclusive possession of the Holy Land, regardless of whatever divine promises they or we believe that they received.

III Those Who Do Justice Keep Their Land

Let us now assume that God indeed promised the offspring of Abraham and Sarah via Isaac and Jacob a portion of the land between the Nile and the Euphrates. Let us even assume that this promise was intended by God to extend even to our own day and beyond. And let us further assume that in the dark shadow of the Holocaust it was an act of divine grace for a substantial portion of the surviving remnant of the Jewish people to have a modern-day homeland in the contemporary state of Israel. These are substantial claims that could be challenged for many reasons, but we are prepared to accept them, along with you.

But we do so while keeping in front of us another strand of relevant biblical teaching. The prophets, writing much later in Israel’s history, long after Israel had established substantial political kingdoms, warned repeatedly that God’s covenant with Israel has a dimension of conditionality to it. Whether preaching in the northern kingdom of Israel prior to the Assyrian conquest, or the southern kingdom of Judah prior to the Babylonian conquest and exile, Israel’s prophets repeatedly warned that God’s covenant promise of the land was conditional on her moral performance. In particular, the prophets warned that, in keeping with the stipulations of the Law, Israel would be judged by her treatment of the aliens in the land, of the poor, the widows, and the orphans.

The 7^th/6^th century BC prophet Jeremiah sounded such themes consistently. We see it in Jeremiah 6:6-8: “This city must be punished; it is filled with oppression…Violence and destruction resound in her…Take warning, O Jerusalem, or I will turn away from you and make your land desolate so no one can live in it.” Jeremiah 7 is a hugely important passage, in which the prophet warns the complacent worshippers at the seemingly impregnable Temple that it and they would be ruined if they did not “amend your ways and your doings, and let me dwell with you in this place” (Jer 7:3). Jeremiah warned: “Will you steal, murder, commit adultery, swear falsely…then come and stand before me in this house, which is called by my name, and say, “We are safe!”—only to go on doing all these abominations?” (7:9-10). And the climax: “I will cast you out of my sight, just as I cast out all your kinfolk, all the offspring of Ephraim” (7:15).

Old Testament scholars have long recognized that a powerful, important, and dynamic tension exists in the OT between themes of a conditional and unconditional covenant between God and Israel. God has chosen Israel and made binding promises to her; and yet God has warned Israel that her persistent violation of her part of that covenant could trigger God’s judgment, including in war and in exile. And anyone who reads the Old Testament knows that war and exile came to Israel, that it was prophesied in advance as divine judgment, and described in retrospect in the same way.

At a theological level, we are claiming that even if one accepts a) a divine promise of land to the Jewish people as recorded in scripture, b) a belief that this promise extends even to this day, and c) the modern state of Israel as, in part, God’s gracious fulfillment of this promise, one must also say d) the Bible, in the prophetic writings, also teaches that persistent injustice on the part of Israel has evoked, and still can bring, God’s judgment, which can extend even to war and exile. Israel’s remaining in the land depends on Israel’s now doing justice to Palestinians and making peace with its Arab neighbors that surround Israel. Indeed, Jesus, as prophet and Savior, also prophesied that Jerusalem would be destroyed because they did not know the practices that make for peace (Lk 19:41-44). And Jerusalem was destroyed, 40 years later. Do you not fear that it could happen again? Does not your love of Israel make you want to do all you can to prevent that from happening? And yet your actions actually make it more likely to happen!

IV The Holy Land on the Precipice

Any visitor to this tortured Holy Land who avoids a sanitized Christian tour and actually visits with Palestinians, actually stands in the shadow of the Separation Wall, actually sees what military occupation looks and feels like, cannot but tremble at these biblical words of warning.

We are not Old Testament prophets, nor do we pretend to see the future. But we have seen enough to claim that the occupation practices of the modern state of Israel are a direct violation of the most basic biblical moral principles. It is immoral to steal anything, including people’s land, homes, and vineyards. It is immoral to dehumanize people, as occurs daily in Israeli prisons and checkpoints. It is immoral to choke people’s freedom and deprive them of their dignity. And it is foolish, a violation of every lesson of history, to think that through sheer intimidation and superior military power a people can be subjugated indefinitely without rising up in resistance or attracting more powerful allies who will do so on their behalf. God gave humanity a recognition of justice and a nearly endless capacity to resist injustice. It is wired into our nature, and the Palestinian people and the neighboring countries have it just like everyone else does.

We genuinely fear that someday someone or some nation inflamed with resentment at the seemingly eternal Israeli subjugation of the Palestinian people will “make your land desolate so no one can live in it” (Jer 6:8). That sounds like a nuclear bomb. Have you heard of Mahmoud Ahmedinijad? We heard from Palestinian leaders a current commitment to pursue their cause nonviolently. We applaud that commitment. We see it as an extraordinary one under the circumstances. We fear that it cannot last forever, for no people will allow itself to be ground into the dust indefinitely. What are you doing to end their suffering and bring justice to them?

We will leave it to God to sort out with the Jewish people of the modern state of Israel the very complex terms of his covenant with them. But we cannot remain silent about the vast array of American Christians who support the most repressive and unjust Israeli policies in the name of Holy Land and a Holy God. We charge that you bear grave responsibility for aiding and abetting obvious sin, and if Israel once again sees war, we suggest that you will bear part of the responsibility. Christians are called to be peacemakers (Mt 5:9), but by offering uncritical support of current Israeli policies you are actively inflaming the Middle East toward war—in the name of God. This is appalling; it is intolerable; it must stop!

We plead with you, our brothers and sisters, to find a better way, a more biblical way, to love Israel. Love Israel enough to oppose rather than support actions that violate God’s clearly revealed moral will. And while you are at it, it might be good to work on loving the Palestinians, some of whom are also our Christian sisters and brothers. When you visit Israel, we urge you to visit with Palestinian Christians and ask them what they want us, their fellow Christians, to support. For they surely need our love. And we are surely commanded to love them, too.

In the name of Christ,

David P. Gushee

Glen H. Stassen

Read the authors' reply to the many responses to the open letter.

A Message from J Street: Say No to Cutting Palestinian Aid

2011-09-17T10:00:00.000-07:00

By Glen Stassen

As we experienced in our just peacemaking course in Palestine and Israel, the Palestinian Authority and the Palestinians on the ground have committed themselves to nonviolent strategies. This is why Israel reports that last year was the most violence-free year in their experience.

Palestinians have decided on a violence-free strategy of putting their energies into building their own society, emphasizing education so their people are well skilled for today's economy, and being the state that they are, rather than focusing their energies on disempowering resentment. This is the kind of constructive emphasis we should all be supporting in this crucial time. Their asking the UN for membership status is part of that constructive strategy.

The pro-peace advocacy group J Street issued this appeal:

American politicians are tripping over themselves to punish the Palestinian Authority, the UN and even third-party countries over the Palestinian application for membership in the United Nations—all in the name of burnishing their pro-Israel credentials. They’re even-- we kid you not-- urging U.S. support for Israeli annexation of “Judea and Samaria."

This is yet another symptom of just how broken our politics on Israel are. But this is the problem J Street was created to fix, by giving pragmatic pro-Israel, pro-peace Americans voice.

We have to show Congress just how many pro-Israel Americans – deeply concerned about Israel, its security and even the consequences of a UN vote – oppose cutting aid to the Palestinian Authority.Click here now to tell Congress you oppose counterproductive cuts to Palestinian aid.

Thankfully, some members of Congress are urging the President to stop possible aid cuts.

Representatives David Price (D-NC) and Peter Welch (D-VT) are circulating a letter to the President which says that, “the suspension or ending of U.S. aid could undermine the very foundations of a future Palestinian state, undoing the progress that has been made in recent years toward strengthening the PA’s security and governing institutions.”

Please tell your Member of Congress to sign the Price-Welch letter today.

While Israel’s own Shin Bet security agency has said that U.S. security assistance helped make 2010 the most terror-free year in a decade, Members of Congress too often hear that Israel has no partner for peace.

They don’t hear enough from those of us who respect what the PA is doing to make a two-state solution possible.

Click here now to tell your Member of Congress to sign the Price-Welch letter in favor of maintaining aid to the Palestinian Authority.

Thank you for all that you do,
Aliza, Carinne, Dan, Hadar, Jeremy, Nan and Rachel

2011-09-07T09:49:00.000-07:00

Peacemaking in Africa

Voices of People in Action

Sept 30 – Oct 1, 2011

Fuller Theological Seminary

Friday, September 30 • 5 P.M. to 8 P.M.

Saturday, October 1 • 9 A.M. to 5 P.M.

Travis Auditorium, Fuller Theological Seminary

135 N Oakland Ave, Pasadena, CA 91182

Hosted by: Fuller Just Peacemaking Initiative,

Peace and Justice Advocates,

and William Carey International University

On September 30 to October 1 there will be a two-day conference on peacemaking in Africa at Fuller Theological Seminary. Speakers from different parts of the African continent, along with peacemaking activists and scholars, will share their experiences and views on making peace in areas of conflict in Africa. Keynote speaker Kisongo Mbeleulu worked for many years in his home country of Democratic Republic of Congo on peace and reconciliation programs for Rwandans and Congolese. The focus is on just peacemaking, which includes initiatives at grassroots and government levels, as well as in development. Read more about the Just Peacemaking Initiative at: http://www.justpeacemaking.org.

The Peacemaking in Africa conference begins at 5 P.M. on Friday, Sept. 30 in Travis Auditorium (at the School of Psychology on the Fuller campus). It continues Saturday, Oct. 1 starting at 9 A.M. with a program featuring speakers, music, and food. On Saturday at noon an authentic Nigerian lunch will be available for $5. The program is free to the public. The goals of the conference are:

1. To learn from practitioners of peacemaking in Africa. What do they say are the challenges, opportunities, and areas of need? How do they use Scripture for peacemaking? From what other sources are they drawing?

2. To share tools and resources for peacemaking.

3. To generate interest and awareness among university students, seminarians, and the general public about practices of peacemaking.

Kisongo Mbeleulu was born and raised in a Christian family in the Democratic Republic of Congo. He worked for the Mennonite Central Committee (MCC) when the war in Rwanda erupted and millions of Hutus and Tutsi fled into Congo (Zaire). He served with the MCC and the “Eglise du Christ au Congo” (ECC) in relief efforts and long term development programs, such as the Peace and Reconciliation Program for Rwandans and Congolese. He is an M.A. student in International Development at William Carey International University. He currently lives in Minneapolis and is a member of Bethlehem Baptist Church. He speaks five languages: French, Swahili, Kibembe, Lingala, and English.

Faustin Ntamushobora was born and raised in Rwanda. His family lived in the Congo, where his father was the priest in the village. After Faustin’s father passed away, his mother accepted Christ and led her children to belief in Jesus. Faustin immediately felt God’s calling in his life. In 1994, when Rwanda suffered great horrors as genocide swept across the nation, Faustin’s family hid under their beds for weeks. They tried not to be discovered, while people around them were being killed mercilessly. Faustin trusted that God would save his family, as he continued to put his hope in the calling God had on his life. Faustin looks back on that time from a new perspective—as a survivor. He is currently a Ph.D. student at Biola University Talbot School of Theology. Faustin learned to share his experiences with people around the world. He turned his story into a passion for spreading God’s Word, specifically regarding forgiveness and reconciliation.

Bryant Myers is a published author on poverty and transformational development, humanitarian aid, and world mission. His most recent works include Exploring World Mission: Context and Challenges, Walking with the Poor: Principles and Practice of Transformational Development, and Working with the Poor: Insights and Learnings from Development Practitioners. He joined the faculty of Fuller as professor of transformational development in 2006, bringing over 30 years’ experience with World Vision International.

Other featured speakers include Anne Nyarangi Ofumbi, James Butare-Kiyovu, Emily Choge-Kerama, and Sunday Agang. Peter Sensenig is the administrator of the Just Peacemaking Initiative (JPI) and a Christian Ethics doctoral student at Fuller Theological Seminary. Professor Glen Stassen, director of JPI, developed just peacemaking along with thirty scholars and has co-written a book on tri-faith just peacemaking, with Muslim, Christian, and Jewish scholars (forthcoming 2011). For directions, schedule of events, and more information, visit www.justpeacemaking.org or email justpeacemaking@gmail.com.

Pasadena Human Rights Forum- TONIGHT!

2011-09-07T09:36:00.000-07:00

To be Muslim in America or even in our City is to know suspicious glances, looks of distrust and to feel a certain level of unease. For a country whose founding principal was religious freedom and tolerance we have become a nation divided by intolerance. We have forgotten that with our own freedom comes the responsibility to insure that others have the same freedom and enjoy the same level of tolerance. Americans have been frightened by myths, misinformation and a general lack of knowledge about our Muslim neighbors.
Therefore, on September 7^th, as we mark the 10^thanniversary of 9/11, the Human Relations Commission, in conjunction with Goraya Consulting, will present an important community dialog that will explore the myths and stereotypes surrounding Islam and Muslims. We want to encourage everyone to attend, ask questions, get answers and begin to help bridge the divide that has begun to fracture our civil society. The forum will be held in Council Chambers, 100 N. Garfield beginning promptly at 6:00. If you have questions you may reach me at 626-796-6878 or Sonya Amos at 626-744-4234

How to Start a Church-Based Peacemaker Group

2011-08-26T18:46:00.000-07:00

Practice #10 of Just Peacemaking is to encourage grassroots peacemaking groups. Michael L. Westmoreland-White explains how this can be done in the context of a congregation.
Read or download the article below.

How to Start a Church Peacemaker Group

From the Arab Spring to Israeli Summer

2011-08-19T14:57:00.000-07:00

By Salim J. Munayer Director, Musalaha, for Musalaha's Prayer Update

Nearly two months ago, I was asked to preach in our congregation. I decided to give a message on the "Gospel and Cottage Cheese” by using the parable of the “Rich Man and Lazarus” reflecting on economic and social injustice. The cost of cottage cheese had shot up to 8 NIS ($2.3) for a 250g container, leading to a nationwide protest, which started on Facebook and eventually forced dairy producers to lower the price. As most of the congregants are hardworking, middle-class individuals who are financially struggling, I alluded to the fact that we should not be surprised that a phenomenon like the “Arab Spring” (the recent wave of demonstrations and protests across the Middle East) could also happen in Israel.

Just two weeks ago, 300,000 Israelis took to the streets to protest the high cost of living in proportion to their low salaries. Economically, there is a gap in society as a small percentage of the wealthy control the markets and the middle class is struggling to survive. This protest resembles the Arab Spring in that the protesters are young, educated individuals who earn a decent salary, but at the end of the day, can barely afford rent and the increasing prices of food; indeed, most will never be able to afford purchasing a home.

The most interesting thing about the “Israeli Summer” is that this protest emerged from small grassroots groups that united together looking out for the interests of the greater society. This time, student groups were not only advocating tuition cuts, but also opposing other injustices present in society. Most of the organizers and leaders are young men and women who are taking upon themselves the responsibility and task of leadership, and coming across as very strong and capable in doing so. As we watch the next generation of Israelis become the movers and shakers of this society, we hope that it will also lead to a shift on the political level.

The "Israeli Summer" is not only about social justice. More importantly, the leaders are calling Israeli Jews to reexamine the dynamics, direction, and moral values of the country. They are encouraging the people to ask themselves what kind of country they want to live in and to demand this of their political leaders and of themselves. I believe it will be these leaders who will reevaluate Israel’s relationship with the Palestinians.

As a grassroots movement, Musalaha invests much time and many resources in training youth, young adults and women in leadership and change implementation from the bottom up. We pray and hope that the young leaders of the "Israeli Summer" will take the opportunity to address the deadlock in the Israeli-Palestinian situation, which is causing the societies to move in a more violent direction. We have a golden opportunity to make real and impacting change. This gives us hope and encourages us to continue what we do.

As young leaders and citizens of this country realize the power and influence they hold and the effects of peaceful demonstrations, it is our hope and prayer that just as they are now able to call hundreds of thousands of Israelis to the streets to demand social justice, they will one day work for peace.

President Obama's Nobel Prize Speech and Just Peacemaking

2011-08-18T12:34:00.000-07:00

Presentation by Peter Sensenig at All Saints Episcopal Church Rector's Forum - watch here.

Peacemaking in Africa Conference - Save the Date!

2011-08-12T15:24:00.000-07:00

Peacemaking in Africa

Voices of People in Action

Sept 30 – Oct 1, 2011

Fuller Theological Seminary

Travis Auditorium, Fuller Seminary

Hosted by the Fuller Just Peacemaking Initiative,

Peace and Justice Advocates,

and William Carey International University

Featuring speakers, music, food, and more. More information coming soon.

Israel-Palestine's Ongoing Challenge: The Dual Narrative

2011-08-06T17:06:00.000-07:00

By Adam Estle

The Fuller Just Peacemaking Israel/Palestine 2011 trip far exceeded my greatest expectations. Before this trip I found myself very unbalanced in my approach to peace in Israel and Palestine. My background working with Arabs and Muslims in the Middle East and the US had led me to understand the Palestinian side of the story very well. I did not understand the Israeli narrative, nor did I really want to. I began to realize that this unbalanced view would not help me be able to participate in the resolution of the conflict, but would keep me stuck in perpetuating its continuation.

When I found out about the Fuller trip, I was drawn by the idea that it would be a "dual narrative" trip, attempting to gain understanding of the conflict from both both sides. Often, people visit Israel/Palestine and see/hear only one side of the story. This leaves people with inacurrate, and often unhelpful, understandings of the situation.

Not only did the trip help me understand both narratives, but also the vast complexities within each side. I now feel that I have a much more complete understanding of the conflict and identify myself as pro-peace and pro-people, pro-Israeli and pro-Palestinian! Both Israelis and Palestinians are suffering greatly from the conflict, and gaining this insight from the Fuller Just Peacemaking trip has only multiplied my sense of urgency to be part of a just, secure, and peaceful resolution.

Adam Estle teaches Spanish at Kellis High School in Glendale, Arizona. He is a recent graduate of Fuller Seminary with a Master of Arts in Global Leadership.

Coming in November: Interfaith Just Peacemaking

2011-08-05T16:13:00.000-07:00

The forthcoming book, Interfaith Just Peacemaking (Palgrave Macmillan: Fall, 2011), features essays by ten Christian scholars, ten Muslim scholars, and ten Jewish scholars. All 30 reached consensus to support the ten practices of just peacemaking, and there is an essay by a scholar from each faith supporting each practice.

Musalaha: Working for Peace in Israel-Palestine

2011-08-05T08:59:00.000-07:00

By Laura Fritz for Musalaha (www.musalaha.org)

“I love this camp,” a pre-teen girl told me as we played in the pool, “I love everything it stands for and everything it’s about, and it’s so fun!”

This attitude was echoed throughout Musalaha’s Israeli-Palestinian summer camp held at the Baptist Village in Petah Tikva by the 70 Palestinian and Israeli believing children and both local and foreign leaders.

For me, after six months in the Land, this camp gave me real hope like nothing else I have experienced. There was hope in the Bible studies, in the competitions, in the craziness and laughter, and in the worship. There was hope as the children were creative with their crafts and reckless in their play. There was hope as they were just being girls and boys – having fun, making friends, getting a break from the pressures of their everyday environment.

The 50 leaders arrived on Saturday afternoon to begin a run-through of the camp activities. We were quite a mix – the Musalaha leadership team, Israeli and Palestinian young teens who were junior counselors, Palestinian and Israeli college-aged counselors, and an American team visiting the country to serve us and the children. Over the course of the two days of preparation we got to know each other, and when the children arrived on Monday, we were ready!

When they arrived, many of the children found friends they had met at last year’s camp. A group of two Palestinian and three Israeli girls negotiated to be in the same room. Upon receiving permission, they pulled five bunks together to make one huge bed where they could sleep together.

During my time here, I’ve gotten pretty good at identifying who is on which side – quickly profiling everyone I meet. It’s usually unconscious, automatic, and often seems necessary. When I get on a bus, I need to remember what kind of bus it is so I know if I should greet and thank the driver in Hebrew or Arabic. When I see a group, I notice which side they are from. When I talk to people, I want to know where their sympathies lie so I don’t say something terribly offensive.

At the camp I realized that I wasn’t noticing who was Israeli and who was Palestinian. I saw my brothers and sisters from both sides of the conflict demonstrate a love of Christ and each other above their love of sticking with their side. Leaders cared for kids, loving and instructing them regardless of where they came from. We were all there as believers in Jesus, and as should more often be the case, during camp no other identity really mattered.

One day after craft time, a Palestinian boy from the West Bank proudly pulled me aside to show me his pencil case. On it, he had painted an Israeli flag. I am not sure how his parents would feel about it, but it showed me how much more simple this situation is for the children. He loved his new friends and leaders and therefore had fond feelings about the place they are from.

As my coworker Tamara and I reflected on the camp, she said, “Innocence breaks down all this hatred that we have around us. You love the good things that you see in the other side. Like Jesus said, we should be little children.”

The reality is that the conflict will probably get harder for these dear young ones as they get older. They will be pulled and they will likely have experiences that will confirm what their communities teach about the other. The conflict is real and they will likely come face to face with it before long.

But that thought is followed by remembering what I saw in the young adults who helped to lead the camp, many of whom have been raised as a part of Musalaha. They are pulled, but they do not forget their friends. For them, the “enemy” will never be faceless, inhuman, or distant. For them, the situation will never be easy or black and white. That is good. With open eyes they can help bring change. They are the hope.

He called a little child to him, and placed the child among them. And he said: “Truly I tell you, unless you change and become like little children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.” –Matthew 18:1-3

Drought in Somalia - Peacemaking Demands a Response

2011-08-05T08:43:00.000-07:00

Somalia has experienced tremendous suffering for two decades from an ongoing war, and is now in the midst of a severe drought that is threatening millions of lives. The best way to work for peace in this troubled area is to respond to the immediate needs of the people. Mennonite Central Committee (MCC) is appealing for donations in response to the critical drought and food crisis, which has affected about 11 million people. MCC is responding in Kenya by supporting food-for-work projects. In Ethiopia, MCC funds are expected to be used for supplemental food for children under age 5 and lactating or pregnant women. For more information, visit mcc.org/eastafricadrought. Donations to support MCC's response can be made online (mcc.org/donate), by mail or in person to any MCC office or by telephone (toll free: 1-888-563-4676) and should be designated for "East Africa Drought Response." MCC encourages you also to pray for the people of East Africa at this time of crisis.

From Ron Sider: "Call Washington ASAP"

2011-07-29T15:46:00.000-07:00

Just peacemaking requires concern for the poor both in the U.S. and abroad. Read Ron Sider's petition concerning the debt ceiling (source: Evangelicals for Social Action):

Our nation is in crisis. That was clear as I listened to President Obama and Speaker Boehner Monday night.

It will be disastrous unless Democrats and Republicans reach some compromise immediately. We must insist on it.

Please call or email your two senators and congressperson today.

Tell them:

1) Reach an agreement now to lift the debt ceiling through 2012

2) Do it fairly:

We all must sacrifice but the poor must be protected
The military budget can be cut by at least $100 billion a year
The wealthiest Americans can afford to contribute a little more by closing tax loopholes and/or modestly increased taxes

For more details, see the Concrete Proposal for Intergenerational Justice at Evangelicals for Social Action’s website by clicking here.

You can find out your congresspersons’ (2 senators and representative) names and contact information at:

House: http://www.house.gov/representatives/

Senate: http://www.senate.gov/general/contact_information/senators_cfm.cfm

Or you can call the Capitol Switchboard at 202-224-3121 to contact your Senators.

Let your voice be heard

Ron Sider, President

Evangelicals for Social Action

Palestinian Nonviolent Resistance - Dheisheh Refugee Camp

2011-07-19T07:59:00.000-07:00

The Fuller peacemaking course (co-led by Dr. Glen Stassen) learns about Palestinian nonviolent resistance in the West Bank. Dheisheh refugee camp, Bethlehem, June 24, 2011.

Baptist World Alliance Endorses Just Peacemaking

2011-07-17T15:28:00.000-07:00

Washington, DC (BWA)--The Baptist World Alliance is encouraging its member conventions and unions, churches and Baptist individuals to learn the "ten practices of 'just peacemaking'" and "to incorporate them ... in our congregations and institutions."

In a resolution passed during its Annual Gathering in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, July 4-9, the BWA also urged governments to pursue the ten practices "in their leadership, policies and actions."

The "just peacemaking" formula was developed by scholars led by Glen Stassen, a Baptist and professor of Christian Ethics at Fuller Theological Seminary in Pasadena, California, in the United States. The peace plan includes support for nonviolent action; cooperative conflict resolution; the promotion of human rights, religious liberty and democracy; economic development that is just and sustainable; a reduction in offensive weapons and weapons trade; the support of grassroots peacemaking groups and voluntary associations; and the strengthening of the United Nations and other international organizations.

The BWA recalled Jesus' cry over Jerusalem in Luke 19:42, when he bewailed ignorance of "those things that make for peace." We, the BWA said, "envision Jesus weeping over many cities and nations of our world because we do not know those things that make for peace."

In a separate resolution, the BWA endorsed the peace agreement signed by three Naga factions in the Northeast Indian state of Nagaland in 2009.

"We give thanks to God for the remarkable efforts of the Forum for Naga Reconciliation under the leadership of Wati Aier to bring peace to the Naga people," the resolution states. "We commend those parties who signed the 2009 Covenant of Reconciliation and urge them to fulfill its promise."

The 2009 covenant was further endorsed at a "high level" meeting of Naga leaders on September 18, 2010.

For decades, several Naga groups have been in conflict with each other and with the Indian government over issues of autonomy and sovereignty for Nagaland state and the Naga people. Between 1992 and 2009, more than 2,330 insurgency related fatalities have been recorded in Nagaland.

At the meetings in Kuala Lumpur, Aier was presented with the BWA Denton and Janice Lotz Human Rights Award for his role in brokering peace among the Nagas, a group that is predominantly Christian with a large Baptist population.

GPS Invisibility in Palestine

2011-07-17T08:21:00.000-07:00

By Paul Alexander for ESA's 'Jesus and Politics' blog

My GPS map for the State of Israel works great. It shows every little road and side street, with pretty colors on the map, and a nice woman’s voice giving me clear directions. But in the West Bank, in the Palestinian Territories, it shows gray roads with no names in cities that “cannot be found.” Just a little blue car on a gray road with no indication of the name of the town, much less the names of streets or the locations of restaurants and gas stations. While driving down bustling Manger Road past shops and cafes I typed in “B-E-T-H-L-E-H-E-M,” and I was informed that the city could not be found. I was in the city. But it was invisible to my GPS.

GPS invisibility and diminished name recognition – no street names, no businesses, grayed out – seems an apt symbol of the relative invisibility and diminished recognition of Palestinian evangelical Christians. Suppressed voices of real people who live, and work, and breathe, and love in real places like Bethlehem, one of the many towns that “cannot be found.”

Palestinian evangelicals have a lot to share. They have been living and worshiping in the West Bank for generations but their message is like a gray street without a name. It’s there, but only for people who know where to look or who have received a map from someone else.

The GPS can also represent how Palestinian aspirations can coexist with Israeli desires. Wanting Palestinian city names and street names to show up on a map, in full color, with voice directions does not mean that one wants the Israeli maps to become grayed out and the Israeli street names to disappear. Palestinian evangelicals unequivocally support the existence of the State of Israel; they would just like also to have a state for themselves and their fellow Palestinians. I support helpful maps on a GPS for all of Israel; I’d just like helpful maps on a GPS for all of Palestine as well.

When people’s stories are not listened to we often say they are disenfranchised or marginalized in contrast to those who are enfranchised and in the middle of the important conversations. Another way to describe their experience is that they’re not even completely on the map and the roads to their stories are difficult to find. This is literally true of Palestinians and the “Israel and Palestinian Territories” map for a Garmin GPS. As I am here in Israel and the West Bank for the next two weeks I will be sharing stories from both Israeli and Palestinian evangelical and Pentecostal Christians. The Israeli stories are easier to find because the GPS works really well there, but the Palestinian stories can be found too as long as there are other maps to use. And that’s a hopeful aspect to the GPS and Palestine situation – there are at least gray roads with no names, which is better than no roads at all, and there are other maps. As the Palestinian evangelical stories become better known perhaps we can progress toward a world where even their cities and streets, and their lives and testimonies, show up on our maps.

An invitation from Bread for the World - fight hunger!

2011-07-17T08:13:00.000-07:00

Practice #6 of just peacemaking is to foster just economic development so that the needs of people are met. Bread for the World needs your help to ensure that hungry people don't lose critical programs.

On Tuesday, July 19, Christian leaders will gather on the steps of Immanuel Presbyterian Church in Los Angeles to urge Sens. Barbara Boxer and Dianne Feinstein to form a circle of protection around programs that meet the essential needs of hungry and poor people in California and abroad.

This is a critical moment. Will you join us?

Here are the details for the event:

When: Tuesday, July 19, at 10:30 a.m.

Where: Immanuel Presbyterian Church
3300 Wilshire Blvd, Los Angeles, CA
Parking available on site. Two blocks from Wilshire/Vermont Red Line Metro

Who: You and a diverse coalition of Christian leaders, including:
Bishop Alexander Salazar, auxiliary Roman Catholic bishop of Los Angeles
Rev. Carissa Baldwin, director of peace and justice, All Saints Church, Pasadena
Rev. William Epps, senior pastor, Second Baptist Church, Los Angeles
Invited: Archbishop Jose Gomez and Bishop J. John Bruno.

Thank you for advocating for people who are hungry! We hope to see you there.

Prince of Peace

2011-07-16T18:10:00.000-07:00

By Joel Taylor

I have been in Israel/Palestine for 3 weeks and I have experienced many things. After 3 weeks of observing and experiencing fear, violence, desperation, anger, hatred, evil, as well as hope and joy, there is much I could recount.

Maybe some introduction first. I am currently in Hebron working with Christian Peacemaker Teams. Hebron is about 20 miles south of Jerusalem and houses around 200,000 Palestinians, as well as 200-400 Israeli settlers in the midst of the Old City. Settlers are individuals who have established Jewish communities built on land that was taken by Israel during the 1967 Six-Day War and is considered to be occupied territory by the international community. In many ways, Hebron is the “heart of the beast,” with regards to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Hebron contains the Ibrahimi Mosque or the Cave of the Patriarchs where, according to tradition, Adam, Eve, Abraham, Isaac, Rebecca, Jacob and Leah are buried. This obviously produces a large amount of conflict, which plagues the city. Because of the small contingent of settlers, who tend to be ideologically radical and violent, a large Israeli military presence exists in the city. These ingredients produce a combustible reality where checkpoints, searches, unwarranted arrests and violence characterize the lives of Palestinians in Hebron, which is a microcosm for all of Palestine.

The objectives of CPT are biblically based peacemaking, nonviolent direct action and protection of human rights. (Please check out the link for latest news stories and more explanation of CPT: www.cpt.org) More specifically, since arriving in Palestine, I have been going on daily patrols through the old city, responding to distress calls from Palestinians due to violence or oppression from soldiers or settlers, supporting Palestinian led non-violent resistance, as well as many other activities. Our “weapons” are our presence as internationals, a camera, cooperation with local groups and conversation.

I could easily write about experiencing smoke bombs, tear gas and daily having a machine gun barrel pointed at me. Or I could make it less about me and repeat stories concerning Palestinians getting beaten mercilessly by soldiers. Or, maybe, the best way to demonstrate the reality of Hebron would be to write about settlers who have called me a Nazi merely because I was in Hebron, which meant, to them, that I am “supporting murderers.” However, before any of that matters it is important to determine if we, as human beings, as followers of Jesus have any responsibility to stand for peace and justice, especially concerning Israel. (I apologize for anyone I have left out by addressing this post to Jesus-followers.) This goes much deeper than realizing the US gives Israel 11 million dollars daily in foreign aid to prop up the Israeli State and the occupation or understanding the role of the Church in this conflict.

On Saturdays, the settler community takes Jews on a tour through the Old City, which CPT monitors due to the many instances of violence that have arisen when groups of 50 or so Zionist Jews have walked through the impoverished Palestinian neighborhood with a convoy of 15 soldiers. At one point, a Jewish man on the tour asked me what CPT does and as I explained to him the values of nonviolence in seeking peace he interrupted by saying, “There will only be peace when the Meshiach comes.” A couple of nights later, after attending a lecture by Mark Braverman at Bethlehem Bible College, where the lecturer communicated hope and a way forward, a leader of a Christian missions agency dismissed the presentation by declaring to the CPT team, “There will only be peace here when the Prince of peace returns.” Then, a couple of nights ago, to end a cordial and respectful conversation with an Israeli soldier, he asserted, “Peace will only come with the Meshiach.” In other words, the Messiah is solely responsible for establishing peace here; for making things right. We, as human beings, are abdicated from any role as peacemakers or justice-seekers. That is a sentiment I have heard expressed many times throughout my life, whether in reference to Israel, to the poor or to a variety of other unjust situations. In essence, it gives us an excuse, shrouded in religious rhetoric, to not stand for righteousness and to dismiss concern for others and the world at large.

In my estimation, it seems this belief possesses a kernel of truth. When the Kingdom of God comes in completion then everything will be made right. But, the Kingdom of God is here and now! Jesus says that the Kingdom of God is at hand (Mark 1:14, 15). Jesus, his life, ministry, death and resurrection ushered in a new age: the age of the Kingdom of God. Lately, I have been meditating on Jesus instructions concerning prayer, especially the direction to pray for “God’s will on earth as it is in heaven.” What does pursuing God’s will on earth look like? I believe the answer is standing for the oppressed (James 1:27), working for peace (Matthew 5:9), acting justly and loving mercy (Micah 6:8). This is not a matter of inner-spirituality where we separate faith from action, sacred from secular. In fact, this exact approach has allowed and even produced atrocities throughout history. Instead, by understanding the Kingdom of God as present, we reorder our values and narrative around the most important event in history, the resurrection of Jesus, the inbreaking of the new into old. We are living in the new age where, with the help of the Holy Spirit, God’s will on earth should be pursued with faith and hope that change can be effected, peace can be realized and justice can be achieved.

Joel Taylor is a Masters student at Fuller Seminary. He has participated in the Fuller course in Israel/Palestine as well as in Christian Peacemaker Teams. See a photo of Joel in Hebron in the New York Times photo blog (Photo #3): http://lens.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/07/12/pictures-of-the-day-russia-and-elsewhere-2/

Fuller Seminary Campus Map

2011-07-01T16:45:00.000-07:00

Sacred Noise in Jerusalem

2011-06-21T00:42:00.000-07:00

By Michael Fox

After about two days without sleep in an airport/airplane - I've finally made it to Jerusalem. After an overnight plane from Warsaw to Tel Aviv, I caught a bus to Jerusalem, and am now trying to make myself at home in the youth hostel - that we had to wake the guy up for when we came in at 5 in the morning. So, class hasn't started yet, so I went walking in the Old City. It's kind of hard to describe, these small stone buildings with narrow walkways - all of it uneven stone applied by hand. You walk from one "section" to the next - not totally unlike LA or Chicago, you are always a few steps away from a totally different culture, a totally different take on human society. So, I'm staying in the Arab section, where mosques abound on every corner and the walls are covered in Arabic graffiti and Palestinian flags - but it's only a few curvy streets away from monasteries and shrines to the stations of the cross, and that's not far from archeological museums, ornate synagogues, and people in (Jewish) Orthodox clothing silently humming prayers as they walk down the street. (Pictures will be posted soon by the way elsewhere soon, so I can give you a better hint of what it's really like).

What really surprised me, my first impressions and state of tiredness being what they are, was how close everyone in the different groups was (in proximity if not in spirit). When I walked towards the Wailing Wall, even though Israeli flags and Hebrew abounded, my ears reminded me just how un-homogeneous modern Jerusalem really is. For, along with the powerful sound of sacred murmuring that accompanied the prayers at the temple wall - both an adhan (the Muslim call to prayer) and church bells could be heard in the distance. The merging of these three noises makes them all seem more powerful. Being a musican, I've been thinking a lot about the connection between sharing sounds and sharing lives. Somehow, I believe that if we learn to listen to each other, it can become an important step towards better understanding each other. Both being a great musican and being a peacemaking requires two things - empathy (the ability to feel an emotion strongly, and make someone else connect through sharing feelings) and creativity (the ability to imagine the world as a differnt place then it already is, to have your voice and contribute it to the whole)

So here's to hoping I discover more ways that noise between groups is being shared.

Michael Fox is an M.A. student in Intercultural Studies (concentration in ethnomusicology) at Fuller Seminary.

Peacemaker Group Heads to Israel/Palestine

2011-06-14T07:36:00.000-07:00

A group of students from Fuller Seminary will travel to Israel/Palestine from June 20-30. The group will be co-led by Marc Gopin, Glen Stassen, David Gushee, and Paul Alexander. The itinerary includes Jerusalem, Bethlehem, Jericho, Hebron, Ramallah, Galilee, and the Golan Heights.

Read more about the trip here. Look for photos and posts in the coming days!

Peacebuilding: Catholic Theology, Ethics, and Praxis - review by Glen Stassen

2011-06-07T06:34:00.000-07:00

Schreiter, Robert J., R. Scott Appleby and Gerard F. Powers (eds), Peacebuilding: Catholic Theology, Ethics, and Praxis (Maryknoll, New York: Orbis Books, 2010). xiii + 466 pp. £19.99 (pb), ISBN 978-1-57075-893-5.

Review by Glen Stassen

I come to Peacebuilding: Catholic Theology, Ethics, and Praxis from the perspective of my work helping develop Just Peacemaking: The New Paradigm for the Ethics of Peace and War, which is both Catholic and Protestant. Both books originated as responses to the call of the U.S. Catholic bishops’ Challenge of Peace for going beyond just war and pacifism, to develop “a positive Christian theology of peace.” Both also respond to the practical struggle for peacemaking where war and the threat of war portend enormous destruction in our time of increasingly destructive weapons, and where the enormous costs of militarization undermine budgets for education and human needs.

Lisa Cahill affirms Just Peacemaking (328). Maryann Cusimano Love argues that “Just-peace norms” are rapidly growing in widespread understanding. “The Catholic church, along with others, can play a role today in publicizing and institutionalizing norms of just peace…. Just-peace principles… must be pursued in all phases of the conflict cycle” (56). She advocates “Just Peacemaking… as a new paradigm that parallels but pushes beyond the just-war tradition” (75). She affirms the ten practices of just peacemaking “that provide alternatives to war,” but rightly indicates the feature of Peacebuilding that deserves widespread praise: most authors of Peacebuilding have practiced peacemaking in Indonesia, the Philippines, Latin America, Africa etc. Thus Peacebuilding is strongly rooted in Catholic tradition, is theologically rich, and its theology is not abstract and detached but supports actual peacemaking in challenging contexts. Read more.

David Gushee to speak on Social Justice and Human Dignity

2011-06-05T15:35:00.000-07:00

Just peacemaking emphasizes the advancement of human rights for all (practice #5) and developing just economic systems (practice #6). David Gushee explores the foundational human worth and dignity at the heart of these practices. Hear him speak at All Saints Episcopal Church on June 18.

Heidi Unruh on Sudan - Back on the Brink

2011-06-02T11:29:00.000-07:00

Back on the Brink in Sudan
by Heidi Unruh for Evangelicals for Social Action

Sudan is back on the brink of all-out civil war. The north is on the attack and the south is threatening to retaliate. UN officials are warning that the Sudanese government may be trying to “ethnically cleanse” parts of the north-south border.

Over the weekend the Sudanese Armed Forces bombed and captured the town of Abyei, on the disputed border between North and South Sudan. Thousands of civilians were displaced. A nearby UN compound was shelled during the assault, and ground forces have shot at UN helicopters. The government of Sudan has also launched a series of air strikes on villages in Darfur, in western Sudan. Read more.

Mennonite Central Committee on Human Rights

2011-05-27T10:04:00.000-07:00

Practice #5 of just peacemaking is the advancement of democracy, human rights, and religious liberty. Read the Mennonite Central Committee Peace Office's latest publication entitled "Human Rights and the Quest for Justice and Peace," which includes stories and perspectives from Haiti, Canada, U.S. (on immigration), Colombia, Iraq, and southern Africa, as well as art focused on peace. Access it here.

Stassen: Obama's Israel-Palestine Address and Just Peacemaking

2011-05-20T10:08:00.000-07:00

By Glen H. Stassen

President Obama made clear that peace requires Israel to recognize the 1967 border between Israel and Palestine, with negotiated land swaps. The 1967 border is international law, affirmed in U.N. resolutions, and is widely recognized as the solution needed for peace, security, and justice between Israel and Palestine. Israel seized control of the West Bank of Palestine and Gaza by war, and seizing territory by war is explicitly illegal in international law. Prime Minister Ehud Barak recognized that when he withdrew Israeli forces from territory that Ariel Sharon had seized in southern Lebanon; and Prime minister Ariel Sharon implicitly recognized that when he withdrew settlers and forces from Gaza. Netanyahu needs to do the same for the West Bank.

The 12 Arab nations in the vicinity all have said that if Israel will accept the 1967 borders with negotiated adjustments or land swaps, then Israel will have peace with the Arab nations. When top Israeli former officials and Palestinian former officials met in Geneva and agreed on what should be the solution, they agreed to this--the adjusted 1967 borders as basis for resolving the conflict. This of course will mean that other Israeli settlements scattered far into the West Bank will have to be given up, or come under Palestinian government, as prime minister Sharon gave up settlements in Palestinian Gaza.

All agree that adjustments in the 1967 border will be needed; Israel has built so many settlements in Palestine's territory but near Jerusalem that they will need to be allowed to incorporate those within Israel’s border; and Israel will need to swap some land elsewhere from within their 1967 border to compensate Palestine for allowing Israel to keep settlements near the border but in the West Bank of Palestine.

Additionally, what the NYT article about the address didn't mention, is that Obama advocated that the quartet of US and leading European nations should talk with the Palestinian leaders, not isolate Hamas representatives by refusing to talk with them. “How can one negotiate with a party [Hamas] that has shown itself unwilling to recognize your right to exist? In the weeks and months to come, Palestinian leaders will have to provide a credible answer to that question. Meanwhile, the United States, our Quartet partners, and the Arab states will need to continue every effort to get beyond the current impasse.” That means the Quartet needs to talk with Hamas. This is the Just Peacemaking practice of cooperative conflict resolution.

But also he pledged support for Israel's security, and opposition to UN resolutions that single out Israel. And he called on the Palestinians to make peace with Israel and denounce violence. If Hamas and the Palestinian Authority succeed in merging, as they are seeking to do, Hamas should join the Palestinian Authority in renouncing violence and accepting the right of Israel to exist peacefully. “For the Palestinians, efforts to delegitimize Israel will end in failure. Symbolic actions to isolate Israel at the United Nations in September won't create an independent state. Palestinian leaders will not achieve peace or prosperity if Hamas insists on a path of terror and rejection. And Palestinians will never realize their independence by denying the right of Israel to exist.”

This is just what I had predicted to our church peacemaker group: that Obama would announce something like this before Netanyahu arrives in Washington tomorrow, in order to put pressure on Netanyahu rather than to be in the position of having to let Netanyahu speak first and then play catch-up, having to argue defensively against what Netanyahu lays out in his speech a couple of days from now. This puts Netanyahu on the defensive.

It follows Just Peacemaking practices of supporting the UN and international law, and practicing conflict resolution in talking with the combination of the Palestinian Authority and Hamas.

It supports the Just Peacemaking practice of working for human rights: “The United States supports a set of universal rights. And these rights include free speech, the freedom of peaceful assembly, the freedom of religion, equality for men and women under the rule of law, and the right to choose your own leaders.”

It embodies the Just Peacemaking practice of acknowledging our own responsibility for conflict and injustice, and seeking repentance and forgiveness: “For decades, the United States has pursued a set of core interests in the region: countering terrorism and stopping the spread of nuclear weapons; securing the free flow of commerce and safe-guarding the security of the region; standing up for Israel's security and pursuing Arab-Israeli peace. We will continue to do these things, with the firm belief that America's interests are not hostile to people's hopes; they're essential to them…. Yet we must acknowledge that a strategy based solely upon the narrow pursuit of these interests will not fill an empty stomach or allow someone to speak their mind. Moreover, failure to speak to the broader aspirations of ordinary people will only feed the suspicion that has festered for years that the United States pursues our interests at their expense.”

It also gives support to the Just Peacemaking practice of nonviolent demonstrations rather than violent tactics. Several groups our peacemaking class will meet with in June have led in developing these nonviolent demonstrations by Palestinians. And these Palestinian nonviolent demonstrations have provided a model for Muslims in Tunisia, Egypt, Syria, Yemen, Bahrain. “Those shouts of human dignity are being heard across the region. And through the moral force of nonviolence, the people of the region have achieved more change in six months than terrorists have accomplished in decades…. Across the region, those rights that we take for granted are being claimed with joy by those who are prying loose the grip of an iron fist…. And I would not be standing here today unless past generations had turned to the moral force of nonviolence as a way to perfect our union –- organizing, marching, protesting peacefully together to make real those words that declared our nation: ‘We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal.’”

Just peacemaking practices are spreading, and are bringing dramatic change for government based on consent of the people!

President Obama said these movements of millions of people for human rights are bringing dramatic change throughout the Middle East, and Israel must either respond to them or become the object of increasing frustration and hostility that is dangerous for its survival. Israel must change its policy to get with the historical change that is sweeping across the Middle East. “The fact is, a growing number of Palestinians live west of the Jordan River. Technology will make it harder for Israel to defend itself. A region undergoing profound change will lead to populism in which millions of people -– not just one or two leaders -- must believe peace is possible. The international community is tired of an endless process that never produces an outcome. The dream of a Jewish and democratic state cannot be fulfilled with permanent occupation.”

We will be doing our peacemaking course in Israel and Palestine in an important time, June 20-30, a time of somewhat increased hope.

Netanyahu will resist, but the pressure on him for peacemaking is increasing, as is the encouragement of Palestinians to keep focusing on nonviolent action.

Glen H. Stassen is Lewis Smedes Professor of Christian Ethics at Fuller Theological Seminary, Pasadena, CA.

Audio available - Don't miss Mouw and Stassen on bin Laden

2011-05-18T17:04:00.000-07:00

Thanks to everyone who came out last Wednesday to hear President Richard Mouw and Dr. Glen Stassen reflect on Christian responses to Bin Laden's death. If you missed it, the audio recording is available here:
http://itunes.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewPodcast?id=380159709

What does a just education look like?

2011-05-18T16:48:00.000-07:00

Bishop Jon Bruno of the Episcopal Church made education justice a key priority for the Diocese of Los Angeles, calling "public education... one of the greatest social-justice issues before us as a nation." When we break this down for California, the statistics speak loudly. Join Peace and Justice Advocates on Wed, May 25, as Rev. Dr. Frank Alton assesses the implications of these stats:

-Per-pupil spending in California ranks 46 among the 50 States.
-Only 30% of all California 4th graders were proficient or above in reading., 14% for African-Americans, 15% for Hispanics, 16% for low income.
-Only 23% of 8th graders achieved proficiency in mathematics, with African-Americans at 11%, Hispanics at 12% and low-income children at 13%.
-25% of California’s 9th graders fail to graduate four years later.
-40% of African-Americans and 30% of Hispanic students fail to graduate.

Rev. Dr. Frank Alton is the Executive Director of Prepare the Future California, which seeks education justice for ALL of California's children. Prepare the Future has a two track strategy to address this situation: online advocacy and parent engagement. Frank will share more about these ways you can get involved in education justice.Prior to working with Prepare the Future, Frank was the pastor of Immanuel Presbyterian Church in Los Angeles for over 15 years. Under his leadership, Immanuel became an urban, inclusive, bilingual, multicultural congregation at the intersection of spirit, cultures and justice. He has been actively involved in many areas of community life in Los Angeles, and has served the church and community locally and nationally. Prior to becoming pastor at Immanuel, Frank lived and worked for nine years in a squatter community in Mexico City. He facilitated a community transformation project that is now in the hands of local residents, taught in two seminaries, and founded an organization called Partners in Hope, which offered travel seminars for seminary and church groups, and partnerships between US churches and marginal communities in Mexico. Before that Frank served as Associate pastor for eight years at Bel Air Presbyterian Church.

Topic: "Education Justice for ALL of California's Children"

CLUE Faith-Rooted Organizing Training

2011-05-11T13:41:00.000-07:00

Peacemaking Practices, Not Revenge

2011-05-09T14:17:00.000-07:00

By Peter Sensenig

Yesterday my church read together our Scripture passage for the week, a beautiful, foundational description of Christian identity in the world as ambassadors of reconciliation (2 Cor. 5:17-21). A moment later, the pastor stood up and congratulated the fine work of the Navy SEALs who killed Osama bin Laden last week, and the congregation erupted in applause.

I was dumbfounded and unable to concentrate for the remainder of the service. The contrast could not have been more ironic: the celebration of God’s reconciling work in Jesus Christ that makes the whole creation new, and the celebration of killing an enemy whom we have determined to be more wicked than we are.

What makes us so adept at creating a divide between theology and practice, especially on issues of violence? The answer is likely as complex as the question. But I suggest that at least two factors are at work.

The first is our unwillingness to acknowledge our own responsibility for contributing to conflict, and seeking repentance and forgiveness (Just Peacemaking practice #4). This does not mean downplaying the horrific acts of groups like Al Quaida, or the pain that they have caused. What it means is that truly recognizing our own pain requires truthful acknowledgment of the pain caused to others by us or on our behalf. The starkest example in recent years is the misguided, deceitful war in Iraq that killed thousands of civilians. Another is the economic exploitation that allows wealthy nations to benefit from the plight of poorer ones. Recognition of our own complicity in conflict would help to stifle the triumphalist tendencies that arise when something like this occurs.

The second reason we are prone to celebrate bin Laden’s death is related: the practices that make for peace, especially fostering just and sustainable economic development (Just Peacemaking practice #6), require more effort, analysis, and careful thought than do acts of assassination. Unwillingness to put time, effort, and resources into improving the lives of those who are vulnerable betrays an interest not in peace but in revenge.

And revenge is exactly the word I would use to describe most of the national sentiment around bin Laden’s death. That “he had it coming” is argued forcibly or simply assumed, even by some of my favorite commentators (like the usually hilarious but insightful comedian Jon Stewart). We cannot deny the feelings that events stir in us, and we may even incorporate them into our prayers in the manner of the imprecatory Psalms. But revenge is never an option for Christians; how then can we celebrate it, even when it is performed by others?

Our response must rather be to seek the wellbeing of neighbors near and far, so that the narrative of people like Osama bin Laden has no credibility whatsoever. Our resistance to terror begins with our faithfulness to Christ. The Just Peacemaking practices of acknowledging responsibility/seeking repentance and fostering just and sustainable economic development are good places to start.

Stassen: "Hate is not a Christian or a Muslim virtue."

2011-05-04T10:38:00.000-07:00

Read Dr. Glen Stassen's interview, as well as the response of Pasadena's All Saints Episcopal Church to the death of Osama bin Laden, in the Pasadena Star-News.

"Do Not Rejoice When Your Enemies Fall"

2011-05-04T10:26:00.000-07:00

By David P. Gushee on behalf of the New Evangelical Partnership for the Common Good (posted on the website of Evangelicals for Social Action)

We feel compelled to respond today to the killing of Osama bin Laden by the United States and to the jubilant response across the nation.

A nation has a right to defend itself. From the perspective of the fundamental national security of the United States, this action is legitimately viewed as an expression of self-defense.

But as Christians, we believe that there can no celebrating, no dancing in the streets, no joy, in relation to the death of Osama bin Laden. In obedience to scripture, there can be no rejoicing when our enemies fall. Read more.

Adam Taylor on Mobilizing Hope

2011-04-29T16:26:00.000-07:00

By Peter Sensenig

Activist and author Adam Taylor addressed a group at Fuller Seminary on April 28 on the subject of pursuing justice in a post-Civil Rights era. Taylor, formerly of Sojourners and now a vice president for World Vision, stated that injustice continues to adapt itself to a new environment, and as much work remains to be done as ever before.

In order to break out of patterns that are willing to live with injustice, Taylor argued, we must resist the binary choices of service vs. activism or charity vs. justice. We must also resist the temptation to make Jesus into our own image, whether this means privatizing, "bling-blinging," apoliticizing, or "Che Guevara-izing" Jesus in a way that undermines his truly subversive mission from Isaiah 61.

Part of what this requires is getting to the root causes of injustice: economic structures, domination, violence, and exclusion (see Stassen and Gushee, Kingdom Ethics). To use a term from Dr. King, we need a "creative maladjusted minority" that transforms society and does not lose hope to the easy escape of cynicism.

Taylor outlined four transformations that God is bringing about in the new reality in which we must live:

1. from rugged individualism to the Beloved Community

2. from a "post-racial America" to real racial reconciliation and justice, so that punishment nor privilege is tied to race

3. from market fundamentalism to a jubilee economy

4. from narrow nationalism to global leadership and citizenship

Taylor's new book (IVP, 2010) is Mobilizing Hope: Faith-Inspired Activism for a Post-Civil Rights Generation.

Japanese Pastor Making Peace in Korea

2011-04-22T18:06:00.000-07:00

Speaker: Moto Nomura

Topic: Korea & Japan reconciliation and slum ministry
When: Friday, April 29, 7:00pm-8:30pm
Where: Rogers Community Room, Chang Commons, Fuller Theological Seminary (271 N. Madison)
Cost: Free

The lecture will tell the story of a Japanese pastor’s extensive ministry in the Cheonggyecheon slum of Seoul, Korea during the 1970s and early 1980s. The lecture is also about reconciliation, because at the heart of his ministry was a deep concern and sorrow about what Japanese people did to the people of Korea during the colonization era (1910-1945). A sense of unresolved enmity still exists between the two countries. One reason is that Japanese political leaders have not really expressed sincere apology for what Japan did during the occupation (Just Peacemaking Practice #4). What can followers of Jesus do in this kind of situation? Mr. Nomura’s ministry provides one answer to the question.

Moto Nomura has studied at Pepperdine University, BIOLA, and Tokyo Union Theological Seminary. He has been a Church of Christ pastor in Japan for many years and has received a Distinguished Christian Service Award from Pepperdine University in 2008.

Moto Nomura--Flyer ver2.0 _reduced_

Ron Sider and ESA on Budget Cuts

2011-04-20T16:17:00.000-07:00

Evangelicals for Social Action

Historic Times Call for Historic Action
Landmark Proposals for Moral Federal Budget

In the wake of Obama's budget speech, "Concrete Proposals for Intergenerational Justice" outlines policies protecting the poor from unjust cuts, and future generations from debt.

We've put together a short video with Ron on a government spending shopping spree. Please check it out and then help spread the message by passing it on. Watch the video here.

The new Concrete Proposals include:

Retaining, not cutting, effective programs that empower struggling American families: Earned Income Tax Credit, Pell Grants, SNAP (food stamps), WIC
Reforming Medicare's cost sharing rules but not privatizing Medicare.
Reforming the tax code by eliminating most exemptions and increasing the tax rate for the wealthiest Americans.
Having an estate tax at 45%.
Cutting the defense budget by $100 billion a year.
Maintaining spending on foreign economic aid that saves millions of lives.
Making Social Security sustainable both by increasing the normal retirement age and by taxing all wages and investment income.
Cutting medical costs with malpractice reform.

ESA's "Call for Intergenerational Justice and the American Debt Crisis" released in March received praise from ideologically diverse Christian leaders including conservative Chuck Colson and progressive Jim Wallis.

The full set of recommendations can be viewed and shared.

Thanks for joining in!
Ron Sider

Divided by Homosexuality Panel Discussion - April 18, 2011

2011-04-19T18:16:00.000-07:00

Panel members (L to R): Chris Moore, David Augsburger, Paul Clement, Ken Fong, Susan Russell

Moderator Jaclyn Williams

Standing-room only at Fuller's Travis Auditorium

Photos from the Palm Sunday Peace Parade - April 17, 2011

2011-04-18T08:37:00.000-07:00

Just Peacemaking and Somalia: Part 2 – Social Change

2011-04-12T10:43:00.000-07:00

Excerpt from Peter Sensenig, “Incarnation, Not Intervention: Mennonite Service and Just Peacemaking in Somalia” (Unpublished Paper)

Just peacemaking sees social change from a ground up perspective. Although the practices are theologically based, they are accessible and useful for all people.[1] The three practices of cooperative conflict resolution, encouraging grassroots peacemaking groups, and reducing weapons are particularly relevant to the Somali context.

The practice of cooperative conflict resolution (CCR) is the shared pursuit of beneficial outcomes. This shapes the principles of CCR: seeking to understand the adversary, listening, judging only behavior, acknowledging faults, transparency and honesty, partnership (power with not power over), using force only to create necessary space, risk-taking, long-term prevention solutions, and peace and justice as core components. An important aspect of CCR for the Somali context is that it seeks to take the place of court cases, a void that must be filled in a country with no stable government. Conflicting parties or clans, given an opportunity and framework, may find common ground in the needs and fears that are behind their positions.[2]

Another practice for social change is encouraging grassroots peacemaking groups and voluntary associations. Unfortunately, this approach has been ignored by the U.S.:

"When U.S. Special Envoy to Somalia Robert Oakley shook hands with Mohammed Farah Aided and Ali Mahdi in front of the international press, he accorded them recognition as the legitimate representatives of the Somali people. In doing so, Oakley undid months of thoughtful negotiation by the former representative of the UN Secretary-General, Mohamed Sahnoun, who was promoting traditional elders and grassroots associations as alternative sources of authority."[3]

These groups foster and create peacemakers and the stories around which we build our peacemaking practices. Grassroots groups have played critical roles in social change all over the world. They have the advantage of transcending narrow self-interest in conflicts, maintaining concern and interest, representing the voiceless, and initiating action for justice.[4]

A third just peacemaking practice within the way of seeing social change is reducing offensive weapons and weapons trade. The disastrous results of flooding Somalia with weapons in the Cold War and following have already been addressed. Ongoing military aid from the U.S. demonstrates that it is still operating under the assumption that social change occurs through violent revolution or violent suppression, both of which have failed miserably in Somalia. Just peacemaking, on the other hand, recognizes that war is not worth the price for any society, no matter what the intended outcome. It calls instead for reducing the weapons trade, banning land mines, and moving toward defensive force structures. A Code of Conduct Bill would restrict U.S. arms deals to countries with bad human rights records like Somalia, as well as restrict wealthy nations’ donation of surplus arms to developing states.[5] Weapons reduction is part of the related issue of disarmament, a critical need for Somalia. John Paul Lederach suggests that disarmament in Somalia could take the form of development and employment in exchange for weapons.[6]

[1] Duane K. Friesen, John Langan, S.J., and Glen Stassen, “Just Peacemaking as the New Ethic for Peace and War” in Glen Stassen, ed. Just Peacemaking: Ten Practices for Abolishing War (Cleveland: Pilgrim Press, 1998), 15.

[2] David Steele, Steven Brion-Meisels, Gary Gunderson, and Edward LeRoy Long, Jr., “Use Cooperative Conflict Resolution” in Stassen, ed., Just Peacemaking, 63-82.

[3] Fiona Terry, Condemned to Repeat? The Paradox of Humanitarian Action (Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 2002), 44.

[4] Duane K. Friesen, “Encourage Grassroots Peacemaking Groups and Voluntary Associations” in Stassen, ed., Just Peacemaking, 186-196.

[5] Barbara Green and Glen Stassen, “Reduce Offensive Weapons and Weapons Trade” in Stassen, ed., Just Peacemaking, 166-184.

[6] “Toward a Sustainable Peace in Somalia,” in Omar Eby, Fifty Years, Fifty Stories: The Mennonite Mission in Somalia, 1953-2003 (Telford, Pennsylvania: Cascadia, 2003), 105-106.

Just Peacemaking and Somalia: Part 1

2011-04-07T11:55:00.000-07:00

Excerpt from Peter Sensenig, “Incarnation, Not Intervention: Mennonite Service and Just Peacemaking in Somalia” (Unpublished paper).

One important practice of just peacemaking in working toward a lasting peace in Somalia is fostering just and sustainable economic development. David Bronkema, David Lumsdaine, and Rodger A. Payne define development as the “processes of change in peoples’ relationships to their environment which increase their wellbeing, standards of living, or quality of life.”[1] They point out that justice and peace and sustainable development depend on one another. Much care must be taken, however, to determine what type of development is appropriate for a context and how the environment can actually be a source of the conflict (as access to water rights has been in Somalia historically). Development is a matter of the community working together rather than a project done by outsiders.[2]

Bronkema et al advocate an approach that focuses on the poor and their needs. They propose that this can be done by supporting the following: agencies that work directly with the poor and have long-term relationships and agencies that protect the legal rights of the poor, stronger ties between poor and wealthy communities, and ecologically sensitive practices. A transfer of material and natural resources is also critical; the poor are generally effective entrepreneurs for whom access to resources goes a long way.[3]

Sufficient normalcy has been attained in the northwest part of Somalia (Somaliland) and in the northeast for some development to occur.[4] Development projects in these areas can address post-conflict reconstruction as well as the needs created by shrinking resources such as water, one factor causing and aggravating conflict in region.[5] One project implemented by MCC supplied fishing equipment to people living along the Juba River in Somalia.[6]

Just peacemaking emphasizes community loyalty to all humanity in many of its practices, including advancing human rights, democracy, and religious liberty; working with emerging cooperative forces in the international system; and fostering just and sustainable economic development. But the just peacemaking perspective on human rights is particularly important. The theory draws a distinction between human rights grounded in Lockean individualism (which it rejects) and the human rights concept that springs out of the Hebraic community, which emphasizes responsibility and needs.[7] This second kind of concern for human rights is firmly rooted in a biblical loyalty to the entire human community.

Another practice of just peacemaking that is derived from community loyalty is acknowledging responsibility for conflict and injustice. Alan Geyer writes that peacemaking requires self-transcendence in the form of empathy, repentance, and forgiveness. Public repentance on a national or communal level can be a powerful instrument for peace because it acknowledges the rift in community and hopes for healing. Conversely, a lack of repentance out of ignorance or fear of weakness communicates disinterest in creating an international community. Somalia has been a tragic example; the U.S. has never issued an apology for its involvement during the Cold War or for the massacre of October 1993. [8] As a result, local warlords and extremist groups alike have leverage with the Somali people against the U.S. and the U.N. (and any national government they support). Just peacemakers must have a strong loyalty to all people that makes repentance a possibility and a practice, guided by a sense of responsibility for the well-being of neighbors near and far and the desire for a community of peace.

[1] “Foster Just and Sustainable Economic Development” in Glen Stassen, ed. Just Peacemaking: Ten Practices for Abolishing War (Cleveland: Pilgrim Press, 1998), 119.

[2] Ibid., 122-132.

[3] Ibid., 136-140.

[4] Martin Doorbos, “Research-Led Policy Deliberation in Eritrea and Somalia: Searching to Overcome Institutional Gaps” in M.A. Mohammed Salih et al, eds. African Pastoralism: Conflict, Institutions and Government (London: Pluto Press, 2001), 287.

[5] J.B. Opschoor, “Towards Security, Stability and Sustainability Oriented Strategies of Development in Eastern Africa” in Salih et al, eds., African Pastoralism, 24-25.

[6] Omar Eby, Fifty Years, Fifty Stories: The Mennonite Mission in Somalia, 1953-2003 (Telford, Pennsylvania: Cascadia, 2003), 115.

[7] Friesen, Langan, and Stassen, “Just Peacemaking as the New Ethic,” in Stassen, ed., Just Peacemaking, 23.

[8] Alan Geyer, “Acknowledge Responsibility for Conflict and Injustice and Seek Repentance and Forgiveness” in Stassen, ed., Just Peacemaking, 87-94.

Palm Sunday Peace Parade - April 17

2011-04-06T10:34:00.000-07:00

Fuller Event on Homosexuality and Conflict - April 18

2011-04-04T15:25:00.000-07:00

Fuller's Peace and Justice Advocates and

Just Peacemaking Initiative Present:

DIVIDED BY HOMOSEXUALITY:

Pastoral Tools for Mediation and Dialogue

7pm, Monday April 18

Travis Auditorium, Fuller Theological Seminary

Panelists:

The Reverend Canon Susan Russell

Senior Associate at All Saints Church in Pasadena

Chair of the Program Group on LGBT Ministry for the Episcopal Diocese of Los Angeles

Dr. David Augsburger

Professor of Pastoral Counseling, Fuller Theological Seminary

Rev. Dr. Ken Fong

Senior Pastor, Evergreen Baptist Church of Los Angeles, Rosemead

Paul W. Clement, Ph.D., ABPP

Clinical Psychologist, Private Practice, South Pasadena

Chris Moore

PhD Candidate in Christian Ethics, Fuller Seminary

Former Fellow at St. John's the Divine