Posts in the ‘Articles’ Category

The faith I embrace and the nonviolent conflict transformation I commit to professionally rise from the life and teachings of Jesus, who measures love in the paradoxical quality of how we respond to those who wish us harm.

In wartime, not only remote villages but peace itself seems completely out of reach. Jesus’ call to “love our enemies” seems difficult to conceive, let alone practice. Yet there are countless stories from family and friends about how Dan kept reaching out.

“Bullies, Victims & Bystanders: A Seminar for Youths and Adults” will be offered Saturday, Oct. 22, at Wauwatosa Avenue United Methodist Church here.

The Methodist Church has launched an appeal for donations to go towards communities that have suffered as a result of the civil disorder. The funds will be used to support the Church’s work in the areas of reconciliation and community rebuilding.

“And I am impressed with our church members who, on the day after the break-in, were already talking about forgiving and moving on and how God could bring something good out of this.”

Faith & Leadership: Conflict transformation doesn’t presume an inactive or non-active engagement with the world, and it doesn’t presume a non-confrontational stance with the world. But it does presume that we don’t have to stay in destructive conflicts, that they can be transformed to be creative and positive.

As a practicing attorney, Linda Warren Seely deals with a certain amount of conflict. But her Christian faith calls her to help people settle disagreements outside the legal process where possible and in ways that might be more satisfying and sustaining for all parties.

Guy Mande: Forgiveness, also arose as a difficult process to deal with but again necessary for reconciliation within a given community. How can those who committed several atrocities be allowed to walk freely on the streets without any sense of accountability or reparation?

BBC News covers the extraordinary act of forgiveness by Rais Bhuiyan, a Bangladeshi Muslim, who reached out to his attempted murderer on death row to forgive and plea for his clemency.

Reconciliation has to do with making an effort of hearing and of listening to different views, though you may not like them. It is a discipline. It is a discipline of tolerance, and it is a determination to say, “What I cannot understand today, I may understand it tomorrow.”