The Power of Non-Violence

I was sorting through many loose papers today, trying to tidy up my desk, and found a reference to the following blog posted on my Ripples of Hope site back in July. Not only is it relevant to this Tolerance blog, (not in existence at that time), it is a timely reminder that I still haven't read the book featured. Must do so soon, and report back on it!! So I quote from my other blog:

"We have recently seen some wonderful examples of the power of non violence - for example the successful liberation of Egypt from the Mubarak regime. I am reminded of Mahatma Gandhi and Martin Luther King, Nelson Mandela and the Dalai Lama, all of whom have preached justice by non violent means.

I subscribe to the Christian magazine Sojourners, Faith in Action for Social Justice, and in the July edition just received have had my attention drawn by a letter from a Tom Ewell of Clinton Washington, to The Power of Non Violence, written by Richard Gregg in 1934, after the author had spent four years with Gandhi running up to the campaign for Indian independence.

I have found an inexpensive second hand copy, the revised 1959 edition that includes a foreword by Martin Luther King, and look forward to reading it - and will write a review in due course. (Now available as kindle version). I am sure, as Tom says, that this has enormous relevance today as all those years ago."

So now I must indeed do as promised and get reading!

Peace in the Middle East - start with Economic Justice

Sometimes an idea comes along that just does not get the airing it deserves. And sometimes books likewise. I thought this as I listened the other day to a talk given by Julia Foster of the Olive Tree Reconciliation Fund to a group of Christian “ladies who lunch.” The premise of the Foundation is that “Only Jesus can reconcile Jews and Arabs, and He is doing it” and it “aims to build bridges of understanding and support in a spirit of reconciliation between believers (both Jewish and Arab) in the Holy Land (Israel and the Palestinian Areas) and Christians worldwide.” I was uneasy with this. Perhaps that is why one lady walked out? In my research into religious tolerance for my own book I am rather favoring the idea of respectful dialogue between faiths, not requiring conversion of all to Christianity that the Olive Tree Fund seems to be advocating?

"If you want Peace, work for Justice" was the message of his Holiness Pope Paul VI

for the celebration of the day of peace 1 January 1972.

And I thought back to the book Seven Steps to Justice, by Rodney Shakespeare and Peter Challen, which I had read some while back now. So as soon as I was home again I found it and reread it. (It is a delightfully small volume and very easy to read and digest).

The basic theme of the book is the proposal of a new financial system that will give two basic incomes for all, capital ownership for all, a proper deal for women, and a solution to the Middle East (and Kashmir). A lofty aim!

Economists, philosophers, theologians and more have contributed to the debate on the way forward for our economy in the context of addressing the world’s often seemingly insuperable problems. Our economic system is certainly not serving us well at the moment in its present form. Perhaps this is the opportunity to consider other options that address some of the present flaws.

We do urgently need a system that promotes human justice and that stresses the importance of the long-term sustainability and protection of our planet. Where can we find this? (I’ve written about this quite a bit before so those who are regular readers bear with me for a short while).

The Global Justice Movement and Binary Economics

One such organization that works within these parameters is The Global Justice Movement (1). The essence of this movement’s message is an inclusive justice for all. It promotes policies that will provide a new, stable, just, global monetary system that will protect the environment by its sustainability, address poverty and the present rich–poor divide, and focus on real productive economy. It starts with the idea of national bank-issued interest-free loans that have a real link to productive capacity and the spreading of that productive capacity, arising from within society. It is opposed to interest bearing loans which are created without any link to production, which have no regard as to whether the needs of society are met and which are controlled by those with no concern for society. It takes up the line of Pope Paul VI: Global justice, it believes, ends with global peace.

So what monetary system is proposed? Binary economics (1) is a system developed in the 1990s by Rodney Shakespeare with Robert Ashford that fits well within the aims of the Global Justice Movement. It is based on the principle that both capital and labor should physically produce wealth and that all individuals should have access to such capital, provided for them if necessary using interest free money. This could produce a secure source of income for everyone, regardless of age, ability or occupation. This is the new and refreshing idea that has been woven into a complete re-thinking of economics and politics, expressed in a most extraordinary vision in Seven Steps to Justice.

So what is that vision for the Middle East?

The vision is of economic justice first and foremost in the region, and then trading on the fact of a historic Abrahamic bond between Jew and Arab, which can be built upon. It then uses the idea of the biblical Sabbatical and Jubilee years, designed for “ensuring that all individuals were regularly restored to positions where they could produce for, and produce enough for, themselves. In simple terms, it was a periodic renewal of economic justice.” (p. 95 Seven Steps To Justice). And it draws upon the binary economics of Ashford and Shakespeare.

And all this is to be implemented within a new entity that Shakespeare and Challen call The Abraham Society. The Centre for Economic and Social Justice (CESJ) in Washington D.C. had already proposed The Abraham Federation, and through the CESJ representatives of the Palestinians and Israelis have apparently already reacted in an open-minded and constructive way to this whole idea. How far has this come? Has Tony Blair read these books and papers? I have to assume he has. I would like to know how far, if at all, this idea has progressed?

For much more background I recommend starting with the paper from the CESJ: 

The Abraham Federation: A New Framework for Peace in the Middle East  Norman G. Kurland

From which I quote:

“Building a just and pluralistic nation is, of course, a complex undertaking. But by focusing on the limitless possibilities of industrial growth, rather than on endless confrontation over scarce land resources, Arab and Jewish settlers of the Abraham Federation can take a new look at their common problem. Under the mantle of Abraham, they can step back into the past in order to leap forward into a more just and hopeful future.”

Given that tensions and strife in the Middle East affect the whole world, Seven Steps to Justice (2) is then one of the most potentially and profoundly life changing books I have come across. Its methods appeal.

1. Robert Ashford and Rodney Shakespeare, Binary Economics: the New Paradigm (Lanham MD: University Press of America, 1999).

2. Rodney Shakespeare and Peter Challen, Seven Steps to Justice, London: New European Publications Limited, 2002.

Spiritual Wellbeing and the Healing Power of Forgiveness

I was negotiating some hairpin bends high up in the Mallorcan mountains in our rental car when my passenger said out of the blue: ‘I have no time for your Christian faith; you have such a pre-occupation with guilt and sin.’ I was floored for a moment. Perhaps we do to the outside world. But doesn’t that miss some of the point? Guilt gives us a chance to reflect on our actions and inactions and resolve to do better next time.
None of us can possibly be perfect. I am certainly no saint. But we can all strive for improvement in the secure knowledge that with true penitence we do not need to carry a guilt burden with us along life’s journey. Jesus Christ died for our sins, that we might be forgiven. He represents love and forgiveness, not guilt. Forgiveness from God through Jesus Christ, the world’s greatest Wounded Healer, heals us and allows us to move on.
‘To err is human, to forgive divine,’ (1)wrote Alexander Pope, the renowned early eighteenth-century poet. We also have to forgive those who do wrong to us: otherwise we harbor bitterness and resentment within our own souls. Forgiveness is vital for our own spiritual wellbeing. Jonathan Sacks calls forgiveness the emotional equivalent of losing weight. It is even better for you than for the person you have forgiven!
Even if our offer of forgiveness is not accepted, ‘yet once we reach out our hand, we cleanse ourselves of resentment. We may remain deeply wounded, but we will not use our hurt to inflict further pain on others.’ These are the words of pastor Johann Christoph Arnold, who in his book The Lost Art of Forgiving – Stories of Healing from the Cancer of Bitterness, (2) relates the very human stories of ordinary people scarred by crime, betrayal, abuse and war. He tells how many have learned to forgive in sometimes the most difficult of circumstances. He reminds us of Gordon Wilson, whose daughter Marie died in Enniskillen, Northern Ireland, the innocent victim of a terrorist bomb; of Chris Carrier, a ten year old abducted in Miami and subjected to the most brutal attack, who many years later exchanged mutual forgiveness with his abductor, by then an old man. Harbored bitterness, Arnold explains, is destructive and self-destructive. It ‘has a disastrous effect on the soul. It opens the door to evil and leaves us vulnerable to thoughts of spite, hatred and even murder. It destroys our souls, and it can destroy our bodies as well.’
The Most Rev. Desmond M. Tutu, formerly Anglican Archbishop of Cape Town, South Africa, oversaw the post-apartheid reconciliation in his native South Africa, as leader of South Africa's Truth and Reconciliation Commission. He has deep practical experience of the power of forgiveness. Without it, he tells us, ‘there can be no future for a relationship between individuals or within and between nations.’ He brought soldiers and paramilitaries face to face with their victims from the Northern Ireland Troubles to grant and receive forgiveness. This was a process, he felt, which would help individuals in Northern Ireland who had been living for decades with unresolved emotions.
Tutu has also observed that if only America could truly heal the wounds from slavery and the displacement of its Native Americans, the country could reach unprecedented heights.(3) He often speaks of such unresolved emotions as festering wounds that need opening up again and cleansing before real healing can occur.
Some of us believe that the Anglo-Catholic Church has seriously lost its way in the last 100 years or so by concentrating too much on individual redemption rather than nurturing a deeper spiritual commune with the sentient world around us, understanding our place in the wider humanity, visibly living our faith more proactively. Until the Church truly admits to its past failings, it will not be able to move on in a truly healing mission within the world.
This ability to forgive and be forgiven is an essential part of any global healing, a fact recognized by organizations such as the Fetzer Institute, based in Kalamazoo, Michigan USA. They are devoted to the furtherance of love and forgiveness in the pursuit of global healing. The Fetzer Institute has a mission that rests on “its conviction that efforts to address the world’s critical issues must go beyond political, social and economic strategies to their psychological and spiritual roots.”(4) And forgiveness, within or without a sound supporting faith, is one key to the healing of those psychological and spiritual roots.
The reality is that we all need our faith, and our spirituality, more than ever in these coming decades of the new millennium.

1. Alexander Pope English Writer, (1688-1744) from Part II of An Essay on Criticism.
2. Johann Christoph Arnold, The Lost Art of Forgiving – Stories of Healing from the Cancer of Bitterness (Farmington, PA: The Plough Publishing House of the Bruderhof Foundation, 1998)
3. Desmond Tutu, January 2006, reported by Waveney Ann Moore in the St. Petersburg Times,
4. Fetzer Institute, (nothing at all to do with Fetzer Wines of California, but the latter do have a wonderful website and are justly proud of their sustainable and organic achievements!).

Hospitality and healing in faith traditions

Forty United Methodist churches joined together for the inauguration of President Obama in Washington in January 2009. These churches opened their doors to those very many people who had traveled from across the country to be there, from as far away as New Jersey, Ohio, Texas, North Carolina, Iowa and Georgia. They were all offered a friendly place for rest and refreshment and about 90 people slept on the floors of a Methodist Sunday school classroom. On inauguration day, again the church was able to provide hot beverage and fellowship while watching the event on a projection screen (1). The numbers helped in this way were not great, but that does not matter. Every kind gesture is a seed sown for the future. 

While hospitality is deeply rooted in Judeo-Christian tradition, it is also an essential part of most if not all faiths.

Throughout the Holy Bible the sharing of food together is often mentioned as a token of friendship and commitment. This entire code of hospitality in the Middle East was so strong that it is expressed in a biblical warning, ‘Do not neglect to show hospitality to strangers, for thereby some have entertained angels unawares.’(2). And of course Jesus shared his Last Supper with his Disciples before his Crucifixion and Resurrection. We celebrate this meal each week in our Holy Eucharist.

On holiday with my family in Turkey a few years ago we experienced two memorable examples of generous Muslim hospitality. We were walking around a small isolated village, in need of refreshment: we were hot and thirsty. It wasn’t long before we found ourselves engaged in a somewhat stilted conversation with a local man. He spoke very little English. Nonetheless, from the rather tenuous link that he also had a friend in London - ‘did we know him?’ he asked - we were invited back to his modest stone built cottage to meet the rest of the family. After much nodding and handshakes we sat on cushions on the floor among them and shared cool beer. The conversation was difficult but the genuine warmth and hospitality was undoubted.

A few afternoons later we were drawn towards the sounds of music and dancing in another village. Following the sound we found a massive party in full swing in the front garden of a huge, if rather less than grand, house. Many of the guests were wearing national costume. Displaying the worst of bad manners, I recall that we were trying inconspicuously to take a photo. Immediately we were spotted and most graciously beckoned into their midst, where we were introduced to everyone and plied with huge quantities of good food, much of which seemed to be arriving continuously from various kitchens along the street. This turned out to be a circumcision party for a twelve- year old lad, dressed in traditional white for the ceremony. We pinned the customary Turkish dinar to his clothes, to add to the many notes already there. We ate and drank heartily while some of the men and boys tried to teach their dance to my own sons, somewhat unsuccessfully I recall! It was altogether a wonderful and happy occasion.

Such hospitality is fundamentally important to Muslims. It defines who they are and they judge themselves and each other on the generosity of their welcome to strangers as well as friends (3).

But the Muslims are not alone in this generosity of welcome. Hospitality is also seen as very important to the Sikh faith. Here it is grounded in the 500 year old tradition of langar, which is the free distribution of vegetarian food to both rich and poor, regardless of caste, color, religion or status. The United Sikh Association of New York University has organized langar events there every year since 2006. This free food from their community kitchen is offered to all students as they sit on the floor, as is traditional, in a symbolism of brotherhood, equality, hospitality, community service, and selfless-service (4).

Hindu culture also believes that appropriate hospitality should be offered to any visitor to the home, even to an enemy. After all, they say, ‘A tree does not deny its shade even to the one who comes to cut it down.’(5). The uninvited guest should be treated as good as God, says the popular Hindu proverb.

Sadly too many of us in our daily lives now seem too busy to relax and welcome the unexpected visitor into our home. Gone it seems are the days when we could all have an open house for our friends and neighbors. How often do we deny ourselves the healing of companionship? It may not always be obvious how hospitality is being used as a source of healing, although the opportunity is always present if we are sensitive enough to find it.

The idea of hospitality as a source of healing has perhaps been seen nowhere more clearly than in the international and free barbeque ministry, On The Move (6). Founded in 1998 by Martin Graham, the idea is simple but effective. Lay Christians are recruited as leaders from the local churches across all Christian denominations to take the message of Jesus Christ into town centers, usually in the open air. There a free barbeque is served to all who stop by, in a spirit of love and generosity. There is worship and there is healing. The leaders are encouraged to move out of their comfort zones, to minister to those who are broken, needy, lonely, in fact in need of any healing. The movement takes the love of God in the power of the Spirit to the many people who are ready to receive it, as the leaders pray with the guests for the healing of these needs. The success of the movement is seen in the coverage of its missions in 26 countries and across the five continents. Its history has been described in the book Sizzling Faith: The Dream that got the Church on the Move! (7).

Such has been the success of On the Move that it has gathered its own momentum and the ministry is now being copied across the world through other Christian groups. On the Move has fulfilled its mission and has wound down its own program. But the success of On the Move shows that we do not have to be an ordained minister to be a source of healing to others. Certainly within the Christian churches there is an increasing interest in the use of the laity to work alongside ordained priests in their ministry. Henri Nouwen saw his ideas of a healing ministry based on the symbolism of the Wounded Healer as being practiced by all Christians, not just pastors.

Hospitality is just one aspect of an important healing ministry that is to be found across all the religions. While some religions have more established healing ministries than others, all are there for anyone in need of pastoral care and support in times of trouble and where many find nourishment for spirit and soul.

1. From The United Methodist Church website

2. RSV Hebrews 13.2.

3. For more on Islamic hospitality see Hospitality: A Worldwide Islamic Tradition 2005.

4. Sikhnet, Sharing the Sikh Experience, http://www.sikhnet.com/news/united-sikh-association-serves-langar-nyu-students  6 April 2009.

5. Mahabharata 12.374 cited at http://hinduism.iskcon.com/lifestyle/810.htm 

6. On the Move International, The Free Barbeque Ministry.

7. Martin Graham, Sizzling Faith: The Dream that got the Church on the Move! Eastbourne: Kingsway Publications, 2006.

By Daoist standards we are very poor indeed!

Daoism is one of the smallest religions of all.
Actually Daoism, like Buddhism, is more a philosophy of life than a religion, as Daoists worship no god as such. The Daoist believes that nature has its own limits, that if recklessly exploited by greed or desire, we will see extinction and destruction.
Daoists see in the deepening world environmental crisis that ways of human thinking have unbalanced the harmonious relationship between human beings and nature, and overstressed the power and influence of the human will over nature. The number of thriving species on our planet measures the affluence of the true Daoist. If one considers the continuing destruction of life forms on this earth, the many species threatened with a man induced extinction, then by Daoist standards we are now becoming very poor indeed.

It seems to me from these brief vignettes that the Ancient Wisdom of the great Eastern faith traditions recognizes a deeper spiritual commune of mankind with nature. Many of us hunger for that spirituality. We could learn so much about the links between the unrest in our wounded souls and the wounds of the natural world if we would only allow our hearts to be receptive to what all these great faiths and philosophies have to offer. Between them they provide a wonderful tapestry of beliefs. But equally they are all united in the same mission. We all have a duty of care to the world, whether based upon our sensitivity and compassion or the beliefs of our faith, or indeed both. We surely have to look beyond our own horizons more and appreciate our place in a much wider world.

As the Sikh teaches us,

"All life is interconnected. A human body consists of many parts; every one of them has a distinct name, location, and function, and all of them are dependent upon each other. In the same way, all the constituents of this universe and this earth are dependent upon each other. Decisions in one country or continent cannot be ignored by others. Choices in one place have measurable consequences for the rest of the world. It is part of the same system."

This is very reminiscent of the famous passage in the Apostle Paul's first letter to the Corinthians, on human worth, when he likened the worldwide body of Christians with the human body. All parts of the body are essential for the complete welfare of the whole, he wrote. In the same way we all need each other and the loss of any part weakens us all: there should be no discord between us. He taught his followers that the members of the church should ‘have the same care for one another. If one member suffers, all suffer together; if one member is honoured, all rejoice together.’

Interestingly, the ‘body’ in this biblical context is translated from the Greek Soma, related to Sozo meaning ‘to heal, preserve, be made whole.’ We are not whole: we are wounded or spiritually impoverished if we are not a part of the greater body of faith in our community. We all need to feel that connectedness, that relationship. We need to find unity within the wide diversity of all our individual gifts. We all need each other and we all are special in the eyes of God. 

I have not mentioned the Baha’i faith in this series of blogs. Baha'i followers see Earth as one country of which we are all citizens. One of their guiding principles is that ‘the oneness of humanity is the fundamental spiritual and social truth shaping our age.’ 

Whatever our faith we can be guided by these truths. 

 

This is surely our responsibility.

(Sikh teaching taken from the statement compiled under the guidance of Sri Singh Sahib Manjit Singh, the Jathedar of Anandapur, who is one of the five spiritual and temporal heads of Sikhism; and Sri Akhal Takhat Sahib, his deputy. From Faith in Conservation 2003, p.141 and at http://www.arcworld.org/faiths.asp?pageID=73

The Buddhist and the healing power of nature

Of all the great faiths and philosophies, the Buddhist seems to understand most clearly not only our need to live more simply and altruistically within the natural world but also the healing power of nature.
The Vietnamese monk Venerable Thich Nhat Hanh writes:

"Buddhists believe that the reality of the interconnectedness of human beings, society and Nature will reveal itself more…as we gradually cease to be possessed by anxiety, fear, and the dispersion of the mind. Among the three - human beings, society, and Nature - it is us who begin to effect change. But in order to effect change we must recover ourselves, one must be whole. Since this requires the kind of environment favorable to one’s healing, one must seek the kind of lifestyle that is free from the destruction of one’s humanness. Efforts to change the environment and to change oneself are both necessary. But we know how difficult it is to change the environment if individuals themselves are not in a state of equilibrium."

(This is from the Buddhist faith statement prepared for the Alliance of Religions and Conservation by Kevin Fossey, Buddhist educator and representative of Engaged Buddhism in Europe; Somdech Preah Maha Ghosananda, Patriarch of Cambodian Buddhism; His Excellency Sri Kushok Bakula, 20th Reincarnation of the Buddha’s Disciple Bakula, head of Ladakhi Buddhism, and initial rebuilder of Mongolian Buddhism; and Venerable Nhem Kim Teng, Patriarch of Vietnamese Buddhism: From Faith in Conservation: 2003, pp.77, 78. Also online at ARC site.)

human emptiness reflected within an increasingly barren earth?

In my vignettes on the great faiths of the world, and their teachings on Creation, we now come to Sikhism.

Guru Nanak, who laid the foundation of Sikhism in the late fifteenth century, declared that matter is only a form of spirit and spirit is the only reality.
Sikhs believe that "The current instability of the natural system of the earth, the external environment of human beings, is only a reflection of the instability and pain within humans.  


The increasing barrenness of the earth’s terrain is a reflection of the emptiness within humans."

Now that is something I can really relate to.

On creation the Sikh believes:

"a concern for the environment is part of an integrated approach to life and nature. As all creation has the same origin and end, humans must have consciousness of their place in creation and their relationship with the rest of creation. Humans should conduct themselves through life with love, compassion, and justice. Becoming one and being in harmony with God implies that humans endeavor to live in harmony with all of God’s creation."

Whether or not one believes in God or any other gods, and whatever our beliefs about the origins of this world and all its creatures, surely few can argue with the need for us to be aware of the part we play within the complex network of life on this earth. This after all is basic ecology. And if we all conducted ourselves in this life with total love, compassion and justice, wouldn't the world be a much better place for us all? 

(Sikh quotes taken from the Sikh faith statement compiled by Sri Akhal Takhat Sahib under the guidance of Sri Singh Sahib Manjit Singh, the Jathedar of Anandapur, for Faith in Conservation: 2003, pp. 132 and 134).