www.reconciliationtalk.com

racism and reconciliation: why is it so hard?

Eugene Cho, pastor of a multicultural church in Seattle, gets to the heart of the issue:

racism and reconciliation: why is it so hard? « beauty and depravity.

Here is his question and the first two reasons:

Why is racism such a difficult topic and issue - including for Christians? Well, here are some of my reasons:

1. It’s hard work.  And people can be lazy.  And talking about racism is an exhausting conversation because it brings up some deep questions. Reconciliation is hard work.  The need for reconcilation assumes that something is broken; something is not as it was intended to be.
2. Something called ‘Life.’  There’s lots of other things going on - umm, like the financial recession. There’s more important things going on.

His list runs to ten reasons and is by no means exclusive. 

We have got to get to grips with this one. I have noted before that the big global depression lead to the rise of Nazism. People always want to pin the blame of someone for their woes, and its often other races.

Let the church lead the way in opposing any rise in racism.  A multicultural church will keep us all accountable.

Solving the credit crunch with a Jubilee Year?

A couple of times in the last month or so it's been suggested that we comment on a call for a worldwide Jubilee Year to resolve the current financial crisis.  The Jubilee Centre that seeks to address issues in society on the basis of wisdom from the Christian Bible (both Hebrew Scriptures and our own Christian 'new testament' writings) is interested. 

Jubilee Centre - Blog - Solving the credit crunch with a Jubilee Year?.

The Jubilee Year was a means by which debt was cancelled every 50 years and people got a fresh start.

The way our debt-based economic system is structured means that from time to time the amount of debt accrued by households, companies and governments exceeds the economy's ability to service the debt. Paul Mills points out that 'bankruptcies, inflation, default or debt:equity swaps (in corporate restructurings) are then needed to rebalance the two (usually in the context of a banking/financial crisis)'.

In contrast, the biblical economic model maintains this balance through reliance on rental and equity contracts ('I share in the risk and get a share of the profit' arrangements) coupled with the periodic and predictable debt cancellation.

To be clear, the provisions of Deuteronomy 15 and Leviticus 25 have debt forgiveness (amongst the people of Israel) every 7 years while the year of Jubilee every 50 years focuses on the return of land to the families that were allotted it on entering the promised land. No matter what economic hardships were got into, even becoming a bondservant, the Jubilee ensured that subsequent generations were not cut off from their roots through the loss of the family land in a particular generation. This safeguarded identity, rootedness and access to the land as means of production. In this sense, loans, selling (or more accurately leasing) land and bonded servitude were last resorts.

Thus the Jubilee is just part (albeit a key part) of the biblical economic model that Will Hutton said 'makes Das Kapital look tame'. Forgiveness of debt might seem a radical suggestion but the truth is we need an even more fundamental and biblical reorientation of our economic principles to avoid another 'credit crunch' in the future.

I find this fascinating as up until now it has been evident that the health of Muslim Banks based on a part of Sharia Banking Law have been healthier than so many of those that have been going under in recent months.

Of course this is seen as a threat by many. Melanie Philips wrote a scare piece in the Mail two weeks ago:  Britain's a world-leader in sharia banking - but we haven't grasped the sinister and dangerous implications
I do undestand what she is saying. But one has to ask the question, if they are prepared to live by the wisdom from above which tells us of "the good life" then maybe they will do well and be blessed. Its not as if "Christian England" hasn't got its own solution -  if it was prepared to pay the cost. Unfortunately I am not sure that is the sort of Christian England Melanie Philips and many others want.

On the subject Rowan Williams wrote again on Sharia Law a week or so ago: Archbishop of Canterbury: Society is coming round to my views on sharia  Not necessarily the best sound bite for his cause (though a great one for the press)  but good thoughts once agian.

And while we are talking of the "Good Book(s)"  the row last week about consigning the Bible along with the Quaran to the top shelf can thus be seen in a different light. Bible moved to library top shelf over inequality fears   The Christian Institutre don't like the idea but maybe there is another answer.

Maybe we need to give our Scriptures  a place of honour in libraries?  Maybe the top shelf should be a bit lower where they can be accessed?

Are Mixed-Race Children Better Adjusted?

Time last week asked  a great question. 

Are Mixed-Race Children Better Adjusted? - TIME.

My answer is sometimes Yes! and sometimes No! 

And that basically is the conclusion of the article. The traditional view has been to see mixed genes as a negative asset: 

"The psychologist J.D. Teicher summarized this view in a 1968 paper: "Although the burden of the Negro child is recognized as a heavy one, that of the Negro-White child is seen to be even heavier."

(This is subject I plan to look at more when I have been able to access and read the papers quoted above and the main one refered to next.)

.... a new paper in the Journal of Social Issues shows that multiracial adolescents who identify proudly as multiracial fare as well as — and, in many cases, better than — kids who identify with a single group, even if that group is considered high-status (like, say, Asians or whites). This finding was surprising because psychologists have argued for years that mixed-race kids will be better adjusted if they pick a single race as their own.  ..... That simple but harsh playground question — "What are you?" — torments many multiracial kids. Psychologists call this a "forced-choice dilemma" that compels children to claim some kind of identity — even if only a half-identity — in return for social acceptance.

Sadly it wasn't only kids who engaged in "playground" talk.  Many wanted simple "black or white" answers, rather than help them engage with the richness of both traditions. Parents are often ignorant of the challenge - after all they have made the choice of love to live on the the margin of their community. Extended family and community of each parent expect you to fit in, maybe even to make up for the choice of  teh parent who may have not been satisfied with them and chosen from beyond the community. And then everyone else cannot easily manage an answer that does not tick the box. I have met many burdened with a mixed legacy because of that forced choice and the sense of guily because they didn't fulfil expectations. The challenges to healthy identity are profound.

Yet it doesn't have to be.  Others are literally  "200% people"!   As someone who is supposed to have answers on intercultural issues this is one of the core ones. More soon when I have read the new paper.

What hope for peace in the Holy Land?

With Israeli parties still seeking to form a  coalition, the real issue seems to be, what will be the impact of a government that is further to the right than we have yet known in Israels history? 

Open Democracy look at the trend:  Israel’s rightward shift: a history of the present  and tend to despair at the hopes for peace.

Meanwhile the ceasefire in Gaza is not resolved, and the volume of words over war crimes are increasing, with Amnesty now accusing both sides of abuse of foreign supplied weapons and calling for a halt to arms supply.  Israel-Hamas arms embargo urged

Ben White in a column in the Guardian on Friday reported on what has been happening on the West Bank while eyes have been diverted. The real Israel-Palestine story is in the West Bank.  Arrests of non violent demonstrators against the separation wall,  further restrictions on Palestinian movement, and seizing of a large area of Palestinian land near Bethlehem to expand the settlement.

He suggests that any hope for a two state solution is gone:

...  now the two-state solution has completed its progression from worthy (and often disingenuous) aim to meaningless slogan, concealing Israel's absorption of all Palestine/Israel and confinement of the Palestinians into enclaves.

The fact that the West Bank reality means the end of the two-state paradigm has started to be picked up by mainstream, liberal commentators in the US, in the wake of the Israeli elections. Juan Cole, the history professor and blogger, recently pointed out that there are now only three options left for Palestine/Israel: "apartheid", "expulsion", or "one state".

The path of the wall,, and the number of Palestinians it directly and indirectly affects, continues to make a mockery of any plan for Palestinian statehood. Jayyous is just one example of the way in which the Israeli-planned, fenced-in Palestinian "state-lets" are at odds with the stated intention of the quartet and so many others, of two viable states, "side by side". As the World Bank pointed out (pdf), land colonisation is not conducive to economic prosperity or basic independence.

In occupied East Jerusalem meanwhile, Israel has continued its process of Judaisation, enforced through bureaucracy and bulldozers. The latest tightening of the noose in Ar-Ram is one example of where Palestinian Jerusalemites are at risk of losing their residency status, victims of what is politely known as the "demographic battle".

It is impossible to imagine Palestinians accepting a "state" shaped by the contours of Israel's wall, disconnected not only from East Jerusalem but even from parts of itself. Yet this is the essence of the "solution" being advanced by Israeli leaders across party lines. For a real sense of where the conflict is heading, look to the West Bank, not just Gaza.

His reference to an article by Juan Cole is worth reading: Right Wing Sweeps Israel; Racialist Avigdor Lieberman Kingmaker Two State Solution Dead, Challenge to Obama

What hope for peace?

Debating the Uniqueness of Christ in Multi-Faith Britain

A week and a half ago the church of England spent three hours or more in two debates looking at how it presents itself and its message to multi-faith Britain. I made time to go and listen to the first debate on "The Uniqueness of Christ in Multifaith Britain". I have listened to the debate on the second: "Staying Present and Engaging Faithfully" with multi-faith Britain.

My perspective on what was said? I am by no means alone in describing myself as engaged in interfaith work in a very multi-faith town and from the evangelical charismatic tradition of the Church of England (though unhappy with much of what Evangelical represents in many minds, definitely open evangelical if we are going to be specific, and probably best described as positively post-charismatic). I am relatively new to the work, and relatively unconnected within the structures and networks of the Anglican church, whether evangelical or interfaith work, and I am not partisan either by connection or choice. I guess up until now I have just naively been

I have lacked the time since then to think over what has been written and put down my own thoughts. I guess there are three things to look at:

• What was said in the two debates involved, and not said
• What has been said about what was said (and not said) in the debates.
• What more could be said. (In other words what I want to say!)

Beware the hoax "Muslims out of Australia Speech"

I have been honoured that a pom gets to be the leading authority on the web of the the Australian premiere's views on Islam!  100 hits in the past three days, 250 over the past two weeks seeking information on "kevin rudd islam speech" is good newsfor those of us who seek to get their views out via this media. But I am also troubled -- this sort of thing usually means people are searching for something that everyone has heard of but no one can find! 

As a peacemaker, seeking justice for the powerless, and working to remove the colonialist and neo-colonialist foootprints from our world, I have been impressed by Rudd's apology to the Stolen generations of Australian aborigines. I have written  Kevins Rudd's Sorry Speech  and In Australia, From Apology, a Hit Song Grows.  (Incidentally this last week has been the first year anniversary of that speech to the Australian parliament, and Rudd has promised a review of progress: Anniversary of Apology to the Stolen Generations.  Now that is accountability!) Those got me listed high on google for Kevin Rudd, and so when the current search became obvious, I wrote Why search for Kevin Rudd speech on Islam?   When they continued and grew I did some more looking into the man: Ace, Kevin! Kevin Rudd's Christian and Conciliatory politics.  Reading what I did, everything in me said that Rudd was not going to have said anything stupid on Islam.

It seems the issue is an email that has been circulating saying  that Rudd told the media that immigrants should adapt to Australian culture, language and beliefs or leave the country.

The trouble is he didn't.

This is what he has said this year:

Peacemakers Trust

Welcome to Peacemakers Trust.

Conflict Resolution News

Alltop - Top Conflict Resolution News.

Old research resouces

Research resources.

This blog features a collection of web based resources on topics related to intercultural relations, cultural issues, reconciliation, forgiveness and peacemaking. There are a few recent posts; most were from 2005-2007. 

Feel free to use it as much as you like, and to make it known to others.  Organisation is simple; posts are not dated but are categorised, with the list of categories on the left hand side. Click on your chosen category and scroll down to find what you need. 

It is by no means exhaustive. We post sites when we find them, and sometimes annotate the reference. In a few cases that has become a mini essay. 

Media as Global Diplomat

A day seminar on line from US Institute for Peace.

Media as Global Diplomat : United States Institute of Peace.

On February 3, 2009, USIP joined International Television Service (ITVS) to convene Media as Global Diplomat, a day-long conference that brought together many of the top thinkers in U.S. public diplomacy and strategic communication with independent film and media producers to identify innovative paths forward in the increasingly important effort to improve mutual understanding between the United States and other countries through communication and media.

This pages serves as a valuable online archive of the day’s events.  Users can watch video of the entire day’s proceedings, as well as review supporting materials and other information.

Media as Global Diplomat was moderated by veteran newsman Ted Koppel and met at Washington, D.C.’s Newseum, a cutting-edge interactive museum dedicated to news and communication in the 21st Century.

Speakers at the event included Kathy Bushkin Calvin of the United Nations Foundation, Ambassador Edward Djerejian of the Baker Institute, Abderrahim Foukara of Al Jazeera International, former Under Secretary of State for Public Diplomacy and Public Affairs James Glassman, Andrew McLaughlin of Google, James Zogby of the Arab American Institute, Carol Giacomo of The New York Times and others.

featuring discussion on Waltz with Bashir.