Peacebuilding &conflict transformation A ... - Peaceworkafrica

The two articles below further express the relation between violence and religion:The ‘dark side’ of churches in violent conflicts 58As active forces within individual societies, churches are frequently involved in conflictstoo. The role of a church in this regard is not always clear, frequently mirroring thespectrum of positions that exist within a society. Members of the church, from ordinarychurchgoers to bishops, are to be found not only among the peace‐loving contingentwho abhor violence but also among the warring contingent who embrace violence.Certain Christian elements have also been guilty of fundamentalism, arrogance, exclusionism,intolerance and calls to violence — and the situation is no different today.History shows that churches and Christians have not always sided with thosestriving for peace and harmony. The history of Christianity and its churches is alsomarked by violence. In some cases, the Christian mission is still politically instrumentalisedin order to justify violence as a means of implementing political objectives andhegemonic interests. Religion is often abused or instrumentalised on account of itsemotional power.God of peace 59Religion must begin its search for God from the basic context of the entire world: violence.Our world is addicted to violence and death. We have armed our world beyondimagination, and despite the end of the Cold War, continue to maintain nuclearweapons that can destroy billions of people, and the planet itself. Meanwhile, overthirty‐five wars are currently being waged, and over 40,000 children die around theworld each day from starvation. While the superpowers (…) spend billions annually tomaintain their arsenal of death, billions of people languish in poverty and deaththroughout the Third World.Rather than a complete dedication to the abolition of war and domination, religionhas, more often than not, contributed to the slaughter. We are so brainwashed bythousands of years of war committed in the name of God and blessed by every religiousauthority around that most people, including many theologians and religious leaders,continue to justify the mass killing of war and the oppressive economic injustice ofglobal poverty in God’s name. Religion has so inculturated the violence of the worldthat it has more often than not become the legitimizing factor in systemic violence.In fact, as theologian Walter Wink writes in his brilliant study, Engaging the Powers,violence has become humanity’s underlying religion: Violence is the ethos of our times.It is the spirituality of the modern world. It has been accorded the status of religion,demanding from its devotees an absolute obedience to death.Its followers are not aware, however, that the devotion they pay to violence is aform of religious piety. Violence is so successful as a myth precisely because it does notseem to be mythic in the least. Violence appears to be simply the nature of things. It iswhat works. It is inevitable, the last, and often, the first resort in conflicts. It is embraced7 . V i o l e n c e a n d … 183