Essay on Religious Methods of Peace Building

Some scholars are always highlighting the destructive tendencies of religion. In the process, they contribute to a popular notion that religion cannot play a role in peace building. Others are of the opinion that religion can both be a cause of conflict and a mediator of warring factions. All in all, religion can offer a platform for peace and reconciliation in areas torn by conflict, and can contribute to the process of finding a solution. This essay describes and analyses the various religious methods of peace building in Northern Ireland and South Africa. It will also look at non-religious methods and discuss their degree of success.

Religious Peace Building in Northern Ireland

It is worth looking at the current state of conflict in Northern Ireland. The violence has largely been driven by disagreements over the regions political status. On one hand is the Protestant community that advocates for the country to remain part of the United Kingdom. It has some radicals known as Unionists or Loyalists. On the other hand is the Catholic community that enjoys close ties with the Republic of Ireland. This faction has hardliners known as Nationalists or Republicans, some of whom advocate for the formation of a United Irish Republic. Self-government was established in Ireland together with its partition in 1921 following the signing of the Anglo-Irish Treaty. Northern Ireland, whose majority of the population is made up of Protestants, remained as part of the UK. Tensions arose between the Protestant Unionist majority and rival Catholic Nationalist minority, and escalated into a violent conflict in 1968 after a civil rights protest march was violently quelled. This conflict, referred to as The Troubles, would go on for the next thirty years, and involved the Irish Republican Army (IRA), the Ulster Volunteer Force, the Ulster Defense Association, and the British Army.

A prolonged negotiation for peace involving several parties led to an agreement that was signed in 1998. It resulted in the formation of a devolved government in 2007 whereby the four leading political parties were represented. All in all, the conflicts legacy is still felt even today. A power-sharing government made up of the DUP (Loyalists) and Sinn Fein (Nationalists) collapsed in January 2017. In March, an unsatisfying snap election was held followed by emergency talks aimed at preventing failure of the power-sharing government. All these events invoke fears that there could be a return to conflict.

The most effective religious peacemakers in the country were not the ecumenical campaigners who tried to make it look as if there were no faith-based differences between Protestants and Catholics. Rather, it was the evangelical Protestants. Just like Muslims in the current War on Terror, evangelicals always being depicted as divisive and uncompromising. In Northern Ireland however, some of them did not just play along with their religious identities. They also criticized their own traditions for the contributions they made to conflict. Thus, they altered certain characteristics of Protestant joint identity and made it more liberal and reconciliatory. This change proved that religion has a better chance of contributing to peace if the campaign results from believers acting out of religious principles and not merely responding to pressure from popular opinion, the media, and the government.

The Troubles saw two rival groups describing themselves in terms of both religion and politics. Although the conflict had nothing to do with religious doctrines, both Nationalists and Unionists applied religious rituals, symbols, and ideas to define themselves and what they stood for. Religion was particularly crucial for Protestants as they feared what they thought to be a politically formidable catholic church within the republic of Ireland. They felt that, should a united Ireland be formed, the Catholic Church would undermine their so-called liberties. In addition, Protestant identity depended on a certain ideology influenced Calvinist notions on the chosen people, the covenant, and the Promised Land. Such ideas were interpreted to imply that Protestants had a somewhat divine right to wield power within the northeast part of Ireland. There was also an evangelical idea fronted by Protestant ideology that genuine Christians were expected to be born again, a position that meant all Catholics were technically not Christians.

An organization known as the Evangelical Contribution on Northern Ireland, abbreviated as ECONI, is probably the best example of how religious activists played the role of peacemakers in the country. It was founded in the mid-1980s with the aim of directly countering Paisleyism. Some Irish people claim that ECONI gave them ideas that influenced them to change their identity and decide to take part in peace building. The organization encouraged people to re-examine their own religious beliefs and traditions, and then make some positive changes. ECONI once wrote and published a booklet titled For God and His Glory Alone that illustrates how the organization was self-critical of the Calvinist, evangelical tradition. It took advantage of the way evangelicalism held the Bible in high regard. It did this by vindicating its critique of Northern Irelands forms of covenantal Calvinism via new interpretations of the Bible.

ECONI also came up with comparatively unique religious ideas within Northern Irelands evangelicalism. It was inspired by its interactions with the Anabaptist tradition that included people like Stanley Hauerwas and John Howard Yoder. The organization drew on this tradition to advocate for a separation of Union political power and Protestantism while also campaigning for non-violence and peace by all means. In addition, its self-critique of Northern Irelands evangelicalism resulted in repentance. This was not just about requesting other people to repent their sins, but also involved confessing those committed by ECONIs own community. Such a strategy paved way for interactions with people of Catholic origins.

Success for ECONI depended partly on credibility as its evangelical identity offered the organization a legitimacy that certain ecumenical peacemaking groups did not have. There may be an assumption that non-religious peacemaking NGOs and police makers should interact with religious groups such as ecumenists that are trying to go beyond sectarian identities. However, a strategy like that would have left out ECONI. It was thus quite incredible that the organization received a significant amount of funding from the British government in the 1990s via the Community Relations Council. At some point, it had to tailor its message in a way that appealed to the monetary body while still managing to retain its religious identity. Support from the government made it possible for the organizations programmes to have a wider and deeper impact. It is worth noting a certain aspect of conflicts that have religious overtones. In such conflicts, it is important for policy makers and funders to support genuine and effective religious groups as opposed to just those that appear to somehow suit the governments agenda.

ECONI changed its name in 2005 and is now referred to as Contemporary Christianity. It minimized its activities and is no longer funded by the Community Relations Council. The organization is a pale shadow of what it was in its heydays. All in all, Contemporary Christianity is not alone in its apparent downfall. Other churches, religious organizations, and secular NGOs that actively advocated for peace during the Troubles have also faded from the public eye. Nowadays, Northern Ireland experiences political crises all the time, with reconciliation between various communities remaining elusive. It is evident that ECONI and other likeminded organizations should have continued with their peace building and reconciliation activities even after the worst period of conflict had passed.

Religious Peace Building in South Africa

Religious organizations have played a crucial role in the political changes that took place in South Africa in the course of the twentieth century. In particular, Christian interdenominational institutions either condemned or affirmed apartheid, depending on their context. Many Christian organizations contributed to South Africas nation-building process through civic education efforts and taking part in activities of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC). One of them is the Christian church, which happens to be among the most significant and influential organizations in the countrys society. Over the past three centuries or so, it has made major contributions to history of South Africa. In addition, Christianity as had an unrivaled impact on virtually every aspect of life in the country. Findings from the last National Census show almost 80% of South Africans are Christians. All in all, the reality is that church organizations in the country have a long way to go if they are to help their followers overcome the distressing effects of apartheid.

The political and social climate of the day played a crucial role in how the Christian mission went about its activities in South African soil. The most far-reaching social changes started to take effect in the twentieth century. There is no denying that the racial policy of Apartheid was the most formidable political and social force that the Church has to reckon with in the country. Apartheid involved ethnic separation whereby people were divided into racial groups based on skin color. The major groups were whites, blacks, Indians, and colored (mixed racial descent), and were kept away from each other geographically. It was a cunning strategy meant to deny black people, who made up the majority of the population, the right to vote. For the policy of segregation to work, it meant disenfranchising and systematically oppressing black South Africans through various means.

Economically, blacks were disenfranchised Bantu education and job reservation. They were subjected to a system of education that enabled them to only perform manual and unskilled labor. Certain professions and jobs could only be assigned to white people. Blacks were also exposed to unequal access to healthcare as well as severe limitations to freedom of movement. The systematic and often violent enforcement of the Apartheid system had damaging and lasting effects on the society as a whole, and especially on black South Africans who underwent immense suffering under it. It is likely that the impact of Apartheid will be felt for many future generations.

Under Apartheid, the church was polarized between that of the oppressor and of the oppressed. An individual Christian was either for Apartheid or against it; it was apparent that there was no such thing as a neutral ground. Considering how dominant and heavy-handed the minority white government was, people who perceived themselves as neutral could only be said to be on Apartheids side. Such complicity was particularly true for a bunch of Christians who claimed to avoid politics but still enjoyed the economic and social benefits of the Apartheid regime. At the time, young white men were being recruited into the South African military. On the other hand, many young black men fled the country and then joined banned liberation movements that were based abroad. It is within this context that churches sought to introduce a certain strategy of Christian salvation. The approach is free from subjugation and oppression, is full of Gods love that is open to diversity with no division, and is made up of a society that mirrors the values and teachings of Gods kingdom. This soon became the mission of the church. What was needed from this mission to work was a certain degree of flexibility that facil...