[amc] Mennonite, Lederach: NPR Speaking of Faith this week

From: Ray Gingerich <rjgingerich@xxxxxxxxx>
To: Milwaukee Mennonite Church <mmc@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>, Austin Mennonite Church <amc@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>, evie635@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx, Norris Glick <nrglick@xxxxxxxx>
Date: Fri, 9 Jul 2010 21:57:00 -0500

Friends,

John Paul Lederach, Menonite peacemaker, will speak on "Speaking of Faith"
on Wed, June 14. Or you can listen to the podcast now at
http://speakingoffaith.publicradio.org/programs/2010/art-of-peace/

John Paul lived just 1/4 mile up Whiskey Hill Rd. from when he was a child
while his father was the pastor at my church during my youth and has
remained a lifelong friend and influence.

I also included an article about him below.

Enjoy!

Ray

**************

*Christian Science Monitor*

A professor and writer finds ways for peacebuilding

Conflict negotiator and writer John Paul Lederach has spent decades seeking
new paths to peacebuilding.

<http://www.csmonitor.com/var/ezflow_site/storage/images/media/images/2010/0517-weekly/0517-mlederach-lederach-professor/7844367-1-eng-US/0517-MLEDERACH-lederach-professor_full_600.jpg>

University of Notre Dame professor John Paul Lederach is widely known for
his pioneering work in conflict resolution and peacebuilding.

Jim Z. Rider/Special to the Christian Science Monitor

Today, almost 100 US graduate schools and dozens of undergraduate colleges
offer degrees or certificates in conflict resolution and peace studies. And
Dr. Lederach's writings now are a frequent part of the study of peacemaking.

Some of Lederach's ideas draw on his views as a Mennonite Christian and an
academic, first at Eastern Mennonite University in Harrisonburg, Va., and
since 2001 as professor of international peacebuilding at the University of
Notre Dame in Indiana.

Yet much of his perspective is based on his experiences as a mediator and
trainer of peace workers in more than 25 countries, places of conflict where
Lederach has tried to help people resolve their differences without violence
– despite decades of unrest, injustice, or war.

He has pursued his career – peace building – with unchanging inspiration.
"[This work] is the only thing I've ever done," he says.

He works with people "who have taken extraordinary risks and have suffered
the consequences of violent situations," he says. But they also have kept
their hope that they can defeat "violence in a nonviolent way," he says.

Lederach's first peace-building experience came in Nicaragua in the 1980s,
when he helped mediate between the Sandinista government and a local
movement on the country's east coast.

Since then, he's worked both with villagers caught in local rebellions and
high-level government officials.

In the 1990s he served as a consultant to churches and peace groups in the
Philippines as the country struggled with communist and Islamic insurgency
and indigenous violence. In 2003, the Carter Center, a nonprofit foundation
founded by former President Jimmy Carter, invited him to Venezuela to speak
to groups seeking to maintain peace in the wake of a coup attempt on the
government of President Hugo Chávez.

When Lederach himself isn't on hand to resolve a conflict, his influential
writings often are there to represent him, sometimes at historic moments.

In Kenya in January 2008, George Wachira, a senior adviser of the Nairobi
Peace Initiative – Africa, was working with former military leaders as
violence raged in the wake of controversial national elections. Mr. Wachira
had partnered with Lederach throughout Africa in the 1990s and early 2000s.

Wachira's group involved the news media in calls for peace and consulted
with Kofi Annan, the former United Nations secretary-general, who finally
brokered a power-sharing deal between President Mwai Kibaki and Prime
Minister Raila Odinga.

"John Paul's ideas are about providing space and connecting, recognizing
opportunities, all guided by a broad, yet clear, picture of where you want
things to go," Wachira says. "These elements were directly present in our
work during the postelection crisis in Kenya."

In February, Lederach visited Colombia as part of an effort to help
reintegrate former paramilitary groups, who had used violence to traumatize
the population, back into society.

In Colombia, "Many ... people have lost family members or experienced
massacres," Lederach says. The challenge is, "How do we tell the truth about
this violence when some may want to move quickly past that?"

In March he traveled to Nepal to address conflicts in a country staggered by
poverty and political instability after a 10-year civil war.

The possible long-term consequences of violence must be conveyed to people
on all sides of a dispute despite differences in language, faith, ethnicity,
or politics. "Because of his rich practical experience in many conflict
settings and peace-building processes, John Paul is firmly rooted in both
practice and theory," Wachira says. "His ability to commute seamlessly
between these two worlds serves him well."

Lederach grew up in Oregon and earned a PhD in sociology at the University
of Colorado. He founded the conflict transformation program at Eastern
Mennonite before moving to Notre Dame. He has written dozens of books and
scholarly articles on ending conflicts, including the recent "When Blood and
Bones Cry Out: Journeys Through the Soundscape of Healing and
Reconciliation" (University of Queensland Press), with his daughter, Angela.

"He is a very modest guy, but I've encountered Lederach's writings in
academic programs in Central America, Asia, Africa, and the Middle East,"
says Brian Polkinghorn, executive director of the Center for Conflict
Resolution at Salisbury (Md.) University. "Works ... that he wrote 15 years
ago or more continue to inspire and educate students and practitioners of
peace today."

Why humans fight is a complex topic and no one definition of peacemaking has
emerged.

One thing Lederach has noticed is that societies often expect concrete
results – a treaty signed or brutality forgiven – far sooner than is
practical. "Quite often, the view of what can be accomplished is on far too
short a time frame, by my view," Lederach says. Conflicts that have been
going on a decade or a generation may take decades to resolve, he says.

In 2003, he began working in Nepal with the McConnell Foundation of Redding,
Calif., as that country struggled toward democracy following violence
between Maoist groups and a government organized as a monarchy.

Lederach has developed his emphasis on long-term resolutions in places with
deep historical disputes, such as Somalia, Northern Ireland, and the Basque
region of Spain.

"John Paul examines any given conflict through a lens that allows us to ask:
How do we address the torn or absent relationships caused by this conflict?
If you ignore the human cost and suffering caused by cycles of deadly
violence, they will continue to recur," says Scott Appleby, director of the
Kroc Institute for International Peace Studies at Notre Dame.

Lederach concedes that some groups are skeptical that nonviolent means will
satisfy them. And victims can be frustrated if their former attackers are
not held accountable for their acts. Rebel groups often believe that the
only path to legitimacy is armed violence.

"You can be criticized on one side as being too lenient with armed groups,
and you can be criticized by armed groups of having too much of an
idealistic viewpoint," Lederach says.

"I say it may be idealistic, but peace is the most significant thing that we
as a human community have to find a way to create."

-----

*"There is no way to peace; peace is the way."* A. J. Muste

[amc] Mennonite, Lederach: NPR Speaking of Faith this week

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