Peace: Not Just About Non-Violence

By Rori Picker, Associate for Interfaith Relations, RFP-USA

In 1864, Cheyenne Peace Chiefs passed through Denver heading for a peaceful sanctuary in Colorado when they were massacred at Sand Creek. This massacre was one of hundreds of such incidents that took place from the colonial era through the end of the 19th century, devastating the Native American population. In 1860, the United States government ordered military troops on the frontier to collect the skulls and other remains of Native Americans and ship them to Washington D.C. for scientific study. Remains - like those of the Cheyenne peace chiefs of the Sand Creek, Colorado massacre - were among thousands that ended up in displays as well as on dusty shelves and in forgotten drawers in depositories, museums, and universities across the country.

In 1990, Congress passed the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act, requiring the return of human remains and sacred objects to Native American tribes and nations from which they came. Yet today over 110,000 remains still cannot be identified as belonging to a particular tribe. These once beloved mothers, fathers, friends, and children are waiting to be returned, honored, and buried with dignity.

In 2003, Native Americans and religious communities joined together to form the Return to the Earth Project, which supports Native Americans in burying unidentifiable ancestral remains now scattered across the United States and enables a process of education and reconciliation between Native and Non-Native people. The project has made significant progress in the past year, including erecting a building on the burial site and producing a study guide to start the healing process. Additionally, an awareness conference is scheduled for Monday, October 9, 2006, featuring Cheyenne Peace Chief, Lawrence Hart and Dr. Timothy McKeown of the National NAGPRA Office as speakers. However, there is still much more that needs to be done.

At the VIII World Assembly of Religions for Peace in Kyoto, Japan, Prince Hassan bin Talal of Jordan declared, “Now, more than ever, we must remember that peace is not just the absence of violence; it is the active creation of trust, recognition and empathy.” If we, as Americans, hope to facilitate a global peace, we must create trust, recognition and empathy within our own land first.

Government + Religion = Unsure Future?

By Rori Picker, Associate for Interfaith Relations, RFP-USA

Facebook, an online social networking service with a rapidly expanding membership has recently added a new category of groups to which its members may subscribe: campaign issues. Within these categories people have created groups for every conceivable platform addressing issues relating to social welfare, nuclear proliferation, and even religion. In fact, with a membership nearing 40,000 and still growing, one of the most popular groups to date is entitled, “Government + Religion = Disaster.” This Facebook group is only a small representation of what has become a widespread sentiment among the American public. Millions of people view religion as a source, if not the source, of conflict in the modern world and demand the removal of religion from the political process in order to pave the way for sustainable peace.

If religion is to remove itself as the source of conflict, it must become part of the solution. At the VIII World Assembly of Religions for Peace in Kyoto, Japan, over 800 senior religious leaders from across the world spoke in one voice and declared:

As people of religious conviction, we hold the responsibility to effectively confront violence within our own communities whenever religion is misused as a justification or excuse for violence. Religious communities need to express their opposition whenever religion and its sacred principles are distorted in the service of violence. They should take appropriate steps to exercise their moral authority to oppose attempts to misuse religion. What can we do as individuals? - Resist and confront any misuse of religion for violent purposes, including the promotion of religious stereotypes in sermons and in the media; - Become effective educators, advocates and actors for conflict transformation, fostering justice, peacebuilding, and sustainable development; - Draw upon our individual spiritual traditions to educate our members on our shared responsibilities to advance shared security; - Strengthen peace education on all levels.

To help accomplish these tasks, Religions for Peace - USA has made available themed papers on Confronting Violence and Advancing Shared Security, Conflict Transformation, Peacebuilding, and Sustainable Development, along with a toolkit on the Millenium Development Goals, and new resources will constantly be added.

Together we can ensure that Government + Religion = Peaceful Future.