Evangelicals and Conflict Transformation: Why This Is Important

Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called children of God.

Matthew 5:9

An estimated ⅔ of present wars are about identity issues, and in many of these cases religion itself becomes a reason for conflict. This means that Christians and other religious people around the world are, in mass numbers, inciting fear and anger, abusing the weak and vulnerable within their societies, and murdering their neighbors. It is vital that religious people everywhere stop exacerbating conflict but instead engage in transforming conflict situations by helping to cultivate peace within their societies and around the world. It is time we remember our call to be peacemakers.

Religious people and institutions have a potent role to play in conflict transformation. In societies cultivating peace after conflict with religious overtones, it is imperative that the religious traditions and expressions within the society go through a process of transformation. Religious people are best suited to this type of work. Moreover, religion is uniquely formed with deeply effective qualities for conflict transformation:

• transforming relationships between people is an inherently spiritual undertaking, whether the people involved are religious or not;
• the ability to speak truth into the ills of society and to envision a different future is a natural component of religions;
• the personal qualities encouraged by religions are important qualities to have and to build upon while engaging in this work;
• and the social positions of many religious organizations and people, with their broad networks general trustworthiness, and history of good works in the community position them ideally to work with all levels of society towards transforming animosity into a shared future, into a hope-filled, respect-filled present.

As one scholar writes,

“Religions… [have] been in this business of spiritual and psychological healing for millennia, have helped lay the groundwork for such thinking, and they are prepared to contribute anew in powerful and innovative ways to its political application.”1

This is a rather rosy picture of religion, I admit. The Dutch Reformed Church in Apartheid South Africa, for example, did not speak truth into its society’s ills; rather, it supported those ills with its preaching and its practices. Religious people all too often have little compassion, even less self-discipline, and no tolerance. As for trustworthiness and good works, if religions themselves are complicit in the conflict, to a good portion of the population anyone who represents that religion, and ergo the religion itself, will not be trustworthy and indeed, it will represent evil deeds rather than good works.

These are objections with which you and I and every other religious person interested in cultivating peace needs to grapple. As we continue through this series of blogs on religion and conflict transformation, keep asking these questions; hopefully by the end of the series we will all have a better of understanding of both their complexities and their solutions. But as we start this journey, keep in mind that all valuable things in life are inherently risky, whether you are applying for a job, getting married, or engaging religion in politics and in conflict transformation despite its potential to powerfully act for good or for evil.

Engaging religion in such a way may be risky, but it is vital for our world today.

This is the first blog of five in a series which explores the role of religion and religious people in conflict transformation. In the next post I will discuss potential roles for religion in societies cultivating peace after violent conflict. Then I will look at how we can theologically engage with the topic of conflict transformation, followed by a more in-depth look at the negative aspects of involving religion in such work. Finally I will suggest ways that we as individuals and communities can begin to engage in conflict transformation. I am an (American) evangelical Christian, and so for the sake of familiarity, I focus on and speak mainly to fellow evangelicals. However most of what I is applicable to other religious traditions.

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1. R. Scott Appleby, The Ambivalence of the Sacred: Religion, Violence, and Reconciliation (Oxford: Rowman and Littlefield, 2000), 20.