Evangelicals and Conflict Transformation: Theological Interpretations

“It is not religion that has failed the cause of peace, but religious people.”

First World Conference on Religion and Peace, 19701

All religions have within their traditions aspects that can be utilized to intensify violence and aspects that can be utilized to cultivate peace, even if these more positive aspects have more often than not been remarkably underutilized. I am not saying that every religion is intrinsically both evil and good; I would be a heretical evangelical if I believed that. Rather, I am saying that every religion has been used for evil and can be used for good. In this post I will sketch the outlines of a discussion on what it takes for a religion to utilize its potential for peace. I will concentrate on evangelical Christianity, but most of these principles are transferable to other religious traditions.

Before a religious group or person can be a prophetic voice within their community, they must begin with repentance. Religions and people are all parts of our fallen world, and therefore religious people and their structures all need healing, especially when they have been directly implicated in the violence. We need to recognize that our theology is inevitably influenced by our context and that we have messed it up in many ways, most of which we will never realize.

While we continually go through a process of soul-searching and repentance, we must revisit our holy texts and our religious traditions in order to develop a theological basis out of which we can work to cultivate peace. Ensuring that religious beliefs line up with international moral standards as expressed in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and other such documents, as some people recommend, is anathema to religious belief in general, and certainly anathema to the prophetic voice. Rather, we must examine our religion to see what it says about peace and transforming relationships and apply international regulations to the results of that process.

How do we go about examining our religion in such a way? Every pastor or lay leader will recommend something different, but I have found the following to be helpful in my own journey and so humbly present it to you.

1. First and foremost, immerse yourself in the character of God. Everything in our theology, everything God does and doesn’t do, wants and doesn’t want, likes and doesn’t like, stems from what he is, from his character. Immerse yourself in this, and you will have startling insights into his teachings.
   
2. Interpret every verse and passage within the entire context of the Bible. More often than not people justify violence in the name of religion by quoting verses grossly out of context.
   
3. Keep in mind that every conclusion should ultimately lead us to loving our neighbor (which includes our enemies) as much as we love ourselves, exemplifying the sacrificial love Christ showed us.

Such an examination should not take place in an empty room. Rather, it needs to be a debate that engages all sectors of the Christian community. Even extremely liberal and extremely conservative sectors need to be engaged, for as they are part of the problem, they need to be included in any search for a solution. This debate should take place in our college and seminary classrooms, in our small groups and at our Men’s Breakfasts. It should be included in our Sunday School literature, in our Christian bookstores, on our radio shows and in our magazines.

A final word of caution, however. At the end of the day, we will always have flaws in our theology, and we will always have members of our community who continue to use Christianity to justify atrocities. This does not mean we should throw up our hands and in despair stop (or never start) engaging our religious beliefs with cultivating peace in situations of violence. Rather, it is a call to humbly approach all we do. Afterall, throughout history, it has been religious people who have been the problem, not their religions.

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1. As quoted in Douglas Johnston and Cynthia Sampson, eds., Religion, the Mission Dimension of Statecraft (New York: Oxford University Press, 1994), 314.