MORAL VISION “Anything people can conceive, and believe, they can achieve.”

Moral visions--   Unify communities & societies   Carry social aspirations   Inspire self-sacrifice   Shape the interpretation of events   Guide action   Form the basis of a social contract   Reflect the very soul of a community

Relationships are Organisms   Relationships and Communities

behave like living things—they grow, multiply, get wounded, and can heal.

  The web of relationships we live in give us life and identity.

  These webs form social ecosystems.

  Faith Based Reconciliation provides a framework for understanding and working with these systems.

Relationship is of the Essence “… Leave your gift before the altar. First go and be reconciled to your brother; then come and offer your gift.” --Mat 5:24

Reconciliation is Not Compromise or “Splitting the Difference.” “No problem can be solved on the same level of consciousness at which it was created”—Albert Einstein

  Reconciliation is an experiential, not an intellectual, process.

  Under the right conditions, dialogue between people in conflict can produce a transformation of consciousness.

  When consciousness is transformed, nothing is changed. But everything is different.

Faith-Based Reconciliation: A Moral Vision Based on 8 Key Principles “Truth and Mercy have met together; Justice and Peace have kissed.” --Psalm 85:10

These principles give us a language and a conceptual framework to

 navigate the moral dimensions of relationships and conflict;

 understand how relationships are nurtured, get wounded, and how they heal;

 untangle and transform stubborn conflicts.

These Principles Describe the Physiology of Healthy Living Social Systems

They can be thought of in these terms:   Pluralism   Inclusivity   Peacemaking   Justice   Healing Relationships   Healing Collective Wounds   Surrendering to God   Intimacy with God

The rest of this presentation briefly discusses each.

1. PLURALISM "My humanity Is bound up in yours, for we can only be human together.“ --Desmond Tutu

  Pluralism not just diversity. Diversity is inevitable. Pluralism is an achievement.

  Pluralism is not mere tolerance. It’s the active pursuit of understanding across lines of difference.

  Pluralism is not relativism. It doesn’t weaken our distinctive identities or moral commitments.

  Pluralism demands listening and dialogue. And a commitment to stay in dialogue—with one’s commitments intact.

Tree farm Rain forest

2. INCLUSION “I destroy my enemy when I make him my friend.” --Abraham Lincoln

  The principle of inclusion reflects our need to constructively engage one another.

  Inclusion is about unity, not uniformity.

  Inclusion confronts our emotional barriers to “the other” and our natural impulse to reject those who are different.

  Inclusion demolishes walls of hostility, and replaces them with agreed boundaries. “Chancing the arm”

  When we engage with those who are different, we quickly discover the need for peaceful conflict resolution.

  Peacemaking is the alternative to the law of the jungle.

  Peacemaking prefers to resolve conflict without violence; even without coercion.

  Peacemaking ultimately aims to resolve conflict cooperatively.

3. PEACEMAKING: Non-violent Conflict Resolution "Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called children of God.” -- Mat. 5:9

4. SOCIAL JUSTICE: Pursuing the Common Good “The arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends toward justice.” --Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

  The process of peacemaking leads us to ask what injustices or inequities have produced the conflict.

  Past and present injustice or inequity may require a balancing of accounts.

  To prevent future conflict, we must work to balance relationships.

  Thus, true social justice cannot be achieved competitively. It must be a joint search for the common good.

5. HEALING RELATIONSHIPS: Forgiveness, Repentance & Redemption ”Forgiveness does not change the past, but it does enlarge the future." --Paul Broesser

  To establish social justice we must address injury and offence. Hardness of heart becomes an obstacle.

  Hardness of heart impairs the relationship between people, and also their relationship with God.

  Forgiveness and repentance soften the heart, and permit healing.

  Healing includes sharing the burden of injury, and redeeming that which cannot be changed.

The Prodigal Son, Rembrandt

  Unhealed collective wounds tie the community to the past.

  They burden the soul of the community, and produce further wounding.

  To create a new future, wounds of the past must be healed: - Acknowledgment of the truth; - Repudiation of the wrong; - Sharing of the burden.

  We seek not to bury the past, but to redeem and transform it.

7. SURRENDER TO GOD: Living Out the Belief in a Higher Power, and a Deeper Unity “In God We Trust” --U.S. Currency

  The reign of God includes and embraces all. Recognition of this fact is transformative.

  Surrender to God liberates us from the need—and the right—to dominate or oppress one another.

  Surrender to God liberates us to serve one another.

Celtic Trefoil

8. FINDING INTIMACY WITH GOD ”God grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, the courage to change the things I can, and the wisdom to know the difference.” --Reinhold Neibuhr

  The pluralistic society—or any idealized community—is not an end in itself.

  A pluralistic society respects the free exercise of conscience.

  God influences human affairs through individuals, by means of conscience.

  Each person must work out their own salvation.

Detail of Pieta, Michelangelo

FAITH-BASED RECONCILIATION is an idea whose time has come. ”Nothing is quite so powerful as an idea whose time has come.” --Victor Hugo

  The goal of reconciliation is not just to change conditions.

  It’s not just to help people in conflict to be reconciled.

  It’s about helping people to become reconciling; to relate to the world in a new way.

  The goal of reconciliation is to transform the human heart.

This presentation is based on the book,

Faith Based Reconciliation By The Rev. Brian Cox

Text, layout and graphic editing by Michael Witmer