Evangelicals Contribute to Rec
Christians who have worked in trouble spots around the world – South Africa,
Northern Ireland, Palestine and beyond – reflect on what it’s like to try to en-
courage healing and to build bridges between enemies n By Alex Newman
There’s not a person alive who
hasn’t experienced some form
of brokenness – from failed
marriages to alientated siblings
to political chaos. Trying to heal these
rifts, especially when long-standing
grievances held by sworn enemies get
in the way, might seem impossible.
But for Christians, “reconciliation
is an obligation within the gospel,”
declares Michael Cassidy,
founder of African Enterprise ( www.aeinternational.
org). “It’s a ministry that
God has uniquely committed to us His people, not to
the military, government,
academia or any other sector. In 2 Corinthians 5, Paul
talks about reconciliation
– vertically with God and
horizontally with each other.”
After the genocide in Rwanda, Cassidy once preached in a Rwandan prison
to “people who had killed upwards of
200 to 300.” When asked who wanted
to respond to Christ, most said yes. He
then invited several of his colleagues to
the front – black, white, Chinese, Hutu,
Tutsi – and told the crowd, “If you are
willing to come to Jesus, you must be
serious about coming to the world of
relationships.”
It’s this restoring of relationships –
and not retribution for past wrongs –
that defines reconciliation, says Anne
Brandner, a Canadian who directs the
operations of Global Peace Initiative
( www.thegpi.com), a foundation that
promotes religious freedom and assists
those enduring persecution.
“Judicial processes, unless they have
restorative elements, can often amplify
divisions by defining individuals as either victims or perpetrators, making it
harder for reconciliation to take place,”
she says.
The best way forward for rebuilding
lives after something like genocide “is
to move away from a strict
focus on punishment and
toward a framework that
values community, listening, truth telling and the
personhood of everyone
involved.”
The resulting openness
allows for “expression of
pain and anger, and the
opportunity for true apol-
ogy, forgiveness and healing.”
But it’s a slow process and listening
to each other is the first step. In the year
leading up to South Africa’s historic
1994 elections, Cassidy organized six
dialogue weekends, inviting to each one
15 to 20 politicians“ranging from the
farthest right to the farthest left – serious
political enemies at a time of dreadful
political tension.” After sitting them
down together for a meal, he asked
they do three things: share their auto-biographies, share their vision for a new
South Africa and share the steps they felt
needed to be taken to reach that.
In all, 96 community leaders attended, and the results were startling.
“As each person talked about them-
When you
attempt to
be a bridge
between people,
you must prepare
to get walked on.
– Michael Cassidy
n n n n n
selves, in the eyes of their opponents they
suddenly became humanized and understood,” Cassidy recounts. “They began
to see each other not as enemies but as
people facing a common problem.”
Cassidy still views that event as a
miracle despite South Africa’s recent
political turmoil. “Yes, there’s inverted
racism with a lot of blacks who feel
they’re scoring points against whites.
But I keep reminding whites we must
not throw away that miracle.”
In the Middle East, too, concerted
reconciliation efforts are making some
inroads. Salim Munayer is director
of Musalaha ( www.musalaha.org), a
non-profit organization that aims to
promote peace between Israelis and
Palestinians by empowering “
community leaders to initiate reconciliation at a
grassroots level.”
How that’s achieved is by inviting
people from a variety of congregations
to the desert for four days of riding camels, driving jeeps and hiking. Faced with
challenges of sun, heat, dust, thirst and
primitive conditions, the whole group is
brought closer together on a level not
possible in a hotel or meeting room, Munayer says.
As Munayer explains it, for two different groups living “in such close proximity, co-operation, reconciliation and
relationships are essential.” But the political process has failed to bring about
the “change of heart” necessary for this,
so it has been up to small groups of Palestinian Christians and Messianic Jews
to lead the way.
