Interfaith Insight - 2023
Permanent link for How can we respond to violence? by Douglas Kindschi, Sylvia and Richard Kaufman Founding Director, Kaufman Interfaith Institute, GVSU on October 17, 2023
We, of course, decry the vicious attack by Hamas terrorists. But we also acknowledge the history of discrimination against Palestinians in the region. We also grieve for the innocent civilians who are being killed in this terrible conflict.
We also ask:
Why does violence always produce more violence? Is there any response to violence that would not create expanded violence? It is human nature to seek retaliation when one has been the target of violence. But does it help? Does it make things better or worse?
Our nation’s experience in responding to the violence of 9/11 was described by a recent PBS commentator as not intelligent and not effective. The numbers could certainly bear that out. The cost in the loss of civilian lives in Afghanistan and Iraq is conservatively estimated as over 200,000 and the costs of both wars as over 5 trillion dollars. Did the situation improve because of the two violent wars in response to the horrific violence against us?
If politics is the exercise of power and governments have armies to exercise that power, is there any way that we can respond without causing more violence and even defeating our own interests? It has been suggested that Osama ben Laden got what he wanted, a weakened West in both economic terms and perceived reduced respect worldwide.
America observed in the civil rights movement led by Martin Luther King, Jr. a non-violent response to the violence being perpetrated against Black people. Responding with an alternate power of love moved our nation much further toward justice than repeated violence could have produced.
Is there any way a government can find proactive non-violent ways to prevent potential violence? Can nonviolent approaches be used to prevent violence even if it seems difficult if not impossible for a government to do so after the violent attack has occurred?
Rabbi Dr. Ron Kronish, founding director of the Interreligious Coordinating Council in Israel, believes that interfaith and intercultural dialogue can help reverse radical extreme movements. In an article first published by Huffington Post in 2016, Kronish argued that there was too much ignorance in the world and particularly in Israel. Even living in proximity with each other, there is so little real dialogue and mutual understanding between the Jewish and Muslim communities. He urged that we find “better ways to live together in communities, countries, regions and in the world…to build trust among people of different religions who must then develop this into ways and means of living peacefully together.”
Can the religious teachings of loving your neighbor and seeking justice influence the political realm? Can religious communities contribute to peace among people, communities, and even nations? Let us hope and pray for that effort.
Again, building of the wisdom of the civil rights movement, let us heed the words of Rev. William J. Barber, Protestant minister and president of the North Carolina NAACP, “When we love the Jewish child and the Palestinian child, the Muslim and the Christian and the Hindu and the Buddhist and those that have no faith, but they love this nation, we are reviving the heart of our democracy.”
He then called on our religious values saying,
“We must shock this nation with the power of love.
We must shock this nation with the power of mercy.
We must shock this nation and fight for justice for all.”
