wfn.org | Jerusalem's Lutheran Bishop: Three Roles for Religion During Conflict

[JerusalemRelOrgs@aol.com]

For more information contact:
George Awad or
Bishop Munib Younan
Evangelical Lutheran Church in Jerusalem
Muristan Road, Old City, Jerusalem
Tel: 972.2.627-6111
Email: ga_elcj@netvision.net.il

    JERUSALEM, March 21, 2002--According to The Evangelical Lutheran Bishop 
of Jerusalem the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is "primarily political rather 
than religious." 

    But Bishop Munib Younan insists that religion is called to contribute 
positively in the search for a solution, not to inflame the situation 
further.  

    In a message released here through the Common Ground News Service (CGNews)
 he described three important roles he believes religion should to play in 
the continuing strife.  The text of Bishop Younan's article follows:  

Religion's Three Roles in a Time of Conflict

by Bishop Dr. Munib A. Younan 

My wife Suad and I were walking from Jaffa Gate into the Christian Quarter in 
the Old City of Jerusalem when a young Jewish girl, about twelve years of 
age, spoke to us in Hebrew.  

"Please help me to enter the Old City," the child asked.  "I am afraid, 
because my teacher has told me that the Palestinians here will kill me."  

Suad, who speaks perfect Hebrew, told the girl to walk with us and spoke to 
her all the way about the other.  Suad said the girl should not believe what 
she had been told.  

When we came to a corner and were to depart from each other, my wife asked 
the girl, "Did you feel safe with us?"  The girl quickly responded, "Very 
much so."  Then Suad asked, "Do you know that both of us are Palestinians?  
Did we harm you?" 

The stunned little girl opened her mouth but did not know what to say.

My concern is for the future of our children--Israeli as well as Palestinian. 
 At present, Israeli children are taught that their security is in arms and 
military might.  They need to be liberated from the mentality of fear and be 
taught that their freedom and security are in a reconciled Palestinian 
neighbor.  

On the other hand, today's Palestinian child only knows one Israeli:  the 
tough soldier who confiscates land, shells homes, detains the father, and 
forbids the parents to enter Jerusalem to work or pray.  These children need 
to be liberated from the military occupation and be taught that their freedom 
and security is in a reconciled Israeli neighbor.

Religion can play a very significant role in contributing to a change of mind 
at the grassroots level.  However, I can honestly say there is no other 
conflict in the world where religion is as much misused, misquoted, or 
misinterpreted as in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.  Oftentimes the 
religious extremists are more vocal than the mainstream followers of the 
respective religions.  The true teachings of the religions are blurred and 
twisted.

My God is the God of love without boundaries.  The God I know is the God who 
so loved the world that He gave Himself for all humankind on the cross.  This 
is not the God of dissent, fighting, and violence.  

The nature of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is primarily political rather 
than religious.  However, religion is called to contribute positively in the 
search for a solution, not to inflame the situation further.  In this I 
believe religion has three important roles to play.  

1.  Religion must have a prophetic role.

In the Old Testament we find many examples of prophets who did not please the 
political powers, but rather challenged the rulers and privileged people of 
their day about abuses of power, injustices, and inequality in society.  The 
prophets were unpopular preachers, always dynamic and driven by a total 
commitment to live in a relationship of love with God and with all people.

Our prophetic tasks as religious leaders are to address the root cause of the 
Middle East conflict: the Israeli military occupation.  It must end.  
Occupation is a sin against God and against humanity because it deprives 
Palestinians of their rights and their dignity.  Furthermore, the security of 
Israel is dependent on the freedom of the Palestinians.  

The prophetic voice that seeks a just peace solution is a voice that cares 
for the future.  The issues of a two-state solution, the right of return for 
Palestinian refugees, settlements, and a shared Jerusalem urgently need to be 
addressed and solved in accordance with international legitimacy.  

2.  Religion must assume its role to be a catalyst for reconciliation.

I believe that God is calling us now to mark the common values in the three 
monotheistic religions and to find ways and means to break the vicious circle 
of hatred and spiraling violence.  

As religious leaders we have a holy task to contribute positively toward a 
good future for the children and for the two nations, hand in hand.

We believe in a reconciling, righteous God, who is able to make the 
impossible possible.  As is written in Ephesians 2:14:  For He is our peace, 
in his flock He has made both groups into one and has broken down the 
dividing wall, that is the hostility between us.

3.  Religion must promote peace education.

Religion teaches people to love God and to love their neighbor.  Each of the 
three religions has teachings in support of these principles and ways of 
implementing them.  Our common call is to bring up a generation that can see 
the other without hatred, dehumanization, and denunciation.  

We are to teach equality, tolerance, justice, reconciliation, and 
forgiveness.  We are to teach our people to see God in the other and to 
accept the otherness of the other.  Thus, there will be recognition of each 
other's human, civil, religious, and political rights.  Only then will Israel 
and Palestine become the promised land of milk and honey for both 
Palestinians and Israelis.

When we go to heaven, God will not ask, "How much did you consolidate your 
own group?" Rather, I believe God will ask,  "How much did you teach peace 
and the right image of the other, even the enemy?"

Dr. Munib A. Younan is based in Jerusalem and is Bishop of the Evangelical 
Lutheran Church in Jordan, working in the Palestinian autonomous areas, 
Jerusalem, Israel, and Jordan.  

-end-