Adventist Peace Radio, Episode 118: JustLove Summit, Featuring Garrison Hayes

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This is the second of three presentations recorded during the JustLove Summit hosted at La Sierra University. In this episode, Garrison Hayes gives a keynote presentation on the second day of the event, exploring what is needed to repair past social wrongs.

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Adventist Peace Radio, Episode 117: JustLove Summit, Featuring Marlene Ferreras

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This episode is the first of three presentations recorded during the recent JustLove Summit hosted at La Sierra University. Here Marlene Ferreras gives the opening keynote presentation for the event, reflecting on the biblical imperative to respond to social justice issues with love.

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Seminary Conversation on Guns & Violence

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INTRODUCTION

I (Jeff Boyd) have been invited to spend 90 minutes leading a seminary class discussion on violence and guns. Before I join the crew, the doctoral students will have read Beating Guns (Claiborne & Martin, 2019) and will have watched Us Kids (documentary, 2020). The professor has also highlighted The Fallout (R, 2021).

This is the description I was given for our session together: “In addition to thinking about God’s calling across the life span of individuals, we are also examining God’s calling to church organizations throughout their history, especially as they navigate cultural disruptions and transitions.” And the invitation is to spend an hour and a half exploring “the intersection of Peace Studies and Adventism and how we might discern God’s calling amid the unspeakable violence violence that is all too common—from American schools to Ukrainian cities and towns.”

Below are some of the themes and resources we will likely cover, but we’ll see where the conversation leads…. For this conversation, we presume the best intent in each other’s comments and hearts.

PREAMBLE

Isaiah 2:4 — He will judge between the nations and will settle disputes for many peoples. They will beat their swords into plowshares and their spears into pruning hooks. Nation will not take up sword against nation, nor will they train for war anymore.

Joel 3:10 — Beat your plowshares into swords and your pruning hooks into spears. Let the weakling say, “I am strong!”

Micah 4:3 — He will judge between many peoples and will settle disputes for strong nations far and wide. They will beat their swords into plowshares and their spears into pruning hooks. Nation will not take up sword against nation, nor will they train for war anymore.

Justin Martyr, Dialogue with Trypho, 110.2-3 (Rome, mid-second century): For we Christians, who have gained a knowledge of the true worship of God from the Law and from the word which went forth from Jerusalem by way of the Apostles of Jesus, have run for protection to the God of Jacob and the God of Israel. And we who delighted in war, in the slaughter of one another, and in every other kind of iniquity have in every part of the world converted our weapons of war into implements of peace – our swords into ploughshares, our spears into farmers’ tools – and we cultivate piety, justice, brotherly charity, faith, and hope, which we derive from the Father through the Crucified Saviour.

Ellen White, The Great Controversy, 589: Satan delights in war, for it excites the worst passions of the soul and then sweeps into eternity its victims steeped in vice and blood. It is his object to incite the nations to war against one another, for he can thus divert the minds of the people from the work of preparation to stand in the day of God. [compare with mass shootings and Psalm 46]

Art Gish holding a plow. Screenshot from “Old Radicals” (https://youtu.be/oHpTUhF_l3A).

PRESENTATION & DISCUSSION

DEFINITIONS OF PEACE:

SELECT PEACE/VIOLENCE THEMES: Nonviolence, pacifism, conscientious objection, selective conscientious objection, just war theory, Constantinian shift, self-defense, R2P responsibility to protect (UN), forgiveness, reconciliation, justice, interpersonal conflict, intrastate violence/war, interstate violence/war, terrorism, torture, conflict transformation, death penalty, just peacemaking, racism, intimate partner violence, mental health, interfaith issues, economic issues, gun violence….

FIVE-PART JOURNEY pastors should be aware of, with each level or sector influencing the others: individual/personal, congregational (sidebar to “cliche” below), denominational, national/societal (culture trumps religion. always?), and global.

CLICHE: Pastor holds a Bible in one hand and a newspaper (shorthand for info about the world, whether in current events, cultural values and movements, or history) in the other. The pastor who is concerned about peace can organize content from these sources (broadly defined) into three buckets: (1) pro peace, (2) anti violence, and (3) “but what about…?”

  • BIBLE:

    • Peace & violence in the Hebrew scriptures and the Christian New Testament

    • Narrative theology and the trajectory of scripture (trajectory hermeneutics)

  • HISTORY BOOK: The Early Church, later Christian history, early Adventist history, and recent Adventist history/culture.

  • NEWSPAPER: Gun violence in schools and wider society, and intrastate and interstate war. (Guns now leading cause of death for kids in the U.S. Fox News, WebMD)

SELECT ADVENTIST STATEMENTS on VIOLENCE:

ARTICLES:

PODCAST: Adventist Peace Radio

ADVENTIST PEACEMAKERS: Adventist Peace Fellowship List

See also: Lyndi Fourie Foundation, Story at The Forgiveness Project, Adventist Review (2006), Beyond Forgiving (documentary short)

APF PEACE CHURCH NETWORK:

DOCUMENTARY FILMS:

SELECT BOOKS:

By Adventists

  • Church and Society (Maier, ed., 2015)

  • Adventism and the American Republic (Morgan, 2001)

  • Adventists and Military Service (Hasel, Magyarosi, Hoschele, eds., 2019)

  • The Promise of Peace (Scriven, 2009)

  • Anarchy and Apocalypse (Osborn, 2010)

  • Seventh-day Adventists in Time of War (Wilcox, 1936)

  • The Peacemaking Remnant (Morgan, ed., 2005)

  • Should I Fight? (Bussey, ed., 2011)

  • I Pledge Allegiance (Phillips, Tsatalbasidis, 2007)

  • I’m Not Leaving (Wilkins, 2011)

  • Flee the Captor (Ford, 1966)

For Congregations

  • A Culture of Peace: God’s Vision for the Church (Kreider, Kreider & Widjaja, 2005)

  • Peace Ministry: A Handbook for Local Churches (Buttry, 1995)

  • Christian Peacemaking (Buttry, 1994)

  • Shalom Church (Nessan, 2010)

  • Just Church (Martin, 2012)

  • Jeff Boyd, Additional Books (YouTube, 2017)

General

  • Jesus for President (Claiborne & Shaw, 2008)

  • Peacemakers in Action: Profiles of Religion in Conflict Resolution (Little, ed., 2007)

  • Peacemaking Power of Prayer (Robb & Hill, 2000)

  • Just Peacemaking (Stassen, 2008)

  • Peace Reader (Sider & Keefer Jr., eds., 2002)

History

  • The Early Church on Killing (Sider, ed., 2012)

  • Christian Attitudes toward War and Peace (Bainton, 1986)

  • Christian Attitudes to War, Peace and Revolution (Yoder, 2009)

Theology

  • Neglected Voices: Peace in the Old Testament (Leiter, 2007)

  • Covenant of Peace (Swartley, 2006)

  • Shalom: The Bible’s Word for Salvation, Justice & Peace (Yoder, 1987)

For Kids

  • My Daddy, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. (King III, 2013)

  • Teaching Peace to Children (Charissa Boyd, Jan. 24, 2020, Adventist Peace Radio podcast)

Jo Berry Explores Forgiveness in Context of Bombing that Killed Her Father

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Newbold College and Church recently spent two weeks focusing on forgiveness. The featured speaker to end the Forgiveness Project was Jo Berry, whose father was killed in an IRA bombing in 1984. Berry now travels with the very person responsible for the bombing, speaking about forgiveness, reconciliation, and community healing.

To learn more about Berry’s powerful story and the the Forgiveness Project, see:

REAL-LIFE FORGIVENESS IS MORE THAN JUST A WORD (Helen Pearson, TED News, 4 April 2018)

[THANK YOU to Helen Pearson and Victor Hulbert for publishing such important stories and making sure our community is aware of them!]

APF Statement Against Terrorist Attack in New Zealand (March 2019)

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The Adventist Peace Fellowship denounces the hatred and terrorism unleashed this week on Muslims in Christchurch, New Zealand. We stand against all violence and bloodshed, and all the more so when the victims are targeted because of their immigrant status and religious convictions. We stand against white supremacy and violent nationalism. We stand with our Muslim brothers and sisters, wishing to express our concern and solidarity.

In a dark hour such as this, what can one say? And more importantly, what can one do?

We—Adventist Christians who believe every human is created in the image of God—wish to speak a clear message opposing violence against people of other faiths, against anyone, to be sure. However, concrete responses are also needed. Such actions can be seen in New Zealand itself, for example when Prime Minister Ardern visited family members of victims, promising financial support and changes to gun laws. Although we recognize the hazards of advocating for change in foreign, sovereign countries, we can only hope that Adventists in New Zealand will support such efforts—these are the things we can do.

For those living outside of New Zealand, what can be done in our own countries and communities? What are we doing to reduce hate and increase respect? What kinds of sensible gun laws are we willing to support? How welcoming of immigrants are we? To what degree are we building relationships across religious boundaries?

In this time of great loss in New Zealand, may we be reminded to pursue peace and support freedom of religion in our own context. May the Creator God of the universe be near these grieving families, and may Adventists be near them in solidarity as well.