In a world where polarization seems to have become the normative means of community control and an important tool for political control it’s probably not surprising to see that racially inspired violence is gradually becoming more and more of an issue.
As I said, it’s not surprising, for if we polarize a community for long enough, whether it be liberal/conservative or white/not white or surfer/biker or Christian/Muslim we’re setting ourselves up for some form of violence, of bullying and oppression.
The latest round of violence in the Cronulla area may have inspired some emotions in those young people and children with whom you work, live, pray, play, worship or teach. The media has played a very important part in that, I’ll post more about the media’s role in the proliferation of the violence in the area later, but unless your young people have not seen a tv, read a paper, been on the Internet or listened to the radio in the last few days they would have heard something about what’s been going on in the area. As they’ve probably been immersed in the media reports over the last few days it may be a good thing for you to allow them to debrief the situation and their emotions…
This document aims to give you a few ideas as to how we can share our feelings and reflections from the last few days, it will include a couple of prayers, some news articles, reflections, songs, films, ideas and activities for people working with children, youth and young adults to help them reflect on the violence that we’ve seen, experienced, watched, heard or read of over the last few days.
Our first task, as always, will be to seek to be the peace we advocate -to be calm in the midst of the turmoil -so we can act constructively – with clarity and courage.
Our second task will be to deal with our own violence – to deal with our own actual or potential violence – in our own hearts, our own homes, our own communities and our own countries.
And our third task will be to do whatever we can to stop the violence elsewhere – addressing the root causes of exploitation and oppression, as well as the bitter fruit of terror and terrorism. We may not always be able to stop the violence, but we will always protest against it.
God is for life against death, for love against hate, for hope against despair. There is no neutral ground. So let us wage peace well this year.
- Dave Andrews in his 2002 Christmas Letter
Download the full discussion resource as a pdf file below…
About djwright
