Teachers of peace

Lutheran peacemakers help youth transform their world

By the time he entered middle school, Anthony (not his real name) had seen enough mayhem to make the most seasoned homicide detective blanch. But neither made-for-TV murders nor video game dismemberments prepared the eighth-grader for the 3-inch blade that menaced him.

A peer counselor at a Lutheran day camp, Anthony was pouring juice for an ill camper when the boy's older brother burst into the kitchen. Unhappy about being asked to bring his brother's medicine, he threatened them with a pocketknife.

People may think children should not have to fear for their lives at a church camp, but few safe havens exist anymore.

A deadly epidemic

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention labels violence a "public epidemic"-1 million people die a year, a disproportionate number of whom never see their 18th birthday. Youth are raped, robbed and murdered at a rate five times that of adults, says the U.S. Justice Department.

One Centers study reveals that the murder rate for boys aged 15 to 19 was 74 percent higher in 1997 than 1985. Each day 270,000 guns are brought to school and 40 more students are injured or killed. The threat of violence is so prevalent many schools have added drive-by-shooting drills to their emergency-preparedness.

For Lutherans these statistics are a call to action. The Lutheran Peace Fellowship declared its support for the "Appeal of the Nobel Peace Prize Laureates: For the Children of the World" a year before the United Nations approved its adoption in 1998. The appeal asks that nonviolence be taught "at every level in our societies ... to make the children of the world aware of the real, practical meaning and benefits of nonviolence in their daily lives." From 1998 to 1999, 30 ELCA synods, representing 4,895 congregations, passed an LPF-sponsored resolution to support the appeal.

Building hope

Such support is evidence of a strong tradition of peacemaking among Lutherans. Trinity Lutheran, a small congregation in Lakeland, Ohio, a multiethnic suburb of Cleveland, is an example. For eight years Trinity has offered Peace Camp, a summer day program teaching conflict resolution for elementary and middleschool students.

"After conferring with community leaders, we decided peace education was needed," says Paula Connor, pastor of Trinity. "We came up with the idea of providing a ministry to not only teach peace from Scripture but in a way that enables youth to use the skills they learn to defuse everyday conflict on the playground and in school."

'Put the knife down'

The approach pays dividends. Anthony, having already attended one week of Peace Camp, put the skills he learned to work in his confrontation with the knifewielding boy. "This is Peace Camp," he said. "There's no need for you to have a knife in your hand. All we need from you is the medicine you were kind enough to bring. Please put the knife down." The boy did.

Lutheran Peace Fellowship is also developing an annual peace camp experience to teach youth nonviolent conflict resolution using global songs, hands-on learning activities, faith sharing and storytelling. With the camps, the nearly 60year-old group hopes to train 2,000 youth leaders by 20 10. In the last five years, it has already provided resources, consultation and leadership training to nearly 500 teachers, youth leaders and church groups. It has developed more than 100 workshops for youth.

Such educational endeavors expose students to the importance of peacemaking in the world, says Jay McDivitt, a Luther student and vice president of the Lutheran Youth Organization. "Youth would love to be involved in peacemaking if only they knew how," McDivitt says. "We can help by making young people aware of the peacemaking activities taking place in their communities."

"Children see 1,000 times more violent scenes dealt with inappropriately on television than they experience positive models," says Glen Gersmehl, LPF national director. "We're working against a heavy backlog of destructive attitudes and behaviors. Teachers, parents and youth leaders who model conflict resolution work against the grain of our culture. ... In the end, peacemaking can transform our world."

Resources

* Healing OurAnger. Seven Ways to Make Peace in a Hostile World by Michael Obsatz (ISBN 0806638907; $12.99).

* Family Pledge of Nonviolence is available free on the Web: www.eica.org/eteam/re sources/connectl.htm.

* For Peace in God's World, an ELCA social statement calling for "education about nonviolence in our church and elsewhere" (available from Augsburg Fortress, 800-328-4648, code 69-3920).

* Lutheran Peace Fellowship, 1710 11th Ave., Seattle, WA 98122; (206) 720-0313; lpf@ecunet.org.

Trinity Lutheran Church's Peace Camp curriculum, 16400 Detroit Ave., Lakewood, OH, 44107; (216) 226-8087; e-mail: paula_wow@yahoo.com. (Copies are availablefor a small fee.)

* The Peace Prize Forum is an 11-year-old program that develops peacemaking leadership. It is sponsored by the Norwegian Nobel Institute and five ELCA colleges: Augsburg, Minneapolis; Augustana, Sioux Falls, S.D.; Concordia, Moorhead, Minn.; Luther,

Decorah, Iowa; and St. Olaf, Northfield, Minn. The series provides Nobel laureates, diplomats, scholars and the public a forum to discuss peacemaking and the underlying causes of conflict in modem society. This year's speakers included 1998 peace prize winner David Trimble, an architect of the Good Friday Peace Accord in Northern Ireland. For information about the 2001 forum, contact Karen Martin-Schramm, assistant to the Luther College president, (319) 387-1001; www.peaceprizeforum.org.

Peterson, a pastor and free-lance writer lives in Gig Harbor Wash.

Copyright Evangelical Lutheran Church in America Apr 2000
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