Peace with words, not weapons
One myth about peacebuilding is that it is passive . What I learned about peacebuilding in Colombia was the beauty of choosing to engage in a different way, of not shying away from naming real problems and working to address them. Peacebuilding was also a way of honouring the dignity of other people involved. It meant choosing a “third way” of coming to the table with creativity, rather than being either violent or passive. Taking that approach meant choosing to always see the other party as human, capable of change, and bearing the image of God, just like me.
Choosing a peace perspective also doesn’t mean shying away from real issues of power, privilege, inequality and racial injustice, or pretending they don’t matter. It does mean choosing an approach that’s different from the one that got us into the problem in the first place. How can everyone be invited into restoration and healing, to take responsibility for wrongs and also be part of a different path forward? In Colombia, both the government and the FARC had to be willing to commit to truth-telling and to repairing harm.
This holds true on a personal level as well as political. Sooner or later, in order to move forward, we must put down our weapons. We don’t get to choose everything in life, but how we approach a problem is fully under our control. Harm is still possible, but we can reduce the level of destruction by how we approach a conflict.
So how does this happen? I generally don’t carry around literal knives and guns. But I have a backpack full of mental ammunition that I am ready to pull out the moment I feel threatened. I want to speak first, make my points as strongly as I can, and shut down any opposition that could be forthcoming. It is all too easy to jump to the conclusion that other people are ill-informed or simply the problem and that then determines how I respond. When I think about it, I’m astounded at how quickly I am ready to draw my weapons.
Read some small practices to replace those weapons here.