ELCA Hosts "Living Faithfully in a Violent World"

WASHINGTON, D.C. (ELCA) -- School shootings, incidents of police brutality, domestic violence and child abuse consistently made headlines in 2001. In response to these acts of violence the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) brought together nearly 200 adult and youth participants for an intense training event here Jan. 18-19 at the Washington National Cathedral.
The ELCA Divisions for Church in Society and Congregational Ministries sponsored "Living Faithfully in a Violent World: Congregations and Community Working Together to End Violence." The event focused on developing congregation and community responses and strategies to end violence. A team of experts in the areas of violence prevention and conflict resolution facilitated workshops that provided practical "how to" information on anti-violence programs and ministry development.
The event opened with a Home Box Office (HBO) video presentation, "Violence: An American Tradition," which focused on "America's violent culture." According to the video, America has "historic amnesia." The program focused on the plight of American Indians, violence in the American West, the Civil War, how immigrants were treated upon reaching the shores of the United States, violence against women and children, prejudice, discrimination and racism.
During a pause in the video, participants talked about some of America's most dangerous criminals -- Jesse James, Bonnie and Clyde, Al Capone, Richard Speck, John Wayne Gacy -- and how some were transformed from villains to heros and celebrities by the media.
"As Americans, we idolize the people who built this country on violence. This country was built on murder and slavery," said Nicole White, a senior at Spellman College, Atlanta, and a young adult participant at the conference.
"These are the same people we have holidays for such as Christopher Columbus and people we say are our forefathers -- George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Abraham Lincoln -- and others we say are the source of our greatness. They are the same people who caused brutality and pain and the same type of people we would put in jail today," White said.
"We idolize war. We talk about the Civil War and fighting for our rights, but we never talk about what causes people to want to fight back. We [Americans] never talk about what we did to make people want to get into a war with us," she said.
"What are these rights that we're looking for when other people are being killed and having injustices done upon them?" White asked.
After each segment of the video, participants were asked to break into small groups and discuss the images and information they had just seen as well as this country's perception of the treatment of human beings.
One participant said it was "safer to be an armed military or police person than it was to be a 10-year-old here in America."
Another participant said children need positive alternatives to the streets. Gangs and drug dealers are busy 24 hours a day, and the church needs to provide some type of positive activities that will interest young people enough for them to want to participate, he said. We need to teach our children to be useful, he added.
According to the video, by age18 most American children have seen more than 18,000 acts of violence on television.
Conference participants had the opportunity to attend a variety of workshops focusing on violence globally and in U.S. communities, and on juvenile justice. Workshops were led by lay and clergy leaders of the ELCA and other denominations. Topics ranged from "Visioning World Peace" to "Helping Ex-offenders Returning Home from Prison" and from "Violence in the Media" to "From Hate to Hope."
"Organized hate group activity continues to plague our communities, resulting in violence, hate crimes and other acts of bigotry. White nationalists are using Sept. 11 to advance their recruitment and to expand anti-immigrant organizing, while neo-Nazis are using White power music to recruit youth," said the Rev. David Ostendorf, executive director of the Center for New Community, Oak Park, Ill. Ostendorf is a minister in the United Church of Christ, a full communion partner of the ELCA.
In the workshop "From Hate to Hope," Ostendorf presented participants with "real life situations" where hate groups had attempted to influence young people and whole communities with their messages. Participants were asked to break into small groups and brainstorm on the situations and give feedback on how as individuals or congregations they could respond to those or similar situations.
"We [the church] must make our presence known against hate. We are so splintered. and we are not focused locally. It is hard to get people to move out of their comfort zone," said Ostendorf.
"This was not planned as a conference of experts," said the Rev. Ann E. Helmke, peaceCENTER, San Antonio, Texas. "The large and small groups allowed everyone to have the opportunity to talk about their experiences with violence in their world. Everyone here is struggling to understand violence and an expert in what they know to be real," she said.
Helmke is an ELCA pastor and one of the founders of the peaceCENTER, an inter-faith organization of people working together to stop violence in San Antonio.
"We're living in a different world today than we were on Sept. 10. Even before Sept. 11 there were people who were totally aware of the violence that we were experiencing in the world and wanted to do something about it and would have liked to do something about it within their faith," said Helmke.
"The events of Sept. 11 probably had some impact on some conversations, but they were not solely about the events of that day -- not even close. It came up but was not the focus of conversations. These conversations have centered around racism, poverty and other issues as they came up," she said. YOUTH EVENT HELD
Eighty young people were on hand for a youth event held in conjunction with the conference. Youth 13 to19 years old and their adult chaperons discussed how violence has impacted their lives.
The students discussed issues of racial profiling, domestic abuse, discrimination against gay and lesbian people -- particularly teens who are "coming out" -- and general difficulties of being a teen. Many discussions focused on the difficulties of sharing one's faith with those who are "unchurched" and defining or discovering one's own personal spirituality.
"When it comes to dealing with one's spirituality, it is a very difficult thing to do," said Justin Russell, 17, Jubilee Faith Community Church, ELCA, Country Club Hills, Ill. "When you are trying to help someone come into their spirituality, you should do what it is that they are asking you to do and put your trust in God," he said.
"We all wrestle with spirituality, and that helps us to grow as Christians. When you don't wrestle, you have become complacent. Complacency is one of the reasons that churches don't grow. When churches are not evolving with the culture, their numbers decrease and then the spirituality decreases because the church is not meeting the needs of the people," Russell said.
"This conference was much more task oriented than I like. I don't find that to be as spiritually fulfilling as generic 'let's just talk about what we want to talk about in relation to our lives.'" This [event] focused on only one aspect [youth and violence]," said Aaron Eastlack, 16, Gaithersburg, Md. "Violence is very real, but for me right now I have other concerns."
"When you're in the teen years you have a of lot 'why' questions about spirituality," he said.
"I have lots and lots of 'why' and 'what if' questions and 'why can't it be this way' questions. I don't know if I'm ready to commit to a faith yet. I was raised Lutheran, my parents are<