Religion, Peace, and War
A timely series offered by The 2nd Community begins:
Monday, February 9, 2015

7:00-9:00 p.m.
Northaven United Methodist Church Sanctuary
111211 Preston Road, Dallas 75230 

                                Rev. Eric Folkerth                Dina Malki
                                       Presenter                       Responder

True or False:  
"Religion Has Been the Cause of All Wars"

The world is embroiled in a struggle to understand violence perpetrated by persons who declare religious obedience as the motivation for their actions and wars that pit nations and sub-regions with different religious cultures against each other, each invoking God’s name for their cause.  A timely new book seeks to put these issues into a balanced perspective.  Fields of Blood:  Religion and the History of Violence, published late 2014, is the scholarly work of Karen Armstrong, a prominent religious historian.  She addresses the history of violence across cultures and religions and analyzes the relationship between religion and violence.  She challenges the common statement to the effect that religion has been at the base of all of the major wars and demonstrates that religion is more the scapegoat for than the cause of violence in the world. 

Because of the timeliness of this issue and its relevance to the objectives of The 2^nd Community, we will offer a series of presentations over the next several months with the overall theme: 

“Religion, Peace and War”

We will try to address the real issues about religion and violence and seek honest and open discussion, informed by well-qualified presenters representing diverse religious perspectives.  We are lengthening the time of our program by 15 minutes to ensure we have sufficient time to deal with the issues that will be addressed.  Each session will have a 1) primary presenter and responders, 2) the meeting of small clusters of participants to discuss what they have heard, and 3) a final plenary session for dialogue and Q&A.  This promises to be a stimulating, relevant and interesting series that we hope you will attend.

The topic for February 9 is True or False:  “Religion Has Been the Cause of all Wars”?  The primary presenter will be Rev. Eric Folkerth, Senior Pastor of Northaven United Methodist Church.  He will provide an accessible overview of the analysis and key conclusions of Karen Armstrong in Fields of Blood.  Dina Malki will respond from a Muslim perspective.  Dina is a local writer about Islam and interfaith in several publications and blogs.  She teaches at TCU's Extended Education courses about Islam.

This presentation will begin the interfaith discussion about the basic theme and other facets of the theme to be addressed succeeding months.  Tentative titles for the following sessions are:

March 9 – Wisdom or Insanity?:  A Commitment to Non-Violence

April 13 – All Religions Talk Peace – Do They Make Peace?

The program of The 2^nd Community is designed to create a space where faith stories can be shared freely and fearlessly, with the objective of developing greater mutual understanding.  We invite others to join us in creating a “2^ndCommunity” in which one can join with others without fear of proselytizing to have a unified voice for tolerance and mutual respect.

The program starts promptly at 7:00.  Please arrive between 6:40 and 6:55 for check-in.

While there is no charge and registration is not required, if you have never attended The 2nd Community it would help us to have your name in advance to help with our preparations.  Free childcare is available if requested when you register.