Interreligious Forum Focuses excerpt
"Buddhists, Christians and other religionists joined academics and human rights activists recently to highlight the importance of peace education in resolving conflicts and promoting peace. Participants from various countries at the Peace Education Forum, sponsored by Jesuit-run Sophia University in Tokyo, discussed issues such as social tolerance, human dignity and nonviolence as prerequisites for peace. "The story of the 20th century is one when more blood was shed than any other. Yet the human conscience refuses to die," said Rajmohan Gandhi, grandson of Mahatma Gandhi and a promoter of ethnic reconciliation in India. "This forum challenges us as educationists to advocate a non-adversarial mode of discourse among our students," said Maryknoll Sister Jean Michaelic, a professor at Sophia College. "The adversarial style develops a mind-set of violence that is counter-productive to peace," she added. Betty Reardon, founder of the International Institute on Peace Education, said that economics are "structured to help maintain the war system." "We are sustained by a culture of war and weaponry and the threat of war governs our relations," she added."
|
