Discussion Board 4
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Discussion Board 4
COMS 560 – B02
Janice Hall
March 3, 2016
Discussion Board 4
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Conversion as a Way of Life in Cultures of Violence
The author begins the article by reflecting on a series of bible studies that she was
involved in at the Canada Council of Churches. Thinking about the violence that the world
experienced, Ortega based the bible studies on the Book of Judith. This particular book has a
woman as a heroine. Ortega refers to the National Assembly of the People’s Power in Cuba in
which a pastor voices his disagreement with the death penalty of any human being. Robert
Schreiter’s ways to distinguish the other are presented. Schreiter’s ways imposes that the
ministry of peace and reconciliation will lead individuals to the acceptance of the otherness and
the difference as a basis for the healing and reconstruction of our communities.
Some people consider violence to be normal, meaning that it exists in all cultures
throughout history. The author presents the experience of the people of Cuba suffering violence
against a young boy. The violence against the child is said to be linked to hatred and grudges
that part of the Cuban community has accumulated for more than four decades. The case has
turned into a nationwide problem, which has brought two governments and two countries into
endless legal struggles.
The story that Ortega presented by the Cuban storyteller, “Francisca and Death” is very
thought provoking. My thought from this story is that Francisca is busy being a servant of God,
and doing God’s work, that is why death can’t catch her. The section of the article that analyzes
the rusty pot as a symbol of death is enlightening. I have never heard this parable as being
associated with violence. Lesson learned from this particular parable is that the rusty pot must
be cleaned in order to get rid of sin that is destroying people.
Discussion Board 4
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Nonviolence is a way of life that basically avoids violence. Nonviolence includes
personal, social, and international change that is based off of truth and the power of love to
overrule evil while obtaining justice and reconciliation. The “logic of life”, called “conventional
ethics” by Rosemary Radford Ruether, gives a vision of a community integrated with humans,
animals, and land. This integrated community seeks to live with continual rest, renewal, and
restoration of just and sustainable relations between humans and the land, while under a
caretaking God.
The Decade to Overcome Violence began in 2001. A spirituality was to be developed
that would be receptive to the needs of those who lived together in an environment. The pluralist
societies today basically views receiving the stranger as a command of the Gospel which is now
a necessity in the contemporary societies. Forgiveness along with the meaningful steps to
reconciliation are necessary in order to overcome violence and produce a culture of life.
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