The Role of Ritual for Peacemaking of Racial Conflicts in the US - Theories of Conflict Resolution in Complementary Practice -

Abstract

This essay provides a substantive study of the faith-based racial conflict resolution by analyzing and evaluating the role of religious ritual to resolve racial conflicts in dealing with ethical values. It also offers a new, religiously sensitive approach to social justice and reconciliation. As this essay argues, religious ritual offers important resources for conceptualizing peacemaking processes and identity-based conflicts in and among human communities. This study considers two questions: First, what alternative religious practices might engage, in context, racial tension and be implemented as an alternative to racial conflicts? Second, what religious values provide effective pastoral resources to critically assess today’s racial conflicts and social crisis, and suggest a way to resolve them? These questions are addressed by a study of the ethical and social implications of modern American churches. Inspired by the leadership of two female pastors and their social thoughts based on forgivingness and reconciliation, these churches and their joint worship services provide a relevant way for faith-based peacebuilding projects that present concrete proposals for the social roles of the church as peacebuilders.