“Mediators” Win Nobel Peace Prize

October 12, 2015 – 10:53 am

The 2015 Nobel Peace Prize has been awarded to four organizations that have in effect been mediating to keep peace in Tunisia. The four organizations—a labor union, a trade group, a human rights league, and a lawyers’ group—comprise the National Dialogue Quartet, formed in 2013 to help Tunisia move beyond its 2011 revolution to build a “pluralistic democracy.” The Nobel Committee said the Quartet “exercised its role as a mediator and driving force to advance peaceful democratic development in Tunisia with great moral authority.”

The Quartet “established an alternative, peaceful political process at a time when the country was on the brink of civil war,” enabling Tunisia to establish a constitutional system of government. The Quartet was instrumental in ensuring that Tunisia held peaceful, democratic elections last fall by facilitating dialogue among citizens, political parties and authorities to find “consensus-based solutions to a wide range of challenges across political and religious divides.”

It’s difficult enough to mediate between two individuals with common interests; to bring together political factions vying for power along with citizens on both sides of a revolution is truly admirable. I’d like to hear more about how this Quartet was able to be so effective—and I hope the peace lasts.

October 2015

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Four Steps to Ask for Forgiveness

September 30, 2015 – 12:01 pm

An article in this week’s New York Times describes “How to Ask for Forgiveness, in Four Steps.” The four steps are: Admit vulnerability (which includes taking responsibility, and acknowledging the impact that one’s offense had on others); Apologize; Ask for forgiveness; and Practice forgiving.

These are good reminders that there’s a process to asking for forgiveness–it’s not just one thought or sentence. Others have developed lists like this, but I’ve not seen “vulnerability” on them — and yet it is a helpful way to summarize the posture of the one who needs forgiving.

It’s interesting that the author, Bruce Feiler, lists “apology” as one element of his overall topic of “asking for forgiveness.” I’ve done the opposite: I consider “good apology” to be the heading, and “ask for forgiveness” to be one of its components. My main reason is to keep “apology” distinct from “forgiveness.” The offender gives an apology; the victim’s response is forgiveness. It’s easy to confuse the two, and the phrase “ask for forgiveness” can do that, leading the offender to focus on the victim’s obligation to forgive, instead of on the offender’s duty to apologize. In fact, when I first saw the title of this article, I thought it was about forgiveness.

I especially like the reminder, “How do you get to forgiveness? Practice.” We’re not good at apologizing or forgiving — I know from my work that I’m not alone in saying this — , and our relationships would be healthier if we did this more often. Moreover, as the author hints, there is a spiritual dimension to asking for, and receiving, forgiveness. It is both right and good.

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Today is Yom Kippur

September 23, 2015 – 8:43 am

Yom Kippur began last night at sundown, a time when Jews restore their relationship to God through repentance for their offenses. It’s the culmination of a ten-day period of reflection, repentance and return known as “teshuvah.” Repentance can be a refreshing, joyful act, says Louis Newman, a professor who has both studied and practiced it. Prof. Newman makes repentance sound so healing that it makes me want to do it regularly–and so we should. Today is a reminder to us all of the wonderful gift of repentance.

 

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LCMS Dispute Resolution

September 18, 2015 – 5:53 pm

The Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod has invested a lot in peacemaking. I was part of their effort in the late 1990’s to train hundreds of district superintendents around the U.S. in Christian mediation, in hopes that they would be able to resolve pastor-parish conflicts internally, and well.

So it was with real sadness that I came across this case, Hillenbrand v Christ Lutheran Church, wending its way through the Michigan court system. Richard Hillenbrand was pastor of Christ Lutheran Church in Birch Run, Michigan, from 2005 until 2012, when the church let him go. He apparently requested a hearing before the LCMS Dispute Resolution panel, which was held in August 2012. The church decided not to participate in that hearing, and withdrew its membership from the LCMS. The DR panel recommended that the church review its decision to terminate the pastor, and that it award him backpay.

Presumably the church did not follow the decision of the DR panel, because Pastor Hillenbrand filed a wrongful termination action in circuit court, basically asking the court to reinstate him as pastor. The legal issue was whether the court had the jurisdiction to review a church decision, and the Court of Appeals affirmed the trial court’s decision that it did not.

I can imagine Pastor Hillenbrand’s unhappiness at being terminated by his church. I suspect that the church was divided as to whether to keep him as their pastor, but the people who wanted him gone had more power. Pastor Hillenbrand no doubt felt vindicated by the DR Panel’s decision, yet frustrated that his church ignored it. He probably believed his former church leaders were in the wrong, and that this was highly unjust. His decision to file a civil suit was probably encouraged by supporters miffed by the church’s decision to withdraw from the LCMS rather than heed the Dispute Resolution panel’s advice.

So I understand the desire to seek justice in the civil court – but I can’t agree with it. As St. Paul says, “The very fact that you have lawsuits among you means you have been completely defeated already.” (I Corinthians 6:7) In other words, even if the pastor had won the lawsuit, he would have lost the spiritual battle, by continuing to fight with his Christian brothers instead of forgiving and loving them, and by airing internal church matters in public, tarnishing the name of Christ. But he didn’t win; many resources were devoted to years of litigation, for naught.

The court came to the right conclusion, but it had to dig deep into LCMS constitution and bylaws to do so. It’s ironic that we live in a country that allows churches to make their own decisions, yet Christians regularly ask courts to review church decisions. If courts did rule on church decisions, Christians would complain about government interference; instead, it’s the courts that are continually reminding Christians to take care of their matters in their own churches and quit bringing them to court.

The LCMS Dispute Resolution system was designed to effectuate I Corinthians 6:1-7, by providing a church-based process for resolving disputes among the brethren. This case reveals a flaw in the LCMS Dispute Resolution system: a party can thwart it by withdrawing from the LCMS. Even though the process continues to a decision, and even though the process specifically prohibits a party from terminating their membership in a manner that renders the decision inapplicable (LCMS Bylaws, Section 1.10.2), in fact there’s no way to enforce it against the party that is no longer within the LCMS.

My hope now is that the hurting people at Christ Lutheran Church — and Pastor Hillenbrand — will turn to my good friends at Ambassadors of Reconciliation, a ministry devoted to reconciliation within the LCMS, to find healing and reconciliation from this sad event.

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Rep. Gamrat Apologizes

September 8, 2015 – 4:25 pm

Michigan Representative Cindy Gamrat apologized today before a House legislative committee for her role in a scandal involving fellow legislator Todd Courser.

The West Michigan legislator apologized “for the failures I’ve committed, which do not reflect the heart of who I am, the values I believe in, nor the people I serve. I humbly ask the forgiveness of God and my family and my colleagues for the hurt and difficulties my failures have brought.”

She accepted the summary findings of a House Business Office investigation, which determined that she and Mr. Courser misused taxpayer resources to hide their affair and inappropriately mixed official and political business. She acknowledged for the first time that she had a role in the May email designed to discredit allegations of their affair.

I would never want to be in Ms. Gamrat’s shoes, but we all can improve on the quality of our apologies, so studying public apologies can be instructive.

This apology is not bad. Measured against Peacemaker Ministries’ “Seven A’s of Confession,” it meets most of the criteria. She may not have “Admitted specifically” everything she did wrong, but the fact that she accepted the findings of the House report, including owning up to involvement in the email, which she had previously denied, is good.

One of the 7 A’s is, “Accept the consequences.” The House is considering a recommendation that she be censured, not expelled, and she asked for censure today. She said she did not want to resign. A sign of genuine remorse is a willingness to accept whatever consequences may result from the offense. This apology would have been more powerful had she yielded herself to whatever consequences her colleagues and her constituents deem appropriate.

The timing is also problematic, in terms of the sincerity of her apology. She lied to the House committee that was investigating the matter last month, perhaps hoping that her role in the infamous email wouldn’t come to light. Now that the committee is considering censure, she admits to wrongdoing. It looks self-serving rather than totally sincere. This apology would have been more meaningful had it come when the affair was publicly revealed August 7.

Ms. Gamrat is meeting tonight with constituents in Fennville. They get to decide whether her apology was sincere, and whether to forgive her.

 

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