El programa ALTE les extiende una invitación muy especial a todas nuestras hermanas al taller “Mujeres Latinas en el Ministerio”

Este taller explora el impacto actual, histórico y eterno del liderazgo y contribución de la mujer Latina en el ministerio Cristiano.
Su presencia y quehacer en la iglesia siempre ha sido y será trascendental y único.

This workshop explores the present impact as well as, the historical and endless leadership, and the contribution of the Latina Women in the Christian Ministry. The presence and work of women in the church has always been and will always be unique and transcendental.

Sábado, 26 de mayo del 2012
9:00 a.m. – 2:00 p.m.

Iglesia de Dios Pentecostal, M.I.
904 W. 145th St.
East Chicago, IN 46312

Compartiremos un almuerzo…
y otras sorpresas.

Lunch will be served…

To reserve your spot, contact the
ALTE office at (773) 252-3929
or via E-Mail iris@scupe.com

Donation: $10.00

Para reservar su lugar, comuníquese con
la oficina de ALTE
al (773) 252‐3929
o vía correo electrónico iris@scupe.com

Donación: $10.00

For nearly 50 years, the Reverend Yvonne V. Delk, has been a strong ally in the fight for human and civil rights for people of color, children and the poor. Today, she remains a clear, prolific and moral voice in search of justice and equality for the oppressed within the U.S. interfaith community.

Sunday, May 20, 2012
12:00 p.m. and 4:00 p.m.

at

God Can Ministries United Church of Christ
1100 Greenwood* • Ford Heights, IL 60411 • 708-757-5550

*Take Lincoln Highway to Woodlawn, then turn North on Woodlawn and go to the third stop sign. At the third stop
sign turn (west) left. The first stop sign is Lexington. Go pass Lexington to the next street and make a left
turn. Parking is on street and parking lot.

The church plays by jigsaw puzzle theology but the world plays by poker theology, remarked a participant at the NATO/G8 teach-in event at the Chicago Temple, last Sunday night. The event “Resetting the Table: Economic Justice for All” was co-sponsored by SCUPE, the First UMC/Chicago Temple, IIRON (regional organizing network), the Northern Illinois Conference, Church and Society, and the Outreach, Extension office of Garrett-Evangelical Theological Seminary.

A jigsaw puzzle is a problem that many people will come together to solve and gain satisfaction in the result, while poker is about winners and losers, who keep poker-faced in order to hide their feelings from others. Can the faith communities win the struggle for justice when they are playing by a different set of rules, he asked, or is there a poker theology?

G8, a group of eight of the world’s most powerful economies will come together at Camp David on May 18-19 to determine economic policies that favor the 1% and NATO which meet in Chicago from May 20-21, will work to enforce those policies. The teach-in sponsored by SCUPE together with Chicago Temple, Garrett-Evangelical Theological Seminary and Illinois-Indiana Regional Organizing Network sought to articulate the theological and economic questions and to train participants to engage in actions.

Dr. Tim Eberhart from Garrett-Evangelical Theological Seminary presented a biblical and theological perspective on the image of “the table.” At the center of nearly every household is the table, around which most other household activities are organized.  At table, we encounter the most basic questions of economics.

1. Who gets to sit at the table?

The God of Jesus Christ invites everyone to the feast of life. All are welcome, especially the poor, the vulnerable, and the excluded. There is more than enough for everyone.

 2. How are the seats arranged?

At the table, the dinner guests are co-equal companions around the feast of life. In God’s economy, all share and enjoy the goods of creation through cooperative and reciprocal economic relationships.

3. Do the elements served nourish the body?

God’s intention is for the creaturely flourishing of the whole of creation. To be faithful to the God who nourishes our bodies with life-giving food means criticizing economic structures which prioritize the generation of abstract, financial wealth (Wall Street wealth) over the real wealth of the earth’s abundant goods and over well-crafted materials that serve human flourishing, the health of ecosystems, and local communities (Main St. wealth)

 4. What bonds are formed around the table?

The Holy Spirit of God joins everyone together in bonds of joyful fellowship. The relationships that are formed around the table are deep and sustaining. Here, Christians can participate in the local economy movement, which is based in an ethic or virtue of neighborliness and that seeks to maintain the primacy of community as the aim of our economic life. It’s perhaps not an accident that local food is at the heart of this movement, food that is grown locally and that nurtures relationships, both with the earth and between farmers and consumers.

 5. In whose name is the meal blessed?

We who are Christian bless our table fellowships in the name of the Lord our God, who gives us permission to begin the messianic banquet feast already here and now. To begin now the banquet feast of God’s kingdom means first criticizing forms of household arrangements marked by a colonizing social dynamic in which the worldwide spread of free markets allows the ongoing expansion of corporate domination over more and more spheres of life.

David Hatch, Executive Director of IIRON (Illinois-Indiana Regional Organizing Network) offered an economic analysis on the current situation.

President Roosevelt’s New Deal came about not because he initially wanted it, but because he was pressured by unions following the Great Depression. In the recent years there has been a significant decline in the manufacturing sector with an accompanying loss of unions. And then in the past thirty years, corporations have managed to destroy most of the regulations that kept them in check and have gained way too much power over the American political system. Since about 1975, worker productivity has exponentially increased while wages have remained stagnant, and the ratio of CEO pay to workers has sky-rocketed, in one instance (United Health Group) to over 1737:1. At the same time the tax rate for the 1% as well as the corporate tax rate has plummeted. Average people have seen their personal debt increase, and many have had their homes fore-closed. The fore-closure epidemic is the direct result of a plan by the banks to complicate the lending process by a process of selling mortgages to third parties.

Yet many people believe a different narrative that is offered to them through a savvy media machine that couches this situation in the language of values. The faith community has satisfied itself by focusing on saving the victims are losing the battle.

The event included a training on becoming people of “power” conducted by Don Floyd of IIRON. Defined as the “ability to act,” power, integral to many of our faith traditions is often misunderstood by people of faith. Faith communities are among the most organized entities in the world, we noted, and have a critical role to play in holding the political and economic players accountable. Educating and organizing faith communities to engage in this struggle are important parts this work.

Resources:

Resetting the Table by Dr. Tim Eberhart

NATO/G8: An Overview  by Father Bob Bossie

“Called to Prayer: A family prayer guide” by Rev. Tanya Eustace

“A Time for Peace, Pastors Say” Chicago Tribune, May 11, 2012:

After yesterday afternoon’s press conference at the Chicago Temple with Rev. Jesse Jackson, voicing official support for the protests that will likely accompany the two summits of NATO and G8, there can be no doubt that certain members of the faith community are deeply concerned.

SCUPE is proud to co-sponsor the following event, which will look at the place of economic justice in the Christian tradition.  More than simple analysis and theology… the event will also offer an opportunity for participants to strategize and organize around specific issues of economic justice, on a local level, that are directly connected to the global practices of NATO and G8

Sunday, May 6 from 4pm – 7:30pm
Chicago Temple – First United Methodist Church

(includes a light meal)

77 West Washington St. / Chicago, Illinois 60602 / Phone: 312.236.4548
Discounted parking is available

Help us spread the word about this opportunity for people to faith to come together to
Learn, Strategize, Organize, and Take Action!

Download an email-able pdf here: NATO-G8 Public Theology Event

Sponsors for the event include: the First United Methodist Church – Chicago Temple, IIRON (Illinois-Indiana Regional Organizing Network, the Office of External Programing at Garrett-Evangelical Theological Seminary, and SCUPE (the Seminary Consortium for Urban Pastoral Education).

Deb Johnson (L) volunteer on the Michigan team and Ken Bensen (R) bringing mortar to the volunteers.

Rev. Dr. Ken Bensen, past president of Habitat for Humanity, Michigan and SCUPE board member just returned from leading a team of Vietnam Veterans on a two week-long home building trip to Vietnam. “The healing for the vets was real,” said Bensen reflecting on the accomplishments of the trip.”More than half of them want to go back next year.”

Twenty-two vets, most in their 60s and a few in their 70s, made the trip, along with a few spouses to build houses in the village of Binh Ninh. “This is an opportunity to go back and close some doors,” said Richard Moyer, who served as a Sgt. in the U.S. Army as an Infantry Operations and Intelligence Specialist paratrooper and served a 13-month tour in Vietnam, where he was wounded and received three purple Hearts.

When Vic Romback who was 20 years old when he was a U.S. Air Force loadmaster decided to go back 45 years later to build houses for Habitat for Humanity in the country where he once fought a war, he was a little apprehensive, “wondering what the unknown was going to bring.” That apprehension soon melted, and after two weeks working alongside Vietnamese families and workers, Romback said. He found himself in tears at the dedication ceremonies, hugging the family he had worked alongside.

The seed for the Vietnam Veterans Build was planted during the 2009 Jimmy & Rosalynn Carter Work Project, when volunteers built homes in several Southeast Asian countries, including Vietnam. Afterward, several Vietnam vets approached Bensen and talked about how therapeutic the building had been. Bensen recalled one saying, “ ‘The last time we were here, we were trying to kill them, and now we are building houses for them and helping them rebuild their lives.’ ”

In Binh Ninh, the group divided into three teams of 10 and built three houses. Temperatures soared well into the 90s; two vets were felled with reactions to the heat, and one had to be hospitalized briefly. “Most of the guys were in halfway decent shape, but we were all in our 60s and 70s,” said Jerry Brabant, a former Army Specialist 4, now an attorney in Roscommon, Michigan. “You’d be wringing wet in an hour.”

“The first day or so I was questioning my sanity as to why I would subject myself to this kind of physical labor in such sweltering conditions,” said John Harris, a Marine sergeant who served from 1966 to 1967. “By the third day or so, the local people really started warming up to us, and you could really feel and see the warmth and heartfelt appreciation for what we were attempting to do.

Bensen said there will be another Vietnam Veterans Build next year — “there are so many homes yet to build.”

SCUPE is a consortium of eleven seminaries offering urban contextual theological education to seminarians, pastors and church and community leaders. Ken Bensen has been a member of its board of directors since 2010 and chairs its development committee.

Wallis gave the Stan Hallett lecture at Loyola University on April 11th, in support of scholarships for students of the MA in Social Justice and Community Development, a joint program of SCUPE and Loyola University. Stan Hallett, a guiding voice in the establishment of the program from its origins at North Park University was an urban planner, entrepreneur, professor, theologian, community organizer, political strategist, conflict mediator and environmentalist. He worked with Martin Luther King Jr. and Saul Alinsky, and helped to organize important civic groups, including the Center for Neighborhood Technology, the Woodstock Institute, and the Neighborhood Capital Budget Group.

Jim Wallis had three key points in his lecture: to lift up the Common Good again, to commit ourselves to a civil discourse, and to work to find common ground, with even those who think differently. Wallis also reflected on the themes of his latest book, Rediscovering Values: A Guide for Economic and Moral Recovery (Howard Books, 2011).

Among the more specific political questions Jim Wallis raised are the following:

• The defense of those who are poor and vulnerable is the first rule of politics. However, neither of the political parties are committed to that. 62% of all the cuts in the Ryan budget comes from low-income people. He described how an ecumenical group of Christian leaders visited the president. “Our scripture doesn’t say, as you’ve done to the Middle Class, you’ve done it to me,” they said. White House staff person later confided, “if you didn’t press us and press us to pay attention to the poor, we may not have done so.”

• Undocumented immigrants fit in the biblical category of the stranger. But this administration has deported more people than the last one. Evangelical college students around the country is coming together on this issue. Richard Land (Southern Baptist leader on public policy) and Wallis can stand together on this.

• Until we break the power of money over politics we do not have democracy.Solutions is not what they do in Washington DC. Winning is what they do. We don’t have one person one vote. Millionaires who run casinos are the ones deciding if a candidate is viable.

Jim also spoke of themes from his book Rediscovering Values:

• The World is our parish, said John Wesley. St. Paul’s cathedral in London had the parish come to them in the form of occupy movement. Although some priests wanted them to stay and work with them, the Cathedral decided to evict them. A church in Boston had to pray about whether it was their responsibility that a kid got shot on the steps of that church. They decided that what happens in their parish is their responsibility, and that brought down the homicide level down by 70%. This is what happens if we think of the world as our parish.

• To illustrate the meaning of Good Samaritan story for today, Wallis spoke to what happens in the Congo, where war lords are making money on the minerals that are required to manufacture your parts for your cell phone. Your cell phone is your significant other. But who is your neighbor? Today, that’s any body in the supply chain in the goods you buy.

• How do you love your enemies today? We had been telling CNN to please tell the other stories rather than those that are divisive and destructive. They finally did. When a church In Memphis realized that a Muslim Center was coming to the neighborhood, they put up a sign, “Welcome Memphis Muslims.” And when for a variety of reasons the mosque was not built on time, the church let them use their building for prayers. When CNN broadcast the story, and the repercussions were felt in Pakistan. Someone from Pakistan called the pastor of the church and said that they they were stunned when they watched the show. One said, I think God is speaking to us. Which works better, asked Wallis, drones or building relationships. The way they do foreign policy is a waste of money. Government should be much smaller. It should not be doing empire stuff.

• The best conservative idea is personal responsibility.Our personal choices, our lives, relationships, marriages, children, money, vocations etc, are critical for the common good.The best liberal idea is social responsibility. I am my neighbors keeper. So I must ask what are my neighbor’s needs. Why are these two idea in mortal combat? How do we combine the two by looking at the ethics of personal and social responsibility. From ideological warfare to common good.

• Productivity has risen dramatically, but the benefits of productivity are going to the small percentage. Wages are going down for most people. These are not just economic facts. They are religious issues, ethical issues.Wall Street people come to us like Nicodemus at night. Things are falling apart on the inside and they use words like greed and selfishness. They are not getting any kind of spiritual counsel from the clergy.

• Global Values council of the world economic forum. Davos wants a social covenant. Young CEOs like it. They fell like we need a new social covenant.

• How do we restore healthy household. Idea of people in a household cooking healthy food, having a time to eat together, say a brief prayer, and ask each other, how was your day?

And in conclusion Jim Wallis asked:

Will there be a post candidate politics? This is what young people are today looking at, because they are committed to movements based on values. How do you understand leadership in movements? How do we look past politics to the kind of movement that creates justice. These are the questions today’s young people, the new generation of Matthew 25 Christians are asking, he said.

A graphic published in Christianity Today magazine in April 2011 offered a telling picture of the economic value of a church to the local community. Based on the research by sociologist Prof. Ram Cnaan of University of Pennsylvania and published as The Other Philadelphia Story: How Local Congregations Support Quality of Life in Urban America in which he uses a new set of metrics to make this calculation. (A similar research project in Chicago is currently underway. We will post more information on this when it is available.)

Joy Anderson, the founder and president of Criterion Ventures who organized a Convergence (a set of conversations) points out that the moment someone turns on the light in the sanctuary, the church is connected to an economic network from which it draws and to which is contributes. Two weeks ago, Criterion Ventures convened a convergence between church and business leaders as well as social entrepreneurs in Simsbury, CT. Social entrepreneurship is clearly on the rise.

Access to information and therefore opportunities for networking has taken a quantum leap in the past few years. Churches that used to depend on denominational and ecumenical structures in order to fulfill their mission or to make their ministry more effective, now only need to turn to their hand-held devices. Social media is revolutionizing the way we will create community in the future, and has profound implications for churches and church-related organizations.

Many who gathered at the Criterion Ventures event were social entrepreneurs who were also engaged with the church. Some had a clear commitment to help the church think theologically about these new questions.

Questions such as:

• Why is it so hard to talk about money in church?
• How can churches embrace that reality that they are economic beings and become active economic agents?
• What is the theology of risk that the church needs to embrace?
• What signs can we name that churches and the world of social capital markets (defined broadly) are awakening to new possibilities in the space where the two connect? What kinds of adjustments/changes/initiatives should churches think about to lean into this awakening?
• How do we train pastors to engage in this reality?

The convergence was very timely for me, because the following week, I convened a group of business leaders and social entrepreneurs for a breakfast meeting to talk about how to create a dialogue between church and business. In that remarkably short time, the group’s came up with the following:

• In most of our churches’ theology there is a sacred-secular divide. This is demonstrated in thinking that what happens at church as sacred and what happens at the workplace as secular, clergy as doing sacred work and laity as doing secular work. The theological problem may be one of appropriating to our theological self-understanding the theology of the “priesthood of all believers.”
• How can we bring the standards of excellence that is demanded by the marketplace to the church? The thinking that ministry does not need to use metrics and evaluative tools that demand excellence is a problem. The sacred-secular divide tends to validate mediocrity.
• Few seminaries are addressing this question. Therefore, the next generation of pastors do not have the tools to become social entrepreneurs even though this is a much needed skill today. The research, thinking and teaching on social entrepreneurship is done in business schools. Can SCUPE connect with business schools to offer a MBA in Gospel (not necessarily social) Entrepreneurship?
• Could SCUPE convene churches for a conversation with business leaders? Could it invite people who can share best practices?

These are challenging questions. SCUPE will continue to convene such gatherings in the future to explore how it can be in the fore-front of such conversations. If this is a conversation that excites you, please leave a comment. If you want to participate in this conversation, please leave an email address so we can contact you.

What are we as Christians to do? How can we stop violence that is motivated by the fear of persons simply because they represent a different race, culture, or religion? What are the urban ministry leadership models that proactively challenge violence? How can we restore broken relationships and build a community of respect and mutuality for all persons, regardless of culture, ethnicity, or religious affiliation? What role can faith leaders play in fostering cross-cultural communication and interfaith dialogue? How can religious dialogue be used to promote personal healing and community building?

SCUPE’s Cross-cultural Ministry and Interfaith Dialogue course will explore these and other dynamics as faith leaders learn to navigate the complexity of intercultural and interfaith relations. This two-week intensive course will be offered June 4-8, 11-15. SCUPE President Dr. Shanta Premawardhana and Rev. Cynthia Milsap will co-teach the course. Dr. Eboo Patel, of Interfaith Youth Core, will be one of the featured guest leaders for this course, which will take students out into the community to meet with
cross-cultural and interfaith leaders and examine the Biblical and theological frameworks which support the need to engage diversity.

As the 2010 U.S. Census data highlights the increasing numbers of racial/ethnic minorities and immigrants in metropolitan areas, it also reveals the growing variety faith communities that pastors serving today’s metro-urban communities must be ready to engage.  Students taking this course will journey into intersection of the inter-cultural and inter-religious relations and dialogue, as we use Chicago’s neighborhoods as a laboratory for this two-week intensive course.  Students will see interfaith and intercultural paradigms at work.  Students will be challenged to develop understandings, perspectives, and skills needed to respectfully and successfully navigate the religious and cultural diversity of our metro-urban communities.

A significant part of the student’s learning will occur through personal reflection and learning from visits to community sites and conversations with faith leaders from Christian, Jewish, Muslim, Hindu, and Buddhist religious traditions.  Students will have to opportunity to learn with leaders such as Dr. Eboo Patel, founder of Interfaith Youth Core (IFYC), an agency that is on the cutting edge of multicultural, global youth leadership development.

SCUPE  M 302: Cross-Cultural Ministry & Interfaith Dialogue Intensive
The world has come to the city. Using the city as a global classroom, this two-week intensive provides students with a practical theology for ministry in a multicultural context, engages biblical study of the early church’s struggle with cultural barriers, encourages respect and appreciation of world-views and value systems different from one’s own, offers anti-racism training, builds skills in movement and communication across cultural divides, and exposes students directly to a wide variety of ministries in diverse cultural settings.
Credit: 3 semester hours.
Faculty: Dr. Shanta Premawardhana & Rev. Cynthia Milsap. Guest Lecturer: Dr. Eboo Patel
Course Schedule: June 4-8, 11-15 Mondays to Fridays (9am-5pm)
MS I Nature and Practice of Ministry

This class is offered as a part of SCUPE’s Graduate Theological Urban Studies (GTUS) program.

We are hosting an Open House on Saturday, March 31, 2012 at 9:00 a.m. for prospective students interested in the Masters of Arts in Social Justice and Community Development and other graduate programs in the Institute of Pastoral Studies at Loyola University.

This Open House will offer you an opportunity to experience the Loyola IPS community through a snapshot of programs and the chance to understand who we are.  Meet current students and alumni, full-time faculty and staff and other prospective students interested in transforming their communities.  Breakfast will be provided.

To register click on the link to the Loyola website.

If you have further questions regarding the program, feel free to contact Toylee Green-Harris at toylee@scupe.com or 312-726-1200 ext. 230

Christians in Nigeria are facing severe violence. SCUPE alum and former member of Ellis Avenue Church, Dr. Obed Dashan is in the front-lines of that struggle. The former principal of Gindiri School of Theology in Plateau State, Nigeria, he and his wife Phena did their M.Div.s at the Associated Mennonite Biblical Seminary in Elkhart, Indiana and their doctoral studies at the Chicago Theological Seminary. They profess a deep Mennonite conviction and seek to live everyday as peacemakers which is a very difficult task in the context of Northern Nigeria. I wrote about them in a previous post.

Obed’s letter of January 22^nd is descriptive of a peacemaker’s deep struggle:

 At 3:00 a.m. this morning, I was woken up by a call from one of our church members. Apart from the Kano bombings, Boko Haram invaded part of Bauchi and Tafawa Balewa towns of Bauchi State, just a little northeast of us. They approached the towns from 5 different locations. Eight of our members were killed. The 9th one died while being rushed to the hospital. Most of this morning, between 3 am and 5 am were spent on the phone trying to find help. I had to call the military commandant through his superior officer whom I know personally. They organised and went and by 5:00 a.m. they had calmed down the situation. The people mobilised themselves and pursued the attackers. One of those caught is a Nigerian Policeman from far away Yobe, the headquarters of BH. If the people did not rise to their defense the Christians would have been wiped out.

I am rethinking Church history. I wonder why the Churches that were once strong got wiped out. Whatever theology one holds now survival is the best thing to do. Pastoral leadership at this time is very hard and taxing. As I said in previous communications, we now know that the Northern Muslims are using BH to fight for them. Pray that the sponsors of these attacks be exposed and brought to book by the law. Now we sleep with one eye closed and the other opened. Lord, have mercy!!

What do you do when your neighbour turns mad and started to kill all your children? What would Jesus do? How do you love a person who never grew up with any love and the good Christian for him is the dead one?

Christians and Muslims in Nigeria have lived in peace for centuries. However, in the past decades Northern Nigeria has succumbed to Christian-Muslim violence that has erupted from time to time. Incited and carried out by Christians as well as Muslims, thousands have died as a result. Obed and Phena Dashan have been in the fore-front of peacemaking efforts in Northern Nigeria. Their stories have been harrowing.

An important documentary entitled the “Imam and the Pastor” released in 2008 describes peacekeeping efforts by Imam Ashafa and Pastor Wuye, joint founders and directors of the Inter-Faith Mediation Centre in Kaduna. While the documentary describes a particular initiative, it is descriptive of the kind of work that Obed and Phena and their colleagues have been engaged in.

Christians in Northern Nigeria are taking the brunt of the present brutality that is largely done by the terrorist group Boko Haram (which means “western education is sacrilege” in the Hausa language). The killings have escalated in recent months, particularly since Christmas 2011, and security forces have clearly failed to protect lives, forcing hundreds to flee. Many Christian organizations in the west are quick to jump to the conclusion that this is Muslim violence against Christians. However, a deeper analysis shows a more complex picture.

The complexity of the situation described in Obed Dashan’s letter has prompted some Christian leaders to call for self-defense within the limits of the law. However, both Christian and Muslim leaders have been united in condemning the violence. They are also clear that it is in lifting a united Muslim-Christian voice that the situation can be calmed. Today, February, 12, 2012, for example, the Right Rev. Josiah Idowu-Fearon, Anglican Bishop of the Province of Kaduna in Northern Nigeria, where most of this violence is located, and member of the WCC’s Churches’ Commission on International Affairs, wrote the following:

• No peace in Nigeria until Christians and Muslims accept that they worship the same one God
• No acceptance of the same one God without understanding and respect for the different approaches to the one God
• No understanding and respect, without some knowledge of each other’s faith tradition..

The group’s ideology is summed up by author Salisu Suleiman in his article of January 3, 2012, Boko Haram: Three Phases of Terror

[T]he amount of money an emir expends on a single trip to Europe for medical check-up would build a clinic big enough to serve a community of 5000 people; the amount of foreign exchange a top civil servant pays yearly to educate a single child abroad would build a primary school capable of providing basic education to hundreds of pupils; the amount of money a politician spends to sponsor his wives and children’s trips to Saudi Arabia for lesser pilgrimage, to Dubai for shopping and Europe for holidays annually is enough to establish community banks and provide access to capital for thousands of small businesses or fund poverty alleviation projects in several communities.

What do the emir, top civil servant and politician have in common? They are all western-educated, blinded by a culture of corruption and nurtured on the plundered public resources. So to the ordinary citizen whose pregnant wife dies in labour for lack of basic healthcare; whose child cannot get basic literacy and numeracy skills due to the collapse of education and whose entire life is a painful journey through biting poverty and hopelessness, if western education produces a system as insensitive, an elite as heartless and a society as unjust, then that form of enlightenment (boko) should be anathema (haram). This is the figurative definition of Boko Haram.

While Boko Haram started because many young people, unable to live with the growing level of poverty and social injustice, as its activities and targets have shown, it is no longer just an indigenous group fighting against corruption in the government, heavy-handedness of security forces and economic disparities between the Muslim north and Christian south. It appears to have linkages with global jihadist networks.

According to Salisu Suleiman, there are three phases of development:

Initially, the group was guided by their peculiar interpretation of an ideology. The second phase came when they decided to carry out revenge attacks on perceived enemies – mostly policemen and the ‘Bokoed’ elite. And because government failed to act responsively, they quickly moved to the third phase which is marked by indiscriminate killing and bombing. This phase is not about protecting an ideology or even in retribution for perceived injustices. They now kill simply because they can. And no one is safe – Muslim or Christian, northerner or southerner: Nigeria is under siege.

The group has targeted Christians and churches and also a U.N. building and police stations. It organized a massive prison-break to free its members in 2010. It calls for cleansing of Christians from the north and creation of an Islamic state in the region with criminal Sharia courts.

The targeting of Christians certainly seems like they are making a case for the separation of the north. It can be seen as an attempt to incite the Christian community to retaliate, so that it will turn into a sectarian clash. It seems Boko Haram wants Christians in the south to attack minority Muslims, which could then lead to local Muslims in the north attacking Christians. As of now, it is just Boko Haram terrorists who are killing Christians with little or no support from local Muslims.

On January 26, 2012, the Methodist Archbishop Michael Kehinde Stephen of Ibadan, Nigeria appealed to Christian and Muslim leaders worldwide to act together in the face of extremist violence that threatens to divide Nigerians along religious lines.

“In Nigeria, leaders of the Muslim and Christian communities have come together to condemn violence,” the archbishop noted in an interview. “Since 1999 the Nigerian Inter-religious Council (NIREC) has worked to calm the passions arising from a series of attacks and retaliations manifested in murders and the burning of churches and mosques.” In recent weeks, Islamic leaders have joined Christians in condemning renewed violence fomented by Boko Haram, a Nigerian group that demands the imposition of Sharia law and the eradication of western influence in the nation. The current wave of terror was started by church bombings at Christmas. Stephen asserted, “We want to see Nigeria remain as one, but today there is apprehension and anxiety among people who fear that calls for geographical division may intensify.” The north of Nigeria is populated predominantly by followers of Islam, while southern Nigeria is largely Christian.

The General Secretary of World Council of Churches’ Rev. Dr. Olav Fyske-Tveit called on President Goodluck Jonathan to support Christian Muslim joint efforts for peace. Similarly, the World Evangelical Alliance’s Religious Liberty Commission (moderated by Godfrey Yogarajah) said the following in its statement issued on February 8, 2012.

Nigeria’s Christian leaders and Christian community have shown great strength although they are going through immense suffering. They must not be ignored by the international community, especially the Christians, as they continue to comfort the families of the victims and encourage them not to resort to any sort of violence. The calls for self-defense must include encouragement to remain peaceful.

President Jonathan and local governments should be compelled, and helped, to provide security to all churches and Christian leaders in the states where Boko Haram is active. However, the political leadership must not see Boko Haram’s terror as a security issue alone. The government must also address political and economic grievances of northerners by gestures that are sincere and measurable.

Islamic Condemnations of Boko Haram:

Nigerian and international Muslims have condemned and disowned Boko Haram

Nigeria Muslims Pray to Uproot Boko Haram

Muslims Disown Boko Haram

Islamic Society of North America: ISNA Condemns Attacks in Nigeria