Making Peace: in your life and the world
Monday, January 9th, 2012, 9:00pm EDT
Audio only
It’s easy to think peacemaking belongs to world leaders and diplomats. But Libby Hoffman believes the real catalysts for peace are ordinary people – you and me – whether we’re dealing with conflict among nations or with our own roommates and neighbors. One act of forgiveness, one courageous stand for right can start a transformation of thought that ripples outward.
Join Libby for our next Time4thinkers Live chat, Monday, January 9, at 9 pm eastern, to learn how to be a “catalyst for peace” – and to hear about the foundation she started to support community-based peace-building. She’ll share some remarkable stories of reconciliation and healing from conflict-ridden Sierra Leone and talk about the award-winning documentary, Fambul Tok, which grew out of her work.
Joining Libby on the chat is journalist Scott Bauldauf who’s covered Africa for many years for The Christian Science Monitor and recently returned to Boston, and Christian Science lecturer, Josh Niles, who served in Iraq as an Army Ranger and how devotes his full time to prayer-based healing. The program will be hosted by Clementine Lue Clark who has contributed to peacemaking efforts in Sudan and other parts of Africa and works with TMC Youth’s global team.
Scott Baldauf covers sub-Saharan Africa, and has written about democracy, human rights, and development as the Africa bureau chief of The Christian Science Monitor. He has also served as South Asia bureau chief, covering the Afghan war and the 2004 Asian tsunami, and as the Southwestern US bureau chief, covering the high-tech industry and the governorship of George W. Bush.
Libby Hoffman has been active in peacebuilding for over 20 years in a variety of capacities - professor, trainer, facilitator, program director, consultant, and funder. A former Political Science professor at Principia College, Ms. Hoffman left academia to focus on the practice of conflict resolution and peacebuilding. She has developed and led conflict resolution training programs in corporate, congregational, educational and community settings. She is a pioneer in positive approaches to peacebuilding, as well as in mobilizing religious resources for peace. Libby Hoffman co-founded Fambul Tok and has partnered in its implementation since its inception, through her position as President of Catalyst for Peace, a US-based private foundation. She continues her leadership role with Fambul Tok as the President of Fambul Tok International.
Josh Niles was commissioned in the Army as an officer after college. He was a combat platoon leader and an airborne Ranger in the 3rd Infantry Division. He spent a year in Baghdad, Iraq where he led his platoon on hundreds of combat missions. Today Josh is a Christian Science practitioner and a member of the Christian Science Board of Lectureship.
Clementine Lue Clark works with TMC Youth’s Global Team and helps organize the Youth Summits held internationally—mostly in Africa. Her professional focus has been on interfaith dialogue in post-conflict countries in Africa. She holds a Masters in Coexistence and Conflict from Brandeis University.
**************************************************************************
For more information about Catalyst for peace, and all the work Libby is currently doing, please visit www.catalystforpeace.org
What a very helpful discussion! Thank you.
Would you tell me the name of the band that sings the final song? I think the song is called “Unconditional” or “Your Love is Unconditional.”
It’s about good.
You can get their music by visiting here: http://itsaboutgood.bandcamp.com/
If you can please leave a donation by clicking the ‘name your price’ button
You guys are awesome. Thank you peacemakers! You are blessed!
Hey, I can’t seem to access the audio file – is something wrong?
We’ll have it up very shortly. We were having an issue with getting the file uploaded, but it seems to be fixed now so it should be up momentarily. Thank you for checking back :-)
Yay! Can access the file now and looking forward to listening! It would be great if you could make the files available in a format that’s playable on an iPad or iPhone. These devices don’t support Adobe Flash, so it has to be viewed via a third party server, which lowers the quality.
Maybe an enhancement for this very special service in the future :)
Hi Jo,
Currently, the best way to get our chats, and all our other podcasts on your iPhone is to subscribe to Time4Thinkers on iTunes podcasts. All our chats and podcasts are available there right now.
Thank you for your support. We are working towards the enhancement you refer to ;-) and should have all our audio files playable right here on our website on all devices very soon.
Great, will do :) Sorry, I didn’t realise you had them on iTunes as I have had troubles with my Daily Lift subsription. Will get it sorted now!
J
Working for me!
WOW! This is an incredibly powerful talk, chock-full of powerful insights! One of my favorites was the message Libby got from God: “It’s easier to plan for peace for the whole world tomorrow, than to take the opportunities we have to make peace today.” So many wonderful ideas shared. Thank you to all three for all the great work you are doing!
Hey, I can’t seem to access the audio file - is something wrong?
I can’t seem to get any of these chats on my iPhone. I’m sure they are great !
Hi Joe,
At the moment our media player does not support playback on iPhones/iPads. The best way to get our chats, and all our other podcasts on your iPhone is to subscribe to Time4Thinkers on iTunes podcasts. All our chats and podcasts are available there right now.
I hope this helps. Thank you for looking here for the chats. We are working towards making them available right here for listening on all devices.
This Chat is a wonderful example of the next generation of “spiritual thinkers and spiritual thinking.” I am humbled by the humility, sincerity, and what seems like native (endemic?) spirituality on the part of the participants while at the same time it is important to realize these qualities have been developed and nurtured by these individuals through Christian Science and various influences from the Christian Science community compounded along with their life experiences.
This subject needs to be REVISITIED for several reasons. One: so that we may learn more from these delightfully gracefilled examples of mankind and womankind presented in chats like this one. Two: that additional viewpoints may be brought to bear by bringing in the thought of others such as Scott Baldauf and Janessa Gans Wilder and her work at the Euphrates Institute. Then THREE: additional sharing of viewpoints based on the work of individuals who may not have been exposed to Christian Science, but whose hearts and minds are sincerely dedicated to working out peaceful paths in areas and among cultures where there have been festering hatreds and jealousies for generations. The example of Christopher Bragdon and his work with BILD in Bosnia coms to mind. See http://www.bildbosnia.org/staff.html …… as well as others like him who continue to soldier on in the face of great adversity while still making progress despite the many obstacles they face…and the extent to which their spirituality combined with their absolutely selfless dedication enables them to get past the rough spots.
Check out the line-up for our next Time4Thinkers live chat! I thought you might be interested: http://time4thinkers.com/warning-a-bold-path-to-peace/
Oh, and I don’t know if you’d noticed this but we featured Janessa in a past live chat:
http://time4thinkers.com/t4t-events/innovation-experiencing-breakthroughs/
Hello Kemi,
Thanks for the heads up on the Jan 23 chat. Yes, I had listened to that presentation previously to making my remarks above, as part of my “catchup” effort to glean from all the outstanding content being posted on this site. I was very impressed with how Jemma was inspired (touched by an angel : ) ) to develop her approach to Peace and open up so many pathways to others working towards similar goals as well as bringing in an academic side. My observation was that having these wonderfully different points of view and approaches in
some sort of round table exchange might open up or elevate our ideas even further. I also like the idea that each of these approaches is useful to learn from…. as varying ways to apply one’s current understanding of Christian Science beyond the specific goal(s) under discussion.