Elusive Peace

Segment 1: The Theology of Fear.

Surprisingly, peacemaking as a concept is not mentioned in the Bible other than in the Beatitudes. On this edition of The Doug Noll Show we’re going to be exploring the role of religion within peacemaking and how the church has changed its view throughout the years. Our guest is Father Emmett Coyne and we’re going to be talking to him about his view of the church and the implications of world peace through faith. Father Coyne is the author of a new book, The Theology of Fear, in which he argues that the Roman Catholic Church has systemically distorted the teachings of Jesus Christ to maintain control, position, power and privilege. He believes the church latched onto using the sacraments as means of controlling its members.

Segment 2: Love is an Act of Will.

Father Coyne says that the Catholic Church has moved away from the focus on the Kingdom of God. The Kingdom of God is defined as a vision of how life should be here on life. It’s about THIS WORLD, not our future lives. This definition is spelled out in the Sermon on the Mount. Instead of power, it’s seeking the way of service. Instead of control, it’s liberating others. These are marks of the Kingdom of God. 

Father Coyne emphasizes that fear is a feeling, an emotion, but love is not. Love is about doing good, not being good. Love is an act of will. Love is a conscious process. It’s a choice.

Segment 3: Keep the Power but Resist Service.

The Church as an institution benefits from protecting the doctrine of fear and control. It reflects more of Caesar than of Christ. The fact that there are no women in the governance of the church is a critical issue. This is a sign of how out-of-step they are with their own theology. It’s a narrow view and an interpretation by a few men to protect what they’ve developed over the years. Father Coyne believes Jesus would be aghast at the Vatican as it is today. The men want to keep the power but resist service.

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Staying true to the teachings of Jesus is difficult because it takes a tremendous act of will to overcome our biology. Love is an act of conscious will. Father Coyne believes Christianity should be the “school of love.” We need to understand what love means and how our brains work within the context of love. However, because the church is not studying the “school of love” but instead is still inculcating fear, we’re very far away from understanding the power of love and how it is an act of free will.

Jesus used the Parables to teach critical thinking and engage ordinary people into thinking in a new way. Modern Catholic educators do not teach critical thinking; instead they focus on rituals and rites. Our future for peace is dependent on how we treat our children. When we engage in traumatic teachings (i.e. hell, sin, etc.) within an educational environment it can perpetuate war, fear, and violence. And where there is fear, there is no religion.

For more information about Father Coyne’s book, The Theology of Fear, please visit his website: http://emmettcoyne.net/.

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Segment 1: Dialogue Where There Is Division.

Our guest on this edition of The Doug Noll Show is Aakif Ahmad, co-founder and Vice President of Convergence, a non-profit, non-partisan organization “dedicated to bringing dialogue where there is division, consensus where there is conflict and solutions where there is stalemate on issues of national consequence.” Through Convergence, Aakif helps Americans and Pakistanis work together as well as Democrats and Republicans work together. He’s found that there isn’t much space for our elected officials to cooperate because they are tied to lobbyists and it is difficult to identify where common ground is possible. However, there is a shift in how people see each other when they’re able to step back from the positions for which they’ve been advocating and identify the values from which those positions come. Personal narratives begin to be articulated and they discover places where they can work together to achieve common goals. It is a patient process, and Convergence has benefitted from supporters who want to be part of something geared toward problem-solving.

Segment 2: An Inclusive and Safe Space.

One of the goals that Convergence works towards is not only to identify a framework that feels inclusive and safe for the stakeholders, but also to attain a level of creative thinking. It is through creative thinking and open dialogue folks begin to conceive of ways to work together. Even major stakeholders working on opposite sides of issues can flourish in this environment.

There is no bias on the outside of the process. Convergence looks for a series of indicators that suggests that a particular issue and the stakeholders around that issue have reached a point where the fight is no longer leading to incremental gains. Research is a large part of the process. They do a tremendous amount of research to find “ripe” issues that might find success with a different approach.

Segment 3: The U.S. and Pakistan Relationship.

Convergence has organized a series of events in Pakistan and Washington D.C. where Pakistanis and Americans with leadership roles outside of government have a chance to meet and get to know each other as groups. They talk candidly about their relationship and their hopes, dreams, concerns and fears for their countries. It is at that moment when positions evaporate and common values arise. The groups realize they can work together and that it’s not just a conversation about fear; it’s a conversation about opportunity.

Segment 4: The Momentum Continues to Grow.

There is no “one size fits all” approach, and not every issue is ripe and ready to seek an alternative approach. It’s a sincere privilege for the folks at Convergence to assist stakeholders working toward a common vision. Convergence has been around for 3 years and the momentum continues to grow. Their hope is that they can help their current stakeholders achieve the breakthroughs they are striving towards, as well be in a position to extend their services to others through continued support and resources. To learn more about Convergence, please visit their website: http://www.convergencepolicy.org/.>

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Segment 1: The Center of Peace and Liberty

From Afghanistan and Pakistan to Iran and Israel, crises are flourishing today. On this edition of The Doug Noll show we will be talking about the world conflicts that exist today and our own country’s history with war and conflict. Our guest is Dr. Ivan Eland, Senior Fellow and Director of the Center on Peace and Liberty at the Independent Institute (www.independent.org). Ivan spent 15 years working for congress in various capacities before getting into the Think Tank world. The Center on Peace and Liberty studies war, civil liberties and freedom. Through research they have shown that much of the erosion of civil liberties and loss of freedom in the United States’ history has occurred because of war. When our country has a crisis and the government puts anti-liberties regulation in place, it’s very difficult to remove the legislation, even when we have a liberal president in office.

Segment 2: A Standard Pattern

The slogan “the best defense is a good offense” is fine for conventional warfare but for terrorism it’s just the opposite. A strong offense with terrorism usually just creates more terrorism. Getting Bin Laden was important because we decimated the al-Qaeda leadership, but Ivan thinks that we should’ve stopped there, instead of going into Somalia, Pakistan and the Arabian Peninsula. We’re making more enemies. There is a standard pattern with terrorists: once they hit their opponent, they hope that the opponent will overreact, which enables them to gain more funding and recruits.

Segment 3: The Most Aggressive Country on the Planet

In regards to Syria, whenever a country is in a civil war it’s very chaotic. We don’t have good intelligence in Syria about “who’s radical and who’s not” so if we send heavier weapons to Syria we risk having terrorists get their hands on them. There’s only been one war in U.S. history (the War of 1812) that has not had dire political repercussions. Obama has been cautious to get into war. Romney has pressure to ramp up the volume of weapon sales to the rebels. For most of our history we’ve run a restrained foreign policy, but it started eroding with the Spanish-American war, then we hit WWI and WWII and after WWII we are the king nation and the super power. We became the most aggressive country on the planet. We need to retreat from our overly-interventionist policy. This does not make us isolationists. Every problem in the world does not need to be solved by the U.S. We can’t afford it, financially or otherwise.

Segment 4: Imperial Overextension

The policy of intervention has held up thus far because the military industrial complex is alive and well. To cut back on military spending would put a lot of people out of work. So how do we change the course of this country? We need to reconfigure our military into a more defensive profile. Our economy is stagnant but our military budget is growing fast, which brings about imperial overextension.  We could save a lot of money if the defense department did what it was supposed to do and the constitution provided for the common defense instead of the common offense. We have been the most aggressive country in the world by far, and historically war is the central cause of big government.

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Segment 1: Our guest on this edition of The Doug Noll Show is Cindy Wigglesworth. After receiving a Master’s Degree from Duke University and spending over 20 years in Human Resources at Exxon Mobile, Cindy founded her current business, Deep Change, in 2000. She is the author of SQ21: The Twenty-One Skills of Spiritual Intelligence, and a recognized expert in the field of Spiritual Intelligence.

Cindy’s personal journey started when she spent a few years in India as a child. It was there that her interest in different cultures and ideas began. She was raised Roman Catholic but always had nagging questions like: we need to love one another but where is the practical advice about how to do that? How does this world make sense? How can we all get along? What is the purpose of life?

Cindy developed her Emotional Intelligence as an adult and then through personal research stumbled onto Spiritual Intelligence. She found that EQ and SQ were hugely important for strong leadership but no one had the ability to talk about these topics because they didn’t have the language. Emotional Intelligence as a body of literature was not available. She began by using Myers Briggs personality tests and observed how people could communicate clearly and get tasks accomplished but not be overly annoying. She began to imitate what she was seeing in order to become a more effective leader.

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Emotions are big part of how and why we make certain decisions. When Cindy teaches seminars on Spiritual Intelligence she asks her students: what spiritual leaders do you admire? What are the character traits that cause you to admire them? Then, once the traits are named, she asks if any of those character traits are not appropriate in the work place (no). Eventually her students learn that wisdom and compassion have to coexist for Spiritual Intelligence to be effective.

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The most important piece of language surrounding Spiritual Intelligence is the understanding that we have an ego self and a higher self. The ego is the normal operating system that typically runs our lives (with high drama and proneness to flight of flight), which is fine if our only objective is to stay alive. However, if we have other objectives like having a purpose or having joy in your life, the ego can get in the way. The higher self is the part of us that can calm the “drama queen” limbic system. With practice we can rewire the triggers that anger us. It takes discipline and practice, but it can change.

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So how do we learn a compassionate response instead of a fear response? The first step is to understand the voice of our ego and higher self, and get clear about our core values and belief systems. Then we need to be able to get ourselves “into the mind” of anyone, which is essentially being empathic. In doing so, we become profoundly aware of the interconnectivity of life. We are not solo players. When we do things there are repercussions. When we feel threatened, we contract and the ego-habituated path takes over, which doesn’t serve us. To override this response takes practice and motivation, but it is possible.

To listen to the complete interview:

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