Peace and conflict

1. See it as violence without a just cause - which is sinful and unjustified

2. Everyone is created by God in God's image so everyone is important and precious

3. Duty to protect people who are bullied to protect the innocent - (fulfilling God's wishes)

4. The role of a steward is to protect

5. Jesus actively supported the weak in society and taught to 'love your neighbour'

6. In extreme cases prohibtitions on killing (sancity of life) may come into play

Forgiveness is very important to Christians and is a key teaching:

• Jesus died on the cross to bring forgivness
• 'love your enemy' - suggests forgiveness
• Jesus forgave those who killed him - 'father forgive them'
• In the Bible Peter asked if he should forgive up to 7 times and Jesus said 77 times
• Jesus said if we do not forgive other people's sins we will not be forgiven
• St Paul said we should try to live in peace with everyone

Forgiveness in Islam is also very important:

• Teaches God is merciful and those who repent will be forgiven - so Muslims should forgive 
• Forgiving is one of the 99 names of Allah
• God is compassionate and merciful to sinners, on the Day of Judgement God will deal with people as they deserve, but Muslims must ask for mercy
• The Qur'an says that Muslims should forgive
• 'If a person forgives, and makes reconciliation his reward is due from God'

PACIFISM = refusing to fight

• Christian leaders said that Christians should not fight in wars
• Jesus said that you should 'love your enemies'
• Peace will only come if people refuse to fight in wars
• Ten commandments - 'Thou shalt not kill'
• Jesus said: 'Blessed are the peacemakers'
• Jesus stopped Peter from using violence when soldiers arrested him - 'all who live by the sword will die by the sword'
• During WW2 Christian groups like the Quakers were pacifists

Most Churches say that Christians can fight in a war if:

• the cause of war is just
• the war is fought on behalf of an authority, e.g government
• war is the last resort
• the intention is to gain peace
• there is a chance of success
• methods used should avoid killing innocent civilians
• methods used must be proportional to the cause

Jesus was never against soliders, because they protect the innocent. Also Jesus said that you should obey the government, 'give to Caesar what is Caesar's and to God what is God's' - so if the government declares war then people should fight. 

Muslims have strict rules to follow in war:

• It must be fought in a just cause
• It must be the last resort
• It must be led by a Muslim authority
• It must cause the minimum suffering
• Innocent people must not be attacked
• It must end as soon as the enemy lays down his arms

Muslims believe that the Qur'an says that Muslims must fights if they are attacked (so in self-defence)

The Qur'an asks Muslims to struggle in the name of Islam (called Jihad)

• greater jihad = struggling with yourself and your desires
• lesser jihad = war 'fight in the cause of God' 

In general:

• as a result of breaking rules/expectations (children testing the boundaries)
• adults - money, affairs, how to bring children up

Religious families:

• the young may not accept the traditional religions of the family
• disagreement of traditional views - sex/marriage, homosexuality and contracpetion
• mixed faifth marriages being disapproved of - leads to issue of what religion to bring up the children as and what rituals etc they should take part in

Religion can also provide an answer to these conflicts:

• 'honor your father and mother'
• Jesus' teachings on love suggesting that the conflict could be avoided to begin with
• teachings of peace and forgiveness 
• parable of prodigal son - parents should welcome children back into family with open arms

It was started by Roman Catholics in France 1945 and works in 22 countries and with the UN

It has three main objectives: reconciliation, peace and education

Its main activities are:

• making public statements about wars
• criticising American government over issues like defence budget and organising public deabtes on the morality of nuclear weapons
• The reason for its work relates back to Jesus's teachings on pacifism 

• Set up after WW2 and has 192 members
• Works to find peaceful solutions to disputes - sending in envoys to find diplomatic responses
• Encourages global co-operation on laws, national security (UN peace keeping forces) and economic development to protect people's human rights
• Aim = world peace and an end to all war
• If countries break the rules, UN can impose sanctions, e.g banning trade with that country and sending peacekeeping troops (there to protect innocent people)
• Now 15 peacekeeping missions in the world, including Darfur
• They also try to reduce the number of weapons in the World

Different types of bullying:

• name calling
• mental abuse
• intimidation
• physical bullying
• cyber bullying

Non-religious views why bullying is wrong:

• people have human rights which include the right to live without fear or violence
• seen as wrong as it can have long lasting implications into adulthood
• not very nice