Christian Perspective of Peace as a Child Right

Prof.Kalaneethy Christopher and Dr.J.Christopher Daniel

Humankind has been experiencing a crisis of values over the centuries. Crime, clashes, racial discrimination, communal ism ,disintegration, war, ethnic cleansing and indifference to human suffering have spread to all aspects of life. It is distressing to notice that leaders who profess peace and goodwill are dethroned or done to death. At the same time, those who harp on peace clamor for war. People have always wanted peace. Today they seem to want it more than ever. Yet, notwithstanding the efforts initiated by world leaders, we see terrorism, rebellion and conflicts among people.

War has been a major preoccupation with man in this century-two world wars and 140 or lesser wars since the second. The world had witnessed world war type situation in Kosovo in 1999 which became more ‘sophisticated’ and horrendous.“O war, thou son of hell!” William Shakespeare’s lamentation today rings even more accurate a warning than four centuries ago”.

The great Frenchman Victor Hugo who made a pronouncement with the following words more than one hundred years ago at the Peace Congress in Lausanne, Switzerland, a slogan beneath which every peace loving person who values his/her peaceful life and peace for his/her children would sign ‘WE WANT PEACE, PASSIONATELY WANT PEACE. PEACE FOR ALL PEOPLE, FOR ALL NATIONS, FOR ALL RACES’. Late Thomas Jefferson, the outstanding American democrat had had a dream of ‘peace ,commerce, and honest friendship with all nations’. Unfortunately, peace as a ‘value’, a ‘virtue’ and a ‘force’ seems to have been forgotten by humankind over the centuries. To quote from the book ‘May you live in peace’ written by Vladien Kachanov(1986)’If durable peace has not triumphed on our planet yet, it is not the peoples of the world who are at fault, but those who aspire to increase their wealth be seizing and exploiting others lands and by producing instruments of annihilation’.

The biblical connotation of the term peace (Gk.eirene) is a state of harmonious relationship between God and people, among the people, nations, and families. Jesus as Prince of peace gives peace to those who call upon Him for personal salvation. Peace is not the absence of conflict. Peace is a state of rest, quietness and calmness; an absence of strife; tranquility. It generally denotes a perfect well being. Conflict is an inevitable fact of daily life-internal, interpersonal, inter- group, and international conflict. Peace consists in creatively dealing with conflict. Peace is the process of working to resolve conflicts is such as a way that both sides win, with increased harmony as the outcome of the conflict and its resolution. The resolution is peace-full if the participants come to want to cooperate more fully and find themselves enabled to do so’.(Kathleen and James McGinnis,1990).’To work for peace is the concern of all individuals and of all peoples. And because everyone is endowed with a heart and with reason and has been made in the image of God, he or she is capable of the effort of truth and sincerity which strengthens peace’(Pope John Paul II, 1980)

The knowledge and understanding of what peace means has grown tremendously since the Second world war in the light of the nuclear catastrophe. Interestingly enough, there are biblical evidences to the value of peace openly averred by the Hebrew prophets who called the people of their time to respond to Yahweh’s call for peace which has justice as its precondition .

 Righteousness and peace will kiss each other. (Psa.85:10)

They foretold the mission of the Saviour, to be deliverer of peace and justice. To quote from the Holy Bible,

Thus says the Lord of hosts: The fast of the fourth month, and the fast of the fifth, and the fast of the seventh, and the fast of the tenth, shall be seasons of joy and gladness, and cheerful festivals for the house of Judah: therefore love truth and peace. (Zechariah, 8:18)

The prophet Isaiah looks to the coming of the Messiah

He shall judge between the nations, And rebuke many people; They shall beat their swords into plowshares, And their spears into pruning hooks; Nation shall not lift up sword against nation, Neither shall they learn was anymore (Isaiah 2:4-5).

Zacharias was filled with the holy spirit and prophesied, saying

To give light to those who sit in darkness and in the shadow of death,to guide our feet into the way of peace . Luke 1:79

With the coming of Jesus Christ, the value of peace became the bedrock of His mission and message of ‘love, not hate’, ‘justice, not oppression’, ‘peace ,not war’.

Blessed are the peacemakers,

for they shall be called the children of God. Matt.5: 9.

And He has given us the gift of His Peace.

Peace I leave with you, My peace I give to you; not as the world gives do I give to you. John 14:27.

Jesus appointed seventy others and sent them on His peace mission with the instruction.

But whatever house you enter, first say. “Peace to this house”. And if a son of peace is there, .your peace will rest on it, if not, it will return to you Luke 10:5-6.

Jesus woke up and rebuked the wind, and said to the sea,

“Peace! Be still”. Then the wind ceased and there was a dead calm. Mark 4:39.

Jesus came, the doors being shut, and stood in the midst, and said “Peace to you”. John 20:26.

It is evidenced that throughout His mission, Jesus demonstrated the value of peace to the humankind to be proclaimed and practised. The Apostles Paul, Timothy and Peter in their letters to various early Christian communities undauntedly professed and demonstrated the value of peace.

The apostle Paul exhorted the Christian community in the early church

Do everything possible on your part to live in peace with everybody’(Romans 2.18).

Do your best to preserve the unity which the Spirit gives by means of the peace that binds you together Ephesians. 4:3.

Paul’s letters had the opening and closing greetings of

Grace and peace from God the Father and our Lord Jesus Christ.

Philippians 1.1, Colossians 1.1, I Thessalonians 1.1,II Thessalonians 3.16, I Peter.5.14 etc.

The churches and Synagogues have called their people to promote and preserve the cardinal values of peace, justice and love. Historically speaking, many religious communities have demonstrated this for centuries. In the recent years, many religious orders and social and political groups the world over have become outspoken in preaching ‘peace, as the horrors of war have become more obvious. ‘The ancient Jewish peace tradition is being revived in this generation by a number of groups including the Synagogue Council of America.’(Kathleen and James McGinnis)’. As quoted in the book ‘Parenting for Peace and Justice’ (1990), “In its 1983 ‘Statement on the Dangers of Nuclear Armaments’, the Jewish leaders proclaimed:As Jews, We are most deeply concerned with the ominous threat which the nuclear arms race poses to the survival of humanity. We are survivors of Hitler’s holocaust and experience a special sense of responsibility to raise our voices against the drift into a nuclear holocaust. At a time when the superpowers possess strength enough to wipe humankind off the earth, it is height of folly to develop ever-deadlier weapons in a futile search for spurious security’.

The American Friends (or Quakers) issued their position on war as long ago as 1660:We utterly deny all outward wars and strife, and fighting with outward weapons, for any end, or under any pretence whatsoever, this is our testimony to the whole world…. The Spirit of Christ, by which we are guided, is not changeable, so as once to command us from a thing as evil, and again to move unto it; and we certainly know, and testify to the world, that the Spirit of Christ, which leads us into all truth, will never move us to fight and war against any man with outward weapons, neither for the Kingdom of Christ nor for the kingdom of this world….. Therefore, we cannot learn war anymore (Religious Society of Friends, Faith and Practice, 1972)

What can we do to teach children peace?. Vatican Council II versified this way “Those who are dedicated to the work of education particularly, to the young, or who mold public opinion, should regard as their most weighty task the effort to instruct all in fresh sentiments of peace ’(The church in the Modern World”, Pastoral Constitution of the Second Vatican Council, 1965; quoted in peace on earth). Eleanor Roosevelt said ‘ It isn’t enough to talk about peace. One must believe in it. And it isn’t enough to believe in it. One must work at it’.

How can peace work at it within the children? Mahatma Gandhi said “If we are to reach real peace in this world and if we are to carry on a real war against war, we shall have to begin with children”.

Kathleen and James McGinnis have identified three broad goals to be set in helping children

deal with violence in the world.

1. To help children understand and cope with violence in their immediate world and see alternatives to that violence.
2. To grow in an understanding of the “war mentality” in our culture and find ways to circumvent it in our families.
3. To explore ways to build a mentality of global interdependence within families.

Most importantly, children of the world should be inculcated the value of peace. The acquisition of peace as a value, instrumental and terminal, should become an integral part of the socialization that begins at home and extends to school, community and nation. They need to be educated on the importance of peace and peace making. That helps develop in them a spirit of sharing and cooperation. The development of human society is ultimately built on and sustained by the value of peace imbibed by people during their formative years. Unfortunately, peace as a value is fast becoming dearer to the present day children!!

Remember the goodwill mission of an 11- year Old Russian girl to the United States in the 1990s to greet the former president, Mr.Ronald Reagan, and present a stuffed figure representing world peace? Or, 13 –year old Praveena from Guntur,State of Andhra Pradesh, who wrote to the then Russian(Soviet) Leader, Mr.Gorbachev, in 1986 an appeal for peace.

Of course, peace marches, meetings and walks are organised for school children to proclaim every child’s right to peace. But they are not enough. Peace education should be imparted to all school children. And that should include development of knowledge, skills and attitudes for the realization of a humane and peaceful world. It should aim at eliminating war and promoting peace and developing world-mindedness among children .In the Hague Appeal for Peace Conference in held in The Hague in 1999, it was deliberated and discussed the issue of making peace education compulsory in all schools around the world.

Schools should accept this as a social and moral obligation, particularly when the bomb and gun culture is spreading. Interested and capable teachers must be motivated and trained. Every State party to the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child, on its part, must allocate funds for peace education and establish an academy of peace to administer and monitor the programme. The present school system has no component pertaining to peace education in the curricula. Nor have the State parties felt the need for making it obligatory. Such education should include peace as a ‘value’, the history of international conflicts and cooperation, the attitude towards the United Nations, the economics of peace, and the role of children, teachers and parents in promoting ‘peace’. To quote from ‘PEACE MAKERS’-A newsletter of the Hague Appeal for Peace(Vol 3.Issue 1;January 2000)’Every school, no matter what its geographic location, state or religious affiliation, whether for boys or girls or both, teaches reading, writing and arithmetic as basic educational skills. In English they are referred to as the “Three ‘R’s.” Why not a fourth ‘R’?-Reconciliation. You might not consider peace, or reconciliation or conflict resolution a skill in the same category as addition, but, we argue, without the skills of negotiation, without the understanding that conflict and violence cane be prevented, we won’t have a new generation of young people able to lead a world awash in weapons. Making peace is a skill as well as an art.”. Children of the world must acquire the skills and values that will sustain peace.

There are many different ways of diffusing the value of peace and absence intrafamilial and extra familial situations namely

• Writings and pictures: Children can express their feelings in poems, often more easily than in writings
• Story telling and writing: Children can write about their experiences of a topic.
• Pictures and art: Children can use art to express the feelings of peace.
• Social activities: Peace clubs to be set up churches, church based schools and in the neigh bourhood . Peace games and exercises to sensitise children to the value peace to be organised.
• Drama and music: Children can express themselves in peace movement and act out their feelings or experiences through dance and mime, role play and drama, songs and music, puppet shows etc. These methods would not only instill a spirit of cooperation in children and motivate them to learn and demonstrate peace as a ‘virtue’ and a ‘force’ to reckon with.

The role of parents is equally important in promoting peace as a child right .In many countries, intrafamilial violence to children becomes a culture of the family. It remains largely a much hidden and neglected problem. Much of the intrafamilial violence to children occurs within the privacy of the family, or the relative privacy of the family. It may appear in many forms namely infanticide and homicide, physical assault, sexual abuse, illicit transfer, traditional practices involving violence and mental violence by family members. In a developing country like India, female foeticide and infanticide is very much rampant among certain socially backward and oppressed caste groups. It is more painful to notice that the girl child is yet to be accepted as a ‘human becoming’ who is virtually denied of the right to life. Sad to say, ‘infanticide has been practised as a brutal method of family planning, and in societies where boy children are still valued, economically and socially, above girls, unequal gender population figures indicate that it remains widespread’(Innocenti Digest;UNICEF,1997).

It is a familial obligation to teach children the values and standards of life. Parents have to peacemakers in their families and act as peace models.

Peace is the process working to resolve intrafamilial violence and to practise nonviolence in the family is perspicuously expressed in St.Paul’s Letter to the Ephesians:

“If we live by the truth and in love, we shall grow in all ways into Christ, who is the head by whom the whole body is fitted and joined together, every joint adding its own strength, for each separate part to work according to its function. So the body grows until it has built .itself up, in love’(Eph.4:15-16) This passage lays much emphasis on the religious ethical responsibility of parents and children to work together to build up the family body/community and the world as a whole the ‘JESUS WAY’. “Part of our working for peace in the world is working to build our family community. If we can experience the possibility of peace-nonviolent conflict resolution- at the family level, then our faith in the possibility of peace and our willingness to work for it at the other levels grows”(Kathleen and James McGinnis,1990). PopeJohn Paul XXIII said ‘If peace is to come about, the fundamental principle on which our present peace depends must be replaced by another, which declares that the true and solid peace of nations can consist, not in equality of arms, but in mutual trust alone’. In the book of

Isaiah 11: 6- 9, it was prophesied:

The wolf also shall dwell with the lamb, The leopard shall lie down with the young goat, the calf and the young lion and the faulting together; And a little child shall lead them’. The cow and the bear shall graze; Their young ones shall lie down together; And the lion shall eat straw like the ox. The nursing child shall play by the cobra’s hole , And the weaned child shall put his hand in the viper’s den. They shall not hurt nor destroy in my entire mountain, For the earth shall be full of the knowledge of the Lord.


The responsibility of bringing up today’s child the world over, lies in our hands for they(children) should taste the love of the Prince of Peace, under His wings every child can live in peace amidst war and violence in this century and in this New millennium.

{Source: Kalaneeethy Christopher and J.Christopher Daniel, “CHILDREN’s RIGHTS:A BIBLICAL PERSPECTIVE”,Minvera Press,New Dehli,London,Mumbai,2002, ISBN :81  7662 205 2}