What: Resisting Violence and the Journey of Reconciliation: Lessons from Rwanda
When: Thursday, November 14th, 2019
7:00pm – 8:30pm
Where: Rapson Hall, Room 100
89 Church Street SE
Minneapolis, MN 55455
| Please join us for our 24th annual Holmer Lecture, featuring Dr. Emmanuel Katongole, Professor of Theology and Peace Studies at the University of Notre Dame.
Twenty-five years ago in Rwanda, Christian leaders and laypersons contributed to the massacre of their neighbors only a few days after celebrating Easter. During the violence that enveloped the country between April and July 1994, an estimated 500,000 to one million Tutsi and their perceived Hutu and Twa allies were killed in a country in which nearly 90% of the population identified as Christian. Why and how did Christians become involved in the 1994 genocide? And yet a minority group of churches and Christian leaders did oppose genocidal violence and pursue peaceful resistance. How do stories of participation in and resistance to violence relate to the journey of reconciliation in Rwanda and around the world? What does it look like for Christians to embody an ethic of repentance, forgiveness and reconciliation given the culpability of Christians and churches in past injustice and violence? This event is cosponsored by the UMN Department of African American and Africa Studies and the UMN Center for Holocaust and Genocide Studies. *An RSVP is not required, but is welcome—let us know you’re coming! |