2002 VERITAS FORUM
AT UC SANTA BARBARA


"SEEKING RECONCILIATION"

Erwin McManus

Thursday, Apr. 11, 2002, 7:00 pm Chem 1179

Are you searching for significance? We all value the need to live significant lives. The question remains, however, "Does God value humanity enough to attempt to redeem it?" Find out how man being created in the image of God unlocks the divine imprint that exists within us all.

Erwin McManus serves as founder and pastor of Mosaic Ministries in Los Angeles. Erwin serves as a national and international speaker engaging such issues as: globalization, leadership, cultural transformation, post-modernism, and church growth and is the author of An Unstoppable Force - Daring to Become the Church God Had in Mind.

Brian Cox

Monday, Apr. 15, 2002, 7:00 pm Multicultural Center Auditorium

September 11 not only presented a crisis for the U.S. and Europe in terms of security and vulnerability, but it presented a far more fundamental crisis in the Islamic world…a crisis of identity. Who are we? Brian Cox will explore the application of the Abrahamic tradition to the issue of Islamic identity and the paradigm of faith-based reconciliation as the key to security in the 21st Century. Brian Cox will describe his recent experiences in Kashmir and Sudan, offering an alternative to violence by terrorism.

The Reverend Canon Brian Cox is Rector of Christ the King Episcopal Church in Santa Barbara, Vice-President of the International Center for Religion and Diplomacy (ICRD) of Washington, D.C., President of the Reconciliation Institute of Santa Barbara, and Adjunct Professor at Pepperdine University School of Law in Malibu. He is currently involved in ICRD projects in Kashmir and Sudan and has been one of the pioneers and practitioners of faith-based diplomacy and of integrating the spiritual and political/diplomatic dimensions of reconciliation.

Repairing the Breach:
8-Biblical Principles of Reconciliation

Raleigh Washington

Wednesday, Apr. 17, 2002, 7:00 pm Isla Vista Theater

Denomination, race, class and gender divide the Church of Jesus Christ. We will explain a foundational cause for this breach and unveil eight Biblical principles to repair the breach.

Raleigh Washington has served Promise Keepers as Executive Vice-President of Global Ministries since 1999. Previously, he served as Vice-President of Reconciliation and was a member of the Promise Keepers Board of Directors. Dr. Washington is the founder and pastor emeritus of Rock of our Salvation Evangelical Free Church in Chicago, IL, an urban church reaching across racial barriers within the inner city. In 1993 he was voted "Pastor of the Year" by the Greater Chicago Sunday School Association. He co-authored, Breaking Down Walls: A Model of Reconciliation in an Age of Racial Strife, which received the 1994 Gold Medallion Award from the Christian Booksellers Association.

Confronting the Historical Roots
of Our Ecologic Crisis:
Science, the Bible, and an Ethic of Responsible Environmental Action

Calvin DeWitt

Thursday, Apr. 18, 2002, 7:00 pm Isla Vista Theater

"The Historical Roots of Our Ecologic Crisis" are rooted in the soil of the famous "dominion passage" of the Bible, Genesis 1:28, according Lynn White’s widely reprinted 1967 paper. This verse is the "proof text" that lays the blame for environmental degradation on Jews and Christians and is now widely accepted. While it looks like we now know who is to blame for the environmental mess, we now have to get beyond blame to do the difficult work ahead of us. Calvin DeWitt examines this and other biblical texts, and shows how such analysis can move us beyond blame to get on with the practical, challenging, and vitally necessary tasks of environmental reconciliation.

Calvin DeWitt is Director of the Au Sable Institute of Environmental Studies and Professor of Environmental Studies at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. He received the Capitol Community citizen’s award for Land Use Planning for the Town of Dunn, the Wisconsin Wetlands Association Award for Wetlands Research and Preservation, and was named Environmentalist of the year by the Madison Audubon Society. He is the author of Earth Wise—A Biblical Perspective.