The Raven Foundation

King’s Hope: The Beloved Community

By Adam Ericksen

At the center of nonviolence stands the principle of love. The nonviolent resister would contend that in the struggle for human dignity, the oppressed people of the world must not succumb to the temptation of becoming bitter or indulging in hate campaigns. To retaliate in kind would do nothing but intensify the existence of hate in the universe. Along the way of life, someone must have sense enough and morality enough to cut off the chain of hate. This can only be done by projecting the ethic of love to the center of our lives.

-Martin Luther King, Jr.

by Keith Ross

In Doris Kearns Goodwin’s book, Team of Rivals, which depicts the governing team that Abraham Lincoln forged with many of his previous political rivals, she shares two incidents from 1855 that reveal the exemplary character of the  16th President. By humbling himself and his ambitions, Lincoln modeled a generosity of spirit rarely seen in public life.

By Adam Ericksen

Today’s world is traveling in some strange direction. You see that the world is going toward destruction and violence. And the specialty of violence is to create hatred among people and fear. I am a believer in nonviolence and I say that no peace or tranquility will descend upon the people of the world until nonviolence is practiced, because nonviolence is love and it stirs courage in people.

The purpose of the Raven Foundation is to improve the quality of life for individuals, families, communities and nations by interpreting, applying and communicating René Girard's insights into mimetic theory.

We further seek to:

• think and act in constructive ways when it comes to conflict, violence, the role of religion and the origin of human culture
• open doors to positive solutions to contemporary conflicts
• alleviate the suffering of innocent victims
• foster peaceful relationships between individuals and among groups, organizations, religions and nations
• advance research about mimetic theory and its everyday application

Co-founder Suzanne Ross explains the mission of the Raven Foundation.

What the Raven Knows...

The Raven is a harmless creature that has been scapegoated and falsely accused of evil. In legend and story, it often represents a dark and sinister presence or a harbinger of death. Because of this the Raven knows that the accused are rarely the guilty ones and violence cannot solve the problems it claims to cure. If you listen to what the Raven knows, you may discover a surprising way to build a more peaceful world.

...About People

Human beings are not independent creatures who can live and grow in isolation. Rather we are imitative and so we need one another to know who we are, how to behave, even what to desire. We are so dependent, that without an “other” to imitate, we wither and die. As the poet says, “No one is an island. No one stands alone.”

...About Communities

The greatest problem facing the human communities is how to handle the inevitable conflict that results from imitated desire. When I learn what I desire from you, I want what you want and when there isn’t enough to go around (like the job, the girl, or the status) conflict erupts.

...About Violence

Since the dawn of human culture, communities have used violence to end violence, falsely claiming a divine sanction for a human intervention. We have divided violence up into good (the God-approved violence I use) and bad (violence used by my enemies). The Raven knows there is no good or bad violence, only violence itself, the suffering it causes, and our need to justify using it by invoking God’s name.

At the Raven Foundation (a registered 501(c)(3) Private Foundation), we seek to make religion reasonable, violence unthinkable and peace a possibility by translating scholarship on mimetic theory into everyday, accessible language. Using the images, idiom, and communication tools of popular culture, we seek to enter into the conversations taking place around war and peace, violence, identity and desire to challenge conventional wisdom and open pathways to authentically peaceful communities.

Long the subject of academic research, mimetic theory is not well known beyond the halls of academia, yet it can have its greatest impact in the coffee shops and online chat rooms where everyday people do the work of making meaning out of their lives and making sense out of the conflict and violence that they witness in the world. Mimetic theory provides the best analysis available for understanding the pressing issue of religious violence that plagues humanity today. It offers much needed insight into the role of desire in identify formation and the culture of materialism. The time has never been more critical for mimetic theory to leap the university wall and make itself heard in neighborhoods, workplaces, schools and shopping malls.

Through education about mimetic theory, our goal is to foster peaceful individuals and harmonious communities who will reject scapegoating and violence as ways to form identity and achieve peace. We did not invent this mission nor the hope of its fulfillment, but consider ourselves part of an ancient tradition spanning cultures, continents and religions that works for peace in each generation. We seek to partner with others from all religious and cultural traditions who share our commitment and who support the effort to end scapegoating and violence wherever they find it.