The Raven Foundation

The National Society of Newspaper Columnists has announced its list of nominations for the best newspaper columns of 2011. Included in the list is Robert Koehler’s Sept. 7, 2011 column for Tribune Media, Captives to the Logic of Violence, where Raven Foundation Founder Suzanne Ross is quoted extensively. The launch of the Foundation’s project, Be a Hero for Peace, an effort to reclaim the meaning of 9/11, making it a day of reverence, connection and forgiveness, was also highlighted.

Robert Koehler is an award-winning, Chicago-based journalist and nationally syndicated writer. His new book, Courage Grows Strong at the Wound (Xenos Press) is now available. Contact him at This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it or visit his website.

Suzanne Ross and her husband Keith founded The Raven Foundation in 2007 to increase awareness of mimetic theory. Her first book, The Wicked Truth: When Good People Do Bad Things, examines the lessons of myth, scapegoating and forgiveness in the hit Broadway musical Wicked. Her second book, The Wicked Truth About Love: The Tangles of Desire, explores patterns of romantic love and how to create a fulfilling relationship.

Last week, Suzanne and I had the good fortune to attend this year’s Theology and Peace conference at the College of Notre Dame in Baltimore, Maryland.  Well, Suzanne did more than attend.  She was one of three keynote speakers.  Suzanne presented a wonderful paper about education in the church entitled “Beyond Power Struggles: Teaching without Rivalry.”  The other keynotes were Michael Hardin, who delivered a fabulous paper called “The Babylonian Captivity of the Gospel,” and Brian McLaren, yes the Brian McLaren, who presented an inspiring paper called “Christianity Transformed and Transforming.”

Now, the Brian McLaren is a Christian rock star.  His books (I think he’s written 10) are each best-sellers.  They are challenging and provocative, while at the same time compassionately pastoral.  He questions our assumptions that God is violent, and so he has mimetic sensibilities.  His book A New Kind of Christianity takes this question head on, asserting that God is Love and thus has nothing to do with violence.  In his presentation, Brian related his work to mimetic theory, quoting Girard extensively throughout his talk on PowerPoint slides.  You can view those slides on his Slidshare website here.   One of the slides quotes an important statement Girard made in Things Hidden Since the Foundation of the World, “A non-violent deity can only signal his existence to mankind by having himself driven out by violence – by demonstrating that he is not able to establish himself in the Kingdom of Violence” (219).  This is the transformation of the human understanding of God that the Hebrew Scriptures point to and that Jesus reveals: that God is love and has nothing to do with violence.  We humans are violent; we are the ones who violently drive one another, and even God, out of our lives.  In his life, death, and resurrection, Jesus reveals that God has nothing to do with violence, but rather God forgives humans for our violence and offers us the way of God’s peace.  But probably the most inspiring thing Brian said to our group was, “People are ready to hear what you have to say and what you have to say is important.”

So, Brian was awesome.  And so were our other rock stars.  Michael Hardin, whose book The Jesus Driven Life I highly recommend in this article, asked this question in his talk: “What does a gospel freed from violence look like?”  He answered that question by claiming, “It looks like really good news, real evangel.”  But first, the bad news.  Michael discussed the development of satan in the Bible and claims that satan is an anthropological category.  That is, evil arises within the human species, not from without.  Evil is generated by our mimetic, or imitated, desires.  The satanic mechanism of accusation and violence infects all humans and we infuse God with that evil.  This infusion is how the doctrine of Penal Substitution was developed.  Penal Substitution claims that God the Father demands the death of God the Son to satisfy the Father’s justified wrath for human sin.  So, Jesus saves his followers from his violent Father and God.  Michael deconstructed this violent view of God by claiming that Jesus is the full revelation of who God is. Personally, I found Michael’s reference to the Council of Nicaea most helpful.  These early church Fathers wanted to make the point that Jesus the Son is fundamentally the same as the Father.  Michael claimed, “Here the language of Nicaea comes into play.  If we confess that Jesus is homoousias (of the same substance) with the Father, then we are also making a statement about the character of the Father.  We are asserting that God is nonviolent.”  He then said, “For those of us who claim that God is non-violent, the Council of Nicaea is our best friend.”

Suzanne, who has written two wonderful books on mimetic theory, The Wicked Truth and The Wicked Truth about Love, discussed the stumbling blocks that can thwart effective teaching in the church.  Her talk emphasized childhood education, but the principles she advocated are beneficial for youth and adult education, too.  Suzanne combined the Bible, mimetic theory, and the work of Maria Montessori to articulate a vision of education that helps us deal with scandals and power struggles in positive ways.  She started by quoting Matthew 18 where the disciples ask Jesus a question sown in rivalry, “Who is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven?”  Jesus responded by saying, “unless you change and become like children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.”  This statement has caused a bit of confusion over Christian history.  Why would Jesus advocate that adults imitate children?  The root of the issue is desire.  Like all humans, children desire objects mimetically.  Children, like adults, model for one another what to desire.  This is why two children in a room filled with toys will inevitably clash over the same toy.  The child who first played with the toy models for other children to desire that toy.  The main point Suzanne made was that children are not scandalized by their models, whereas adults are.  Children fall into rivalry, but their rivalries are short lived because they aren’t scandalized in their shared (mimetic) desire for a toy.  They don’t demonize their rival.  Adults fall into rivalry, but our rivalries can easily last a life time because we are scandalized in our shared desire with others.  We do demonize our rivals.  Indeed, Jesus claims in Matthew 18 that “Occasions for scandals (also translated as ‘stumbling’) are bound to come.”  Rivalries are inevitable, but if we are more like children, we will not stumble into life-long scandalous rivalries with others.  The only way adults can move past a rivalry is to freely admit our rival is also our model.  Our rival has something we want – whether fame, fortune, power, a specific man or a woman.  This admission takes humility, but with children is our model, we will quickly move past our rivalries and be open to the possibility of reconciliation. 

The three talks were fabulous and fostered great discussions for those attending the conference.  It was amazing for me to see how well the talks interconnected and built upon each other.  It was one of the best conferences I’ve been to - I can't wait for next year's conference!