John Howard Yoder

As followers of Jesus and bearers of the message of the kingdom of God, peacekeeping and non-violence should permeate our Christian faith in dealing with war, conflict and violence. It should both challenge and lead us to live out this unavoidable non-violent message demonstrated by Jesus. Often, when I try to follow Christ in the context of South Africa, I am surprised by the reaction of the church in dealing with conflict, war and violence.

On December 10, 2009, Barack Obama, the President of the United States, received the Nobel Peace Prize Award in Oslo, Norway. Obama received this award “for his extraordinary efforts to strengthen international diplomacy and cooperation between peoples.” The nomination of Obama for a Nobel Peace Prize and its acceptance have been issues of much controversy due, in large part, for the short amount of time he has spent within the global political arena.