Lesson video

Hello, fine theologians.

And thank you very much for joining me for another religious education lesson.

Today, we are going to be revising the peace and conflict unit.

Now, in order to get ready for that, please make sure you have four things with you, a pen, a different colour pen, some paper, and of course your theology brains.

If you need to pause the video to go and get any of those things, please do that now and join me once you've got everything.

So just before we begin our revision today, just a warning that the revision lesson that we're going to do contain some references to the effects of war and weapons of mass destruction.

And for some people that will be sensitive topics.

If that applies to you, you may want to do the rest of the lesson with a trusted adult nearby who can support.

So, on your screens now, you can see a list of everything that's been covered in this unit on the Oak National Academy.

And, you can also see some highlighted in pink.

The ones that are highlighted in pink are the ones we're going to focus on in today's revision lesson.

So, in today's lesson, we're going to recap reasons for war, nuclear weapons and weapons of mass destruction and pacifism.

So we'll start off with reasons for war.

And the first thing to remember is we looked at three reasons for greed, retaliation and self defence.

By greed, we mean a selfish desire for something.

That might be land, money, power.

By retaliation, we mean deliberately harming someone, a group or a nation as a response to them harming you.

And by self defence, we mean acting to prevent harm to yourself, or it could indeed be others.

And that could be actual harm because it's happening and you need to respond in order to stop it from happening further, or it could be the threat of harm.

What I'd like you to do please, is pause the video to copy out these definitions and then unpause the video once you have finished that.

So, we're now going to see if you can remember some of the key Islamic views on these three reasons for war which are greed, self defence and retaliation.

We're going to do that by looking at these statements that you can see on your screens.

Now, I'd like you to read each statement and figure out whether that statement is true or false.

So if the statement is true, just like the word true followed by the statement.

If it's false though, write the word false followed by a correction of the statement.

So please pause the video now and have a go at that and then join me for some feedback.

Excellent work! So let's have a look at the first five.

So you can see the first one was false.

So that needed correcting.

And hopefully, you managed to correct it to something along these lines that, "Islamic teachings suggests greed is an unacceptable motivation for conflict." The next one was true.

So the greater jihad, suggests greed is not an acceptable cause of war as it involves Muslims struggling against desires to ensure they follow Allah's path.

The greater jihad involves struggling against those inner desires to make sure Allah is always the number one priority.

So part of the great jihad is struggling against those desires.

So it's never acceptable then in Islam to act on feelings of greed, not least for reasons to do with conflict.

The third one was false, so that needed correcting.

So Islamic teachings do discourage retaliation.

And the final two on the screen are both true.

So it's true, Islamic teaching state that any retaliation must be proportionate.

It's also true that Islamic teachings allow for self defence.

So before we check out the final few, just pause your videos now to check your work against the answers you can see on the screen and use that as an opportunity to add any corrections, amendments or improvements to your work.

So let's have a look at the final turn.

We're looking at the Battle of Badr and a key quotation that comes up all throughout this unit from the Qur'an for the final one.

So the Battle of Badr shows that Muhammad only used violence as a last resort when he needed to defend himself, his followers and the faith.

And there we get a key reason why Muslims will believe that it's acceptable to use force for self defence 'cause it's in the example of Muhammad and it also follows the teachings that are covered in the lesser jihad.

And the final one was also false.

We've got this key Qur'an teaching, "Fight the cause of God, [against] those who fight you, but do not transgress, for God does not love the transgressors." And we can use that in reference to self defence, as the cause of God can be to defend the faith from attack.

It can also be used for retaliation as any response has to be proportionate and not vengeful.

And we also see that proportionate force in the Battle of Badr if you remember, when Muhammad finally accepted that he had to use force to do away with the threat of the Meccans, who were continuing to pursue him and threatened him, his followers and the faith.

When he engaged in that battle, The Battle of Badr, remember he was really careful to make sure that only a very small number of fatalities happen to the opposition, and where possible, he would make sure that the opposition were captured rather than killed, and he treated them really well, promising to release them back to their tribes if they were to receive an education and they would learn to read and write.

So we can all see that, a sense of proportionate force from The Battle of Badr.

So again, pause your videos now just to check your answers against the ones you can see on the screen.

And again, use that as a good opportunity to make sure you've got all the detail needed, please.

So now I'm going to do the same, but for some Christian views on greed, self defence and retaliation.

And the task is the same.

So again, you just need to read through the same things on your screen.

Identify whether they are true or false.

If they're true, write the word true followed by the statement, and if they're false, write the word false followed by a correction of the statement.

So please pause your video now and have a go at that for me.

So let's do some feedback.

So the first one was false.

So it said Christian teaching suggests that greed is not an acceptable motivation for conflict.

The Bible states, "The love of money is a source of all kinds of evil." And that teaching there, "The love of money is a source of all kinds of evil," is essentially saying, "Look, greed is not an acceptable motivation for anything." If you selfishly pursue something like money with a greedy approach, then that will lead you away from God and therefore into evil actions.

So, greed for a Christian is not an acceptable motivation for any action.

And that extends subsequently into conflict.

Brilliant! Right, our first job then, is reminding ourselves of some of the key religious views on weapons of mass destruction.

And the first thing that's really important for us to remember, is religious teaching seek to protect innocent life.

And when we're talking about weapons of mass destruction, we are talking about weapons which by definition, have a huge consequence for human life and the environment in which they're dropped.

And this keenness to protecting innocent life, comes from the sanctity of life.

That position is supported by the views on sanctity of life.

Remember, sanctity of life, which you find in both Christianity and Islam, is the view that all life is sacred, all life is holy, as it's a special gift from God.

That makes each life really valuable.

And God, Allah, has a plan for each life, which again, makes it really valuable.

And if life is really valuable and it's the precious gift, it needs protecting and preserving.

And then again, when you compare that with the damage a weapon of mass destruction does, you can see self evidently, those two things are in conflict, aren't they? You've got the sanctuary of life, which is seeking to protect and preserve because it's sacred, it's special, and then you've got something causing vast damage to life and taking a huge amount of life.

So sanctity of life would clearly oppose using weapons of mass destruction.

And then as well, we need to remind ourselves that religious teachings tend to promote non violence.

And again, that's true within Christianity and Islam.

We looked at some teachings of Jesus just a moment ago.

Love your enemies, turn the other cheek.

They're talking about peaceful responses, aren't they? And we also spoke briefly about, within Islam, it says, "Incline towards peace." Inclining towards peace, turning the other cheek, loving your enemies, that shows us that peace is always the number one ideal.

And peace has to be the number one ideal because that's what Allah, that's what God would expect.

But if conflict's necessary, it becomes then necessary to establish peace afterwards.

And establishing peace afterwards relies upon that process of reconciliation.

Remember, reconciliation, so restoring a friendly relationships after a conflict.

It would be very difficult to reconcile, wouldn't it? If, one nation, one state had deliberately caused such vast and excessive damage to the life of citizens in that country or the environment in that country.

If it becomes really hard to reconcile, that then makes long lasting peace really challenging.

That is also true to say, isn't it? That within both Christianity and Islam, there are just war theories.

The condition of the Christian just war theory, is that force to be proportionate and the rules of lesser jihad also stress that.

And remember by proportionate force, what we mean is don't use excessive force, try and minimise the damage caused.

In particular, make sure that innocent life is protected as far as possible.

And that's also seen in the rules of lesser jihad where it says, "No, don't kill a child.

Don't kill a woman.

Don't kill the earthly.

Don't harm trees, don't burn trees." None of those things are possible if you're using a weapon of mass destruction.

So the Christian just war theory and the rules of lesser jihad would also be used to strongly oppose weapons of mass destruction.

So, let's now summarise some of the views that have been looked at in this unit on the OaK National Academy to explain views against weapons of mass destruction.

You can see here, on the left hand side of your screen, there are two teachings from Islam, the example of Muhammad in the Battle of Badr and the rules of lesser jihad.

On the right hand side, you've got Aquinas' just war theory and condition, that force has to be proportionate, and also the quotation from one of Paul's letters saying, "Do everything possible to live at peace with everyone." So I'd like you, please, to copy out those teachings, then explain how each teaching can be used to oppose the use of weapons of mass destruction.

So please pause the video now and have a go at that for me.

Excellent! So let's see how you got on with the Islamic teachings.

I hope you were able to refer to the Battle of Badr, and say, "Look, in the Battle of Badr, Muhammad was very careful to only use the minimum force required, where possible, capturing opposition forces rather than killing them.

And this shows the respect for life and an understanding that actions in war can affect how stable peace is after conflict.

Using weapons of mass destruction does not respect life and would make reconciliation after conflict very difficult to achieve, which means peace may not be maintained." And we know, don't we? That weapons of mass destruction cause huge loss of life and harm the environment, breaking the rules of lesser jihad.

Remember some of the rules of lesser jihad, we stated today earlier, were not killing women, children, the elderly, harming trees or burning trees.

A weapon of mass destruction isn't going to obey those rules.

Fantastic! Right, now let's see how these Christian teachings that we were looking at can be applied to the use of weapons of mass destruction.

The first one was Thomas Aquinas's just war theory focusing in particular, on that proportionate force.

So hopefully you've mentioned something on these lines, "Proportionate force, means that any force used should not be excessive.

Weapons of mass destruction would be counted as excessive force.

Keeping the force proportionate also means not harming or killing those not involved in the conflict.

And weapons of mass destruction, kill huge numbers of civilians." Second one, doing everything possible to live at peace.

Now this would involve, making sure any actions and conflict are aimed at establishing long lasting peace.

And that would mean making sure it's possible to reconcile after conflict and using weapons of mass destruction, make reconciliation after conflict really difficult to achieve, which means peace may not be maintained.

So again, please just pause your video, check you've got all that detail, all that content, so that your theology is as good as it can be, and then join the video again once you've added everything you need to to your lovely work.

Excellent! Now let's turn our focus to pacifism.

And let's start off by getting a definition.

So, pacifism is the belief that violence of any kind is unjustifiable.

Therefore, all disputes should be settled by peaceful means.

I'd like you please, to write out the definition of pacifism that you can see at the top of your screens there.

And then explain why, from the previous work in this unit on the Oak National Academy that's being covered, we may reasonably expect to associate pacifism more closely with Christianity rather than Islam.

And there's some clues there: think about the teachings of Jesus.

We've spoken about some of those today, haven't we? And also think about the example of Muhammad.

In particular, the Battle of Badr.

So please, pause your video now to complete that work and then resume it once you've finished.

Excellent! So, let's check your lovely work.

So Jesus' teachings can be seen to oppose violence.

His teachings can be interpreted in a way that would imply violence is never justifiable.

For example, Jesus said, "If anyone slaps you on your right cheek, let him slap you on your left cheek too," and, "Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you." Those teachings are interpreted by some Christians as implying that violence is never justifiable because of, when you're slapped, you can't slap back.

And if you have an enemy, you show that enemy love rather than hate, which means not responding with violence but instead finding a peaceful resolution.

And then we contrast that with the example of Muhammad.

So Muhammad, although keen not to use violence, had to resolve his dispute with the Meccans with force, as a last resort.

And this example shows Muslims that they need to be prepared to use force, if necessary, to defend the faith.

And that's part of lesser jihad as well, isn't it? But it's also true to say, unimportant to stress, that many Christians would agree with the use of force as a last resort for just cause.

And we saw that actually in the very first section, Mr. Visha Mason, didn't we? When we were looking at self defence, it became apparent, when we're looking at self defence in that first section that, lots of Christians do agree with self defence being a just cause for, not least because it's actually one of the conditions of a just war set out by Saint Thomas Aquinas.

So again, just pause the video, check your lovely work and make sure that it's got all those details and then resume once you've finished.

So we're now going to remind ourselves of some of the pacifists that we studied in the pacifism lesson, on the Oak National Academy.

Now the table, which you can see on your screen, contains a story of Dietrich Bonhoeffer, but the order is muddled.

You can see I've put number one and number five for the start and end of the story.

So what I'd like you to do, is two things.

Firstly, organise that story and write it out in the correct order.

Then secondly, look at that famous quotation, "There's no way to peace along the way to safety." And think what that means and how does that relate to Dietrich Bonhoeffer's story.

When you read it through and organiser it, you'll see, "Look, this was a person that had pacifistic ideals," but given the situation, the challenges he faced, he felt he had to relinquish those ideals because it wasn't going to work in that specific situation.

So please again, pause the video, have a go at these two tasks and then join us for some feedback once you've done that.

Excellent! Well done.

So let's check the order.

So at the beginning of World War II, Dietrich Bonhoeffer was a pacifist.

Number two, he tried to help Jewish people suffering during the Holocaust by smuggling them out of Germany with fake documents.

The third part, he then believed that pacifism was not going to work against Hitler.

So number four, he became involved in a plot to kill Hitler.

And finally his plot was discovered and he was executed by the Nazis.

So check your stories in that order for me, please, and then we'll have a look at that quotation and link that to his story and his position on pacifism.

So this quotation from Dietrich Bonhoeffer, "There's no way to peace along the way to safety." Essentially, we can interpret that as saying, "Look, if you want to establish a safe and just society, you might not be able to do that in a peaceful way.

In these circumstances, violent action is justified." And we see that very clearly, with Dietrich Bonhoeffer's story, don't we? He was seeking to respond peacefully.

He wanted to help the Jewish people who were suffering at the hands of Hitler and the Nazi party.

But, he realised that wasn't going to work so he became involved in that violent plan to kill Hitler, showing he subsequently believed that pacifism doesn't work in all situations, like that situation.

So violent action was justified.

So again, pause the video please, check that your answer is like the one you can see on your screen there.

And if not, make any amendments or additions.

So, let's remind ourselves of the story of Mairead Corrigan.

Again, you've got it in the table there, but they're all just muddled, and then you've got her famous quotation on the right hand side of your screens.

So please, have a look at that table, order it, write it out in the correct order and then explain that famous quote.

So if you pause for now to do those two things, then join me for feedback in just a moment.

So here is the order.

Say we know Mairead grew up in Northern Ireland during The Troubles.

In 1976, her sister lost three children in a traumatic incident during in The Troubles.

Betty Williams, who saw the incident, contacted Mairead.

They agreed to start a peace movement, Women for Peace, working for peace in Northern Ireland and their work was effective.

It brought together women on both sides of the conflict showing that there is hunger and desire for peaceful resolution to this conflict.

And their work was so successful as you can see in number five.

They were actually awarded the Nobel peace prize.

So again, pause the video, make sure that you've got your work in that order for me, please.

And then rejoin once you've done that.

And here is her famous quotation, "If you want to reap the harvest of peace and justice in the future, we'll have to sow the seeds of nonviolence." And essentially she's saying, "Look, if you want a peaceful outcome, you must go about that in a peaceful manner," i.

e, sowing the seeds, going about it in a peaceful manner, for the peaceful harvest; the peaceful outcome.

And that can be linked kind of, or drawn in an analogy to, "Look, if you want to grow an Apple tree, you have to plant Apple seeds." Likewise, "If you want a peaceful future, you have to go about it in a peaceful manner." So again, please, just pause the video to make sure that you have an explanation that's similar to that for me and then unpause it once you've done that.

All right, fantastic work today.

We've reviewed lots there, haven't we? We've reviewed the reasons for war, we've reviewed pacifism and we've reviewed weapons of mass destruction.

Please make sure you attempt this summary quiz to check you can recall all that lovely key information.

If you'd wish to share your work with the Oak National Academy, please ask your parent or carer to do that on Instagram, Facebook or Twitter, using the information that you can see on your screens now.

Thank you very much for joining me.

I hope you have a very good day and I look forward to seeing you again soon.

Goodbye.