Objectives of The Gandhi, King, Ikeda, Hassan Institute for Ethics and Reconciliation
Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi has bequeathed us a roadmap that has been tested and proven workable within and between nation-states. Our American Moses - Martin Luther King Jr. - has employed the roadmap in a fashion that further confirms the reliability of the Gandhian bequest to the world. The Gandhian nonviolent method was user-friendly in the South African crisis effectively addressed by Nelson Mandela's government to end the years of apartheid oppression. The most convincing sanctions for the effective use of nonviolent approaches to conflict resolution are seen in the diplomacy of the United Nations, and the state departments of all nations. The nonviolent diplomatic philosophies have been demonstrated by many world leaders such as Mother Teresa, Jesse Jackson, Pope John Paul II, Jimmy Carter, Mary McLeod Bethune, Baclav Havel, Johnnie Coleman, Marian Wright Edelman, Chief Albert Luthuli, Daisaku Ikeda, His Royal Highness Prince Hassan bin Talal, Michael Nobel, Shrin Ibadi and Desmond Tutu.
| 1. | To serve as a conference and multi-cultural Institute, a place to organize international and community-based forums within the Martin Luther King Jr. International Chapel to discuss a variety of perspectives affecting our common humanity. These could include such issues as community disintegration, denominationalism, enslavement, environmental injustice, ethnic cleansing, hate crimes, healing, inadequate schools, poverty, privileged markets, racism, school violence, science, sexism, societal fragmentation, spirituality, terrorism, unemployment, unequal access to higher education, war, and xenophobia. A large variety of groups crossing all cultural, economical, educational, gender, lifestyle, national, racial, and religious boundaries will discover new bases for the common ground between us. This Institute will inspire a more profound sense of domestic and international civility and humanity, helping us to appreciate that we are geographically one and are becoming spiritually one. Such diplomacy is reachable as a noble end of reconciling diversity toward which we should strive. |
| 2. | To make known the life, work, and philosophies of Mahatma Gandhi, Martin Luther King Jr., Daisaku Ikeda, His Royal Highness Prince Hassan bin Talal, Howard Thurman, Benjamin Mays, Floyd McKissic, Samuel Woodrow Williams, Mordecai Wyatt Johnson, George Kelsey, William Jefferson White, Charles T. Walker, and with Mohandas K. Gandhi as the greatest world leader of the last 1000 years. |
| 3. | To honor Kasturbai Gandhi for her singular, unsung contribution of role modeling and tutoring her husband, Mohandas K. Gandhi, in the art, science, and practice of nonviolence. This will inaugurate a tradition of honoring women whom The Mahatma felt had a natural predisposition to providing nonviolent leadership. |
| 4. | To explore possibilities of exchanging visiting scholars and students from India, Japan, the United Kingdom, Singapore, New Zealand, Korea and other countries who are experts on and interested in the application of philosophies of nonviolence internationally. |
| 5. | To be a conduit for partnerships and coordinated efforts of domestic and international organizations dedicated to reconciliation work. Some of these partners will be the Foundation for Community Encouragement, Carter Center, the Peace Corps, M. K. Gandhi Institute for Nonviolence, The Fellowship of Reconciliation, Soka Gakki International, The Atlanta Masjid of Al-Islam, EnlightenNext Magazine, Morehouse Leadership Institute, Andrew Young Center for International Affairs, The India Council of Cultural Relations (New Delhi), The Gandhi-Hamer-King Center (Denver), UNESCO, Operations Crossroads Africa, The American Friends Services Committee, The Highlander Institute, the George Mason Institute for Conflict Resolution, The Southern Poverty Law Institute, Oxfam America, the Council of the Parliament of World Religions, Association for Global New Thought, Agape International Spiritual Center, and the Indian American Cultural Association of Atlanta. |
| 6. | To assist in the fulfillment of Resolution GA/9500, unanimously adopted by the 55th Plenary meeting of the United Nations General Assembly, November 10, 1998. The Resolution called for the International Decade for a Culture of Peace and Nonviolence for the Children of the World (2001-2010), with the year 2000 being a year of education. This includes the inauguration of "A Season of Nonviolence" annually, (January 30 - April 4), a period between the assassination dates of Mahatma Gandhi and Martin Luther King Jr., respectively. |
| 7. | To deal with community service and outreach through the Ecumenical Program for Rural and Urban Service (EPRUS/AmeriCorps Program) the Martin Luther King Jr. International Chapel has supported students engaged in the work of reconciliation for the past two years. Presently, community members (Morehouse students included) are engaged in hands-on-service for the purpose of combating inadequate access to education, violence, and other unmet human needs. This work would be expanded in The Gandhi, King, Ikeda, Hassan Institute program emphasis. |
| 8. | To offer consultancy and guidance to institutions and individuals engaged in the study and research of nonviolence for problem solving. We would actively promote the introduction of foundation courses on Gandhian and Kingian philosophies of ethics in educational institutions, and facilitate a shift of attitudes in the print and electronic media towards rooting out the culture of violence by generative and creative kinds of nonviolence. |
| 9. | To undertake the production and distribution of literature on nonviolence, peace, Gandhian studies, comparative religion, tolerance, appreciation of differences, and diversity maturity. |
| 10. | To develop a network of individuals and institutions engaged in the task of peace and justice education, conflict resolution, and peace and justice promotion activities. |
| 11. | To devise suitable formats and programs to bring the arts, particularly performing arts, in peace and justice promotion. We will also seek to develop a comprehensive web page on Mahatma Gandhi. |
| 12. | To publish a book on global ethical options in the tradition of Gandhi, King, Ikeda and Hassan; to create a video and exhibit on the Gandhi, King, Ikeda, Hassan legacy of building peace; and create and award and prize to honor people locally and internationally doing the work of peace, nonviolence, justice and helping the suffering. |
We propose to utilize The Gandhi, King, Ikeda, Hassan Institute for Ethics and Reconciliation as an institutionalized forum linking practice, knowledge, and service. Our goal is to help develop leaders who think and act differently about problems of oppression and insensitivity which tend to be examined within narrow contexts with little attention paid to their complex and often paradoxical generalities around the world. This program emphasis would further assist the Dean of the Chapel and the other College offices in the theological exploration of vocation with the future ordained and lay leadership of the Church.
| Universal Principles of Nonviolence | |
| 1. | Honoring the dignity and inherent worth of every human being. |
| 2 | Believing that our lives are linked together, that what we do impacts the lives of others. Therefore, we are responsible to and for one another. |
| 3 | Dedicating ourselves to guaranteeing the fundamental rights of every human being-justice, equity and equality. |
| 4 | Recognizing the power of the human spirit to triumph over injustice, social inequity, suffering. |
| 5 | Choosing non-violence as a way of life by practicing peace daily. |
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| Litany for the Founding of the Gandhi, King, Ikeda, Hassan Institute | |
| Leader: | Today we gather to found the Gandhi Institute for Reconciliation, a program that will focus on mediation and conflict resolution. As we work together locally and globally to advance a legacy of nonviolent teachings, it will be an audacious challenge calling for justice, peace, and compassion for the children of the world. |
| Congregation: | “We must be the change we wish to see.” |
| Leader: | We birth of our new Institute in the immortal spirit of Mahatma Gandhi who emanates from the time and place he lived into the future and out to the entire world. |
| Congregation: | “We must be the change we wish to see.” |
| We establish the Gandhi Institute “to heal and revive human hearts and minds deeply wounded by violent ideologies and open the way for a new chapter in human history. | |
| Congregation: | “We must be the change we wish to see.” |
| We establish the Institute for Reconciliation in the name of Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi because The Mahatma tapped into “the eternal rhythm of life that animates all people, every society, and the universe itself.” | |
| Congregation: | “We must be the change we wish to see.” |
| We create the Gandhi Institute for Reconciliation because The Mahatma demonstrated a stern, paternal love in his recognition of the need for training and discipline. He knew that only by developing the discipline of self-control could people truly understand the science of nonviolence and use it to overcome their weakness and realize their own strength. | |
| Congregation: | “We must be the change we wish to see.” |
| We initiate the Gandhi Institute because of his exalted way of peace, inspired by a deep sense of compassion; because he was a creative, social reformer and leader of the people who wanted to develop a global network of spiritual solidarity and a world without war. | |
| Congregation: | “We must be the change we wish to see.” |
| We begin a mission to link the revolutions of peace through community building of Gandhi, King, and Ikeda so that we may come together at this hour to overthrow the old world and found a new moral citizenship of tolerance, respect for difference, and diversity grounded in spiritual oneness. | |
| Congregation: | “We must be the change we wish to see.” |
| Leader: | Today we cause a new program to be born from the life and legacy of the “character of the barefoot saint” of India who “believed in the immense spiritual and religious potential that resides equally in each of us.” He believed that the inner Spiritual transformation of each individual would generate reformation in politics, education, and culture, and reconciliation between nations, races, and religions. |
| ALL: | Therefore, because the Mahatma’s spiritual legacy is one of humanity’s priceless treasures, we commence at this critical juncture in history to found the Gandhi Institute for Reconciliation in the Martin Luther King Jr. International Chapel at Morehouse College. Today we institutionalize Gandhi-King-Ikeda activism, nonviolence, optimism, populism, and holistic vision for the growth, health, safety, and wellbeing of our evolving World House. And So It Is! |
