Fellowship of Reconciliation

One of the most important peace organizations is the Fellowship of Reconciliation.

The FOR started in 1914 in an attempt to stop World War I. During WWII, FOR encouraged nonviolent resistance, tried to prevent internment of Japanese by America, and rescued Jews and other political refuges.

In the 1940s, FOR pioneered Freedom Rides as a tactic to overcome racial oppression in the American South, encouraged the founding of the Congress of Racial Equality, and helped Martin Luther King develop non-violence as a strategy.

FOR founded the International Committee of Conscience on Vietnam, with 10,000 clergy, and sponsored a world tour by Thich Nhat Hanh, the Buddhist monk-peace leader.

FOR founded Dai Dong, an international scientific organization linking war, poverty, environmental degradation, and other social issues.

FOR helped train the Filipinos for the non-violent overthrow of the Marcos regime.

FOR sent peace activists and religious leaders to try to stop the first Gulf War, and started the Campaign to Save a Generation, an attempt to mitigate the devastation caused by the sanctions imposed on Iraq.

FOR has done many other things. Read more FOR history.

Lentz Foundation

One area we need to explore is Peace Research and Peace Education. We have already mentioned Michael Nagler, who is a professor at U.C. Berkeley and studies Peace issues.

Another is the Lentz Foundation which has been studying peace science and peace technology since the 1950s. Theodore Lentz published Towards a Technology of Peace in 1972. This builds on his earlier Towards a Science of Peace, from the 1950s.

I'll be studying these and reporting.