In a quiet, private room, arrange three comfortable chairs in a triangle, about 10 feet apart. Have the two antagonists sit in two of the chairs. The third chair is provided for the Lord to participate.
Each of the two antagonists would not address each other, EVER! Instead, they would present their cases to the Lord. They would obviously indicate how much they each revere and worship and adore the Lord, and they would tell Him about their various beliefs and, eventually, about why they feel the necessity of hating or killing followers of the other group.
The premise is that both antagonists are logical enough to understand that the opposing group really does want to also Worship the Lord and Praise Him. As each side makes its case to the Lord, an aspect of mutual understanding and mutual respect will hopefully develop.
In a conventional debate, or in separate news conferences, proponents of each side feel the incentive to make inflammatory comments about the opposition, and spout dogmatic positions, to inspire their own followers into emotional rage. It would be outrageously blasphemous to do such things when addressing the Lord. After all, He already knows what is in the heart of each of them.
By always addressing all comments and arguments to the Lord and not each other, a spirit of reverence and respect should be prominent from both sides. There is no point in trying to manipulate the Lord, separate from the blasphemy of even trying to do so. Each person would likely only present calm descriptions and explanations of their thoughts.
After such an interaction, each proponent would hopefully contemplate the many similarities of attitudes and beliefs between the two sides. In deference to the Lord, both sides might think about those similarities and attempt to find resolutions for their differences. Rather than focusing on the few differences as overwhelming conflicts, they might recognize a healthier perspective, of great compatibility with some differences.
Without the Lord's participation as described above, neither side seems to feel they have much incentive to "give in" on any points. They are humans, often driven by selfish motives, for themselves and their followers. But, if forced to directly address the Lord on such matters, the properly important things should come to the fore.
This method seems likely to have value in many situations. Whether it is personal feelings between two individuals who are each believers in the Lord, or different Denominations of Churches who are arguing over some aspect of belief, or even larger problems like the Catholic-Orthodox Schism of a thousand years or the Balkan Moslem-Orthodox-Catholic conflict of hundreds of years, this method might aid in achieving a resolution or at least a tolerance.
In many situations, it may be beneficial to have one additional person present, a person accepted by both sides as impartial, a sort of moderator. In the even that one of the adversaries makes an inflammatory statement (to the Lord), the moderator would ask whether that was an appropriate statement to the Lord, allowing the speaker to re-state his point in calmer terms. If a proponent makes an illogical statement (to the Lord), the moderator might comment regarding how the Lord might have responded to such a statement. Other than that, the moderator would not significantly participate, except to explain the format and get them started in ONLY speaking to the Lord.
Since this approach seems to have value, there might be a second application of it. If this exact same arrangement was arranged in public, with a live audience and possibly a television audience, listeners and viewers might see the value in calmer approaches to such conflicts. If a lesson could be given to the general public that conflict should generally NOT be resolved by violence or weapons, to show that religious, family values should be paramount in conflict resolution, all of society would benefit.
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C Johnson, Pastor,
A Christ Walk Church