ELCA NEWS SERVICE

February 23, 2004

Peace Requires Action, Risk, Say Lutheran College Forum Speakers
04-024-JB

     NORTHFIELD, Minn. (ELCA) -- A former U.S. president and
Nobel Peace Prize winner, a former prime minister of Norway and
director general of the World Health Organization (WHO), leaders
of an international organization that lends money to impoverished
people and the director of an interfaith youth social-action
organization brought different perspectives in peacemaking to
participants in the annual Nobel Peace Prize Forum, held here at
St. Olaf College.
     St. Olaf is one of 28 colleges and universities of the
Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA).  The annual Peace
Prize Forum aims to promote peace through discussion and a call
to action for participants.  More than 2,700 people were
registered for this year's Forum.
     "Imagine a different kind of future than [what] we are
experiencing now," said the Rev. Christopher M. Thomforde,
president of St. Olaf College, in his opening remarks to the Feb.
20-21 Forum.
     Former U.S. President Jimmy Carter said the United States
has "failed miserably" in sharing its wealth with other people in
the world, and he said it is the responsibility of the U.S.
government and its people to help others, in a Feb. 21 keynote
speech.
      In her keynote speech, Dr. Gro Harlem Brundtland, former
Norwegian prime minister and former WHO director general, said
environmental health and human health are related.  Politicians
must face up to significant environmental and health challenges
or face an uncertain future, she said.  She cited the threat of
HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis, malaria and other diseases, global
climate changes and threats to food security.
     "This is not a worse-case scenario," said Brundtland, a
physician.  "It is where we are headed today unless we take
action."
     If people choose to meet these challenges, Brundtland said,
it "calls for powerful political leadership" and partnerships
with the private sector.
      Politicians will tackle important environmental and health
problems if they can see there's a definite link to economic
health, Brundtland said.  For example, Brundtland said a massive
oil spill in the North Sea in the 1980s was a turning point for
Norway's politicians, who saw a link between Norway's economic
health and the environmental disaster.
     Pollution, particularly carbon monoxide emissions from
automobiles, is still increasing, resulting in threats to human
health and causing climate changes, Brundtland said.  The U.S.
government has been slow to act on this because it is not willing
to challenge U.S. automakers enough, she suggested.
     "[This reluctance] can be influenced during a year when
elections are on the agenda and where politicians of both parties
will be meeting their constituents and telling them what they
stand for," Brundtland said.  "There's a chance when there's an
election if it's used in the right way."
      The most impoverished people on earth are the most
vulnerable to environmental challenges and disasters, such as
storms and floods, and these events eventually impact health, she
said.  "'Such dramatic events place a disproportionate burden on
the poor," Brundtland said, adding that their overall health is a
"yardstick" for how people succeed in addressing these issues.
     "An investment in health pays major dividends," she said.
"The collective action necessary to turn the tide of poverty and
environmental degradation and illness can be done.  Healthy
people, healthy planet -- these are linked.  It works both ways."
     In a question-and-answer session, she urged the audience to
exercise "moral responsibility" and "contribute to the welfare of
the world."
     During her visit to St. Olaf, the college awarded her an
honorary doctorate.

FINCA Loans Aim to Empower Women in Developing Countries
     The Foundation for International Community Assistance
(FINCA), a 19-year-old organization that lends money "to the
poorest of the poor" in 24 countries, has focused its efforts on
supporting nations through "village banking" systems, said John
Hatch, founder and president.
     By supporting mothers with loans, the women have been able
to start businesses with other women, benefiting their families,
especially children, he said.
     FINCA has 17,000 village banks and has served 700,000
families worldwide, Hatch said.  Last year it loaned $200 million
through village banks, and the repayment rate has exceeded 97
percent, he said.
     "Poor people don't want or need charity," Hatch said. "All
they need is a chance."
     Hatch said individuals can help impoverished people more
effectively than governments can.  "God gave us free will.  He
gave us free will for a purpose," Hatch said, adding that "the
world's most lethal weapon of mass destruction is poverty."

Build for the Future, Young Adult Leader Says
     Saying the United States is the most religiously diverse
country in the world, Dr. Eboo Patel, executive director of
Interfaith Youth Core, based in Chicago, reminded the audience
that "the future belongs to those who build it."
     Patel heads an international interfaith organization that
brings together young people from different faith groups for
social-action projects.
     Patel said U.S. citizens have the ability to "move the
creation into the vision of the creator."
     "How do you become the best you can be and give that gift
the best way you can?" he asked the audience.  "Love what you do.
Try to give it as a gift to the world as broadly and widely as
you can."
     Patel said it not his business to know how each person is in
relationship with God, but he said he is more concerned about how
humans relate to one another.  He said people should live in a
way that is "mutually enriching."
     In response to a question about how youth should keep faith
in an increasingly secular society, Patel said: "Nurture a sense
of the Divine."
     During the Forum, participants attended a series of
workshops to teach peacemaking skills and other workshops that
addressed a variety of peace-related subjects.
     In addition to St. Olaf, the other ELCA colleges involved in
the Nobel Peace Prize Forum are Augsburg College, Minneapolis;
Augustana College, Rock Island, Ill.; Concordia College,
Moorhead, Minn.; and Luther College, Decorah, Iowa.  The colleges
collaborate to put on the annual Forum with the Norwegian Nobel
Institute, Oslo.
     Founded in 1989, the Forum is the Institute's only such
program or academic affiliation outside Norway. Norwegian
immigrants founded each of the five sponsoring colleges, and
their sponsorship recognizes Norway's international peace efforts
and offers opportunities for Nobel Peace Prize laureates,
diplomats, scholars, students and the general public to
peacemaking.
-- -- --
     A video news story on the 2004 Nobel Peace Forum can be
found at http://www.elca.org/co/news/videos/video.index.html on
the ELCA Web site.

For information contact:
John Brooks, Director (773) 380-2958 or [log in to unmask]
http://www.elca.org/news