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About Greg Stone
Greg Stone, managing director of Taming the Wolf Institute, is the author of Taming the Wolf a guide to conflict resolution in the tradition of Saint Francis. He graduated with a Masters in Dispute Resolution from the Straus Institute at the Pepperdine University Law School. He specializes in faith-based approaches to conflict resolution.
The Cardinal and Reason
Many years ago, I traveled with friends to the Central American country of Honduras where we spent a few weeks living on an island off the coast. The Hondurans I met were a caring and giving people. We experienced not only an adventure of geography but also an adventure of the heart.
The gracious nature of the Honduran people became immediately apparent upon our arrival. As we crossed into Honduras from Guatemala and stopped at a border outpost to have our passports examined, I struck up a casual conversation with a local Honduran. In passing, he recommended a restaurant a couple hours up the road.
When we arrived in the small town we were waved over by the restaurant owner and his wife who greeted us with smiles and hugs. We entered the restaurant and were surprised to find the exact number of places set at the table (there were twelve of us) and food was ready to serve, family style. Talk about hospitality!
During my stay, I was surprised to discover the number of families who sacrificed to send their kids to the United States for an education. Their strong admiration for our country touched our hearts.
Thus, it is with sadness I view the Obama administration’s support of Hugo Chavez’s interference with Honduran sovereignty through the person of Manual Zelaya, whose removal from office by the Honduran Supreme Court and Honduran Congress was prompted by Zelaya’s attempt to grab and maintain power by scuttling term limits in violation of the Constitution.
Mary Anastasia O’Grady, writing for the Wall Street Journal has covered this story over the past couple months, exposing the inexcusable U.S. State Department response to Zelaya’s attempts to undermine the Honduran Constitution. US failure to support a people who have been ardent admirers of our democracy is reason for concern.
Monday, in the WSJ, however, O’Grady profiled a positive force for change, Cardinal Oscar Rodriguez Maradiaga, who openly opposes the return of Zelaya. Cardinal Maradiaga does not dismiss problems of poverty and inequity, he does not ignore social justice issues, but at the same time he clearly understands how you approach these problems makes a difference. He recognizes the important role the law can play in addressing corruption.
Perhaps this is a signal we will soon witness a trend in which we move away from embracing Marxists who toss aside valid constitutions under the guise of “working for the poor.” We may witness instead a move toward the hard work of mediating and negotiating the role of law in civil society. A mediated approach to sharing power may prove to be the best solution for the corruption that cripples nations; perhaps a mediation-based approach will create what John Paul Lederach called “platforms for change.” (See The Moral Imagination.)
Cardinal Maradiaga’s reasoned voice portends a role for spiritually transformative mediation in the practice of law and governance in Honduras. Perhaps President Obama, trained at Harvard Law, where many conflict resolution advances were conceived, will guide the State Department away from the policies of Chavez and toward faith-based diplomacy, a diplomacy that speaks to hearts, a diplomacy that truly makes a difference to a people struggling for justice and liberty.
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