Michiana Forum: Carmen Lau
The Michiana Adventist Forum presents:
Warnings from Rwandan Churches: Political Identity Encourages Imitation, Extinguishes Imagination, and Can Destroy Sanctuary
with
Carmen Lau
Chair, Adventist Forum Board
Saturday Afternoon
August 24, 2019
3:30 p.m.
Garber Auditorium
Chan Shun Hall
Andrews University
Berrien Springs, MI
About the Speaker:
Carmen Lau is the recently elected Chair of the national Adventist Forum Board, on which she has served since 2011. She has a background in nursing with a Master of Science degree from Loma Linda University. She recently completed a Master of Arts in Anthropology of Peace and Human Rights at the University of Alabama at Birmingham.
She has studied how scapegoating and victimhood impacts the project of peace and human rights with respect to language and religion. Her research has focused on the Rwandan genocide.
She and her husband Yung Lau have three children: Christopher, Carissa, and Sarah. She is a member of Birmingham First SDA Church and currently serves as a Sabbath School teacher.
About the Topic:
Carmen Lau has collected stories from Seventh-day Adventists who were in Rwanda in 1994 during the genocide in order to record memories that give insight into the guiding narratives that were in place in churches as violence began, and to document the varied realities that people experienced. Reflecting on the genocide shows a glimpse of what happened at the time and allows one to gain insight into one’s self and one’s context. Such reflection can be an important step in nurturing peace.
