The number of headlines recently around Interfaith has caught my attention.
World’s Greenest Priest Leads Global Prayer Against Climate Change
Interfaith Organisations Provided Funds To Strengthen Neighbourhoods
VIEW: Interfaith harmony for world peace —Mohammad Jamil
Faith leaders denounce anti-Muslim sentiment
It is not that any one of these in particular is going to lead to one world religion but the public appetite for unity and framing everything as interfaith is, I believe, a sign of an acceleration toward a point in time where it could be embraced rapidly, say once a large event of millions of those hard-core inflexible religious types disappearing occurs.
Also, the Green movement as a religion has always concerned me. It seems like a topic that could be used as a rallying point, and concerns me if combined with religion. Which is has in the first article above. (Sidenote, I am not against being a “good steward” of our planet earth as God wants us to respect the land, but the Green movement has taken it to an idolatry state in most areas.)
Stay grounded in scripture (the Bible) and remain watchful so you are not deceived….
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World’s Greenest Priest Leads Global Prayer Against Climate Change
The man with the long white beard and longer official title has a simple request for his 200 million followers.
Yesterday (Sept. 1), His All Holiness, Bartholomew, Archbishop of Constantinople, New Rome and Ecumenical Patriarch — Patriarch Bartholomew for short — asked the world’s Orthodox Christians to pray for the protection of the environment.
The prayer was just one of an untold number of good deeds Patriarch Bartholomew has undertaken on behalf of the natural world since ascending to the throne of the Eastern Orthodox Church in 1991.
“He was the first to dare broaden the religious concept of sin — beyond individual and social implications — to include environmental abuse,” says Rev. Dr. John Chryssavgis, theological adviser to Patriarch Bartholomew on environmental issues, in written answers to questions from TakePart.
Patriarch Bartholomew has talked climate change with countless world leaders, including US Presidents Clinton, Bush and Obama. His theological school on the Turkish island of Halki holds environmental training classes for priests from different Orthodox churches. He has a green YouTube channel and Facebook page. His eco-endeavors were captured in a short film, The Green Patriarch.
But a man doesn’t become the greenest spiritual leader on the planet simply by taking his eco-gospel on the road. Not only must he practice what he preaches, his practices must yield tangible environmental results.
Ecological Symposia
Since 1995, his environmental nonprofit organization, Religion, Science, and the Environment, has convened eight symposia to study the world’s largest bodies of water “by bringing together a wide range of leaders from the scientific, religious, political, civic and journalistic communities,” says Chryssavgis.
Beyond jump-starting a dialogue between science and religion, these conventions have produced environmentally friendly outcomes.
The 1997 Black Sea symposium, which was attended by officials from the European Union and World Bank, led to additional funding of the International Black Sea Environmental Program, reports the Christian Science Monitor.
Chyssavagis says that the 2006 Amazon River symposium resulted in two major initiatives, The Flying Rivers Project, to collect air samples along the river, and the Amazonas Initiative, a successful deforestation program.”
Many Faiths, One Planet
For all of Patriarch Bartholomew’s eco-advocacy, he certainly hasn’t cornered the market on theology and ecology.
Virtually every major world religion champions the natural world in one way or another.
Fifteen years ago, Sally Bingham (right), then a layperson, experienced an environmental epiphany while attending mass at her Episcopal church.
“All of a sudden, I thought, how could we sit in a pew and profess a love for God and then destroy creation? That’s what really inspired me to start doing something myself,” says Bingham.
She entered a seminary, was ordained, and is now an Episcopal reverend and the canon for the environment in the Diocese of California.
In 1993, she launched The Regeneration Project, an interfaith ministry devoted to strengthening the bonds between ecology and faith.
Its Interfaith Power and Light Campaign (ILP) has helped more than 10,000 congregations in 35 US states tackle global warming by focusing on energy-efficiency, mostly solar.
A sub-program within ILP that’s garnered much attention is Carbon Covenant, whereby “faith communities in the US are linked with those in the developing world,” says Bingham.
In Cambodia, Buddhist monks safeguard a secluded forest from illegal logging by ordaining trees. In Cameroon, 100,000 trees will be planted to combat desertification. On the slopes of Kilimanjaro, a bishop won’t confirm aspiring Lutherans unless they first plant trees.
Like Bartholomew, Bingham parses no words in defense of nature.
“It is insulting to God and a sin against nature to blow the tops off mountains to try go get cheap coal,” she says.
Across the country in Connecticut, Rabbi Andrea Cohen-Kiener (below, right), the spiritual leader of Congregation Pnai Or and the director of the Interreligious Eco-Justice Network, says that the collective efforts of faith movements “might not finish the job of stopping climate change, but we’re certainly planting the seeds of survival.”
Cohen-Kiener is most proud of a green initiative called This Old House of Worship. “It’s a 15-hour energy-auditing class open to congregations of all faiths,” says Cohen-Kiener.
“I want people to feel more,” says Cohen-Kiener, when asked if she could have one green victory. “I would like people to feel when we hear about the loss of another species or the pollution of another river.”
One reason why the name of the proposed Ground Zero mosque — which is alternatively described as a community center — was changed from Cordobo House to Park 51 was to connect faith to the environment, reports The Daily Beast.
The change “reflects a desire to emphasize the intricate, though widely unknown, connections between Islamic teachings and environmentalism.”
One of the men working to raise awareness of that interplay is Fazlun Khalid, the founder and director of the Islamic Foundation for Ecology and Environmental Sciences.
Earlier this year, Khalid told The Jakarta Post, “Allah has given us the responsibility as khalifa [people with a role of stewardship] to look after god’s creation.”
Observation or Participation?
For all of Patriarch Bartholomew’s linguistic abilities — fluent in eight languages, he’s as responsible as any person of the cloth for advancing a green dialogue — his highest hurdle may be the framework through which mankind views the natural world.
Says Chyssavagis: “We call the challenge of climate change an environmental crisis. But this description reflects more the symptoms or consequences of our actions, not the problem itself. In fact, we face a crisis about ourselves: about the way we live and the way we view our world. Do we see our planet as an object for observation and exploitation? Or do we consider it as something for participation and interconnection? We must first change the way we regard our world if we are to change the way we relate to it.”
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Interfaith Organisations Provided Funds To Strengthen Neighbourhoods
Faiths in Action has just awarded funding to over 100 organisations to run local inter faith projects, helping to strengthen neighbourhoods across England.
As well as boosting integration, the grants will spur social action by faith communities, helping to create communities in which people from different backgrounds work together to achieve common aims.
The Faiths in Action programme, managed by the Community Development Foundation (CDF) and sponsored by Communities and Local Government, creates opportunities for dialogue and collaboration between different faith groups within local communities.
Communities Minister Andrew Stunell said:
“Inter faith activity is an important component of the Big Society we want to build, in which people work together for the common good. If we want to live in a truly integrated society, we need opportunities for people from diverse backgrounds to come together – not just to better understand each other but also to work towards shared goals that benefit the whole community.
“The Faiths in Action funding supports a great many projects that provide these valuable opportunities and I wish the beneficiaries of this round of funding every success with their endeavours.”
Social action
Since its launch in 2008, Faiths in Action has awarded funding to a total of 428 projects, engaging youth, women, the elderly and other members of the community in a huge variety of social action and relationship building projects. Diverse as they are, all projects have one overarching aim: to build better understanding among people of different faiths and those of no faith.——————–
VIEW: Interfaith harmony for world peace —Mohammad Jamil
It is true that cultural conflicts are increasing and are more dangerous today than at any time in history. Yet the fundamental reason for the turmoil and tension in the world is the absence of a just economic order
Power has its own dynamics, and there are many instances in history when the victor and the vanquished belonged to the same religion. Of course there were military expeditions of European Christian powers during the 11th to 13th centuries to recapture the holy land from Muslim powers, which both sides claimed as their own. At present, the world is in the throes of violence and turmoil and the threat of nuclear war looms large on the horizon. Therefore the need for interfaith harmony has never been as urgent and great as it is today. However, to achieve the laudable objective of creating interfaith harmony, first of all there is a need to rewrite history. The focus should be on achievements in science, art, literature and culture, and ideas that have helped mankind. And all the wars and savagery demonstrated by the Greek and Roman Empires, the British and Ottoman Empires or US imperialist outreach should be condemned. Of course, of equal import is the need to establish a new just economic order instead of the New World Order.
It has to be mentioned that the cause for tension or friction between Islam and Christianity at present is not because of a difference in perception regarding the teachings of Islam or Christianity but because of an unjust world economic order. As a matter of fact all religions gave the message of peace and love. And God assigned all the Prophets with the task of making human beings humane and reasonable with a view to establishing a society where people could live in peace, so that they could achieve intellectual, spiritual and material welfare. However, religious shysters gave a spin and misinterpreted religion to create hatred between the followers of different religions. It is true that some Muslim religious scholars in an effort to prove the supremacy of Islam try to belittle the importance of other prophets and religions. Nevertheless, religious leaders of Christians, Jews and Hindus also demonise Islam for the acts of a few extremists, terrorists and warmongers. It has to be acknowledged that today Muslim countries are backward or underdeveloped, and are on the receiving end.
In the past, many a great writer, philosopher and eminent person like Bernard Shaw, Michael H Hart, Lamartine Edward Gibson and Simon Ocklay, etc, had paid tributes to Prophet Mohammad (PBUH) and Islam. H G Wells wrote: “The Islamic teachings have left great traditions for equitable and gentle dealings and behaviour, and inspire people with nobility and tolerance…Islam is replete with gentleness, courtesy, and fraternity.” Today, the international media and many writers paint Islam as contrary to the perceptions of the great men mentioned above. A very recent example is an article in Time magazine (August 30, 2010) titled ‘Is America Islamophobic?’ in which author Bobby Ghosh, while dwelling on the subject, tried to denigrate Muslims. To prove his point he relied upon a new Time-Abt SRBI poll, which stated: “Forty-six percent of Americans believe Islam more likely than other faiths to encourage violence against non-believers. Overall 61 percent oppose the Park51 project, while just 26 percent are in favour of it. Another 23 percent say it would be an insult to those who died on 9/11.”
There is no denying that Pakistan and almost all Muslim countries condemn suicide bombings and attacking non-Muslims. All peace loving people of the world including a great majority of Muslims believe in combating the bigotry manifested in Islamophobia and anti-Semitism and condemn hate speech aimed at inciting people against any religion. In July 2008, Saudi King Abdullah, while opening an interfaith conference in Madrid had said: “Most of the dialogue between religions has ended in failure.” The UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon was candid in acknowledging the eidetic reality when he described Islamophobia as the new term for an old and terrible form of prejudice and called for ensuring human dignity for all. On November 13-14, 2008, an Interfaith Conference was held on the initiative of King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia as a follow up of the Madrid Conference in which the king told world leaders at a UN interfaith meeting that terrorism is the enemy of all religions, and called for a united front to combat it and promote tolerance.
It is true that cultural conflicts are increasing and are more dangerous today than at any time in history. Yet the fundamental reason for the turmoil and tension in the world is the absence of a just economic order. Ruthless exploitation by subjecting weak countries to colonialism, neo-colonialism and globalisation has brought the world to the present pass. Despite all scientific achievements, more than one-fourth of humanity is confronted with deprivation, hunger, disease and illiteracy. We find ourselves in a paradoxical situation — the paradox of misery in the midst of plenty. However, the artificial world order is collapsing, and this is the period of history when values undergo a fundamental shift. This happened in the Hellenic period when from the ruins of the classical world the Middle Ages were born. It happened also during the Renaissance, which opened the way to the modern era. The distinguishing features of such traditional periods are a mixing and blending of cultures, and of course in the process consistent value systems collapse.
The development of science with its faith in rationalism as objective reality and empiricism has led to the birth of modern technological civilisation, which spans the entire globe, firmly binding all societies, and subjecting them to a common global destiny. But simultaneously enemies of peace are at work in Muslim, Christian, Hindu and Jewish societies, and it is here that the role of leaders assumes great importance. Unless leaders are endowed with vision, wisdom and courage, they cannot see the intense conflict between dynamic reality and static forms. Hegel describes the fate of those leaders who were chosen by history to become the executors of its ‘will’ and who have fulfilled the task that was their destiny. “When their object is attained, they fall off like empty shells from the kernel. They die early like Alexander. They are murdered like Caesar. They are transported to St Helena like Napoleon. The leaders today must possess the vision that enables them to remain at the crest of the movement that brought them to power; otherwise they are bound to become the flotsam and jetsam of history.”
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Faith leaders denounce anti-Muslim sentiment
Washington (CNN) — A broad coalition of Christian, Jewish and Islamic leaders denounced what they described as a rising tide of anti-Muslim bigotry across the United States Tuesday, arguing that such sentiments constitute a betrayal of traditional American principles.
“Freedom of religion is a hallmark of this country,” said Ingrid Mattson, head of the Islamic Society of North America. It is time to decide “whether we are going to live up to our values.”
“America was not built on hatred. America was built on love,” said Washington’s Cardinal Theodore McCarrick.
The various leaders are among the founders of the newly formed Interfaith Coalition on Mosques. They addressed the controversial issue during a news conference at Washington’s National Press Club.
The coalition released a statement decrying a “disturbing rise in discrimination against Muslims” and declaring that the current “level of hostility, fear mongering and hate speech is unacceptable and un-American.”
“We believe the best way to uphold America’s democratic values is to ensure that Muslims can exercise the same religious freedom enjoyed by everyone in America,” the statement read.
Numerous faith leaders in recent weeks have expressed concerns about hate crimes against American Muslims in the runup to this weekend’s anniversary of the September 11, 2001, terror attacks, which coincides with the holiday of Eid-al-Fitr marking the conclusion of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan.
Attorney General Eric Holder is slated to discuss the concern at a Tuesday afternoon meeting with religious leaders at the Justice Department. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton may weigh in on the debate as well when she joins a Ramadan celebration at the State Department Tuesday night. Clinton is expected to deliver remarks around 8 p.m. ET.
Concern over what some observers have termed “Islamophobia” has been heightened by a Florida church’s plan to burn copies of the Quran on Saturday, the ninth anniversary of the attacks on New York and Washington.
Also stoking the flames of controversy is the continuing bitter debate over a Muslim community center and mosque planned near ground zero in New York.
Opponents of the plan to build the community center say it is too close to the site of the terror attacks and is an affront to the memory of those who died in the al Qaeda strike. Backers cite, among other things, First Amendment rights and the need to express religious tolerance.
Imam Feisal Abdul Rauf, the religious leader behind the project — officially known as Park51 — has returned to the United States from an outreach trip to the Middle East, according to Daisy Khan, his wife.
He plans to make a public statement about the debate surrounding the project later this week, although the exact timing of his remarks is unclear.
The project is slated to include a variety of facilities, including a prayer room, a performing arts center, gym, swimming pool and other public spaces. It is planned for a site two blocks from the World Trade Center.
A source familiar with Park51 told CNN’s Allan Chernoff last week that the structure is being planned as an 11-story building. It will cover 120,000 square feet — 10,000 feet of which would be designated for the Muslim prayer space. The developer is considering the possibility of an interfaith education/meditation/prayer space as well, the source said.
Last week, the Council on American-Islamic Relations launched a series of commercials designed to fight what it called growing Islamophobia. One in the series features a Muslim firefighter who was among the first responders on 9/11.
Opponents of the New York Islamic center are “trying to tell the world and tell Americans that Muslims do not belong here. That Muslims are the others, when we are in fact, all Americans,” said Nahad Awad, executive director of the council.
“They’re trying to portray Muslims as foreigners. This is a dangerous repeat of history. If it’s allowed, it’s going to hurt all of us,” he said.
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myBlessedHope 