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A militant kind of aggressive religiosity,
sometimes called fundamentalism,
has grown up in every single one of the major world traditions.
As a rebellion against this imbalanced world,
a rebellion against humiliation,
powerlessness.
Religion has focused more and more
on a narrow understanding of religious dogma.
And there’s a sense of rage expressed in religious terms.
Every religion as I understand them
has a history of intolerance
and every religion has principles for overcoming intolerance.
I want people to hear
the compassionate voice of religion.
I want to change the conversation
and bring compassion to the forefront of people’s attention.
Compassion is at the heart of my religion.
And religion when its done in a healthy way
should enhance that.
It's recognizing each others humanity.
Its realizing that it doesn’t matter if their
Jewish or Christian or Buddhist
or Hindu or Islamic.
That they’re a fellow human being,
that they’re suffering,
and that that’s avoidable.
As a Muslim
you have to submit to the will of God
and submitting to the will of God
means that you have to be compassionate and kind to your fellow human beings.
That which is hateful to you, don’t do to your fellow.
Love thy neighbor as thyself, I am thy god.
Don’t do to others what you wouldn’t like them to do to you.
The Golden Rule is a golden rule
in so many different world religions.
And we need to somehow find a way
to implement the Golden Rule globally,
so that we treat other nations,
other peoples,
whoever they may be,
as we would wish to be treated ourselves.
We need a Charter for our own souls,
for our own sake,
but also for the sake of the world,
the sake of our perilously divided world,
which is
in one sense drawn together more closely than ever before.
The world will be invited
to make their own contributions,
make their own comments,
tell their own stories
about compassion or the lack of it
The bus was rounding a hair pin corner
and was suddenly sheared in half by a logging truck.
I had broken my back,
my pelvis, all my ribs.
I had collapsed lungs and major internal injuries.
At that point a young man,
not a doctor, not even a nurse,
came and sewed up my arm with a needle and thread.
And he just saw the need
and this young man saved my life.
And that man took off his leather jacket,
took off his sweater,
and then took his shoes off in the middle of the street
removed his socks and gave them to the naked man.
And both of them began to cry
because it was such a moving experience
that this little black lady
grew these tomatoes
and gave them to someone she didn’t know
purely out of a sense of love.
I remember she sat with me
while I cried
feeling this just unconditional compassion.
It felt like I was drinking fresh water.
And that social worker fought for me
to be able to stay in school
and from there my life evolved.
The task of our generation,
whether we are religious people or secular people,
is to build a global community
where people of all persuasions
can live together in peace and harmony.