Let's nullify the fact that there is just enough religion to hate

[barb162]

Let's nullify the fact that there is just enough religion to hate

By George Carey
Commentary by
Wednesday, December 07, 2005


In the summer of 2001, I was asked to help bring together Jewish, Muslim and Christian leaders in the Holy Land as a means of putting together a religious track to the political process to bring peace to that region. From that gathering of religious leaders in January 2002 in the ancient city of Alexandria, under the joint chairmanship of the Grand Imam of Al-Azhar Sheikh Muhammad Sayyid Tantawi and myself, the famous Alexandrian Declaration emerged; a Declaration that condemned "the killing of innocents in the name of God" as "a desecration of His Holy Name."

It was at that meeting that I began discerning some of the weaknesses and strengths of institutional faith. The strength and authority of religion is, of course, often taken for granted, even when it is ignored. It is simply mad of any politician to think that peace in the Middle East may be found by sidelining religious faith. Religion defines what we are and who we are; it shapes us more profoundly than any other ideology and its contribution to human values and to the fashioning of society is incalculable.

At our first meeting in Alexandria, ably served by Canon Andrew White and his colleagues from the Center of Reconciliation at Coventry Cathedral, I saw the power of faith. I saw it through the eyes of Jewish leaders like Rabbis Michael Melchior, David Rosen, David Brodman and Chief Sephardic Rabbi Bakshi Doron. I saw the same characteristics of a life shaped by prayer and wisdom in Sheikhs Tantawi, Talal Sidr, Taisir Tamimi and Mohammed Taweel. I saw it also in the prayerful wisdom of Christian leaders such as Archbishops Aristarchos and Boutros Mualem. I was moved by our meeting. In spite of my unswerving devotion to Jesus Christ at the heart of Christianity, it was impossible to deny the devotion and love of people of other faiths. For all of us, it was a life changing experience.

But I also saw through the eyes of my colleagues one of the problems of institutional faith. It is difficult to let go of power whether one is religious or political. It is extremely difficult to criticize our own faith because we might be misunderstood by our own co-religionists. How difficult it is for Jewish leaders to say: "We have not fully understood the pain of Palestinians in the way they have been 'forced' from their ancestral homes and made to be refugees." How difficult it is for Muslim leaders to say to Jews: "We abhor suicide bombers and we must separate ourselves from them and condemn their tactics as inimical with Islam itself." Similarly with Christians - I longed to hear some of the Palestine Christian leaders see the Jewish point of view - and when it came, it came reluctantly and not at all convincingly.
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