Aren’t you frustrated by the ever going arguments and fury surrounding religion? You’d think an all-knowing entity would only dump us on earth to live together if the expectation was that we’d try to get along. Now, some rather learned folks think its possible to improve this situation …
The idealist behind what’s quickly becoming a worldwide effort is a remarkable woman, Karen Armstrong, whose books I first became familiar with the week following 9/11 when I stumbled upon “Islam” — an eye-opener that led me to read many more of her books. But, I digress … what this post is really about is Karen’s amazingly ambitious world-changing project which was conceived as her”wish,” granted when she won a TED Prize.
Karen’s wants to fight the violence of fundamentalism by creating a collaborative effort between the world’s religions. The idea is to get a sign-off on a Charter of Compassion — compassion for others being the one major tenet that all religions share.
To join in the effort all you need to do is share an instance in your life when someone showed you compassion and/or provide an idea(s) of what you’d like to see included in one of the eight core elements of the Charter.
Here’s how this works. Go to charter for compassion.com to learn more. Be inspired by its three minute video. Register. Then, share your compassionate story and/or your idea for expanding upon a core element.
The goal is to obtain all input from global participants within the next four weeks, select the best ideas and stories, and conduct a major launch of the finished document in 2009.
Among those now involved in making the Charter of Compassion a reality are spiritual leaders such as South African Archbishop Desmond Tutu, Islamic scholar Tariq Ramadan, and Britain’s first female Rabbi Julia Neuberger — all of whom have joined a special oversight Council for this purpose.
If this is an era of Hope, religion is one of it’s biggest purveyors.
The conversation about and around religion impacts believer and non-believer alike.
So quit complaining about the state of the religious world and do something to change it. Your actions can combine with your words to make a difference.
