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 August 2oo3 Report: An Interreligious Council at the United Nations Page
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 August 2oo3 Report on: An Interreligious Council at the United Nations
Document 1: The World at a Turning PointDocument 2: Chairman’s ReportDocument 3: Interreligious Council Initiative Report
 
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The World at a Turning Point:
The Interreligious Imperative
 Frank Kaufmann, August 2003
In 1993, religious riots broke out throughout India. Hindus and Muslims were virtually in astate of war over violations at the sacred site of Ayodhya. IRFWP staged a march to bringpeace to India. In 1991 the IRFWP consulted with the US, with the Soviet Union, and with Arab Nations. We came within a hairs breadth of preventing the war altogether, butnevertheless had a great impact to shorten the war’s duration, and to urge reconciliation inthe aftermath.The turning point for the modern development of seeking interreligious dialogue was the 1893Parliament of the World’s Religions in Chicago. The event was predominantly Christian, butthe notion of mutual respect with other religions shows up here for the first time in any largeformal expression. The big achievement was the introduction of the notion that religionsshould “tolerate” each other! 50 years later, there arises an interfaith counterpart to the spiritof international cooperation linked to the emergence of the United Nations. This shows itself in a number of important and eventually well known organizations closely linked to theUnited Nations and this time. The ideal for interreligious relations moves beyond the earliermore limited notion of tolerance to the more elevated ideal of respect. Not only respect, butperhaps far more importantly, the concept of cooperation came about. The ideal of cooperation means that members of different faiths actually begin to work together.No radically new ideas arose from within the interfaith movement until the advent of the new millennium when it was thought that religions could successfully chart a shared future of respect and cooperation by looking to “democracy” as the paradigm for fruitful and healthy relations (among religions)The current crisis is that despite genuine progress in the interfaith movement, the number of conflicts and wars which have a religious element is as great as ever, and the intensity andconsequences of these conflicts is
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than ever. This state of conflict, and the reputationfor being so little able to contribute to the global longing for peace, results in the religious world utterly forfeiting their responsible position to lead as peacemakers in world events. We have seen that the fixation on one’s own tradition, without the natural expansion of mission in the world for good, leads to corruption and an inbred obsession with the protectionof a narrow tradition.This boxing oneself in, and falling behind the natural evolution of human consciousness which seeks one harmonious world, results in making religions irrelevant, and without aproper God given mission to improve human affairs. In response to this, the interfaith worldhas not shown sufficient imagination to respond in a systematic and purposeful way. Theresult is that there are many interfaith conferences, but no clear organizational vision for asustained future of interreligious relations. The best one sees are isolated events which causesome excitement for a short time, but no evidence of careful, long term planning
 
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Often interfaith organizations chase around the globe trying to find “hot topics” and grab ontothem becoming more event-oriented. These might or might not be helpful, but they do notsolve the problem of pursuing a systematic and carefully developed project and initiative.The proposed Religious Council at the UN, first mentioned by Dr. Moon to the United Nationsitself, in 1999, opens the door for an entirely new interfaith vision. First, all religions wouldremain immediately present to one another throughout the entire time of seeking ongoingcooperation. Second, the religions can begin to function more explicitly as representatives of the world’s religions, rather than using the former cliché about generic equality, and no clearrepresentation for social direction. And finally, this novelty of formal representation on a largescale, which is characteristic of this proposal, is augmented by the fact that representativesstand in a formal and enduring position, rather than something only in passing As religions take on increasingly important and public roles through the experience on theinterreligious council they work out the best details for good cooperation. There would thenexist in the United Nations a place specifically devoted to deep conversation, dialogue, anddebate - a process which will restore to religion is status and dignity. This recovered statusand dignity returned to religion carries with it the all important recovery of religions Moral Authority. Finally religion regains not only its secondary blessing to represent the moralconscience of human affairs, but also its true purpose, namely to return to religion its spiritualpower over charting an ideal interreligious future.
 Frank Kaufmann August, 2003
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