A call to dialog

The credibility of dialog is intimately related to the confidence that its initiators enjoy in society. Also, power relations often play a determining role in setting the agenda and defining partners. The questions of cultural identity of partners in dialog and their concern for national unity occupy an important place in dialog.

All true religions will justice, peace and harmony. Yet, as we engage here at the United Nations, Geneva, in dialog we are conscious of the fact that wars are being fought in many parts of the world in the name of religion. Our own religious communities are being divided along lines of competing doctrines or as a result of alliances between religions and national, ethnic and other secular groupings which have assumed a "holy” character. As was the case in the age of secularism, religion continues to be misused by those controlling power whose interests have little to do with religion, faith or the spirituality of believers.

Most of the rational and pragmatic will agree that the spirit of secularism which either sought to abolish religion, or to restrict it to the sphere of personal spirituality has contributed to a breakdown in both public and private morality. But, religious and spiritual leaders need to be honest with themselves and with the world and therefore, admit that they have too often remained silent in the face of this breakdown in ethics and morality. Some of our own institutions have at times been complicit with or have even succumbed to such abuses of public trust and responsibility to God (Ahura Mazda).

The international community has failed to eradicate poverty, to provide for the general social welfare of all peoples, to resolve conflict short of the use of overwhelming military power and to rid the world of the scourge of weapons of mass destruction. We still do not have a truly democratic forum in which the rich and poor, powerful and weak nations alike can share equitably and fully in responsibility for global affairs. All of this defies the spirit of the charter of the United Nations and the lofty aims set out in its preamble. One cannot blame the United Nations alone for these failures which have allowed the law of the most powerful to dominate over the international rule of law. Collective responsibility needs to be assured. Yet there is reason to lament the lack of civil courage and statesmanship of many government leaders who have been more concerned about the preservation of national self-interests — and often their own personal privileges — than for the collective interest of the peoples of the United Nations.

Dialog within and between religions requires not just tolerance but deep respect for the other. True dialog should enable each partner to deepen his or her own faith or belief, not to weaken or abandon it. An amalgam of spiritual truths is not to be sought, but some sort of global set of minimum religious values or a shared code behavior comprising of eternal truths drawn from our various faiths. The accent needs to be to create a global culture of mutual respect which will provide a model to those who bear responsibility for governance at all levels of society, be it in the private, communal or public spheres.

There is an emerging global civil society movement which seeks to hold global institutions and the instruments of global capital accountable to the peoples, especially the victims of globalization. Many of those involved in this movement do so out of their spiritual understanding and religious convictions. Is it possible that people of different religions together can help widen a global "free space” for this new, vital expression of the global popular will?

Furhok K. Tangree

La Roche-sur-Foron

France