Government + Religion = Unsure Future?

By Rori Picker, Associate for Interfaith Relations, RFP-USA

Facebook, an online social networking service with a rapidly expanding membership has recently added a new category of groups to which its members may subscribe: campaign issues. Within these categories people have created groups for every conceivable platform addressing issues relating to social welfare, nuclear proliferation, and even religion. In fact, with a membership nearing 40,000 and still growing, one of the most popular groups to date is entitled, “Government + Religion = Disaster.” This Facebook group is only a small representation of what has become a widespread sentiment among the American public. Millions of people view religion as a source, if not the source, of conflict in the modern world and demand the removal of religion from the political process in order to pave the way for sustainable peace.

If religion is to remove itself as the source of conflict, it must become part of the solution. At the VIII World Assembly of Religions for Peace in Kyoto, Japan, over 800 senior religious leaders from across the world spoke in one voice and declared:

As people of religious conviction, we hold the responsibility to effectively confront violence within our own communities whenever religion is misused as a justification or excuse for violence. Religious communities need to express their opposition whenever religion and its sacred principles are distorted in the service of violence. They should take appropriate steps to exercise their moral authority to oppose attempts to misuse religion. What can we do as individuals? - Resist and confront any misuse of religion for violent purposes, including the promotion of religious stereotypes in sermons and in the media; - Become effective educators, advocates and actors for conflict transformation, fostering justice, peacebuilding, and sustainable development; - Draw upon our individual spiritual traditions to educate our members on our shared responsibilities to advance shared security; - Strengthen peace education on all levels.

To help accomplish these tasks, Religions for Peace - USA has made available themed papers on Confronting Violence and Advancing Shared Security, Conflict Transformation, Peacebuilding, and Sustainable Development, along with a toolkit on the Millenium Development Goals, and new resources will constantly be added.

Together we can ensure that Government + Religion = Peaceful Future.