Interview With Dr. Kireopoulos: Religion and Conflict Resolution
We speak with Dr. Kireopoulos, senior program director at the National Council of Churches of Christ.
RFP-USA: This is a series of interviews with representatives of the Member Communities and Affiliate Organizations of Religions for Peace – USA. Here we are in conversation with the Dr. Antonios Kireopoulos, who is the senior program director for faith & order and interfaith relations at the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the USA. Good morning Dr. Kireopoulos, please tell us a little bit about yourself.
Dr. Kireopoulos: Certainly. I have been part of Religions for Peace for the last ten years or so. I used to be the executive director of Religions for Peace-USA. I came to that position after working at the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese. I am an orthodox Christian, and I come to my interfaith involvements from the perspective of my faith as an Orthodox Christian.
RFP-USA: What is the essence of your religion?
Dr. Kireopoulos: The essence of Orthodoxy, as it is for all Christian traditions, is to love God and to love your neighbor as yourself; those are the two central tenants. How it plays out in different traditions, of course, varies from community to community. Of course within that, because we are Christians, we have faith that salvation comes from Jesus Christ. So therefore, we come to loving God and loving neighbor through the lens of the salvation that we believe has come through Christ. So we witness Christ through our deeds and actions, how we live out our faith commitments with regard to peace and justice, helping our neighbors, the poor, those around us. All those things witness to how we believe in Christ. It is not only a theoretical belief, but it’s also worked out in our daily lives, through our actions and words.
RFP-USA: What are the Orthodox Christian’s teachings about pluralism, mutual respect, and understanding?
Dr. Kireopoulos: The Orthodox faith is a Christian faith; therefore, at the center of our understanding of God is the belief that God has revealed himself as Father, Son (Jesus Christ), and Holy Spirit. However, we also believe that God is the God of creation who, through the Spirit, seeks to bring reconciliation and salvation to all the world. In other words, all people may reach God. And so therefore, even though we may not affirm the truth claims of other religions – and in interfaith relations we shouldn’t be expected to affirm each others truth claims – it doesn’t mean that salvation is some how not available to those outside the Christian Faith. God equally loves all people and wishes that they all enter the kingdom at the end of time. As far as our understanding of pluralism, we of course affirm the right for every person to believe as they wish, that the most important thing is to love God and loves ones neighbor—that is common to all religions, I would say—and so therefore, belief with integrity in one’s faith is to be affirmed, applauded, and embraced, and a cause for reaching out to one another as friends. I may believe one way, you may believe another way, and another person may believe another way, but that doesn’t mean we can’t come together based on those commonalities, those common beliefs and also out of love for one another to reach out in friendship and peace. So therefore, it is a very affirmative way of looking at other religions in a pluralistic context, to say that we all have equal dignity before God, and that God loves us equally, and that therefore we should reach out to each other in friendship even if we believe differently.
RFP-USA: Often, commentators on global politics associate violence with religion. How would you, as a religious leader, respond to these kinds of claims?
Dr. Kireopoulos: Well certainly a lot of religion is caused by those who would take religious positions to an extreme or pervert their own beliefs, and we have seen that in recent years in various terrorist activities and certainly we have seen it on aberrations across the board in all religious camps, whether it be hateful rhetoric, religious intolerance, terrorism, or violent actions of other sorts. So therefore, those kind of perversions do exist around us and we can’t be blind to them and we can’t be blind to the fact that often times they are inspired by religious interpretations. Can we say that the religions cause them? No, I wouldn’t say that. I would say that people interpret their various religious beliefs wrongly and that causes the violence and it is not the religions themselves.
RFP-USA: What role can religion play in conflict resolution and peace-building? How effective do you think it can be?
Dr. Kireopoulos: Well just like religious interpretation can cause problems in society, through extremists or hateful interpretations of one’s religious faith, those same religious traditions when understood correctly can then ease those tensions and in fact bring about peace or contribute to peace-making; therefore, it’s incumbent upon religious leaders to teach wisely, to extricate or to rid their communities of those hateful interpretations. It’s a difficult task, it’s a constant teaching task, and it’s a constant preaching task, but nevertheless, we need to stand up to those within our own communities who have those kinds of interpretations and that would be the first step. The second step would then be to reach across religious lines to one another in order to say that we both believe or all of us believe in these principles which lead to peace, and then seek together to confront those extremists in our midst, those situations which bring injustice. How can we reach out together and then build upon those principles together as religious people to inspire our people to go in a positive direction, but also perhaps to inspire political leaders and other parts of society to see those principles, not so much as personal faith principles, but positive principles upon which society can be built, a healthy society can be built. So religion plays a very important role in that.
RFP-USA: In some communities in the United States, there are tensions between coreligionists as well as neighboring faiths and cultures. How can religion play a role in reducing these tensions?
Dr. Kireopoulos: Again, it’s by standing up for those positive values, but also for healthy interpretations of our own scriptures and our own religious traditions so we can confront negative voices within our various traditions and downplay the negative effects they may have. Whether it’s in the culture wars in the United States, or with regard to foreign policy, there are all sorts of differences of opinion. Nevertheless, all well-meaning people of faith, within their traditions, need to affirm what those right principles are, so that people in their midst, debating various policy choices, can choose rightly.
RFP-USA: What do you recommend to people who want to better understand your Orthodox faith?
Dr. Kireopoulos: As an Orthodox Christian, I certainly bring these principles that I have been talking about to the table in interfaith relations and in peace-making and other types of work I do. So therefore I hope that my actions, my words, my writings, reveal something about my faith to those who interact with me in these initiatives. There are books, services, and opportunities for engagement with other Orthodox Christians and institutions, as well as other opportunities to learn about my faith, just as I learn in different settings about other faiths and their commitments to justice, peacemaking, and how we all seek to live up to the commandments of God, to love God and to love our neighbors as ourselves.
RFP-USA: Thank you Dr. Kireopoulos for this very informative interview and we hope to have you again sometime soon. Thank you.
