Kerry delivers speech on inter-faith dialogue

By Jeremy P. Jacobs, PolitickerMA.com Reporter

U.S. Sen. John Kerry (D-Boston) delivered the keynote address at an event held as part of a dialogue on global inter-faith dialogue at Yale Divinity School Monday night, in [img_assist|nid=30|title=Sen. John Kerry (D-Boston)|desc=|link=none|align=left|width=123|height=180]which he called on people of different religions to "strive for a global ethic that allows each of our religious faiths to express themselves fully."

Kerry's speech marked the beginning of a four-day conference sponsored by Yale Center for Faith and Culture Reconciliation Program entitled "Loving God and Neighbor in Word and Deed: Implications for Christians and Muslims."

Kerry, who is Catholic, began his remarks by stating that something must be done to increase the dialogue between religions.

"We've barely broken the seal on the 21st century," he said, "but already it's been marked not just by burning buildings and occupying armies and riots and roiling images of bloodshed and humiliation, but also by an even more widespread and dangerous worry-by a question you hear whispered and spoken quietly: What if we can't live together? What if the gulfs that separate us are unbridgeable? Maybe we just need higher walls and fewer visas. Maybe coexistence is just too difficult."

The senator went on to describe how important this dialogue is now, as the world is becoming increasingly diverse. There are over 1.3 billion Muslims worldwide, he said, more than there are Catholics.

Kerry went on to say that there is a history of religious conflict in the United States. His grandfather "eight times over," was John Winthrop who led a group of religious dissidents who disagreed with England's Anglican Church across the Atlantic to avoid persecution. Once here, however, conflict continued as theologians like John Davenport and Thomas Hooker eventually fled Massachusetts so they could practice their religions in areas that would later become Connecticut.

"So these are not new challenges," Kerry said. "This dialogue is critical."

"If you don't engage," he went on, "you can't even find answers to the most basic, fundamental questions: Why do you wear the hijab? Why do you go to Mecca? What is jihad? The absence of dialogue costs all of us. We have major politicians who couldn't tell you the difference between Shi'a and Sunni- so it's no wonder that we attack a secular dictator in response to radical fundamentalist terrorists."

Ultimately, the dialogue must continue because people of all faiths face common challenges, Kerry said.

"Anyone who adheres to these basic principles must acknowledge: the moral challenges we all face today are immense, but also shared," he said. "Billions of human beings live in poverty. People are struggling to feed their families from Port Au Prince to Dhaka. AIDS orphans are raising their younger siblings in shantytowns in South Africa. A planet is being ravaged and radically altered by the pollution we've created. And people in every corner of the world are living lives of violence and desperation. We have come together to make an honest effort at understanding. When you do so, whatever your faith, I believe you are doing God's work."

Jeremy P. Jacobs is a PolitickerMA.com Reporter and can be reached via email at noreply@politicker.com.

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