3 posts tagged with "interfaith"

A friend of mine, Sarah Talcott, recently wrote the Global Youth Cooperation Circle about an interfaith youth exchange she is planning in Cyprus. In that message she asked,

I would love to get your thoughts and ideas about how you see peacebuilding and sustainability education linked. How do the two influence and / or impact the other? How do you see these links in the work you are doing in the world? It would be nice to be able to integrate the ideas and input from this global network of young people into the exchange, as well as to take the findings and insights of the exchange back to you all.

I happened to be thinking of these very issues as I pulled dandelions up from my front yard this afternoon, so when I came inside and read her message, I felt called to respond by rapidly composing the following, which is thought-through but admittedly makes a few leaps in logic (to do otherwise would require a far larger tome!).

A recent article on George Lucas, the Presidio, and the URI in the Canada Free Press is an excellent example of the yellow journalism that now plagues the Internet, particularly in the blogging domain. Instead of providing the courtesy of a link to the article, I'll just talk about it instead. Some might say I'm engaging in a yellow tactic myself — but then again, I don't claim to be producing news at Conscientia.

I'll give you a couple of choice quotes though:

"Lucas creatures join the murky, hypocritical, we-have-a-monopoly-on-peace taxpayer-supported Neverland of the populous United Nations brethren." …

"URI claims that since 1996, over 1,000 people have participated in six regional conferences around the world. The cathedral in Chartes, France is the latest to join the movement. Its global headquarters and interfaith board of directors are located in San Francisco. Supporters have waited since 1996 for the release of a draft charter from the organization, and the draft is scheduled for release in June of 2005."

April 7, 2005. San Francisco, USA – The United Religions Initiative Global Council in March voted to endorse the Darfur Unity Statement in recognition of the continuing necessity for international intervention in the Darfur region of Sudan. Originally signed by over 100 non-governmental agencies in July of 2004, the Save Darfur Coalition's Unity Statement remains relevant today with over two million refugees in need of aid and death toll estimates in the region now exceeding 300,000 (the statement can be found at www.savedarfur.org).