c. 2000 Religion News Service
(Rabbi Rudin is the senior interreligious adviser of the American Jewish Committee.)
(UNDATED) It was a dazzling scene.
Nearly 2,000 religious leaders from around the world recently gathered in the United Nations General Assembly Hall in New York City for a four-day “Millennium Summit” Conference on Peace. Buddhists in orange saffron robes sat next to bearded Sikhs from India. Hindus, Muslims, Jews, Christians, Confucianists, American Indians, animists and indigenous people filled the large hall.
To use the current American political cliche, the Assembly Hall truly looked like the world’s diverse religious population, and the United Nations became a huge house of pluralism.
A fashion designer would have loved the extraordinary hats worn by the delegates. African women were majestic in their colorful head coverings, and elegant turbans identified Sikhs. Eastern Orthodox priests wore their black cones or triangular hoods. Arab Muslims had red and white kaffiyehs while American Indians exhibited beautiful eagle feathers.
A Hindu member of India’s Parliament sported a spiffy light blue Nehru suit with matching cap. A Vatican cardinal wore his bright red cap and there were Buddhists with shaven heads. Rabbis, with their distinctive skullcaps, completed the picture. I had pity for the delegates who had no traditional religious head covering.
TV mogul Ted Turner helped fund the large gathering of spiritual dignitaries, and the conference organizers had high hopes that religious folk could do a better job than our political leaders in addressing the world’s gravest problems, including peace, economic justice, conflict resolution and the environment. Unfortunately, the results were mixed.
The conference was hampered because China successfully demanded the Dalai Lama, one of the world’s most respected religious leaders, be barred because he represented Tibet. The Chinese communists, who occupied that country in 1950, insist Tibet is an integral part of China akin to Beijing and Shanghai.
The conference did produce one historic breakthrough when the Dalai Lama’s followers were permitted to address the conference. It marked the first time his words were uttered within the United Nations. Of course, in his own speech the Chinese religious representative sharply criticized the Dalai Lama without mentioning his name. A political leader could not have done a better job.
With representatives from so many faith traditions in attendance, there was a long parade of plenary speakers with no time or provision for feedback or questions from the large audience. Endless “speechifying” and sermonizing numbed both my brain and my spirit.
However, a panel that focused on environmental concerns was a conference high point. While representatives from seven major religions carefully analyzed the issues from their separate traditions, they were united in their demands for international global action to protect air, water, trees and earth.
Surprisingly, the speakers went far beyond the usual pious platitudes that often cloud such discussions. Because, for example, there is no such thing as “Christian air” or “Islamic water,” this is one issue that transcends dogma and traditional religious identity.
Predictably, the conference’s friction point was the contentious issue of conversion and proselytization. The Jewish community is highly critical of Southern Baptist attempts to evangelize Jews. But African Christians deeply resent Islamic conversionary campaigns. In South America, Pentecostals and charismatic groups are intensifying their efforts to convert Catholics, and Catholic-Eastern Orthodox tensions are high in Ukraine and other areas of the former Soviet Union.
But the conference’s tensest moments came when Hindus and Catholics clashed over the church’s conversion efforts in India. Hindus charged that Catholics were using Indian poverty as a coercive wedge issue to lure Hindus to the baptismal font. Historically, some missionaries in Asia have been labeled “rice Christians” because they promise converts material gain here on Earth in addition to heavenly salvation. Roman Catholic leaders denied the charge, but Hindu sensibilities were clearly offended at the conference.
The Hindu-Catholic argument was so intense that some “peacemakers” from both communities as well as a Dutch rabbi and an American priest met the following day to hammer out a brief joint statement that muted the sharp encounter. Clearly conversion, an issue that will not go away, severely undermines the words of goodwill and unity that always accompany such international religious gatherings.
Will the summit conference at the United Nations make a significant difference in people’s lives? Probably not, but the sight of hundreds of religious leaders eagerly exchanging business cards and e-mail addresses with one another may be the most positive result of the entire meeting. Cyberspace will likely be the scene of the next global religious assembly.
DEA END RUDIN
