A militant kind of aggressive religiosity,

sometimes called fundamentalism,

has grown up in every single one of the major world traditions.

As a rebellion against this imbalanced world,

a rebellion against humiliation,

powerlessness.

Religion has focused more and more

on a narrow understanding of religious dogma.

And there’s a sense of rage expressed in religious terms.

Every religion as I understand them

has a history of intolerance

and every religion has principles for overcoming intolerance.

I want people to hear

the compassionate voice of religion.

I want to change the conversation

and bring compassion to the forefront of people’s attention.

Compassion is at the heart of my religion.

And religion when its done in a healthy way

should enhance that.

It's recognizing each others humanity.

Its realizing that it doesn’t matter if their

Jewish or Christian or Buddhist

or Hindu or Islamic.

That they’re a fellow human being,

that they’re suffering,

and that that’s avoidable.

As a Muslim

you have to submit to the will of God

and submitting to the will of God

means that you have to be compassionate and kind to your fellow human beings.

That which is hateful to you, don’t do to your fellow.

Love thy neighbor as thyself, I am thy god.

Don’t do to others what you wouldn’t like them to do to you.

The Golden Rule is a golden rule

in so many different world religions.

And we need to somehow find a way

to implement the Golden Rule globally,

so that we treat other nations,

other peoples,

whoever they may be,

as we would wish to be treated ourselves.

We need a Charter for our own souls,

for our own sake,

but also for the sake of the world,

the sake of our perilously divided world,

which is

in one sense drawn together more closely than ever before.

The world will be invited

to make their own contributions,

make their own comments,

tell their own stories

about compassion or the lack of it

The bus was rounding a hair pin corner

and was suddenly sheared in half by a logging truck.

I had broken my back,

my pelvis, all my ribs.

I had collapsed lungs and major internal injuries.

At that point a young man,

not a doctor, not even a nurse,

came and sewed up my arm with a needle and thread.

And he just saw the need

and this young man saved my life.

And that man took off his leather jacket,

took off his sweater,

and then took his shoes off in the middle of the street

removed his socks and gave them to the naked man.

And both of them began to cry

because it was such a moving experience

that this little black lady

grew these tomatoes

and gave them to someone she didn’t know

purely out of a sense of love.

I remember she sat with me

while I cried

feeling this just unconditional compassion.

It felt like I was drinking fresh water.

And that social worker fought for me

to be able to stay in school

and from there my life evolved.

The task of our generation,

whether we are religious people or secular people,

is to build a global community

where people of all persuasions

can live together in peace and harmony.

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