Resources
Hon. Jose de Venecia, Jr., former Speaker, House of Representatives, Philippines speech on "Moral Values as the Basis for Cooperation Among Nations" at the International Leadership Conference - Asuncion, Paraguay, July 2-6, 2008
Closing Remarks the International Leadership Conference by Hon. Ek Nath Dhakal, Member of Parliament, Nepal “Toward a New Paradigm of Leadership and Good Governance:Creating a Culture of Service for Global Development and Peace” Asuncion, Paraguay, July 2-6, 2008
A nation’s development and peacefulness are affected by its outlook, degree of engagement with the world, and levels of interpersonal trust and transparency in its society. Those levels of interpersonal trust and transparency are outward manifestations of the fundamental value emphasized in these conferences: love.
The world’s religions need to come together now in a spirit of harmony, cooperation, and peace, and, together with governments, work to establish a world of lasting peace.
Yusuf holds that “religious education, the main medium of religious culturalization, carries upon itself the decisive task of instilling the values of peace." He urges religious educators to “adopt a civilizational viewpoint toward the cumulative religious experience of humanity.”
There is a story that the leaders of two nations, one a fundamentalist theocracy the other a military dictatorship, visited God to find out when the turbulence in their countries would end and their peoples would be at peace. To the theocrat’s question, “Almighty, when will the troubles of my people end?” God answered, “Not in your lifetime.” It was the turn, next, of the military dictator to ask the same question. To him God answered: “Not in my lifetime.”
Anderson argues that various forms of religious and secular henotheism “are divisive sources of violence” and profiles “three main roles for religion in the world that transcend culture and doctrine.” He describes alternative scenarios for “an ecumenical body or world religious leaders” to interface with the UN.
In the fall of 2000, the General Assembly, as part of the commemoration of the new millennium, convened the largest ever gathering of the world’s spiritual leaders, who, among other things, made recommendations on issues of human security and the eradication of poverty as a matter of priority for people of all faiths all over the world.
Reyes offers “a legal opinion and perspective on the establishment in the United Nations organization of an interreligious council.” He reviews the UN Charter provisions, procedures for resolutions and potential obstacles as well as opportunities.
Terasawa argues that humanity has “not been able to find a way out of the vicious cycle of escalating violence” because state actors and international organizations, including the UN, “maintain that the way to halt conflict is through military operations.” He states that “Religion should work to change this delusion in which the whole international community is now involved.”
Braybrooke asks whether there is “a distinctive contribution that the faiths have to make to public debate.” He suggests that faith communities have particular responsibility “to hold aloft a vision of the God-given dignity and value of each person,” challenge injustice, offer forgiveness, provide for reconciliation, and foster compassion.