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Y. Miyake: Address to World Summit 2015
Written by Rt. Rev. Yoshinobu Miyake, chair, International Shinto Studies Association
Saturday, August 29, 2015
Address to World Summit 2015, Seoul, Korea, August 27 to 31, 2015
The World Summit 2015, hosted by the Universal Peace Federation, was held in Seoul, Korea, and we focused our discussions over a couple of days under the theme of "Peace, Security and Human Development." It's significant that the exchange of diverse opinions among religious leaders regarding peace and development occurred in the final session, after several issues had been considered from various angles by distinguished political leaders. This is because we will have difficulty solving problems if we try to find a solution based on the value brought by a capitalist economy. In my opinion, it's impossible to discover the best answer to the issues that are relevant to peace and development without considering the issue of the inner being. In that sense, that this Plenary Session VIII was held by persons of religion had profound significance.
Also, it's important that this session consisted of six speakers who have completely different religious backgrounds. Please let me introduce us again. Ven. Dr. Bellanwila Wimalaratana (chancellor, Sri Jayawardenapura University, Sri Lanka), Dr. Mustafa Ceric (former grand mufti of Sarajevo, Bosnia), Dr. Marco Frenschkowski (University of Leipzig, Germany), Bishop David Frol (Latter-day Saints, Argentina), Judge Mohammad Abou Zeid (president, Islamic Sunni Courts, Lebanon), and myself (a Japanese Shintoist).
As you know, Lebanon, Bosnia and Sri Lanka struggled with civil war, and there were large numbers of casualties in those struggles. It's often said that the cause of war arises from political and economic turmoil rather than the religious factor. But I don't think so. In a society, if the members of a congregation are present in definite proportions, and if they're maintaining their community, that religion has a responsibility against the issues rising in the society where they live. Because not only the terrorists but also the soldiers of the armed forces belong to that religious organization. In Lebanon, the many Christian denominations, commencing with the Maronite Church, battled against many Muslim schools, commencing with the Druze. In Bosnia and Herzegovina, Muslim Bosniaks, Orthodox Serbians and Catholic Croatians were engaged in a battle in disorder. And in Sri Lanka, Theravada Buddhist Sinhalese and Hindu Tamil have battled for many years.
On the other hand, the era of authoritarian regime dominated by totalitarians existed in Germany, Japan and Argentina in the past, they were rather secular regimes, and religious war did not happen. Argentina is an ethnically diverse country, but in a religious sense the majority of the people are Catholic. (I just had an audience with His Holiness Pope Francis in Rome a few days ago.) Conversely, the Japanese have a homogeneous nature ethnically, but we can see the religious diversity. In a religious/ethnic sense, Germany is the intermediate type between these two opposite countries (Argentina and Japan).
Substituting this "peace and development" into the equation of "two types," we obtain the following. If respective religious peoples too respected "religious justice" and "uniformity" in the modern borderless society that allows free exchange of people, materials, money and information, it might provoke a deadly feud with the neighbors. And what is more, the miseries of the battlefield have become more serious than in any past wars through the development of science and technology. If we try to obtain sustained peace and prosperity (as the "dividend" of peace) in modern society, it may be a painful thing for religious persons, but we need to lower a flag of "religious justice" and have to accept "diversity" as much as we can.
That religious peoples accept diversity means to respect the pluralistic value. Although it leads to be relativized our own faith, we should not be afraid of it. No one (including the lion itself) knows if the lion is a big, fierce animal if only the lion exists in this world. By the existence of a small cat, we can say, "The lion is a big, fierce animal." Similarly, a man will not be called a father without having children. If he has no children, he is just a guy. In other words, a father can be a father by the existence of a son and/or daughter. I think you understand what I mean.
It happens in politics, economics and religions, whatever the field, parochial "fundamentalism," "monopoly" and "extremism" will not create anything other than a sense of complacency of advocates. It will cause a conflict and, as a result, it creates a situation which is far from ideal prosperity. The greatest number of people, nay, not only human beings but also all sentient beings, need to work together to create a mutually beneficial world. I trust that it's the mission of all those who are attending this summit.
For more information about the World Summit, click here.