“Ebony And Ivory Live Together In Perfect Harmony Side By Side On My Piano Keyboard, Oh Lord, Why Don’t We?”

Paul McCartney (Ebony And Ivory)

From popular culture to political movement, the momentum behind the ‘bring all religions together’ movement appears to be growing. Just back at the begging of November there was a meeting at Vatican City of Catholic and Muslim leaders, then we had the UN meeting on interfaith dialogue addressed by King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia, President Bush, Israeli President Shimon Peres and British Prime Minister Gordon Brown to name but a few.

This movement is not just starting. In October 1986, in Assizi Italy, on the initiative of Pope John Paul II, leaders of 12 religions (Orthodox, Catholics, Protestants, Muslims, Jews, Buddhists, Aboriginals, Shintoists, Sikh, Zoroastristes and Indians) gathered in the same place for Meditation and prayer for world peace of the universe. One hundred and fifty representatives from twelve religions took part. Also present were the four great worldwide interreligious organizations:

The Interreligious Association for Religious Freedom, the World Congress of Faith, the Temple of Understanding, and the World Conference on Religion and Peace. Christians of almost all confessions were represented: the World Council of Churches (WCC), Nestorians, Copts, Armenians, Roman Catholics, Old Catholics, Anglicans and Lutherans. Also present were delegates from the Orthodox Churches of Finland and Czechoslovakia, the Patriarchate of Bulgaria, the Patriarchate of Romania, the Patriarchate of Georgia, the Patriarchate of Moscow, and the Patriarchate of Antioch.

Special place of honor was given to Archbishop Runcie, Presiding Bishop of the Anglican Church, and Archbishop Methodios of Thyateira, the Representative of the Ecumenical Patriarchate in Constantinople. In many ways the idea of bringing all religions together to live in peace and harmony is an appealing one.

Who could say a word against peace and understanding, but is that what we are really witnessing or is there a darker movement behind what we are being feed by the press? Now we have a website launched few days ago that is urging people worldwide to help build a peaceful and harmonious global community. The ‘Charter for Compassion project’ at www.charterforcompassion.org springs from a “wish” granted this year to religious scholar Karen Armstrong at a premier Technology, Entertainment and Design (TED) conference in California. People who are involved with TED include Google founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin along with other Internet icons as well as celebrities such as Forest Whittaker and Cameron Diaz.

They are known as “Tedizens”. TED grant ‘wishes’ that are intended to bring about a ‘better the world’. Tedizens promise that they will lend their clout and capabilities to making these ‘wishes’ come true. And again it sounds churlish to even think of seeking against powerful people putting their energies and skills into doing good works. But are they knowingly or unwittingly playing a small part in a dark plot? Karen Armstrong’s wish is to combine what she sees as a universal principle of respect and compassion that she believes every major religion shares into a charter. She calls this universal principle ‘The Golden Rule’. It is that

“people to do unto others as they would have done unto them.”

Karen Armstrong

She says that

“The chief task of our time is to build a global society where people of all persuasions can live together in peace and harmony, If we do not achieve this, it seems unlikely that we will have a viable world to hand on to the next generation.”

Karen Armstrong

Charter for Compassion invites people from “all faiths, nationalities, languages and backgrounds” to help draft statements of principles and actions that should be taken. On the surface who could speak against it? But… While all road may lead to God and followers of every religion may be making their way by different paths to God, even the same God, the question is will they meet him as loving Father or as judge.

6. Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me.

John 14:6

What we are seeing is a falling away of the church, we started a few years ago with the ecumenical movement and have moved on to the interfaith movement and soon we will be on to the one faith movement under the powerful biased language like ‘inclusive’ and ‘nonjudgmental’. The foundation is being well and truly laid for the one world religion, one world government and the one world currency.