Charter for Compassion

Archbishop Desmond Tutu and Karen Armstrong ask “How can we respond creatively to the pain that we see everywhere in our world?” Their solution is to creatively bring together people of every religion to work for a compassionate response to the needs of people everywhere. This effort is called the “Charter for Compassion.”


Writing in the Guardian, Tutu and Armstrong say

One of the most urgent tasks of our generation is to build a global community, where men and women of all races, nations and ideologies can live together in peace. Religion which should be making a major contribution to this endeavour is often seen as part of the problem; all too often the voices of extremism seem to drown those that speak of kindness, forbearance and mutual respect.

The great sages who promoted the golden rule were nearly all living during periods of history like our own. They argued that a truly compassionate ethic served people’s best interests and made good practical sense. When the Bible commands that we “love” the foreigner, it was not speaking of emotional tenderness: in Leviticus, “love” was a legal term: it was used in international treaties, when two kings would promise to give each other practical support, help and loyalty, and look out for each other’s best interests. In our global world, everybody has become our neighbour, and the golden rule has become an urgent necessity.

When asked by a pagan to sum up the whole of Jewish teaching while he stood on one leg, Rabbi Hillel, the older contemporary of Jesus, replied: “That which is hateful to you, do not do to your neighbour. That is the Torah – and everything else is only commentary.” The Dalai Lama put it even more succinctly when he said: “My religion is kindness.”

The Charter for Compassion, which will be released on November 12, 2009. One of the purposes of the Charter is to change the tenor of discussion about and among religions. The Charter is a collaborative effort that drew from the input of many people from around the globe who contributed via its web-site. A “Council of Sages,” consisting of religious leaders from many world religions and traditions, took that input and framed the document. The group includes Tutu and Bishop John Chane of the Diocese of Washington.

“Bringing together the voices of people from all religions, the Charter seeks to remind the world that while all faiths are not the same, they all share the core principle of compassion and the Golden Rule. The Charter will change the tenor of the conversation around religion.”

According to the web-site, the Charter does not assume that all religions are the same, that compassion is the only thing that matters in religion, nor that religious people have a monopoly on compassion. The Charter does affirm that compassion is celebrated in all major religious, spiritual and ethical traditions; that the Golden Rule is our prime duty and cannot be limited to our own political, religious or ethnic group; and, therefore, in our divided world, compassion can build common ground

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