Interfaith Movement
The United Religions joins a rapidly growing community of interfaith organizations. Leaders and practioners are putting their faith into action for global good.
Interfaith is a way to organize, a way to connect, commit and create community among people from different faith traditions. Its practioners are diverse and approaches to actualizing interfaith range from gathering World Leaders to mobilizing grassroots communities.
The modern story of Interfaith begins in Chicago at the Parliament of the World's Religions in 1893. Remarks from Hindu Swami Vivekananda adressing the necessary transcendence of bigotry and sectarianism between religions inspired much of what we now recognize as the interfaith movement.
Rev. Marcus Braybrooke, a scholar of interfaith, describes it as follows:
Religion too often has been used to justify killing people in ?holy? wars, crusades and persecution. The interfaith movement recognizes that God is present in every religion. It believes that people of faith and good will must cooperate to break down religious prejudice and work together for a better world.
Local, National and International Interfaith groups are working:
To provide accurate information about religions in colleges and schools, dispelling ignorance and prejudice
To enable people of different religions to meet and become friends
To develop social welfare and harmony in communities
To protect human rights and the environment
To seek an economic and world order based on moral values shared by religions
To end all violence in the name of religion and to work for peace, justice and reconciliation.
Vision
We seek a world:
where no one lives in fear of violence;
where no one goes to bed thirsty or hungry or without shelter;
where no one is imprisoned or tortured for their beliefs;
where the animal world and the earth are revered.
This will be a world based on the ethical teaching of the great religions, which will inspire people everywhere to co-operate and live in harmony.
Excerpted from, "What is Interfaith?" by Rev. Marcus Braybrooke
http://www.uri.org/Interfaith_Movement.html
