Ecumenicalism

The 3rd Congress of World and Traditional Religions met in Astana, Kazakhstan, July 1-2, 2009. This congress meets every 3 years in Kazakhstan at the Palace of Peace and Accord, built specifically for this purpose. The congress was started to bring together the religions of the world to discuss inter-faith issues and working together for peace. Those in attendance were: Nursultan Nazarbaev, President of Kazakhstan; Abdallah Ben Abdel Mohsen At-Turki, General Secretary of the Global Islamic League; Filaret, The Metropolitan of Minsk and Slutsk, the Patriarchal Exarch of All Belarus; Iona Metzger, chief Rabbi of Israel; Phra Dharmakosajarn, Missionary Monk; Kuni Kuniaki, Chairman of the Council of Heads Association of Shinto Temples in Japan; Sheikh Mohammad Said-Tantaui, head of Al-Azhara; Dr. Ishmael Noko, head of World Lutheran Federation; Cardinal Roge Etchegarai. Head of Holy See Delegation; Sergey Ordjonikidze, General Director of the UN European Division; and about 30 others.

"Our appeal, clear-cut and strong in its arguments and realism, is welcomed by the nations that have gone through unsuccessful attempts to ensure peace, safety and stability, which ignored the diversity of cultures and civilizations traditional for previous generations in the human development". His Excellency Abdallah Bin Abdul Muhsin At-Turki, Secretary General of the World Muslim League

"Today's world is far from tranquil, as regional conflicts triggered by ethnical, religious and territorial factors keep cropping up, religion advocates peace and justice. Religion has been made use of from time to time, just like the strings of a harp being plucked, to trigger and ferment conflicts, separation, hatred and upheaval. This has aroused the common concern of the religious leaders across the globe". Jamyang Luosangjiumei Tudanquejinima, Deputy Chairman of the Buddhist Association of China


"The love and patience, desire to live in the world, reigning around this negotiating table, will be embodied during a life". Iona Metzger, Leader of the Judaic Delegation, Chief Rabbi of Israel

"I thank Almighty God for bringing us together in this country to reflect and pray for peace as men and women of peace... ". His Eminence Cardinal Josef Tomco, Head of the Delegation of the Holy See

In a recent issue of Salon magazine, that you can find online, under the article “birth doctor, mother, abortionist” by Camille Peri, a medical doctor was interviewed. She would not give her name due to fear for her personal safety and that of her family and children.

The doctor stated, “You look at the ultrasounds and there's a fetus with a heartbeat and then after the procedure, there's the fetus, usually in pieces, in a dish. It was alive one moment and it's not the next. I don't believe it's a painful experience for the fetus because its nervous system is not 'wired' so that it can feel pain at that point. I don't believe, as some anti-abortion people would have you believe, that there's a 'silent scream.' But it's very clear to me that it's killing a potential life. And I found that hard at first. It never made me think that this was not the right thing to do, however. Unless there was a perfect world, where women really had safe and 100 percent effective birth control and access to it and there was no such thing as rape and if there was, if the children were born into a society where they were supported and women were supported in raising children, then maybe it would be a different story. But none of those things exist. And having been through three pregnancies and knowing what kind of physical toll that takes on people, I still believe very strongly that women should not be made to carry a child for nine and a half months when they don't want to.” Then or now- Did you hear anything from these world religious leaders concerning this abomination?

At the beginning of the Third Reich, in 1933 until its end in 1945, under Adolph Hitler, in his 'quest' for the 'final solution', the extermination of 6 million Jews in the gas chambers (“I believe today that I am acting in the sense of the Almighty Creator. By warding off the Jews I am fighting for the Lord's work." Hitler, Reichstag, 1936) 275,000 disabled Germans were killed because Hitler believed the Nation was better off without them and this is what THEY WOULD WANT.

“The abandonment of sick, puny and misshapen children by the Spartans was more humanitarian and, in reality, a thousand times more humane than the pitiful madness of our present time where the most sickly subjects are preserved at any price only to be followed by the breeding of a race from degenerates burdened with disease.” (Adolph Hitler)

So great was his determination to 'cleanse' the Aryan nation of the disabled, that in his book burning campaign in 1933, the first book on his list was that of the life of Helen Keller. Then or now- Did you hear anything from these world religious leaders concerning this abomination?

I have known, in my life, one survivor of the Bataan Death March, which took place in 1942. Seventy-five thousand prisoners of war were marched (American, Filipinos, etc) and it was characterized by wide-ranging physical abuse and murder, and resulted in very high fatalities inflicted upon the prisoners and civilians along the route by the armed forces of the Empire of Japan; numerous rifle butt beatings and a deliberate refusal to allow the prisoners food or water while keeping them continually marching for nearly a week in tropical heat. Falling down or inability to continue moving was tantamount to a death sentence, as was any degree of protest or expression of displeasure. Around 10,000 of the prisoners of war died during the march. Neither have we heard anything about the Rape of Nanking nor the estimated 1 million Russians who died during Stalin's rise to power. Then or now- Did you hear anything from these world religious leaders concerning this abomination?

Those of us who have seen the palaces in which these world religious leaders live, they eat from gold plates while the poor throughout the world struggle for subsistence; we can only estimate what it cost for these “world leaders” and their entourage to travel to these meetings.

In the magnificent creation of All-Mighty God, the individuality as well as the personality of every human being was important. Of the nearly 6 billion people living on earth now, the billions who died previously both before and after the flood, each possessed and possess an individual fingerprint, iridial flex in the iris of the eye, difference in vocal chords. God prized the worth of every individual, every personality. Nowhere in the written accounts of this meeting do we hear Darfur discussed. A theologian like John Calvin would call these fellow religious zealots hypocrites because Calvin believed in the republic form of government. Everywhere the reformers went with the Gospel and with their ideology of hard work, we find prosperity. Poverty is found in countries where the Catholic church, the Buddhist 'pacificistness', and Marxist totalitarianism has enslaved.

Even in America, even in the so called Christian denominations, the theology of servitude no longer exists. Pastors and preachers are much more interested in 'retirement packets' than the passion and promise of Christ. Dwight Layman Moody, who dropped out of school at age 13, who founded one of the great Biblical institutions and churches, who, before the time of technology (because he died in 1899) preached to millions all over the world, never caring for wealth or fame. “Religion during most of the history of the West saw the trials visited on mankind in this world as ordained by the Almighty to test and purify sinful mortals.... Moreover, religion enshrined hierarchy, authority, and inequality; hated blasphemy; and feared heresy.... It was the age of equality that brought about the disappearance of such religious appurtenances as the auto-da-fe and burning at the stake. (Arthur Schlesinger, Jr., speech at the inauguration of Vartan Gregorian as president of Brown University, 1989)

Ted Turner, billionaire conglomerate American success story, perhaps known more for his marriage to Jane Fonda more than anything else, said, “Religion is for losers.” I truly believe, that the two atheists, Turner and Schlesinger, have not turned as many people against the cause of Christ as the World Religious leaders meeting in Kazakhstan. During my years of living one week a month in the apartment I owned in Manhattan, I would go down to the 'tickets' place on 47th and Broadway where theater tickets could be purchased for half price. Since I could not see the sign, I would have to listen to those in line to determine which show I would like to attend. There was always a woman preacher, preaching to those in line, about their soul salvation. It occurred to me many times, that the harshness of her demeanor, grossness of her voice, would keep anyone from the love and kindness of God.

I often feel, in religion as in politics, I am behind enemy lines. Freedom is a group effort. Christianity is a personal relationship. We reap what what we have sown. (Galatians 6:7-9) Our country and our world has sown to the wind and we are collectively reaping a whirlwind. My happiest days, I realize now as a well traveled, well educated old man, were as a child, living in poverty on a farm. God knew our every need and he supplied our needs according to His riches. Our church was the centerpiece of our existence. We gave our time, talent, treasure, to God as well as knowing that our body was his temple (not a dumpster). When will the religious leaders of the world, come down from their gilded existence and come to a real knowledge of the truth?

Jesus said to him, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me. (John 14:6)