Thought For The Day - 14 December 2007

The festive season is well and truly on us. Jews have celebrated Hanukkah, and Hindus Diwali, their festival of light. And soon Muslims will be observing Eid ul adha, and Christians Christmas – all of which remind us that we are living in an environment our ancestors hardly knew.

Most people at most times lived among people whose faith and way of life was like their own. Today we live in the midst of a diversity that a century ago would have taken the most intrepid traveller a lifetime to encounter. And that places a great burden upon us: to respect differences and make friendships across the boundaries that separate faith from faith.

Two days ago, I took part in the Christian Muslim forum chaired by the Archbishop of Canterbury, and two weeks ago I was in Amritsa, the Sikh holy city, marvelling at the beauty of the Golden Temple and the warmth and hospitality of the Sikh way of life. There I was able to spend time with the Dalai Lama and learn some of the wisdom of Tibetan Buddhism.

And this work of friendship between faiths is vitally necessary if we’re to survive this tense and troubled age.

I don’t believe that the secularisation of Europe which began in the seventeenth century happened because people lost faith in God. It happened because, after the great wars of religion they lost faith in the ability of people of faith to live peaceably with one another.

That is the saddest fact in the history of the human spirit. People have killed one another in the name of the God of life, hated in the name of the God of love, waged war in the name of the God of peace, and practised cruelty in the name of the God of compassion. And for that I don’t blame God, but us, for forgetting that each one of us is in God’s image, whatever our faith or lack of it.

Religion has done so much good, lifting ordinary people to extraordinary acts of kindness and devotion, endowing life with meaning and dignity. And I believe that God is calling us to a supreme challenge: to recognise the trace of God in the face of a stranger, and to be a blessing to others regardless of their faith. For me, the miracle at the heart of monotheism is that unity in heaven creates diversity on earth. May we honour our fellow human beings -- because that’s what it is to honour God.

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