Excerpts: The Charter of Compassion is a cooperative effort to restore not only compassionate thinking but, more importantly, compassionate action to the centre of religious, moral and political life. Compassion is the principled determination to put ourselves in the shoes of the other, and lies at the heart of all religious and ethical systems.
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 drown out those of kindness, forbearance and mutual respect. Today, our world has become dangerously polarised and many of our policies—political, economic, financial and environmental—are no longer sustainable. We are all bound together—socially, economically and politically—as never before. The Charter for Compassion will be launched on 12 November. In addition to participating in one of the many launch events, we invite each individual to adopt the charter as their own, to make a lifelong commitment to live with compassion. We cannot afford to be paralysed by global suffering. We have the power to work together energetically for the wellbeing of humanity, and counter the despairing extremism of our time. Many of us have experienced the power of compassion in our own lives; we know how a single act of kindness and empathy can turn a life around. History also shows that the action of just a few individuals can make a difference. In a world that seems to be spinning out of control, we need such action now. *Karen Armstrong is winner of the TED Prize in 2008 and the 2009 Common Ground Award for Compassion. Archbishop Desmond Tutu is a South African activist and Nobel Peace Prize winner.* ---------- Forwarded message ---------- From: Jaya http://khaleejtimes.com/DisplayArticleNew.asp?col=§ion=opinion&xfile=data/opinion/2009/October/opinion_October113.xml A link from Khaleej Times. The world could do with a lot more compassion and empathy. Its important to believe that each one of us is equally worthy: to make another person feel valued is I think the best form of 'giving'. jaya --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "humanrights movement" group. To post to this group, send email to [email protected] To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [email protected] For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/humanrights-movement?hl=en -~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~---
