wfn.org | Baha'i International Community statement to Johannesburg Summit

["Brad Pokorny" <brad@oc.mv.com>]

Baha'i World News Service

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Baha'i International Community issues statement to the World Summit on
Sustainable Development

The Baha'i International Community has issued a statement, entitled
"Religion and Development at the Crossroads: Convergence or Divergence?," to
the World Summit on Sustainable Development, a United Nations conference
held in Johannesburg, South Africa, 26 August to 4 September 2002. The full
text of the statement follows below:

Over the course of the 20th century, ethnic, racial and national prejudices
have increasingly given way to the recognition that humankind is a single
family and the earth its common homeland. The United Nations (UN), which was
created in response to this dawning recognition, has worked tirelessly to
bring about a world where all peoples and nations can live together in peace
and harmony.  To help bring about this world, the UN has crafted a
remarkable framework of international institutions, processes, conventions
and global action plans that have helped to prevent conflict and warfare, to
protect human rights, to nurture equality between women and men, and to
uplift the material conditions of countless individuals and communities.

Despite these significant achievements, the United Nations has yet to grasp
fully both the constructive role that religion can play in creating a
peaceful and prosperous global order, and the destructive impact that
religious fanaticism can have on the stability and progress of the world.
This lack of attention to religion can be clearly seen in the development
realm, where the United Nations has, for the most part, viewed religious
communities merely as channels for the delivery of goods and services, and
as mechanisms to carry out development policies and programs.  Moreover,
while the United Nations human rights machinery has been used to condemn
religious intolerance and persecution, UN development policies and programs
have hardly begun to address religious bigotry as a major obstacle to peace
and well-being.

Religion as the Basis of Civilization and Progress

It is becoming increasingly clear that passage to the culminating stage in
the millennia long process of the organization of the planet as one home for
the entire human family cannot be accomplished in a spiritual vacuum.
Religion, the Bahai Scriptures aver, is the source of illumination, the
cause of development and the animating impulse of all human advancement and
has been the basis of all civilization and progress in the history of
mankind.  It is the source of meaning and hope for the vast majority of the
planets inhabitants, and it has a limitless power to inspire sacrifice,
change and long-term commitment in its followers.  It is, therefore,
inconceivable that a peaceful and prosperous global society  a society
which nourishes a spectacular diversity of cultures and nations  can be
established and sustained without directly and substantively involving the
worlds great religions in its design and support.

At the same time, it cannot be denied that the power of religion has also
been perverted to turn neighbor against neighbor.  The Bahai Scriptures
state that religion must be the source of fellowship, the cause of unity
and the nearness of God to man.  If it rouses hatred and strife, it is
evident that absence of religion is preferable and an irreligious man is
better than one who professes it.  So long as religious animosities are
allowed to destabilize the world, it will be impossible to foster a global
pattern of sustainable development: the central goal of this Summit.

Religion and the United Nations: Working Together for Peace and Justice

Given the record of religious fanaticism, it is understandable that the
United Nations has been hesitant to invite religion into its negotiations.
However, the UN can no longer afford to ignore the immeasurable good that
religions have done and continue to do in the world, or the salubrious,
far-reaching contributions that they can make to the establishment of a
peaceful, prosperous and sustainable global order.  Indeed, the United
Nations will only succeed in establishing such a global order to the extent
that it taps into the power and vision of religion.  To do so will require
accepting religion not merely as a vehicle for the delivery and execution of
development initiatives, but as an active partner in the conceptualization,
design, implementation and evaluation of global policies and programs.  The
historically justified wall separating the United Nations and religions must
fall to the imperatives of a world struggling toward unity and justice.
The real onus, however, is on the religions themselves.  Religious followers
and, more important, religious leaders must show that they are worthy
partners in the great mission of building a sustainable world civilization.
To do so will require that religious leaders work conscientiously and
untiringly to exorcise religious bigotry and superstition from within their
faith traditions.  It will necessitate that they embrace freedom of
conscience for all people, including their own followers, and renounce
claims to religious exclusivity and finality.

It should not be imagined that the acceptance of religion as a partner
within the United Nations will be anything but gradual or that religious
hostilities will be eliminated any time soon.  But the desperate needs of
the human family make further delay in addressing the role of religion
unacceptable.

Religion and the United Nations: Possible Next Steps

For its part, the United Nations might begin the process of substantively
involving religion in deliberations on humankinds future by hosting an
initial gathering of religious leaders convoked, perhaps, by the
Secretary-General.  As a first priority, the leaders might call for a
convention on freedom of religion and belief to be drafted and ratified, as
expeditiously as possible, by the governments of the world, with the
assistance of religious communities.  Such an action by the worlds
religious leaders, which would signal their willingness to accept freedom of
conscience for all peoples, would significantly reduce tensions in the
world.  The gathering might also discuss the foundation within the United
Nations System of a permanent religious forum, patterned initially perhaps
on the UNs recently founded Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues.  The
creation of this body would be an important initial step toward fully
integrating religion into the UNs work of establishing a peaceful world
order.

For their part, religious leaders will need to show that they are worthy of
participation in such a forum.  Only those religious leaders who make it
clear to their followers that prejudice, bigotry and violence have no place
in the life of a religious person should be invited to participate in the
work of this body.

The Promised Reign of Peace and Justice

It is evident that the longer the United Nations delays the meaningful
involvement of religion in its work, the longer humanity will suffer the
ravages of injustice and disunity.  It is equally clear that until the
religions of the world renounce fanaticism and work whole-heartedly to
eliminate it from within their own ranks, peace and prosperity will prove
chimerical.  Indeed, the responsibility for the plight of humanity rests, in
large part, with the worlds religious leaders.  It is they who must raise
their voices to end the hatred, exclusivity, oppression of conscience,
violations of human rights, denial of equality, opposition to science, and
glorification of materialism, violence and terrorism, which are perpetrated
in the name of religious truth.  Moreover, it is the followers of all
religions who must transform their own lives and take up the mantle of
sacrifice for and service to the well-being of others, and thus contribute
to the realization of the long-promised reign of peace and justice on earth.

- end -

For a complete version of this statement, which includes extensive
footnotes, go to:

http://www.bic-un.bahai.org/02-0826.htm

For more information, contact the Bahai World News Service at:

http://www.bahaiworldnews.org