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[ENS] Religion should unify, not divide, says Albright


From "Matthew Davies" <mdavies@mail.epicom.org>
Date Fri, 4 Mar 2005 13:56:36 -0500

Friday, February 25, 2005

Religion should unify, not divide, says Albright

by Mary Frances Schjonberg

ENS 022505-3

[ENS] The people of the world can longer afford to allow religion and
religious leaders to divide them, former Secretary of State and U.N.
Representative Madeleine Korbel Albright told the annual gathering of
the
Consortium of Endowed Episcopal Parishes February 25.

"Religion is not the problem," she told a packed conference room at the
Waldorf-Astoria hotel in New York City, but religion has always tended
to
fuel partisan strife. What is different now is the extent of the damage
that can result. It is one thing to go after each other with clubs, she
said, but another thing to be able to go after your perceived enemies
with
today's high-tech weapons.

The underlying problem is how to harness religion's unifying potential
and
block its tendency to divide people and nations against themselves and
others. She compared the challenge to that of doing brain surgery: "It
is a
necessary task but it can be fatal if not done well."

The attacks of September 11 forced the world to look at the role that
religion plays in politics, foreign policy and everyday life, Albright
said. It is a "trend that was lying in plain sight" that we can no
longer
ignore.

Albright called for all religions and nations to live and set their
domestic
and foreign policies from the basic principles of valuing individual
life
and seeking justice for all which she argued are at the heart of all
religious belief. She politely termed as "balderdash" the ay some
religious
leaders, fundamentalist Islamic ones in particular, each that "the
individual is a disposable pawn" who is in the hands of "an insecure and
vengeful God" who wants killing to be done in his name.

Instead, Albright argued for a foreign policy that values the
individual. A
nation with such a priority will not allow torture even out of fear for
its
safety or the knowledge that it is easy to get away. Such a policy would
do
much more to help other human beings.
Albright noted that the United States is last among developed nations in
foreign aid giving. She argued that more avoidable deaths happen in the
world from causes other than terrorism but that strengthening the divide
between "people of plenty and people with plenty of loss of hope" is a
way
to breed terrorism.

Nations ought to fight terrorism from a stance both does not ignore the
influence of religion and does not set it up as a battle between good
and
evil, Albright said. We must realize that all of our efforts to be good
are
partial and incomplete, and that it is tempting to misuse the power
given to
us. If we must make it an either-or choice, Albright suggested "evil and
pretty good, evil and not bad, evil and doing the best we can."
Perhaps,
she suggested, we might consider the divide as evil and, in Abraham
Lincoln's words, "right as God gives us to see the right."

Leaders must stand for something but not believe that they have the sole
claim on all truth, she said. Later, during a question and answer
session,
Albright drew loud applause when she argued that it is hard for the U.S.
to
claim to be a unifying force across the religious divide these days
"when
the president believes that God talks to him and not to the rest of us .
. .
we believe that God is on our side when in fact we ought to be on God's
side."

She also agreed with a questioner who asked her if "fervent moderation"
ought to be the religious person's stance in the world. People of faith
cannot base their belief on what they don't like in someone else, she
said,
lest "your pride in yourself curdles into hate of someone else."

Albright, noting her party affiliation, said she was sad that words like
"democracy" and "freedom" that the Clinton administration had used with
hope
are now interpreted as imperialistic. "I really do believe that the
United
States is an exceptional country but we can't expect the world to make
exceptions for us," she said. Americans have the right to live as we
believe
but we cannot expect everyone else to live like us. "You cannot impose
democracy and you cannot impose religious faith," she said.

Albright was asked about the suggestion from the Anglican Communion
primates
that the Episcopal Church voluntarily absent itself for a time from the
Anglican Consultative Council. She said she didn't want to wade into
international Anglican politics but Albright noted that her diplomatic
stance has always been one of engagement. "You cannot get your point
across
if you are not there," she said.

The Consortium of Endowed Episcopal Parishes is a group of more than 100
parishes, each with an endowment of more than $1 million. The
Consortium's
goal is to foster the development and use of endowments for mission and
ministry.

Albright became the first female U.S. Secretary of State in 1997,
serving in
President Bill Clinton's administration. She was also the U.S.
representative to the United Nations and a member of Clinton's National
Security Council. She has served on the National Cathedral Chapter in
Washington, DC, and the Board of Directors of the College of Preachers.
She
now teaches at Georgetown University, where she taught before her
appointment as Secretary of State, and heads The Albright Group in
Washington, DC. Her autobiography, "Madame Secretary," has become a
bestseller. She is currently writing a book about the intersection of
religion and politics. Its working title is "The Mighty and the
Almighty:
God in American Politics."

--Mary Frances Schjonberg is the assistant rector of Christ Church in
Short
Hills, New Jersey.

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