Fragments From Floyd

Below, an excerpt from an address given by Lord Carey, former Archbishop of Canterbury, at the Gregorian University, March 25, 2004 (via SojoMail). This long piece does a good job of holding up the Christian-Muslim conflict to the light of the good in both faiths, while acknowledging failures and ignorance on both sides. This man has extensive experience with Muslims and Islamic heads of state, and so has a credible position from which to compare the tenets of his faith to the minority segment of Islam that seems determined to exteminate all competing ideologies.

I encourage you to take the time over the weekend to read all of it. -- FF

"Compassion and understanding are the only tools to handle hatred and violence. It will do us little good if the West simply believes the answer is to put an end to Osama bin Laden. Rather we must put an end to conditions, distortions and misinformation that create Osama bin Laden and his many emulators. It is the battle of ideas we must win, not to show the many bruised and aggrieved Muslims that we are stronger and more powerful than they are.

In this task Christian theologians, teachers, priests, pastors and people have a significant role to play. Christianity has much in common with Islam and working from common moral demands, our joint commitment to family life and religious values, our agreement concerning the importance of worshipping God and teaching all people to build their lives on eternal and abiding values should give us confidence to create relationships between us that endure. If we do not, the future will remain hazardous and threatening."