Frieden lebt von gegenseitigem Respekt Ratsvorsitzender spricht vor 65 religiösen Führern aus aller Welt Es gilt das gesprochene Wort

Hannover (ots) - Bei dem Treffen von 65 Religionsführern in Moskau
hat der Vorsitzende des Rates der EKD, Bischof Wolfgang Huber, die
Konfessionen und Religionsgemeinschaften zu gegenseitigem Respekt
aufgerufen. Der "world summit of religious leaders" im Vorfeld des G
8-Gipfels könne zur Botschaft des Friedens werden, wenn auch die
Religionen untereinander sich in Frieden und mit allem gebotenen
Respekt begegnen. Als Christ begrüße er, dass die in Moskau
vertretenen Weltreligionen wie Christentum, Islam, Judentum und
Buddhismus gemeinsam zum Frieden aufrufen, denn Christus segne alle
Friedensstifter.

Nachfolgend die Stellungnahme des Ratsvorsitzenden, Bischof
Wolfgang Huber, im englischen Original-Wortlaut:

Bishop Dr. Wolfgang Huber
Chairman of the Council of the Evangelical Church in Germany
Bishop of Berlin
Statement for the Summit of Religious Leaders
Moscow, July 3 - 5, 2006

First of all I join all those who have already expressed our
common and sincere gratitude to His Holiness, Patriarch Alexej II.,
and to the Interreligious Council of Russia for the invitation to
this summit and for the initiative of organizing it. Let me highlight
very briefly my most urgent concerns at this very specific historical
moment.
We live in a globalized world. Decisions in one part of the world
have immediate implications for other parts. The fact that economy
today is globalized urges the nations to find ways to deal with the
new challenges as well as with the new dangers included in the
process of globalization.
Globalization is not only an economic phenomenon. It has many facets.
Globalization allows to organize in a couple of days a worldwide
action of charity for the victims of a natural disaster like the
Tsunami of 2004. But it also allows to organize hate internationally
and to spread out it very quickly. International trade is an
instrument to promote wealth and to create jobs. But economic power
can also be used in an egoistic manner which spreads poverty and
injustice. Whoever wants to discern the signs of our time has to be
aware of both sides: the opportunities and the dangers of our planets
development at the beginning of the 21. century.
The great religions take part in those processes. We have in common
the experience that even religion can be used for good or for bad
purposes. Religion can be used in order to proclaim the glory of God
and to promote the dignity of every human being. But the name of God
can also be misused and human beings can be mistreated in the name of
a religion. Religion can foster peace and justice. But it can also be
misunderstood as instrument of hate and conflict. In a globalized
world also the interaction of religions is increasing. And the
awareness for the role of religion is growing. Therefore it is the
historical duty of world religions to explain the common
understanding of their task and to explore the ways in which they can
deal constructively with their respective differences.
We can summarize our common concern with the key word 'peace'. As a
representative of a Christian church I feel a special responsibility
in this respect. Because we as Christians confess Christ, who blessed
the peacemakers, as our Lord. But it is my hope that this summit will
express a common commitment of us as religious leaders for peace.
The overall task to preserve or to establish peace includes many
different aspects, of which I would like to emphasize only a few
here, which seem to me especially important for our meeting.
In Christian churches I observe a growing convergence in the
conviction, that the peace needed for our time is a just peace. It
has to provide an equal access to resources and opportunities. It has
to be a peace guided by the rule of law. It can rely on the means of
military violence only as a last resort. The intervention in favour
of groups who are not able to defend their basic rights themselves -
a task which attracts in our days growing awareness - has primarily
to use other means than the means of violence. But violence is one of
the big issues of difference in our time. The lines of conflict in
the moral judgement on the use of violence run even through the
different religious communities of today. The actual situation in
Israel/Palestine shows the necessity of a common call of religions
for peace and reconciliation.
Peace needs respect for personal freedom as well as respect for
personal responsibility. Therefore the protection of human rights and
among them the necessary respect for religious freedom stay at the
center of actual disputes. Religious freedom includes the respect for
religious convictions, feelings and practices. But this respect
cannot be promoted in an atmosphere of hate and violence. What is
needed is a process in which Christians, Jews, Muslims, Buddhists and
other religions get to know each other better, instead of judging
each other too quickly. That is for me the lesson which has to be
learned from the international disputes on the case of caricatures in
a Danish newspaper earlier this year.
If we want to live together in one world, we need an attitude of
mutual respect. Wherever this respect is denied, peace in the world
and the living together are put at risk. The concept of mutual
respect should lead to a new way of cooperation between religious
communities, media, education, sciences, civil society and political
authorities.
Mutual respect includes tolerance. But tolerance may not lead to or
support a general relativism. Everybody needs clarity in his or her
own convictions, in order to respect others with their convictions.
But the basis for this is, that we keep the preconditions for such
tolerance, namely respect for a person's dignity and freedom and
resistance to the use of or the threat with violence. This means,
that there is no tolerance for intolerance.
The way in which religions behave towards each other and how they
shape their dialogues, will be of great importance for the question
whether our world is able to address its problems peacefully or
whether it will end in chaos.
Freedom of conscience and freedom of religion stay closely together.
If people cannot practise their religion freely, they are hurt in
their most inner freedom. Faith - and this we learnt in the history
of Christianity against many opposite attitudes - requires such free
selfdetermination. But the respect for human dignity calls also for
the guarantee of religious freedom by the state. It is a
misunderstanding though, if religious freedom is understood only as
freedom from religion. It is first of all freedom for religion.
Religious freedom has also a corporative aspect. Religious practice
is realised in community with others. Therefore also the practice of
religion has to be free from impediments by the state under the
condition that the respective religion accepts the rule of law
itself. In our western experience the necessary precondition for that
is that the state does not identify itself with one single religion,
but allows his citizens to follow their own religious convictions.
There was a time in Europe in which people who disagreed with the
religious convictions of the majority had to leave their country. It
is a widespread conviction that this is not compatible with basic
human rights. There are therefore good religious reasons to expect
from the state religious neutrality. Therefore Christian churches
which went through this experience do not only accept but promote the
secular character of the political order. That does not mean that
they proclaim the secularisation of personal life or the social
order. In the contrary: as religious communities we should emphasize
the worth of religious values for the common good. But we should
avoid the use of political pressure in order to promote a certain
religion and to hinder the adherents of other religions to listen to
the voice of their conscience. In this way we could give a good
example for the peaceful coexistence of people with different
convictions. And that is what our world needs most.

Für die Richtigkeit
Hannover/Moskau, 4. Juli 2006
Pressestelle der EKD
Christof Vetter

Originaltext: EKD Evangelische Kirche in Deutschland
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