Karen Armstrong’s article in the The Huffington Post, “Bringing Compassion to the Middle East,” tells about her on-going efforts to bring peace to our world. In 2008, Armstrong won the TED Prize — $100,000 to pursue a project to make a better world — and she requested that TED help her create a Charter for Compassion.
The twenty minute video of her acceptance of the TED prize is well worth watching. (Embedded below.)
Armstrong is a former Roman Catholic nun who, after leaving her British convent, has written over 20 books. She says, the Golden Rule—“Do not treat others as you would not wish to be treated yourself”—is at the core of every single one of our traditions: Jewish, Christian, Muslim, Hindu, Buddhist and Confucian.
Armstrong says she has “become frustrated that the religions, which should be making a major contribution to global harmony, are often seen as part of the problem. The compassionate voice of religion has been drowned out by the strident voices of extremism. I wanted to restore compassion to the heart of the religious life,” and that she has been delighted to discover that “secularist and atheist TEDsters” also wanted to take part in this endeavor.
“Religion has become hijacked,” Armstrong says, “Religion is used to oppress others.” She says she sees a hunger throughout the world of many people who are seeking a spiritual renewal built around an understanding of belief — not as dogma involving intellectual assent, but as commitment to positive action. “The fact that all the major world faiths have formulated their own version of the Golden Rule,” she says, “shows us something important about the structure of our humanity, that this is how human beings work.”
