Statement by the Parliament of World Religions

I've been so overwhelmed and exhausted the past month that I've not had much time or energy to write, but there are articles of great merit by others I feel I would like to post, so I will begin with this sent to me by the Parliament of World Religions.  We are living in a time when there is great fear and division, but also the breaking of the crust of American complacency and denial, along with the heavy hand of neo-fascism, seems to be bringing things to visibility.  Maybe that's good, I've thought often on this.  As the poet Leonard Cohen said,  "There's a crack in everything, that's how the light gets in."

And as the prophet Leonard Cohen has always been, he released his last, and many say best, album "You Want It Darker", and died on the day Trump became president of the United States.

Parliament Executive Director Dr. Larry Greenfield's Statement on the Exclusionary Actions of the U.S. Government.

From: Dr. Larry Greenfield Executive Director The Parliament of the World's Religions  To Our Friends in the Interfaith Movement Around the World: We who are your colleagues in the interfaith movement living in the United States pray that you will not forsake us because of what some of our political leaders are doing in our nation’s name. We need you to understand that these political leaders do not speak for us, that they are not acting on our behalf, that, yes, they represent a part of our nation’s past, but not the best of our past. In fact, they represent the worst part of our national history. They do not stand in the lineage of one of our greatest presidents, Abraham Lincoln, who in a time of great national division, asked that we draw on “the better angels of our nature.” Another of our presidents, Franklin D. Roosevelt, told the nation in a time of testing that “we have nothing to fear, but fear itself.” But even that president created internment camps and imprisoned our sisters and brothers of Japanese decent for many years. That was a blemish on our nation’s reputation. Now we are being blemished again, this time by our current president. He is using fear to rally our fellow citizens to demonize people from particular countries and a particular religion and to keep them from entering our country – a country, as you no doubt know, is a nation mostly of immigrants. It is true that all of us across the world are mindful of dangers of terrorism and the need for security. But we together cannot meet that challenge by maligning and excluding one another. So we want you to know that we oppose this tactic and this policy. We want you to know that we honor people, like you, who come from other nations and other faith traditions. We want you to know that we want to be in solidarity with you, when you are here with us in this country or with us, in spirit, when you are not here. We want you to know that we need you to be patient with us while we fight the evils of fear, of xenophobia, of suspicion, of hate. Don’t give up on us. As one of our great leaders assured us: We shall overcome. In friendship, Larry Greenfield Executive Director Parliament of the World's Religions