 Moving to the NEXT Level
April 2004
Religion is full of challenges and risks. One of the
greatest challenges is the interest of many people to
focus on their own satisfaction rather than on serving
others. This 'self-serving' interest often infects
religious institutions just as it does secular institutions.
One of the core purposes of Global PeaceWorks is to
rise above this practice to an elevated state of serving
others. In particular, Global PeaceWorks emphasis is
serving those who are not from your culture or religion.
Christians come to serve
Muslims. Sikhs come and serve Hindus. Muslims come
and serve Sikhs.
 The
idealist grabs this principle quickly, but for most people it is
extremely challenging. Most people cannot think of serving
those people who have harmed them in the past. Frankly it
is a difficult task for many Sikhs to serve Hindus, for Christians
to serve Muslims and for Muslims to serve Jews and vice-versa. But
if we remember the messages of the great teachers, we can see that
this
is the divine path for all of us.
Religion is important. In fact without religion, it is very
difficult to pursue such an ethic of loving and sacrificing for those
who have harmed us in the past. Old solutions were to divide
cities and countries, but that never solves the problem - just look
at India and Pakistan or Israel or Ireland. We need to live
together and love each other.
I encourage you to consider joining us in an upcoming
project to practice this concept first hand. You might guess
that we have many friends doing many wonderful types of peacework
around the world
and this is true. But at Global PeaceWorks, we are very proud of
our unique approach. We think dialogue, prayer meetings, candlelight
vigils and are all wonderful - but we try to go further - act
on our convictions and set an example. We may not be the biggest
group in town, but we have
faith in our vision
of peace among religions - we have faith in love.
~ Eric Wenzel
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