1. OneWorldInsight.com New Religious Movements

2. OneWorldInsight.com Religion in the 21rst Century Religious pluralism Hardening of the boundaries Interfaith movements Responses to other faiths Social issues and the future

3. OneWorldInsight.com Considerations… “Our religious traditions are not boxes of goods passed intact from generation to generation, but rather rivers of faith that are alive, dynamic, ever-changing, diverging, converging, drying up here, and watering new lands there.”

4. OneWorldInsight.com Religious Pluralism Thousands of forms of Christianity Russian Orthodox in America Muslims in Indonesia Buddhists in Canada Christians in Pakistan

5. OneWorldInsight.com Considerations… Some parts of Canada have been giving state funding to the Roman Catholic schools for a hundred years. Yet today such funds have been denied to Jewish, Muslim and Protestant schools.

6. OneWorldInsight.com Considerations… In 1997, the British government recognized Islamic schools on a par with the long-established Christian and Jewish academic institutions.

7. OneWorldInsight.com Fundamentalism The goal of the fundamentalists is to fight back. The rush for materialism and secular values has created reactionaries who do not want their values and life patterns to be despoiled by contemporary secular culture.

8. OneWorldInsight.com Extremists Hindus encouraged to destroy Muslim mosques Christians trying to control education and politics in America Catholic churches in Northern Ireland burned by Protestants Increase in hate crimes

9. OneWorldInsight.com Considerations… Muslim scholar Frithjof Schuon says there is a common mystical base underlying all religions. All religions have the same divine source.

10. OneWorldInsight.com Response to other faiths Exclusive – “My way is the only way” Inclusive – “There are many ways to worship the Ground of Beingness” Pluralistic – “I will hold my faith and learn about others too.”

11. OneWorldInsight.com Swami Kriyananda “…don’t worship the ladder.”

12. OneWorldInsight.com Swami Vivekananda “..if anybody dreams of the exclusive survival of his own religion and the destruction of others, I pity him from the bottom of my heart.” Closing speaker at the 1893 Parliament of the World’s Religions

13. OneWorldInsight.com Mikhail Gorbachev The final speaker for the 1990 assembly of spiritual leaders in Moscow was Mikhail Gorbachev who called for the merging of scientific and spiritual values in the effort to save the planet.

14. OneWorldInsight.com Harvard professor Gordon Kaufman wrote, “The problem with which modernity confronts us…demand that we bring together all the wisdom, devotion, and insight that humanity has accumulated in its long history…”

15. OneWorldInsight.com Social Issues Buddhists are trying to get a ban on landmines Hindus and Muslims are trying to stop the immoral mass media Poverty, racism, and injustice are challenging all religions of the world

16. OneWorldInsight.com Considerations… At the beginning of the 21rst century, the world faces corruption, power- mongering, greed and corruption on vast scales. Altruism, service, and justice for the public good are not the primary motivating forces in most government actions.

17. OneWorldInsight.com “Some day, after mastering the winds, the waves, the tides, and gravity, we shall harness for God the energies of love. And then, for the second time in the history of the world man will have discovered fire.”