LWF Christian-Muslim Consultation Deliberates Ways towards New Ethics
KOTA KINABALU, Malaysia/GENEVA, 28 September 2011 (LWI) – Religion condemns greed and philosophy sees it as a vice, but still it rules the world, Prof. Chandra Muzaffar, head of Global Studies at the University of Malaysia, told Christian and Muslim participants at a Lutheran World Federation (LWF) consultation taking place in Kota Kinabalu, Malaysia.
“Speculative economics has become the driving force. Today greed rules the world so much so that even money has degenerated into a commodity to be traded rather than a medium for trade,” said Muzaffar, founder director of the International Movement for a Just World, in referring to the latest international economic crisis.
More than 40 delegates, including a dozen Muslims, church officials, economists and secular social activists are attending the 25-30 September meeting on “Interfaith Dialogue Engaging Structural Greed Today,” organized by the LWF Department for Theology and Studies (DTS).
Muzaffar said that both Islam and Christianity acknowledge the human being as “custodian of God’s creation” and greed as “betrayal of God’s trust in humankind.”
However, Muzaffar lamented the fact that there is strong resistance in both faiths to challenging greed as it manifests itself in the forces of globalization. Even Islamic nations have not been able to resist the power of the market despite injunctions against profiteering in the Koran, he added.
Dr Ulrich Duchrow, Evangelical Lutheran Church in Baden, Germany, noted that the market creates wealth for some by impoverishing others.
“Instead of farmers borrowing seeds from others [as in the past], now they are forced to buy seeds, lose their lands and are indebted in slavery due to market driven prices [for their produces],” Duchrow said.
While suggesting that even the banking system has become an instrument of institutionalized greed, he lamented the fact that many churches are indirectly blessing the neoliberal market economy by pretending that it is still being regulated.
“Many of the European churches are not ready to accept the clear decision of the ecumenical assemblies rejecting the capitalist imperial market system,” Duchrow added, referring to church bodies that have taken a clear stand on economic injustice and related issues.
Transforming Structural Greed
In welcoming delegates to the consultation, Y.B. Yee Moh Chai, deputy chief minister of Sabah state in Malaysia, said such gatherings help highlight the role of religions in global affairs.
“Faith communities too must understand that strategies for transforming structural greed need to be initiated at the micro [personal] and macro [community] level through mutual acceptance and cultivation of compassion for others,” said Yee, a Lutheran who is a member of the Basel Christian Church of Malaysia (BCCM).
In his address, Rev. Thu En Yu, principal of the hosting Sabah Theological Seminary, pointed out that intercultural dialogue offers a way to articulate a new ethic for people in a pluralistic society. “Ethics has always had an inseparable link with religion,” noted Thu, a retired bishop of the BCCM.
Rev. Dr Martin L. Sinaga, LWF study secretary for Theology and the Church, explained the consultation was a follow up to a similar dialogue with Buddhists in 2010 held at Chiang Mai in Thailand.
“It is important that we learn from each other in humility rather than criticize each other with an air of superiority,” Sinaga said. “Greed is all around us. It is global and personal. The common wealth is disappearing into our wealth.” (573 words)
See also:
- Faith Groups Must Work Together to Tackle Structural Greed
- Christian and Muslim Scholars Seek Common Front to Confront Greed
- Lead the Drive for Justice and Peace, Asian Faith Communities Urged
- Global Economic System Hazardous for the Common Good
- Develop Interfaith Networks to Combat Greed
- Education Key to Tackling Greed
- Think Globally, Start Small and Act Now
- Muslims and Christians Engaging Structural Greed Today
- Act Together at the Community Level to Combat Greed
- Message of Hope to Transform Greed
