Sightings
DECEMBER 13, 2001
Contestare Ex Bone Fide, Contesting in Good Faith
-- Randall Paul
On occasion, Sightings receives word of an organization, publication, or other entity the existence of which, we feel, deserves attention and comment. The following piece was written by the founder of the Foundation for Interreligious Diplomacy, a private, charitable foundation established in 2000. As always, we -- and he -- welcome your responses.
Today, as throughout history, religious conflicts produce social strife. Many attempts to reduce or eliminate strife begin with the idea that religious exclusivism is the problem and ecumenism the answer. The Foundation for Interreligious Diplomacy is a group that seeks to mediate religious conflicts while maintaining that belief in the superiority or exclusivity of one's religion is not an act of arrogance, but a sincere, acceptable expression of belief.
The foundation was established to provide ways to increase trust and good will between sincere believers, whose advocacy of their religion calls into question, implicitly or explicitly, the judgement of those of other faiths. It creates safe places for interreligious diplomats to forthrightly contest their differences, agreeing in advance to take no offence at their mutually exclusive claims of religious superiority. The foundation's motto, "Contestare ex bone fide," signifies a contest between religious witnesses who, in good faith, feel responsible to influence others to adopt their religion. The motto implies that opposing religious advocates should respect one another by fully speaking the truth -- including why they believe in the superiority of their religion.
Viktor Frankl taught that personal peace is not a tension-free state; it derives from continual striving for a goal worthy of the human spirit. However, decent people in families, communities or societies often disagree about the worthiness of their goals. From these disagreements, conflict results. Although compromise resolves many social conflicts, interreligious conflicts do not always allow compromise, nor are they always made better through improved understanding. The foundation aims neither to end such conflicts nor evade confronting serious differences. Instead, it fosters respect for the intelligence, integrity and good will of sincere religious or ideological opponents by building trustworthy diplomatic relations that sustain peaceful tension and useful cooperation.
Healthy relationships are based on a trust that abides unresolved conflicts. The key to peaceful interreligious relationships is found by facing intractable conflicts with honesty, patience and respect, not by ignoring, suppressing or eliminating opponents. While contentious disputations degrade dignity and foster hatred, forthright contestation can peacefully build dignity and trust. Those who have ethically engaged in serious conflicts know that an unexpected feeling of respectful trust can develop between adversaries who try with dignity and patience to persuade each other to change. If this could happen between religious opponents, it could improve our chances for a peaceful tension between contested religious superiorities. Participants could begin to sense the possibility -- and ethical necessity, if not divine mandate -- of bringing honestly conflicting witnesses to engage in continual contests of religious persuasion without expecting compromise or overarching harmony to resolve matters.
The foundation neither promotes nor opposes particular religions or ideologies, nor worldwide religious unions, multi-religious councils, parliaments, or ecumenical movements. Foundation members believe that human dignity is built on the power of respectful persuasion of conscience not on forces of coercion or violence. They acknowledge that tolerance of others' incorrect beliefs is a baseline requirement for civility, but they affirm that voluntary engagement in honest religious proselytizing is a higher form of social responsibility than tolerance. Foundation members often adamantly disagree about important religious and ideological beliefs and practices. They understand that mutual understanding sharpens as many differences as it dissolves. However, as religiously bilingual ambassadors, they accord trust and dignity to one another as they contest their differences by careful listening and forthright persuading.
Recently, in response to the perennial recourse to violence in the name of religion or ideology, the foundation has proposed that diverse religious and ideological leaders from around the world join in signing a minimal Declaration of Commitment to Promote and Defend Religious Conviction by Respectful Persuasion Not by Violence. (A copy of this one page declaration and its rationale is available on request by email to the foundation director at eriseros@altavista.com or by phone at 801 763 1440.)
To help reduce ill will and harmful conflict in an era that will produce plenty of both, the foundation hopes to develop new interreligious space between political and sacred precincts where conversion contests between diverse religious and ideological beliefs, values, practices and authorities can appropriately occur. If humanity has agreed to conventions for violent war, surely it can agree to conventions for interreligious contests. Analogous models exist already in political diplomacy, legal trials, sporting contests, and marriage therapy.
Can contests of persuasion actually replace coercive conflicts as the preferred means for fervent believers (theists, atheists, agnostics) to engage their serious conflicts over the best way to live together? Can religious witnesses and counter witnesses actually meet for patient mutual exchanges of criticism and appreciation, avoiding angry contention? Can the practice of forthrightly persuading others to change their ultimate beliefs be rehabilitated as an authentic, normal expression of human care? The answer, I hope, is yes. The cathedral stands firm under the peaceful tension of colliding arches aiming up to God.
-- Dr. Randall Paul organized the Foundation for Interreligious Diplomacy in 2000. His books, Contesting Our Deepest Differences: A Theory for Improving Interreligious Conflicts, and Converting the Saints: A Study of American Religious Conflict, are due out in 2002.
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