第14章 真爱上帝与邻居(1)

Loving God and Neighbor in Ward and Deed

演讲人：John Forbes Kerry 约翰·福布 斯·克里

The American novelist Michael Chabon recently asked，"Is there any body else who feels that it might be best if we just started the 21st century over again？"As someone who narrowly lost the Presidency in 2004，I try not worry about do-overs.But as a person of faith，it"s hard to avoid a sense of regret about all the ground we have lost in a few short yews in our request for interfaith tolerance and understanding.

We"ve barely broken the seal on the 21st century，but already it"s been marked not just by burning buildings and occupying armies and riots and rolling images of bloodshed and humiliation，but also by even more widespread and dangerous worry-by a question you hear whispered and spoken quietly：What if we cannot live together？What if the gulfs separate us are unbridgeable？Maybe we just need higher walls and fewer visas.Maybe coexistence is just too difficult.

While demagogues will play cynically to this pessimism，most leaders believe and talk otherwise.They believe we can，we must，and God willing-we will find a way to live tighter better than we have.That is why you are here.You"ve placed yourselves among those who looking to be on the right side of this debate-and now together we must ourselves on the right side of the history.

In a world here today a Catholic，a Protestant，a Russian Orthodox Christian，a Confucian ex-Communist，A Hindu，a Muslim，and many assume a Jewish figure sits on a nuclear button，it"s a delusion to think we can retreat to our safe spaces.Not when Christians，Hindus and Muslim number in the billions.Not when Islam is the second-largest faith in Europe and the third-largest in America.Not when people of all faiths are migrating and mingling like ever before.Gallup says there are 1.3billion Muslims worldwide.The Vatican recently announced that there are more Muslims than Catholics.The reality is that our faiths-and fates-are inextricably intertwined.The poet Auden said it best，"We must love one another or die."It"s a delusion to think we have any choice but to find a way to live together.

The question of tolerance isn"t new and it"s not one Americans come to without our own experience.We"ve struggled with this since our founding，which has its roots in the search for religious freedom.The quest for religious truth and the challenge of peaceful coexistence are written into the fabric of our country and the history of the world and even into our family DNA.

America has experienced its share of religious disputes and religious cruelty.And yet，though we"re far from perfect，no place has ever welcomed so many different faiths to worship so freely.

There are Buddhist temples in the farmlands of Minnesota，Mosques in the cornfields of the Midwest，and Hindu temples in Suburban Nashville， Tennessee.Ours is a country not only of white church steeples but of synagogues，of minarets of Muslim mosques，of golden domes and shikara of Sikh temples；Buddhist as well asCatholic".

E Pluribus Unum，"From Many，One，is our national creed."

From many faiths，one sha red countr y.T hat achievement rests on our solution to the age-old question：Who defines the truth in public space？Our experiment has succeeded because we"ve allowed for different notion of truth in public life.Many believe that to do otherwise is to invite permanent war.

My pride in America"s successes is tempered by know ing t hat we a re a long way from mutua l understanding with the Muslim world today.One enormous problem in that effort is that we lack a forum to discuss these issues.Even among political leaders it happens far too rarely.

If you don"t engage，you cannot even find answers to the most basic，fundamental questions：Why do you wear the hijab？Why do you go to Mecca？What is hijab？The absence of dialogue costs all of us.We have major politicians who couldn"t tell you the difference Shi"aand Sunni-so it is no wonder that we attack a secular dictator in responsible to radical fundamentalist terrorists.

And shockingly，the vast majority of followers of these great faiths have very little understanding of our ancestry-or even know that we all worship one god and the same god.And do so with a very similar sense of awe and wonder and total commitment.

As a Catholic American politician，I know enough about Islam that I don"t know enough about Islam-and when it comes to Islam，American politicians ought to do a lot more listening and maybe a little less talking.

I believe we have a duty to understand each other in the name of living peacefully.

We have a duty to engage with each other.The Abrahamic faiths-Christianity，Judaism，and Islam-have to find a new meaning in the old notion of our shared descent.What really is our common inheritance？What does it mean to the brothers？Are we responsible for each other，or are the exhortations of Koran，and the Bible just words.

Ultimately，our sense of kinship has to rest on something more basic than our common ancestry：an acknowledgement of our shared humanity.

The good news I see is that，for all the challenges our differences present，all of the major religious do have a sense of universal values-a moral truth based on the dignity of all human beings.

Gandhi called the world"s religions "beautiful flowers from the same garden".Every religion embraces a form of the golden rule，and the supreme importance of charity，compassion and human improvement.When Jesus was asked"teacher，which is the great commandment in the law，"he replied：