`The absurd and erroneous doctrines or ravings in defense
of liberty of conscience are a most pestilential error–a pest, of all others, most to be dreaded in a state.’ Pope Pius IX, in his
Encyclical Letter of August 15,
1854
World religious leaders make recommendations to G20 Summit
At G20 Interfaith Forum 2021, religious and political leaders as well as scholars met in September to discuss recommendations to the larger G20 Summit. They focused on global agendas, especially the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals.
W. Cole Durham Jr., president of the G20 Interfaith Forum Association, said the Sustainable Development Goals can “really only be achieved if there is cooperation and synergy (between the government agencies) and the religious sector.”
The Interfaith Forum contains specific working groups, which tackle issues including poverty, public health, gender equality, refugees and humanitarian aid.
The Anti-Racism Initiative is a new addition to the forum. The group is led by Audrey Kitigawa, president and founder of the International Academy for Multicultural Cooperation and Divine Mother of the Light of Awareness International Spiritual Family.
“Transformation will come about when faith leaders themselves are able to openly and honestly address the mindsets, the attitudes created through racial bias,” Kitigawa said.
The G20 Interfaith’s recommendations to the leaders focused on healing health, social, and economic fractures. They proposed worldwide action on education, inequality, racial discrimination and climate change, specifically focusing on the most vulnerable communities.
“I wish every person would be respected at least as much as we respect temples, cathedrals, mosques, shrines because human beings are sacred,” Ganoune Diop, Secretary General of the International Religious Liberty Association, said.
Ganoune Diop is not just attending their meetings. He is the Secretary General for the Confederation.
“We have far more to fear from within than from without. The hindrances to strength and success are far greater from the church itself than from the world. “
The next Interfaith Forum will follow the G20 Summit to Indonesia in 2022, where interfaith leaders will again convene to identify worldwide needs.
The archbishop of St. Louis once said: ‘Heresy and unbelief are crimes; and in Christian countries, as in Italy and Spain, for instance, where all the people are Catholics, and where
the Catholic religion is an essential part of the law of the land, they are punished as other crimes.’. . .
The people of our land need to be aroused to resist the advances of this most dangerous foe to civil and religious liberty.–Spirit of Prophecy, vol. 4, p. 382. {ChS 163.2}
Shall we sit with folded hands, and do nothing in this crisis? . . . God help us to arouse from the stupor that has hung over us for years.–Review and Herald, Dec. 18, 1888. {ChS 163.3}