An Ecumenical Conversation

“As I was walking once in Jerusalem, I came upon a woman with her church group from the United States visiting the Holy Land. I asked her where she had visited, and she gave me the usual list of places. Then I asked her if she had spoken with any Palestinian Christians, and she was quick to reply: ‘No, no, this is a church group. We’re not getting political.’” Bishop Dr. Munib Younan, Head of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Jordan and the Holy Land, recounted his experience to a room of approximately 60 people. The World Council of Churches Ecumenical Conversation titled Public Life, Religion and Politics: Ambiguities and Possibilities met to discuss the roles of religion and politics. Our decisions – if any were made – would be passed along to the WCC General Assembly the following week.

I was one of four “youth” participating in the conversation; three of us were the only representatives from the United States. The room was filled with individuals from all regions of the world, although the majority of participants were from Europe and the Middle East. During the three day conversation, we listened to presentations, shared stories, and tried to reach a consensus on the broad – yet crucial – question: what is the role of religion in contemporary world politics?

Throughout the Christian story, politics have been connected with religion: Moses challenged Pharaoh; David was king; Paul was imprisoned by political authorities; and Jesus, the Christ, was executed by the Empire. Bishop Younan argued that were Jesus to be told, today, to stay out of politics, he “wouldn’t really understand.” Yet, as a result of the secular, democratic state, religion has been constitutionally privatized.

Dr. Konrad Raiser, former General Secretary of the WCC, argued that “politics” is much more than the action of state and power authorities; it is, rather, a wider concern for “serving the public interest and the common good.” If his claim is in fact true, politics is interconnected with religion at their very cores and cannot be separated.

Many shared stories where politics and culture had been widely impacted by religion – the former Soviet Union, the United States, and the Middle East, to name a few locations. “Nowhere in the world is the mix of politics and religion as potentially lethal as in the Middle East, as recent events have painfully shown us,” Bishop Younan said. For when the emotionality of religion enters a conflict, it is exponentially more difficult to find resolution.

The Ecumenical Conversation was also concerned with the use – or misuse – of religion to legitimize actions which obviously break the social moral code. Terrorism, war, and oppression violate the accepted ethical guidelines within which society lives. The conversation agreed that to avoid such occurrences, religious communities must – in the words of Dr. Raiser – “begin to mark out together the basic criteria for assessing the moral and ethical legitimacy of political actions and the use of political power.”

As Jesus quoted the prophet Isaiah: “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to bring good news to the poor… to let the oppressed go free” (Luke 4: 18), so must the Church be actively engaged in the common good. Those in the Ecumenical Conversation agreed that the Church is obligated to uphold justice and reconciliation, yet there were differing ideas on how to do so. Several European delegates offered a proposal to set guidelines for inter-religious dialogue; while Dr. Marc Luyckx, a presenter from the Roman Catholic Church, suggested that an era of global tolerance for diversity is already here, and we simply have to wait for its peak.

The youth drafted a statement which urged all member churches to: “follow in the tradition in which the WCC was founded and join with outside organizations, institutions, and peoples who are working toward the same goals of peace, justice, and human rights. We can achieve more together than alone. It is our calling from God to be the hands with which Christ is active in the world.”

While no consensus statement was sent to the General Assembly, the three days of dialogue were fruitful. We began to unravel the complex relationship between religion and politics in the contemporary world. The woman to whom Bishop Younan spoke believed Church and politics could not mix, but I left the Ecumenical Conversation with a different opinion. The world ecumenical movement is already working for a common, public good. We are answering our biblical calling to be the prophetic voice and active hands of Christ, striving for a peaceful, just and whole world.