because of her age at the time of the meeting.

Banking, p.21.

By Carl Teichrib

Religious pluralism isn’t a new concept, but it

has made tremendous inroads during the past ten

years. This development hasn’t been confined to

churches only, but now tracks through international

politics, economics, and major social structures.

In past issues of Forcing Change various aspects

of this movement have been expounded

on, including environmental links. However, the

following article, which is divided into two parts,

offers a unique window into the growing clout

of the interfaith agenda and its deeper meaning.

Increasingly, this socio-religious pluralism will

find its way into more local programs and actions,

including community functions, civic politics, and

economic “justice” agendas. All of this will impact

churches, from local congregations to national

boards, and will become increasingly visible

in secular fields such as public education and the

workplace. Already this is happening.

As mentioned, this article is comprised of two

parts: the front section, “An Inside Look,” details

my observations while attending a 2001 interfaith

event in St. Petersburg, Florida. A special emphasis

is placed on what to watch for regarding the

impact of the inter-religious agenda at the more

local and discernable level.

The second part of this article is a review of

the 2004 Barcelona Parliament of the World’s

Religions. While I didn’t attend this event, the

information and intelligence that came out of this

gathering gives us an interesting “big picture”

sweep of the global interfaith program, including

its linkages to issues of economic governance.

If you live anywhere in the “snow-belt,” St.

Petersburg Florida can be a wonderful place in

the middle of January. The salty Gulf of Mexico

breeze and the warm sunshine create a perfect

escape environment from the clutches of winter.

Everybody north of the “40th parallel” knows this.

So it was no surprise to discover that one of the

year’s earliest interfaith events would take place

in “sunny St. Pete.”

Starting on January 11 and ending on the 14th,

interfaith activists from as far away as Korea and

the United Kingdom gathered in St. Petersburg to

attend the “Religions in Dialogue: Moving from

Conflict to Trust” conference. Held at the Unitarian

Universalist Church in the heart of the city,

the purpose of this event was to create a common

vision and cooperative strategy to advance the

global interfaith agenda for 2001 and beyond

At first it seemed that the conference was going

to be a wash – less than 50 people had shown up.

But while the size of the group gave the appearance

of insignificance, many of those who attended

were involved at the highest levels of global

interfaith work. In fact, three of the five largest

interfaith organizations in the world were represented

at the “director’s level.”

Here is the breakdown of the key interfaith leaders

in attendance and the organizations they represented,

(WCF) and arguably one

of the most prolific writers

on interfaithism. He is

considered by many to be

the most knowledgeable

and influential man in

the interfaith movement.

The WCF is located in

the United Kingdom.

Mr. Braybrooke is also

a Patron of the International Interfaith Centre at

Oxford. The WFC was one of two co-sponsors of

the St. Petersburg event.

lives in the UK.

the International Interfaith Centre.

(IARF), also located in the UK. The IARF was the

second co-sponsor of this event.

States.

(CPWR) – the group that organized the

1993 and 1999 World Parliament of Religions.

Mr. Kenney is also a Trustee of the International

Interfaith Centre. The CPWR is headquartered in

Chicago.

Of the five major global interfaith organizations,

only the World Conference on Religion and Peace

(located in New York city) and the United Religions

Initiative (located in San Francisco) were

not officially represented, although some of the

conference participants and attendees had played

roles in both of these absent groups.

Other participants included,

Studies, University of South Carolina, and

University of South Carolina.

He has been involved in inter-religious work

around the world for decades.

Because the event was held in the Unitarian

church, Unitarians were in the majority. Other

faith communities present were,

“Christianity” held to a very liberal view of

the faith. Marcus Braybrooke and his wife were

among the Christians present. Some attendees

claimed a form of “grafted” Christianity, such as

Christian-Buddhist or Christian-Unitarian. Many

admitted being brought up as a child in the Christian

faith. Richard Boeke, who played a fundamental

part throughout the four days, had at one

time been the pastor of a Southern Baptist church.

He’s now a Unitarian minister. On a couple of

occasions I heard attendees confess that they had

been “saved” at a Billy Graham crusade but had

“come to their senses” soon thereafter.

“converted” to Christianity while in India to

escape her overbearing family’s legalistic brand

of Hinduism. Once she moved to the US and was

freed from her “fundamentalist” Hindu family,

she converted back to Hinduism. She told me that

if she ever moved back to India, she would once

again become a “Christian.”

and interfaith activist, was part of the Saturday

afternoon panel session. Mr. Tedesco had flown

in from Korea specifically to participate in this

conference.

the Thursday evening interfaith worship service

(remember, this is a religious meeting, and “worship”

is planned into the program agenda). During

this time, a ceremony was conducted in which a

Wiccan invoked a “blessing,”

“I am the four corners of the earth, north,

south, east, and west, which bound the sacred

circle where we stand, ready to receive our

gods. Beloved Mother, by many names and

faces are you known. As you are the name

‘ever young,’ let us stay young forever and

ever grow within our faith. As you are the

fertile mother, ever giving. Help us to harvest

the sweet fruit of this gathering – tolerance,

understanding, and love.”

Other “faith communities” included,

interfaith Judaic Shabbat service, conducted by

the Beth Rachamim Synagogue – which is one of

a handful of overtly gay and lesbian synagogues

in the country. Throughout the service, prayers

and reaffirmations were made to endorse their

homosexuality.

display table and gave a workshop presentation.

The founder of the Theosophical Society was

Helena Blavatsky. Alice A. Bailey was another

prominent theosophist. Both of these ladies have

been referred to as the “Mother of the New Age

Movement.” Theosophy is an occult philosophy

elevating Lucifer to the position of liberator of

humanity.

lodge was set up for those who wanted to partake

in a Native American spiritual experience.

of the “religions” (or should that be “anti-religions”?)

and was given a time slot for a Saturday

afternoon workshop. Strange as it may be, the St.

Pete Unitarian church had numerous brochures

and informational sheets promoting humanism.

east coast of Florida is Ma Jaya Sati Bhagavati’s

interfaith ashram. “Ma,” the guru of the Kashi

Ashram, has blended a variety of western and

eastern spiritual traditions. Ma’s interfaith teachings

have been an example to the interreligious

community, and she has been involved in a variety

of world interfaith events and organizational activities.

At least two of her followers were present

at the St. Pete meeting.

a Scientology drama and musical team

gave a performance during Saturday evening’s

cultural program.

Practitioners of other religions were also in attendance,

but those listed above (including Unitarian)

were the most active. Interestingly, while a

fair number of participants claimed to be “Christian,”

the reaction to “fundamental Christianity”

was anything but friendly. As with every other interfaith

meeting I’ve been to, fundamental Christianity

was unashamedly bashed. Claiming to be a

way of “tolerance,” the interfaith movement is, in

reality, extremely intolerant when religions such

as Christianity proclaim “exclusive truth.”

So what “inside information” was given at this

meeting? Here it is,

After the 1999 Cape Town Parliament of

the World’s Religions, it was determined that a

parliament should be convened every five years.

Due to circumstances, the next parliament will not

be held until 2005, one year later than expected.

[Note: the Parliament was able to convene in 2004

after all]. According to Jim Kenney, the CPWR

wants to bill its next event as a type of “Olympics”

of world religions. To this end, the CPWR

wants cities to compete in hosting the event, much

like the Olympic system currently does.

Here’s the inside scoop; Mr. Kenney made it

very clear that at least 10 world cities have started

bidding to host the next parliament – but, as Kenney

pointed out, the CPWR hasn’t even made the

“call to host” public yet! Watch as the momentum

for the next parliament builds as cities compete

to host what is fast being viewed as the premier

inter-religious event. It is also expected that other

players, possibly corporate, financial, and institutional,

will come alongside with support packages

and endorsements. If all this takes place, and it

looks like it will, the interfaith agenda for the next

five to ten years will catapult forward in an unprecedented

way.

global charter was developed by Bishop William

Swing at the behest of the United Nations and

Robert Muller, a top UN official and visionary.

At the St. Pete meeting, it came out that the more

historically established interfaith players considered

the URI to be a type of black sheep within

the interfaith family. During the URI’s early years,

statements made by Bishop Swing had caused

a rift between the URI and the other interfaith

groups. Now that Swing has stepped down from

his position as director of the URI (Charles Gibbs

has taken over), the global interfaith community is

ready to embrace the URI as a respectable player

within the global inter-religious agenda. Watch

as the URI gains prominence via the fact that the

world interfaith leadership is now recognizing its

place as a global partner.

private conversation that the interfaith movement

is in agreement with, and working towards, the

has been viewed as a political entity. While this is

the predominant view, Mr. Kenney made it clear

political and connects with the interfaith agenda.

religious pluralism, earth servitude, and “world

management.”

intended to shape civilization around Earthfirst

principles and strengthen global governance.

group in the world (it was founded in 1900), but it

doesn’t have a strong presence in the US. One of

the anticipated results of having this conference in

St. Pete was that the IARF would cement ties with

US interfaith activists. IARF has been a substantial

player in Japan, India, and the UK, and now it

plans to sink deeper roots in America.

The most important development that came out

of the St. Petersburg meeting was that the three

global bodies proposed an informal world alliance

strategy. During the meeting they refrained from

calling this alliance an interfaith “world federation,”

but in many ways this is what was being

discussed. All of this came about through “coffee

table talk” – informal discussions in the lunchroom

and lounge. Often times, these informal

settings are the places were the real agendas are

developed.

Knowing this alliance is taking shape, the essential

questions are; what will be the nature of this

alliance, and where will it take us? At this point,

it’s hard to know. At the very least, the CPWR, the

World Congress of Faiths, and the IARF will work

together in a much tighter fashion. One of the

“alliance” suggestions was to develop a common

internet data base for inter-religious networking; a

small first step, but a step nonetheless.

As the leadership from the three major bodies

that met at St. Petersburg continue to flesh out

this new cooperative, the other two groups (URI

and the World Conference on Religion and Peace)

will, in all probability, join in some degree. Watch

as the interfaith movement becomes a more cohesive

and potent force at both the national and

international level. Only time will tell how the

global interfaith agenda will ultimately impact our

lives.

movement is shaping the Christian church, both

locally and broadly speaking. Expect ecumenical

pressures and mandates from national offices

to participate in pluralistic settings. Furthermore,

expect fundamentalist positions to be questioned

and challenged; especially regarding the exclusive

message of Jesus Christ (John 14:6 comes to

mind), sin and the issue of judgement, and the role

of evangelism.

which is a key venue in degenerating

religious exclusiveness. Watch as civic leaders

in various parts of the country attempt to zone

downtown blocks as “interfaith” areas. Moreover,

expect influential Christian leaders to partake in

inter-religious political and civic functions, lending

more credibility to the pluralistic position.

educational institutions, both Christian and secular.

The New Age/interfaith movement recognizes

that influencing education at all levels, which in

turn shapes young minds, is a strategic component

in advancing the global agenda. Already many

churches and Christian schools have succumbed

to the philosophy of religious pluralism, and our

secular schools have been advocating this for

years.

From July 7th to the 13th, 2004, Barcelona

Spain was the focal point for a momentous interfaith

event, the 2004 Parliament of the World’s

Religions. And while this conference received

practically no media coverage in North America,

it was a major milestone in a lineage of interfaith

events.

The history of the Parliament of the World’s

Religions goes back over 100 years to 1893. That

year, the first World’s Parliament of Religions

took place as part of the World Columbia Exposition

in Chicago. Thousands attended, and the

gathering became a seminal event in American

religious life, “marking the change from the dominance

of Anglo-Saxon Protestantism to the start of

Richard Seager, in his Harvard University

Doctrinal Thesis on the 1893 Parliament, further

elaborated on this national religious turnaround,

“As far as religious pluralism in America is

concerned a strict construction of the issue

would seem to suggest that after the Parliament,

there were many ways to be religious.

One could be saved or self-realized or grow

in God consciousness or be self-emptied.

And as America itself continued to pursue its

messianic mission, it was a nation under a

changed God. Krishna, Vishnu, the Buddha

(technically a not-God), the Divine Mother,

and other deities had been tucked up in the

nation’s sacred canopy, where they joined the

Christian Father and Son, Jehovah, Nature’s

One hundred years later, in 1993, the second

Parliament of the World’s Religions took place,

once again in Chicago. Like the first Parliament,

this event drew thousands of participants from

practically every major and minor stream of

thought, philosophy, and spiritual persuasion.

Erwin Lutzer, author and well-known Christian

apologist, attended this event with a critical eye.

Writing on what he witnessed, Lutzer commented,

“The gods are on a roll, and woe to those who

stand in the way of their agenda! With lofty

ideals and utopian plans to unify the religions

of the world for the common good, this parliament

met to break down the barriers that

Setting the stage for deeper interfaith collaboration,

the 1993 Parliament spurned a landmark

directive: the creation of a Global Ethic.

Blending various aspects of many religious

traditions, the basic idea behind the Global Ethic

was and is to unite all religions around a common

core set of moral and ethical values. To this end,

the 1993 Parliament was especially significant, as

the drive towards a Global Ethic elevated inter-religious

In 1999, on the eve of the new millennium, the

third Parliament of the World’s Religions took

place in Cape Town, South Africa. Again, thousands

attended. However, when the Parliament

concluded it was evident that a new direction for

interfaith cooperation had been formulated. Unlike

the past two events, which had a heavy emphasis

on religious unity, the South African conference

produced a remarkably political agenda.

final report from Cape Town stressed that Earthcentric

changes needed to take place within governments,

religious institutions, labor and industry,

education, science, the international political

community, and in other areas such as commerce

and media. It was a call for “global interdependence”

and “robust cooperation within the human

family.” All of this was to take place within

a framework of interfaith understanding where

Christianity, Islam, Buddhism, Hinduism, and the

other spiritual paths could unite around a “better

And then came the 2004 Parliament of the

World’s Religions.

Peak attendance at Barcelona topped 8,600, with

participants coming from all corners of the world

and representing an enormous range of religious

beliefs and practices. Prominent interfaith organizations

were also present, including the United

Religious Initiative, which had approximately 150

of its global leaders partaking in the event (URI

Arguably one of the most important aspects of

this parliament was the vast amount of networking

which took place. Throughout the week, interfaith

advocates and organizations built bridges

and came together in striking formal and informal

partnerships with other likeminded groups and

individuals. More importantly, Barcelona afforded

an opportunity to build upon the aspirations of

each of the prior parliaments.

From its start until its close, participants worked

to put in place a number of political commitments,

including the role of religious communities

in addressing international debt and financial

governance, and to support water management

programs that ultimately work hand-in-glove with

the World Water Vision [an international water

and tolerance were also viewed as a major area

of political action, recognizing that the world’s

religions play a part in shaping social policies and

directives.

Dirk Ficca, the Executive Director of the Parliament

of the World’s Religions, explained what

political interconnections would be pursued in

order to implement the commitments made during

the week.

“The Council for a Parliament of the World’s

Religions has also developed a process to

monitor and support the implementation

of the Barcelona Parliament commitments,

including best-practice manuals and a webbased

communications network in order to

support and assess the impact on the world’s

pressing problems. We are also exploring

partnerships with other sectors of society

such as organizations within the UN system,

the World Bank and organizations that promote

Here’s were the rubber meets the road: a commitment

to impacting global political decision

making via the unified lobbying influence of the

international religious community. Ultimately, it’s

man’s plan to remake the world in man’s image.

Consider three historic statements from the first

World’s Parliament of Religions in 1893,

— “This day the sun of a new era of religious

peace and progress rises over the world,

dispelling the dark clouds of sectarian strife.

This day a new flower blooms in the garden

of religious thought, filling the air with its

exquisite perfume.

This is the day a new fraternity is born into

the world of human progress, to aid in the upbuilding

of the kingdom of God in the hearts

of men.

Era and flower and fraternity bear one name.

It is a name which will gladden the hearts of

those who worship God and love man in every

clime. Those who hear its music joyfully

echo it back to sun and flower.

IT IS THE BROTHERHOOD OF RELIGIONS.

In this name I welcome the first Parliament

[capitals in original]

— “The religion of the future will be universal

in every sense. It will embody all the

thought and aspiration and virtue and emotion

of all humanity; it will draw together all lands

and peoples and kindreds and tongues into a

universal brotherhood of love and service; it

— “Religion will then, as now, lift man above

his weakness by reminding him of his responsibilities.

The goal before is Paradise. Eden is to

And, from 2004 Barcelona Parliament of the

World’s Religions:

“The relentless effort of the Council for the

Parliament of World Religions brings religious

leaders within one platform and calls

upon us to fulfill the highest purposes of

religion. We come from the four directions,

like streams merging into a great river. We are

all on our way home to the Ocean of the One

Divine Spirit…Let each of us come, willing

to be immeasurably enriched by the beauty,

depth and validity of one another’s traditions.

With each encounter, let us meet the Divinity

None of this should come as a surprise to the

discerning Christian and observer of religious

world affairs. Rather, expect more of this type

of activity as man seeks to re-create Eden into a

New Age paradise where humanity sits enthroned

– alongside the gods of nature.

As noted in the introduction to this article, the

global interfaith agenda has a broad range of influencing

factors, including economic governance issues

(see the above reference to the World Bank).

More importantly, while the scope of the inter-

religious movement is obviously planetary in

nature, it’s at the local level where the impact will

FC

be most readily visible. How it plays out in the

educational setting, business world, civic playing

field, and the church community will vary from

region to region, city to city. But the social/religious

change factor is the same; regardless of

which vehicle is used to carry forward the agenda.

For Christians, the most important battleground

for religious pluralism is in the church. It’s here

where the most influence for subtle, negative

change can be expected. As churches across North

America embrace this interfaith trend, be on guard

as false doctrines and dangerous philosophies shift

the attention away from the exclusive, saving message

of Jesus Christ, the fallen nature of man, and

the holiness of God’s justice to one of religious

diversity, openness, and experiential spiritual

designs that bridge the gap between “Christianity”

and other religious beliefs and practices.

Sadly, this is happening now, and the pressure is

mounting to heedlessly follow this path. In the future,

troublesome areas.

Endnotes:

Press/World Congress of Faiths, 1998).

In Thousands Of Commitments To Address Religious Violence

And Other Urgent Issues Facing The World,” www.cpwr.

org/2004Parliament [accessed August 25, 2004].

the World’s Religions, 1993, edited by Richard Hughes Seager),

pp.21-22.

World’s Religions, 1993, edited by Richard Hughes Seager),

p.174.

of the World’s Religions, 1993, edited by Richard Hughes

Seager), p.224.

Parliament of the World’s Religions, opinion piece, “The

Needle and Thread” [accessed August 25, 2004, www.cpwr.

org/2004Parliament/news/opiniobrahma.htm]