Here In America, Religious People

We Constantly Have Ideas And Experiences That Go Beyond What We Can Say Or Know. Most Often These Are Expressed In Art, In Painting, In Music. Music, Everyday Confronts Us With A Form Of Knowing That Doesn't Depend On Words.

Religious Ideas And Practices Take Root Not Because They Are Promoted By Forceful Theologians, Nor Because They Can Be Shown To Have A Sound Historical Or Rational Basis, But Because They Are Found In Practice To Give The Faithful A Sense Of Sacred Transcendence.

Compassion Is Not A Popular Virtue. Very Often When I Talk To Religious People, And Mention How Important It Is That Compassion Is The Key, That It's The Sine-qua-non Of Religion, People Look Kind Of Balked, And Stubborn Sometimes, As Much To Say, What's The Point Of Having Religion If You Can't Disapprove Of Other People?

Alas, All Traditions Lose Their Primal Purity And We All Fail Our Founders.

We Have To Make A Disciplined Effort To Find Out What Our Governments Are Doing In These Various Parts Of The World And What Is Actually Happening. We Have To Learn To Listen To Each Other's Stories. Something We Are Not Very Good At.