One World Religion or Tolerance?

I'm not generally an alarmist, I'm too busy to worry much about tomorrow.

However, I've been thinking about this a lot. The United Religions Initiative.

It was more-or-less created by the UN [Edit: Ok, I missspoke there. What I meant to say was it's endorsed by the UN, not created by] , to be to religion what the UN is to politics. Just to be clear, this isn't some grassroots thing. It's official. This is for real.

I'll provide some background, but if you want to know more, please visit their site and check it out.

From their "About" page:

"The seed for the URI was planted in 1993 when the United Nations invited William Swing, Episcopal Bishop of California, to host an interfaith service in San Francisco. That night the Bishop found it hard to sleep … he told himself, “If the nations of the world are working together for peace through the UN, then where are the religions of the world?” From this inspiration, a vision took shape to create an organization whereby people of diverse faiths and from all sectors of society would cooperate for peace and justice for all.

From the first global summit in 1996 to the Charter signing in 2000, URI engaged thousands of people from diverse religions, spiritual expressions and indigenous traditions to create the URI Charter. Five global summits and numerous gatherings and consultations took place in different regions of the world. URI used a highly effective methodology for positive change, Appreciative Inquiry, pioneered by Dr. David Cooperrider of Case Western Reserve University and the revolutionary insights for organizing offered by Dee Hock, founder of VISA international.

The results of this process are a URI Charter, interfaith action projects in over 50 countries, and an unprecedented network of Cooperation Circles and supporting members and Affiliates dedicated to making the Charter a lived reality all over the world. Today, millions of people are bringing their unique talents to URI and organizing profound acts of care, compassion, cooperation, education and peacebuilding."

Here's a excerpt from their Charter:

"We, people of diverse religions, spiritual expressions and indigenous traditions throughout the world, hereby establish the United Religions Initiative to promote enduring, daily interfaith cooperation, to end religiously motivated violence and to create cultures of peace, justice and healing for the Earth and all living beings.

• We respect the uniqueness of each tradition, and differences of practice or belief.
• We value voices that respect others, and believe that sharing our values and wisdom can lead us to act for the good of all.
• We believe that our religious, spiritual lives, rather than dividing us, guide us to build community and respect for one another.
• Therefore, as interdependent people rooted in our traditions, we now unite for the benefit of our Earth community.
• We unite to build cultures of peace and justice.
• We unite to heal and protect the Earth.
• We unite to build safe places for conflict resolution, healing and reconciliation.
• We unite to support freedom of religion and spiritual expression, and the rights of all individuals and peoples as set forth in international law.
• We unite in responsible cooperative action to bring the wisdom and values of our religions, spiritual expressions and indigenous traditions to bear on the economic, environmental, political and social challenges facing our Earth community.
• We unite to provide a global opportunity for participation by all people, especially by those whose voices are not often heard.
• We unite to celebrate the joy of blessings and the light of wisdom in both movement and stillness.
• We unite to use our combined resources only for nonviolent, compassionate action, to awaken to our deepest truths, and to manifest love and justice among all life in our Earth community.
  

If you have a chance, check out the North American Cooperation Circle News, just for some highlights.

What do you think? I mean, it all sounds well and good. But honestly, does this bother anyone else, or have I just read too much Tim LaHaye? Please tell me I'm being paranoid.

I mean, I'm no longer into all the end-times stuff. Five years ago I seriously was (I was an evangelical, fercryinoutloud), but I decided whatever God's plan was, it was HIS plan and not ours and that He would do whatever He wanted. In the meantime, I have a job to do as long as we're still here, which I think we will be for a very long time.

So it's not that I'm worried about it, per se, but I can't help wondering ... oh, whatever.

Any comments?