First, an important disclaimer: I am not a scholar of world religions. Though I work daily to help ensure religious liberty for all faiths, I am most familiar with the Christian tradition. But, yes, I believe the major world religions — at their best — embody the principles of love, compassion and forgiveness.
To this general acquiescence in the Dali Lama’s observation, I offer several caveats.
Acknowledging that the major world religions incorporate these basic values — love, compassion and forgiveness — is not to say that all religions are the same or to gloss over significant differences among them. A watered-down, lowest-common denominator view of religion to support the idea that one religion is about as good as the next is a mistake. To concede similarities and commonalities among religions should not lead us to obscure the differences.
It is also important to realize that love, compassion and forgiveness are virtues that are inherently related to and in tension with counterparts. For example, many Christians are taught that love for God and one another must not dissuade us from actively hating sin itself. Our compassion for the downtrodden and those who suffer often requires us to engage in confrontation. Forgiveness (even seventy times seven) does not mean that we never make judgments — condemning injustices or seeking to hold one another accountable in churches, synagogues, mosques and other holy places. Hence, in recognizing that many religions share similar virtues, it is crucial also to understand how disparate faiths relate to these companion values.
Finally, these observations are complicated further by the reality that a sinful humanity never measures up to the ideal. The maxim of “loving the sinner but hating the sin” gets turned around and confused. Compassion — particularly in American Christianity — is compromised by competition. We often are short on forgiveness and hasten to judge others with a different religion. Religious practice never measures up to religion’s best teachings. Indeed, religion is one of the few things for which people are willing to kill.
Yes, religions — at their best — are loving, compassionate and forgiving. Religionists quite often are not.
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