Charter for Compassion

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Charter for Compassion
In the talk, Karen Armstrong, a TED prize, scholar, and author discusses matters relating to the Abrahamic religions of Christianity, Islam, and Judaism. Her central message is that the core of religion has been diverted from its duty of fulfilling a moral purpose of fostering compassion (“TED Prize wish: Charter…”). In her discussion, she notes that the concept of religious doctrines is relatively recent and mostly originated in the western societies. Before then people believed in a religion of compassion, love, and harmony. However, through her research, she realized that people are yearning for a change to revert to the old religious ways which were founded on the real ideas of love and harmony. It is in this regard that she requests the TED community to assist her to establish a Charter of Compassion that would restore and rebuild the actual ideas of the global religious practice.
I agree with the message in the text regarding the diversion of the world religions from a compassionate role to the one focused on doctrines. Currently, some of the problems that humans face such as terrorism are as a result of radical teachings that are non-accommodative religious doctrines. Ideally, religion is supposed to be an instrument of bringing compassion to humankind irrespective of what people believe to be the correct ideals. Religious denominations are focused on reinforcing the doctrines instead of practicing the actual values of the teachings.

It is in these terms that Karen notes the changes and yearns for a new shift that will return religion to its original routes of compassion and harmony. Based on these observations, I agree with the author that we need a change to realize the values of our religion. Living the religious values will help to overcome some of the challenges that we face as humans as they relate to inter-religious conflicts and human sufferings caused by the lack of love and compassion.
Works Cited
“TED Prize wish Charter for Compassion.” YouTube Commentary by Armstrong Karen, March 19, 2008. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SJMm4RAwVLo&t=229s