That’s what’s driving the terrorism.

Transcript: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/14907031/
Videos: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/3032608/


This weekend Tim Russert was asking the questions on MSNBC's MEET THE PRESS, and he was hosting former President Clinton, Hamid Karzai, and John Danforth. Clinton made one of the most remarkably lucid observations we've heard in recent history -

BEGIN QUOTE:

MR. RUSSERT: As we sit here in September of 2006, what do you think is the biggest problem confronting our world? The biggest?

MR. CLINTON: In the short term it is the illusion that our differences matter more than our common humanity. That’s what’s driving the terrorism. It’s not just that there’s an unresolved Arab/Israeli conflict. Osama bin Laden and Dr. al-Zawahiri can convince young Sunni-Arab men who have-and some women-who have despairing conditions in their lives that they get a one-way ticket to heaven in a hurry if they kill a lot of innocent people who don’t share their reality. That means they-by definition, everything about them is, the differences are more important. And that’s driving the terror, that’s driving the attempt to acquire for terrorist groups small-scale chemical and biological and maybe even someday nuclear stuff.

In the longer term, climate change is the biggest threat, because if it’s allowed to come to fruition-and particularly if we’re, at the same time, running out of affordable, recoverable oil-you’re going to have a-almost over night-a dramatic change in the way we live, and it will cause millions of food refugees, it’ll cause probably food and water wars, and it could change the underlying conditions on which our civilization rests. So I’d say terror, based on human difference today, climate change over the long run.

END QUOTE



Wow, terrorism due to the illusion that our religious differences are more important than our religious commonalities. Hmmmm, and global warming. It's an interesting read.



Plus, a discussion of the role of conservative Christians in our political process with former Republican senator and ordained Episcopal priest John Danforth, author of Faith and Politics.

The last guest on MEET THE PRESS was the conservative, former Republican senator and ordained Episcopal priest John Danforth, author of Faith and Politics. Danforth had this to say regarding the role of religion in politics:

"...Most Americans believe that we’re all in this together. Whether we’re Catholics or Protestants or Jews or Muslims or whatever we are, we’re in this together as a country, and we have to try to build some common ground. And when religion is used as a political wedge to drive us apart, it’s doing us a disservice."


Interesting that on the same show, liberal and conservative both are searching for the common ground rather than divisions.

Roger
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