Doing good' may actually mean stepping on someone else's toes. Still, the vision of a largely unity in reality, a communion of life, remains important in religion, embracing and celebrating diversity. Having said all that, I would like now to isolate more directly what I think are some of the more pressing factors influencing the wish and the practice of 'doing the right thing' in the public arena. First, let us consider plurality. More and more we are made aware of the complexity of trying to do the right in a context of plurality of culture, worldview, language, faith, race ethnicity.
Life becomes an endless process of delicate negotiation between diverse elements.
This becomes even more acute as the world continues to shrink into a global community of intense communication and little communion. The challenge for all is to adopt this negotiation mode as a way of life. For leaders there is the added dimension of being an advocate and facilitator of such an orientation. This is not made any easier by the fact that we live in a world where food is often taken out of the mouths of children in the name of development, where the right to health care of many is sacrificed on the altar of the intellectual rights of a few. False imperatives 'Good news is no news' Religion provides us with a sure ground on which to stand to challenge the values of the world system of death.