There was no voice raised anywhere in the name of a religion, or of religions, to condemn the allegedly godly brutalizers. This is an example of religiously sanctioned terrorism. One needn't exhaustively detail the other venues in the world where religious difference is a causal or aggravating factor in the dehumanization of children, women, and men. A few of the more familiar of these are Bosnia, Chechnya, the Middle East, Northern Ireland, Sri Lanka, East Timor, and Afghanistan. 110 million people have been killed in this century as a direct result of wars.
People think the nuclear arms problem is solved.
But our own country and the former Soviet Union are headed toward nuclear weapons stability in 2003, when each side will have 3500 nukes each, for a total explosive equivalent of 440 pounds of TNT for every man, woman, and child presently living on the planet. The entire world's nuclear stockpile represents over 700 times the explosive power used in the 20th century's three major wars. The social costs of global military spending are enormous. The peace, reconciliation, justice, and forgiveness affirmations within the world's moral heritages need to be brought to bear concretely upon the powerful political and unprecedented military forces of our time. The images, symbols, and stories contained in the treasure chests that are the world's religious heritages have never more been needed than at the end of the bloodiest century in history.