In the light of religiously-fueled conflicts aroung the globe, many people believe that there has never been a greater need to end religiously-motivated violence than there is today. Governments have made attempts to solve conflicts through the United Nations. But what have religions themselves done to resolve sectarian disputes?
This is a question that Episcopal Bishop of California William Swing began asking himself in 1992. The UN had asked that he host an interfaith service at Grace Cathedral in San Francisco to commemorate 50 years of working together for peace through the UN. As he writes in his book, The Coming United Religions, at one point he had "a sudden realization that religions, together, have a vocation to be a force for good in the world." Within 24 hours, he "moved from being a person totally uninterested in interfaith matters to a person totally committed to being a catalyst for the creation of a United Religions." William E. Swing, The Coming United Religions (San Francisco : United Religions Initiative, 1998), p. 12 .
For over a century, there had been good faith efforts to get religions to work together, but there was no organization that is to religions what the UN is intended to be for the nations of the world— a "global forum for dialogue, conflict regolution, and cooperative action." Ibid., back cover . Swing recounts his growing conviction that religions, as multinational entities transcending governments and nations, can help to curb religious violence, rather than fuel it. In his book, he cites a key idea from Hans Kung's global ethic project, "No peace amongnations without peace among the religions." See ibid., p. 16 .
