The Common Word Between Christians and Muslims

For two days recently, thanks to the kind invitation of Georgetown University’s President John DeGioia, I took part in a conference on The Common Word, a Muslim initiative to engage Christian leaders in common understanding and mutual respect.

While the project is entirely theological in nature within the specific traditions of the Abrahamic faiths, I found its dynamic fundamentally supportive of the global efforts of the Caux Round Table. It is this point of optimism that I would like to share with you.

Now, while working for the Caux Round Table it has been my observation that a great obstacle to implementation of the CRT Principles and to business ethics and CSR in general is a high level of cynicism in modern global culture.

We as a global people are not convinced that ideals and ethics have traction in business and government. We are instead more prone to believe in the efficacy of power, money, celebrity, ego, and selfishness narrowly considered. Under these circumstances, giving fealty to the right and to the common good seems a bit naïve, even at times foolish when our interests are to be secured.

A support for this cynicism comes easily from a moral nihilism that there are no enduring values or truths common to humankind. Each person’s truth is personal and multi-cultural discourse within the babel of human demands and protests is the best we can hope for under the circumstances.

And evidence for the reality of this nihilism comes from our perceptions of Religion. Religion, as many say, is part of the problem; it divides us and keeps us apart living in separate cultural cul-de-sacs.

Now, if the contrary should happened to be true, if there are, in fact, common affirmations among at least some religions, then nihilism would meet some opposition. Selfishness would then have to confront the call of a common good.

So there I was listening to Muslim clerics like the Grand Mufti of Egypt, the Sultan of Sokoto, Seyyed Jawad al-Khoei, son and grandson of Grand Ayatoullahs, and Christian leaders such as Bishop Mark Hanson, Presiding Bishop of the Churchwide Assembly of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, Cardinal McCarrick, and Richard Chartres, Anglican Bishop of London all speaking within a common framework of Biblical and Qur’anic teachings.

For quite a time I took the proceedings superficially: here was an interesting inter-faith and cross-cultural dialogue. Everyone was agreeable, articulate, respectful, giving of their ideas and concerns – what was not to like?

Slowly the conviction emerged, first within my subconscience, then more overtly, and finally very powerfully after the conference was over and I was on the plane flying home, that I was in the middle of a great blessing. Muslims and Christians were together seeking a common truth in a theological understanding each could accept.

The words of an old hymn in our Unitarian Hymnal came to mind as I was flying somewhere above Ohio: “For we make God’s love too narrow by false limits of our own, and we magnify his strictness with a zeal he will not own, for the love of God is broader than the measures of man’s mind.”

Prince Ghazi bin Mohammad bin Talal of Jordan commenced the initiative under Qur’anic guidance that Muslims should seek “a common word” with Jews and Christians. Such revelation has been in Qur’an for centuries without many of the Muslim faithful taking it that seriously it seems in retrospect. But at Prince Ghazi’s invitation some 138 Muslim scholars and clerics from Sunni, Sh’ia, and Sufi traditions signed a joint letter to Christian leaders proposing two propositions as The Common Word indicated by Qur’an.

The suggested two faith propositions are: 1) love God above all else and with all thy heart; and 2) love thy neighbor as thyself.

Many Christian leaders have replied affirmatively, accepting for themselves the fundamental importance of these two faith statements.

I can only report to you that The Common Word approach seems to work. It is a breakthrough in more fully humanizing us as moral beings. The effort has a website at: www.acommonword.com should you be interested in learning more.

If Muslims and Christians can now find a Common Word between them, how difficult can it be to find the path of common good in Capitalism?

New CEO Responsibilities in These Difficult Times

CEOs, with the support and encouragement of their boards, have a new management responsibility in these trying times. I am thinking of a responsibility for public management, not just for internal management of profit and loss responsibilities. When there is a crisis of confidence in capitalism and business, and public anger and fear is all around us, and leadership is hard to find, CEOs are placed in a position where their duties to the company call for them to become public advocates.

Here is a proposition:

The American public is looking for leadership to revive our economy and prevent future collapses. Business leaders need to be more visible in this debate on our country's economic future. CEOs have a duty to their shareholders, customers -- and especially to employees -- to shape the public debate on the future of American capitalism in constructive ways. CEOs also have an obligation to society to contribute to the ideas, culture and structures that will bring long-term prosperity to our country in an era of unprecedented global competition.

One argument for public action is that if CEOs won’t do it, who will?

CEOs are stewards of enterprise; they need to assemble all the necessary capital inputs to make the enterprise profitable and provide value to society. Not all of those inputs are financial. A climate of confidence that allows credit to flow is necessary. A supportive regulatory environment is necessary. Consumer confidence is necessary to sustain markets. Employee confidence is necessary to lower costs and sustain quality, especially in customer service.

If confidence in American capitalism is lost, enterprise will suffer. The first to suffer will be employees. They have already taken the heavy hits from last fall’s meltdown in financial markets. We are told that the recession is over but that employment will take a long time to recover its pre-meltdown levels.

CEOs have a responsibility to the employees to become vocal advocates for the good sides of American capitalism but also to be frank advocates of necessary reforms and changes. American capitalism, in my book, has never been a refuge for shortfalls, shortcomings, and mere status-quo performance.

The American experience has been a call to progress, to leave things better than we found them. This should always be true for American business.

Our resolve should be to do the difficult at once and let the impossible take a little longer to accomplish.

Second, CEOs have a responsibility to customers to keep our capitalism successful and bountiful. In our free society, we rely on private enterprise to meet our needs. Customers depend on business for most everything in life, save some important public goods like safety from crime and public infrastructures. If businesses go into recession, or go out of business, consumer choice suffers and our standard of living falls.

CEOs, therefore, need to speak up and act to keep the system on a proper course. They should fix what needs to be fixed, come up with recommendations for jump-starting growth in recessionary times, and give us grounds to have confidence in the future.

And, rather obviously, if CEOs act wisely to keep American capitalism thriving, those who own our companies will benefit. The stockholders of both private and public companies are the foundational constituency looking to CEOs for long-term results.