Feature | Faith Leaders of Seven Traditions Gather in Salt Lake City for G20 Interfaith Forum
The G20 Interfaith Forum (IF20) opened on October 16 at the Historic Tabernacle on Temple Square in Salt Lake City, Utah. Senior leaders of seven faith traditions addressed the opening ceremony, in what organizers described as the largest gathering of interfaith leaders in Utah history. President Dallin H. Oaks of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, who hosted the evening, welcomed delegates and praised the Forum's work as advocates for peace. 'Surely this is the most prominent constellation of faith leaders that has ever gathered in Salt Lake City,' Oaks said, pledging the Church's support: 'We want to be part of your efforts.'
Sheikh Dr. Mohammed bin Abdulkarim Al-Issa, Secretary General of the Muslim World League, delivered the opening keynote as guest of honor. He warned that hate speech, increasingly amplified by digital platforms, is the gateway to violence, and that it often borrows the language of religion. 'Optimism waits for things to improve on their own,' Al-Issa said. 'Hope, however, is a decision taken by people of living conscience and a willingness to do hard work for tomorrow.' He was equally direct about violence in God's name: any unjust war, 'including those made in the name of religion, is not a divine banner, but a satanic one.'
Also in Salt Lake City, Utah Governor Spencer Cox, former South Carolina Governor David Beasley and Martin Luther King III kicked off the Forum by urging faith communities to lead the way out of an era of contempt and to 'disagree better.' Dr. Francis Kuria Kagema, Secretary General of Religions for Peace, told the opening ceremony: 'As faith leaders, we share a moral responsibility to act. We must imagine a world of sacred shared flourishing.' (GSM, from the Forum's opening release via EIN Presswire)
Source: GSM · USA (original Chinese edition)
Photo: 盐湖城圣殿广场历史会幕——G20宗教论坛开幕礼举行地 / The Historic Tabernacle on Temple Square in Salt Lake City, venue of the Forum's opening ceremony. Photo: Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0.
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