Does global ethic have a chance?

 

Hella (the Jewish girl)
 
“I noticed a big gap between truth and truthfulness. As long as each religion insists on its own truth, naturally there will be no chance for a global ethic. However, as soon as each one represents his or her religion honestly and succeeds in communicating this truthfulness to the others, then, I think, global ethic has a real chance, and I see a real need for it.”

Dilek (the Muslim girl)
 
“I want to hang on to this global ethic idea, because I am convinced that there must be something that brings the religions together, something that we can talk about, when we sit down at the same table and start talking with each other.”

Thorsten (a Christian boy)
 
“With global ethic, you have to make a distinction. It is not about trying to reduce all the religions to some kind of homogenized, mishmash religion. Instead, what is called for, is that the religions enter into dialogue with each other and so come to an understanding of each other. We experienced this very concretely when saying grace before meals. We didn't pray together, Jewish at breakfast, Christian at lunch and Muslim at supper; instead, each one said his own prayers at each meal and the others respected that. That is for me global ethic.”

Igor (a Christian boy)

“For me, there is simply no alternative to global ethic, for, just as in our camp, we live all together in one world, from which there is no escape. In Jerusalem, you have the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, the Al-Aqsa Mosque and the Temple Wailing Wall. There is no way to get around this situation except talking about it with each other. The main thing is that there be no violence.

For me, this camp was a very important experience. We had our problems at first; we had our prejudices. Nonetheless, we succeeded in finding a common basis. A camp like this could be the cradle of a global ethic. I am convinced that Islam cannot win its holy wars, Christianity cannot proselytize and baptize the whole world, and Judaism, in any case, shows no ambitions for seeking world supremacy.

Thus, I believe, we must settle down together in this one world, which we have. And we must do so now.”