Religious Support for Democratic World Federation. Part I

David C. Oughton
Associate professor in the Department of Theological Studies at Saint Louis University

The first time that many religious representatives met with each other was at the World Parliament  of Religions in Chicago in 1893. Three of the goals of this gathering were to show “what and how many important truths the various Religions hold and teach in common”; to discover “what light Religion has to throw on the great problems of the present age”; and “to bring the nations of the earth into a more friendly fellowship, in the hope of securing permanent international peace.”[i] The president of this Parliament proclaimed, “Henceforth the religions of the world will make war, not on each other, but on the giant evils that afflict humanity.”[ii] But after two world wars, the Cold War with massive nuclear proliferation, and over eighty wars since the end of the Second World War, many people representing many different religions realized the need for modern Parliaments in order to address our current global problems.

At the 1993 Parliament of the World’s Religions in Chicago, Professor Hans Küng emphasized the principles of the Declaration toward a Global Ethic: “no peace among the nations without peace among the religions;” “no peace among the religions without dialogue among the religions;” and “no new global order without a global ethic.”[iii] The Parliament of the World’s Religions has since met in Cape Town, South Africa (1999), Barcelona, Spain (2004), Melbourne, Australia (2009), Salt Lake City, USA (2015), and Toronto, Canada (2018).

Many representatives of different religions at the latest Parliament in Toronto spoke about humanity’s most pressing problems: violence, human rights atrocities, poverty, racism, gender inequality, war, nuclear weapons, and environment degradation due to global warming. (This Parliament added a fifth section “Commitment to a Culture of Sustainability and Care for the Earth” to the Declaration toward a Global Ethic.) Many representatives of different religions called for all religions to condemn the causes of these global problems and seek cooperation among the religions and nations of the world in order to solve them. But very few speakers addressed the main reason why these major problems are not being adequately solved: global anarchy, an international system of sovereign nation-states that lacks world law and world order.[iv]

At my presentation at the Parliament in Toronto, I explained how some religions, especially the Baha’i Faith and the Roman Catholic Church, have developed teachings about world peace in order to counteract the systemic problem of global anarchy. I argued that if these teachings were instituted by creating a just and democratic world federation, then humanity would be much better able to actually solve our major global problems.

Baha’i Teachings on World Peace

Baha’is believe that Mirza Husayn-Ali (1817-1892), a Shia Muslim from Persia[v] and known by the title Baha’u’llah (the Glory of God), was the most recent but not the last manifestation or prophet of God. Baha’is believe that revelation from God is progressive and never finished. They recognize Krishna, Buddha, Confucius, Moses, Zarathustra, Jesus, Muhammad, and others as previous messengers of God who taught people in various cultures in a pre-scientific age. Baha’u’llah’s mission was to bring God’s message to the global community in a scientific age. Baha’u’llah and the Baha’is emphasize the harmony between religion and science.

The three main principles of the Baha’i Faith are the oneness of God, the oneness of religion, and the oneness of humanity. Baha’is do not believe that there should be only one religion but that the religions of the world should work together in order to achieve universal peace and justice. They do not believe that all people should be the same or have identical beliefs. But Baha’u’llah and the Baha’is do believe in the equality of all people. They therefore condemn all forms of prejudice. They stress that men and women should have equal opportunities and rights. They call for the independent search for truth and universal education for all. They define worship as work or actions that benefit others.

Realizing that much violent conflict has occurred because of unjust economic systems, Baha’is teach that extreme wealth and extreme poverty should be abolished so that everyone is fed, housed, and educated. Baha’is envision a time when every nation will follow a universal system of weights and measures as well as an equitable global system of fair trade.

Along with these social, economic, and political principles, Baha’is call for the spiritual unification of our planet. They believe that the unity of the human family is the will of God. There is only one race, the human race. World unity means that people around the world view themselves as members of the human family and as world citizens. It means everyone sharing a responsibility for protecting and taking care of our common planet. According to Baha’u’llah, “it is not for him to pride himself who loves his own country, but rather for him who loves the whole world. The earth is but one country, and mankind its citizens.”[vi] These Baha’i teachings are the ways and means for building the necessary foundations for a world peace system.

An important aspect of the Baha’i teachings is the creation of a global parliament, a world executive, and a supreme tribunal. Abdu’l-Baha (1844-1921), the eldest son of Baha’u’llah and official interpreter of the Baha’i Faith between 1892 and 1921, said that the leaders of the national governments of the world “must make the Cause of Peace the object of general consultation, and seek by every means in their power to establish a Union of the nations of the world. They must conclude a binding treaty and establish a covenant, the provisions of which shall be sound, inviolable, and definite.”[vii] A global legislature composed of representatives of every country would create laws that would make war and the weapons of war obsolete. A world executive would have the authority to enforce the laws enacted by a democratic world parliament against individuals who violate them. A world tribunal would be able to adjudicate conflicts between nations through compulsory rulings and binding arbitration.

In order to promote the sense of a world community and to facilitate a world democratic legal system, Baha’u’llah and many of his followers have emphasized the need for a universal secondary language such as Esperanto as an essential tool for a world democracy. Abdu’l-Baha realized that “a universal language would make intercourse possible with every nation. Thus, it would be needful to know two languages only, the mother tongue and the universal speech. The latter would enable a man to communicate with any and every man in the world! ... Esperanto has been drawn up with this end in view... Therefore appreciate Esperanto, for it is the beginning of the carrying out of one of the most important of the Laws of Baha’u’llah, and it must continue to be improved and perfected.”[viii]

Shoghi Effendi (1897-1957), the grandson of Abdu’l-Baha and guardian of the Baha’i Faith between 1921 and 1957, wrote this in The World Order of Baha’u’llah as a summary of the Baha’i teachings on peace: “A world federal system, ruling the whole earth and exercising unchallengeable authority over its unimaginably vast resources, blending and embodying the ideals of both the East and the West, liberated from the curse of war and its miseries, and bent on the exploitation of all the available sources of energy on the surface of the planet, a system in which Force is made the servant of Justice, whose life is sustained by its universal recognition of one God and by its allegiance to one common Revelation – such is the goal towards which humanity, impelled by the unifying forces of life, is moving.”[ix]

After the deaths of Abdu’l-Baha and Shoghi Effendi, Baha’u’llah’s teachings have been promoted by the Universal House of Justice which is composed of Baha’is who are elected every five years. Baha’is believe that justice should be the main principle of a new world order that was envisioned by Baha’u’llah. After meeting at the Baha’i world center in Haifa, Israel, the members of the Universal House of Justice in 1985 issued “The Promise of World Peace.” They emphasized that “world order can be founded only on an unshakable consciousness of the oneness of mankind, a spiritual truth which all the human sciences confirm. Anthropology, physiology, psychology, recognize only one human species, albeit infinitely varied in the secondary aspects of life. Recognition of this truth requires abandonment of prejudice – prejudice of every kind – race, class, color, creed, nation, sex, degree of material civilization, everything which enables people to consider themselves superior to others.”[x]

Creating a world parliament is a necessary but not a sufficient condition for lasting world peace. Baha’is refer to the creation of a democratic world federation as the Lesser Peace. When the religions and nations of the world unite to form a human family on Earth, then the promise of Baha’u’llah will be fulfilled: “These fruitless strifes, these ruinous wars shall pass away, and the Most Great Peace shall come.”[xi]

Catholic Christian Teaching about a World Public Authority

The messianic mission of Jesus of Nazareth was to begin the kingdom or reign of God on earth as it is in heaven.[xii] The fulfillment of this ultimate goal would be the time of peace and justice for all. Because Jesus taught “blessed are the peacemakers”, “turn the other cheek if someone strikes you”, “love your enemies,” and “whoever lives by the sword will die by the sword,”[xiii] early Christians were pacifists. They refused to join the Roman army because that would have meant affirming “Caesar is Lord” instead of “Jesus is Lord.”

When the Roman Empire was attacked after Christianity became the official religion of the Roman Empire in the late fourth century, St. Augustine of Hippo began the development of the Christian just war tradition. This teaching said that Christians could fight only in cases of self-defense that is declared by legitimate authority and as a last resort. If such a war is declared to be just, then it must be fought by moral means: weapons and tactics must produce more good than evil and civilians must never be directly targeted. These conditions for limited warfare were developed when war involved hand-to-hand combat between soldiers while civilians were usually mere spectators. Most Christians throughout the history of Christianity accepted the teaching that if fighting a war is the only way to defend and protect people and their rights, then war must be rare and limited. Christians who have accepted the just war teaching believe that justice is a precondition for peace.

Because the limitations of the just war teaching were not always followed and because of the destructiveness of modern conventional weapons and weapons of mass destruction which cannot discriminate between combatants and noncombatants, many Christian scholars have questioned the practicality and morality of the just war tradition in modern times. Because so many national leaders have justified their wars in terms of national interest and because more civilians are killed or suffer in modern wars than combatants, many modern Catholic leaders and theologians have been developing teachings about eliminating the war system by means of a system of global law and order.

Pope John XXIII wrote his 1963 encyclical “Pacem in Terris” in light of the proliferation of nuclear weapons during the Cold War and in response to the Cuban Missile Crisis. He taught that “today the universal common good poses problems of worldwide dimensions, which cannot be adequately tackled or solved except by the efforts of public authority endowed with a wideness of powers, structure and means of the same proportions: that is, of public authority which is in a position to operate in an effective manner on a worldwide basis. The moral order itself, therefore, demands that such a form of public authority be established.” (#137)

The Catholic bishops of the world emphasized this teaching at the Second Vatican Council. They taught that everyone should “work for the time when all war can be completely outlawed by international consent.” They realized that such a goal requires “the establishment of some universal public authority acknowledged as such by all, and endowed with effective power to safeguard, on the behalf of all, security, regard for justice, and respect for rights.”[xiv]

In their response to the nuclear arms race in the 1980s, the American Catholic bishops issued the pastoral letter The Challenge of Peace in 1983 as a contribution to the debate about the Reagan Administration’s policies on nuclear weapons. The American bishops wrote that the world must go beyond the nation-state system because “we are now entering an era of new global interdependencies requiring global systems of governance to manage the resulting conflicts and ensure our common security.” (#242) They argued that “mutual security and survival require a new vision of the world as one interdependent planet.” (#244)

In his 2009 encyclical “Caritas in Veritate,” Pope Benedict XVI called for a reform of the United Nations Organization and for “a true world public authority.” (#67) He emphasized that such a global authority should be based on the principles of subsidiarity and solidarity. The principle of subsidiarity in Catholic social teaching means that problems should be dealt with at the lowest level possible. Local problems need to be solved by local governments and officials. National governments must solve problems within each of their borders. But global problems need to be solved by the world community acting together. The principle of solidarity recognizes the growth of global interdependence. The decisions of any one country can affect the well-being of the rest of the world. According to Catholic social teaching, each local and national government must base its policies and laws on the common good. According to Pope Benedict, what is needed to manage globalization, solve global problems, and promote the common good of all humanity is a global authority that is universally recognized.

In their response to global economic tensions, the Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace wrote in 2011 that a supranational authority “should have a realistic structure and be set up gradually.” It should support sustainable development and social progress for all. The Pontifical Council argues that globalization is unifying people around the world and will eventually lead to the rule of law on the global level. A future global legal authority must promote global social justice. It must focus on “financial and monetary policies that will not damage the weakest countries, and policies aimed at achieving free and stable markets and a fair distribution of world wealth, which may also derive from unprecedented forms of global fiscal solidarity.” In order for a world public authority to be moral and just, “humanity needs to be committed to the transition from a situation of archaic struggles between national entities, to a new model of a more cohesive, polyarchic international society that respects every people’s identity within the multifaceted riches of a single humanity.” Such a global authority can serve the human family and the common good. (15)

In order to solve our major global problems, especially the negative effects of global climate change, Pope Francis wrote in his 2015 encyclical “Laudato Si” that in order to create systems of renewable energy, sustainable agriculture, better management of marine and land resources, and universal access to clean drinking water, “enforceable international agreements are urgently needed.” (#173) In order to achieve this goal, he concluded that “there is urgent need of a true world political authority.” (#175)

[i] Rev. John Henry Barrows, Chairman of the 1893 Parliament, The World’s Parliament of Religions, Volume I (Chicago: The Parliament Publishing Company, 1893), p. 18.

[ii] Charles Carroll Bonney, President of the 1893 Parliament, ibid., p. 186

[iii] Professor Hans Küng is the main author of the Declaration of a Global Ethic that was accepted by the Parliament of the World’s Religions in Chicago on September 4, 1993. He argues that globalization requires a global ethic. A global ethic is a minimal basic consensus relating to binding values, irrevocable standards, and moral attitudes which can be affirmed by all religions despite their theological differences. See his Global Responsibility: In Search of a New World Ethic (New York: Continuum, 1991) and A Global Ethic for Global Politics and Economics (New York: Oxford University Press, 1998).

[iv] Swami Agnivesh was an exception. At one of the plenary sessions of the Parliament in Toronto, he said, “Is it not ironic that while we are raising our voices for peace, 1,700 billion U.S. dollars are being spent annually on armaments and the war machine? We, the people of the World, need to unite and demand a world government and a world parliament based on the Earth Constitution.” In a conversation with me after his speech, Swami said, “Without a world government, we can’t solve our major world problems.”

[v] Baha’u’llah was born on November 12, 1817 in Tehran, Persia. He was a disciple of Siyyid Ali- Muhammad, known as the Bab (the Gate). After the Bab was publicly executed in 1850, Baha’u’llah was imprisoned in the Black Pit in Tehran. He was then exiled to Baghdad. In 1863 he was banished to Constantinople and Adrianople. In 1868 he was sent to the prison in Akka. He died while under house arrest in Akka on May 29, 1892.

[vi] Baha’u’llah, “Gleanings from the Writings of Baha’u’llah, CXVII” in Writings of Baha’u’llah (New Delhi: Baha’i Publishing Trust, 1994), p. 590.

[vii] Abdu’l-Baha, “The Secret of Divine Civilization” in Writings and Utterances of Abdu’l-Baha (New Delhi: Baha’i Publishing Trust, 2000), p. 34.

[viii] Abdu’l-Baha, “The Eighth Principle – Universal Peace” in Writings and Utterances of Abdu’l-Baha, pp. 777-778. World community, world citizenship, and world democracy could be enhanced by the Baha’i proposal to have everyone learn a universal auxiliary language in addition to their native language. A universal language should not be a native language such as English because that would mean one group of people would only need to learn one language. An artificial language such as Esperanto would be the best choice for a universal auxiliary language because it is grammar-coded with basic rules and no exception to those rules. See Ronald J. Glossop, "Language Policy and a Just World Order," Alternatives, Vol. XIII, #3, July, 1988, p. 396, and John Roberts, "World Language for One World," Esperanto/USA, 1994 (2).

[ix] Shoghi Effendi, The World Order of Baha’u’llah (Wilmette, IL: Baha’i Publishing Trust, 1965), p. 204.

[x] Section Three of “The Promise of World Peace,” a Baha’i Statement on Peace by the Universal House of Justice, 1985. In January, 2019, the Universal House of Justice wrote a letter about world peace to the Baha’is of the world. In this document they said, “Fostering unity, by harmonizing disparate elements and nurturing in every heart a selfless love for humankind, is the task of religion." They also stressed that “the establishment of peace is a duty to which the entire human race is called.”

[xi] Baha’u’llah said this in an interview in 1890 to Professor Edward Granville Browne of Cambridge University. This saying is quoted in Section Four of “The Promise of World Peace.”

[xii] Matthew 6: 9-10.

[xiii] Matthew 5: 9; Matthew 5: 38-39; Matthew 5: 43-44; Matthew 26: 52.

[xiv] Second Vatican Council, The Church Today, Part II, Chapter 5, #82.