Karen Armstrong's "Charter for Compassion"

British religion scholar and author Karen Armstrong is leading a campaign for the world’s religions to adopt a “Charter for Compassion.” She went public with her effort in a speech accepting a TED Prize in February 2008. After taking suggestions from around the world, an inter-religious panel has been working to develop a concise statement of commitment to the core principals of compassion.

The statement will be unveiled next month on November 12. Below is a video of her 2008 speech which lays out her hopes and plans. It’s a bit long but well worth hearing. This year she gave a similar but shorter speech which you can find here. I will be writing more about the Charter soon. Armstrong’s recently published book, The Case for God, also supports this effort and I hope to post about it in the near future, as well. A recent post about Armstrong by Andrew Sullivan gives insight into the religious movement underway supporting her endeavor.