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About the Charter for Compassion

The Charter for Compassion brings together the voices of people from all religions.  It seeks to remind the world that while all faiths are not the same, they all share the core principle of compassion and the Golden Rule.  The Charter will change the tenor of the conversation around religion.  It will be a clarion call to the world.

Over the next months the Charter website site will be open for the world to contribute to Charter for Compassion.  Using innovative group decision-making software, people of all faiths, from all across the globe, will contribute their words and stories on a website designed specifically for the Charter.  A Council of Sages, made up of religious thinkers and leaders, will craft the world’s words into the final version of the Charter.  The document will not only speak to the core ideas of compassion but will also address the actions all segments of society can take to bring these ideas into the world more fully.   The Charter for Compassion will then be signed by religious leaders of all faiths at a large launch event, followed by a series of other events to publicize and promote the Charter around the world.

The Charter for Compassion will not be a new organization. There are hundreds of existing organizations around the world already working tirelessly in the name of compassion and interfaith dialogue.  Our goal is to highlight these groups in effort to raise the profile of their work.

The Charter will show that the voice of negativity and violence so often associated with religion is the minority and that the voice of compassion is the majority. Through the participation of the grassroots, people around the world will expect more out of religious leaders and one another. In doing so, the Charter will shift conceptions of religion for all people.

About Karen Armstrong

“I say that religion isn’t about believing things. It’s ethical alchemy. It’s about behaving in a way that changes you, that gives you intimations of holiness and sacredness.”

Karen Armstrong is one of the most provocative, original thinkers on the role of religion in the modern world. Armstrong is a former Roman Catholic nun who left a British convent to pursue a degree in modern literature at Oxford. In 1982 she wrote a book about her seven years in the convent, Through the Narrow Gate, that angered and challenged Catholics worldwide; her recent book The Spiral Staircase discusses her subsequent spiritual awakening after leaving the convent, when she began to develop her iconoclastic take on the great monotheistic religions.

She has written more than 20 books around the ideas of what Islam, Judaism and Christianity have in common, and around their effect on world events, including the magisterial A History of God and Holy War: The Crusades and Their Impact on Today’s World. Her latest book is The Bible: A Biography. Her meditations on personal faith and religion (she calls herself a freelance monotheist) spark discussion — especially her take on fundamentalism, which she sees in a historical context, as an outgrowth of modern culture.

In the post-9/11 world, she is a powerful voice for ecumenical understanding.

About TED and the TED Prize

TED stands for Technology, Entertainment, Design.  It started out (in 1984) as a conference bringing together people from those three worlds.  Since then its scope has become even broader.  The annual conference now brings together the world's most fascinating thinkers and doers, who are challenged to give the talk of their lives (in 18 minutes).  TED.com makes the best talks and performances, the ideas worth spreading, from TED available to the public, for free.

The TED Prize is designed to leverage the TED Community's exceptional array of talent and resources. It is awarded annually to three exceptional individuals who each receive $100,000 and, much more important, the granting of "One Wish to Change the World." After several months of preparation, they unveil their wish at an award ceremony held during the TED Conference.  The TED community then steps up and participates in the granting of the wish.  These wishes have led to collaborative initiatives with far-reaching impact.