5 Faith Leaders Who Had Great Respect For Each Other

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Respect for others is an essential quality in a leader, not that you would know it today. Today, many so called leaders are more interested in insulting their opponents than they are actually finding common ground. Any idea of compromise, if it is raised at all, is an empty platitude. This, however, is not how it should be. Leaders should be able to compromise with others for the betterment of everyone for whom the leader is responsible.

In addition to the ability to compromise, a leader must be respectful of others. A true leader does not spend their time coming up with clever insults or dismissing opinions simply because they are different. A good leader listens to and considers others’ words. They may not always agree with what they hear, but they do their best to understand and to show respect for each other.

As much as some people love to claim religion is a divisive force, religious leaders are actually some of the few remaining leaders who do show respect to one another. They disagree on fundamental aspects of the world, but they still manage to approach each other civilly and respectfully. Here are five faith leaders who show and showed great respect to their fellow faith leaders and those of other faiths.

Dalai Lama

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The 14th Dalai Lama is well known for his willingness and desire to participate in interfaith dialogues. He spoke at a seminar on “World Peace and Harmony through Interfaith Dialogue” in India with spiritual leaders from religions including but not limited to Islam, Hinduism and Jainism. In his own words, the Dalai Lama was “very happy to participate in this wonderful meeting, among spiritual leaders who not only carry out their own practice sincerely,” he said, “but [who] also take action to solve problems they encounter in a non-violent way.”

The Dalai Lama has been involved in long-running dialogues with Rabbis, many visits with Muslim leaders in India and had referred to Jesus as an “enlightened master” who spread a message of tolerance and compassion. “[Compassion is] a strong unifying thread among all the major faiths. And these days we need to highlight what unifies us,” the Dalai Lama said. “Harmony among the major faiths has become an essential ingredient of peaceful coexistence in our world. From this perspective, mutual understanding among these traditions is not merely the business of religious believers – it matters for the welfare of humanity as a whole.”

Pope Francis

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Pope Francis has become the sort of superstar that the Vatican has not had in decades. For quite some time, the Pope was of interest only to Catholics, but with the appointment of Pope Francis, the world has been watching the Vatican. This has led to a great number of people paying attention to Pope Francis’ calls for respect, trust and understanding between religions. He spoke of the importance of “listening to one another without hurrying to give a response” when he met with several imams and called for conflicts to be resolved through respect and dialogue even when acknowledging the “wealth of [religion’s] differences” during a visit to Myanmmar where he met with Christian, Buddhist, Muslim, Hindu and Jewish leaders. When speaking with the leaders of several faiths at a meeting in Bangladesh, Pope Francis stated that ending religious justification for violence would require “more than mere tolerance… [We must] reach out to others in mutual trust and understanding, and so to build a unity that sees diversity not as a threat, but as a potential source of enrichment and growth.”

Thich Nhat Hahn

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Thich Nhat Hanh is known for his support of interfaith dialogue. The Buddhist monk has warned repeatedly about clinging so rigidly to a set of beliefs that a person loses the ability to keep an open mind about other belief systems. “Do not,” he warned, “be idolatrous about…any doctrine, theory or ideology, even Buddhist ones.” He has spoken at Christian and Jewish settings about peace, forgiveness and active nonviolence. Thich Nhat Hahn has also written about how respecting other religions can lead to both deepening one’s own faith and finding kernels of truth in other faiths. His book, “Living Buddha, Living Christ,” examines the ways in which Buddhism and Christianity intersect, the similarities between these two very different religions and how much a devout person of either faith can learn from the other religion.

Martin Luther King, Jr.

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Martin Luther King, Jr. is most commonly remembered for his central role in the Civil Rights Movement. In addition to being a visionary for civil rights, he was also far ahead of his time in terms of respect between faiths. King saw clearly that the largest and most immediate problem in his life was the issue of race, but he stated in “Where Do We Go From Here: Chaos or Community” that solving race relations would not end the problem of bigotry or hatred. “We have inherited…a great ‘world house’ in which we have to live together–black and white, Easterner and Westerner, Gentile and Jew, Catholic and Protestant, Muslim and Hindu…We must learn somehow to live with each other in peace.” King saw Christ’s teachings in Gandhi’s nonviolent struggle for Indian independence, walked arm in arm with Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel in Selma and formed a friendship with Buddhist monk Thich Nhat Hanh. King described a fellow Civil Rights leader’s anti-Semitic remarks as “anti-man and anti-God” and stated that the greatest enemy of people of every faith was “[the] discrimination, dictatorship, greed, hatred and violence, which lie within the heart of man”

Swami Vivekananda

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Swami Vivekananda is best known for his influence on Hinduism and the revival of nationalism in colonial India. He was also, however, one of the fathers of the modern movement toward interfaith dialogues. Speaking in the early 20th century, Swami Vivekananda was eons ahead of his time, but his lessons continue to resonate even today. In a lecture in 1900, Swami Vivekananda called for people to move beyond tolerance of other religions and into acceptance. “Toleration,” Swami Vivekananda said, “means that I think that you are wrong, and I am just allowing you to live.” Instead of merely tolerating other religions, people should accept and welcome other traditions. “The voice of the centuries is coming down to us,” he said. “The first message it brings us is, ‘peace be unto you and to all religions.’ It is not a message of antagonism, but one of united religion.”

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