Mr. Robert Scherrer,
Dr. Schuyler Foerster,
Students of the Tayler Allderdice High School
and all the other distinguished schools participating in today’s event,

Thank you for inviting me to take part at this important “Regional Seminar for High School students” dedicated to an important subject: “Religion and Politics: a global Overview”. It is an honour to address such an audience of distinguished students.

Today’s subject is not only a topic of current affairs, it is also a very powerful one. As an introduction I would like to focus on the cultural and religious common ground as well as on some differences between Europe and the US on religious issues reflecting the richness and diversity of our common bond of shared values.

After that I will be happy to take questions and answers before we continue our discussions in the various breakout sessions.

It was not long ago that many experts were in agreement that religion was something one would not have to reckon with much longer. In the 1960s, the American anthropologist Anthony F. C. Wallace predicted that with the global advance of civilization, religion would die out everywhere. Others did not go as far, but most assumed that increasing modernization would weaken religious bonds. Where such bonds remained in existence, they would be a purely private matter, and therefore immaterial to political issues.
 
Some developments appeared to affirm this thesis. Membership in the large churches in Europe is declining - this process is not new. Even the vast majority of those who belonged to a church were of the view that religion is a matter of personal belief which should largely be kept out of the political debate. The magic word was “secularization:” The modern institutions should be freed from the traditional clutches of religious values and content. Religion in a secular society should mean: religion in an environment that, in its essential functions, gets along without religion – a sort of ornament that makes some moments more festive - but beyond this, it is without importance to the real course of things.
 
This interpretation affected how we saw the rest of the world. It was clear that the political significance of religion – be it Christian or other – in other parts of the globe was greater than it was for us. However, it seemed certain that the modernity of a society would, if nothing else, be judged by how “secular” it is. This was how a shortfall in secularization became considered to be as an underdevelopment that, one had to hope, would slowly but surely be overcome.
 
In recent years, this impression has changed. In the U.S., the thesis that modernization and religion do not go together was never true in any case. In view of the great tasks our society faces, many people in Europe and elsewhere have again become more keenly aware of how important it is to have values that offer guidance and are the basis for the responsibility of individual decisions. Many see the threat that our world is menaced by seemingly “limitless” possibilities, and they see the need for moderation, the importance of limits as a precaution against excess and extremes. The financial crisis is just one recent example.
 
The developments that have led to this - that we are again more keenly interested in religion - are not solely positive. In the history of mankind, religion has always been a double-edged sword. It can work wonders and has done so time and again: Many activists around the world who stand up for human rights, environmental protection, the sick or the poor, who stand up against anti-Semitism and any kind of xenophobia do this out of ethical and religious motivation. Religion has, however, also served time and again as a way of explaining fanatical infatuation and is in this way associated with violence and terrorism. Religious conflicts can undermine the coexistence of societies and nations and lead to bloody feuds.
 
In European history, numerous wars where waged in the name of religion. In the 30 Years War some 350 years ago, in which both sides invoked Christian values, what today compromises Germany was the major battle ground and half of the German population died in many regions. During WW I, “God with us” was inscribed on the belt buckles of German soldiers: Your own cause was always good while the others were the bad guys. In light of this history, widespread links between patriotism and religion reminds us Europeans of earlier periods in our own history we are glad to have overcome. In Germany today you will, therefore, find very few flags in our churches.
 
Indeed: Due to our different traditions we have different answers on both sides of the Atlantic on how to separate State and religion in a secular society. For example:
 
In contrast to Europeans, a high percentage of Americans find it perfectly normal for politicians to profess their religious beliefs in speeches. In Germany, on the other hand, there is considerable scepticism when politicians publicly profess their private beliefs in their actions.
 
Then again: In Germany, religious communities are entitled to broadcast programs on state radio and television. Relations between the state and religious communities are governed by numerous agreements. The representatives of the Muslim organizations are currently striving to gain rights for themselves similar to those already existing for Christian and Jewish organizations. All this would be inconceivable in the US.
 
Some religious groups in the US, on the other hand, regard the ban of home schooling in Germany as a restriction of religious freedom. In the Europe of the 18th and 19th century, the offspring of the aristocracy and the rich were often taught at home – while children of lower classes had either no or inadequate schooling. Against that background, we regard compulsory school attendance as a mark of democratic progress. In 2006 the Federal Constitutional Court decided that – as a rule - children cannot be exempted from compulsory schooling on religious grounds. In view of the tendency of a minority of Islamic immigrants to keep their children away from school, upholding compulsory public schooling is - in my view - an indispensable element of social integration.
 
In the US press, the ban on wearing headscarves in schools in some European countries – including Turkey – has often been considered as a lack of tolerance towards the traditions of Islamic immigrants. In Europe, this ban is regarded by many as a logical conclusion to be drawn from separation of state and religion. In Germany, this ban applies – though individual states have different regulations – only on teachers, judges and other public employees, and not on students. The reasoning behind this is that figures of public authority must reflect the state’s religious neutrality in their appearance.
 
And finally: In contrast to the US, religious education at public schools is widespread in Germany. Attendance is voluntary for students. We do not regard this as a violation of the state’ neutrality towards different religions enshrined in our Constitution.
 
In a globalized world immigration will change our life as well as the immigrants themselves. However one may judge the intensity of religious development in German society in the coming 20 to 50 years, it will surely be molded by an increasingly plural situation. It will, therefore, not be a return to the time when the vast majority of the German population belonged to either the Protestant or Catholic Church whereas other religious groups, such as Judaism or the Free Church were numerically small minorities. At this moment, we are dealing with a process of diversification, the dimensions of which cannot yet be foreseen. The Jewish communities have grown markedly in the past 15 years. The integration of Muslim immigrants is a major task and the convocation of the German Islam Conference by the German government is designed to better integrate Muslim immigrants into our society. Germany is a country that is becoming more religiously multifaceted. It is therefore necessary to support the values- and community- building strengths of all religions represented in Germany in the common interest of our society.

A process of intellectual freedom and religious reform is also necessary and possible in the Islamic world. How can we connect people with one another through religion while at the same time avoiding the opening of new fissures based on varying religious denominations? To overcome and prevent prejudices and stereotypes it is helpful to focus on that which binds us in our religious and denominational diversity and less on that which divides us: We are not facing a clash of civilizations, but clashes within one civilization.

Human beings learn at tremendous speed. Science and technology make things possible which could scarcely be imagined even a few decades ago – biotechnology, nanotechnology (cloning, the use of stem cells) and astrophysics – are examples of this. The globalized economy produces a permanently shifting world and puts in mankind’s hand astonishing instruments to take control of its own fate and that of the Earth.

In view of all this, man remains ambivalent. His greatness can at the same time be his undoing. His striving leads to newer and higher insights, but also to envy and malevolence, avarice and strife. Much depends upon finding the right balance between our freedom and our responsibility. That is a task for religion as well as for politics.

Thank you.