Core 102History and the Modern World
The Idea of Democracy
Roger Williams University
Section 01 LLC T, TH   09:30AM-10:50 AM GHH 205
Section 04 ELI  T, TH   12:30PM- 02:00 PM  GHH 106
Spring  Semester, 2016
Michael R. H. Swanson, Ph. D.
Office: GHH 215
Hours: M, W, F, 12:00-1:30
Or By Appointment
Phone:  ext 3230
E-mail:  mswanson@rwu.edu
For Tuesday, May 2  Our  Last Class Together.
Download, and Read, Markup, and and write reflections  for your Dropbox on

The Charter for Compassion   November 12, 2009
For the last day, I've chosen the shortest document in the Core Canon.  If you've been by my office, you've seen it posted to my buletin board, It seems a logical followup to Locke on Toleration and Winthrop's A Model of Chrfistian Charity.
On the left, you'll see the Charter for Compassion, read by a diverse group of people, perhaps as diverse as any you're like to see in a video this short.  Watch it a couple of times, and then, before you drop your marked up copy into your dropbox, write a comment about the strategy behing the presentation.  Is it a good strategy?  What do you think?  The Website for the Charter is here.

Some of you may have heard of TED.  "TED is a nonprofit devoted to spreading ideas, usually in the form of short, powerful talks (18 minutes or less). TED began in 1984 as a conference where Technology, Entertainment and Design converged, and today covers almost all topics — from science to business to global issues — in more than 100 languages. Meanwhile, independently run TEDx events help share ideas in communities around the world."

Our Mission: Spread ideas
TED is a global community, welcoming people from every discipline and culture who seek a deeper understanding of the world. We believe passionately in the power of ideas to change attitudes, lives and, ultimately, the world. On TED.com, we're building a clearinghouse of free knowledge from the world's most inspired thinkers — and a community of curious souls to engage with ideas and each other, both online and at TED and TEDx events around the world, all year long. 
"As she accepts her 2008 TED Prize, author and scholar Karen Armstrong talks about how the Abrahamic religions -- Islam, Judaism, Christianity -- have been diverted from the moral purpose they share to foster compassion." But Armstrong has seen a yearning to change this fact. People want to be religious, she says; we should act to help make religion a force for harmony. She asks the TED community to help her build a Charter for Compassion -- to help restore the Golden Rule as the central global religious doctrine". Karen Armstrong won the prize in 2008, and the Charter was issued next year.
"The future is not some place we are going, but one we are creating.

The paths are not to be found, but made.  And the activity of making them changes both the maker and their destination."
~ Johnn Schaar

The Charter for Compassion was announced November 12, 2009.  Since then, 106,875  individuals have affirmed a belief in the charter’s principles.  Any one in this class who would wish to do so can do so at the charter’s website.    The Charter was produced by a collaboration of dozens of organizations representing many faiths and avenues of thought.  Links to many of them are below. 
Compassionate Listening Project
Dalai Lama Center for Peace-Education
Balanced Views of Religion and Spirituality
Abraham Path
American Society for Muslim Advancement
Brahma Kumaris Online University
Children of the Earth
The Coexist Foundation
Common Bonds Institute
Cordoba Initiative
Cross Currents Magazine
Earth Charter
European Muslim Network
The Fetzger Institute
The Golden Rule Radical
Greater Good Science Center
Initiatives of Change
Institute for Religion Culture and Peace, Payap University, Thailand
Interfaith Center of New York
Intersections International
Search for Common Ground
Muslim Presence
We'll spend a bit of the class talking together about the Letter from 8 Clergmen and the Letter from Birmingham Jail then on to...