Introduction Speeches removed till SHaykh Hamza Speaks:
Hamza Yusuf and that is the challenge we
still have to meet thank you thank you
rather hood sacks shake shake Robbie
what have you been taking the title
faith and the challenges of secularism
atheist like to invert things and I
could see them having a conference
secularism and the challenges of failure
yeah because this is part of the crises
that we're in is that we have and
Jonathan hate in his book righteous
right he articulates I think really well
this this problem that we have of what
we privilege as values like Liberty as
opposed to sanctity and and he actually
despite the fact that he's a liberal
makes an argument that religious people
have a much broader spectrum of moral
considerations than people on the other
side I I think there's a lot of challenges that secularism faces. But I think the greatest challenge is that religion faces is the stupidity of so many religious people and I think that secularism actually is a response to that stupidity, because there's so much inanity in religion and this is what they love. Religosity, which was done by Bill Maher, this film had a huge impact on people. But it didn't show people like Jonathan Sacks rabbi Sacks it showed people that would be better off just not speaking and and this is a problem because we're in a society that it honors freedom of speech and everybody's entitled to their opinion no matter how stupid it might be but one of the things that mass technology has done is its really given everybody a platform and so somebody who lives in a house with wheels and has cars on its front porch
without wheels can actually have a Quran
burning day and it ends up causing riots
in other parts of the world this is the
type of environment that we're in so
it's it's a very precarious situation I
think for all of us
and and I think faith for me the tragedy
is I just see these these great
religious traditions and I in all
honesty I mean my undergraduate was in
comparative religious studies but all of
the religious traditions Buddhism
Hinduism Catholicism and the Protestant
formations Judaism have extraordinary
truths in them that have nourished
countless people through the centuries
and one of the problems with religion is
that when when people study religion
they tend to study the history of
religion they actually don't study the
religion itself so very few most people
know about the Crusades and and they
know about the Inquisition but they
don't know about st. Thomas Aquinas or
the zoom or what he has to say
about the nature of the self or the
trials and tribulations of the self when
we think of Islam now people
unfortunately think of Isis they don't
think of Gaza Lee who had a huge
influence on st. Thomas
they don't think of arrow ease who had a
massive influence on your European
thought they don't think about these
giants when they think of Islam they
think of Isis and these and these
horrible iterations that have manifested
and so I think religion is an incredible
victim of a lot of really poorly
practiced religion and and I think the
secularists they just this is what they
latch on to and when they attack
religion and so for me I think if we
look at secular the secularization and
just to define terms I'm going to use
Harvey Cox has I think a good definition
which is the idea of removing religious
and metaphysical considerations in in
society so that religion and metaphysics
doesn't inform the society but another
definition is the disenchantment of
nature because religious traditions all
of our traditions see the human being is
a steward of the earth and and that
there's a moral responsibility as a
human being whereas in in in in a
disenchanted world nature becomes raw
materials and resources to be exploited
and the same happens to the human being
so you have a D sake realization of
politics so that the the the this and
this occurred obviously first in the
West but it's continued all over the
world this idea that political service
has nothing to do with moral or
spiritual responsibility and and then
finally the D consecration of values
this idea that that values become
relativized and that we don't values I
mean secular is from a Latin word which
which meant the here and now and so this
idea that
that the past doesn't have anything to
tell us to inform us and just to give
you one example in a book that I read
recently the Benedict option yeah I'm
glad you mentioned yeah which is a Rod
Dreher book it's a very interesting book
but one of the things he says I mean
he's very pessimistic about the
situation and he's basically arguing for
a kind of to create enclaves of sanity
where religious people can raise their
children I mean that maybe the Amish in
the end will you know have been the
wisest of us all but he says that the
two things that most threaten the church
today are sex and technology and and I
think the the the the sex aspect
obviously is the type of culture that's
been created in the West the hookup
culture it can't sustain family and and
we're seeing if some of you saw the
stats on marriages recently that have
just completely flipped in the last 15
years people don't want the problems of
just getting married and having to deal
with a spouse it's obviously harder for
the women than the men but dealing with
a spouse is part of marriage and people
don't want the emotional entanglements
of these things and then also they don't
want the sacrifice of raising children
so a lot of people just aren't having
children this is a major problem in
Europe and and increasingly in the
United States and Japan so I think
technology is is is also enabling this
this this detachment into a kind of
autistic world so a lot of young people
now are are growing up completely
detached from the world that they're in
I mean I see them at the University
almost every day with their phones in
walking with their their their iPhones
and these things and really in another
world and so one of the most fundamental
things about religion is it creates
community you need a minyan in in
Judaism you have to have at least 10
people to do certain prayers in as long
a need 12 people to Jamaa you know the
ecclesia in traditional Christianity
the the Songhai in buddhism the idea
community is at the essence of religion
and at the essence of community is
family and family then becomes an
extended it extends out to the community
so the breakdown of these things are
directly related to the breakdown of
religion and and this is what I think is
really being lost on a lot of people
what rabbi sacks said people don't
realize what we're going to lose with
the loss of religion family I do not
believe I don't believe that family can
be sustained without religion if you
look in this country in 1968 there was a
I think Humphrey did it about the the
crisis of the Negro family which Daniel
Patrick Moynihan morning 1665 so the
crises of the of the black family was
that twenty percent of the children were
being born out of wedlock that now is is
well past fifty percent seventy it
exactly and it's it's it's in the in the
white community you're looking it's well
past twenty percent and so in Britain
it's nearly fifty percent fifty percent
almost fifty percent of children in
Britain are born outside marriage now to
be fair some of this is common-law
marriage I mean there are people that
are in committed monogamous or committed
relationships and raising children
without having gone through the process
of marriage but a lot aren't and so the
breakdown of the family which is it's
the it's the building block of the
society I think so we're you know I
think we're we're dealing with a lot of
variables out there and and then finally
the last thing increasingly I think in
the United States what we're seeing is
is a French model of a governmental
attitude towards religion the United
States traditionally was not a lay
assist model in it secularism did not
mean that we exclude faith from the
public square and that's very clear in
the foundational writings that we have
and it was confirmed consistently by the
Supreme Court throughout the 19th
century and others and but whereas now
you're seeing that it's the Steven
Carter
model you know the culture of disbelief
you can tinker with God but in your
garage and well unto you if you bring
him him out into the public space and so
I think that to me is deeply troubling
and I think institutionally it was
traditionally a lot of institutions now
are being threatened especially
religious colleges churches I mean the
birth control and the Hobby Lobby
situation these are all affecting all of
us so we've talked a great deal about
the the terrible challenges that are
being thrown up by secularism and
secularization before we turn to our
audience I want to ask each of you to
talk about possible responses you
mentioned Rod Dreher written a book that
a lot of people are talking about that
is one recipe for responding to an
aggressive secularism namely doubling
down and trying to build structures that
will help form our faith communities to
become more strong and resilient but I
want to ask the question this way what
do you think in this trial log your
respective faith communities can learn
from each other
rod rear and his book actually talks
very movingly about a visit that
Archbishop Charles Chaput a Catholic
Archbishop of Philadelphia made to
yeshiva University in 2012 rabbi sacks
and Archbishop chef who talks very
movingly about how struck he was by the
intensity and the passion and the love
of the students that you see before the
Torah he was struck by the the way the
students studied in pairs and he thought
this is something that Christians can
learn from from from Jews are there
other instances of that sort where
Robbie you you've you've learned
something from hamza about how we can
respond to these challenges or how can
muslims perhaps learn from christians
and jews hamza and in terms of
responding to the challenges of
secularism start with you
well I mean the first thing that any
faith tradition that's attentive can
learn from Judaism and from the history
of the Jewish people is survival of all
the ancient peoples who has survived the
Jews now I'm a critic of the Benedict
option I have great respect for God rare
I have great respect for Roger I
represent the other point of view which
I'll talk about in a moment but but I
have to concede to rod if we look at
Jewish experience throughout history and
this would be an oversimplification that
Jonathan can correct a lot of the effort
was separation separating from the
corrupted nations refusing to capitulate
to infanticide to sexual immorality
temple prostitution always with some
members of the community sometimes large
members of the community falling into it
but always with the core and the remnant
sticking and and and separating from it
so if I were if I were doing a brief for
Rods Benedict option I would point to
those aspects to Jewish separation from
corrupt surrounding cultures and nations
as as as evidence for that but I think
that the tenacity of faith the
determination to hand on faith to to the
children the refusal to accommodate and
capitulate to what from the point of
view of the faith can only be judged to
be wrong despite the carrots and the
sticks that are used to compel
capitulation the the there's always the
temptation no matter what your faith is
in the face of
a hegemonic power opposed to that face
the temptation is always to give in in
order to get ahead and sometimes if you
don't give in or sometimes whether or
not you're prepared to give in there's
there's compulsion but historically the
Jewish people have as a people not
individuals may go their ways but as a
people has refused either to accept what
is contrary the faith in order to get
ahead or to yield to the the
intimidation and bullying of the
hegemonic power well I mean I think I
wrote an article some time ago for the
Christian Science Monitor what what
Muslims could learn from Catholics which
talked about just the Irish Catholic
experience of coming here the Irish
Catholics were looked down upon my own
family changed their name from Oh Han
sook - Hanson and and I I don't think
people realize how difficult it was for
that assimilation to take place in
Catholicism it took a long time for
Catholics ruling to be accepted but what
they did was they created extraordinary
educational institutions that became the
envy of even the Protestant communities
and and so I think for me it was the the
grit that the Irish Catholics showed
because a lot of those institutions were
built with small donations from Irish
workers and I know my own family
supported st. Joseph's College in
Philadelphia so I think that's something
that Muslims could definitely learn from
the Catholic experience and you're
putting this into action with Lacuna
column right and and Zaytuna College is
I mean we have we have a Catholic Dean
we have a priesthood and we we have we
have a priest teaching rhetoric and
English literature and when we have
Vatican visitation a couple weeks ago
and and when the bishop came in to the
classroom and it was a surprise I didn't
know the priest was teaching he saw the
priests and all these Muslims and he's
just his jaw dropped in so the priest
comes runs and kneels down because he
had the bishops
and ask for a blessing in front of the
Muslim class and and and then he looked
down he said it would be a Franciscan
[Laughter]
but I think that that definitely did the
aspect of education and also the
determination that the Catholics have
have held I mean there's a lot of
capitulation going on and caving in and
a lot of different places but by and
large the Catholics have held to a
tradition that is not in any way
consonant with the zeitgeist and and
that that takes immense moral courage to
to be true to your principles I'm seeing
in our Muslim community a lot of young
people completely capitulating to basic
principles that we have and it's for me
it's very tragic because it once you
lose that you lose your faith I just I
don't see how you can hold on to your
faith in terms of the Jewish experience
I think the the incredible things that
Muslims can learn from the Jewish
community the number one the thing is is
about the halacha
law and how the Jewish community has
been able to grapple with a lot of
pre-modern concepts in the modern world
and I think what my teacher sheikh
abdullah bin bae is trying to do is very
similar to what a lot of the rabbi's did
much earlier with jewish law so there
there's a lot that can be learned
because the halahala
and the sharia have a lot of
similarities they do make that we do
hustle and and many other things in fact
there was a I saw a somebody go around
Israel asking Jews in Israel what what
religion is closer to Judaism Islam or
Christianity and most of the Jews
actually said Islam and historically I
think that's how a lot of the Jewish
rabbis felt largely because of the
monotheism but also because the Jewish
community saw Islam as having a lot of
the an extension in in essence of the
Mosaic law so and also I think holding
on to your faith despite incredible and
a lot of Jewish people have lost their
faith undeniably along with Christians
and other people because of what
happened
in the two world wars in Europe but the
fact that you can have somebody who who
probably has relatives that were in in
the Holocaust and and saw what happened
collectively to a group of people and
maintained your faith in spite of that
and I think had it up there for the book
of Job I think it would be a lot more
difficult for Jewish people to hold on
to their faith in spite of all these
things but I think that's one thing
we're seeing a lot of people abandoning
faith in in the Muslim world now so
atheism is really on the rise in places
like Syria Iran Iran and and again a lot
to blame to this these so-called Muslim
leadership right but I think those are
some of the really important thing Thank
You rabbi sacks and I will the third
century rabbi Ben Zoma said who is wise
one who longs everyone and that to me is
at the very heart of this so from
Christianity I learned what it is to
create the most successful
transformational movement in history you
will not find any movement here on all
of history there were 2.4 billion
Christians today in the world at 1.6
billion Muslims and a few of us mainly
in New York and kosher deli
you know Christianity took faith and
gave it to the world and Christianity
teaches me what it is to really care for
the poor I see that as absolutely at the
heart of Christian social teachings
which is so powerful from Islam I learn
what it is to be the most successful of
all faiths in sustaining faith even in
the midst of a highly circular world
Muslims have a commitment of faith that
I find it
donation from Hindus in India Island
graciousness and tolerance from Sikhs I
learned the importance of langa what
they call longer which is hospitality
how hospitality bring people together
from what is I learn the most unjú ish
thing in the entire universe which is
calm you know we do grow psychosis
accidential angst when all the weather
is in that but there's something so so
in all of these things is in incredible
beauty and if you are confident in your
own faith you are never threatened by
the existence of other things but there
is one thing I think that might emerge
from all of this secure ization actually
began in Europe in the 17th century and
it began after pretty much a century of
religious wars following the Reformation
first in France then the 30 Years War in
Central Europe which may have cost as
many as a 1/3 of the population of
Central Europe brought to an end only
with the Treaty of Westphalia in 1648
which is the foundation of our current
world order and the heroes are secular
of the new secular world were not people
who liked faith in God Newton and
Descartes
Newton spent more than half his time
writing commentaries to the Bible
Descartes brings God in that stage too
as soon as he's got to cogito ergo sum
to be able to move from there he has to
invert God Sakurai's ation did not begin
when people lost faith in God it began
when people lost faith in the ability of
people of faith to live peaceably with
one another and that is why these Wars
of Religion which are really spreading
and contagiously around the world are so
dangerous
but I trillion truly believe that the
only full response as an alternative to
Drai's Benedict option is for Jews
Christians Muslims and others to stand
together and clearly commit together
number one to an overarching civil faith
but we each matter that we have
collective responsibility for the common
good that we need to make space for one
another because no religion is fully
intelligible to an outsider and as for
which one of us is right I leave that to
the Almighty it's a lot better than we
are so if we could actually do that Jew
Christian and Muslim stand together as
we really did actually in Britain and
and it really lowered the level of
religious tensions in Britain because I
worked very carefully with Muslim
leaders and of course with the
Archbishop's of Canterbury and Cardinal
Archbishop's of Westminster and the rest
and we were the leaders of all the
faiths in Britain were good close
personal friends and whenever there was
a terrorist attack we would stand
together and that really calmed things
and it really did good I mean it didn't
stop but it did stuff is fighting one
another Jonathan could you share with
our audience what you shared with the
audience in Princeton recently when we
had our public discussion about the ways
in which the centuries represented
different moments of secularization
beginning with the one that you talked
about a moment ago and as far as I can
see secularization happened in four
stages each one with its own century so
the 17th century was the section of
knowledge with Newtonian science and
Cartesian philosophy knowledge without
dogmatic
assumptions which was reason an
observation philosophy in science in the
18th century came the Sakurai's ation of
power with the American Revolution in
the First Amendment and the French
Revolution the formal or substantive
separation of church and state the 19th
century was the secularization of
culture when the museum and the concert
hall and the art gallery took the place
of houses of worship as places where you
encountered the sublime and the
beautiful and the 20th century saw the
final Sakurai's ation which was the
sakura's ation of morality in the 1960s
throughout the West the two foundations
of the judeo-christian ethic namely the
sanctity of life and the idea that there
is such a thing as a sexual ethic
involving fidelity and the Covenant or
nature of marriage those two just
disappeared throughout the West so we've
gone through four stages of
secularization and there are no more
stages to go through short of complete
atomization of society because I pointed
out the four great institutions of
modernity science technology the market
and the state cannot answer the three
questions that every reflective
individual will ask some time in life
Who am I why am I here how then shall I
live the science tells us how but not
why technology gives us power but
doesn't tell us how to use that power
the market gives us choices but doesn't
tell us which choices to make and the
Liberal Democratic State gives us a
maximum of freedom but no guidance as to
how to use that freedom therefore
religion will return but in the meantime
we've got a gap to fill
yeah I just want to say about I think
there's a good antidote for this idea
that somehow the secular state this this
is what William Cavanaugh wrote a book
called the myth of religious violence
and I think he makes a very strong
argument
despite his nominalism he makes a very
strong argument that these wars had
really very little to do with religion
and and religion is always impressed
into war
what's happening in the Middle East I
mean to illustrate that you know the
Iraqi that says you know are you a Sunni
or Shia and he said no I'm an atheist he
said well what are you us in the 8th
universe I mean this this is what you
know I think that illustrates very well
the reality of a lot of these conflicts
Ireland is much more about British
control and rule of Ireland than it was
ever about Protestant Catholics you know
the religion became enlisted in that and
so I think it's really important for us
to recognize that the religion is is
very often the first victim or first
casualty of war
you know Jonathan's mentioning that that
calm is a sort of on Jewish thing
reminded me of my dear old friend Mitch
dektor used to describe a Jewish
telegram this is a telegram that simply
said worry details to follow
well you've heard as Robbie promised
from three great masters and now you'll
have a chance to engage these
extraordinary individuals so I think
there are microphones so in each aisle
so how will we handle this yeah yeah
please just step forward to the
microphone hello my name is Nathan
Weininger with the 21st century
Wilberforce initiative my question is
related to confronting issues of secular
in other places my organization works on
International Religious Freedom and
oftentimes persecuted people's and other
places are encouraging secularization
obviously those are different things but
we're using the same words how do we
communicate with them and work together
for this thing that's a wonderful point
many people advocate for religious
freedom in India would want to
strengthen the Indian secular state
thank you for that well speaking now as
a Catholic although I think this
principle is is one that could be
embraced by all faiths there's a
distinction between secularism as an
ideology that competes with the great
traditions of faith and other secular
ideologies
there's dissenting secularism and a
legitimate realm of the secular that is
an area in which we conduct our business
together without anything turning on
specific sectarian sorts of of
assumptions we might look at the
difference between the American and
French Revolutions these are very very
different revolutions
there is nothing remotely approaching
the hostility to faith of the French
Revolution in the American Revolution
quite the contrary
John Adams one of the great leaders of
the American Revolution commenting on
our Constitution said that our
Constitution is a constitution for a
moral and religious people and will not
serve any other type of people so he
recognized the legitimate domain of
faith which was not to be privatized and
stigmatized and marginalized it had its
legitimate role including in the domain
of public discussion and public affairs
at the same time he held for as did all
the American founders leading American
founders no state religion no official
state religion that there's a legitimate
secularity at that level so that people
of all faiths can participate fully as
citizens in this new in this new
republic perhaps even more important
than our First Amendment protection of
the free exercise of religion perhaps is
which which is founded on an amendment
to the Constitution and the First
Amendment to the Constitution perhaps
even more important
is a principle that's entrenched in the
body of the Constitution didn't require
an amendment and that is the no
religious tests for Office principle
that meant that all Americans could hold
all offices quite irrespective of their
particular religious affiliations and
beliefs that's the legitimate realm of
the secular that we mustn't throw out as
throwing out a baby with with the with
the bathwater to be against secularism
as a militant and mission izing ideology
that seems seeks to drive the traditions
of faith to the margins and and off the
edge you should too beginning of virtue
if if you look at the world ruler with
the great Abrahamic monotheism
there are theological differences but
actually if you look at the wisdom
literature of all faiths there's an
enormous convergence and that Taoism
Confucianism and at certain aspects of
Buddhism are part of that wisdom
tradition if Lewis called the DAO of the
Darwin morality
and that you'll find everywhere and that
is what makes those texts still speak to
all of us and that they're very precious
picking up on professor Jorge's point
about us becoming a society of choosers
in a culture where will dominates
everything and in effect we are
individual gods deigning for ourselves
what is true and what is good and what
is beautiful and nobody's determination
is any better or worse than anybody
else's so who you to tell me how to
behave or what to think
in that kind of culture how does one
even start the dialogue about absolutes
well first thing to notice is that
secularism as it presents itself today
in the West is not a relativist doctrine
it's not it's got its own absolutes and
it's very absolutist about its absolutes
and and and you know it it has rules
that it wants everybody to obey even if
those rules contradict the rules of the
faith which what is what creates the
great religious liberty issues of our
day to me the fundamental problem isn't
relativism as such among secularists or
with ideological secularism that I won't
be able to go into much detail here if
you if you want to fish around in my
readings you'll see my writings you'll
see where I've flesh this out of it I
think that it's anthropology it's the
difference between the secularists and
the religious understanding of the human
person secularist ideology is
essentially accepted Hobbs's conception
of the human being as a machine for
having experiences religion the great
Abrahamic faiths the great face of the
East could never accept such a notion
and the the the upshot of that
practically is that we now live in an
age of feeling an age where the reality
of human goods that we can participate
in and whose integral directive 'no sui
can guide ourselves by the the reality
has been replaced by a desire for the
experiences the experiential component
of
but but experience and reality are not
the same thing what matters is the
underlying reality now ordinarily when
you do good things for good reasons and
respect the moral imperative such as do
unto others as you'd have them do unto
you it also results in pleasant
experiences that's part of the
perfection of the thing you feel good
about yourself but it's not the feeling
good that ultimately matters it's the
doing good because human beings are not
just machines for having experiences my
name is leaders Sheikh Yusuf you
mentioned that the benedictine options
argument that is that sex and technology
are the greatest threats to religious
community dr. George you mentioned that
the respectful disagreement mentioned a
respectful disagreement to the option
how we shouldn't answer these intrusions
of destructive uses of sex and
technology about isolating ourselves and
Rabbi sex you gave a hopeful comment
that technology can have great positive
spiritual power
would you please comment on how our
traditions ought to approach modern
technology in the light of secularism
challenges thank you I want to hear
Lourdes Saxon Che comes on this I'll
just say for my part very quickly I
think that the traditions of faith and
people have faith have essentially three
options want us to capitulate one is to
separate ourselves in the hope that
we'll be left alone to bring up our own
families and nurture our own traditions
and third engagement that is active
engagement I think it has to be the
third what I think fundamentally rod
very fundamentally thinks the second for
now and it's complicated and and rods
views should not be over oversimplified
I wish we had more time to go to go into
it I do not think as my circumcision
example makes clear and it's one little
example from hundreds I could cite to
you it makes clear that militant
evangelizing mission izing secularism
has no intention of leaving Jews and
Muslims and Christians alone to retreat
to the monasteries to get through the
dark ages raise our own families pass on
our own traditions they want your kids
in fairness to Rajveer one point that he
does make is that even as we build our
enclaves the one way we have to engage
the wider culture is to defend our
religious liberty that was one of the
dominant themes of the remarks of all
these wonderful thinkers that that is
one thing we even those of us who may
want to create enclaves we have to have
religious liberty to be able to sustain
our own structures and communities we
just to say about the sex and Technology
now the to have have become hybrid and
so a lot of our young people especially
young boys at the age of the first
exposure now is about nine years old on
to pornography to pornography and dr.
George and I were involved in an
initiative trying to fight this and
people think religious people always
obsessed with sex and pornography and
things like this and but the reality of
it is is that the ancient world had a
lot of mystery religions that were based
on a Dionysian type of sexuality the sex
is very powerful and it can become as
was pointed out in her essay on the
seven deadly sins Dorothy Sayers pointed
out that very often sex becomes a
substitute for a culture when they lose
religion and and in our tradition imam
al-ghazali and this is also probably
from Gregory but Aquinas brings up the
daughters of lust and a mortal sin is a
habitual sin it's something that you do
habitually a lot of people are addicted
to pornography but which is a habitual
sin of lust and being in a state of lust
the the daughters of lust
they're called Bennett o shahe ye in the
Arabic tradition the daughters of lusts
one of them it is is as spiritual
blindness another is distracted
distracted 'no cecilia distractibility
but one of them is is hatred towards the
things sacred and and despairing of God
or animosity towards God and so I think
people don't realize the connection that
we're seeing in our culture that's
directly related to a completely
sexualized civilization if you want to
read a really I think an important
pamela paul that exposed me to a lot of
this she wrote a book called pornified
this is a secular liberal woman who
found out about this world and wrote a
book about how devastating and i don't
think a lot of people realize what's
online and what people exposed to chris
hedges his second chapter in one of his
books goes into graphic detail about
what what young kids are exposed to
today that i think you will have the
last word mmm-hmm
first of all if you want to see what
could be done through this technology go
and look at our website we're working on
this one earlier and we're experimenting
with new forms whiteboard animation
short videos with music and imagery to
create moments of spirituality of myths
and so on and in terms of sexuality
there was a book a couple of years ago
in the states by somebody who became an
orthodox jewish woman just because she
wanted to recover the integrity of a
physical relationship Wendy Shelley
Wendy shallots book modesty and it's a
really good book the three positive
possibilities of this technology are
number one Sergey Brin and Larry Page
his commitment to the democratization of
access to knowledge that is so powerful
the countries that never really had
access to good education and kids who
never had it now have access to it
number two
Mark Zuckerberg of Facebook has just
changed the mission statement of
Facebook from connecting friends to
creating communities and it was very
interesting the Mark Zuckerberg and
what's her name Sheryl Sandberg both on
our holy day Yom Kippur sent out
religious messages as committed Jews and
I had never seen that actually in public
before so they too are beginning to
realize that they must be responsible
for making sure that things like
Facebook help preserve our basic human
and spiritual
values and I think the third thing is is
simply that you know we are connected
together in a way that no human beings
ever have then Facebook is just about
habits boom its first 30 years it now
reaches 2 billion people just think of
this 2 billion people have the chance to
be rude to one another but I mean very
quick what if we seized that and said we
are going to counter the bad that's out
there and there's a lot that's bad by
showing that the good is really
beautiful life enhancing and inspiring
we can use this technology for the sake
of God and if we don't God will not
forgive us because he gave us this
technology so that it would serve us to
serve Him thank you one more brief last
word from from Robbie Jordan and that
list Lord is simply thank you thanks to
all of you for coming out and being part
of launching our new initiative I also
want to say a big thank you to Dean
Hibbs and to Byron Johnson and the
entire Baylor community cannot tell you
how honored I am to be associated with
this initiative and then finally thanks
to my two beloved friends the busiest
men in the world who made a special
effort to be here to help us launch this
this community and I love you guys and
thank you so so very very much
you
you