We’re all the Creatures of God

[The following are excerpts from a speech by Bill Clinton, the President of United States, to the United Michigan Clergy, a Christian, Jewish and Muslim gathering in Detroit.]

There’s a big idea here. Do you believe that we’re better off if we go forward together, with mutual respect for each other, with all of our diversity? Or are we better off having a fight every time we disagree with somebody over something? ...If you’re willing to respect me even though I’m different from you; and if you’re willing to show up for work tomorrow and be a law-abiding citizen, that’s all I need to know about you....

This is not a simple thing. Look at the world. Look at how the world is convulsed...how children, innocent children, [are] still being killed on the brink of the 21st century because of tribal, ethnic, racial and religious differences around the world. Consider the Holy Land, the home of the three great religions of the world, who all believe we are all created in the image of one God, our creator, our judge. How shall He judge us for keeping on killing each other into the 21st century because we’re different from somebody else?

Some people said they thought I had overreacted when these churches were being burned, when synagogues were

being defaced with swastikas, when there was an Islamic center destroyed in South Carolina...And I said, “No. I don’t think so.” Not just because churches have been burned in my region in my lifetime...but because all over the world you see the logical conclusion of human affairs if we define ourselves primarily in terms of what we are not instead of what we are.

If we start looking at other people and say, “Thank God I’m not them,” then it’s not very long before you can say, “Well, maybe God wants me to do away with them.” Is that right?...

So in America there’s a connection, a direct connection, between this fundamental religious concept we’re talking about here—whether we’re all the creatures of God and all equal in the eyes of God—and the much more secular events...