Beyond Our Differences

According to surveys, 95% of the world's population claims to believe in some power greater than themselves. Peter Bisanz's wide-ranging PBS-aired documentary features interviews with religious and spiritual leaders—including the Dalai Lama, Bishop Desmond Tutu, and civil rights activist Andrew Young—who discuss our universal quest for a transcendent vision of the world, which they argue is part of the process of becoming fully human. The interviewees point out that the values of love, forgiveness, compassion, and tolerance are espoused by all of the major religions, yet the world is still racked by the evils of war, poverty, and discrimination—with humans squabbling amongst themselves, asserting that “my God is better than your God.” While examining the ongoing fight for equal rights for women in Afghanistan, prison reform in America, and Gandhi and Martin Luther King's courageous stand in rejecting violence as a tool for achieving human rights, Beyond Our Differences also argues that when we oppress others, we deny our faith, which holds that all people are created in the image of God. The documentary concludes with a “summons to action,” asking viewers to seek ways of doing good in the world. Combining important insights with an abundance of thought-provoking questions, this is highly recommended. Aud: C, P. (S. Rees)