Democracy in Crisis? Moral and Spiritual Resistance , 7th January 2019

On the 7th January 2019, Forward Thinking's UK Programme Manager, Jordan Morgan, was invited to attend a symposium entitled 'Democracy in Crisis? Moral and Spiritual Resistance at Cumberland Lodge.  Jewish, Muslim and Christian faith leaders gathered to explore two questions: 'are our democracies  really in danger?' and 'what can faith leaders do to safeguard liberal freedoms and open democratic societies?'Discussions explored the responses of faith communities to the diverse threats facing democracy: rising populism, political violence, hate crime and political polarisation. It was said that 'the prospects for this new year are not bright. The loss of trust is slow and incremental, we are facing many cracks but the dam still holds'. The reminder that our democratic institutions are not self-sustaining, but they must be positively animated by us all, resonated strongly. We may not always like the democratic tools that we have to work with, but we certainly have to work with them.Image Courtesy of Pen Mednonca, http://www.penmendonca.com/