German ex-bishop says praying with Taliban beats bombing
A former leader of Germany's Protestant community, Margot Kässmann,
says she believes that a suggestion to pray with the Taliban by
candlelight is "a much better idea than bombing water tank lorries in
Kunduz."
The minister drew loud applause from some 5,000 attendees
present at a Bible study session and another 1,500 observers outside
watching on video screens at the Kirchentag, an ecumenical biennial
church festival held this year in early June in Dresden.
"We know
that in the end peace can only grow and be achieved by slow, often
painful and risky reconciliation processes in which the victims are
heard and the perpetrators admit their guilt," she said. Kässmann, the
first woman to lead the Evangelical Church in Germany (EKD, an umbrella
group of Protestant churches), said that perhaps she is naive but added
that Jesus also was naive.
