Forum: Comfort for tsunami victims, survivors

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Our world family has suffered a terrible blow. Confirmed deaths from the South Asian tsunami exceed 150,000 with thousands still unaccounted for, millions homeless, and dehydration and disease threatening to raise the terrifying death count. Firsthand accounts of incomprehensible devastation sear our hearts.

Pledges for history's largest-ever relief effort have topped $4 billion. Nations have shown great generosity. Former U.S. presidents came together in a bipartisan effort to spur private giving.

Governments, the United Nations and relief agencies have responded with remarkable speed and are coordinating delivery despite enormous complexity and difficulty.

Religions also responded quickly. Prominent leaders spoke out and religious groups gathered huge amounts of money. Sadly however, though the disaster engraved knowledge of our oneness onto our hearts, religions still spoke from a fractured ground, generally isolated from one another. Small interfaith services have sprung up here and there but are far from the norm. A D.C. interfaith meeting of just 100 believers attracted major media. Aren't there religious and spiritual guidelines that address us as a single human family?

In the days after the disaster, millions became experts on suboceanic geology. But how many in that same period learned more clearly about life and death?

This sudden transition from temporal life to eternal life by such a great number affects us all. The two communities hardest-hit are the victims, who find themselves forced to deal with eternal life suddenly and without time to prepare, and "survivors," who just as suddenly, lost loved ones. We of the global family must care for their spiritual needs just as we care for them physically.

How are we as a family to support our brothers and sisters who are starting their new life in the spiritual world? What spiritual support can we give those who similarly must suddenly make a new start in life without precious loved ones?

There is guidance from the world's religions for times such as these. Such shocks are times to pray, reflect and repent.

Of course, every person needs the wisdom and comfort of his "home tradition." But as we look to God for compassion, peace and understanding, it is most natural we do so as one.

The Muslim, hearing of a life lost, is required to recite the short statement, "From Almighty God we come and to Him is our return." With perfect clarity, the Qur'an insists: "Do not say, 'They are dead' about one who dies for God's sake. Rather they are living, even though you do not notice it." (Qur'an 2.154)