Molato 1

Chelsea Molato
John Kubler
English 115
4 September 2014
Exercise 1.1 Summary: Faith and Diplomacy
In the article Faith and Diplomacy By Madeleine Albright, the first woman to
serve as US secretary of state under President Bill Clinton, it states that it is impossible to
have a world without religion. She believes that we should not resent it, but in fact, we
should understand it in order to create peace. She has an understanding that although the
United States is able to separate religion and politics, in other countries, religion is fully
submersed into politics, making foreign policy difficult. Although many believe that
religion is a separating power, it can also be a uniting power. This is evident with her use
of pathos when she talks about three stories where she saw first hand that religion was
beneficial to a society. The first story talked about the impact of Pope John Paul II in
Poland during the uprising by the Solidarity movement. He united the Polish people by
helping them to recognize in each other once again the qualities that made them proud to
be Polish-faith in God and willingness to run risks for freedom (36). This inspired the
Polish to unite and liberate Poland by bringing down the Berlin Wall and essentially
uniting Europe once again. The Polish were deeply influenced by fear because their
country had been divided and claimed by other countries. They had lost their sense of
patriotism because their country was no longer a country of its own, but through the
Pope, they were able to overcome this obstacle. The next story is about a lady who was
shot by a Muslim militiaman for not renouncing her faith. When other militiamen found

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her the next day still alive, they took her to the hospital. When asked about the man who
had shot her, she said that she had forgiven him because God had forgiven her. This is
evident of the power of religion because it shows that there are people who are willing
to die- and kill- for their faith (37) and that religion at its best teaches forgiveness and
reconciliation (37). In the third story, Albright discusses a group called the LRA that
twisted religion and instilled fear to create an army of kidnapped children who are trained
to be ruthless and kill anyone. Albright visited a camp hospital filled with patients who
had been affected by the LRA, mostly children. Even though the hospital was not in the
best condition, there were volunteers that made the environment loving and caring in
contrast to the horrible things that had been done to the patients. From all three stories,
Albright makes evident that we share a kinship with one another, however distant it may
sometimes seem; we are all created in the image of God (39). Once we understand that
all religions have the same foundation, we will no longer have the conflict of one religion
being better than the other. She then relates this concept back to her initial point that we
must take greater effort to understand the religions of other countries in order to have
better foreign policy. Religion will always have an influence on the world, which is why
Albright believes that religion cannot be ignored. Religion has the power to create
balance and harmony, but only if we seek it through understanding of one anothers
differences. Albright ends her essay by saying, Religion at its best can reinforce the core
values necessary for people from different cultures to live in some degree of harmony; we
should make the most of that possibility (42). Throughout the whole article Albright
continuously advises policy-makers, and essentially everyone else that religion will
always be present. There is no point in trying to ignore it or diminish it because religion

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possesses the power to be beneficial or destructive, it all depends on how a person
interprets religion. By understanding that all religions have the same basic elements,
humility, justice, and peace, (41) people would realize that their differences are created
by their own interpretations and we should learn to respect that in order to create peace.