Participants included Imam Wazir Ali from Masjid Warithud-deen Mohammed in Houston, Acharya Arumuganathaswami, managing editor of Hinduism today and from Kauai’s Hindu Monastery in Hawaii, the Rev. Kathryn Boren from St. Luke’s United Methodist Church, Msgr. Larry Droll from St. Ann’s Catholic Church and the Rev. Randel Everett from 21st Century Wilberforce Initiative in Virginia.
Topics included; Religious Persecution, Homosexuality and same-sex marriage, Faith and health, and Ex-prisoners and convicts. When asked about evil in today’s world, Acharya Arumuganathaswami replied, “There is no force or personification of evil which opposes the goodness of God. We don’t, therefore, accept the premise of the question: that evil exists per se. The better way to ask this of a Hindu is: what to you is the source that seems evil? We believe that the soul is created by God and matures over many, many lifetimes of existence. At first the soul is young and is prone to make mistake and make karma, some good and some bad. All of which will return to it. When we see a person acting in a cruel or horrific way, we are seeing a young soul who will evolve over many lives out of cruelty and into compassion”.
More at source.