Conference mixing politics, religion

CAMDEN – The theme of next year’s Camden Conference flies in the face of the adage warning against discussing religion and politics among friends.

The 21st annual event, scheduled for Feb. 22-24, will take on “Religion as a Force in World Affairs.”

Speakers for the three-day event will include people from Christian and Muslim traditions. A key issue to be explored will be what role, if any, religion should play in U.S. foreign policy.

The keynote speaker will be the Rev. Bryan Hehir, professor of the practice of religion and public life” at the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University, where he teaches courses such as “The Politics and Ethics of the Use of Force” and “Religion and Government: Choices of Morality, Law and Policy.”

Jim Matlack, chairman of the conference’s program committee, said Hehir served for more than 10 years as a principal adviser to the U.S. Catholic Bishops Conference on International Affairs in Washington, D.C. He was a professor at Georgetown University at the time.

In the 1960s, Matlack said, Hehir drafted a major position paper for the Catholic Bishops Conference on the subject of nuclear weapons. The paper discussed the moral use of the weapons, and Hehir “found some reasons to be critical of the U.S. policy,” Matlack said.

Hehir went on to head the Harvard Divinity School for three years in the 1990s and “had a major leadership position with national Catholic charities,” he said.

“He’s an extraordinarily good and gifted person,” Matlack said, as well as a serious academic.

Hehir is still a parish priest, which Matlack believes keeps him grounded in the issues that affect ordinary people.

Another speaker will be Rend al-Rahim Francke, a Shiite woman from Iraq who heads the Washington-based Iraq Foundation. Francke will assess the clash between Shiite and Sunni Muslims in the Middle East.

Matlack said Francke founded the Iraq Foundation in 1991 to advocate for democratic principles and human rights in Iraq and to encourage the U.S. to stand up to Saddam Hussein. She was also ambassador from Iraq to the U.S. when Iyad Allawi was prime minister, he said.

Religion is a “potent influence upon the formation and the implementation of foreign policy – especially the shaping of foreign policy in the United States – as a crucial factor in ongoing conflicts and crisis settings,” according to the conference Web site.

Religion is “a central component in the deepening clash between self-identities in various movements and communities,” while also a “potential stimulus for mediation, peace-making, and constructive social action.”

Conferees will also explore these other questions:

. To what extent can any nation pursue a moral or ethical foreign policy?

. To what extent is the rise of fundamentalist religious movements a response to the disruption of traditional patterns and values due to failed nationalism, secularism, modernism and the perceived intrusions and corruption of the West?

. Where has religion played a positive role in advancing mediation and peace-making endeavors?

. Do religious faith and commitment unite or divide the human family?

Typically, community events relating to the conference theme, such as book discussions, films and lectures, have been held at libraries and academic centers on Mount Desert Island and in Blue Hill, Belfast, Rockland and Thomaston.

Next year, Matlack said, the community events have become year-round with a pause during the busy summer. Events resume this fall leading up to the February conference, he said.

The conference was created by a group of retirees in the Camden area who had worked for the U.S. State Department and the CIA or who had other overseas experiences in public service or academic life. The conference has grown from a small gathering in Camden’s Congregational church in its earliest years to about 1,000 participants who overflow the Camden Opera House and spill into the Strand Theatre in Rockland.

Next year, the World Affairs Council in Portland will feature a live TV feed of the conference for those from southern Maine.

In recent years, conference themes have included the Middle East with retired Gen. Anthony Zinni delivering the keynote address; China with Ambassador James Lilley the keynote speaker; and Europe with professor David Calleo of the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies giving the keynote address.

Registration began this week. See www.camdenconference.org for more information.