Madeleine Albright's Recent Visit to the Seminary

I've been asked to say something about the visit here on September 14, 2006 of the Honorable Madeleine K. Albright, former United States Secretary of State. Yes, she did indeed speak to over 600 guests here at Virginia Seminary, offering observations on ethics, foreign policy, the war in Iraq, and inter-religious understanding. To read her full prepared text (PDF), click here. There were some memorable points. I thought it was apt when she insisted that the real axis of evil in the world was poverty, ignorance, and disease.

However, having already read her new book, I found the extended question and answer period to be the most interesting part of the evening. At one point, talking about her current work, she noted how giving peripheral families in the Global South some land-tenancy rights would go a long way to improving the world. In my humble opinion, 2,800 years after the E source, the prophet Micah, and the book of Deuteronomy, this is a message whose time has come!

I must say, I was disappointed that the audience (many priests and church people) had only political and ideological questions--no theological thinking! I hasten to add that Albright's book was trying to combine religious thinking and foreign policy thinking. The nature of the questions was not her fault.