Prayers for Peace
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Hardcover
Edited by B. Martin Pedersen
Pages: 240
Size: 4 3/4" x 6 1/4"
ISBN: 1-932026-04-5 |
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The idea for this book was offered to me by Danish designer Karen Blincoe while we were attending an AGI (Alliance Graphique International) conference in Paris in October 2001. This was one month after the 9/11 attacks, and the mood at the conference was compassionate and concerned. The internationally diverse AGI members openly expressed their sympathy for what had taken place; politics and our varied backgrounds were inconsequential.
When I returned home, the book was rather hastily put together because I felt the need to make a small impact in a war I felt was imminent under the Bush administration. When I voiced the idea to our US distributor, Watson-Guptill, they were highly enthusiastic. Their sales representative in this area related that while design and architecture stores at that time numbered only a few hundred, religious bookstores in the US alone figured in the thousands.
When the book was ultimately presented to the head buyer for these religious-themed stores, which sell mostly to the Christian right, it was turned down because it included religions other than Christianity.
Though the meaning of this book may have been lost on one intolerant dogmatist, its statement remains the same: Despite the fact that the ugliest and most ruthless wars are still supported by religious zealots, people of all faiths, and all individuals with a free mind, are on common ground when it comes to the quest for peace in the world.
B. Martin Pedersen
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