Montreal Gazette - Conference aims to restore religion's tarnished image

It sounds like the set-up for a joke: A theologian, a Holocaust scholar, a self-help guru and the Dalai Lama walk into a convention centre. No one, however, would mistake Dr. Arvind Sharma for a stand-up comic.

He’s the chief organizer of the Second Global Conference on World’s Religions. The event, which will take place four days before the 10th anniversary of 9/11, brings religious leaders and academics to the Palais des congrès.

The conference’s all-star lineup includes the 14th bodhisattva of compassion, aka the Dalai Lama; Deepak Chopra, one of Oprah Winfrey’s favourite dispensers of soothing wisdom; Columbia University professor of Buddhist studies Robert Thurman (whose actress daughter, Uma, is Quentin Tarantino’s muse); theologian Gregory Baum and Holocaust scholar Steven Katz…