There’s a sure quietness to Eric Roux’s method, a deliberate attentiveness that pulls the listener nearer. It’s not the quietness of hesitation, however the regular cadence of somebody who has spent his life arranging phrases with care — phrases that, over time, have constructed an structure of bridges between faiths, between traditions, between methods of belonging on the earth. The language of freedom, of dialogue, of spiritual rights, is spoken by many. However few communicate it as Eric Roux does, with the quiet power of conviction backed by many years of advocacy.
Within the panorama of interfaith dialogue, the place noise usually trumps nuance, Roux has turn out to be, virtually with out theatrics, one in every of Europe’s steadfast architects of spiritual freedom. In an age when declarations are made in capital letters and outrage is broadcast in actual time, his work has moved with the endurance of stone masons, laying one invisible brick after one other, creating areas the place perception, in all its unwieldy plurality, will be quietly honored. His work is just not about flashy gestures or grand speeches. It’s about regular dedication, deliberate actions, and a conviction that true change takes root when nurtured fastidiously and with out fanfare.
Roux was born in France, in a era that had begun to distrust grand narratives however nonetheless yearned, maybe unknowingly, for a sort of sacred coherence. In his youth, he sought solutions throughout the non secular spectrum, wandering, as he would later describe it, not misplaced however hungry. His explorations led him finally to the Church of Scientology, the place he discovered each a private non secular path and an organizational framework by means of which to behave on the earth. By 1993, he had been ordained as a minister, having chosen to take up the mantle of management inside his religion group.
Nevertheless it was not sufficient to belong to a religion; belonging needed to be made significant in society. And society — with its usually uneasy relationship to minority religions — wouldn’t make that simple. France, regardless of its proud dedication to liberté, égalité, fraternité, harbored a peculiar suspicion towards non-traditional spiritual actions. Roux noticed early on how prejudice, masked as secular rigor, might suffocate the fragile freedoms of conscience and worship. Over time, he acknowledged that his religion was not only a private matter; it was a matter of public curiosity and human rights.
By the early 2000s, Roux had begun to dedicate himself past his personal group, co-founding the European Interreligious Discussion board for Spiritual Freedom (EIFRF), a platform meant to not promote one faith, however to defend the best of each individual to imagine — or not — with out state interference. The EIFRF’s mission was clear: to create an area the place various voices might be heard, the place people of all faiths might come collectively to affirm their proper to worship with out worry of repression. Roux’s work grew to become more and more important in a time when governments have been starting to impose “sect filters,” itemizing sure spiritual actions as cults in an try to control or suppress them.
His involvement with the EIFRF marked an important turning level in his life. Eric Roux’s advocacy was now not restricted to his personal religion group however expanded to embody the broader concern of spiritual freedom. The group sought to unite like-minded people, no matter religion, to boost consciousness concerning the significance of spiritual liberty and to fight the rising discrimination in opposition to spiritual minorities. His position at EIFRF was one in every of authorized experience and diplomatic finesse, attending conferences, talking on the United Nations, the European Parliament, and the OSCE, the place he would insist, patiently however persistently, that freedom of faith or perception was not a privilege for the favored, however a proper for all.
At these gatherings, Roux was not often the loudest voice. He didn’t grandstand or moralize. As an alternative, he would construct sluggish arguments, brick by brick, invoking not solely human rights conventions however the historic knowledge that freedom have to be defended in silence as a lot as in spectacle. His speeches have been usually met not with thunderous applause however with quiet reflection. His listeners, even when they didn’t absolutely agree, couldn’t assist however acknowledge the depth of his dedication to what he believed was an unassailable proper: the liberty to imagine.
In 2013, Roux discovered a brand new residence for his increasing imaginative and prescient throughout the United Religions Initiative (URI), a world grassroots community dedicated to interfaith cooperation and peacebuilding. By means of EIFRF, he grew to become one in every of URI’s “Cooperation Circles,” contributing a European voice to a world mosaic. The Cooperation Circles, teams that span the globe, function the center of URI’s efforts to construct interfaith relationships and deal with urgent international points resembling poverty, violence, and environmental degradation. Over time, his dedication deepened. In 2022, he was elected as a World Council Trustee for Europe, and in September 2024, Roux rose to Chair of URI’s World Council — the primary European in that place, however maybe extra importantly, a quiet reaffirmation of URI’s perception that management needn’t shout to be heard. It was a major second in Roux’s life, a recognition of his quiet however persistent efforts to guard the rights of spiritual minorities and to foster interfaith cooperation.
On the URI headquarters in San Francisco, the place the board gathered after his election, Roux delivered a short, characteristically restrained acceptance deal with. There, he remarked that there isn’t any singular religion that owns peace or holds all the reality — solely individuals gathered in goodwill throughout their variations. The room didn’t erupt into the raucous cheers one would possibly anticipate; as an alternative, there was a sluggish standing, a solemn recognition. His was a management of quiet dignity, grounded not within the pursuit of energy however within the service of others, within the effort to create a world the place spiritual distinction is just not a purpose for battle however a chance for understanding.
If there’s a throughline in Roux’s life, it’s this insistence on the standard reality of distinction — that to imagine in another way is just not a menace however a promise: the promise that humanity, in its infinite variation, can nonetheless discover a shared floor. In follow, this implies navigating not solely between religions, however inside them: between Orthodox and Reform, Sunni and Shia, Theravāda and Mahāyāna, conservative and progressive, those that cling and people who reform. Roux has been concerned in dialogue between a wide selection of faiths, from the Catholic Church to Buddhist communities to Orthodox Jews, understanding that the power of a pluralistic society depends upon the flexibility to see and respect the variations of others.
Eric Roux has all the time been somebody who listens deeply, even when these round him won’t absolutely grasp the load of their very own phrases. There’s a thoughtfulness to his strategy that leaves room for all views to be heard. It’s not that he believes each viewpoint is equally legitimate, however that the act of listening — particularly to these one disagrees with — is itself a type of respect and a needed precondition for any sort of significant dialogue. Whether or not engaged on spiritual freedom laws in Europe or participating with the worldwide interfaith group, Eric Roux’s work is all the time marked by this cautious, considerate listening. It’s this high quality that has earned him the respect of colleagues and adversaries alike.
There are, inevitably, moments of discouragement. Roux has been the goal of smear campaigns by those that view spiritual variety not as a power however a dilution of the “true religion.” He has witnessed how governments, even in democratic Europe, quietly institutionalize suspicion in opposition to minority religions by means of so-called “sect filters” and blacklists. Every setback might have pushed him into cynicism or retreat. As an alternative, he has responded with an virtually monastic self-discipline of engagement: one other convention, one other dialogue, one other letter drafted fastidiously and despatched out right into a paperwork that will or could not learn it. His resilience has been an indicator of his management, his refusal to be cowed by hostility or indifference. It’s this quiet resilience that has helped preserve the flame of spiritual freedom alight in Europe, the place challenges to this basic proper usually seem within the guise of regulation or state coverage.
In non-public conversations, Eric Roux typically speaks about hope not as a sense however as a follow — a every day, deliberate act, like laying one other stone in a cathedral he is aware of he could by no means see accomplished. His religion, although private, appears to have formed him towards a broader constancy: to not a doctrine, however to the very risk of shared humanity. His is just not a hope born of naive optimism however one grounded in a deeply held perception that, by means of sustained effort, human beings can construct a greater world collectively. This perception has pushed his activism, his advocacy, and his every day work.
Outdoors of his formal roles, Roux has remained a prolific advocate. He has revealed articles on spiritual freedom, spoken at international interfaith summits, contributed to roundtables on the United Nations. His written work, whereas much less recognized to most people, reveals a thinker deeply invested within the paradoxes of recent pluralism: easy methods to honor freedom with out succumbing to relativism, easy methods to defend minority rights with out alienating majority traditions. His strategy is rarely simplistic; moderately, he understands that the work of interfaith dialogue is deeply advanced, requiring endurance, understanding, and the flexibility to confront uncomfortable truths.
As we speak, at the same time as he leads one of many world’s largest grassroots interfaith organizations, Roux stays strikingly unassuming. In public occasions, he tends to decorate merely, to defer to others on panels, to redirect reward. His presence is much less that of a basic rallying troops than of a gardener tending many alternative seeds, realizing some will develop, some is not going to, and that the backyard is rarely completed anyway. His work is the quiet, fixed tending of that backyard, making certain that the seeds of understanding, cooperation, and peace have each alternative to take root and flourish.
To stroll with Eric Roux by means of a convention corridor — whether or not in Brussels or New York or Nairobi — is to witness a quiet choreography of handshakes, nods, whispered greetings. He strikes calmly, with deliberation, but by no means appears misplaced. There’s a sense, amongst those that know him, that Roux doesn’t aspire to steer religion communities right into a single unified voice, however moderately to protect the polyphony — every voice distinct, every voice important. His management is just not about homogenizing perception however about fostering an area the place variety will be celebrated and guarded.
It’s a troublesome factor, in a loud and suspicious world, to carry onto this imaginative and prescient. But, brick by brick, handshake by handshake, Eric Roux continues to construct it: the quiet structure of freedom, a construction gentle sufficient to shelter many beliefs, sturdy sufficient to endure the winds of worry.
And like all true architects, he appears content material to let the work communicate for itself.
