[Sosfbay-discuss] spiritual progressives (pardon me; this email is rather long!)

[Roy]

Eric, excellent and timely post and I couldn't agree more. I must add 
that what goes around comes around and a lot of what I may say is 
projection on my behalf, but I used to consider "spiritual" people weak 
minded and religious people complete idiots. It was a type of pride in 
intellectualism, an intellectualism I have sensed to be rooted at the 
core of the "left" (projection?). I think a lot of this comes from an 
understandable rejection of fundamentalism and anything associated with 
it which for me had anything thing to do with a church, god or higher 
power. I wasn't able to differentiate. However, now comes the Karma.. I 
now have a personal belief system which includes what some may call 
"gOD" and have gone through a period of being wary of being branded as 
soft in the mind by those I used to relate to. That period is quite over 
and I can only pity those whose only rudder is their intellect and 
relegate their hearts, intuition etc to a place of inferiority. These 
faculties are inferior because they have been labeled as feminine in our 
society and there lies the crux of the problem. We have been shamed out 
of our own saving graces.

I'm quite familiar with the work Rabbi Lehrner had done and was sent an 
invitation quite early on to join. That letter had included a statement 
concerning the violence of some of the Palestinians against the Israeli 
occupation and was deploring the terrorism. I wrote a letter suggesting 
that he reference at least Israel's terrorism (which was conspicuously 
absent from his statement), specially in the creation of state of Israel 
itself when making such remarks about Palestinians in the future. His 
silence and his original statement told me all I needed to know about 
him as an organizer so I declined membership. I suspect he's really a 
closet Zionist though probably not able to admit it in that exact 
context. I have a hard time listening to people who espouse animal 
rights of any kind and still eat meat and I put Michael's refusal to 
address Israeli terrorism specially (starting with the creation of the 
state of Israel) as THE problem when it comes to Palestinian reprisals 
in that same category. So while I don't want to flush the baby down with 
the bath water, the baby better make some noise so I can find it. I'm 
aware some people who I have a lot of respect for have joined Michaels 
initiative and now you bring it up. Maybe there's a baby in there after 
all :-)

I am quite interested in the development of the Spiritual aspects of 
Politics and how it can be incorporated within the Green Party.


Namaste

Roy

E. Alan Meece wrote:
> I have brought up an idea similar to what I am proposing now in this
> email before, but haven't really pushed it.
> 
> Then came the election of 2004. It seemed according to some polls, TV
> interviews, and people I talked to during the campaign, that people
> today are voting for Bush and Republicans because they "share my
> values." The concern over "moral values" in politics has become a big
> hot topic, and is addressed in bestsellers such as Lakoff's "Don't Think
> of an Elephant" and Frank's "What's the Matter with Kansas." Many people
> started thinking that the Left needs to address the topic of moral
> values in politics; otherwise the domain is left to the right wing, and
> the "moral values" addressed amount to such virtues as homophobia,
> keeping women in their place, keeping our guns, teaching creationism in
> the schools, stopping stem cell research, and other "culture wars"
> issues. In other words, the Left has abandoned spiritual and moral
> concerns, while the Right has picked them up and used them to get votes
> for their program of hurting the poor, super-nationalism and war, and
> keeping white males dominant in society. The right's "moral values" seem
> to me to amount to bigotry and chauvinism of various kinds.
> 
> So in Nov.2004 at my local church group, I discussed this with some
> people there, and I with my minister's help started a non-partisan group
> there called "spiritual politics." We had visioning sessions and
> brainstorms and talked about what we could do; meanwhile unknown to me a
> much larger church group was doing the same thing and setting up groups
> nationwide. This group is Tikkun, a progressive Jewish organization led
> by Rabbi Michael Lerner, and the groups are called the Network of
> Spiritual Progressives. My minister and I went to their Spiritual
> Activism conference in Berkeley in July 2005. Then we joined up our
> little group with their network.
> 
> Rabbi Lerner, a member of the Green Party, suggested that we need a
> "spiritual progressive caucus" in political parties, especially the
> Greens and Democrats. He says that the Greens in his area around San
> Francisco have dismissed spiritual politics as irrelevant, and even
> insulted people with spiritual beliefs as somehow being less informed or
> intelligent. I have never experienced either secular people or spiritual
> people being put down this way in our local group.
> 
> Nevertheless, the point such people as Lerner and Lakoff are making
> today, and which also occured to me after the election, seems very
> important indeed. People are voting for the Right wing because they are
> speaking to spiritual and moral concerns, and the Left is not. It is not
> that the Left has no spiritual people in it; far from it. In fact,
> spirituality has been the chief motive for liberal activists throughout
> history. Martin Luther King Jr. is an obvious example. But people on the
> Left keep their spirituality hidden. They are concerned it might lead to
> a joining of church and state, or that they might appear weak and stupid
> if they deal with issues that don't depend on hard science. They may
> wonder how the state or politicians might even address spiritual issues
> in ways that are non-oppressive.
> 
> Whatever the reason may be, the die has been cast. Religion and/or
> spirituality and "moral values" are in politics to stay. If the Left
> doesn't address them, we lose. It's that simple. People have concerns
> more important to them than their economic status. They are lonely.
> Their families don't work. They feel unsafe, alienated and
> unappreciated. Their culture assaults their sensibilities. Having no
> alternative, they vote for the Right wing, who assure them that these
> problems are caused by secular liberals, gays, feminists, peaceniks,
> activist judges, the liberal media, etc. Of course they are voting
> wrong, and their concerns are forgotten once the Right gets into office
> anyway. Instead, the Right wing politicians busy themselves with
> destroying communities and social support structures and instituting the
> litany of destructive policies we all know so well. Meanwhile, the real
> cause of their spiritual and moral concerns is not addressed; namely,
> the alienating effects of our capitalist, corporate workplace and
> economy, as well as unawareness among our leaders of our real needs for
> meaning and connection with something greater than ourselves.
> 
> So what would a Green spiritual progressives caucus do? I asked Rabbi
> Lerner himself yesterday when I interviewed him on my radio program on
> KKUP (I also recorded the interview). He is promoting his new book "The
> Left Hand of God." In general, he says the Greens need a better
> "overarching vision" (beyond the 10 key values, apparently) that would
> address not only our economic and ecological concerns but our meaning
> concerns. He said our vision needs to articulate a new "bottom line" for
> our institutions; namely, do they foster nurturing and loving care for
> people and for our society and planet? Do they bring people together,
> and allow them to express what is fulfilling and meaningful to them? The
> current bottom line, of course, is how much money and power does an
> institution generate for its owners.
> 
> There is a rich "green spirituality" tradition in the Green Party. I
> would think a Green caucus would ask that we do some brief spiritual
> practices at our meetings and events, such as moments of silence or
> non-sectarian prayers. We could discuss how what we advocate politically
> might address the real spiritual crisis and needs that people have, so
> that some people with these concerns might consider voting for us
> instead of the Republicans.
> 
> Is there anyone on this list who shares my concerns, and would be
> willing to join me in asking that forming a "Green spiritual
> progressives caucus" be on the agenda to be formed in our group, and/or
> that we make some time during meetings and events for celebrating and
> acknowledging our green spirituality?
> 
> Let me be clear, that the proposal of "spiritual progressives" does not
> mean some of us want to join church and state. We do want to take
> spirituality out of the closet, to realize it is important to many
> voters, and part of our own political tradition. We want our agenda to
> reflect not only material, economic, bureaucratic proposals, but moral
> and spiritual ones too. We don't want to convert anyone to our religion,
> or chase seculars away. We recognize the key importance of the secular
> issues we address now, although we may feel they are not separate,
> really, from the spiritual ones.
> 
> Otherwise, we cede the spiritual realm to the Right Wing, whose agenda
> is to make one particular religious tradition, fundamentalist
> Christianity, the basis for government, culture and society. We allow
> them to define the term "moral values and spirituality," and allow them
> to distort it into prejudice and chauvinism.
> 
> What d'you'all think??
> 
> Eric Meece aka Eric the Green
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