Dear Swami

Tikkun Magazine, January/February 2007

By Swami Beyondananda

DEAR SWAMI: The war in Iraq drags on. More than 600,000 civilians have died in Iraq since our invasion, as have more than 2,800 of our troops. Private companies are making money hand over fist, yet the Iraqi people don't even have basic services. Our fearless leader has instituted a stay the (inter)course policy, and no one seems able to stop him. I could go on.

My question is, where are the religious leaders in this country? I don't mean those in the thrall of the Religious Right. I mean those ministers in mainstream denominations, rabbis with conscience, Evangelicals who believe in Jesus' actual teachings, New Thought ministers, etc. Where are these people, and why aren't they standing up and speaking out? Is it about losing their nonprofit status, or something deeper?

—Ann Sadat, Putney, Vermont

DEAR ANN: Regardless of what our religious leaders are or aren't doing, most Americans are waking up to the sad realization that our President laid an egg in Iraq, and now the chickens are coming home to roost. Once again, we've had to learn that every war that starts out as a "just war" ends up as ... just war. The entire notion that we went there to keep the peace has been shattered, as more and more people begin to suspect we're there to keep the pieces instead.

I too have been curious about the whereabouts, whatabouts and howabouts of our mainstream religious leaders. We hear all this religious outcry about how two men lying together is an abomination, but when a whole bunch of men lie together to bomb a nation, the silence is deafening. I can understand not wanting to jeopardize nonprofit status, but you cannot forget that REAL Bottom Line is their For-Prophet status. No matter what the religion, the founding Prophets offered up some version of the Golden Rule. While spiritual text is always open to interpretation, not even the most dyslexic translation has Jesus saying, "Doo-doo unto others before they can doo-doo unto you," "blessed are the war makers," or "the guys with the biggest army shall inherit the earth."

If churches really are worth all those taxes they don't pay, then the real service they can perform is to have faith in their faith and stand by their stand. And maybe be less concerned with Armageddon and Judgment Day and more focused on bringing about Disarmageddon and Nonjudgment Day, when indeed a peacemaker is planted in the heart of every nation and we the people sit on the seat of power instead of it sitting on us.

Maybe we can encourage our religious leaders to be less concerned with the hereafter (or, in the case of those who believe in reincarnation, the here-before) and make the world a better place in the here-now. Maybe we can help them move past the Ten Commandments to the One Suggestion: That we're all one with the same One, the Inescapable Oneness. The Universe has us surrounded! Might as well surrender.

Might as well surrender to using the spiritual power in our own hearts rather than waiting for a Higher Power to magically come down and intervene. We can't expect to be fed intravenously forever, can we? It's called supply side spirituality: Be more supplying, and less demanding. For indeed we are not here to earn God's love, we're here to spend it! Time for all denominations to go for the highest common denominator instead of the lowest and see the world from a God's-eye view for a change: We're all in it together, and we're here to re-grow the Garden from the grassroots up—and have a heaven of a time doing it.

DEAR SWAMI: We've been exploring our sexuality for several years now. We've been through tantra, and now we're considering polyamory. What's your take, Swami?