Conference on Spiritual Activism

Tikkun Magazine, November/December 2005

CONFERENCE ON SPIRITUAL ACTIVISM

Introduction

Creating a Network of Spiritual Progressives will take several years. We started with a Conference on Spiritual Activism in July of 2005, and will continue with a second conference on May 17-20, 2006 in Washington, DC.

In 2007, we'll proceed to a full celebratory launch of the Network, when we will also present our platform for the 2008 elections, which we hope will be introduced into the national conventions by delegates who are Spiritual Progressives.

It's hard to give a full picture of what happened and what was said at the first conference in July. With over 40 workshops, 8 work groups, and 108 speakers, not to mention a total of 1,380 attendees, it seems unlikely that we'll ever know the full range of experiences people had or the ideas that were discussed. What we can definitely say is that the response by those who attended ranged from very enthusiastic to exhilarated. Part of the reason is that there is a growing recognition of the need for a Network of Spiritual Progressives; part of the reason is that we had so many incredibly talented speakers and workshop presenters; part of the reason is that we attracted people who brought with them lots of smarts, generosity of spirit, and good will who, when they realized that they were surrounded by similarly gifted people, got very excited about being there.

An informal poll of attendees indicated the religious diversity represented: we had 600 Protestants, 200 Catholics, 150 Jews, 100 Buddhists, 100 Unitarians and Church of Religious Science and Agape people, 50 Muslims, and 180 people who were "spiritual but not religiously identified."

What we present to you here and in the next issue of TIKKUN is a small sampling of what was said.

We at TIKKUN had some guidelines for what could make a Network of Spiritual Progressives an organization that could stimulate a truly historic spiritual/political movement. It will have that significance if it can:

Show that spiritual progressives have something to say that is distinctive and important—not just a repeat of the old liberal or progressive wisdom, repackaged with a few religious or spiritual slogans, but a new and deeper analysis that would provide a smarter way to understand and combat both the growth of the Right and the ethos of extreme individualism, narcissism, and materialism in Western societies, which manifests itself in the globalization of selfishness. The central point is our call for a New Bottom Line, so that institutions and social practices are judged rational, efficient, and productive not only to the extent that they maximize money and power, but also to the extent that they maximize love and caring, kindness and generosity, peace and social justice, ethically and ecologically responsible behavior, and that they enhance our capacities to transcend a manipulative, technocratic, and utilitarian way of treating others, so that we can respond to other people as embodiments of the sacred and develop our capacities to respond to the grandeur of the universe with awe and wonder.
Demonstrate that it is possible to build a movement that is interfaith—not by seeking to have a lowest common denominator spirituality, but by encouraging people to bring their own particular religions or spiritual paths, to affirm them, and to engage in serious dialogue about the differences and places of disagreement within a context of affection, mutual respect, and shared commitment to a New Bottom Line for American society.
Show that it is possible to build a movement that unites progressive religious people with "spiritual but not religious" secular people, without requiring either to give up anything beyond their tendency to demean the integrity of the other.
Prove to the secular Left that a Spiritual Left will be loyal to a progressive sensibility without thereby turning Spiritual Progressives into cheerleaders for the latest (and sometimes quite distorted) versions of political correctness that tend to stifle creative thinking in the secular Left.
Explain to those in the religious world that one can be fully committed to progressive movements for peace, social justice, ecological sanity, human rights and civil liberties with out abandoning or significantly compromising our religious and spiritual consciousness.
Show how it is possible to understand the psychological needs that the political Right is meeting, recognize that some of those needs are rational and legitimate (e.g., the need for a transcendent meaning to life, a purpose-driven life, a vocation that has ethical purpose, loving community, and family stability), but can best be met by a progressive spirituality that challenges the ethos of selfishness and materialism of the competitive marketplace, and by a New Bottom Line in our society. We must combat the way that the Right demeans gays and lesbians, feminists, liberals, secularists, and people of color, energetically combat right-wing political influence and programs, and yet show respect for members of the Right as human beings.
Do all this with a spirit of generosity, compassion, humor, humility, and love.

When reading some of these talks (or listening to them on CDs, which are available at www.tikkun.org/store), you might ask yourself which of these goals the particular talk you are reading was trying to serve. Not every talk presented here assumes the same kind of political analysis or worldview. Yet, to varying degrees, what unites them is how they all foster a sense of generosity, humor, and love, coupled with a profound appreciation of the political dimension of spirituality. And at times, a number of these pieces reach out to the secular Left, extending a reassuring hand of friendship by demonstrating that spirituality and religion are not synonyms for anti-democratic politics. Quite the opposite, in fact.

We are not including the keynote speech by Rabbi Michael Lerner, which set the framework for the conference and which provides a lot of the central politics of meaning/spiritual politics framework that pervaded the understanding of many of the participants. A much fuller statement of this position will be available in January with the publication of Lerner's book, The Left Hand of God, which deepens his talk and presents it in a more detailed and powerful way. If we presented the whole thing here, we wouldn't give enough attention to this conference's other wonderful speakers, who brought a great deal of crucial wisdom and insight to our proceedings. (But we do urge you to read the book—buy it in early January as soon as it comes into your bookstores, or preorder it from Amazon.com.)

So, imagine that people listening to these other talks already knew about Why America Needs a Spiritual Left (a very shortened version of some of Lerner's themes that appeared in the January/February 2005 issue of TIKKUN (and which you can find on our website, www.tikkun.org/magazine). Then, the rest of what we are presenting makes greater sense. But please understand that we are presenting representative excerpts from many speakers whose full presentations can best be understood by listening to the CDs.

We start with a session at which the founder of the program on Peace and Conflict Studies (PACS) at U.C. Berkeley, Michael Nagler, offered opening thoughts. Nagler is nationally respected as a pioneer in bringing peace studies into academia, and for his own powerful work on Gandhi and nonviolence. Nagler co-chaired the Conference on Spiritual Activism with Rabbi Lerner, and PACS, with TIKKUN, was one of the major co-sponsors of the conference.

Source Citation

2005. Introduction. Tikkun 20(6):20