NSP
Spiritual Progressive Analysis
Nine Qualities of the Spiritual Activist
The most effective activism is from the soul to the outer world, so each of us must also do the work of creating spiritual coherence within our own souls
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Activism
Tikkun at 25
Those of us who founded and shaped Tikkun for the past twenty-five years have been solidly committed to supporting the manifestation of the Spirit of God in this world. In our view that means advancing the possibilities of a world …
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Spiritual Politics
Suicidal vs. Life-Giving Religious Narratives
I was invited to reflect here on the topic of “spiritual visions for social healing,” under the general heading of “creating a caring society,” but first, I’d like to turn the topic upside-down to look at religious visions for social suicide.
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Environmental Activism
Yankee Doodle Faced Big Oil
The human race — not for the first time in our history — has lost the sacred sense of self-restraint. We don’t restrain ourselves. And what’s the result? The earth will give forth thorns and thistles, not abundance, and you will have to work with the sweat pouring down your faces to get just barely enough to eat.
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Education
How Closed are “Closed Minds”?
When I moved to the University of Missouri after having worked in Boston, I found that approaches to racial and gender equality that worked in New England were counterproductive in our work in the lower Midwest. We asked students to share what they valued in their culture, what nurtured and sustained them. We experienced the joy of expanding circles of deliberation and engagement with those we had formerly seen as prejudiced, closed-minded, and uninterested in learning
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Activism
A Politics Based on Soul Force
I think that if you’re looking at the world today and you’re not heartbroken and you’re not grieving, you’re not conscious. The question is, if we know that things can be done, what are we called upon to do?
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Analysis of Israel/Palestine
The New Zionist Imperative Is to Tell Israel the Truth
This is an extremely interesting and terrible time for the issue that I work on, the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. I’d like to think together about some reactions to the flotilla incident and about where we go from here—what are the policy options, the implications for our politics, and, from my perspective, the implications for the American Jewish community.
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Food/Hunger
The Race to Save Civilization
If we look at early civilizations that declined and collapsed, more often than not it was a shortage of food that brought them down. Until recently I had rejected the idea that food could be the weak link in our modern civilization; I now think it probably is.
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Climate Change
What It Will Take to Return the Globe to 350
As much as I love the Network of Spiritual Progressives, I am not sure how much of a progressive I am. Seems to me that I spend almost all my time trying to keep things from changing, that in some deep sense I am a conservative—conserving the earth!
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Activism
ESRA: An Opportunity to Reshape the World
We have been discussing how we can get members of Congress involved in an Environmental and Social Responsibility Amendment to the Constitution (ESRA). And so what I did over the past few months was to look at the principles and to draft a resolution. The idea is this: we take the principles in the ESRA, and we put them in a congressional resolution asking members of Congress to support the principles, and from there we can work to draft specific legislation for a constitutional amendment.
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Global Capitalism
Economics for a Global Community — A Conversation with Joseph Stiglitz
In this conversation U.S. economist Joseph Stiglitz, recipient of the 2001 Nobel Prize in Economics, endorses economic equality and workplace democracy, and discusses how to accomplish the Network of Spiritual Progressives’ economic goals, with which he sympathizes.
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Activism
Q&A on the ESRA
This Q&A explains why we chose the approach we did in the details of this amendment (including why it is so long and so technical).
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Activism
ESRA: Environmental and Social Responsibility Amendment to the U.S. Constitution
We invite you to read our Environmental and Social Responsibility Amendment (ESRA) and to review the accompanying Q&A to understand why we have gone further than other amendments proposed to deal with the core problems of corporate power and the need for environmental responsibility.
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NSP Speeches
Healing Is Not a Business
Of the advanced nations, the United States has the highest number of preventable deaths. Why is this? It’s because we are the only advanced nation that thinks of patients as consumers and health as a commodity to be bought on the market. It’s because we have tried to fit medicine into a business model.
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