Report on the recent 'progressive spiritual activism' conference

[JudyM]

I attended the "Spiritual Activism Conference" in DC last week and left feeling inspired with hope that if we on the Left improve our efforts to talk "values" in the public sphere we can win over a lot of voters. The basic premise of the conference is that politicians who believe in progressive values should be putting those values right out there for everyone to hear, and that we should be doing our part to support them in that effort. Politicians have difficulty articulating these values (compassion, kindness, ecological conservation, peace, etc) because they are 'soft' rather than 'tough,' and so are fodder for ridicule from politicians on the Right, who couch their 'values' in terms that are based on the 'realities' of a bottom line based on economic efficiency and the like.

We've all heard the Right's rap about how the Left doesn't stand for anything, we're flip-floppers, etc so many voters in the middle feel that only the Right is really concerned about values, and they vote for those politicians who at least seem to stand for something. This seems idiotic to me, but apparently a lot of people vote republican for this reason. However, as we all know, the Religious Right is not really articulating authentic spiritual values; those values instead underlie the policies of the Left.

The conference was an effort to articulate a "new bottom line" and empower and mobilize people to 1) effectively lobby their elected representatives to vote according to progressive values and 2) form groups within their own communities to disseminate info and become activists in promoting candidates and legislation consistent with these new bottom line values.

In fact, most of the 1200 conference attendees went to their representatives' offices on Thursday for face to face meetings set up in advance by the conference organizers. I observed this to have been a powerful transition point for most everyone, few of whom had ever even contacted their elected reps in the past.

In the various speeches there was actually little talk of religion -- just emphasis on those values of compassion, etc. This was appealing to me, as a pretty much secular person. Yet there was a broad diversity of spiritual background represented both among the speakers and attendees: from evangelist to secularists to native American and other earth-based religions. Everyone was speaking the same language of peace and compassion.

A Jewish woman from Iran spoke about her hardships, another native woman from the Alaska National Wildlife Refuge area (for whom English was a second language) talked about the vanishing animal life, a hip-hop rapper touched the crowd with periodic interludes focusing on these values issues and war, global warming, etc., a guitarist and conga player sang rousing rhythmic stories of experiences in war-torn Iraq, Arun Gandhi, Holly Near, Cindy Sheehan, and others urged us to think about how we can change the world one step at a time if we work together. There was such an inspired feeling of hope. Of starting to believe that we have not gone too far down the path with * to make it hopeless to take steps to return. A sense of a possible global community of peace, of caring for the environment, of turning part of our GNP toward the problems of poverty and hunger rather than feeding it all into the military.

Ultimately, the conference was about focusing each of us on having the courage to maintain a high moral vision, and to work for this despite the cynical Right's argument that it's not realistic to run the world on compassionate principles, that efficiency is instead paramount. My own hope is that enough people will still believe these values matter -- enough to join this grassroots movement.

You can read more of the specifics of the group's platform at www.spiritualprogressives.org

[lindisfarne]

1. This is great. If people are going to be affiliated with religious orgs,

and they are, I'd rather have it be leftist ones which think.

[JudyM]

3. Totally. It rejects paternalism in favor of a shared vision on everyone's

own terms. The founder of the group is all about independent thinking and personal freedoms; he's an ex-hippie activist, the genuine article. In fact, he urges everyone to express whatever values they have, but to just do it rather than letting the Right define the entire playing field as they have been. He lays out a lot of specific progressive, concrete policy positions in his book that the movement is based on: The Left Hand of God -- Taking Back Our Country from the Religious Right (by Rabbi Michael Lerner). It's a great read, IMHO. Gives fascinating background on how the political right and the religious right got so cozy together, one feeding votes to the other while getting chunks of $ and favorable policy decisions. Then takes it the step farther with the where do we go from here part. Really a way to get through to moderate republicans as well as really religious folks who recognize that the heart of their religion is about compassion.

If you buy through this link, DU gets a share of the proceeds:
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/redirect?tag=democraticund-20&path=subst/home/home.htm

[zeemike]

2. Good for you Judy

And I hope things go well for this endeavor.

But I am for a different approach to the problem, a more in your face approach.
The ones that are the problem in the world are mostly christian and claim that Jesus was the Christ. And I agree with that. But the things they do and the policies they support are for the most part the exact opposite of the things that Jesus taught.
Like prayer; They say we should pray everywhere and all the time in public, and Jesus taught that we should lock ourselves in a closet and pray in private so as to not be like the hypocrites.
Like Capitol punishment; Most fundies are strongly for it, even though Jesus himself stopped a legal execution and said "Let them without sin cst the first stone"
And on and on they go teaching the exact opposite of what the master taught and no one is calling them on it.
I am hoping for a priest or preacher that really believes in the teachings of Jesus and knows there value to get in their face and be the one that calls them to repentance, because they surly need it.