Are There Bad Beliefs?

“Religious tolerance” wasn’t popular in the early days of colonial America. It began with an experiment launched by Protestant theologian and activist Roger Williams. In the 17th century, Williams, with help from the indigenous people (Wampanoag) of what is now the state of Rhode Island, established, with tremendous resistance from “mainstream” colonial Christians, a settlement that welcomed people who held variant beliefs, particularly Quakers, Baptists and Jews. Williams’ vision and courage helped shape the ideas that ultimately were written into the First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution:

“Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.”

Thus, the government is constitutionally restrained from taking any action to promote or obstruct any exercise or expression of anything that presents as “religious”.

Federal, state and local governments sometimes act in ways that some believe transgress the boundaries defined by the First Amendment. Recall the controversies around the fed’s attack on the Branch Davidians in Waco in 1993, or the attempt by Roy Moore and his Christian Nationalists to retain the statue of the Ten Commandments at the Alabama state courthouse. There continue to be Americans who view these intrusions of the government to have violated Constitutional religious liberty. We need to stay vigilant, of course.

I’ve been stunned this week by the stir created by a guy with a religious moniker and the means to make a big banner. How is it that someone like Terry Jones can announce plans to burn copies of the Quran on 9/11, and attempt to extort the Islamic community in New York City to relocate their planned building project, without consequence? Plenty of more moderate religious leaders have decried Jones’ actions, and as I write this, there is still the possibility he may cancel his plans. Yet, he still could follow through with it. And there may be significant, painful consequences for people far from Jones’ church in Gainesville, Florida.

Ideologues disguised as “messengers of God” have, throughout history, always pointed to a convenient enemy to organize the frightened masses they depend upon for their power. These days, with instant media coverage, if you do or say the most outrageous things, you get the most hits on the google search, and attract seas of sensation seekers. In a culture that appears more and more to cultivate and glorify ignorance disguised as “access to information”, it shouldn’t come as a surprise that we are witnessing an escalation of outrage. The frightened masses are massing and desperate for someone, anyone, to point them toward the most available enemy. Religion stands ready as the perennial hose through which the gasoline of xenophobia fuels humankind’s conflagrations.

Yes, I believe there are bad beliefs. And, like bad water, bad air or bad food, they can make us very sick. Our American freedoms grant us full exposure to all of it. How critical, then, to our well-being today that we be very careful about what we breathe, what we eat and drink. And what we believe.

Awakening

I've had this experience several times in my life. I'm just going along through a day, exchanging brief greetings and general observations with others, on my way to this or that meeting or errand. And suddenly something happens - not a crisis or a trauma, just a flashing, momentary shift of perspective - and my way of seeing the world is changed. Long ago the image of an impoverished indigenous African child appeared in my mind for a moment, and I never again was able to imagine my life apart from hers. One day while I was a seminary student, I felt the momentary presence of overwhelming comfort and love, and I knew there was a transcendent reality. I tried to shake it for years, embarrassed to be associated with the kinds of ignorance, cruelty and oppression demonstrated for eons by groups who profess to believe in God. But it stays with me, the conviction that there are higher, deeper, broader dimensions of consciousness that intersect my neural pathways and can transform my entire way of thinking. The Greeks had a word for it: "metanoia". Could be translated "expanded consciousness" or "broad-mindedness". There's so much wonder in life to make mental space for, and sometimes, I change.

Historical Perspective

How long has the world existed? How long have people populated the earth? I got curious about how to understand the span of my own life in relation to how long the whole cosmos has been "here". So I imagined the "Big Bang", which is reputed to have occurred in the neighborhood of 13.5 billion years ago, located in San Diego, California. I imagined "now" to be located right here where I live. Starting on the west coast, I imagined traveling across country.

The whole journey from the birth of the universe until today covers about
13.5 billion years, which I imagine as the distance from San Diego to Woodbury, Connecticut.

Our Solar System took shape about 4.568 billion years ago, the distance from Woodbury to Chicago.

Our planet, the Earth was formed about 4.5 billion years ago ... puts us just about 14 miles offshore of Chicago in Lake Michigan.

Life is believed to have originated 3.7 billion years ago - east across the lake, and I-94 to Detroit, about a four hour trip.

Modern Humans arrived on the scene about 195 million years ago. Now we're in Connecticut, paddling around Candlewood Lake.

The era we refer to as "Civilization", when our ancestors began settling in cities, began between 6,500 and 5,000 years ago. We're suddenly standing on my front porch!

The history of the United States as an independent nation began in 1776, 234 years ago, which means our journey has brought us to within a quarter inch of my front door!

Our current Global Information age, Age of Technology is maybe 50 years old. That's about 1/16 of an inch from stepping inside. (I'm 59 and a half ... maybe 3/32 of an inch away?)

Historical perspective, in my judgment, is missing from so much of the lurching and screaming talk and cyber-verbiage I read and listen to. It appears that as a species we have determined that there can be no future for life unless humans define the parameters of that life. Some of today's rhetoric appears to advocate a studied ignorance of history. Who cares, they seem to suggest, what has happened over mere decades or even centuries (never mind millenia!) to bring us to a day when our human species ... so late to the game and having attained such power over the other creatures ... stands on the brink of making decisions consequential to the well-being of all future beings?

I care. The solution to our global crises begins and ends with the transformation of modern minds, the collective "modern mind". I challenge every human reading this blog to consider whether you are willing to surrender your claim to singular superiority among Earth's living systems, and begin again to seek the deeper, sacred wisdom that has been ever hinted at by ancient spiritual traditions. And I'd love to know if you have hope for the survival of living systems in the future. It could be, in light of our teeny human time-print, and the even more ephemeral success of "civilization", we are on the verge of an age of genuine wholeness for all of Earth's diverse creatures.

Glen Beck and Jim Wallis

Glen Beck regularly hammers on Christians who belong to churches that promote "social justice". Jim Wallis, founder and president of Sojourners Community in Washington, D.C., has been a voice from within Christian evangelicalism for several decades, and his face gets taped on Beck's blackboard as the symbol of that most sinister thing called "Christian social justice". Jim has been trying to get Glen to participate in a public dialog about the biblical roots of social justice, and his offers have been routinely ignored or refused. No surprise, of course.
Jim is a hero of mine. That said, I want to respectfully suggest that Glen Beck and his sensational baloney owe at least some tribute to Jim's evangelical tradition. The words "evangelical" or "evangelism" come from a Greek word that means "good message" or "good news". "Evangelicals" take as a priority of their Christian faith the biblical admonition to "go therefore and make disciples of all nations", in other words, to use whatever means are at their disposal to spread the "good news" or "gospel" of Jesus Christ.
A little history: In the early 1700s, colonial America experienced what became known as a "Great Awakening". Protestant preachers, notably Jonathan Edwards and George Whitefield, held public meetings during which they would raise their loud voices and hyperbolic rhetoric to elicit intense emotional responses from those present. A "Second Awakening" occurred in the early 19th century, from which several Christian denominations emerged, notably the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, or Mormons, with whom Glen Beck is associated. Some historians identify later "awakenings", including the emergence of the "social gospel" in the late 19th century and the "Renewal" movements of the 1960s and 1970s.
American religion has always tended to the sensational, the spectacular, the theatrical. The names of Billy Sunday, Aimee Semple McPherson or Kathryn Kuhlman may not be familiar to many, but these religious performers set the stage for Billy Graham's career of crusades, the radio ministries of Kenneth Hagin and Kenneth Copeland, and the myriad satellite television evangelism empires of the past quarter century.
American evangelicalism has spawned Glen Beck and the other media monsters who use ever more powerful technologies, corporate wealth and sophisticated rhetorical devices to overwhelm the senses and sensibilities of their audiences. Hey - anything to save a soul, right? Since American religion is all about sensations, the shiniest new product or the flashiest political, theatrical or spiritual celebrity is going to sell the most product. The medium hasn't really seemed to matter much to American evangelicals. For a population of consumers, the preaching of "good news" has never really been about awakening humanity to the presence of God in our midst, or building a movement toward social justice, global peace or prosperity.
Beck is just another American spectacle, a product of American evangelicalism. I think when we begin to acknowledge how our own faith tradition has given birth to truly mutant versions of the "good news", at that point a real, planetary spiritual transformation might be born.

Cosmology and Anthropology

I'm thinking it all comes down to two things:

1. what we believe to be the nature of the universe we live in, and
2. what we believe to be our purpose as human beings, alive in this universe.

Some of us believe the universe consists of random bits of energy/matter chaotically bouncing about, and coalescing from time to time into “things” that exist for a while and then cease to exist. Some of us believe that humans, and all creatures, are “things” like any other “things” in the sense that we/they are no more significant in the grand scale of “things” than any other “thing”.

Some of us believe the universe consists of ordered patterns of energy/matter, evolving toward greater and more complex patterns of order, and that “things” are the ordered coalescence of waves and particles and other cosmic stuff. Some of us believe that humans, and all creatures, are complex patterns of energy/matter that are significant only to the degree that they contribute to the evolution of cosmic patterns of order.

Some of us, of course, simply don’t reflect upon the nature of the cosmos, or upon the purpose – if any – of our human existence in it. Those are jobs for astrophysicists, philosophers, artists and out-of-work theologians. The rest of us eat, sleep, copulate, work, fight and die. Some of us worry, of course. Others of us conspire against those we call our enemies. Some of us store up unexpressed emotions and become chronically sick. Others of us see the vulnerabilities in the rest of us, and exploit them. Still others consume intoxicants – liquor, drugs, hypnotic audio-video media – to mute our inner voices. Some do a little of this, a little of that.

Depending on what we believe about 1. and 2. above, what we believe either doesn’t matter at all, or has cosmic significance.

So – what’s the nature of YOUR universe, and what’s YOUR purpose as a human being, alive in this universe?

This is not a trick question. I am sincerely interested. It really does matter to me. Thanks for reading my blog.

Taxpayers, Stockholders and Citizens

Do you have ownership in America? I bet you imagine you do. I bet you think that because you were born in the U.S.A., you are among the “we the people” referred to in the Constitution of the United States of America. I bet you think that because you vote, or have a mortgage and a job, you enjoy the privileges of ownership in this nation.

Hey – I believe a lot of silly things, too.

The health care reform legislation that passed the House of Representatives yesterday is a very tired, weak and lame law. Why? Because “we the people” no longer have the power to influence our government to enact laws that are in our common interest. Why? Well, here’s how it goes in a nutshell.

In 1776 our common prosperity was rooted in the ideal of a common devotion to universal liberty, and to the lands of the original 13 colonies. These were lands of unimaginable abundance, which had been occupied for thousands of years by indigenous people. It's true that nearly 300 years prior to the American Revolution our European ancestors had decimated and domesticated those native people. And it's true that during those years the “peculiar institution” of slavery insured a dependable labor market. The framers of the U.S. Constitution, nonetheless, were idealists who were willing to take considerable risks to envision and create a “land of liberty” and a government that protected the rights and freedoms of individual citizens.

Governments have always taxed citizens to enable them to do the work we need governments to do, mostly to maintain a standing army. In the early days of the U.S.A., taxes were mostly voluntary, like the offering collected at church (which eventually became “pew taxes”, but that’s another story). Those who became wealthy as the result of the freedoms afforded them, contributed to the national treasury out of genuine gratitude for the fruits of their freedoms.

That didn’t last long.

Revolutionary zeal naturally cools into national identity and pride. Wealthy Americans began to galvanize the power they exercise through the payment of their taxes. Wealthy people naturally seek ways to exploit their power to further increase their wealth. By financing the government, they begin to assume control of the government, and thus are enabled to pursue their dreams of “building a better world”, a world in the image of the Modern Venture Capitalist, through the agency of that government.

Today, those in the upper income tax brackets – businesses and individuals – pay a considerable percentage of the nation’s taxes. They also invest in legislation to insure they can remain in those tax brackets. One of the great coups d’états of the wealthy was the legal establishment of the “corporation”. Corporations enjoy the legal status of individual citizens under U.S. law. This has resulted in more and more legal and political power percolating up from the citizenry to the corporate wealthy. This is why Washington is currently overwhelmed by handsomely paid lobbyists who outnumber elected legislators by 23 to 1 (down from 25 to 1 in 2008).

Corporations not only are able to pay for government influence, but they create their own constituencies – groups of people to whom they are accountable. In a democratic republic (our current form of government), an elected representative is presumed to be accountable to the people who elect him or her. In a corporation it is the investors – also known as “stockholders” – to whom corporate leaders are beholden. Stockholders are motivated above all by the pursuit of profit. They are discouraged from applying personal concern for social justice or environmental stewardship or the health and welfare of fellow citizens when they vote their company’s shares.

Today Corporations and their stockholders, as America's principle taxpayers, are no longer responsible as American citizens, or to American citizens. They are responsible to the “market”. Their corporate self-interest dictates that they do everything in their power to keep their tax money from being distributed by the government for the benefit of the commonwealth. Thus they have done and are doing whatever they can to prevent those taxes from being used to protect the citizenry from being exploited in the marketplace, including the medical marketplace.

If you’re a corporation or a stockholder in a large corporation, then I guess you DO own America. The rest of us … well, I guess we’re just a line item on the property list.

Insurgency

What is an “insurgency”? Who or what are “insurgents”? Are they different from “guerrilla” fighters or “rebels”?

I try to pay attention to the language of “media-speak”. When a word like “insurgent” is used to refer to people in Vietnam, Iraq, Somalia or Afghanistan, it is used to evoke a particular image. What do you see when you hear “insurgent”?

Mirriam-Webster’s definition of “insurgency” is this: “the quality or state of being insurgent; specifically, a condition of revolt against a government that is less than an organized revolution and that is not recognized as belligerency.”

In other words, it’s a loosely organized rebellion by an indigenous population that does not agree with other nations’ recognition of the formal government under which they live, and who do not, themselves, constitute an internationally recognized nation or state.

It seems to me that “insurgency” has no real meaning outside the context of empire. It takes an empire to superimpose a government on people who prefer their own, more local traditions of governance.

When I hear the word “insurgent” spoken, it sounds to me like “insubordinate” or “insolent”. I imagine adolescent troublemakers who just make trouble for the sake of making trouble. They simply won’t accept the rule of authorities other than themselves. They resist change, and their idealism may be commendable but they are prone to behaviors that belie their underlying evil nature. They are also anachronistic, refusing to yield to the inevitable march of the Modern Materialistic Imperial Movement. The Emperor’s crocodile tears may flow, but insurgents simply must be crushed.

Matthew Hoh was a U.S. Marine captain who served tours in Afghanistan before leaving the Marines to work in Afghanistan as a civilian advisor to the U.S. Department of State. Last month he submitted his letter of resignation, and began campaigning in Washington, D.C. for withdrawing American troops from Afghanistan. In his letter (which is posted on www.npr.org), he gives extensive detail regarding his decision to resign. “The Pashtun insurgency”, he writes, “which is composed of multiple, seemingly infinite, local groups, is fed by what is perceived by the Pashtun people as a continued and sustained assault, going back centuries, on Pashtun land, culture, traditions and religion by internal and external enemies.”

The Bush administration began the current phase of this “sustained assault” on the pretense of chasing Osama bin Laden and Al Qaeda, and prosecuting the former president's “war on terror”. I see it as just one more case of imperial ambitions trumping the dignity and autonomy, rights and traditions of indigenous populations. If we're at all evolving as a species, it's time we put an end to the Age of Empire.