“Freedom” is such an interesting word. For many Libertarians “freedom” means that the rich should be free from governmental constraints, but it does not mean that the poor should be protected from the rich with labor unions and living wages. For many religious people, “freedom” means that their own religion should be free from governmental constraints, but it does not mean that people outside their religion should be free from them. Many religions are all too willing to take away the rights of others based on what they believe. Still they talk about “freedom”.
When hierarchal religions speak about freedom, they are bound to be a self parody. Heirarchies deny freedom by definition. For example, most Catholics believe in contraception, but the Bishops do not see the concept of “freedom” as applying to them. It gets even messier when sectarian religions want to be part of the public arena, and yet, do not believe in universal human rights, or only in human rights as they define them.
So the Catholic Bishops who would not allow women to rule in their own hierarchy, nor for gays to be married even out of it now claim that there is a war on their religious freedom. Rev. Barry W. Lynn, head of Americans United for Separation of Church and State summed it up pretty well when he said that church-affiliated agencies operating on taxpayer dollars should follow public policy guidelines.
“When taxpayers are forced to support sectarian agencies that refuse to meet the needs of women, gay people and other communities that’s a real violation of religious liberty,” Lynn said. “If the bishops want to run sectarian social services, they ought to collect the money from their parishioners, not the taxpayers.”
To read the article, click here.
When I met Jesse Jackson I was surprised how different he was from the media image. Trusting what I saw on the news, I had always seen him as an opportunist. That day I realized I had been wrong.
I believe it was when we were all working on the hate crimes bill in Texas, but to be honest, I can’t remember the specific issue for sure. I just remember him. With no cameras or reporters around (he called them alligators), he got suddenly soft spoken, almost quiet. He had come as an organizer and just wanted to make sure that all people were represented in our structure. That was the moment I realized how impossible his life had been for him. He had been asked to step into the shoes of Martin Luther King. Those were shoes neither he, nor anyone else could fill. To step into shoes the whole world could see you don’t fill out would be hard for anyone.
I began to listen to Jesse Jackson more carefully. There is no question that he is showman, but he is much more as well. This article is his warning that focusing on the shooter may actually be to miss the point.
“When Rosa Parks was arrested [for refusing to go to the back of the bus], if we had focused on the bus driver and not on the states’ rights law, we would have missed the point…. We must not just settle for Zimmerman, we must repeal the Stand Your Ground law.”
to read, click here.
Connecticut now makes it sixteen States that have ended capital punishment and have moved into the modern world at least as far as the death penalty goes.
To Read, Click here.
Earth Policy Institute has identified four goals to avoid economic and environmental collapse: “stabilising climate, stabilising population, eradicating poverty, and restoring the economy’s natural support systems.”
The four goals are mutually dependent. We cannot choose our favorite among them. We cannot reach one of the goals without reaching the others.
“The key to restructuring the economy is to get the market to tell the truth through full-cost pricing. If the world is to move onto a sustainable path, we need economists who will calculate indirect costs and work with political leaders to incorporate them into market prices by restructuring taxes.”
To read the whole article, click here.
A catechism class can be an act of violence from which some children never fully recover. To teach religion as a bunch of finished answers robs a child of intellectual agency and asks them to see the world through our eyes. It is hard to imagine a violation more intrusive.
Fortunately for me, by the time I reached confirmation age, I had already figured out that the adults didn’t know what they were talking about. I had already realized they were just repeating the answers they had been given by the same process. So, I was not intellectually hobbled by confirmation class, but, I never lost the chip on my shoulder for religious pretence and bullying.
I’m not saying a child should have to figure out the world without adult help. It is also a serious error not to share the images and tools that will help children be a part of a community of meaning. We do have answers to share, but we should never forget that they are our answers not the child’s. A child’s mind and heart are sacred, tender things. They are to be honored and protected from indoctrination. A child will not live in our world forever. They will live most of their lives in a future world we cannot comprehend. Children will need to outgrow much of whatever we teach them, so we need to approach religious teaching with great humility. Their questions will guide them much further into the future, than will our answers.
Strange how songs pop back into your head after decades of silence. I haven’t thought of this song in years but it suddenly came back loud as ever.
To listen, click here.
Studying wisdom literature from around the world is one of my favorite things. This weekend, I am speaking at a Retreat at Ancient Yoga Center. Jogi Bhagat does a great job at these retreats and I am always honored to be asked. Last year I shared Gandhi’s wonderful commentary on the Bhagavad Gita and how he bridged spirituality and activism.
This year they have asked me to speak on “The Meaning of Life.” Obviously, it is a trick question that has bewildered people through the ages. Any answer pretends one can get outside the universe and grasp an understanding of the whole. Any answer is also a futile effort to reduce the universe to human purposes, and to the nouns and verbs of human language. I will contend that the real question we are asking is not “What is the meaning of life?” but “What is it that makes for a meaningful life?” Hopefully they won’t be disappointed.
If we want to reduce misery in the world we can only begin with ourselves. It is a great gift to the world simply to abandon our sense of entitlement over others stemming from our religion, our nationality or political party. It is a gift simply to see our nation and our religion as examples rather than exceptions to the common life. If we are to any degree interested in greatness of spirit, the path is as simple as it is steep- we must seek out a common scale to weigh our every claim equally with the claims of others.
Noam Chomsky is getting up there in years. He still represents a very small group of American intellectuals who stand outside the heirarchy and propaganda of the American empire. This article is on education. Chomsky has said that just as a dictatorship the masses are controlled by violence, so in a democracy the masses are controlled by propaganda. The current war on education, for many of us, is a clear attempt to keep a cheap ignorant work force, and to resist what tyrants fear most, an educated empowered people.
To read, click here.
Okay, it’s not exactly news. The University of Georgia showed this years ago, but it is a reminder and further confirmation of what more and more are coming to know. When a guy can’t sleep because two other guys want to get married, it’s not really because of something in the Bible. That doesn’t necessarily mean they are gay, but they are feeling more complexity than the male cultural role permits and it scares their inner John Wayne. Obviously the stronger the attracting, the bigger the fear.
To read article, click here.
