The following quotes by Republican Dwight Eisenhower are a helpful reminder of how far to the right that party has drifted.
“Only a fool would try to deprive working men and working women of their right to join the union of their choice.”
“Should any political party attempt to abolish social security, unemployment insurance, and eliminate labor laws and farm programs, you would not hear of that party again in our political history. There is a tiny splinter group, of course, that believes that you can do these things. Among them are a few Texas oil millionaires, and an occasional politician or businessman from other areas. Their number is negligible and they are stupid.”
“Every gun that is made, every warship launched, every rocket fired, signifies in the final sense a theft from those who hunger and are not fed, those who are cold and are not clothed.”
“We will bankrupt ourselves in the vain search for absolute security.”
I do not mean to be critical, but I was born in the shadow of the Jewish Holocaust. My life has been haunted by the question of how decent people can do indecent things when hypnotized by religious, political or economic ideologies. I love my nation and my faith but I do not have a right to be noncritical of the propaganda of any group. I want to know what my beliefs mean to those who live under the judgment of my fellow Christians. I want to know what my possessions mean to those who live under the economic tyranny from which my salary comes. I want to know what my male privilege means to the victims of sexual and domestic violence.. I want to know what my white privilege means to those who face an everyday uphill climb against racism. I do not mean to make others uncomfortable, but my only other choice is to be a guilty bystander. I must ask what kind of religion feels honest questions to be an attack? What kind of nation must silence any news of its actual doings abroad? What kind of an economic system must hide in the shadows the details of its treaties? I must ask the question, when did light become our enemy?
Those of us who see good in religion, must be the first to condemn religion when it is bad. Those of us who believe religion can be scientific, must purge every superstition from our own teaching, no matter how venerated. We clergy who do not wish to be condemned as witchdoctors must renounce any pretense to magical in our rituals, no matter how comforting that would be. Those of us who do not wish to be “the opiate of the people” must join the world wide revolution of the wretched of the earth against every form of national, economic or religious tyranny. This is the price we must pay if we truly want to show religion at its best.
It has always been a tragic mistake to answer scientific questions by looking at the teaching stories of the Bible. The Biblical view that the male seed is placed in the soil of the female is as obsolete as geocentric universe. At this point, every honest person must admit that the world isn’t flat, nor is it motionless, even if the Bible says so. In the same way, we have arrived at a point where every honest person must admit that sexuality isn’t as simple as proposed in the Bible.
If we study biology honestly we must face the fact that sexuality is a continuum, nor a clear polarity. Whatever Genesis says, I did not begin in the womb as a male, but developed those traits as inflections of a more generic humanity.
And, actually, the Bible never claims to be science. It calls us to complexity and open mindedness. Genesis begins with two contradictory creation stories. Anyone who takes the Bible literally from that point, does so in deep denial of the actual text.
Brit Hume was asked about the Chris Christie bridge scandal, he responded with a quote that should go down in the annals of patriarchy:
“Well, I would have to say that in this sort of feminized atmosphere in which we exist today, guys who are masculine and muscular like that in their private conduct, kind of old fashion tough guys, run some risk.
…By which I mean that men today have learned the lesson the hard way that if you act like a kind of an old fashioned guy’s guy, you’re in constant danger of slipping out and saying something that’s going to get you in trouble and make you look like a sexist or make you look like you seem thuggish or whatever. That’s the atmosphere in which he operates. This guy is very much an old fashioned masculine, muscular guy, and there are political risks associated with that. Maybe it shouldn’t be, but that’s how it is.”
It is yet to be established whether Gov. Christie is guilty of a thuggish act of petty political revenge, but Brit Hume’s credentials for the good old boy’s club are clearly all in order.
“Last Friday, three global pesticide corporations threw the legal equivalent of the kitchen sink at the island of Kaua’i. The suit filed in federal court is the latest in a long stream of corporate bullying that has become commonplace on the island and around the world.
For years, the Hawaiian islands have been a global epicenter of testing genetically engineered (GE) seeds. This means big money for pesticide and biotech corporations. And as momentum grows to restrict GE testing and pesticide use thoughout the islands, corporate bully tactics are becoming increasingly agressive. And desperate.
Last Friday, I was on Kaua’i when we got word that Dow, DuPont Pioneer and Syngenta filed suit against the County of Kaua’i. And the high-powered attorneys trumped up every possible legal argument to try and tank an important new law.
The suit comes on the heels of a historic victory; last fall, Kaua’i passed a county law (Bill 2491) that would allow greater public disclosure of pesticide use, as well as modest no-spray protection zones around schools and other places where children live, learn and play.”
-Paul Towers
http://www.panna.org/blog/pesticide-corporations-bully-kauai?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+panna%2Fhome+%28Pesticide+Action+Network%27s+GroundTruth%29
“There are forty million poor people here, and one day we must ask the question, ‘Why are there forty million poor people in America?’ And when you begin to ask that question, you are raising a question about the economic system, about a broader distribution of wealth. When you ask that question, you begin to question the capitalistic economy. And I’m simply saying that more and more, we’ve got to begin to ask questions about the whole society…And you see, my friends, when you deal with this you begin to ask the question, ‘Who owns the oil?’ You begin to ask the question, ‘Who owns the iron ore?’ You begin to ask the question, ‘Why is it that people have to pay water bills in a world that’s two-thirds water?’ These are words that must be said.”
-Martin Luther King
It is a mistake to assume that great spiritual teachers are speaking at the level understood by their followers. Few beginners would be foolish enough to assume they could take Einstein literally. Instead, they would assume that they had only the barest outline of an understanding and would spend the rest of their lives growing into the teaching.
When Jesus says “I am the only way” it is understandable that some assume Jesus is speaking from the same ego centered consciousness with which they are hearing him. So they hear the words to say something like, “you must become a Christian or you cannot be saved.” Beginners have no way of knowing the depth of compassion from which such words might be spoken. They have not studied enough to realize that in the “I am” sayings of Jesus refer not to his own ego, but to the Divine Wisdom described in Proverbs. They do not know that “I am” is the divine name. So they have no way of realizing that Jesus is referring to the Wisdom that knits the cosmos together not to a church that has yet to be formed or a Bible that had yet to be written. He is speaking not as you or I might speak, but from the depths of our one common life. Which is why he also said, “What you do to the least of these, you do unto me.” He is saying, “only in loving from the heart of things, as I am, can you find true life.”
Do not assume great teachers are speaking at the level of your current comprehension. Perhaps they are inviting you to a depth of living and loving you do not yet know.
Some of the best commentaries for any religious text are the other world religions. I will never forget my own impression, after reading great texts of the East, that I had only learned a children’s version of Christianity. Suddenly, mystics like Tolstoy became transparently clear. Far from being the loving but petty leader of my own version of Christianity, I came to understand Christ as a cosmic principle that was also expressed by sages the world over. I have yet to find a great world religion that does not have its own version of the Christian truth. In fact, every great lover of nature and humankind, even if he or she is thought to be of no religion, is singing a hymn to the same mystery. What madness to think any of us understands and has copyrighted that mystery. What greater affront to God than for any of us to claim we alone are the beloved?
“You may be 38 years old, as I happen to be. And one day, some great opportunity stands before you and calls you to stand up for some great principle, some great issue, some great cause. And you refuse to do it because you are afraid…. You refuse to do it because you want to live longer…. You’re afraid that you will lose your job, or you are afraid that you will be criticized or that you will lose your popularity, or you’re afraid that somebody will stab you, or shoot at you or bomb your house; so you refuse to take the stand.
Well, you may go on and live until you are 90, but you’re just as dead at 38 as you would be at 90. And the cessation of breathing in your life is but the belated announcement of an earlier death of the spirit.”
― Martin_Luther_King