Voice of Fear, Voice of Hope

How hopeful are you right now about the future of this country? If you’re anything like me, the answer to that question probably varies from day to day. On good days, I see compassion and goodness in the people around me, and I feel pretty sure that we can make headway if we can just get our message out. On bad days, though, I worry that I’m being naïve, that people are too far gone, too caught up in the accumulation of possessions and prestige that our culture tells us is what really counts. The more I talk to other progressive activists around the country, the more convinced I become that all of us have these two voices in our heads. Most of us are torn between the cynical realism that we learn largely in the world of work and a deep distaste for the selfishness, materialism, and manipulation that surrounds us.

            According to Rabbi Michael Lerner in his new book The Left Hand of God: Taking Back Our Country from the Religious Right, these are the voices of two worldviews that date back thousands of years and are evident in the religious writings of Christianity, Judaism, and Islam. Under one worldview, human beings are born alone into a scary world in which other people will seek to control and dominate you unless you succeed in controlling and dominating them first. God, in this worldview, is an all-powerful and vengeful deity bent on keeping human beings in line. Under the other worldview, human beings are born into a web of life illustrated by the fact that a baby’s first experience is one of connection to its mother. Domination and control, under this model, arise when human beings fall away from a consciousness of their interconnection with all life. This worldview proposes a God of love and compassion. Lerner calls these two views of God the right and left hand of God.

I suspect you can deduce which worldview dominates in America under the Bush administration. I would argue, actually, that the first worldview had been dominant for much longer than the past five years, and that it is nearly as common among Democrats as it is among Republicans. In fact, Lerner points out that the right and left hands of God cannot be mapped neatly onto the right and left ends of the political spectrum. Liberals as well as conservatives often resort to using fear as a motivating force, and the Democratic party has not so far articulated a vision that departs in any substantial way from the belief that our highest calling is to protect our own interests in the face of those who would seek to dominate and control us.

            Still, the spark of the other worldview remains alive. It shone strongly in Martin Luther King Jr.’s speeches about the beloved community. It motivated much (though by no means all) of the activism of the 1960s. It is present in the writings of Desmond Tutu, Nelson Mandela, Vaclav Havel, and the other leaders of recent social transformations. It is at the heart of the restorative justice movement. As the Network of Spiritual Progressives grows, I can see this worldview flickering to life here in our own country. This gives me tremendous hope. I believe the time is right for a major transformation of consciousness in America and subsequently in the world. Indeed, I think such a transformation may be the only thing that can save us and our planet.

            I want to make it clear that this isn’t some naïve, utopian view that if we would just play nice, the world would instantly be at peace. In order for such a transformation to take hold, many if not all of the institutions in our society would have to be transformed at the same time. To this end, the Network of Spiritual Progressives is encouraging people to get together to discuss how their worldviews have been shaped by the prevailing conception of the world as a scary and threatening place, and to envision what their own workplaces, schools, churches, and the other institutions in which they live would look like if they were based on a vision of love and compassion. Small NSP groups are also supporting members in striving to live by the second worldview—to make decisions that maximize love and compassion.

            In this sense, we are now at a historical junction similar to the one faced by early feminists in the 1960s and 1970s. At that time, it hardly seemed possible to imagine a world in which women were treated equally to men, and the men in power dismissed the feminist movement as impractical and silly, yet small groups of women were meeting to re-imagine what their lives would be like should such a change take place. Gradually, as women did this work, things began to change in the way people thought about women and men and in the policies that reflected those beliefs. This is the kind of change in consciousness we seek to feed.

            These ideas are more fully articulated in Michael Lerner’s book, The Left Hand of God: Taking Back Our Country from the Religious Right. Lerner will be giving a talk on the book on Wednesday, February 15, at 7:30pm at St. Joan of Arc. I urge you to attend his talk, to read the book, and to discuss these ideas with others. As always, I welcome your thoughts; email me! May these ideas strengthen the voice of hope inside each of us!