"The Holy One has called on us. In all of earth's sixty-five-million-year history, we are living in the most dangerous of times. The fact that a bomb was dropped on Hiroshima and two hundred thousand lives were vaporized within twenty minutes has not prevented man from dreaming up more ways to fill space with weapons of mass destruction. We were not created for militarism, but to turn our swords into plowshares. We have arrived here today by no accident. We have been summoned by the universe to claim the highest common ground. As the Dali Lama said, the radicalism of our age is to be compassionate human beings. We have been called to bring love and compassion back into the equation and assist others to connect with the deepest parts of themselves. Now is the time to realize, as never before, that when any of us suffer, we all suffer. All life is interconnected, interdependent, and greatly loved by the creator, the sustainer of the universe. We are called by love, for love, and to love."
Professor Nagler, M.C. and scholar, stoked the fire of hope within Jack. "We are not facing a spiritual crisis, but a spiritual opportunity. We offer the power of moral ideas to a country with a lot of religion yet which suffers from a great lack of spirituality and imagination. As William Blake said, "Imagination is evidence of The Divine.' And spirituality is how we grow in sensitivity to ourselves, the other, and to God. Einstein wrote, "Human beings are limited in time and space. We experience ourselves in an optical delusion. We see ourselves as separate from others. Our task must be to free ourselves from our prison of self. Only through compassion can we begin to embrace all of Creation.' The bumper sticker got it right; we are spiritual beings having a human experience."
George Lakoff, the author of Don't Think of an Elephant , affirmed what Jack already knew, that a nurturing parent raises a child as best they can to be responsible to self and others. A nurturing parent is not permissive or overindulgent, but models cooperation and honesty, and understands that everything is grace, an unconditional gift from God that one is free to accept or reject. Lakoff spoke about God as father, mother, all-knowing, all-good, all--powerful, and the source of the free gift of grace that will open one up to God in the world. Jack thought of Father Matthew Fox's recent publication, A New Reformation.
During Pentecost week, in 2005, Father Fox traveled to Wittenburg and nailed a new ninety-five theses to the church door, where Luther had nailed his five hundred years before. Father Fox wrote Jack's heart about an interfaith collaboration and community that intuits God as mother-father God of divine wisdom, and understands that the earth itself is to be tended; its health is just as much a moral imperative for us all as our human relationships. Jack had long ago rejected the concept of a punitive father God and understood that nature is God's primary temple, and war the greatest abomination.
Jack mused, "That and the daily readings are the best things I ever heard from the Roman Church." The heat from thirteen hundred bodies and the noonday sun made Jack fidgety, and even though his knees were aching most ferociously, he still craved a run, but as usual, was grateful for a fast walk. In seconds, he had escaped the crowd in Sproul Plaza and wandered around the rolling tree-canopied campus as endorphins flooded his blood; he no longer was aware of the crushing of bone on bone in his knees. He escaped in his mind to the good times before that Tuesday in September nearly four years ago, when his wife, Julianne, had been vaporized in a stairwell in the Twin Towers.
At the first thought of that day when life all changed, Jack immediately roused himself back to reality, sat down, and again became aware of the aching in his knees. He pulled out the itinerary for the conference and thought, I need to figure out where I want to be these next few hours. I'd like to catch some of all these workshops and groups, but there are just too many choices. I'll start with "Environmental Policy," and then check out "Sacred Stewardship of the Earth," and maybe move onto "Theory and Practice of Nonviolence"--no, better yet, "Science and Spirit."
Jack absorbed what he could from each class, but could not sit still until 8 p.m. when Rev. Jim Wallis commanded his attention back in the Pauley Ballroom. "Religion's job is to pull out our best stuff; to help us be our best selves. Religion in America has been used and abused to control and manipulate millions of Christians.
"The good news is that there are millions more who are not represented by the Falwells and the Dobsons, and they are raising their voices and doing something about confronting the hijacking of the Bible to further political gain. All faith traditions battle with fundamentalism. Religion is meant to be a bridge, not a wedge.
"The seduction of the religious right by politicians is being challenged by our rapidly spreading grassroots sojourners community that stands up with a firm moral center and echoes Lincoln's refrain: what is needed today is reflection, penitence, humility, accountability, and that we should all seek to be on God's side.
"There are over three thousand verses in the Bible referring to the poor; this is the moral issue of our time. There are also the moral issues of poverty, ecology, and war; it is the church's job to address these moral issues, too. Separation of church and state does not mean the segregation of religion from the human dialogue?
"Our deepest choices are between hope and compassion. Hope is not a feeling or a state of mind, but an abiding choice you make because you have faith. Faith is supposed to change things that look impossible to be changed. Cynicism sees the world as it is and gives up trying to change it. Cynicism is a buffer against commitment.
"History testifies to the fact that all great changes came about by social justice movements that were based on faith and religious values. America has a proud history of progressive spiritual activism. We are the ones we have been waiting for. We can change the nation when we change the wind, and people of faith are called to be wind changers."
Wallis took a deep breath before continuing. "Let me explain exactly what an evangelical Christian is to be about. My evangelical roots are connected to the path laid down by evangelicals from the 19th century. They were the first to speak out against slavery and were the first supporters of female suffrage. In fact, the original altar call was the call to stand up against slavery.
"In this century, we are faced with nuclear weapons and the fact that the arms race put the world in grave danger. The world went to sleep, and now we have escalating proliferation, nations, and groups of angry people with nuclear warheads. The real security threat is coming from the gathering terrorists who are acquiring unsecured materials." Jim Wallis took another deep breath and ended with "Activists must be contemplatives, and contemplatives must act. The time has come for the Christian Right to meet the right Christians."
After a standing ovation for Wallis, the radiant Rabbi Lerner approached the lectern and beamed like a lighthouse turned on, and between his smile, said, "This is a historic event. Over thirteen hundred of you are here now, and we had to turn people away because we ran out of room. There is a hunger in America for deep spiritual truth, and the wisdom of the ages is again being spoken and heard. The time has come for the new bottom line. The new bottom line in society challenges the dominant ethos of materialism and selfishness and replaces it with institutions based not just on productivity, but also on cooperation, mutuality, love, caring, ethical and ecological sensitivity, and awe and wonder at the grandeur of creation. We spiritual progressives challenge the misuse of God and religion by the Religious Right, just as we challenge those liberals and progressives who have been unsympathetic, even hostile, to spiritual and religious people.
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