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August 26, 2007 at 14:13:48

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The Hope of Spirit-Fueled Social Action

by Bruce Allen Morris     Page 1 of 2 page(s)

www.opednews.com

 
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            Yesterday, I posted an article about our awful summer and promised a follow-up article on our true hope.  Here it is:         

            As a strong liberal and hard-working grassroots activist (whether paid or volunteer), I often find it difficult to speak of the true source of my hope and what I believe is the only true basis for lasting, peaceful, compassionate change in our society and the world.  That source is divine spirituality.  Call it what you will—God, Goddess, the Universe, Spirit, Great Spirit, Allah (just Arabic for God, folks), Deus (Latin for God), Divinity, whatever.  I believe, yes, have faith, that we live among untold, imperceptible (at least consciously and to most of us) forces and entities that guide us and work with our individual and collective consciousness to co-create the environment in which we live.  Think of them as powerful assistants devoted to making immanent our deepest and truest desires, when backed by co-creative action on our part (that one can be scary, I know, but when we are grounded in love and compassion, or work will bear loving and compassionate results).

             Cutting to the chase, here is the basic message of hope, exposed in more detail below.  Good will always prevail over evil in the long run.  In fact, in a true spiritual sense, evil does not exist because it is not love and only love exists in truth.  So love and compassion will win out in the long run; it is guaranteed.

             Here is the problem for us.  The “long run” to spirit may very encompass a time period wholly unsatisfactory to human beings.  If we want to see the results of good in our lives or those of our progeny, we have to get working and fast.  The forces arrayed against us could very quickly destroy our world and institutions sufficiently to render it impossible to preserve our planet as a place to live a decent life.  But if we get working soon enough and in sufficient quantity for the good, our efforts will prevail.  It may be a long time in human years, but very positive and lasting results are possible even in the working life of this 46-year old writer.

             We have been given amazing communications through ordinary human channels in recent years making the message of hope for the future very clear, but also making clear that a positive outcome is by no means guaranteed and the fate of our world depends on our actions. Some of those communications are A Course in Miracles, the Conversations With God series, just about anything from Marianne Williamson, but I like The Healing of America’s Soul, the Seth Channelings from Jane Roberts, the Kryon channelings from Lee Carroll; and the Miracle of Love series and its progeny through Paul Ferrini from the Christ mind.

             Please don’t dismiss me as batty. If you are a committed secularist, agnostic or atheist and have not left already, this is where we agree:  our fate depends on our own actions (its just that I believe in Spirit guiding, helping, comforting us along the way).  If you must, remember Shakespeare: “There are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio, than are dreamt of in your philosophy”.  

            (Now, you may ask me, how can I call these messages credible, while George Bush’s and the Chritian rightist's alleged messages from God false?  Simple.  The messages I cite are messages of love.  Bush’s and the right-wingers' war-mongering and intolerant words are messages of fear.  Meister Echkart, the great modern mystic, said this; “It is a lie, any talk of God that does not comfort you.”  How much does war and hatred comfort you?

             All of these new communications convey essentially the same message:  Loving and compassionate human consciousness was engaged in a consistent social movement toward creating a new a better world for all of us beginning sometime around the 1930’s (seeded, of course, by 18th and 19th century democratic movements) and continuing even today.  Around the 1930’s we began to seek societal arrangements that placed the well-being of the many over the power and privilege of the few.  People-sovereign government began spreading rapidly; nations began enacting communal policies, such as social security, progressive taxation, protection of labor and, in Europe, Japan and some other places, guaranteed, universal health care.  The world rose up against fascism, which, at bottom, was a movement of the privileged to exploit the masses and could have taken hold among the elite in many other nations, including ours.  But it did not and the world stood against it.  We created the United Nations to build peace and avoid war.

             After World War II the United States, Canada, Europe and Latin American specifically, but also unlikely places like Iran and Japan, began to expand democratic government, social welfare programs, labor protection and the like.  As a result, the greatest good for the most people began to expand.  Later, the world began conscious work to root out racial, gender, ethnic and religious prejudice and repression.  We began social and technological efforts to eliminate pollution and protect the natural environment.  The common person began to prosper and to take his and her rightful role as sovereign and free to shape society as the people, not the elite, wanted.  We also stood against and largely put an end to repressive totalitarianism disguised as communism.

             From a spiritual perspective, we were working with a strong collective energy of compassion and love and were co-creating with spirit a world of that nature.  Spirit was amazed and impressed.  One of the common themes of many recent channels was that the old spiritual messages were shifting.  Many spiritual seekers believed the Mayan calendar that placed the end of the world at 2012, and noted the number of astonishing accuracies of this calendar in the past.  Many Christians had also begun predicting the end of the world and their apocalypse at the turn of the third millennium.

             But the new messages are not that the Mayan mystics and Christian preachers (and many others predicting basically the same thing) were wrong, but that our collective work changed the prophecy and made continuation of life on earth possible beyond the early 21st Century.  If you think about how bad global warming and pollution are now and then think how much worse it would be without a strong environmental movement in the last half of the 20th Century and its not hard to imagine THAT climate change could be making life on earth impossible very soon.  Combine that with the massive uprising likely from 70 more years of the type of repression we were seeing world-wide in the early 20th Century and with fascism and totalitarian “communism” unopposed, and the end of the world does not look so improbable.

             Now, here is the problem today.  This new energy of love and compassion made great progress for more than 60 years and still moves forward today in many ways and places.  But the old energy of selfishness and self-seeking did not just go away.  It was surprised, if you will, by the sudden emergence of love energy and lost many social arguments for a long time before it could gather itself to fight back.

             And the old energy fighting back with a vengeance is what we are seeing today.  We are caught now in a huge clash for the energy and consciousness of humanity.  The old knows it faces huge odds (see next paragraph) and is, despite appearances otherwise, currently losing.  That is why its actions and pronouncements are so dramatic and exaggerated.  It fears its death is imminent without a huge and sudden push taking it over the top once and for all.

             In the United States, in some ways, it appears the resurgence of old energy is winning.  But in most ways and in truth, it is not.  Even here, we are still seeing continuous progress toward equality for women, racial minorities, and now for homosexuals and transgendered people.  Yes, there are set backs and hate speech and actions, but that is the old energy striking back; the general direction remains forward.  Europe is still moving generally in the direction of providing for the common good.  The amazing and surprising popular sovereignty movement in Latin America is perhaps the most hopeful sign of all.  Virtually the entire world is recognizing and acting on the need to change our energy usage and consumption patterns to save the Earth as our life support system, against the best efforts of the old energy.

             Even in the United States, the people largely support compassionate societal arrangements and policies that support the common good.  Large majorities support some form of universal, guaranteed health care; better environmental protection; a dependable, compassionate safety net for the less fortunate; progressive, but fair taxation of the richest Americans and biggest corporations to support social programs; effective regulation of business to protect the people; and the preservation and protection of our civil rights and liberties and the right to actual sovereignty of the people.  Large majorities oppose our imperial wars, excessive militarization and hostile and aggressive foreign policy.

             We don’t see these policies enacted because the old energy is strong and has a huge store of old energy power (that’s’ money, folks) behind it.  We don’t have the old energy’s money, but we do have ourselves, our greater number and the only true engine of Spirit, Love, behind us.  Political organizers say the way to beat organized money is with organized people.  Spirit says the same.

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http://madnessofdivinity.blogspot.com

Bruce is 46 year-old father of one, stepfather of three and grandfather of two, who left a lucrative law practice at a large national law firm to work, advocate and write for social justice and equality and find a way to incorporate a spiritual life into the material world. He now struggles along to make a decent living while holding true to his deepest principles in Portland Oregon.

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Bruce is 46 year-old father of one, stepfather of three and grandfather of two, who left a lucrative law practice at a large national law firm to work, advocate and write for social justice and equality and find a way to incorporate a spiritual life into the material world. He now struggles along to make a decent living while holding true to his deepest principles in Portland Oregon.
Bruce Allen MorrisBruce is 46 year-old father of one, stepfather of three and grandfather of two, who left a lucrative law practice at a large national law firm to work, advocate and write for social justice and equality and find a way to incorporate a spiritual life into the material world. He now struggles along to make a decent living while holding true to his deepest principles in Portland Oregon.

Read Marianne Williamson on CommonDreams too!

I wanted to point out an article by Marianne Williamson on entering a new age and the chance to create a new world.  See it on Commondreams.org at http://www.commondreams.org/archive/2007/08/01/2908/.  You should also watch CNN's God's Christian Warriors to be frghtened by the scope of the effort the religious right is planning for the next election.  They are not going to give up and are determined to turn our nation into a theocracy.  I am convinced that we need a spiritually based liberal approach to attract the innumerable Americans who despise the shallow and callow materialistic existence promoted by our media and our corporate masters, but also genuinely believe in progressive values.  We must reach out to them and show that the tolerance of the left extends even to those who believe deeply in God.

Anyway, thank you so much for reading my little offering, and I look forward to your comments and challenges.

by Bruce Allen Morris (36 articles, 0 quicklinks, 10 diaries, 52 comments) on Sunday, August 26, 2007 at 6:29:59 PM
 


Been around the block a few times.
Blue PilgrimBeen around the block a few times.

Well, I'll tell you...

after just reading the article about the government trying to get the clergy to tell people the government is established by the Lord while taking over with martial law, I say screw that religious noise. This is a country, based on the constitution, not a damned church!! I am absolutely and totally FED UP with this religious crap! You or anyone else want have some religion or think spiritual things, that's your affair, but I need and want none of it!

You want a source for peace? The Constitution! You want compassion and morality? The Bible is a rotten source for that, filled with killing and conquest and authoritarian bossing people around, and even as far back as Socrates he knew that 'piousness' from the gods is a sham. You cite messages of love? How do know which ones are of love and which to ignore unless you have some other source of morality? The golden rule will do just fine for 99% of what we need.

No - forget about it. I'm not going to talk about this in religious terms when the clearly established Constitution and laws are being ignored. I'm not about to take the word of someone 'channeling Jesus' and writing a strange book: this is very basic stuff, like getting honest elections and habeas corpus and abiding by the Geneva Conventions, which messed up. Those are real and they are very much threatened. Nope -- I don't want any religious debates -- just ordinary common sense and law will do fine, if that can be managed.

 

by Blue Pilgrim (0 articles, 3 quicklinks, 2 diaries, 997 comments) on Sunday, August 26, 2007 at 9:42:59 PM
 


Bruce is 46 year-old father of one, stepfather of three and grandfather of two, who left a lucrative law practice at a large national law firm to work, advocate and write for social justice and equality and find a way to incorporate a spiritual life into the material world. He now struggles along to make a decent living while holding true to his deepest principles in Portland Oregon.
Bruce Allen MorrisBruce is 46 year-old father of one, stepfather of three and grandfather of two, who left a lucrative law practice at a large national law firm to work, advocate and write for social justice and equality and find a way to incorporate a spiritual life into the material world. He now struggles along to make a decent living while holding true to his deepest principles in Portland Oregon.

Great to hear from you

I speak not of religion.  That is a code of conduct created to control people.  I speak of spirit, the unseen love energy in our universe.  I seek no policies based on the Bible or any other religious text, except, of course the golden rule, which happens to be in the Bible too and would likely solve 100% of our problems.  I certainly mentioned nothing about a religious debate.  I really don't care how a person comes to work for love and compassion in our society and world, or how religious a person claims to be who does not.   


Inclusion of spirit in progressive activism is all I am talking about.  I will virtually guarantee you that the left's hostility to religion and spirituality have driven many otherwise progressive Christians to the right, where they are subject to indoctrination into regressive policies.  Liberal inclusion of religion and spritual principle will only enrich our movement and broaden it to include many Christians and Muslims and Jews who hold progressive beliefs and would be our allies if we make room for them.  Remember Jesus's actual teachings were very liberal in their injunction to take care of the less fortunate, avoid greed and pride and love our enemies.  

Spirituality is not the problem.  Misuse of religion for narcissistic, selfish gain and control over others is the problem.  If you read that I seek to impose a religion in my piece, you were reading from your own preconceptions, not the actual words.

Following the Constitution is, of course, our primary political answer, but the Constitution is only a piece of paper and is only as good as the people and institutions from which it arose and by which it is supported. Bush and his Supreme Court are showing us the limitations of the Constitution to protect us when its interpreters and enforcers are not interested at all in protecting us.  If incorporating spiritual principles into social activism strengthens our polity's commitment to  the common good, which by definition includes commitment to the Constitution, I don't see a problem. 

by Bruce Allen Morris (36 articles, 0 quicklinks, 10 diaries, 52 comments) on Sunday, August 26, 2007 at 10:13:22 PM
 


Been around the block a few times.
Blue PilgrimBeen around the block a few times.

I'll tell you what the problem is:

You say the Constitution is just a piece of paper (that's what Bush said too). The same could be said for any religious text -- and that it's only as good (or bad) as what people do with it.

But you want to talk about spirit, and that IS a religious concept. Framing any of this in terms of spirit is asking fro trouble, and opening it all up to religious debate, definitions of 'spirit' and so forth. This is NOT a religious question and should not be framed in terms of religion or spirit. That's conceeding that religion should play a role in the governing of the nation before any debate is even started.

What "unseen love energy of the universe"? Who is to define and describe that -- on what proofs? On faith? On belief? On some religious text or doctrine? On some mystic experience or personal opinion? Forget it! We have the Constitution, US law, and international all written out, and it's quite specific, and has already been signed on to. The UN charter has been ratified by congress, and it's not unseen at all! We don't even need to deal with love or compassion with the most imporaant parts of these problems -- just obeying the law would be a vast improvement.

Now, if some so-called 'progrssive Christian' is driven to the right becasue I and others don't want to get enmeshed in debates about religion or spirit then they were nevr really progressive to begin with, and I'll be damned if I'm going to change my ideas about spirit or religion by being bullied into 'I'll take my ball and go home' threats. Those people can hold their breath or go eat worms, and the Constitution and law will remain unchanged -- and if that's not good enough for them then I don't trust them to be loving or comapssionate anyway. No -- I will not change my thinking out of fear or threats.

The entire question of 'spirit' or anything supernatural should not be on this table at all. Allowing it as part of a program to set this nation to rights, allowing that frame, is self-defeating. Once you start discussing spirit you let in the entire body of religious doctrine and belief.

by Blue Pilgrim (0 articles, 3 quicklinks, 2 diaries, 997 comments) on Sunday, August 26, 2007 at 10:56:29 PM
 


Bruce is 46 year-old father of one, stepfather of three and grandfather of two, who left a lucrative law practice at a large national law firm to work, advocate and write for social justice and equality and find a way to incorporate a spiritual life into the material world. He now struggles along to make a decent living while holding true to his deepest principles in Portland Oregon.
Bruce Allen MorrisBruce is 46 year-old father of one, stepfather of three and grandfather of two, who left a lucrative law practice at a large national law firm to work, advocate and write for social justice and equality and find a way to incorporate a spiritual life into the material world. He now struggles along to make a decent living while holding true to his deepest principles in Portland Oregon.

No religion in government!!

I am very clear about this.  But even our founding fathers, despire VERY CLEARLY wanting seperation, were just as clearly motivated and inspired by their spirituality.  A non-instrusive, all inclusive spritruality is incredibly helpful in seeking the kind of change we need.  Jefferson thought so.  Want to throw him out too? 

My final word is simply that we must make room for spiritually motivated activists on the left, or we will lose tens of millions of highly dedicated progressives, who do NOT WANT religion anywhere near goverement, but who are moved by spiritual ideals and principles.  I know these people and they are among the most anti-Bush, anti-war, pro-populist economics and and pro-US constitution people I know.  They do not proselytize or seek to convert.  They believe deeply that we are all equal.

Finally, do not equate me with George Bush or the Christian Right.  I do not even call myself a Christian. I said the Constitution is only a piece of paper, because without the will of the people to support and work for it, that really is all it is.

Seriously, if there is not room for me in progressive politics--one who has worked tirelessly for GLBT rights, immigrant rights, better programs for the poor and disabled, and, as hard as it is sometimes, to get Democrats elected-- if there is not room for me to be open about my spritituallity and work for progressive political change at the same time, then we might as well just hand the whole thing over to the Corporo-Christian nut jobs to finish us all off, because our number will shrink and some of our best and most dedicated activists will be forced out.

by Bruce Allen Morris (36 articles, 0 quicklinks, 10 diaries, 52 comments) on Monday, August 27, 2007 at 2:48:47 PM
 

 

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