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Rabbi Michael Lerner is editor of Tikkun and national chair of the Tikkun Community/ Network of Spiritual Progressives.
People are invited to subscribe to Tikkun magazine or join the interfaith organization the Network of Spiritual Progressives-- "both of which can be done by going to www.tikkun.org
Sunday, November 6, 2011 Praying With Our Feet at Occupy Oakland (4 comments)
no movement is perfect, and we have our problems and distortions. But the key is to have compassion for our distortions, compassion for everyone including those who right now don't support us, and use this moment to thank the universe for the opportunity to overcome cynicism and fight for the world most people really want.
Friday, November 4, 2011 Praying With Our Feet At Occupy Oakland
a powerful reaffirmation, celebration and manifestation of the life and love energy of the universe
The tens of thousands of people who streamed through the various parts of the day were there to affirm life, to manifest love, and to challenge the injustice and unrighteousness of our economic and political system. And they did so with remarkable energy, creativity, beauty, and intelligence.
Sunday, October 16, 2011 The Message and Strategy that is Needed by Occupy Wall Street (2 comments)
The big problem facing us is how to take the millions of Americans who are ready to in this new direction to work together coherently. Yet we can rejoice the first step has been taken: Americans coming out of the closet of despair and calling for a world of justice, peace and caring for each other and for the planet.
Thursday, September 15, 2011 Obama and UN: Recognize Palestine AND Re-affirm Israel's Right to Exist as a Jewish State (4 comments)
The Palestinian state that is now emerging should be recognized as an affirmation action state, recognized by the United Nations before it has control over any territory of its own as a way to alleviate the special suffering of the Palestinian people.
Sunday, July 31, 2011 A Reflection on Obama and the Current Crisis
Instead of being such a wimp,Obama could simply announce what will happen if the debt limit isn't reached:he will pay the social security, medicare and other benefits to those Congressional districts whose representatives voted to raise the debt limit and not to those which did not. And all other federal services. They play hardball, so could a progressive Democrat, if we happened to have one in office, which we don't.
Tuesday, May 3, 2011 The Assassination of Osama Bin Laden: A Spiritual Response (1 comments)
The struggle against terrorism will not be won through killing, no matter how many people we assassinate. You don't fight malaria by seeking to kill every mosquito on the planet, but rather by draining the swamps.
Monday, January 10, 2011 Shooting of Congresswoman is more than a Tragedy
Shooting of Jewish Congresswoman Giffords is Not Just a "Tragedy"--It's Part of a Right Wing Assault on Government and the Liberals & Progressive Who Support It
Sunday, January 9, 2011 Our Outrage at Shooting of Jewish Congresswoman Giffords (18 comments)
Why does what Hillary Clinton once quite accurately described as "the vast right-wing conspiracy" get a free pass when its rhetoric can easily be seen to contribute to the climate of hate from which the actions of this "lone gunman" can be easily understood to have emerged?Don't underplay the anti-Semitic elements either. When Jews are targeted, it's rarely "by chance." Right-wing haters particularly hate Jews, since Jews were
Saturday, December 4, 2010 Save Obama's presidency by challenging him on the left (14 comments)
With his base deeply disillusioned, many progressives are starting to believe that Obama has little chance of winning reelection unless he enthusiastically embraces a populist agenda and worldview - soon. Yet there is little chance that will happen without a massive public revolt by his constituency that goes beyond rallies, snide remarks from television personalities or indignant op-eds.
Monday, August 9, 2010 Why Jews Should Rejoice at the Overturning of Prop 8 (3 comments)
The rights of homosexuals are supported by an overwhelming majority of the American Jewish community. That support is not only based on a memory of shared victimhood, but also on the core values of our own Jewish tradition.
Friday, May 7, 2010 After Attack on Rabbi Lerner's Home: What you Can do to Help?
The media once again has failed to cover attacks on the Left from the Right. This time it came in the form of an assault on the home of Tikkun Magazine's editor Rabbi Michael Lerner. Lerner had announced that Tikkun would give the prestigious Tikkun Award for Human Rights at Tikkun's 25th anniversary celebration in the Spring of 2011 to Judge Richard Goldstone.
Tuesday, May 4, 2010 Rabbi Lerner's Home Attacked by Right-Wing Zionists (1 comments)
The attackers used a powerful form of glue to attach posters to his door and around the property of his home attacking Lerner personally, and attacking liberals and progressives as being supporters of terrorism and "Islamo-fascism."
Thursday, April 29, 2010 Spiritual and Religious Progressives Call on Secular Progressives to Join in a United Strategy to Say "No" to Tea Party
The Network of Spiritual Progressives (NSP), an interfaith organization of religious and spiritual progressives chaired by Rabbi Michael Lerner and co-chaired by Cornel West and Benedictine Sister Joan Chittister, has invited secular liberals and progressives to join them at a national strategy conference of liberals and progressives at the Church of the Reformation on Capitol Hill June 11-14.
Wednesday, March 3, 2010 Why I Disagree with Hedges and Nader on Obama (3 comments)
Many of the specific failures highlighted by the article I sent out yesterday by Chris Hedges criticizing the performance of the Obama Administration are legitimate points. But the way Hedges's positions are stated, and the conclusions drawn from them are not the path of spiritual progressives, in my view.T
Monday, February 22, 2010 Healing from Post Traumatic Abandoned-by-Obama Syndrome (5 comments)
A Strategy for Progressives which includes an Environmental and Ethical Responsibility Amendment to the U.S. Constitution to limit corporate power, and steps to strengthen the backbones of decent but weak liberal elected officials
Wednesday, January 20, 2010 We tried to warn Obama, but he wouldn't listen (5 comments)
The defeat of the Democrats' choice to succeed Ted Kennedy in the U.S. Senate is being treated as though there is a decided shift of mass opinion to the Right in the U.S. But it is the Obama Administration, not the people who supported him in 2008, which moved to the Right--in the name of being pragmatists or realists-- in the process emptying their own agenda.
Monday, December 14, 2009 Responding to Hitchens on Chanukah (1 comments)
Rabbi Michael Lerner discusses the distortions in Christopher Hitchen's article attacking religion and religious holidays.
Thursday, December 3, 2009 World's Religious Leaders Mourn the Obama Escalation in Afghanstan (1 comments)
Many of the world's religious leaders at the Parliament of World Religions in Australia are in partial mourning for the dream of a new world that President Obama promised, and decisively torpedoed in his announcement of major escalation of military forces in Afghanistan. There's widespread disillusionment with Obama.
Tuesday, November 24, 2009 Obama's Declining Popularity (13 comments)
While Obama is still hailed around the world in almost messianic tones, recent polls indicate his approval rate is below 50% in the U.S. How could a man who aroused so much hope be losing support so dramatically? And what lessons can be learned for politicians all around the world?
Thursday, February 26, 2009 A Spiritual Guide for Economic Bailout (8 comments)
The Democrats are wasting the opportunity this crisis gives us to deeply reexamine and transform our economic system. There is a lack of spiritual vision in imagining the economics we need. Let's remedy that lack!
Tuesday, February 10, 2009 I have cancer. . . and yes, you can help me deal with it (13 comments)
In late January the results of a biopsy showed that I have a relatively rare form of lung cancer (I've never smoked). The doctors believe that this cancer may be "stage one" and hence could be treated through surgery, and I might be able to avoid chemotherapy or radiation treatment. People have started to ask if they can help me in some way. Well, yes, there IS something you can do that would be very helpful.
Friday, January 2, 2009 Israel in Gaza (17 comments)
Israel's attempt to wipe out Hamas is understandable, but dumb.
...just as Hamas' indiscriminate bombing of population centers is a crime against humanity, so is Israel's massive attack against civilians
Tuesday, October 7, 2008 The "hate" people are back--will it work again? against Jews, against Muslims, and against Obama?
The "hate" people are back, spreading disgusting lies about Obama, about all Muslims, and about all Jews. We even have been told by the American mainstream media that Sen. McCain's campaign has decided to try to make their focus on assaulting the character of Barack Obama. Some media also report that Obama is going to respond in kind.
Thursday, September 11, 2008 Why is Obama Losing (28 comments)
...Obama handlers pushed him to be "realistic" and buy the same boring strategy that has lost most Democratic candidates their elections in the past thirty years: abandon your base and put your post-convention energies focused on an elusive "center" that barely exists.
Thursday, August 21, 2008 150 Clergy Appeal to Obama (3 comments)
In an open-letter to Senator Obama, over 150 American clergy appealed to the Democratic candidate for President to retain the ethical and spiritual vision that won him the nomination in the first place. Rejecting the "inside-the-Beltway" wisdom that a Democrat must "move to the center to win the election," the clergy disputed the very notion that this is an accurate understanding of American politics.
Sunday, July 20, 2008 My Talk with the Saudis, and What I Learned from Them (4 comments)
I had expected the World Conference on Dialogue convened by the King of Saudi Arabia to be little more than a photo op for the King, a cheap way to buy good public relations... Imagine my surprise, then, to hear the Saudi King in a language that, as one Muslim observer pointed out to me, sounded more like the New Bottom Line of the Network of Spiritual Progressives than it did like a speech of a self-absorbed monarch.
Monday, June 30, 2008 Why They Are Seeking a Blockade of Iran (15 comments)
Rabbi Michael Lerner responds to questions about the sanctioning of Iran, and discusses Dick Cheney and the oil companies, the "Strategy of Domination" versus the "Strategy of Generosity" and pending legislation as the best way for the U.S. and Israel to achieve homeland security.
Friday, May 2, 2008 African-American perspective on Reverend Wright (13 comments)
This article by Rabbi Michael Lerner discusses the fact that black opinion on Barack Obama and the Rev. Wright issue covers a wide range of thinking and is not some kind of monolithic bloc.
Wednesday, April 16, 2008 Obama's Error--and What It Would Really Take to Rectify It (5 comments)
A continuing irony of American politics is that the candidates of the ruling elites have been able to convince many Americans that the candidates who seek to redistribute wealth to the less fortunate, provide health care for all, and provide jobs and housing for the poor are the real elitists.
Wednesday, March 26, 2008 The Obama Phenomenon (5 comments)
The Phenomenon is not Barack Obama. Senator Obama is a masterful organizer and teacher. But this editorial is not about Obama as much as about what he elicits in others...
Wednesday, March 12, 2008 Elliot Spitzer and America's Ethical Perversity (29 comments)
This shows just how far the Right-wing sexual moralizing has been able to trump any other kind of ethical reasoning in American society.
Going to a prostitute is legal in some states and some countries around the world, and is often the very arrangement that saves families from splitting up whose sexual energies have diminished but whose love is intact.
Thursday, June 7, 2007 The Occupation:Immoral & Self-Destructive--How to End It and Build Lasting Peace (1 comments)
From the moment that it started, Israelis with a desire for peace and reconciliation with the Palestinian people urged the Israeli government to allow the Palestinian people freedom and national self-determination. It was not Israel, but Jordan, who occupied Palestine in the early years after Israel had been created, from. And it was not the Palestinian people, but Egypt, Syria....
Tuesday, March 20, 2007 A Bedtime Meditation Prayer of Forgiveness
sometimes, when I am about to go to sleep, I am filled with the troubles of the day. I remember the terrible things being done by our government or the pain of so many on this planet who do not have enough food to eat because of the global economic system we've created and sustained. Or I remember the ways that our environment is being systematically destroyed. So I say the following prayer/meditation
Friday, February 2, 2007 There is no New Anti-Semitism (1 comments)
What's "new" about the alleged New Anti-Semitism?
Saturday, November 25, 2006 Thoughts on Thanksgiving
A little late but still worth reading. While you're still digesting your mammoth Thanksgiving weekend meals, a little food for thought...
Wednesday, November 22, 2006 Thanksgiving Meditation 2006
In my daily life, I'm often distracted from noticing the marvels and miracles that surround me. There is so much to accomplish, so many hurdles to jump, so much that I feel needs attending. I sometimes get so involved in the immediate tasks that I lose sight of the larger amazing realities that abound in my life.
That danger lurks for this Thanksgiving-- that I'll become immersed in the details, the event of it...
Monday, September 11, 2006 Social Repentance on 9/11 (1 comments)
5 years after 9/11--America and the world have some serious repenting to do! Lets begin. Wouldn't it be amazing if we could use this time period to ask every institution in American society to dedicate ten days to reflection on the degree to which it is currently living up to its own highest ideals, how far we have "missed the mark" and what we need to do to return to our highest vision and make it real in our lives
Monday, July 17, 2006 End the Suffering in the Middle East (2 comments)
The people of the Middle East are suffering again as militarists on all sides, and cheerleading journalists, send forth missiles, bombs and endless words of self-justification for yet another pointless round of violence between Israel and her neighbors.
Saturday, July 1, 2006 When will they ever learn...that violence is not the path to security? (5 comments)
Today we write those words about Israel and Palestine, yesterday about the U.S. in Iraq, tomorrow about China in Tibet, and it goes on and on. And the only solution is to break the chain of pain and say, "No more-we will not respond to violence with violence. We will follow the teaching of the Torah that says love the stranger' and Jesus that says turn the other cheek' and we will stop this madness forever.
