Riotous diversity is central to Hinduism: taken together, its panoply of local gods and goddesses represent the many manifestations of the unity of Being.
29.3 Summer
The Shadow Side of Freedom: Building the Religious Counterculture
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When did liberal religion start valuing personal autonomy over collective values of love and justice? We need to prioritize a new kind of freedom.
2014
The Future of Progressive Action in America
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To grow strong, the multifaceted Left in America—including those who call themselves “liberals” or “progressives” as well as others who simply draw upon the central teachings of the Torah to love our neighbors as ourselves—must come together around our shared basic value of interconnection.
2014
On Anxiety and the Next Left
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The Left is moving from a politics of mourning and melancholy to a politics of anxiety. For a left bedeviled by a “will-to-powerlessness,” this shift might well turn out to be an unexpected bit of good news.
2014
Does America Need a Left? An Introduction
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America needs a spiritual Left—not a soul-deprived, economistic, and narrowly rights-oriented movement that plays into the hands of the Right.
2014
Pope Francis and the Christian Renewal He Seeks
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Pope Francis has legitimated a powerful critique of global capitalism, drawing attention to its anti-spiritual, anti-God, anti-ethical essence.
Articles
Jacob, Joseph, and His Brothers: A Story of Child Abuse?
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Almost no one wants to talk about the abuse of children, so it is understandable that almost no one wants to address Jacob’s abuse of Joseph–yet the text itself supports this reading.
Culture
Pete Seeger: A Personal Remembrance
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I could scarcely believe my ears when staff members at Tikkun told me that Pete Seeger had just called to ask if he could perform at the first national Tikkun conference in New York City in 1988. I had raised my son on Seeger’s music, and had myself been moved by some of his radical songs. He was already a legend, and I was already a fan when I was in high school.
2014
Two Books about Grassroots Alternatives for Building a New World
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by Antonio González and George S. Johnson
2014
Earth-Honoring Faith
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As we enter an age of ecological catastrophe, we need new theologies. Political campaigns are not enough—we need to rethink our place in the world.
2014
Beyond Allyship: Multiracial Work to End Racism
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How can we create powerful, cross-race movements for change? A child of the Civil Rights Movement wrestles with the idea of allyship.
2014
Trayvon Martin: Reflections on the Black and Jewish Struggle for Justice
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Since the 1960s, efforts at coalition building and solidarity work between Jewish and Black communities have suffered and never reached the pinnacle that was reached during the early days of the Civil Rights Movement. In 2013, the lack of deep and abiding connections between Black and Jewish activists became apparent in the disparate responses from Jewish communities to the events surrounding the killing of Trayvon Martin and the subsequent acquittal of George Zimmerman. To reinvigorate a coalition among blacks and Jews we need to forge deeper ties across racial lines.
2014
You Can Help Stop America’s March to the Right
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I call this Love’s Rebellion—a refusal to accept the ethos of materialism and selfishness as the ultimate truth of our lives, an insistence on seeing the goodness in others, and a determination to replace “power over” with caring for each other and the earth! It’s time now to give Love’s Rebellion a political platform. And to make that happen, we need your help to push these issues into the public sphere. The most effective way to help introduce a spiritual progressive voice is for you to build a caucus in your union, professional organization, church, synagogue, mosque, political party, or run for some sort of office.
Articles
Identity Politics and Spiritual Politics: Our Dance of Connection and Separation
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After years of apparent stability, white people may wake up in a neighborhood or country that feels unfamiliar and in which they are a “minority.” Then the question sneaks in: what does it mean to be American now?
2013
Sikh Ethics and Political Engagement
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Built into Sikh tradition is a firm ethic of adhering to a truthful and just process—the idea that the ends do not justify the means. As a result, simply stating that attacks upon Sikhs in a post-9/11 context are “mistaken” or “misdirected” because they should be directed toward another group, Muslims, is an untenable deflection. Instead, American Sikhs walk a thin rhetorical line between declaring what we are—a group that aims to elevate the consciousness of all people to appreciate our common divinity—and declaring what we are not in order to avoid the short-term consequences of popular confusion.