This quarterly issue of the magazine is available both online and in hard copy. Everyone can read the first few paragraphs of each piece, but the full articles are only available to subscribers and NSP members — subscribe or join now to read the rest! You can also buy a paper copy of this single print issue. If you’re already registered but have forgotten your user ID or password, go to www.tikkun.org/forgot for automated instant assistance. If you are a member or subscriber who still needs guidance on how to register, email miriam@tikkun.org or call 510-644-1200 for help — registration is easy and you only have to do it once.
[brclear]
[brclear]
[brclear]
EDITORIALS
Environmental Alert: Join Us in Making Revolutionary Changes to Save Life on Earth
MICHAEL LERNER
To avert global scorching, we need to get money out of politics, transform our relationship to nature, require corporate responsibility, subordinate economic growth to environmental sanity, and develop a global spiritual consciousness attuned to sufficiency rather than consumption.
[brclear]
POLITICS
It’s Not Just Child’s Play: Nature’s Powerful Effect on Children’s Well-Being
MARY E. GOMES
Time in nature is more important than you may think. Some researchers say a short walk in a park is as potent as a typical dose of ADHD medication.
Once Out of Nature: Life Beyond the Gender Binary
JOY LADIN
Mutable, messy, and rich with artifice, gender is the language through which we define ourselves. Can our theologies absorb this truth?
[brclear]
RETHINKING RELIGION
Taking Back the Bible
MARK I. WALLACE
Christian conservatives have hijacked the Bible to defend their views on homosexuality, abortion, and contraception—three topics on which the Bible says little to nothing. Let’s take it back.
Fierceness and Reverence: Building the Religious Counterculture
ANA LEVY-LYONS
Religious progressives too often eschew bold engagement with life’s complexities. Some things—like love and justice—are worth being extreme about.
[brclear]
SPECIAL SECTION: IDENTITY POLITICS, CLASS POLITICS, AND SPIRITUAL POLITICS
Identity Politics, Class Politics, Spiritual Politics: The Need For a More Universalist Vision
MICHAEL LERNER
A narrow focus on the oppression of identity groups has obscured the spiritual visions and struggles around class, the environment, and peace that might unite us and produce a more impactful progressive movement. We need a discourse that speaks to our common humanity.
In Defense of Identity Politics
PAUL VON BLUM
Liberals, Marxists, and conservatives malign identity politics, but it doesn’t deserve this bad rep. Identity politics have greatly benefited our society.
Identity Politics is Not Enough: Why the Left Needs Universalism to Survive
ELI ZARETSKY
During struggles like Occupy, a consciousness oriented around solidarity emerges. It is in this consciousness that our collective power resides.
Race, Class, and the Neoliberal Scourge
LESTER SPENCE
We cannot subvert neoliberalism without fighting racism. Not convinced? Just look at the stereotypes invoked in attacks on taxation and welfare.
Revolutionary Suicide: Risking Everything to Transform Society and Live Fully
LYNICE PINKARD
Capitalism itself grew out of a very particular kind of identity politics: white supremacy. To dismantle these forces of domination, we need to quit identifying with them, even if that means giving up status, comfort, and security.
The Caring Majority: Building a Coalition Around Domestic Workers’ Rights
AI-JEN POO
When nannies, housekeepers, and elder care workers join forces with the families who employ them, a powerful majority emerges.
Resisting Post-Oppression Narratives
CHRISTIAN SUNDQUIST
Why are post-racial and post-class discourses so common right now? Is it because we’re unwilling to believe that democratic equality has not produced social equality in our society?
Intersectional Politics: Recovering Our Interdependent Wholeness
NITIKA RAJ
The transactional values of the for-profit world too often infect our attempts at social justice work. To heal the world, we need an intersectional analysis with a spiritual core.
Our Issues Entwine: LGBTQ Aging and Economic Justice
ROBERT ESPINOZA
LGBTQ aging issues make clear how identity and class politics overlap. Let’s expand the definition of “family” used for Medicaid and paid family leave.
Why Identity Group Work Strengthens Our Capacity for All Liberation Work
CHERIE R. BROWN
Identity-based work can help us resist the Right’s divide-and-conquer strategies and overcome the individualism that holds oppression in place.
Online Exclusives
Don’t miss the online-only articles associated with this special section on identity politics, class politics, and spiritual politics: powerful contributions from Sam Fulwood, John Powell, Simran Jeet Singh and Prabhjot Singh, Timothy Villareal, and others. To read them, click here.
[brclear]
CULTURE
BOOKS
Where Is Home? A Revolution in Our Personal Lives
Going Solo by Eric Klinenberg, The Outsourced Self by Arlie Russell Hochschild, The End of Men by Hannah Rosin, and Coming Apart by Charles Murray | Review by Harriet Fraad
Democratizing Wealth, Democratizing Power
What Then Must We Do? Straight Talk About the Next American Revolution by Gar Alperovitz | Review by Thad Williamson
POETRY
Fall to Your Knees and Thank God for Your Eyesight by Billy Collins
TIKKUN RECOMMENDS
The Human Spark by Jerome Kagan
Yes, And… by Richard Rohr, Zealot: The Life and Times of Jesus of Nazareth by Reza Aslan, The Liars’ Gospel by Naomi Alderman, and The Sacredness of Human Life by David P. Gushee
Shattered Hopes by Josh Ruebner
The Peacemakers: India and the Quest for One World by Manu Bhagavan
The Magic of Hebrew Chant by Shefa Gold
We have been indoctrinated to believe in the importance of identifying ourselves with capitalism because it is the only means of advancing. Until we overcome that burden and see capitalism as a tool rather than an end we have a tough fight.