The Network of Spiritual Progressives is the activist arm of Tikkun. We unite the intellectual rigor, psychological sophistication, and spiritual depth of Tikkun articles with radical activism, visionary policies, and transformative trainings that can truly lead to long-term, systemic change and unite us across our divides. There is a way for you to get involved and join us that meets you where you are at while simultaneously honoring the desire to “be the change you wish to see” in the world.
To read our unifying principles, click here.
We are also excited to announce the launch of our National Working Groups. We hope you’ll join us! Click here to learn more.
Train for Activism
Cat Zavis, executive director of the NSP, provides training for spiritual activists. Being a spiritual activist means creating a loving, just, and sustainable world through spiritual, psychological, intellectual, sustainable, caring, and visionary means. Our activists practice empathy in word and deed as a way to build beloved communities and transform consciousness. 557 people have already taken this training and are using the skills learned to help transform our world.
In our training, you will be in a positive environment in which your desire for a caring, just, and sustainable world will be embraced and encouraged. And you will be given the tools you need to bring that vision into the world through concrete proposals and programs that can create lasting systemic change. In turn, we ask you to become an activist both during and after the training to help build a spiritually progressive social change movement. You will be given the support you need to start a local chapter of the NSP or to share the ideas you have learned with existing social change organizations so we can together be more effective in our efforts to build a caring and just world. To learn more about the training, click here.
Petitions
The Network of Spiritual Progressives creates our own petitions and partners with other organizations to share petitions that we believe are important, timely, and are likely to have an impact. We ensure that the petitions we share are grounded in love and empathy while simultaneously addressing critical issues.
As a non-profit organization we’re not allowed to support particular candidates or legislation, but we can, and do, address issues on a policy level (such as, petitions opposing the Muslim ban or the separation of children at the border) as well as create our own petitions for systemic change.
Here are results of some of the actions we’ve taken:
1,121 people signed our petition to demand that the Trump administration stop separating families at the border
3,147 people signed our petition to Israeli President Netanyahu saying “no” to efforts to oppose the Iran nuclear deal with the U.S.
2,543 people signed our petition to President Obama telling him to stop persecuting whistleblowers
728 people signed our petition to tell Israeli soldiers to stop shooting Palestinian civilians
445 people signed our petition in Solidarity with Standing Rock
Protests
We believe that non-violent protests and direct non-violent action can be effective components of efforts for social transformation, although on their own they are insufficient to build the movement needed for long-lasting systemic change.
Of course, we must stand up and be counted by showing up at protests and rallies (and we have been involved in many of the rallies and protests in recent years). And, we must also work to raise consciousness and build a progressive social change movement that puts forward a vision of the world we want based on a New Bottom Line of love, care, kindness, generosity, social/economic/environmental justice, compassion, and environmental sanity. It’s only when we can transform our own movements’ discourse so that it includes this larger vision of what we are for (and not just what we are against) that we have any chance of changing the political realities in the U.S. These are urgent times indeed and we must respond to the urgency with both immediate actions and long-term solutions. To learn more, click here.
Proposals for Systemic Change
Many social change organizations and people on the left focus on short-term tweaks to a broken system, such as raising the minimum wage, cap and trade policies, and even universal health care – in other words, only materialist and economic benefits. While working for short-term material benefits is valuable and can temporarily alleviate the suffering in some people’s lives, it is inadequate to address the moral and cultural challenges we face or the level of structural change needed in our society (and the world). People have fundamental needs, regardless of which “side” they are on, namely, respect, belonging, and connection. To address these needs, we need a major transformation of consciousness. That transformation requires, among other things, putting forth a vision of the world we want, along with strategies and solutions, to achieve our mutual goals. The platform must moves beyond a narrow materialist approach and address the spiritual, moral and cultural crisis that has been brewing for decades. We have articulated a path to a world of love and justice, a proposed Environmental and Social Responsibility constitutional amendment that would transform elections, corporations, the environment, and the education system, and a Global Marshall Peace Plan that calls upon all industrialized countries to commit to dedicating 1-2% of their Gross Domestic Product every year for the next twenty years to uplift the lives of people throughout the world.
3,985 people have endorsed our Environmental and Social Responsibility Amendment to the U.S. Constitution.
Chapters
We have 13 chapters in cities around the U.S. and globally as well. NSP chapters work to share the values and vision of the NSP in a myriad of ways. They participate in local actions and campaigns and share information about the NSP proposals with their communities. To learn more about chapters and find one near you, click here. If there is not a chapter where you live and you are interested in possibly starting a chapter, please email cat at cat@spiritualprogressives.org.