ESRA

What a Spiritual Progressive Agenda Might Look Like

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Neither the New York Times nor Zaretsky even comes close to dealing with what a spiritual progressive agenda would look like if we apply our (TIKKUN) call for “The Caring Society—Caring for Each Other and Caring for the Earth,” much less our call for a New Bottom Line of love, caring, generosity, ethical and ecological sensitivity, and awe and wonder at the grandeur and mystery of the universe, to the current realities of America, global politics, and the environment.

Politics & Society

Take Action Now Against Indefinite Detention

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Lawmakers from the Senate and House met in a closed-conference and released the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) Conference Report Tuesday night, whereby conferees reinserted language in the bill that allows for the indefinite detention of Americans without charge or trial. The NDAA is unconstitutional and un-American.

Non-Violent Communication (NVC)

Banning All Guns Is Necessary But Not Sufficient: We Need a Transformation of Consciousness

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Some thoughts and a prayer after the latest mass killings, this time of elementary school students: Banning all guns is necessary but not sufficient in light of the increasing violence in our society. We need a fundamental transformation as well as banning guns. Otherwise, we will now revert to the normal debate between liberals wanting more gun control and conservatives saying that it’s not guns that kill but people. Both are right.

Healing Israel/Palestine

Israel and Gaza: Enough is Enough

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All the usual suspects are cheering on their respective sides in the latest struggle between Israel and Palestine being fought out at the expense of some Israeli and more Palestinian civilian lives. I’ve been overwhelmed with sadness at the tragic loss of lives and harm to the bodies of Israelis and Palestinians, and outraged at all those who continue to justify their side and demean the other, implicitly cheering on the violence even as they officially deplore it! Enough is enough. Stop the violence immediately!

ESRA

My Post-Election Reflections – Two Slightly Different Angles

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The media today are filled with stories revealing that ‘Grand Bargain’ Talks Will Likely Target Medicare, Social Security & Programs For The Poor. Paul Krugman’s article in the NY Times this past Friday pleaded with the President, “Don’t Make A Deal,” but Obama and Congressional Dems will make such a deal unless we can get justice- and generosity-oriented people (across traditional party lines) in every state and every congressional district to let their elected representatives know that the outcome of the election was meant to be a mandate for protecting the poor and vulnerable, not sacrificing them on the false altar of Republican ideology about the deficit!

Environment

Hurricane Sandy and Environmental Catastrophe

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Perhaps the most generous teaching of the God or Spiritual Reality of the Universe comes in the second paragraph of the Shma prayer (in Deuteronomy), where it tells us that if we do not create a world based on love, kindness, generosity, ethical and ecological sensitivity, social justice, and peace then the world itself will not work, and there will be an environmental catastrophe and humans and all other animals are in danger of perishing.

Politics & Society

Can Syria Remain Unified If/When Assad Falls?

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Uri Avnery, veteran Israeli peace activist and chair of Gush Shalom, combines personal recollections with political analysis to give us some idea of what might happen in Syria in the coming years. We in the Network of Spiritual Progressives pray for peace and liberation for the Syrian people, an end to all the violence and the oppression of the monstrous actions of those sending an army against their own civilian poulation, internal reconciliation between the many different communities of Syria, and reconciliation with Israel.

General News

Boycotts, Divestments and Sanctions: Opposing Occupations Everywhere (NOT just Israel)

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Stephen Zunes is a Contributing Editor to Tikkun Magazine and professor of political science at the University of San Francisco. His article, “Divesting from All Occupations” comes very, very close to articulating the position on BDS (Boycotts, Divestment, and Sanctions) held by Tikkun Magazine. We differ only in the following respects:
1. We do not agree that the criterion of what counts as an “Occupation” should be determined in the legalistic way that Zunes derives from international law. The Occupation of Tibet by China and of Chechnya by Russia should count, and there may be other such (India in Kashmir, perhaps?).