A NEW YEAR, AN ADDITIONAL APPROACH?
I first started blogging at a now defunct site called warblogging. I chose the nom de guerre "Human" because of the labellessness and because I like to approach people on a Human to Human level and to promote the idea of oneness of the whole of Humanity. It was quite fun and educational to contribute at warblogging. That is until an invasion of trolls and the disinterest and sabotage of the site by the operator(s) of the site.
It was then that I decided to start my own blog.
I did it for the same reasons that I started to begin with. In addition I wanted to share some personal aspects of my life. Especially the chance to show and brag about my son Joseph.
Over time at warblogging, other sites and in participation in politics I realized that a lot (way too many) so-called progressives are just as predudicial, hateful and disrespectful as any person from the far right that I have met. In particular towards those that hold themselves to be Christians or other people of Faith. This is very upsetting to me. Not only because I call myself a Christian but because it is hypocritical in the extreme.
In particular, at one site that I participated in the majority of people who pretend to be openminded progressives and friends to me have shown themselves to be no better than Ann Coulter or Rush Limbaugh. As I have said before and I say it again, we all take turns being hypocrites and like all of Us I have certainly have taken my turns. Way too many if I do say so myself. However I do not make it a lifelong commitment like the former friends at that particular site. I mention this to be upfront concerning my driving motives to my friends who visit here.
I do believe that many on the left have been exposed in the most part to what in my opinion are faux-Christians in the likes of "Bomb Them All" Falwell and "The Assasins Cheerleader" Robertson. So, I can certainly understand the view held by many that in being Christian one is a far right supporter. For the Main Stream Media hardly ever lets any other "Christian" message to be put forth. However I think many are showing their immaturity in not being tolerant of people of faith.
In an effort to combat this prevailing attitude of many on the Left I have decided to add some posts and other stuff from the "Religous Left".
I will not explain my own particular views on Christianty unless I feel compelled to do so, or wear it on my sleeve. I'am not a converter type. I do wear my Humanity on my sleeve, because, well that me, and I have not met another who denies their own Humanity. Even those that deny it to others.
I will say this though on my own view of God, I do not Pray for anything, even for others, save to be forgiven and That His Will Be Done. For I believe we have all the answers at our hearts and we have arms and fingers to manipulate our world well enough that we can answer most Prayers. Just like as individuals we cause most of our own problems (I don't mean deservedly so) so Humankind causes most of its problems. Simply put I believe we were put here to help and care for each other, and I know that we can do way better than we have been.
So, in that vein I present this from http://www.tikkun.org/
Hostile Takeover: Theocracy in America by Michael Lerner
"The confirmation hearings and debates about Judge Samuel Alito facing the United States in January underscore the immense power of the Religious Right. Fearful that Bush’s nominee Harriet Miers was not sufficiently conservative, the Religious Right created a firestorm of protest that caused Miers to withdraw and forced the Bush Administration to produce a more ideologically appropriate nominee in the form of Alito, a jurist with extremist perspectives. Even if the Democrats succeed in developing the backbone to sustain a filibuster and block this particular nominee, the packing of the courts by reactionary legislators who share the agenda of the Religious Right has become the norm for the Bush White House and will continue for the next several years.
The growing power of the Religious Right requires more than the predictable array of “oy veys” and cries of despair. One reason that I’ve written my new book The Left Hand of God: Taking Our Country Back from the Religious Right (Harper San Francisco, February 7, 2006) and why the Tikkun Community is organizing a second gathering of the Network of Spiritual Progressives (at All Souls Church in Washington, D.C., May 17-20) is precisely because Americans need a coherent strategy to respond to the Right, not just analyses about how dangerous they are. This is a movement that is not just for people who believe in God or who are part of some religious community—it is equally inviting to those who are “spiritual but not religious” and who recognize that a progressive movement today needs a spiritual foundation if it is to take our country back from the Religious Right.
In his book God’s Politics, Jim Wallis did an outstanding and politically important job of showing how far from the teachings of Jesus the Religious Right has wandered. Bill Press’ provocative book How The Republicans Stole Christmas, and Mark Lewis Taylor’s Religion, Politics and the Christian Right have done a similarly impressive job of showing how dangerous the Religious Right has become for our civil liberties, our moral compass, and our democratic values. The Religious Right is a danger to American society and to those of us who are serious about God and religion and do not use either as a vehicle to promote militarist ideology.
Nothing could be more mistaken than the fantasies now growing in liberal circles that the Bush Administration is about to lose power, the Republican Party is in a process of dissolution, and the Religious Right will soon be isolated and relegated to the junk pile of failed movements. It is amazing to see how liberals and progressives, desperate about their own inability to come up with a strategy to counter conservatives, have now begun to clutch at straws to prove to themselves that the Right is about to disappear because of its own contradictions. "
For the rest of the article go here - http://www.tikkun.org/magazine/tik0601/lerner
Goodnight.
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