Thursday, July 31, 2008

Network of Spiritual Progressive's Open Letter to Obama

Tikkun to heal, repair and transform the world

A note from Rabbi Michael Lerner Join or Donate Now! Visit:

www.spiritualprogressives.org

July 27, 2008

Dear Friends,

Even if you don't personally connect to any particular religious community, you might still have friends or contacts who do and who know some clergy who'd want to sign the letter below. If you do, would you please contact them and ask them if they'd like to sign. And if they do, ask them to send their name and how they'd like to be identified. Because this particular effort is specifically for clergy, we won't take students at seminaries or leaders of religious communities who are not formally ordained, except leaders n communities like the Quakers which don't have any ordained clergy so there we'll take leaders of the local Meeting. Tell them to contact me at RabbiLerner@gmail.com

Meanwhile, if you'd like to sign this letter and slightly revise it to your needs, please send it on your own to the Obama headquarters in Chicago.

Warm regards,

Michael

Rabbi Michael Lerner Editor, Tikkun RabbiLerner@Tikkun.org

P.S.

Do you work with or know people who might be interested in being part of an ongoing effort to change the ethos of their profession or the context in which that profession is forced to operate--from materialism and maximing money and power and fame to a New Bottom Line of generosity, caring, love, kindness, ethical & ecological sensitivity, and awe and radical amazement at the grandeur of creation? If so, would you tell them that the interfaith Network of Spiritual Progressives is sponsoring a conference at the University of California Berkeley for these professional on Sept. 21, 2008, but that if they can't make that they can still be part of it by contacting dlapedis@tikkun.org. Tell them first to check our website www.spiritualprogressives.org for detailed information on how to register.

Would you be interested in working with me to help create a week long interfaith encampment for the summer of 2009 aimed at people ages 20-40 as a spiritual alternative to Burning Man (the annual event in November that draws 40-50,000 young people--check it out by Googling it, and if you don't know how to do that, well, you aren't the right person to help us build this event). Our gathering would be a celebration of spiritual progressives whose commitment to God, Spirit, or Love brings them into or sustains their work in Tikkun Olam (the healing and transformation of the world). If you are interested in helping to shape and build this, contact me please. We aren't 100% sure we can pull this off in 2009 and still do our Washington, D.C. conference in the Spring (which we must do), but if we get the financial backing, people-energy backing (but tell us what your skills are that would be helpful to building this and/or recruiting people to it).

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Dear Senator Obama,

As strong supporters of your campaign to become President of the U.S. in our own peronal lives and as leaders in the religious communities in the U.S., we understand well the pressures you must be facing to tone down your message so that you can win the election and then later be more courageous in challenging major assumptions in American public discourse that have been inserted there by a powerful conservative assault for the past thirty years by conservatives and champions of the elites of wealth and power in this country.

Others have articulated elsewhere why "toning down" or "moving to appeal to the Center" is a politically disastrous strategy, not only because it passivizes the youth who momentarily thought that something new was happening in American politics and who might otherwise return to apathy when they see you "playing the game" the same old way, but also because it generates despair among all sections of the population that had momentarily allowed themselves to hope that America might become under your presidency a society that unequivocally supported a politics of peace and justice. People who thought that they would vote for you as their peace candidate who seemed more unequivocal than others about ending the war in Iraq, for example, may become less enthusiastic about a candidacy that now calls for escalation of the war in Afghanistan and talks about giving Iranians ultimatums to be followed by green lights for military attacks.

We are writing you from a different angle, not as your election strategists, but as people of faith whose primary allegiance is to be prophetic witnesses to the ethical vision articulated in the holy texts of our religion and the elaboration of those religious traditions over the course of the past two thousand years. It is our view that America needs "a New Bottom Line" so that both corporations and non-profit institutions, social practices, legislation, government activities, and even our own personal life activities should be deemed "rational, productive, or efficient" not only to the extent that they maximize money, material security, power or gratification of our sensual desires but also to the extent that they maximize love and caring, kindness and generosity ethical and ecological sensitivity, enhance our capacities to see others as embodiments of the sacred and enhance our capacity to respond to the universe with awe, wonder, and radical amazement at the grandeur of Creation.

It is from that perspective that we appeal to you to fulfill the promise and the hopes you raised in the early months of your campaign, and to sharpen the distinctions between you and past politics by articulating new principles that would govern your presidency. In particular, we call upon you to (unequivocally and persistently in your public appearances and ads) call for:

*Replacing the strategy of Domination or Power Over others that has shaped American foreign policy in the past with a new approach that gives at least equal weight to "A strategy of Generosity and Caring for others" (for example as manifested by the Global Marshall Plan suggested by the Network of Spiritual Progressives www.spiritualprogressives.org). You should not allow the public discourse to push you into having to prove who will be the most effective candidate for running the next set of wars, but instead insist that the entire stragtegy of getting Homeland Security is seriously flawed unless it is based on two legs, one the strong military defense of our interests, and second on the strong commitment to ending global (and domestic) poverty, homelessness, hunger, inadequate education, inadequate health care, and repairing the global environment (please see House Res. 1078 introduced by Keith Ellison and endorsed by nineteen other Congresspeople for some helpful language in this regard-it endorses our version of The Global Marshall Plan).

*Rejecting the notion of armed struggle with Iran and opposing any military blockade of Iran that would then given the Iranians a reason to attack (in response to actions that are universally understood as acts of war), which in turn would provide the pretext for a war, either before or after the U.S. elections. You should publicly call on the Bush Administration from taking any provocative actions that might lead to military conflict before the next Administration takes office.

*A presidential Order that forbids and criminalizes torture and the direct or indirect aiding or abetting of acts of torture on the part of the U.S. , directs the U.S. military to abandon Guantanamo prison and end the activities of the School of the Americas related to training people in South and Central America in the techniques of counter-insurgency and torture, and directs the next Attorney General to explore ciminal charges against those who have violated US or international law in regard to torture.

* A commitment to make saving our global environment a top priority not only through encouraging individual and corporate environmental responsibility, but by alerting the American public to the full scientific evidence about the degree of threat to the survival of the planet that is likely unless we make major changes in the way use the resources of our planet, how we decide what products should be produced and how, and how we decide what items to consume. Tell the American people what the planet faces if the US and oather countries including China don't make a huge global effort to reverse the patterns of destruction that are already endangering our planet.

* Affirming the need for an American health care system that is based on the principle that we have an obligation to care for each other, not on the need for the health care profiteers to make a good return on their investments.

*Affirming as a guiding principle for American society in the 21st century that we have an obligation to care for each other, and that this obligation requires a rethinking of many aspects of American law, American corporations, government programs, education, and persona life, and that you will use your time in office to encourage this new ethos.

* Calling on schools to actively engage in teaching students the skills of caring a.for each other b. for those stuck in poverty or homelessness or hunger c. the disabled d. our senior citizens. e. for their own health and their bodies g. for the environment. This should include teaching about "non-violent communication" and positive negotiation skills, but also teach about the various religious and secular traditions that have made "caring for others" central to their teachingts, or have made awe and wonder at the grandeur of creation part of their approach to protecting the environment.

We are firmly convinced, Senator Obama, that these are ways of thinking about what is needed in America that are unlikely to succeed unless you build a strong foundation of support for them during your campaign when your statements have a chance of reaching the American people in a less filtered way than they will once you are elected. By articulating this kind of thinking now, you will not only strengthen the possibility of mobilizing parts of the electorate who have given up on politics altogether, but you will also be serving God in a way that is necessary at this historical moment.

Your advisors may warn you of political dangers. We think the opposite. But as we say, our calling is not to be your political practitioners, but to provide you with the kind of ethical and prophetic voices that you need to hear.

Finally, if you are elected, as we very much hope you will be, and as we ourselves will try to help make happen by building support for you, we urge you to meet with us during your presidency to hear the voices not of religious cheerleaders, but of those who dare to speak truth to power even when that power, as your own, is mostly for the good and mostly in service of the God of the universe. It is precisely because we believe in you and your strong ethical and religious commitment that we are daring to write this to you, even though we know that its impact might be to make it less likely that your advisors will ever allow us to connect with you directly once you are elected.

With respect and blessings,


(all organizations listed for identification purposes and do not imply organizational endorsement of this letter)
Rabbi Michael Lerner, editor of Tikkun and Chair, The Network of Spiritual Progressives and author of The Politics of Meaning and of The Left Hand of God
Benedictine Sister Joan Chittister, Executive Director of Benetvision: A Resource and Research Center for Contemporary Spirituality, and author of Welcome to the Wisdom of the World, and of The Gift of Years, and dozens of other books on Christian Theology
Rev. Tony Campolo, Chair, The Evangelical Association for the Promotion of Education, and author of dozens of books including Red Letter Christians and The God of Intimacy and Action.
Father John Dear, S.J. is a Jesuit priest and author of Jesus the Rebel and A Persistent Peace
Rabbi Arthur Waskow, Chair, The Shalom Center and author, Seasons of Our Joy and These Holy Sparks

(above are the initiators of this

plus
(The Rev. Canon) John C. Fowler Episcopal priest
Donald Moore, S.J.
Rev. Dr. Bobbie Groth
Rev. Jarrod Cochran The Progressive Christian Alliance
Rev. James Willems, associate pastor Our Lady of Light, Ojai CA
Rabbi Jay Heyman Kol Hadash Community Albany, CA

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