Rabbi .. Lerner calls on environmentalists to develop a spiritual vision

[struggle4progress]

What the Left Hand's Doing
Rabbi Michael Lerner calls on environmentalists to develop a spiritual vision

By David Roberts
22 Mar 2006

As we strolled through downtown Seattle in search of coffee, Rabbi Michael Lerner casually pointed over my shoulder and said, "That's where I was in jail."

He was referring to his membership in the Seattle Seven, a group of Vietnam War protesters whose 1970 arrest and trial sparked a legendary media circus. It was a reminder that Lerner's been in the activism game a long time.

Lerner went on to become a rabbi and found Tikkun, a liberal Jewish magazine, and the Network of Spiritual Progressives, an organization devoted to developing a spiritual vision for the left. He's authored numerous books; Bill and Hillary Clinton were vocal fans of his Politics of Meaning and briefly engaged him as an adviser. His latest work, published last month, is The Left Hand of God: Taking Back Our Country From the Religious Right.

In it, he argues that the religious right is filling a void, a widely felt need for meaning in a materialist, consumerist culture. He warns that unless progressives develop a spiritual perspective that answers that need, they will continue to lose ground. <snip>

http://www.grist.org/news/maindish/2006/03/22/roberts/

[More Than A Feeling]

1. I nominated The Left Hand of God in the Books: Nonfiction forum

Go vote for it in the May poll if you want to get an in-depth discussion!

[JudyM]

3. Great book, I just got mine this week. n/t

[JudyM]

2. Thanks for posting - important book, IMHO

The Network of Spiritual Progressives is having an organizing conference, with a rich variety of workshops, in DC this May. They're going to be be training people to discuss these issues with their congressional reps. I volunteered to help get their platform noticed so that progressive candidates can start taking advantage of it right away.

[Voltaire99]

4. If you can't beat 'em, join 'em, eh, Rabbi?

Sorry, but I'd prefer a secular approach not only to environmentalism but to civics in general. Religion in the public sphere is the problem, not the cure.

Lerner's good in other contexts, so I don't want to be too hard on him even if I am disappointed in this instance.

"Unions and Evangelicals in the Rust Belt," a seminal article by James Straub in the Monthly Review, offers insights as well as hope to the left that it needn't get that old-time religion in order to wean Americans from Bushism. But progressives do need to understand the complex function of the megachurch, which besides nourishing faith today fulfills practical social needs previously met by unions. Unfortunately, the damn thing is also a conduit for GOP organizing:

http://www.monthlyreview.org/0106straub.htm