Vid: Michael Lerner & His Left Hand of G-D
Judaism, Integral Judaism, Jewish Video, Living Jewishly, Online Media, Politics of Religion, Jewish Spirituality, Tikkun Olam April 14th, 2007Note: this post originally started off as a comment on another blog but I decided to expand it into a post of its own.
As a progressive Jew I’m sympathetic to Michael Lerner’s work but having said that something about him just doesn’t grab me. I don’t own any of his books, although often times when I walk into a bookstore I feel like I should be picking up the Left Hand of G-D. I have on several occasions spent 20 to 30 minute in-store sessions flipping through the pages but the book just always winds up back on the shelf. I’m not exactly sure why but I guess there’s some subconscious red flag that keeps popping up and preventing me from making the purchase.
Like I mentioned above I am sympathetic to what Rabbi Lerner is trying to accomplish both with his book and with his Network For Spiritual Progressives (NSP). I certainly agree with the basic tenets of the NSP and view them as things I can stand behind on both ethical and spiritual grounds.
For those of you unfamiliar with the tenants here they are.
Basic1. Changing the Bottom Line in America
Today, institutions and social practices are judged efficient, rational and productive to the extent that they maximize money and power. That’s the Old Bottom Line. Now Here is the NEW BOTTOM LINE for which we advocate: We believe that they should be judged rational, efficient and productive not only to the extent that they maximize money and power, but also to the extent that they maximize love and caring, ethical and ecological sensitivity and behavior, kindness and generosity, non-violence and peace, and to the extent that they enhance our capacities to respond to other human beings in a way that honors them as embodiments of the sacred, and enhances our capacities to respond to the earth and the universe with awe, wonder and radical amazement.
2. Challenging the misuse of religion, God and spirit by the Religious Right
Educating people of faith to the understanding that a serious commitment to God, religion and spirit should manifest in social activism aimed at peace, universal disarmament, social justice with a preferential option for the needs of the poor and the oppressed, a commitment to end poverty, hunger, homelessness, inadequate education and inadequate health care all around the world, and a commitment to nuclear non-proliferation, environmental protection and repair of the damage done to the planet by 150 years of environmentally irresponsible behavior in industrializing societies.3. Challenging the many anti-religious and anti-spiritual assumptions and behaviors that have increasingly become part of the liberal culture
Challenging as well the extreme individualism and me-firstism that permeate all parts of the global market culture. We will educate people in social change movements to carefully distinguish between their legitimate critiques of the Religious Right and their illegitimate generalizing of those criticisms to all religious or spiritual beliefs and practices. We will help social change activists and others in the liberal and progressive culture become more conscious of and less afraid to affirm their own inner spiritual yearnings and to reconstitute a visionary progressive social movement that incorporates the spiritual dimension, of which the loving, spiritually elevating and connecting aspects of religion has been one expression (but so has the group-in-fusion experience of the movements of the 30’s and the 60’s and the communitarian aspirations of many other efforts–social healing and health care, progressive summer camps, the wide appeal of service and service learning, the women’s spirituality movement etc).from the Network of Spiritual Progressives website
Yet somehow I just can’t escape this feeling that there’s an underlying one-sided holier than thou aggressiveness that permeates the Network as well as Rabbi Lerner’s work in general. I don’t think it’s intentional so maybe the term infected is a more accurate descriptor. I just seem to get this sense of us versus them and vilifying the other side, which in this case would be the right and religious right. In fact to the point that they (the right) are pure evil and don’t hold any piece of the truth. I’m certainly a liberal and left of center by nature but I don’t think that means that there is nothing of value in what the right is trying to accomplish.
So I must unfortunately agree with Ken Wilber when he writes about Lerner’s Left Hand of G-D on page 297 of his own new book “Integral Spirituality”.
“His latest book, the left hand of G-D, is even more polarized and more intensely green than usual, so in my opinion, this is not looking promising.”
I’m far from being a guy who has a handle on my own judgmentalism and I certainly can be aggressive. I guess I just have higher standards placed upon organizations like the SPN and community leaders such as Rabbi Lerner.
All of that being said I do believe that the work being done by Lerner and his organization is important and worth checking out. I’m just convinced that it all still needs some fine tuning if it’s actually going to make a difference.
Regardless of whether you’re going to buy the book or not if you’re interested in this topic, you might want to check out the following 80 minute video lecture by Lerner which in my opinion does a decent job summarizing the book.
Be well
Technorati tags: Judaism, Tikkun Olam, Living Jewishly, Network of Spiritual Progressives, Michael Lerner, Social Justice, Liberal Politics, Integral Spirituality, Integral Politics
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April 14th, 2007 at 10:58 pm
Yet somehow I just can’t escape this feeling that there’s an underlying one-sided holier than thou aggressiveness that permeates the Network as well as Rabbi Lerner’s work in general. I don’t think it’s intentional so maybe the term infected is a more accurate descriptor. I just seem to get this sense of us versus them and vilifying the other side, which in this case would be the right and religious right. In fact to the point that they (the right) are pure evil and don’t hold any piece of the truth. I’m certainly a liberal and left of center by nature but I don’t think that means that there is nothing of value in what the right is trying to accomplish.
I am not certain I get where you see this. That is not a challenge, just curiosity. I have only watched the video and read the info at the Network of Spiritual Progressives website, so perhaps you have encountered other sources (perusing some of the books, perhaps, or articles by/about Lerner). I am not trying to convince you that you’re mistaken, but I don’t see how a critique of certain aspects of the religious right (RR) equates to demonizing them. The video to which you thoughtfully provide a link starts by saying that the RR is right in that there is a spiritual crisis and that it is in part due to extreme consumerism/materialism, but the divergence comes in how this should be addressed. When I was reading the NoSP website, I found frequent references to being open to people of all political parties…
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We have no doubt that if the Democrats were to adopt a spiritual politics that they would be far more successful. So would the Greens or any other political party. We will encourage members to form caucuses within whatever party they are affiliated with to put forward the Politics of Meaning approach that we advocate.
We hope to see a Spiritual Politics caucus in the Democratic Party that will play an important role in shaping the party in the coming years, and we hope to see a similar caucus in the Green Party and the Republican Party…
While we will do our best to outreach and invite people to share our perspective–for example, to people in Red states, people in a wide variety of religious communities, people in spiritual communities, Republicans as well as Democrats, people of color, people of all gender and sexual identities, people from all national and ethnic backgrounds, poor people and working class people and suburban people and exurban people and city dwellers, corporate executives and union activists and environmental activists and peace activists, academics and policy experts, and every possible profession…
source
“I am not equating point for point the left hand of God (the voice hope) and the right hand of God (the voice of fear) with the politics of the left and the politics of the right; both groups have both voices present in them.”
[Hence, to my understanding, liberals may invoke the “right hand” with fearmongering and conservatives may reach out compassionately by hearing the “left hand”. Yet Lerner claims to be trying to advocate the “left hand” for everyone, while recognizing that some powerful groups on the right have been more ad more using the “right hand” to influence the politics of their base while some on the left ignore the “left hand” altogether]
(paraphrased from the video, in a discussion starting around minute 49:00, especially at 51:40)
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Again, I am not arguing against your sense of some kind of moral superiority from Lerner/his organizations, I just am not sure where it is. I don’t get the feeling that the RR is supposed to be evil or devoid of value, but that portions of its historical perspective and its primary leadership are (dangerously) misguided on many issues (i.e. not listening enough/being open enough to the “left hand” and over-emphasizing the “right-hand”). Moreover, in some of the NoSP writing they explicitly have sections where they contrast their message to both generic liberals and generic conservatives.
So, I am totally open to hearing what you are saying, but maybe I just haven’t looked deeply enough to see it myself.
April 15th, 2007 at 9:20 am
so i guess your flirtation with right-leaning politics was just a phase also?
April 15th, 2007 at 9:32 am
Hey Steg
Nope not at all. In fact maybe you missed it or maybe I just didn’t communicate it well in this post but I’m criticizing Rabbi Lerner and the movement for not (IMO) being able to acknowledge and see the essential role that the right plays. Basically my own thinking these days is less about right versus left and more about how do you integrate the best of both ideologies to create something bigger and more effective. How do we take the social responsibility of the left and balance it with the personal responsibility of the right, etc.
I don’t think I’ve ever claimed to be right wing although I have in the past said that “I’ve left the left” and that I have “Moved considerably to the right.” Realistically keeping in mind how far to the left I had been that at best puts me somewhere Center’ish and on a cranky day slightly center right.
April 15th, 2007 at 9:34 am
tinythinker for whatever reason I elected to post my reply comment on your blog instead of mine. So you can check it out there.
by the way thanks for visiting and sharing your thoughts.
April 15th, 2007 at 9:54 am
OK, cool. Thanks for the link to the thoughtful critique as well. I found it to be sensible and helpful.
April 15th, 2007 at 8:25 pm
You make some thoughtful points about Rabbi Lerner, but I don’t really know where you get this sense of holier-than-thou which you describe. Perhaps you mistake the Tikkun Community’s earnestness & idealism for something more. I for one find it refreshing (especially in small doses :). They seem to be a positive voice in America’s political dialog at this time.
Shalom, Qar’neh
April 15th, 2007 at 9:13 pm
Q Agreed, I think they are well intentioned.