The Left Hand of God

A Must Read Book:
Every couple of pages I found myself enlightened. "Oh, that makes sense" or "Yeah, I can see that." This book answers questions about our lives in America, what went wrong, and what we can do about it, on both a macro and a personal level. Why we (all of us) feel so overwhelmed and beaten down, what ever happened to all the progress that appeared to be unstoppable in the "sixties", how did the country move so far to the right, and what can we realistically do about it. This book is about justice and compassion and human dignity, giving value to those we would identify as our "enemy" If you wonder how it all went wrong, and how we can restore it; read this book!

Mercy to balance Severity:
in flipping thru television channels last night i arrived at one of those strange stations with the very high numbers that is not standard viewing. This rabbi was speaking, and I wouldn't normally have paused my remote control scan for a religious speach, but he was speaking a message that was so compelling that I listened to the rest of his talk. in terms of Kabbalah, if we imagine God having a right hand of Severity, of the manifest destiny of America's military might and the right winged Fundamentalist Christian support backing up the Republican agenda, we can also imagine God having a left hand of Mercy, of social reform, of diversity being not only allowed but encouraged, of charity, of the socialist agendas of the left winged progressive liberal Democrats. the good rabbi went on to express the great thirst for spiritual meaning in a world controlled by money, defined by money, with success at work being contribution to the bottom line, with success at home being how much material worth has been collected, leaving us empty, leaving us wanting a real Meaning in our lives, a Spiritual Meaning. the Right Wing has identified and addressed this thirst, pointing out that people need to return to traditional religion and values. there has been a migration during the past few decades by the "New Deal" generation towards the Right because of this thirst for Spiritual Meaning. he went on to note how the Left is trapped in secular humanism, in scientific method, in athiesm as being the "religion" of the Left. progressive thinkers with a Spiritual agenda are welcome to participate in the politics of the Left, but only if they check their religious baggage at the door. Rabbi Lerner proposes a movement in the Left that is centered around Spirituality, putting God back into the "bleeding heart liberals" and "taking back our country from the religious right". If you get a chance to hear him speak in person, you should attend. He frequents speaking in left slanted Methodist and Episcopalian Christian churches. I can't imagine him speaking in a Southern Baptist church, but if he ever did, I would buy a ticket just to see the reaction.

empty secular society and overly absolute religious attitudes are shared problems:
What do the Left and the Right have in common? A sense of meaninglessness in what is called the "real world"--work--unites us all. So Lerner begins his examination of the spiritual ills that unavoidably shape our politics. Lerner does not give a solution, only hints, for this longing for meaning, raising the question of why more of us don't do more to change the work world--namely, fear. One of Lerner's main themes is the nature of two voices we all must deal with, that of fear and that of hope. Ironically the voice of fear usually results in efforts toward what he calls the more aggressive and adamant right hand of God, the voice of hope allows us to stay with the more ambiguous, seemingly weaker side, the left hand of God. So throughout this book Lerner shows all too often not only the political right by also the political left giving in to fear and choosing the right hand. Lerner presents some helpful history. At the very least read the chapter "The Religion of Secularism and the Fear of Spirit." He has had a lot of exposure over the years in his activism to those who are determined to exclude all religion from the political sphere. Also be sure to read "Elitism on the Left." His analysis rings true and is gentle yet sophisticated. I couldn't help but feel Lerner is less a writer per se than a leader, organizer, spiritual director, and activist. His discussion will make you want to join his larger support group or spiritual network. At first I thought this was a kind of informal church of Jew, Christian, and any other religion or spiritual searcher, that I would love to have joined, but it appears to be wholly spiritual--you won't meet in person, unless you become involved in some of Lerner's activism. Thank God for Rabbi Lerner. I think we need to support his voice and presence as spiritual leader in the political sphere. His web site is impressive and inclusive. When do the religious cross the line in politics? On a somewhat humorous note, in a long footnote Rabbi Lerner reveals a time when I think he crossed it: Bill Clinton had given a speech that was clearly using Learner's unique language of "meaning." (Oddly when the president uses your writing without acknowledgment, this is a compliment; anyone else and it's called plagiarism.) The White House then asked Lerner to consult with them before saying anything more. Lerner agreed! I couldn't help but think of the Hebrew prophets. I don't think they would have agreed -- they wouldn't have been allowed to say anything significant!

Intriguing:
Repetitive. The whole thing could have been condensed to one chapter. After a certain point, I couldn't read anymore. Nevertheless, the concept is inspiring.

Answer is not for atheists to believe in a God:
I'm going to use a lot of quotation marks here, because it just seems appropriate in discussions like this which focus on issues in a relatively naive, simplistic, and pop fashion. Fair warning. The "answer" for any "spiritual void" that supposedly may exist on the left, etc., and "taking back our country from the religious right", unfortunately is not simply for atheists, agnostics, secular humanists, etc. to give up one of the basic tenets of their beliefs--that of not believing in the existence of a God, or at least admitting not knowing--and adopt the central tenet of "the other side", to believe in the existence of a God, but this time the merciful, etc. one of the New Testament. That's silly. (Besides, why automatically assume that "the left" is a monolithic block of atheists, agnostics, materialists, etc.? The right is the side that's generally associated with materialism anyway.) No, there's nothing wrong or automatically "spiritually void" about humanism, atheism, the scientific method, etc. in themselves--if there's anything lacking on "the left" along spiritual lines, it's a not strong-enough committment to those very values, their development, what those values really mean, imply, and lead us to, and a naive belief that because the simplest forms of those ideas seem correct enough, that they're all that's required to think, and to eventually win. So more of the opposite approach may be the solution--not a grafted-on belief in a God, but rather a real development and committment to humanism, respect for humanity, humbleness, action, etc. separate from superstition and "faith". We need a more viable non-religious "spiritual" alternative to all the God-talk. Too bad spiritualism is usually thought of as God-based.