“RECLAIM AMERICA” : Join progressives to develop new strategy in this ethical, spiritual & religious crisis

Hosted by the Theology and Religious Studies Department of USF, and sponsored by Tikku,  www.tikkun.org, and by the (interfaith and secular-humanist-and-atheist-and religious-welcoming) Network of Spiritual Progressives, The Metta Center for Non-Violence, and many others.

The recently elected Congress that will shape America in the next two years is committed to defunding government so that it cannot enforce the minimal environmental protections currently in place, provide health care coverage for those who need it, provide safety and health protection for our food and our work places, or protect the old, the young, the vulnerable  while at the same timee, that Congress will seek to decrease still further the taxes on the super-rich and the corporations they own and control.

This is an ethical, spiritual and religious crisis of monumental proportions — and calls for secular liberals and progressives to join with spiritual or religious activists to work together to develop strategies to save our planet earth and protect middle income and working people and the unemployed from the assaults of the selfish.

That’s why we, spiritual progressives of every variant (including atheists and secular humanists as well as people in every religious community) must now take action to present a different worldview, one based on the Biblical call to “love our neighbor” but also “love the stranger” (the Other/the powerless), and pursue justice and peace.

You don’t have to remind us that religion has sometimes been used to justify all forms of oppression or that spirituality sometimes devolves into self-indulgent flakiness. But so has democracy and socialism sometimes been used to justify imperialism or forms of totalitarianism. We’ve got to get well-intentioned people, both secular and religious, to stop putting each other down, and instead unite so we can help Americans re-embrace the values that once led us as a society to create institutions that embodied caring for each other and for the earth.

Too many people have responded to the 2014 electoral victories of the Right by feeling powerless. “What can I do?“ they tell themselves. “The Rightists have the money and are filled with passionate intensity, while those who seek peace and justice too often lack a coherent strategy. There are so many groups taking on one little part of the problem or another, but mostly they don’t cooperate with each other and don’t even try to educate people in each specific social justice, humanitarian or environmental struggle about how they are linked to all the other struggles. So to those on the outside, it looks like everyone is just fighting for their own special interest, but not for the common interests of the rest of us. I can’t see how I can do anything, given this mess.”

But there is something you can do, not alone, but with a movement that we are creating. The liberal and progressive forces have made some big mistakes but we can change that, and we have a strategy for how to do that and how to Reclaim America. And we need you to be part of it. And to learn from you as well, because we know we don’t have all the answers!

We approach this task with humility, but also with excitement about the possibility of forging a new direction, bringingtogether all those people who really yearn for a society based on love, kindness, generosity, social and economic justice, and peace. We call this goal “The New Bottom Line.”

We will mourn what has happened to our country and to the planet, and acknowledge our own responsibility. Rather than just blame the super-rich and their ability to manipulate media and spend millions on candidates who serve their interests, we also need to challenge liberals and progressives to think more deeply about what changes are needed in the ways that they present themselves (attention office holders – you are invited to be part of this), drraw upon the wisdom of secular humanists, religious traditions (at least the humanist and love-and-caring dimensions of all the world’s religious and spiritual communities), and spiritual-but-not-religious thinkers, and the work of the (interfaith and secular-humanist-welcoming) Network of Spiritual Progressives.

We will hear each other’s ideas for how to move forward, build ties among the vast array of social change organizations, progressive religious and spiritual communities, and learn skills for improving our ability to have our most visionary ideas really taken seriously by our families, neighbors, co-workers, and even some of our most cynical friends. This gathering is just the first step in bringing this kind of discussion into the heart of everyone involved in social transformation, into every social change organization and every place where ethically sensitive people gather.
Part of our intention is to reintroduce into public discourse the ethical values that could contribute to rebuilding a society based on love, care, generosity, awe and wonder. And you can play an important role by challenging progressive organizations to introduce into all their activities a shared vision of the world we want  not just focusing on what is wrong with the way thiings are now, but presenting a positive vision of the world as it needs to be a New Bottom Line of love, caring, kindness, generosity, social justice, peace, environmental sanity and awe and wonder at the grandeur and preciousness of our planet earth and the universe of which we are part.

Undoubtedly, given the fact that it is people of color who are disproportionately represented among the poorest in the society, they will be facing especially rough times, added to the racism and violence that they face even under “normal” conditions, as exemplified recently in Ferguson. In particular, in light of the justifiable outrage at the racism manifest not just in the verdict from Ferguson but also in the way most Americans don’t seem to have a clue about the racism involved and how pervasive it is, we encourage us all to see fighting racism as not just as issue for African Americans or people of color, but as a priority as well for white people to address: what is the best strategy to both counter and transform that racism? How to do that, (without seeming to suggest that all whites are bad and hence provoke backlash that actually makes things worse for people of color), is part of the discussion we hope to initiate at this conference.

We invite liberals and progressives of every possible stripe to come together and strategize about how these kinds of values can reshape public life in the US. We ask you, the reader of this, to help us get leaders, activists, and members of progressive movements for social and economic justice, peace, environmental sanity, civil rights, feminism, LGBTQ rights, immigrant rights, unions, liberal and progressive political parties and elected officials to meet and strategize together.

We need  physicians and other health practitioners, lawyers, Silicon Valley techies, psychotherapists, working people in offices and factories and skilled trades, small business people, African Americans , Latinos, Asian Americans, and every other minority community,  philanthropists,  financial and investment experts, scientists, engineers, high school and college students, teachers and academics, researchers, seniors, millenials, boomers, and everyone in between who can fully commit to nonviolence and empathy as strict guidelines for how to approach those with whom we disagree. Please invite your friends  afterwards, when they hear how exciting it was for you, they’ll be disappointed that you didn’t try to convince them to come!

We cannot afford to stay in our separate silos working on single-issue politics, or immerse ourselves in cynicism and despair about the possibility of making significant change. At the very least, we need to articulate a shared vision of the world we want  not just the world we are against  so so that even as each of us continues in our focused activities to address specific ways that the world and its people are hurting, we simultaneously articulate a positive vision that we all share. We need a new unity and a new psychological and spiritual sophistication to heal and repair our very broken society.

Won’t you join us? Registration required at spiritualprogressives.org/reclaimAmerica

Cost: $15 for students and incomes under $30/k yr.; � incomes over $30k/yr: $25 if you register by Dec.5. $45 or anyone registering after Dec. 5.

By mail: make check to Tikkun and mail to 2342 Shattack Ave, #1200, Berkeley, CA 94704,� 510-644-1200.

For more info: Cat@spiritualprogressives.org

Hosted by the Theology and Religious Studies Dept. of USF and sponsored by Tikkun www.tikkun.org, and by the (interfaith and secular-humanist-and-atheist-and religious-welcoming) Network of Spiritual Progressives, The Metta Center for Non-Violence, and many others.

Ask your local chapter of any civic, religious, social change organization or your local church, synagogue, mosque, ashram, professional organization, union or any of the reputable groups willing to commit to non-violence in the struggle for social justice. Ask them to cosponsor or at least publicize this to all of their members wherever they live in the US and to get those members to either create other such gatherings (we’ll have materials and possibly even speakers for these events).

We are not proponents of any religion or spiritual tradition except for The New Bottom Line of love and generosity, etc. which you can read about at http://www.tikkun.org/nextgen/yearning-for-a-world-of-love-and-justice.

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And we are inspired by Gandhi, Martin Luther King Jr., and liberation theologians in every religious or spiritual tradition. For example, read a little bit from the new pope: Pope Francis in Evangeli Gaudium:

“Some people continue to defend trickle-down theories which assume that economic growth, encouraged by a free market, will inevitably succeed in bringing about greater justice and inclusiveness, which has never been confirmed by the facts, expresses a crude and naïve trust in the goodness of those wielding economic power a globalization of indifference has developed we en end up being incapable of feeling compassion at the outcry of the poor… the culture of prosperity deadens us. The worship of the ancient golden calf has returned in the idolatry of money and the dictatorship of an impersonal economy lacking a truly human purpose.”

(A fuller version can be found in the Spring 2014 issue of Tikkun Magazine. When you join the Network of Spiritual Progressives at www.spiritualprogressives.org, you get a free subscription to Tikkun Magazine.)

If you miss this conference, but want to be involved in the ongoing work, please contact the executive director of the Network of Spiritual Progressives Cat Zavis and tell her what specifically you are willing to work on (but only after you’ve read our essay “Yearning for a World of Love and Justice” at http://www.tikkun.org/nextgen/yearning-for-a-world-of-love-and-justice).