Try as I might, I cannot divorce God.
I know, I know. That's so unfashionable. Especially around here. We're "progressives" and progressives don't do the faith thing. It's right in the Ten Commandments of Progressiveness, right?
1. Thou shalt never vote Republican.
2. Thou shalt not mix Church and State.
etc...
I know this is risky..
Pretty high up on the 'no-no meter' is to mention faith in the context of the Democratic Party. (Well, unless you are Republican and you're referring to the Democrats' lack thereof.) But I'm a spiritual woman, damn it. And I'm going to mention it. Just know that faith and spirituality do not always mean opposition to progressive ideas. If you think that they do, then I'm writing to tell you that you have been misled, deceived, and outwitted by the right wing.
Now, let's get this straight:
I'm not religious
That's different. My notion of what God looks like, what God rewards, what God disdains is all the creation of my own morality. And let's face it - so is everyone else's. Even if you are a raving athiest, your morality is a function of your own experiences, upbringing, and prejudices. For the record, I only even name my spiritual entity "God" out of convenience.
And here's the crossroads. Let me explain:
No doubt there are some of you reading this who are thinking: "Exactly! It's a personal thing!! So personal is this thing, in fact, that there is NO PLACE FOR IT in politics." I get your point clearly. I can no more impose my personal beliefs on YOU than you can on ME. And the same should go for politicians, leaders, etc.
Fair enough.
But there is no doubt a void right now in this area, and I believe that Democrats WANT to fill it, but are too afraid. Right now we've got Jerry Falwell and Pat Robertson leading the charge for every person in America who feels a spiritual inkling. These religious figures (read: morons) have laid claim to the language, the interpretation, the direction that morality is taking in America, and this is wholly unacceptable.
The truth is that religion and morality are not mutually exclusive. One CAN have one without the other, as has been proven time and again by this administration. So why have progressives allowed the hijacking of morality-based language by right-wing idealogues? Why the dry talk, void of themes that invoke our larger interconnectedness? Why is it okay to refer to Global Warming in sweeping terms that imply a larger brotherhood of mankind but not okay to imply that letting people go bankrupt from healthcare costs is similarly an affront to our global brotherhood?
Abortion, gay rights, the right to die, war, poverty, illness, adoption, birth control, divorce law, spying, the free market system, lobbying... ALL of these things have heavy moral components. There is no use fighting them without mention of the value judgments they cause us all to make. There is no way that a phrase like "the war in Iraq is an illegal war" can compete with "the Iraq war results in the immoral killing of innocents." If you say, "the free market is an unbalanced system with winners and losers" does that not pale in comparison to pointing out that "the worship of the free market is an affront to God, nature and human dignity?"
We have got to recapture the language that speaks from the heart - and like it or not, progressives, this involves a spiritual component. Barack Obama nailed it in this speech
Read it, skim it, do what you have to do.
Just know that faith and spirituality do not always mean opposition to progressive ideas. If you think that they do, then I'm writing to tell you that you have been misled, deceived, and outwitted by the right wing.
They don't own God.