From the Facebook Page: Spirituality Lab, October 30. 2020

I spend a lot of time writing about political things on Facebook. I know some think I am also wasting a lot of time, but it helps me work out my thoughts. And, so, in this week of THE Epochal Election (which Donald Trump says is “THE Most Important Election Of All Time!), Michele asked me to focus on what it might mean to have a Spiritual Political Practice.

What an assignment! In this era of such extreme social and political divisions, when we are closer to living under an authoritarian regime than at any time since Adams or Lincoln (yes, Lincoln), when Nazis and QAnon and other violent hate groups are openly embraced and abetted by the GOP and Democrats struggle to figure out how to support leftist protests but denounce the violence that sometimes erupts alongside, how is one to approach Spirituality and Politics?

My first impulse is to post photos of puppies and kittens. That might be the best advice I can give. If the photos below work for you, feel free to stop reading now. My task is done.

Anyhow, I will try to address this topic all week, but really what I am looking for is to hear from each of you as to how you approach Spirituality and Politics because I sure don’t have any clear answers here at the outset. Your thoughts and input are critical for all of us to develop a working sense of what this looks like.

The way my mind goes is that I first want to have a working definition of Spirituality before trying to dig into this topic. Spirituality is one of those concepts that seems intuitive until you try to pin it down.

I have always been a fan of the great philosopher, Justice Potter Stewart, who famously wrote in a case on pornography:

"I shall not today attempt further to define the kinds of material I understand to be embraced within that shorthand description ["hard-core pornography"], and perhaps I could never succeed in intelligibly doing so. But I know it when I see it, and the motion picture involved in this case is not that. (emphasis added)."

Everyone seems to know what they mean when they refer to spirituality, but very few can explicitly define it in a way that works for a majority of others. Yet, they know it when they see it—and feel it.

For me (and only for me—you get to come up with your own definition), spirituality means trying to connect our hearts, lives, souls, and minds with our better impulses, our larger moral capabilities. Pretty much every religious and philosophical tradition has something like this as a central aspiration or question.

Human beings do some incredibly terrible things to each other and to our planet; but uniquely among all other creatures we are able to act socially and communally to do amazingly wonderful things as well. The goal of a spiritual practice is to embrace and enhance this impulse to the good.

Each of us who think about spirituality come at it from our own unique traditional, social, and educational perspectives. Since my tradition is Judaism tempered with a lot of existentialist thought, that is the perspective I will take here. Feel free to find your own path that comports with your own perspective.

In Judaism, there is the concept of tikkun olam—repairing the world. It is an old concept that originally referred to mending laws to make society function more smoothly. But it has been invigorated by modern thinkers to imply that we, as beings endowed with self-awareness and social-awareness, have a responsibility not only for our own moral, spiritual, and material well-being, but also a responsibility for the moral, spiritual, and material well-being of the entire world. (1)

Kabbalists like to say that we are partners with G-d in repairing the world, and that we have a responsibility to continue the work of G-d’s creation as G-d’s representatives on Earth.

Regardless of whether you feel you are G-d’s partner, or if you believe that there is nothing here but us chickens, the concept still holds. We all are connected to a complex interdependent series of webs—be they social, environmental, political, familial, global, whatever. Having a spiritual practice of politics starts with truly embracing this and understanding that we each have a responsibility to try to make this world a better, more complete place for everyone.

Some see spirituality as a lone endeavor--the guru sitting on a mountain for years seeking inner wisdom; the person who gets a sudden jolt of inner enlightenment; someone in a meeting finding a personal connection with their Higher Power. All of these are valid, but for me, they are incomplete. For me (and only for me, I repeat), my personal spiritual development is intimately impacted by the spiritual (and non-spiritual) health of the world around me and all the people in it.

Being politically engaged is a part of my spiritual practice; and being spiritual is a part of the reason I am political. The two are inseparable.

This is the spiritual nexus in which I center my personal practice of politics. And it all sounds so nice and reasonable and warm and fuzzy. Kind of like those cute kitten and puppy pictures. Who, other than a miserable nihilist or perhaps a retired philosophy professor can disagree with this?

But we all know that we live in a world that is not often reasonable and warm and fuzzy, one that is not often agreeable with us and with which we often disagree. In fact, we have received a PhD level education in recent years as to how self-centered and downright mean our fellow citizens can be. As I said above, people can do horrible things to others, often in the name of a higher good. A spiritual practice has to function in a world of Realpolitik (2), a place where, as Trump and the GOP have shown, power and greed can be everything and morality not even a part of the discussion.

Warm, fuzzy thoughts, broad sweeping sentiments, even a spiritual impulse to fix the world, are all useless unless married to a focused and effective political vision and actions. Politics writ large is very real and has incredible implications for real human lives. What you do, what you advocate, and how you do it in the real world can often lead you far from the spiritual center that may have been the genesis of your action in the first place.

There is great power in the ability of communal action to change the world--but that power can be used for good, for ill, or for something in-between. Having an honest spiritual grounding is critical to keeping yourself--and your community--on the right path. Honesty requires self-reflection, a willingness to question your own motives and actions, an ability to critique yourself and your fellow-travelers, and listening to your "opponents" with an open heart and mind. This is not an easy way to be in our politically charged world.

For the rest of the week I will try to speak about ways we can try to maintain our spiritual focus and center even as we engage in the gritty, desultory, and often frustratingly frozen world where spiritual intent meets hardened reality. The stakes are incredibly high—existentially threatening for many—and trying to maintain a sense of higher purpose can be very difficult. But we have to try. Because HOW we engage in political change is as impactful as the change we seek itself. For how we practice is what we become.....

I will end with one more favorite quote that I first learned from Rabbi Hannah Rosenthal who ran the most amazing pop-up High Holiday services in Madison, WI, held in a tiny old synagogue by a lake that had been converted into a City park building. For four days each year Hannah gathered a wonderfully eclectic community of Jews, former Jews, non-Jews, political activists, even a priest who read Torah like a yeshiva bocher--with music by the famous jazz pianist Ben Sidran and Lynette on vocals--and reinvigorated that old shul with a "ruach"—a spirit—unlike any I have ever beheld. (3)

Praying in community at The Gates of Heaven in Madison I realized that we are capable of incredible things when we come together for a common spiritual goal. But we must be very careful in how we come together and how we try to achieve our goals......

“A person will worship something, have no doubt about that. We may think our tribute is paid in secret in the dark recesses of our hearts, but it will come out. That which dominates our imaginations and our thoughts will determine our lives, and our character. Therefore, it behooves us to be careful what we worship, for what we are worshipping, we are becoming.”

― Ralph Waldo Emerson