Consumer-Driven Culture

I’ve been feeling pretty frustrated about the stranglehold special interests have on our election process. I was surprised to find this article discussing the dangers of allowing corporations to drive our political system. As the author so adroitly points out about "corporate responsibility"....“corporations are not people. They are just contracts, just pieces of paper. It’s a fallacy to treat them as people, whether it’s giving them constitutional rights, the right to engage in our political process, or treating them as people in terms of requiring or assuming that they can be moral.”

I recommend the entire article on TomPaine.commonsense

Excerpt from the article Consumer-Driven Culture is Killing Our Democracy by Terrence McNally, AlterNet. Posted November 28, 2007.

McNally interviews Robert Reich about his new book Supercapitalism and discusses ways to keep capitalism from overrunning democracy.

RR: We need to wall off democracy. We say highly competitive supercapitalism, that's fine for the private sector where we're going to be consumers and investors. We recognize the cognitive dissonance between the part of our heads that's a consumer and an investor and the part that may be a citizen. We're going to wall all of that off -- in order to address the trade-offs and have a democracy that is not going to be engulfed by the lobbyists and money coming from supercapitalism.

How are we going to ever get to that point and rescue democracy? The system is not going to reform itself from the inside.

Stop trying to get corporations to be socially responsible. Stop trying to achieve any particular social objective like global warming or a national healthcare system ... Put all of our efforts into a citizen's movement for democracy. That would include the public financing of campaigns and would require any network, any broadcaster using the public airwaves to provide advertising for all candidates.

We have a long list of what we all know democracy needs in order to be shielded from supercapitalism. I actually offer one additional idea to that list that I think is important and useful.

Each candidate sets up a blind trust that receives all political contributions, so that no candidate can ever know who contributed what. Once all political contributions become anonymous, I would predict a substantial drop in contributions, because there can no longer be any quid pro quo.

Giving Sustainable Gifts

I'm impressed by Heifer International's goal to help third world nations by enabling them to help themselves. Donations are used to buy animals and provide education and help for families and small farmers. See the webiste below for more info.

http://www.heifer.org/site/?c=edJRKQNiFiG&b=204586&msource=07SoujournCat

The Sanity of Gratitude

My goal this year has been to try to maintain an attitude of gratitude. It all started after an interesting discussion with a Franciscan monk about the nature of prayer and my personal neediness. He asked me if I ever thanked God. "Good point", I acknowledged. Well...sad to say, I can count on one hand the number of times I've paused this month to be thankful for anything. What with the holidays looming, creative endeavors pressing, the burdens of work and life plans not panning out like I wanted, it's been way too easy to start focusing on what I don't have.

There is definitely a downside to forgetting to be grateful for all the things God does provide. When I forget to stay spiritually openhearted and acknowledge God's loving work in my life, it's like losing the rudder in a boat. The change in my consciousness is subtle at first...no big deal...but pretty soon I'm adrift and back to using anything I can find for a paddle to get to the nearest "safe" place. Unfortunately for me the "safe places" I gravitate to are not necessarily the best places for me to be paddling to.

So, this Thanksgiving, I'm grateful for the learning opportunities God offers me in the form of my own ingratitude. By His grace, he opened my heart in Love, so now, when I close my heart and look away, I can recognize the absence of Love and open and turn once again to his Light to embrace the benefits and sanity of gratitude.

Loving Life

Rest your heart in God, let yourself float on the safe waters, loving life as it comes, with all the rough weather it may bring. Give, without counting how many years are left, not worried about surviving as long as possible.

- Brother Roger No Greater Love

Destructive Patriotism

Ever since the 90's I have felt a spiritual uneasiness about the governments claim that one is not patriotic if one does not wholeheartedly embrace every word that issues from the mouth of a government official. These last few years, I've been shocked when a political or military leader is questioned (often, quite rightly) and the questioner is verbally burnt in effigy or shouted down for daring to challenge authority. I'm all for respecting our leaders, but elected officials don't qualify in my mind as perfect and inviolate - and - I thought I lived in a democracy where the government (ie. the people) have the right to question the leaders we put in office.

So, I began to wonder what "patriotism" really is and why our government, industry and military places such an importance on what seems to be blind, unquestioning, nationalistic thinking, or patriotism. In it's purest form, patriotism doesn't even truly promote democratic ideals because unfettered patriotism, by its very nature, requires "us and them" kind of thinking. That is what the author in the article below calls destructive patriotism.

http://blog.beliefnet.com/godspolitics/2007/11/thank-the-lord-and-pass-the-pa.html

Faith Mentors

We participate in the possibility of becoming faith mentors by opening our lives to God at work in us and nurturing our own spiritual journeys. We live as if we are faith mentors, and we use our skills and faith on behalf of others in the hope that God will work through us for their growth in faith. With humility, we provide guidance and discernment for those who are seeking for meaning in their lives. And we live in the hope that others will experience us as faith mentors, knowing it is not a title we may claim for ourselves.

- Sondra Higgins MatthaeiFaith Matters

My mom and I were just talking today about how the faith we experience in Christ cannot be explained. Even when our minds range through questions and doubts drift past, our belief that Jesus is who he said he is stands firm...an ever fixed point. I didn't always have this kind of faith. It happened after I submitted my will to God. I believe this inexplicable faith was a gift of the Holy Spirit and rebirth through grace.

So when I read the above quote tonight it made sense. I guess you could interprete the above "faith mentor" discussion as someone saying they have it all together and they want to lay their superior faith on anyone who is polite enough to listen. I would have read it that way before I experienced the gift of faith...a gift I did not deserve and did nothing to attain. I know I was given the gift of faith because God wants me to share it with confidence.

Hospitality for Ugly Enemies

I was recently talking to an accompanist about a Lutheran church study group that invited people of different faiths to talk to the group. After the lecture/discussion they studied that religion or belief for three weeks. The purpose of this outreach was to look for connecting points with other religious beliefs and gain a deeper understanding of other religions. This was not done to make the group members more effective at trying to convert those of other religions, but was done to help understand, respect and love those who do not share common beliefs. This is a beautiful example of unconditional Love and peace in action in the world. We think that we cannot do anything that will change the world...but we can change ourselves. And by living in Love we demonstrate Love is possible.

I found this interesting article on Sojourners. I like the Bono quotes.

Hospitality for ugly enemies – Brian McLaren

http://blog.beliefnet.com/godspolitics/2007/11/hospitality-for-ugly-enemies-b.html

God is Love

I was thinking about Love today...a subject I seem to have been exploring for the last three years after I fell in Love. The phrase "Love is Love" kept running through my mind. I realized all the books I've read about types of love are missing the point. Yes, there are different levels of attachment and personal relationships, different emotional and physical responses, but these are not Love.

I think Love is a state of consciousness that is transformational, eternal and unconditional. A true Love experience changes us because we suddenly understand Godly Love on a deep and personal level and what it is to Love another with an open heart, mind body and soul. Once someone experiences Love in this way it is much easier to believe in eternal, Godly Love.

God is Love

Being in Christ

For though they cling together, no friends are true friends unless you, my God, bind them fast to one another through that love which is sown in our hearts by the Holy Ghost, who is given to us.

- St. Augustine "Confessions"

This kind of thinking is one of the things I disliked about Christianity when I was a young Christian and, later, a non-Christian. In college, I wasn't attracted to young Christian men and I thought the Christian kids I hung out with were insincere, goofy and superficial. Most of the guys I was attracted to were non-Christians. They seemed more intelligent, open minded, experienced and were not afraid to tackle challenging, philosophical and religious questions. Consequently, I balked at what I thought was a harsh and exclusive command to not date unbelievers and all my boyfriends were non-Christians. I also thought we should be friends with everyone and not be cliquish and exclusive so I had friends of all different beliefs.

What is interesting is now, many years later, I agree with St. Augustine's quote. No, it's not because I'm older, starting to close my mind and ossify. It's not even because I've lived as both a Christian and a non-Christian. I think I agree (much to my surprise) because I have finally experienced the mysteries of Christ's Love and the Holy Spirit through submission to Jesus Christ as my Master. What I've discovered by God's grace is it is only through submission of my will that I am open to God's Love through the Holy Spirit. I find the reality of this Love is different than anything I have ever experienced. It is a love that can be shared with all people, but I find I'm incapable now of being "bound fast" to someone who is not in that Love with me. Three years ago, I didn't understand this reality. Three years ago, I didn't know that because I had not accepted the Holy Spirit I could only understand God's Love cognitively, emotionally in part, and was not immersed in it interactively body, mind and soul. I was not in Love with Christ so I did not personally know Love.

God does not reject us, we reject God. God is always waiting for us, with open arms, to come home. Over the years, I do believe I knew aspects of God and I longed for God. Sometimes I could imagine God. I experienced an opening of my mind in times of crisis. I remember my heart fully opening when I gazed deeply at a newborn baby girl one day or held a puppy. And I felt God's presence once when I participated in a Hindu religious ceremony. Whenever I reached out God was there. But I could not accept his Son and, therefore, I could not truly surrender an open, trusting heart and accept and experience Love.

Love changed me. It was literally a re-birth. Yeah, my inner landscape still has the topography etched into it by 40 + years of living and making good and bad choices. I often don't listen to what is best and I allow engrained habits to control me. But what is changed is I feel what is often called an abiding joy. It is a joy that ebbs and flows, transcends circumstances and is there for me whenever I seek it. And more powerfully still, I know deep inside, so deep I don't understand the depths and width and height of it, that Jesus Christ is who he said he was. For a natural born cynic and someone who feels they must stay intellectually open to the possibility that someone may disprove Jesus' claim, it is amazing to me that the faith God gave me is not shaken. My being a Believer in Christ is truly a great mystery I don't fully understand. It is beyond reason.

So, from experience, I know it's true that once one has experienced God's Love there is a spiritual separation that occurs (hard to describe and it happens beyond our control) between those who accept God's will and those who do not. This is the heart of the teaching that we should not to be unequally yoked. Two people cannot be truly one in mind, body and soul if one is in Christ and the other is not. It is not some sort of punishment; it is just a spiritual reality.

Cognitive Overload

I don't think I have experienced a cognitive overload since my junior year in college, but here it is again. My poor little brain can't fit any more information into the ol' gray matter. Boom! I've hit the wall...found my way back into the "blank stare and I don't care" reality that took me down that junior year long ago. Luckily, I'm an older and wiser girl who understands I'm not invincible.

I HAVE to carve some alone time out of each day. Being quiet nourishes the soul. Having time for quiet, artistics and creative pursuits enriches the spirit. Being able to take a whole day off and hike deep into nowhere to feast our hungry eyes on tall trees dancing in the wind cleanses the whole being.

Now I know why religious teachers tell us to set aside a time to meditate or pray each day. It is way to center ourselves in the midst of the storm.

Social Conscience

I had a cordial discussion with my very conservative aunt Bonnie this morning about social conscience and the free market system. My argument was most businesses and institutions in the U.S. are currently more concerned about money than providing human services. I see this lack of caring about human need not only in business, but even in the public school system. Money seems to have become more important than people.

My aunt and I came to the same conclusion. If a free market system is going to work, those who benefit from a Capitalistic system must be responsible enough to protect and serve the powerless and suffering. If such a society does not support the powerless poor then that society will not survive. Therefore, we as Americans must develop an active conscience and a willingness to share (or be required to share) resources or our way of life is in jeopardy.

Interestingly, I found a similar thought expressed on Jim Wallis’ Sojourner e-mag tonight. Check it out.

(from Mike Gerson - President Bush's ex-senior adviser and speechwriter, and author of the new book, Heroic Conservatism.)

"Traditional conservatism has a piece missing - a piece that is shaped like a conscience," he notes in his new book Heroic Conservatism. His ambition, he says, is to help "save conservatism from its worst instincts" and build "a conservatism elevated by a radical concern for human rights and dignity…”

“There are two competing belief systems in the Republican Party – Libertarianism and Catholic social teaching…The difference between these visions is considerable. Various forms of Libertarianism and anti-government conservatism share a belief that justice is defined by the imposition of impartial rules - free markets and the rule of law. If everyone is treated fairly and equally, the state has done its job. But Catholic social thought takes a large step beyond that view. While it affirms the principle of limited government - asserting the existence of a world of families, congregations and community institutions where government should rarely tread - it also asserts that the justice of society is measured by its treatment of the helpless and poor. And this creates a positive obligation to order society in a way that protects and benefits the powerless and suffering.”

In an interview with the BBC, Robert Redford shared another interesting perspective when he discussed his movie “Lions led by Lambs”.

http://cosmos.bcst.yahoo.com/ver/248.0/popup/index.php?cl=4809838