Michael Lerner: November 2008 Archives

The Network of Spiritual Progressives wishes to be a place in which progressives from various religious communities (as well as "spiritual but not religious" people) can feel safe in coming together to work for a New Bottom Line to replace the materialism and selfishness in the world with an ethos of love, kindness, generosity,caring for others, ethical and ecological sensitivity,and awe and wonder at the grandeur of the universe.

But what do we do if one of our religious communities is directly involved in racist, sexist, homophobic, anti-Semitic or attacking "the Stranger" (whoever the demeaned Other of any given society happens to be at a particular historical moment, when the Bible actually commands us not only to love our neighbor, but specifically and unequivocally to "love the Other" (the stranger, in Hebrew: ger). Truth is that every one of our religious communities has within them groups or denominations or movements that sometimes fit these tendencies to sin by denying God in "the Other." I know it happens in sections of the Jewish world, particualrly in relationship to Arabs and Muslims, and I make that a subject of frequent attention in Tikkun magazine and asubject for repentance each year in my own Beyt Tikkun synagogue in S.F. and Berkeley California, and in the "For Our Sins" supplement that we send out to all our supporters for use in their communities.

But of course it's not just Jews who demean others or see one type of human being as more valuable or closer to God or more appropriate to serve God than another. This has come into
particular highlight this very week, because the Congregation of the Doctrine of the Faith ( the office that was previously named The Inquisition,but now no longer using violence to achieve its ends) has sent a letter to Father Roy Bourgeois threatening him with ex-communication (which effectively means an end to his income and to his teachings inside the church) for daring to publicly support the ordination of women and to offer remarks in a ceremony ordaining a woman as priest.

Roy Bourgeois isn't just any priest. He is, along with John Dear and Sister Joan Chittister, one of the most courageous Catholic voices for peace and non-violence and the founder and
leader of the School of the Americas Watch (SOAW). The ultimatum and ex-communication would be effective the day before the annual demonstration of the SOAW at Fort Bennings (next to Columbus, Georgia) where the School of the Americas is housed and where it
trains South and Central American police forces in the techniques of torture, repression, and counter-insurgency. We at the Network of Spiritual Progressives have been calling for support for this demonstration which begins on Friday and goes till Sunday.

So the current conservative leadership of the Catholic Church will now in one fell swoop be able to rid itself of the progressive Catholic who has created the most important spiritual
progressive demonstration taking place anywhere in the country for peace and against torture, and simultaneously terrify other priests into not daring to question the Church's doctrines on
women.