LETTERS From CAMP Rehoboth |
CAMP Spirit |
by Tom Bohache |
The Best Spiritual Traditions Are Just Common Sense" In the last two issues I began a discussion regarding the "creation spirituality" movement that is growing within traditional churches as well as outside organized religion. Simply put, creation spirituality seeks to honorand maintainthe goodness of all of Creator's works, whether human, animal, plant, or mineral. A life lived in connection with the rest of creation inspires reverence, amazement, and awe; it cultivates deep respect for nature and for other people, across lines frequently drawn according to race, nationality, gender, sexuality, or economic level. Moreover, it reveals to us the natural links that exist between many spiritual traditions and teaches us that the best spiritual traditions are just common sense: The wisdom of the ages is manifested in many different ways along diverse paths, but is nevertheless the same truth. For example, theologian Matthew Fox and rapper Professor PITT, in working with inner-city youth in Oakland, California, have put together rap videos to demonstrate what they call "the ten C's" whereby today's youth (tomorrow's adults and caretakers of creation) may learn about sustaining our resources and developing a moral code for life together. These 10 C's are: cosmology (knowledge of the universe), chaos (what happens when the universe is out of balance), contemplation (meditation prior to informed action), compassion (caring for and feeling with others), creativity (developing our potential to birth change), community (creating networks to live together peaceably), character (living in accordance with Spirit's ways), critical consciousness (ability to examine our world, warts and all, with a view toward improvement), courage (moral fearlessness), and ceremony (spiritual rituals to mark our passage through life). By creating one video for each of the C's, Fox and PITT utilize images from nature alongside images of how we are destroying its beauty, coupled with urban beats that appeal to today's youth but avoid the misogynistic, homophobic, and violence-laden lyrics featured in much of today's mainstream rap. Moreover, they are sponsoring a "creation spirituality workshop" as an after-school program for youth so that they themselves can experiment with filmmaking and musical composition as healthy ways of expressing their own divine creativity. I was delighted to find these same creation spirituality principles described in a book I recently read from the Jewish tradition. In Jewish Renewal: A Path to Healing and Transformation (1994), philosopher and activist rabbi Michael Lerner describes how Judaism can be transformed through a return to honoring God as Creator and Transformer of the worldthe One who empowers tikkun olam (repair of the world). He criticizes both those Jews who have become overly secularized and those who have turned to fundamentalist religiosity, noting that both of these extremes ignore the lesson of Torah that "the ways things are is not the way things have to be." Rather than empowering a legalistic and demanding patriarchal God or turning away from God altogether out of post-Holocaust disillusionment, Lerner counsels a middle groundthe search for and worship of the God of the Exodus who led the people out of bondage, the God who created every living thing and pronounced it good, the God of the prophets who feels compassion and suffers with the people. Thus, he maintains, "Jewish renewal has a double message. For those already inclined toward communal obligation, the message is: wake up and be real; for those committed to the life of doing what feels good at the moment: wake up and recognize that you can't build community or connectedness unless you are willing to accept obligation toward others, including sometimes not having it your way" (p. 298). What a wonderful way to revitalize spirituality, and how uncannily like other spiritual paths that cultivate transformation. However, lest anyone think that these good common sense principles are the bastion of religion alone, we should note that others of good conscience, specializing in other disciplines entirely, are encouraging the same message of interconnectedness and solidarity that I have been describing. Thus, Indian feminist philosopher and postcolonial theorist Chandra Talpade Mohanty describes her own path toward establishing a better world: "Here is a bare-bones description of my own feminist vision: this is a vision of the world that is pro-sex and pro-woman, a world where women and men are free to live creative lives, in security and with bodily health and integrity, where they are free to choose whom they love, and whom they set up house with, and whether they want to have or not have children; a world where pleasure rather than just duty and drudgery determine our choices, where free and imaginative exploration of the mind is a fundamental right; a vision in which economic stability, ecological sustainability, racial equality, and the redistribution of wealth form the material basis of people's well-being." (Feminism Without Borders, 2003, p. 3) These same words might have been spoken by Jesus, the Buddha, or diverse contemporary theologians and spiritual thinkers. Which proves that principles which lead humanity toward wholeness, peace, and justice know no religion or politicsthey are just good common sense! The Rev. Dr. Tom Bohache is the pastor of the Metropolitan Community Church of Rehoboth. Email him at pastor@mccrehoboth.org. |
LETTERS From CAMP Rehoboth, Vol. 17, No. 12 August 24, 2007 |