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world changing and not
Feb. 25th, 2005 12:09 pmThere are a lot of great articles on WorldChanging, like this one on community currency and the fact that money is imaginary. Lots of stuff worth reading.
The latest issue of the Utne Reader, the central topic of which is coming to grips with fundamentalist religion, has one article on how Jesus was a radical and reclaiming the ground of faith as a political necessity. A quote: "...while, on some level, I will always be sorting out the whole religion thing, I'm no longer reticent to say that I believe Jesus walked the earth. That I believe he provoked the powerful, considered economic injustice a sin, and welcomed all people -- no matter what their race, religion, sex, or sexual preference -- without judgment or expectation."
From another article, not on the website, about Karen Armstrong:"Good religion is the embrace of compassion and confrontation with the 'other,' which are the matrix teachings of all the great spiritual movements.
'Compassion is the key to religion, the key to spirituality,' Armstrong says. 'It is the litmus test of religiosity... It is the key to the experience of what we call God--that when you dethrone yourself from the center of your world and put another there, you achieve extasis, you go beyond yourself.' She quotes the Buddha: 'First, live in a compassionate way, and then you will know.'"
It seems like commone sense, doesn't it? But I'd say fundamentalist religions, of all stripes, and many other manifestations of religion, fail the litmus test pretty spectacularly.
There's other interesting stuff not on the website, the reading of which prompted me to compose bumper stickers in my head, as such reading often will (because I'm really very shallow--I don't even have a car to put bumper stickers on). One I composed this morning on the bus:
Fundamentalism breeds war, violence, and misery. Get over it. Now.
If only such linguistic imperatives would actually work. It is the word of me. Obey, you fools!
Also, can I just say, people who believe in the Rapture scare the bejeezub out of me.
The latest issue of the Utne Reader, the central topic of which is coming to grips with fundamentalist religion, has one article on how Jesus was a radical and reclaiming the ground of faith as a political necessity. A quote: "...while, on some level, I will always be sorting out the whole religion thing, I'm no longer reticent to say that I believe Jesus walked the earth. That I believe he provoked the powerful, considered economic injustice a sin, and welcomed all people -- no matter what their race, religion, sex, or sexual preference -- without judgment or expectation."
From another article, not on the website, about Karen Armstrong:"Good religion is the embrace of compassion and confrontation with the 'other,' which are the matrix teachings of all the great spiritual movements.
'Compassion is the key to religion, the key to spirituality,' Armstrong says. 'It is the litmus test of religiosity... It is the key to the experience of what we call God--that when you dethrone yourself from the center of your world and put another there, you achieve extasis, you go beyond yourself.' She quotes the Buddha: 'First, live in a compassionate way, and then you will know.'"
It seems like commone sense, doesn't it? But I'd say fundamentalist religions, of all stripes, and many other manifestations of religion, fail the litmus test pretty spectacularly.
There's other interesting stuff not on the website, the reading of which prompted me to compose bumper stickers in my head, as such reading often will (because I'm really very shallow--I don't even have a car to put bumper stickers on). One I composed this morning on the bus:
Fundamentalism breeds war, violence, and misery. Get over it. Now.
If only such linguistic imperatives would actually work. It is the word of me. Obey, you fools!
Also, can I just say, people who believe in the Rapture scare the bejeezub out of me.
