Jan 31 2009
We’re Fighting a War in America
Sorry about the dramatic headline, but now that I have your attention, I do want to talk about a very real conflict that’s happening in our country. This conflict threatens our civil rights, our way of life and it threatens the evolution of the human race as a species. It’s the conflict between religion and spirituality.
Last night, I saw the movie Milk with a group of friends. We were all quite touched and moved by the film. For those of you not familiar, Milk tells the story of gay rights activist Harvey Milk who became the first openly gay elected official when we won the race for Board of Supervisors in San Francisco. An important part of the backdrop of Harvey Milk’s story though is the initiatives begun by Anita Bryant to repeal laws that protected gays from discrimination in jobs and in housing. Harvey Milk fought Proposition 6 in California which would have allowed a teacher to be fired for being gay or for supporting gay people. He felt it was important that they win the fight against Prop 6 to give gay men and women in other parts of the country hope.
This is where it really struck me in terms of the war we fight now. We’re still being vilified and lied about by the religious right, a group of people who claim to be full of God’s love (they’re certainly full of something!). As we fight the “war against terror” against Islamic Fundamentalists in other parts of the world, Christian Fundamentalists have been terrorizing us here. But I think the issue goes deeper. It’s about the difference between religion and spirituality. I’d like to take a moment to describe the differences as I see them.
Religion relies on dictating a series of rules regarding what one should do or do not. There is no focus on developing ones own moral compass but rather an emphasis on following the dictates of those “in charge”. Religion claims to understand God’s love, while not really having a real experience or expression of it. It’s dead, rote obedience to an established order.
Spirituality, on the other hand, is a living thing. It comes from an overflow of love and joy that wells up from within and expresses itself in small ways–a touch, a laugh, a common bond. The morality of spirituality is more personalized. We do what is right based on a mutual respect for one another and a recognition that we are all one and all part of this beautiful creation. As such, we develop our own moral compass that leads us based on our own very real experience of the divine.
I believe that religion at one time was necessary. As man developed civilization we needed rules to live by and guidelines for what is right. But as our consciousness has evolved, we’ve come to a deeper understanding of divinity, our moral compass has developed and we no longer need religion to lead us about by the nose. Religion is for the small minded. Spirituality is for those of us that experience the divine daily and are growing into something new and beautiful day by day. We as a people need to embrace our spirituality and say “no” to religion. We must fight it with every fiber of our being. If we lose this war, we will become slaves to dogma and human evolution will re-enter a dark age once more.
How do we fight religion? I believe there are a couple key things that we must do. First, we need to lead genuine, open lives filled with love and joy. We need to set aside our differences within our communities and build bonds with one another. Secondly, we need to shine a light on the lies and twisted truths that religion needs to be successful. We need to come out and take a stand and speak our truths. We need to show the world that these people are not filled with love.
