Thesis #18 – Future human well-being, and possibly even simple human survival, will depend on learning to substitute more nonviolent and creative manifestations of the individual and social defense mechanisms against the anxiety provoked by the religiously/culturally Dissimilar Other for the more destructive manifestations we have habitually employed.

Thesis #17 – Modern human beings, simply because we are becoming more consciously aware of the processes of socialization, group dynamics and psychological functioning, are already more likely in the first place to suspicion the fictional character of their cultural/religious narratives than those of previous generations.

On the 4th of July 2020, how can we recognize true American patriots? No matter how many flags are waved or used to decorate clothing, the legitimate patriots will be wearing a mask across the nose and mouth.

Thesis #16 – Hence, culturally/religiously Dissimilar Others may be a creative source for helping us widen and enhance our own vision; or, they may be encountered, in the most literal sense, as mortal enemies.

People who do not share in the basic assumptions of our cultural/religious narrative are a big problem, since by their very existence they cast doubt on the transcending and absolute certainty of our truth (revealing to us its essentially fictional nature) and thus expose us again to the repressed anxiety our fictions function to allay in the first place.

My street is quiet now.
Cars, buses, lorries,
noisy polluters of our very breath,
have fled in disarray.

Some people are highly devotional because it is scary having one’s paradigm shattered. This is to be exposed to the chaos of one’s own mind (the devil!). It is much easier to cling to the established artifacts of one’s own thinking then to fall into the pit of chaos. Most people would rather die than admit that the belief system/paradigm that they have carried most or all their life is wrong in spite of proof of error time and time again.

To know something new requires un-knowing that you know it all.  Darwin’s epiphanies deliver the reader into this place of un-knowing, which opens us to the knowledge of what lies beyond.

I hold in my consciousness two previously unimaginable opposites; on the one hand the possible even likely extinction of humanity and on the other, the potential for our unimaginable birth of a new embodied divine humanity, the mutation realized and resplendent.

Incarnation is about that which is divine becoming real in what is natural, banal, human, or secular. What is the divine?

Here’s a book uniquely aimed at today’s critical challenge. It comes from a writer with a long history of (pious but genuine) infatuation with Creation.

I often feel isolated, sad and afraid that the world is falling apart and that my grandchildren will not have a world to live in.  And yet, I also feel hope; a feeling that this falling apart is connected somehow to a larger story in which humanity is being guided to change. What are your thoughts on this? How can spirituality guide us through these challenging times?

A meditation for Peaks and Professors students at USC – with Rev. Jim Burklo, Sr Associate Dean, Office of Religious Life, University of Southern California

Crises drive us from our comfort
to the edge of vital choice,
children speak the words we’ve hidden,
simple words we’ve failed to voice.

Senses sharpened in the silence,
gently, quietly, feel your breath,
know God’s love will never leave us,
now, or in our time of death.

Mother Earth weeps for her children—
day after day, rain drumming down.
She cleanses herself and cleanses us—

Enjoy a special conversation with Mirele Goldsmith (Jewish Earth Alliance), Hindou Oumarou Ibrahim (Mbororo environmental activist), Lyla June (Diné environmental scientist, doctoral student, educator, economist, community organizer, and musician), Hellen Mugo (Catholic Youth Network for Environmental Sustainability in Africa), Gopal Patel (Bhumi Project), and Lauren Van Ham (United Religions Initiative) moderated by Parliament Climate Director, Joshua Basofin.

The critical first step in harnessing the power of intersectionality is to convince activists of all stripes it’s in their best interest to move forward together. When this happens on a grand scale, the synergy possible will be extraordinary.