Religious Progressives - Rabbi Rami Shapiro
"The religion of a religious progressive is the religion of radical humility, hospitality, and holiness: admitting to not knowing the nature and mind of God; welcoming all to God's feast regardless of gender, race, religion, ethnicity, etc.; and using justice and compassion toward all beings as the standard by which to measure the value of any creed or system of belief. Religious progressives can be Jewish, Christian, Moslem, Hindu, Buddhist, New Age, etc. What matters is not the label but the ability to hold it lightly, and to transcend it in the greater reality of the One Who is all."Monday, May 01, 2006
Religious Progressives
"What is a religious progressive? That was the topic at a conference I
attended this weekend in Nashville, TN. Most of the participants drew
their insights from Jim Wallis ("God's Politics") and Michael Lerner
("Left Hand of God"), two wonderful thinkers who find in their
respective faiths (Christianity and Judaism) a politics of compassion
that surpasses the fear-based religions of the Religious Right.
I could and did nod in agreement. There is little if anything that
either Jim or Michael says that I cannot support. But I have a
contrarian streak; I need to stand out; to say something different.
This is a psychological disorder, I am sure, but it is mine
nonetheless. So when asked to define "religious progressive" I
suggested that a religious progressive is someone who has progressed
beyond religion.
At the heart of religion, or at least at the heart of the three
Abrahamic religions, is the illusion of scarcity. God chooses Jews
not Christians or Moslems; saves Christians not Jews or Moslems; and
gives the one uncorrupted revelation to Moslems not Christians or
Jews. Because God's love is scarce, the religions that compete for
that love share a zero-sum theology: for one to win, the others must
lose.
Of course there are liberals in all three faiths who have outgrown
this, but that isn't enough. We have to name it and openly reject it.
We have to own the fact that scarcity infects all three Abrahamic
faiths in a way that makes them intrinsically fear-based and violent,
and then we have to reinvent our respective faiths from a position of
God's infinite and timeless love (ahavah rabbah/ahavat olam, to use
Jewish terms).
A true religious progressive is one whose faith is not in religion,
but in God; not in the known but in the Unknowable; not in this or
that belief but in the realization that belief is simply the
projection of ones own ego.
The religion of a religious progressive is the religion of radical
humility, hospitality, and holiness: admitting to not knowing the
nature and mind of God; welcoming all to God's feast regardless of
gender, race, religion, ethnicity, etc.; and using justice and
compassion toward all beings as the standard by which to measure the
value of any creed or system of belief. Religious progressives can be
Jewish, Christian, Moslem, Hindu, Buddhist, New Age, etc. What
matters is not the label but the ability to hold it lightly, and to
transcend it in the greater reality of the One Who is all.
Let us religious progressives stand for that, and we will stand for
something invaluable."
Rabbi Rami Shapiro
http://rabbirami.blogspot.com/2006_05_01_archive.html
Offer such a religion and all the nations will follow you.
"This, brethren, is a short sketch of the religious ideas of the Hindus. The Hindu may have failed to carry out all his plans, but if there is ever to be a universal religion, it must be one which will have no location in place or time; which will be infinite like the God it will preach, and whose sun will shine upon the followers of Krishna and of Christ, on saints and sinners alike; which will not be Brahminic or Buddhistic, Christian or Mohammedan, but the sum total of all these. and still have infinite space for development; which in its catholicity will embrace in infinite arms, and find a place for, every human being from the lowest grovelling savage, not far removed from the brute, to the highest man towering by the virtues of his head and heart almost above humanity, making society stand in awe of him and doubt his human nature. It will be a religion which will have no place for persecution or intolerance in its polity, which will recognize divinity in every man and woman, and whose whole scope, whose whole force, will be centered in aiding humanity to realize its own true, divine nature.
Offer such a religion and all the nations will follow you."
- Swami Vivekananda
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NOTE: If this page was accessed during a web search you may wish to browse the sites listed below where this topic or related issues are discussed in detail to promote global peace, religious harmony, and spiritual development of humanity:
www.adishakti.org/www.al-qiyamah.org/
www.adi-shakti.org/ — Divine Feminine (Hinduism)
www.holyspirit-shekinah.org/ — Divine Feminine (Christianity)
www.ruach-elohim.org/ — Divine Feminine (Judaism)
www.ruh-allah.org/ — Divine Feminine (Islam)
www.tao-mother.org/ — Divine Feminine (Taoism)
www.prajnaaparamita.org/ — Divine Feminine (Buddhism)
www.aykaa-mayee.org/ — Divine Feminine (Sikhism)
www.great-spirit-mother.org/ — Divine Feminine (Native Traditions)
"Now, the principle of Mother is in every, every scripture - has to be there." Shri Mataji, Radio Interview 1983 Oct 01, Santa Cruz, USA
