By telling you a piece of my story, I hope to shed light on the misguided teachings which inform the politics of the religious right. Based on personal experiences while living next door to the Iron Curtain, I also hope to shed light on how fascism operates. Especially, where some religious misconceptions may be used as a leveraging tool.And the post-911 legislative parallels to authoritarian gov'ts are staggering!

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By telling you a little piece of my personal story, I hope to shed light on the misguided teachings which I believe inform the politics of the religious right. And in so doing, based on personal experiences while living next door to the Iron Curtain, I also hope to shed light on how fascism operates. Especially, where some religious misconceptions may be influential, and used as a leveraging tool. And the parallels to authoritarian government practices, as legislated into post-911 law, are staggering.

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"A people may prefer a free government, but if, from indolence, or carelessness, or cowardice, or want of public spirit, they are unequal to the exertions necessary for preserving it; if they will not fight for it when it is directly attacked; if they can be deluded by the artifices used to cheat them out of it; if by momentary discouragement, or temporary panic, or a fit of enthusiasm for an individual, they can be induced to lay their liberties at the feet even of a great man, or trust him with powers which enable him to subvert their institutions; in all these cases they are more or less unfit for liberty: and though it may be for their good to have had it even for a short time, they are unlikely long to enjoy it." -- John Stuart Mill, Representative Government, 1861

A very dear friend of mine and I went to college together. At that time, a very pretty woman with smarts and humor but nervousness too, she surprised us all and entered the Dominican convent.

She left the convent and got married seven years later, completely transformed. Far from nervous and skittery as before, she was and is still so serene, I almost have never seen anything like it. One can feel the beautifully settled and centered vibe around her, as if one could literally touch peace in her aura.

What was responsible for that dramatic shift? Spiritual guidance.

And here comes the surprise. My very dear friend told me that at this Catholic convent, the spiritual teachings had nothing to do with God, the light, purity, la-la….instead, it had everything to do with making peace with one’s own shadow. IE., one’s dark side.

The irony is that having fully embraced, studied and come to understand her dark side, this skittery but smart sweetheart of a person had transformed into a half-angel, who also happens to be human with realities and darkness of her own. Just like all of us. And it was amazing to see the transformation. That was about twenty years ago, yet the change still remains remarkable to me. And a lesson. A very interesting one!

Contrast this with “religious” teachings which emphasize the light, in God and in people. So-called “morality” ends up being a finger-pointing, head-shaking, consternation-stirring sermon. All because those religious seekers have forgotten one thing: They too have a shadow side, just like all the rest of us. And the mask they wear to hide from the painful reality of who they really are, and who we all are as humans, ends up fueling their own darkness instead of transmuting it. All in the spirit of “goodness” and “light” and “God”, judgment becomes the offshoot.

And judgment, of course, always results in polarizing.

Sound familiar? Sound a bit like what our country is doing right now?

Denial of the shadow also would seem to explain why the religious right vociferously trumpets their adamantly pro-life position, while simultaneously comprising many of the most pro-war individuals in the country. How ironic is that?

And yet, it all makes sense. When we deny our darkness and suppress it from our own awareness, we don’t take responsibility for it. And that does not make us better human beings. Far from it. Denial actually lets the darkness within run rampant. Festering in its dark corners, the darkness breeds like a mold spore, whose only cure is sunshine and the light of truth. It is only when we face the reality of who we are, that we can take responsibility for it.

This starkly contrasts with the “morality” which points fingers at others, all in the name of “goodness“ and “Love“ and all those “Christian“ things. In fact, perhaps it is the over-exposure to the light which itself creates the judgment? “We can be blinded by the light” said a minister friend of mine.

What created the deep peacefulness in my friend’s psyche was not merely “facing” her shadow and taking responsibility for it, but especially studying and practicing compassionate understanding of that dark side. Without indulging it, of course. That very act of understanding seemed to transmute it. And the word “transmute” was one which she referred to often, saying that spiritual direction offers us ways to actually transform our shadow. Which only happens when we stop denying it, while rigorously practicing self-understanding, and also cultivating attitudes which transform that shadow. (IE gratitude can transform self-pity, etc)….

My x-Dominican nun friend and I also had interesting talks about sin and guilt. As a Latin-Greek linguist and biblical scholar, she said that the Bible has been mistranslated. And this, of course, would be “shot down” instantly by the religious right.

And then she made an interesting non-verbal statement about sin. Drawing a diagram for me of spokes on a wheel, she said “sin is relational”. All the spokes lead to the center, she pointed out. All it takes is one broken spoke on the wheel, and the connection with the center has been disrupted. It’s all about connecting with people and with God (For those of us who believe in that), is what she was pointing out. (And, in the case of our current political climate, it’s all about connecting with other nations).

And look at how the religious right refuses to connect with others. Because obviously, others are condemned to hell if they don’t follow their “moral” and “only” path. Further, they themselves are condemned if they associate with such hell-bound people. Snobbery and isolation in the name of God? Is this love? Is this what God wanted, if God exists? Isn’t this the basis on which many wars have been waged?

So here is more about the original meaning of the word “hell”. In the Greek original, she told me, hell meant the dump. Where you throw out the garbage, then incinerate it. After being burned to ashes, the remains are recycled back into earth. So they are purified, even transformed into something good. That was the original meaning of “hell” and the “Fires of hell“. It is not a spiritual place to punish sinners, nor is it a banner to wave manipulatively over peoples’ heads, as mistakenly done by the religious right. Once again, that is where denial of the fundamentalists’ own shadow, and denial of the reality that nobody is capable of being without some darkness, itself ends up breaking the spokes on the wheel.

It only makes sense that while acknowledging and learning from one’s shadow, compassionate understanding is the yield. Apparently, we actually need some of our darkness, as a teacher! And too much light can result in us striking out, and tip us back the other way. Too much light can actually cause evil, not enhance the good! So we need that shadow, in order to maintain balance and spiritual wellness.

What does this have to do with the current state of our politics? Everything. The misguided right believes it has the mission to instruct us all to be perfect. And guide us all to that perfection. As if they knew better than we ourselves, what our lives should look like and how they need to be lived by us. (A psychologist/friend once pointed out to me that Hitler himself was religious: His “work,” she said, was to purge the human race).

And that attitude is one of the ingredients in the greater recipe of what is driving the soul of America into censorship and control. The other parts of the recipe of course are greed, corruption by it and economic control. Add to this a good measure of protecting agendas (which are almost invariably based on economic self-gain). The combination of religious fundamentalism (denial of the shadow), economics and agendas are what influence the legislation which we now have. Fundamentally, and as the underpinnings thereof.

After all, the Patriot Act is wrapped up in such secrecy that even Congress and the ACLU don’t know the extent of the civil liberties abuses. By gagging recipients of National Security Letters (FBI subpoenas for private medical and Internet/phone records) and serving up a good five years in jail for telling even one’s Significant Other about it, nobody can possibly know what is really going on. Bypassing the Judiciary in the process of an individual FBI agent serving up these NSL summons, not even Congress hears about the individual cases. Strategically, another part of the Patriot Act is to loosely define “terrorism” to include dissenters, religious and peace groups in its sweep.

What is the purpose of such secrecy, as in the National Security Letters? And what is the purpose of dubbing activists, religious and peace groups as terrorists? Secrecy. And more secrecy. To protect economic agendas, such as fighting wars without end based on lies. And to protect the religious right, to assure its power and control over the nation. Without such religious programming, the ability to brainwash an entire nation of people is lost. And brainwashing is just what fascism is about, and brainwashing is just what this Administration is about. And that is why they control the media. That brainwashing, too, is why the media---and increasingly, common American life----is censored. And once again, the brainwashing itself is one centrally important strategy: To gather public support for economic and power-based agendas. Religious programming is one handy tool to effect such public brainwashing. As is, of course, religious programming designed to generate hate of a particular religion. And that, of course, is based on….economics and agendas. Just as we are seeing with the war on terror.

And that is why our Founding Fathers created a separation of church from state, and a system of checks and balances. Both are fundamental to preserving human freedom. Anytime the Government starts to control religious practice and belief, it is a step toward authoritarian government:

Just as in ancient Greece people were jailed and killed for expressing their beliefs, so there is a parallel in which Greek citizens were jailed during the 70s for singing songs exposing the Government malpractice. Just as in the Renaissance era the average citizen had to pay the Church a stipend, plus dish up a penalty equivalent to a full week’s salary for each week of church missed….just as Renaissance masses played tiddlywinks from Catholic to Protestant to whatever the current King/Queen’s accepted religion was….and while the People were caught in the dictatorial crossfire between obeying the religious orders of the Nobility vs. that of the Church, which often contradicted each other…Imagine the Renaissance composer William Byrd paying a full year’s salary because he missed one year of Church and had the nerve to practice his own religion of choice….so the current control coming from the Religious Right is undermining American freedom.

And contrary to popular belief, which would assert that “in America, it is not even nearly that bad”, the ACLU’s website is a-crawl with endless statistics of activists, peace and religious groups being dubbed and treated as terrorists:

A declassified FBI document on the ACLU’s website shows the FBI’s investigation of the Thomas Merton Peace Center “because of advocating, among other political positions, pacifism”. www.aclu.org/safefree/spyfiles/28000res20060314.html

Religious profiling of Middle Eastern and other religious groups are the norm. The purpose: Probably to protect the government agenda of “looking strong” in the war on terror, (more accurately known as the war OF terror). Even bird watchers are being repeatedly grilled by the agenda-crazed FBI: http://www.rightsmatter.org/multimedia/

"Since when did feeding the homeless become a terrorist activity?" asked ACLU Associate Legal Director Ann Beeson. "When the FBI and local law enforcement target groups like Food Not Bombs under the guise of fighting terrorism, many Americans who oppose government policies will be discouraged from speaking out and exercising their rights." http://www.aclu.org/safefree/spying/17548prs20050518.html

The agenda to protect politicians first and people last, as exact and fundamental opposite to the underpinnings of the Constitution, may be noted in the following link: News of the classified bulletin (about FBI crack-downs on dissent) also comes on the heels of an ACLU lawsuit against the Secret Service for the continuing practice of allowing pro-Bush protesters to remain visible to cameras during presidential appearances, and corralling anti-Bush protesters into pens or designated areas far from the media. http://www.aclu.org/safefree/general/16960prs20031123.html

Extra! Extra! Read all about it: http://www.aclu.org/freespeech/gen/31878prs20070920.html

Info about the ACLU free speech forum which was just held in September '07, including a 25 page report.

Why is a free speech forum even necessary? Repeat: Religious controls, monetary gains, and power-based agendas are at stake. Hence the necessity to control free speech and in the process, to ultimately control thought itself. The tools of such thought control are the media and the overly-punitive legislation.

Government secrecy is the cornerstone of abuse: To protect those religious, economic and agenda-based controls is the fundament on which virtually ALL post-911 legislation is based.

Witness: Patriot Act National Security Letters, FISA by-passing of judicial review, warrantless arrests without probable cause in the Patriot Act. Presidential immunity from war criminal status in the Military Commissions Act (torture bill) guarantees the success of the agenda to appear to be “Strong on terror”, while protecting the secrecy of the President’s violent crimes to the “terrorists” in Guantanamo who, it so happens, have mostly been proven innocent. www.centerforconsitutionalrights.com ; www.aclu.org .

The ACLU’s extensive documentation of the Administration’s over-invocation of the “state secrets” claim is proof of more crimes to be hidden. An FBI document showing wiretapping targets is posted to the ACLU’s website, showing how the FBI blacked out nearly 70% of the document’s contents prior to its release.

Overly-punitive post-911 legislation which specifically targets vocal people is guaranteed to eventually duplicate free speech-quelling practices of dictatorships abroad. Tianenmen Square may be the penultimate example to us Americans of such dictatorship, but in fact is the accepted norm to citizens living in authoritarian governments. It is the ordinary person, not merely the big fish in the pond, who know that they all have to shut up. Why? Once again…religious controls, economic gains, and agendas which protect the politicians (and not the people) lie at the root of the government-induced violence used to silence the people.

Witness the recent increase in tasering in the United States of America.
We are already more than half-way on the road to authoritarian government.

And to recognize the roots of such authoritarian principles---and how to deal with the psychology behind it--- is fundamental to holding the Constitution-eating cancer in check. Given how ignorant many Americans are to the ways in which dictatorship works, and to its manifestations, it is important that we join the public debate and help to open up peoples’ eyes. Many well-meaning people believe that the government SHOULD teach our children ethics in the schools and SHOULD crack down on words such as “I will kill you” because victims of violence are caught by the free speech defenses, and because of every other SHOULD and every other GOOD REASON in the book. In so doing, these well-meaning people also forget one fundamentally important fact: Governments will never protect our best interest, as assumed by all these “shoulds”. Because every human being is capable of dark and light. Denial forgets that fact.

"There is danger from all men. The only maxim of a free government ought to be to trust no man living with power to endanger the public liberty." -- John Adams, 1772

Lashing out in violence against the do-good citizens is called dictatorship. Welcome to it.

But only if we remain silent, as would appear to be the American custom. Discouragement governs the masses: That’s a calculated strategy, my friends! It’s a lie! Don’t buy it! Wrong-doers in public offices hate to have their crimes exposed: That’s why they clamp down on us! They are scared brainless! Scared of us! And guess what. We outnumber them by tens of millions to one. We DO have power as a collective voice, and we DO have power to unseat politicians from office! Kidding? Notice how many politicians are resigning to avoid scandal?

That’s just exactly why they came up with the ridiculous notion of terrorist American neighbors suddenly coming out of the woodwork. Make no mistake about it: S. 1959 “A Bill to Establish the National Commission on the Prevention of Violent Radicalization and Homegrown Terrorism, and for other purposes” was established specifically to prevent us from going on an exposee. Which of course, would result in politicians dropping off like flies, just as they have been as scandal after scandal has surfaced. It’s just one more way to assure government secrecy, protecting the politicians instead of the people.

And we simply can’t let this happen. Because if we do, we are doomed.

Please act now, and immediately, by calling your Senators and urgently opposing S. 1959.

But very, very importantly, I think in order for our campaign to be successful, it is necessary and even vital to practice the compassionate understanding of the fear which motivates our freedom-gobbling politicians. By dealing with them softly and gently, we may be able to also soften the viciousness of their revenge on our truth-telling. Truth is a potent hackle-raiser, so the key to success in fighting the “Homegrown Terrorism” (coming from our government) which we now are facing, would be to brainstorm about how to assert our boundaries, expose the truth for what it is, while also doing so in a way which considers the fear response of the other side as we do so. Because it is out of fear that they so viciously retaliate. Compassion for that fear, and approaching the issues accordingly, would be key to undercutting the vicious agendas planned to do us in. Even where legislation may pose a legal threat, spirituality still has the power to transcend. The interactive laws of heart and spirit will always trump written laws.

One last observation to tie in spirituality with current political practice. Do you notice all the psychological projections going on, all in the name of the war on terror? “Violent Radicalization and Homegrown Terrorism” probably applies much more to our Government than it does to our citizens. And to much greater percentages of them than is the case with citizens. By denying their own shadow, politicians are seeking to quell their own darkness, everywhere in all the world around them! They run away from the truth within…and see it in others. Because that in-sight torments them, they must quell it at all costs. Which is only to run into one’s own shadow again, and again, and again…while continuing to terrorize others in the attempt to put an end to one’s own inner reality. Which, of course, will never work.

Please post to blogs, call in to radio talk shows, and write your editors to expose the issue of denying the shadow as paving the road to judgment, polarized division, and government control. And please do bring the point forward about compassionate action, which will soften the response from the “Violent Radicalization” of the Government’s own “Other purposes” and agendas.

Thank you!

Authors Bio:
This quote summarizes the nature of my concerns and the content of personal experiences which stir my activism:

"Necessity is the plea for every infringement on human freedom. It is the argument of tyrants; it is the creed of slaves". --Paul Revere, House of Commons