Fundamentalist and evangelical Christians are two religious groups that are combined as one group here, referred to as the third group. The fundamentalist churches interpret the Bible in the most literal way, even more so than the evangelical churches do. But both have a pre-seventeenth century, or pre-Enlightenment Age, viewpoint of the Bible--believing in a fiery, eternal hell for the lost who refuse to take Jesus as their Lord and Savior. They believe that abortion, in most cases, and homosexuality are sinful practices. Evolution is wrong, because it contradicts the first few chapters in the Book of Genesis. Biblical professor and former United Methodist pastor Ernie Bringas, author of Jesusgate: A History of Concealment Unraveled, provides an excellent survey of the latest biblical scholarship for laypeople from a liberal Christian worldview. To hear a thought-provoking podcast interview of Ernie Bringas, click on this link: http://www.strategiesforliving.com/podcast.php?p=2206
The problem that pastors often have, according to Ernie Bringas, is that if they tell their congregation everything they learned in seminary (that is, if it was a liberal seminary) about the latest scientific research on the Bible, many of the laypeople would stop attending and go somewhere else for reassurance, if their entrenched beliefs were challenged. Not wanting to be without a congregation or a livelihood, many pastors don't tell the full truth that there is flimsy evidence for Jesus' virgin birth, his literal resurrection, and the trinity. For many people it is, or was, difficult to face the truth and give up certain childhood Christian beliefs. But even after the initial shock and inner turmoil that results when Christians learn what scientific Bible scholars say about the Bible, self-identifying Christians can still grow spiritually. And they can become better citizens with broader political views when they stop believing that their religion is the one and only way.
Given the way most conservative Christians interpret the Bible, Israel plays an important role in the events leading up to the so-called Battle of Armageddon, the Rapture, and the Second Coming of Jesus. For this reason, conservative Christians often reflexively support Zionism and military assistance to Israel. Conservative Christians are often Republicans who advocate a neoconservative foreign policy.
The fourth group is the Tea Party movement, which is primarily concerned about deficit spending. Every year that our government spends more money than it earns from tax revenues, it creates an annual deficit. Since our government has borrowed and spent more money than it has earned year after year, it has caused our national debt to skyrocket out of control. This is why Tea Partiers want to reduce government spending and taxes, even though many people might benefit if the government spent money to create jobs that are unavailable in the private sector. Of course, the budget could be balanced every year, and the enormous national debt would not even exist, if the American government had not spent billions of dollars over the years on the military and on foolish (maybe " insane" is a more accurate description), immoral, and very costly wars!
According to www.WarResisters.org/pages/piechart.htm, 36% of the federal budget goes to the current military and 18% for past military spending, making a total of 54% of the federal budget spent on the military (and this does not include the $200 billion for Iraq and Afghanistan war spending). Reducing military spending is not an option for many Tea Partiers since many of them believe that a very strong military should be a top priority. Before he died, foreign policy expert Chalmers Johnson said that about 30 percent of military spending is secretive, unknown even to members of Congress.
Based on the history of our military and the covert operations of the CIA since the end of World War II, according to foreign policy expert William Blum, the American people would be appalled and ashamed (or at least they should be) if they learned the details about how our undercover CIA has bullied and intimidated democratically elected leaders of sovereign countries who have the audacity to believe they are free to do government differently than the way U.S. transnational corporations prefer. As the saying goes, "Do as we say, or we will bring 'democracy' to your country." In the past, we believed we had to stop the sinister and exaggerated "international communist conspiracy." Now the new bogeyman is "the war on terrorism." And the real terrorists that actually exist have been fomented largely as the result of our government policies toward them.
It can be argued that socialism or communism, since it first began in Russia in 1917, has never been allowed to rise or fall on its own merits because the U.S. government has had the power to undermine it in extremely unfair ways--using disinformation, sabotage, torture, assassination, election tampering, whatever it takes, whenever it, or a semblance of it, erupts in some remote corner of the world. This is your taxes at work! Now we know that it was not just the Russians who were getting a lot of propaganda during the Cold War. We Americans were too, maybe even more. Totalitarian socialism is not true socialism, which can only be implemented through a democratic process. Perhaps the former Soviet Union, China, and North Vietnam would have become less totalitarian if they had not been so viciously attacked and undermined by the U.S. military and CIA.
Another group (the fifth group), consists of the New Age movement, to which this author has an affinity. New Agers often talk about the importance of making a paradigm shift in consciousness. That is, they believe we each can experience a higher state of consciousness called the Universal Mind, which makes the ordinary and usual state of mind seem less real, or even illusory in comparison. Meditation helps one achieve a calm, objective, detached, and nonjudgmental awareness that enables a person to identify with this Universal Mind.
Actually experiencing this Universal Oneness is like coming home to the true Self that had been there all along. And we can return to that consciousness whenever we let go of our selfishness and prideful ego. By always trying to get more or be more than everyone else, this ego creates duality, separateness, and suffering.
This Universal Oneness is identical to the perennial philosophy of Aldous Huxley, the Atman and Brahman of the Hindus, the samadhi of yogis, the nirvana of Buddhists, and the inner Kingdom of God of Christian mystics. These sublime states are purportedly supported by the findings of quantum physics and the growing scientific research on Near Death Experiences and parapsychology.
Moreover, in recent months there has been a resurgence of interest in psychedelic drugs such as peyote and ayahuasca, which can provide a foretaste of this Cosmic Consciousness. Such drugs have been used as an effective treatment for alcoholism and physical drug addiction, and these plant-derived drugs often help people overcome the fear of dying. But in order for these treatments to be successful, a proper mental set in a therapeutic setting is necessary. Unfortunately, those conditions are difficult to meet in the United States, since the drugs and the treatments are illegal here.
Many advocates of the New Age movement are apolitical, and alas, without remorse. Some refuse to learn about current events because they do not want to incorporate any "negativity" into their lives. In the book Mindful Politics: A Buddhist Guide to Making the World a Better Place, edited by Melvin McLeod, these words are found at the beginning of section one:
We are all equal, says the Dalai Lama (I learned recently that the Dalai Lama advocates a synthesis of Marxian economics and Buddhism), in seeking happiness and peace. Yet as individuals and as nations, we value our own happiness over all others'. This is called "ego" in Buddhism and it is the root of our suffering, both personal and collective. He proposes a new approach to global politics based on taking responsibility for the happiness of all people.
In the Introduction of the book described above, Melvin McLeod said, "It's not treaties that will really bring peace in the Middle East. It's not legislation that will really change the lives of those who live in poverty and misery. It is only forgiveness, generosity, awareness, kindness, and selflessness that will really make a difference." A few pages back, in the Introduction on page 11, McLeod writes, "We have to recognize that we can't really change the world. We can't really change who others are and what they think. We can only work with our own heart and mind. But the transformative power of that is extraordinary."
If I were one of the writers in the above-described book, I would put a much greater emphasis on the fact that we should still, nevertheless, keep working to create better governments, constitutions, laws, and treaties. Individuals need to be transformed inwardly to grow spiritually, and outer structures and institutions need to be radically changed as well. The inner affects the outer, and the outer affects the inner. Both are important. Thus, if apolitical, New Age individuals stay calm, detached, objective, and centered in serenity, they should be able to cope with current events and engage in political thinking and activism more.
The sixth group consists of the progressives and leftists of various Socialist, Communist, and Green Parties. The author has a kinship with this group also. Its concern for ecological sustainability, social justice, egalitarianism, and a non-interventionist foreign policy is urgently needed. Probably most leftists do not practice meditation and prayer, nor believe in a higher Self and in reincarnation. But as secular humanists, agnostics, and atheists--leftists can be just as moral and ethical as other groups that engage in various spiritual disciplines.
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