Spirit in Action
Network of Spiritual Progressives - Steering Committee for Eau Claire
There is a lot of energy for the newly formed chapter of the Network of Spiritual Progressives in Eau Claire, and I visited with the members of the just-formed steering committee about what called them to this work, and what their plans are for the local chapter.
- Duration:
- 58m
- Broadcast on:
- 03 Dec 2006
- Audio Format:
- mp3
I have no hands but yours to tend my sheep. No handkerchief but yours to dry the eyes of those who weep. I have no arms but yours with which to hold. The ones grown weary from this struggle and weak from growing old. I have no hands but yours with which to see. To let my children know that I am out and out is everything. I have no way to feed the hungry souls. No clothes to give and make you the ragged and the morn. So be my heart, my hand, my tongue, through you I will be done. The enders have I none to help and die, the tangled nuts and twisted chains, the strangled fearful minds. Welcome to Spirit in Action. My name is Mark Helpsmeet. Each week I'll be bringing you stories of people living lives of fruitful service, of peace, community, compassion, creative action and progressive efforts. I'll be tracing the spiritual roots that support and nourish them in their service. Above all, I'll seek out light, love and helping hands, being shared between our many neighbors on this planet, hoping to inspire and encourage you to sink deep roots and produce sacred fruit in your own life. There's a lot of energy in the newly formed chapter of the Network of Spiritual Progressives in the National Network of Spiritual Progressives. Before we talk to the board members, I wanted to share with you a little bit from brochure for the Network of Spiritual Progressives that's been going around and see if any of it resonates with you. They have some challenging, far-reaching ideas and some practical suggestions about what to do. But first of all, they're ideas. Number one, they want to change the bottom line in America, and here's what their brochure says about that. We believe that institutions and social practices should be judged rational, efficient and productive not only to the extent that they maximize money and power, but also to the extent that they maximize love and caring, ethical and ecological sensitivity and behavior, kindness and generosity, non-violence and peace. Institutions and social practices should also enhance our capacity to respond to other human beings in a way that honors them as embodiments of the sacred and to respond to the earth and the universe with awe, wonder and radical amazement. This belief challenges the extreme individualism and the me-first-ism that permeates the global market culture. Well, that certainly is a challenging thought that they bring to their work. The network of spiritual progressives is not the first one to raise this kind of concern. It's been raised a lot before, and maybe you remember a song by Kat Stevens, now known as use of Islam, that addresses this concern, this balance between our material prosperity and our heart, our future, our concern for the children. Well, I think it's fine, building jumbo planes, taking a ride on a cosmic train. Wish on summer, from a slat machine, there's good water you wonder if you want, as you can get anything. I know we've come a long way, we're changing deep today, but tell me why do the children play? Well you roll on roads, over fresh green grass, for your larry loads, pump and petrol gas, and you make them long, and you make them tough, but they just go on and on, and it seems that you can get off, I know we've come a long way, we're changing deep today, but tell me why do the children play? 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long way, we've come a long way, are you all religious, as well as spiritual, Lois? Funny you should ask that question because I attended a workshop yesterday, a talk about healing and spirituality and the person first defined those two terms and he said spirituality was a vague inclusive word, whereas religion really talked more about the habits, the structure that religious people went to church, prayed at a certain time, followed the rules of that particular church and that's what made them religious, so I kind of like the idea of spirituality because network of spiritual aggressors is all about being inclusive and that's okay that we're vague about our spirituality because we want to accept everybody's form of religion, that does not however mean that we're going to be wishy washy because we really do want to change the society from being very materialistic and individualistic to one, I guess I've already said it, to one that's inclusive and caring, so for me spirituality is a really good word for us. So Lois are you saying that the network of spiritual progressives is somehow preserving that kind of diversity of spiritual but still isn't so loosey-goosey, so ephemeral that it's like herding cats, Lois? What's nice about network of spiritual progressives is that Rabbi Michael Lerner, who is one of the founders, has spent 30 years doing various studies, I think he's got degrees in social work or sociology and something else, so he's got a basis for understanding why people are where they at and why so many people are going to the very conservative right religions and why they are then accepting very right politics, looking at that he's come up with reasons why they would do that when it's against their economic interests. And the bottom line is that we all yearn for meaning in our life and we just need to convince people that that meaning which is what gets them to join this conservative group can be found in much more loving, caring, inclusive ways and that it involves changing the whole culture, but there are definite tenets we believe in, very definite things that if someone wants to belong to the network of spiritual progressives, they have to be willing to believe in as well, like that we want public finance for campaigns, that we want single-payer healthcare, that we want corporations to be regarded successful, not only on how much they make but also how socially conscious they are and that goes for other institutions and individuals as well. Well Betty, what angle do you come at spirituality from? I come from a tradition of a long spiritual tradition being a Catholic, I look at spirituality perhaps a little differently, the outside of one's spiritual practices, the prayers, the rituals, the things that one does which form a religion or a specific religious practices. I see as the outside and I see the spirituality as the depth that one develops as one matures in one's religion and so to me spirituality speaks of depth and of meaning and of commitment rather than being a lightweight kind of word, I see it as a very important and weighty thing that one only develops with a maturity in one's faith. Well I certainly agree with you, I do think that there are people in our society who use the word spirituality when what they really mean is they are kind of, well they're completely undecided and maybe uncommitted, you're saying that spirituality arises when you go to the depths of your commitment and your practice and certainly there are people who use that word very differently. Well I want to talk to Eileen who is our little worker bee, Eileen is used to giving a lot of commitment to her work, is this a comfortable fit for you the NSP? I think it's probably the most comfortable fit in all the organizations I belong to, in fact I've thought a lot because I'm a little over scheduled that if I had to give something up right now it wouldn't be this group because I feel the most hope and the most reassurance with what this group is founded on and what it is hopefully going to achieve over the next several decades and I think it's more important than probably any other volunteer work that I'm doing. I think spirituality, you don't have to be religious to be a spiritual person although I think many of us are religious people, I think there are many, many people who would find comfort and nurturing in this group that maybe don't practice religion in any uniform way at all in any organized way and for me because I have many friends and family members actually who are of other faiths I find this a very hopeful group in that they can find a place and instead of us talking about our differences we can all come together and look at the things that we value, all religions value certain things, they value peace and justice issues, they value the human spirit, the individuality of each person and their right to be a person and I think that we have far more in common than we have differences and we need to work on that, unfortunately we have to work against the media who likes to point out those differences all the time and it creates in us a climate where instead of thinking how similar we are and thinking of each other as friends we're often bombarded by the media with what we have that's a different and it ends up setting up things, yeah it sets up adversarial relationships that really shouldn't be there at all and that's what I see NSP working towards and that's why I find it so hopeful. Jerry, I would like to maybe add a little to that, I grew up as a congregationalist which became the United Church of Christ and it was a little maybe odd to many people but in my junior high days as a congregationalist we visited many other churches and we learned about other types of religions besides our own and we learned about diversity and we learned that there were many different religions and it wasn't just that we were right or they were right but we should all work together and in fact I have grown up with that. And that time on which has been many many many years so that I now work with many many different ecumenical groups, this looking at diversity and being able to recognize the diversity not in an adversarial position but in fact working together for the good of everyone. I think that's where we are, unfortunately I don't see that in our country today, the various rolling her eyes and I think this is what NSP is about and I agree with Eileen, this is where I need to be at this point and hope that it will take time but we hope that we can change our country from where we are now to where we really should be in the world today. Betty? The whole organization, the whole NSP organization is built around Michael Lerner's book The Left Hand of God which does not refer to the political left as many people at first assume but Michael is talking about all of the major religions of the world be they, Catholic or Jewish or Muslim, Buddhist, they all are based on a loving creator but in all of the writings in all of the major faiths of the world you will find passages that refer to the power and the might of God and in times of trouble people tend to call on God to get them out of their problems, to call on God to rescue them from their enemies, to smite their enemies and this kind of mentality if one concentrates just on those passages you end up with a very, with a lot of smiting going on and that's what we have in the world today is a lot of smiting going on. Very fundamentalist kind of approaches, very exclusive, lots of rules and it's not a healthy environment for any of us or for the world to be in but if we look at the left hand of God as Michael has done in his book and as the network of spiritual progressives prefers to do that loving creator and appreciate the creation and each one of us as a creation of whatever you wish to name that loving creator and appreciate the dignity of each person and the dignity and the worth of each nation and treated each other as if we were all creations of a loving father, a loving mother, God, we would act very differently, our foreign policy would look different, our healthcare institutions would look different, our educational systems would look different, the way that we treat each other would be different if we really lived what we say we believe and that's what NSP is based on and that's what we're trying to achieve to take a look at our world and our social institutions and say what should they really look like if we really did live what we say we believe in all of our different faiths because they all are based on that same basic belief in a loving creator. Lois. I just want to play off of that to say that this fledgling group is really going to work hard to make the Eau Claire chapter of the network of spiritual progressives one that focuses on hope, not fear, inclusiveness, not divisiveness, awe and wonder at creation rather than hiding away in fear of things. Is it safe to assume that it's okay to use the word God in this circle? I mean there are some groups that call themselves spiritual which will be rigidly, well they'd frown on you severely if you started talking about God or Lord or something like that. Are you free to speak in your native religious spiritual idiom in this group? Eileen. I would say yes because the basic belief is that we're respectful of each other's beliefs. So whether you call that person God, Allah, Muhammad, a higher power, whatever that means to you, we respect that. And I think that if you believe the basic tenets of what Michael and sister Joan Chittister who's a Benedictine nun and Cornell West who is a religious professor at Princeton, the three of them have co-founded the network of spiritual progressives and have worked despite the fact that they don't agree on everything, they feel that this movement is more important than any of their disagreements. I think that they would all agree that any of those terminologies would be something that would be welcomed at any meeting which is why I feel again so hopeful. One of the things I really want to know is where are you going as a local chapter? What is your goal? And I understand that for some of you this may take decades to achieve the ultimate goal. But what are you going to do here in Eau Claire? Why should someone want to get involved in this one? We're already so over scheduled. Lois. Well, as we've said, we've just begun and we hope that many voices will join us and help us answer that question. We know that we have to come up with at least some small actions immediately just to keep people interested. I think certainly the first thing we have to do is make sure we all are educated ourselves in what the network of spiritual progressives means and stands for. And then we can start with, I consider this action and that is raising the consciousness, the awareness of others about this possibility, this hopeful, loving possibility. Betty? Well, our short-range goal for right now is to get a group of people together to attend the Midwest Conference in Minnesota, Minneapolis on the 18th of November, which is the Saturday before Thanksgiving. And we're hoping to get a whole busload of people who want to go. Michael Lerner will be speaking at the conference and the theme of the conference is Thanksgiving. And in the conference, they will be highlighting organizations, businesses, hospitals, schools, any organization that is working and being successful in bringing forth the more loving, kind atmosphere within their business and organization who are working toward building a kinder, gentler world and showing innovative ideas and ways of doing that. I think there are several different speakers, but Michael Lerner is the main speaker for the conference and it should be a wonderful experience. So we're hoping to get a group of people who would like to go to the cities for the day and hear and be inspired by the positive things that are going on. So that's our short-term goal. We will be meeting again in hopefully in December and we'll have some more educational meetings as Lois has indicated, long-term, our goal is to envision and help to create the vision over the next couple of years that will be the national NSP vision for a political platform which would transform this country into a country that is more aware of the needs and caring for people, caring for each other, creating a society that looks after each other rather than tries to get what they can from society and take what they can. That's a longer-term goal. Basically, we don't expect to have that happen in two years, but we expect to put together a vision and then start working for it and we know that it will take a long time. We know that it will take decades. We know that it probably won't happen in many of our lifetimes, but unless we create the vision, unless we talk about the vision, unless we introduce our young people to a vision, so that they can make it happen in their lifetimes, nothing will change. So it's up to us now to act and do something to create a better world. Well, the world's so big and I'm so small, it hardly seems I matter at all. Sometimes I think I'd like to do something to help out with all the problems of the world, but whenever I sit down and think it through, I always wonder, what can one person do? I wrote that myself, well, what can one person do is a very good question. If you don't do nothing at all, you could spend your time saving every little time or just curled up by the wah-hah-hah. But if you think back some over all has been done, and you wonder who did it, and where it came from, figure it out without a doubt, one person at a time did it all. One person at a time, it sure works fine, just roll up your sleeves, sign on the dotted line. Whatever gets done is done by one, one person at a time does it all yet, one person at a time does it all, well, what can one person do is a very good question. If you don't do nothing at all, you could stay in bed, pull the covers overhead, and wait for the sky to fall, but if each one would just do what they could, working one at a time, we could do a lot of good, figure it out without a doubt, one person at a time does it all. One person at a time, it sure works fine, pick up your load and get in a line. Whatever gets done is done by one, one person at a time, they do it all yet, one person at a time does it all, well, what can one person do is a very good question. If you don't do nothing at all, you could soak in the tub, or join a social club, or just go shopping at the mahaha, but if each one would have worked side by side, with another one the work gets multiplied, figure it out without a doubt, one person at a time does it all. One person at a time, it sure works fine, no use to wait for about a time, whatever gets done is done by one, one person at a time does it all yet, one person at a time does it all, listen children, one person at a time, everybody working one person at a time, but we can all do it one person at a time, they do it all. That was a song called one person at a time, it's by Andy Murray, and Andy Murray teaches peace studies, and he's a member of the Church of the brothering, one of the three historic peace churches along with Quakers and Mennonites. I'm Mark Helpsmeet, and this is Spirit in Action, and we're talking today with the Fledgling Steering Committee of the New Organization of the Network of Spiritual Progressives in the Chippewa Valley, and now let's listen to a few comments by Eileen Immerman, one of the members of this new Steering Committee. Eileen. In the very first organizational meeting that we had, we listened to a tape, a videotape of one of the speakers at the National Conference that Betty attended earlier this summer in Washington D.C., and Sister Joan Chittister talked about how really what NSP is hopeful for is a huge societal and cultural shift in what we value, and as I thought about that, what she spoke about was that most of us can remember back in the '70s when the anti-war movement during the Vietnam era caused a huge cultural shift, and those things took decades, and our children and all of us living now experience those changes and have benefited from those changes, and one of the things she said that struck me more than anything is that if we want these changes for our children and their children, we have to start articulating that vision now, that this is too huge of a change, that this is too broad of a goal to not start working on it now, that if we don't articulate it, our children will be forced to be the ones to do the work, and I want them to inherit a better world, a kinder world, and what I see right now is going in the absolute opposite direction of that, and I think that the majority of people, not only in Wisconsin but in America, want what I want, and we want a better way to do it, and I see this as a way to achieve those goals. - Mary, do you have any thoughts? - I've been blessed to do a lot, lot, lot of international travel, and what was, I believe, eye-opening and rather earth-shattering was when I went overseas, and at that particular point in time, traveled to about 13 different countries, all within four months, I was overseas during this period of time, and once you travel overseas and you do it in a fashion that you're not staying at the Ritz Carlton, but you do it where you're meeting everyone, it was so obvious to me how the rest of the world knows so much about us as America, much of that misinformation, but how little we also know, I think it far surpasses what we don't know about other countries, then they know so much about us, and again, misinformation. We aren't just the United States, we aren't just Eau Claire, we aren't just Wisconsin, we're a world and we have to start making those changes now, and I'd like that the next time that I go overseas, that there will be people looking at me with less misinformation, with more acceptance, with more acceptance in knowledge that those of us in our country who really, really care about others in other parts of the world, that we really can get across to others in the entire world, that there's a whole lot of us here who care about the world and that the world is, it's our little area, there's no separations, I mean in the United States we're rather isolated, and in Europe and Asia and all these other places you just go a few hundred miles and you're in another country, completely different culture, and we're unaware of this, and that network of spiritual progressives I think can make a drastic change for how people view us as individuals in America. Gary, Eileen and Mary have just talked about some very huge changes which we would like to see made, and the question is how does anyone make huge changes in this country of ours, and I think this is probably the goal of our local chapter here. The only way to make a huge change that seems to us is to have several groups working. We can't let someone else do it all for us, up there, over there in Washington, wherever, but we must work here in Eau Claire, we must work in Cleveland, Ohio, in Akron, Ohio, wherever. All small groups working together for this purpose, and I think that's our goal, is to get this group going, to get several people involved, to educate, all of these have been said before, and then to work with the national group so that this great huge change which we see as necessary will indeed one day come about. One more thing before I let you guys go on your way, Eileen, can you tell us how do we get connected up with the network of spiritual progressives? We have a temporary website right now which is www.I, D like and David, D like and David, and then hyphenecforoclaire.com, and then a forward slash NSP main.html, and that address will give you not only connections to the Minnesota website but to the national network of spiritual progressives website, and it will also allow you to read about the conference on November 18th, and to register if you're interested. There's also an email connection there so that if you want to start getting our emails and learning more about what our group is about, and when the next meetings will be, we would gladly add you to that list. And let's just assume that you're a little bit of a technophobe and you don't happen to have a few thousand dollars worth of computer equipment. Is there a phone number we could use? Betty? You could call Betty Hurst at 834-4899. And of course, you can find all this information on my website, northernspiritradio.org where this program is posted. I want to thank all you members for taking on the task of organizing local chapter of Network of Spiritual Progressives here in Eau Claire. I think it's great work you're going to do, and I think it's just invaluable work to take our world in the direction that it needs to go. So I want to just thank all of you for taking on that job because I know that all of you already have plates that are very full, and it really shows wisdom on your side to make the priority to put the right thing in the center of the plate. We've been listening to an interview with the steering committee members of the fledgling organization of Network of Spiritual Progressives here in the Chippewa Valley, including Jerry Foote, Mary Wile, Eileen Immerman, Lois Helen, and Betty Hurst. If you want to get a hold of them, you can go to their website, that's www.idd-ec.com/nspmain.htm And you can find links on that page also for the National Organization of the Network of Spiritual Progressives. You can also find these links on my webpage, which is northernspiritradio.org, and you can find other information, other programs, and even listen to the programs again via my website. It's been several weeks since the time of this interview, and since then the NSB has been doing a lot to organize in the Chippewa Valley. A busload of them made the trip over to the Twin Cities for the regional meeting, and they are co-sponsors of tonight's piecing. The piecing is organized by the Eau Claire Friends meeting, the Quaker meeting here in town, and it's being hosted by Unity Christ Center on Folsom, starting at six o'clock. Sunday, December 3, 2006. There's five different organizations, including Quaker Meeting, NSP, and Unity co-sponsoring this event, and it'll go for an hour and a half. Come join us tonight, and sing of peace, and of making our society a better place. The theme music for Spirit In Action is "I Have No Hands But Yours" by Carol Johnson. Thank you for listening. I welcome your comments and stories of those leading lives of spiritual fruit. You can email me at helpsmeet@usa.net. May you find deep roots to support you and grow steadily toward the light. This is Spirit In Action. ♪ I have no higher call for you and please ♪ ♪ To love and serve your neighbor ♪ ♪ Enjoying selflessness ♪ ♪ To love and serve your neighbor ♪ ♪ Enjoying selflessness ♪ ♪ I have no hands but hands ♪