Spiritual Literacy Blog

Frederic and Mary Ann Brussat read the "book of the world" for spiritual meanings.

Richard Lischer teaches ministry at Duke Divinity School and is the author of Open Secrets. In this article in the Wall Street Journal, he writes about the improvisational ministries of those who serve small congregations during these hard times. According to Pulpit & Pew, a research project funded by the Religion Division of the Lilly Endowment, the vast majority of clergy will serve in small or strugging congregations for their entire ministries. And since many churches cannot pay full salaries and benefits, clergy are having to find supplementary work. In addition, these ministers face added problems of isolation and loneliness. But denominations and seminaries are encouraging the pastoral vocation with leadership initiatives, including the Clergy Renewal Programs funded by Lilly. Another encouraging sign is that congregations are giving a stronger role to lay parishioners. They are leading prayer and meditation groups, teaching and mentoring new believers.

David Ian Miller, MyPathTV's editorial director, did this interview with Elizabeth Gilbert whose memoir Eat, Pray, Love: One Woman's Search for Everything Across Italy, India and Indonesia is now a bestselling paperback. She talks about the importance of a spiritual quest, which may or may not include travel, but does involve "shifting inside." Questions form the bedrock of any journey of transformation, according to Gilbert. She quotes her guru: "Once you find happiness, you have to make the sort of muscular effort to stay afloat on top of it." She alludes to happiness as a gift that must be taken care of and nourished. Gilbert also chats a bit about her religious upbringing, her ideas about prayer, and her relaxed views on spiritual practice.

The U.S. Supreme Court upheld the most common method of lethal injunction used for executions by the federal government and 36 states. The case challenging this procedure was brought by lawyers for two convicted murderers in the state of Kentucky. They argued that death by lethal injection amounts to cruel and unusual punishment which is prohibited by the U.S. Constitution. Steven R. Shapiro, American Civil Liberties Union Legal Director, explains on the ACLU website:

"The Eighth Amendment's prohibition on cruel and unusual punishment was meant to embody evolving standards of decency. Properly understood, the standard should prohibit a method of execution that creates an unnecessary risk of excruciating pain. The Supreme Court today held otherwise and, in the process, upheld a lethal injection protocol that veterinarians in nearly half the states, including Kentucky, are prohibited from using when putting our pets to sleep."

Brian Evans of Amnesty International and John Holdridge of the ACLU have weighed in on the impact this ruling will have on ongoing debate against the death penalty in the United States. This is a moral issue for all those who believe in the sanctity of all life.

Brother Wayne Teasdale, who died in 2004 and is profiled in our Remembering Spiritual Masters Project, was a long-time advocate for the peoples of Tibet in their struggle for freedom. In his book A Monk in the World, Teasdale traces the history of Chinese oppression in Tibet and then explains what the world can learn from direct participation in the Tibetan cause. "Tibet," he wries, "represents a precious, endangered culture and faith, with a highly developed understanding of humankind's spiritual potential." He continues that the Tibetan cause's "nonviolent character reinforces the value of a peaceful rseolution to virulent conflicts."

In the spring of 2008, the latest struggles of the Tibetan people against the Chinese make Teasdale's words take on a greater urgency. The demonstrations around the Olympic torch in anticipation of the summer games in Beijing reveal that many concerned people are looking for ways to make their support of Tibet known. Now is the time to spread the word about why this cause is so important.

The American government is blocking the path into a prosperous and fulfilling future for its children and youth by spending $720 million per day in Iraq. This video clip lays out some of the positive things that could be done with the money: children's health care, education, and more. View the clip and sign a petition to defund the war and refund human needs at the website of the American Friends Service Committee.

On her website, Rachel Naomi Remen includes this chapter on "Blessing" from her book My Grandfather's Blessings: Stories of Strength, Refuge, and Belonging. Here she recounts a special ritual that her grandfather, a very spiritual man, did with her every week. He put his hand on her head and thanked God for her being and for the opportunity to be her grandfather. Then he would tell God about her struggles and point out something positive about her. Remen notes that her parents always pushed her to excel and expected a lot from her. Her grandfather rejoiced in her just the way she was. Make someone 's day by trying this uplifting ritual of blessing. We need all the love and encouragement we can get!

It is so easy in this popularity culture to be reactive to those who praise us or ignore us. On the Nilgiri Press website, spiritual teacher Eknath Easwaran's thought for the day looks at how this pattern drains away our energies as we constantly try to gauge how people are responding to what we say and do. Easwaran states that those who depend on praise and kind words wind up in a prison of other people's reactions. He goes on to point out the pleasure that sometimes can come from being ignored! As Thomas a Kempis wrote: "It is no little wisdom for you to keep yourself in silence and in good peace when evil words are spoken to you, and to turn your heart to God and not to be troubled with the judgment of others."

We receive Episcopal priest Barbara Cawthorne Crafton's Almost Daily eMos and always enjoy her quick takes on everyday life's challenges and blessings. We really connected with a recent one in which she describes the experience of Googling herself. In "How I Found the Farm," she muses on all the ways we connect with one another using that popular search engine. Many people have found their way to her creative writing ministry through this means and the same could be said for us.

People spread the word as well, and Crafton makes the point that we should keep an open mind when we encounter something new. Even better, she states that changing our spiritual practices is a good thing and a natural part of our journey. She ends with: "People often feel guilty when something they've loved for years suddenly ceases to satisfy, but there is no need for guilt. Something else equally worthy will take its place, there are many ways of being in God's presence, and all of them are good."

Buddhist writer and teacher Thubden Chodron admits that her favorite pastime is complaining. She listens to herself whine about a variety of things — others' actions and personalities, health, money, or political leaders. Chodron probes this bad habit and finds that complaining is built upon our need for others to recognize our suffering, our hope that someone will fix our problem, or our dependence on venting our feelings and our sense of powerlessness. The Buddhist tradition offers healthy antidotes to complaining — meditating on impermanence, being more compassionate to others, and moving away from the need to have things go our way. The best approach is to see that others are just like us — "imperfect, limited sentient beings who want happiness and not suffering. Thus we can accept them as they are and seek to benefit them in the future."

In a survey of 35,000 Americans 18 and older, the Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life found that religious affiliation in the U.S. is both very diverse and extremely fluid. More than one-quarter of American adults (28%) have left the faith in which they were raised in favor of another religion — or no religion at all. Protestantism appears on the verge of losing its majority status. Roman Catholicism has experienced the greatest net loss but is recouping gains through immigrants. The number of "unaffiliated" Americans has doubled. Among Americans ages 18-29, one in four say they are not currently affiliated with any particular religion.

Other interesting bits of information from this fascinating survey:

• Among people who are married, nearly four-in-ten (37%) are married to a spouse with a different religious affiliation (this figure includes Protestants who are married to another Protestant from a different denominational family)
• Roughly half of Jews and members of mainline churches are age 50 and older, compared with approximately four-in-ten American adults overall.
• In sharp contrast to Islam and Hinduism, Buddhism in the U.S. is primarily made up of native-born adherents, whites and converts.

We are heartened by this survey's revelations about the diversity in America's religious life and are glad to remind visitors to Spirituality & Practice that we provide resources for all those on a spiritual journey whether you are Protestant, Catholic, Jewish, Buddhist, Muslim, Hindu, or unaffiliated with any religion. And if you are neighbors to or married to someone of another tradition, our resources provide both information and encourage mutual respect.

The Australian government has made a formal apology for the past wrongs caused by successive governments on the indigenous Aboriginal population. Prime Minister Kevin Rudd said in Parliament: "The time has come now for the nation to turn a new page in Australia's history by righting the wrongs of the past and so moving forward with confidence in the future. We apologize for the laws and policies of successive Parliaments and governments that have inflicted profound grief, suffering and loss on these our fellow Australians."

Part of the apology deals with generations of indigenous children who were taken from their families by the government. As a result, these young ones lost contact with their heritage. The statement closes with the Parliament calling for "a future where the injustices of the past must never, never happen again."

We salute the Prime Minister of Australia for this long overdo effort at reconciliation with the Aboriginals. A similar statement filled with ethical power and moral truth should be passed by the United States Congress to apologize for what was done to Native American peoples. And then we could go on and apologize to African-Americans for the period of slavery and to Japanese-Americans for the WW II internment camps. The shadow of injustice and the tarnishing of freedom hangs like a shroud over the American people. These acts of reconciliation would help turn a new page in our history!

In this excerpt from his book Coming to Our Senses, Jon Kabat-Zinn in Resurgence magazine claims that in this era of instant connectivity, we may be losing connection with ourselves. We depend more than ever on the new technologies which enable us to handle large volumes of email, voice mail, faxes, pages, and cell phone traffic. But increasingly, we spend so much time processing this information that we have little time or energy left for "moments of reflection, of mulling, of thinking things over, of thoughtfulness." Jon Kabat Zinn poses some important questions and calls for mindfulness as a counterbalance to the deluge of information and connection with the outside world. Unless we bring "greater mindfulness to the body, to the mind, and to our experiences at the interface between outer and inner," we risk living robotic lives.

In this interview with Elizabeth Johnson, a Sister in the Congregation of St. Joseph and a feminist theologian, the editors of U.S. Catholic magazine focus our attention on images of God and their meaning. The author of She Who Is says of the recent books by atheists: "A lot of atheists writing today are scientists who just want to clear the deck of God so they can do their science." The traditional male God of theism is being superceded in many places by belief in a more personal God who is present in people's lives. This is the living God in the midst of everyday activity. Johnson quotes Cardinal Kasper who says the Holy Spirit is the Cinderella of theology in the West, in the kitchen doing all the work while the other two members of the Trinity get to go to the ball. The new theologies make more space for mystery. But many traditional Christians cling to the idea of God as Father, King and Lord and refuse to open to other names for the Most Holy One. Meanwhile, others regularly use feminine images of God in their prayers and activities.

At a talk given at the UNESCO International Rumi Symposium in Istanbul and reprinted on the Threshold Society's website, Sufi shaikh Kabir Helminski reflects on Rumi's school of love. He sees it as "a spiritual perception" that offers a corrective to religion lacking in mercy (many forms of fundamentalism) and a materialist ethic that encourages selfishness.

Helminski characterizes Rumi as "the nightingale who became a falcon, a hunter of spiritual truths." His light can guide us as we educate our hearts and guide us "to the fulfillment of our human possibility and destiny." Both processes involve the remembrance of God and the undoing of the false self. He concludes that Rumi opens our hearts and offers us the elixir "to turn our stony nature into rubies."

In a message given at the start of the Jewish New Year in 2007, Rabbi Zalman Schachter-Shalomi, one of our Living Spiritual Teachers, points out that from the perspective of air and water quality, the world is "suffering both from emphysema and blood poisoning. A fever is rising in terms of Global Warming." In such times, it is paramount to increase our kindness to each other and to heal the planet. He shares a teaching story about a king, his minister, and contaminated grain from Reb Nachman of Bratzlav. "The way we are dealing with one another has become an irritating rash on the body of the planet," and it is up to us change our hearts and be more loving and giving.