Spiritual Literacy Blog

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

"The most serious spiritual problem in the country today is reckless and untrammeled greed," writes Andrew Greeley in the Chicago Sun Times. In a list of greed's effects worthy of the prophets Jeremiah and Amos, this Catholic priest skewers the greed of corporations, government, and individuals.

Greed is linked to the fact that corporate CEOs make before lunch what their average employee earns for a year, to the loss of pensions and health insurance, to the worldwide sex slavery of women and children, to the use of performance enhancing drugs in sports.

While conceding that the struggle for success is not bad within limits, Greeley points out that the Catholic Church speaks of sins that cry to heaven for vengeance. "Two are cheating workers out of wages and exploiting widows and children. Both happen every day in our greedy country."

A recent study shows that 65% of practicing lawyers are deeply unhappy with the state of their profession — an adversarial system characterized by widespread materialism, vindictiveness, and cold self-interest. At a retreat of the Project on Integrating Spirituality, Law and Politics, lawyers and law professors concluded that America's spiritually deadened law schools desperately need a validation of the students' heart and wisdom.

A holistic law movement is emerging based on models of restorative justice, forgiveness, Ubuntu ("the notion that my humanity is inherently connected to your humanity"), meditation, and contemplative practice. Ralph White reports on the conference in Lapis Online.

The Save Darfur Coalition — 70 diverse faith-based, humanitarian, and human rights organizations, including the American Jewish Committee, Amnesty International, Buddhist Peace Fellowship, Church World Service, Islamic Society of North America, National Association of Evangelicals, National Council of Churches of Christ, Pax Christi USA, Progressive Christians Uniting, Sojourners, and the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops — has formed in response to the massive crisis in the Darfur region of Sudan. They want to raise public awareness and to mobilize efforts to help end the atrocities that threaten the lives of two million people in the region.

The U.S. Congress declared that the killings in Darfur amount to "genocide." At Save Darfur's website, you can read reports on the situation, see a Unity Statement signed by the member organizations, and find out specific things individuals and organizations can do to help. To start, save this date: Wednesday, August 25, 2004 has been chosen as Sudan: Day of Conscience. The website has sample prayers, sample programs, and a sample proclamation.

Rabbi Arthur Waskow recently went with Rabbis for Human Rights to visit some Palestinian neighborhoods where the Separation Wall is being built, and others where homes are being demolished on administrative (i.e., not security) grounds.

Inside the City of Jerusalem, he noticed a little boy showing some pictures of the family house to a friend. Read Waskow's moving account of this incident and how he cried and wailed "seeing not only him but also all these other suffering children."

Sometimes we are tempted to go on a news fast. The world's a mess, and there seems to be little we can do about it. But through the centuries, people have been praying through and for the events of their times. As a group of Carmelite sisters in Indianapolis, Indiana, put it: "We may view these events through a television screen, the front page of a newspaper — or even the eyes of someone who has seen. These painful reminders of the incompleteness of the world are everywhere."

Through their website www.praythenews.com, they regularly offer prayers, litanies, and reflections on the issues of the day. They explain how this is part of their call: "By making ourselves aware of the present moment of the universe, we awaken ourselves to our presence of God — and in our own way, participate in the healing, loving, and creative energy this process can spark." The news topic changes weekly. This week, Sister Betty, Sister Ruth, Sister Jean, and Sister Joanne pray about the Recommendations of the 9/11 Commission.

For Sister Joan Chittister, defiance is a form of obedience, and silence in the face of injustice is a sin. "Consciousness commits" is her motto.

This profile of Sister Joan coincides with the release of her new book Called to Question.

Everything in the universe has a purpose, including air. And one of its jobs, suggests environmental writer Bill McKibben in this modest proposal, is to dry things — like our clothes. Although many homeowners associations now ban clotheslines, as late as 1960, fewer than 20 percent of American households had automatic dryers and the energy expenses associated with them.

"If we all used clotheslines, we could save 30 million tons of coal a year, or shut down 15 nuclear power plants." Drying your clothes on a line is a simple way to address the energy crisis and give nature back one of its jobs.

The Children's Defense Fund (CDF) has released "The State of America's Children 2004" — and the news is not good. The children are suffering: one in six children in the U.S. lives in poverty; one in eight has no health insurance; three million were reported as suspected victims of abuse; eight children and teens die every day from gunfire.

Follow the link for a summary of the report. These statistics call for our prayers and our activism.

Fewer than half of American adults read literature (novels, short stories, poetry, plays), according to Reading at Risk, a new study from the National Endowment for the Arts, and the youngest adults (aged 18 - 24) read the least.

This is a crisis, notes NEA Chairman Dana Gioia, who observes that people who read books tend to have the highest level of participation in other cultural, sports, and volunteer activities. "Reading develops a capacity for focused attention and imaginative growth that enriches both private and public life." We would add that attention and imagination are also necessary elements of a vibrant spiritual life.

Bill Moyers describes the present moment as "a time of testing — for people of faith and for people who believe in democracy" in a keynote address for Call to Renewal, a coalition of Christian activists working to combat economic inequality in America. The journalist shares his outrage over the growing gap between the rich and the poor, which is now greater than it has been for 50 years, "the worst inequality among all western nations."

Moyers asserts that corporate conservatives and their allies in the political and religious right have "saddled our nation, our states, and our cities, and our counties with structural deficits that will last until our children's children are ready for retirement." He hopes that those who believe that equality is an important part of the social contract will help get America back on track by practicing love and working for justice.

Wendell Berry, author of more than 40 books of fiction, poetry, and essays, has farmed in a traditional manner for nearly 40 years in Kentucky. In this interview for Sojourners Magazine (free registration required) by associate editor Rose Marie Berger, he talks about the need for sustainable communities where local supply meets local demand, and people keep control of the food supply out of corporate hands.

"If you take seriously those passages in the scripture that say we live, move, and have our being in God, the implications for the present economy are just devastating," he says. "Those passages call for an entirely generous and careful economic life." Berry also talks what's wrong with usury and the myth of progress.

Peter Matthiessen, author of the National Book Award winner The Snow Leopard and most recently Ends of the Earth: Voyages to Antarctica, infuses his writings with metaphysical and philosophical explorations — not about what life is, but what life is.

He is a Priest, Sensei, and Roshi of the Zen Peacemaker Order, and one of his practices is bearing witness to what he has seen (the passing of indigenous cultures, the loss of species and biodiversity) and experienced (the adventure of travel, the challenges of the path of transformation). This profile reveals how his writing grows out of his practice.

A coalition of anti-hunger organizations have chosen Thursday, June 3, 2004, to draw attention to the serious problem of hunger in America. Fourteen million children rely on the government's school food program to satisfy daily nutritional needs; 10 million households use food stamps to help them purchase basic food items; 20 million people eat at more than 65,000 soup kitchens every day. But this aid is not enough.

"There are two kinds of poverty in America: There are those who don't have and those who don't know," writes Bill Shore of Share Our Strength, an antihunger organization. "Food is a gift of God to be shared freely and generously with those in need," writes Craig Nessan in Give Us This Day: A Lutheran Proposal for Ending World Hunger.

Surprised and confused by the acquisitive side of your nature and its grip on you? In "Dharma and Toaster Ovens," from the current issue of Turning Wheel: The Journal of Socially Engaged Buddhism, Nancy D. Kates describes what happened to her during a five-week greed management course.

She found it touched her soul and gave her insights into need, desire, unpleasantness, and generosity.

Novelist Kurt Vonnegut at 81 found himself asking his Baby Boomer children what life is all about. One son, a doctor, replied: "We are here to help each other get through this thing, whatever it is." Vonnegut's got some ideas about what "this thing" is: a world where dying horribly has become entertainment, where politics says you can only be one of two kinds of human being (liberal or conservative), where the industrialized world is hopelessly hooked on fossil fuels and may soon have to go without them cold turkey, and where the most vocal Christians weep when the Ten Commandments are removed from public spaces but never demand that the Beatitudes be posted anywhere.