I believe that there is a hunger for love and justice within ourselves and our world. And that's why I'm often moved to tears — my heart and soul hungers for this greater capacity for love, truth, generosity, kindness, and justice that I believe we humans all yearn for in our deepest being. When I'm faced heart-to-heart with the beauty of love, this is what breaks my heart open again and again. And this is what Rabbi Lerner embodies. And what I believe that we can all aspire to and awaken within ourselves.
I continue to recommend Rabbi Lerner's book Revolutionary Love to everyone. And it is exactly the words "Revolutionary Love" that I have been moved to speak and write and share again and again since seeing this great man two months ago. Our growing political revolution — embodied now in those who are young and old, marginalized and left behind, gay and straight, Hispanic and Black and Native American and Asian American and more, who are Christian and Muslim and Buddhist and follow a diversity of religious and spiritual traditions, who are poor and who are not poor, and on and on — is at its core spiritual revolution because it is rooted in interconnection, justice, truth, compassion, generosity, and love.
This growing movement, this spiritual revolution, reminds of us what we may have forgotten — that my well-being is wrapped up in your well-being, that your joy and your sorrow is also mine, that my family can act on behalf of your family, that we all can reach out to help those we love and those we do not know. We're all family. We're all in this together.
For so many years I have been passionate about being part of a revolution in caring and kindness. And in the midst of so much that breaks my heart open with horror and heartache, there is this growing paradigm shift, this evolutionary leap, this Revolutionary Love that is spreading as more and more of us are awakening our hearts and courageously removing the obstacles to the beauty and the power of our true loving nature.
This is what is unfolding now, here, in our lifetimes — Revolutionary Love. May this be what deepens and grows within us and sweeps across our beautiful hurting Earth. Let us all be part of this revolution — this globalization of generosity and caring.
Deep, deep bow to all our relations. — Molly
This is an excerpt from Revolutionary Love...
"We need much more than a political revolution; we also need a moral, cultural, and spiritual revolution — an awakening to the dignity and value of each and every one of us no matter who we are, where we came from, or what we've done... It is this revolutionary spirit — a revolutionary love for all people and for life itself — that will ultimately determine our collective fate."
— Michelle
Alexander
*****
.....Allow
yourself to imagine a social change movement for the 2020s and 2030s
that addresses not only the economic suffering of some, but the
psycho-spiritual deprivation for all that comes from living in a
world in which people are in constant competition. Global capitalism
encourages us to believe that life is about the accumulation of
power, money, fame, and/or sexual conquest, and we blame ourselves
for not succeeding economically or having the kind of friendships,
loving families, or supportive communities for which we hunger. A
movement for revolutionary love would teach people empathy, both for
themselves and others in their lives and for people with whom they
seemingly or authentically disagree. Our movement would seek to transform the Democratic Party from within while simultaneously building the infrastructure for a Love and Justice Party in case the Democrats become as stuck in their insensitivity to this movement as they were in dealing with Bernie Sanders in 2016. Our movement would not only promote a world of love and justice, but embody those notions in nourishing ways toward both its members and those who will at first ridicule and demean it. Such movements would soon, over the course of the next several decades, win the mass support needed to defeat the reactionaries and proto-fascists; save life on the planet; undermine the racism, sexism, classism, homophobia, anti-Semitism, ageism, xenophobia, and Islamophobia that have been used to divide us; and relieve the depression and powerlessness that paralyze so many people today.
The Love and Justice movement (or whatever it might come to be called) would have a strong backbone and a prophetic voice that challenges those who speak lies and those who cause, or turn their backs on, the suffering of others. We would not play the game of politics that compromise with the powerful rather than letting them face consequences for their actions. We would see the humanity of those with whom we disagree, but we would not soften the tones of the prophets of ancient Israel who insisted on confronting the evil around them. The prophets we honor spoke out loudly at the cynicism of those who worshiped religiously but then refused to care for the hungry, the homeless, the powerless, and the refugees.
Without such a movement, we can expect more decades of alternation between high-minded but spineless liberal forces compromising on their ideals in order to be realistic, and ultra-right-wing and white nationalist and Christian fundamentalists groups whose views are increasingly articulated by congressional Republicans. No matter which of these two is in ascendancy at any given moment, the destruction of the life support system of the planet will intensify , and classism and racism and sexism will find new paths to flourish.
We can't scare people into the rational behavior needed to protect the life support system of Earth. We need to replace the globalization of selfishness with the globalization of generosity and caring — caring for one another and caring for the Earth. We need to overcome the ways that the liberal progressive movements and the Democratic Party have alienated people who might otherwise be on their side. And we need to paint a picture of a very different kind of world that is not only possible but necessary for global survival. If this manifesto succeeds in generating this conversation, gives you some tools to help you better understand the psychodynamics of daily life and their impact on American politics, entices you to join me in joyfully embracing what the media and leaders and opinion shapers tell us is "unrealistic," and perhaps provides a foundation for a new kind of progressive movement, it will have succeeded. So I offer these ideas in a spirit of humility, knowing that I will have left off many important points, and hoping that you will absorb what is valuable in this book and transcend my limitations.
— Rabbi
Michael Lerner
Excerpted
from the Introduction of REVOLUTIONARY
LOVE:
A Political Manifesto To Heal
and
Transform the World
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