Robert V. Taylor

The Luddite approach is not a winning one for religion. Denial of access to contraception and the right of religion to freely discriminate strutting under the guise of religious liberty is no liberty at all. It is a churlish death wish competing against a more generous spirituality of freedom rooted in kindness and compassion.

Choosing to define yourself by what you hate, abhor and rail against might play well to a core group but it is not a recipe for attracting those looking for a spirituality of purpose and meaning amidst the more hued complexities of being human. Exclusionary religion may explain why the Pew Research Organization reports that twenty-five percent of those under 30 now describe themselves as religiously unaffiliated.

In the age of internet access to wisdom on demand the prelates and leaders who proclaim that social norms and arrangements are immutable create a caricature of themselves similar to the nineteenth century Luddites who resisted all of the seismic changes of the Industrial Revolution.

The debate over whether religiously affiliated institutions have to provide access to contraception is presented by some as a desperate defense of religious liberty. Cardinal Dolan of New York bolsters that position by asserting that the bishops are the only ones who “speak for the truths of the faith.” Beyond questions of religious polity, his assertion attempts to silence the divergent voices of faithful lay people and Catholic institutions alike. The liberty being defended is revealed to be no liberty at all unless you agree with him.

The daily lives of ordinary people are replete with opportunities to make ethical, moral and social choices in the context of their liberty to so with good conscience. The fact that “ninety-eight percent of sexually experienced women of child bearing age and who describe themselves as Catholic” use contraceptives does not make them bad people. Most would see little value in connecting their choice and the authority of the men who “speak for the truths of the faith.” Instead their choice reveals the truth that spiritual wisdom for daily living is revealed in the competent decisions and choices of people.

In Colorado, Focus on the Family is building a coalition to put an initiative on the ballot that would allow religious organizations and individuals the right to discriminate based on their religious beliefs. Presented as a ballot in support of religious liberty it would effectively deny all protections from discrimination if approved. The denial of liberty that would result is no liberty at all.

The churlish death wish of these modern day Luddites reflects fear, lack of trust and an entitled presumption that they know best for others. It effectively defines their religious beliefs by what they are against rather than what they are for.

A spirituality of inviting generous inclusion of all can be found in the core texts of most religious groups. Its companions of kindness, compassion and love honor each human being and our liberty to make wise, informed choices. This liberty imagines living beyond fear of what we do not understand or agree with. It invites attentive listening and compassionate hearts for one another. It assumes a way of life in which we value placing trust in the inherent goodness of each person as expressed in our disagreements. It also honors the polity and structures of organizations but does not confuse them with the Holy. This liberty acknowledges the important role of leaders while honoring the unique leadership of each person.

The current debates over religious liberty reveal a fault line on one side of which some wish to build a moat to protect their deeply held positions or beliefs. On the other side of the fault line are those willing to risk a messier, less centralized way of making sense of life, meaning and spirituality. In between stand a large number of people who make a choice to silence the noise of the debate in order to go about finding their way to being the kind, good and compassionate people that they are.

The choices made reflect which path leads to being fully alive and fully human in the context of the messy, magnificent human family.

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Robert’s new book A New Way to be Human is available at Amazon, Barnes & Noble and your local Indie bookstore

This blog was first published by Huffington Post on March 20, 2012

Robert V. Taylor

Does God vomit at the thought of gay and lesbian people? That’s the graphic image that O’Neal Dozier, pastor of Worldwide Christian Center in Pompano Beach Florida, uses. It’s radically different from the one that many of us know of a God of inclusion and love. Not vomiting but smiling on us – all of us!

What makes Dozier’s view so prominent is that he is the Honorary Chair of Rick Santorum’s Florida campaign. Although Dozier believes that homosexuality is the “paramount of sins” he is an equal opportunity exclusionist. Mother Jones reveals that his Islamaphobia and local crusade against Muslims are fueled by his belief that Muslims have an agenda for taking over America. Dozier, who claims to know the mind of God on election results, has used his position on the Florida judicial nominating committee to seek “God-fearing” judges. The test for him is whether those nominees support anti-sodomy laws.

Dozier believes America should be taken over by those who share his exclusionist views and create a fundamentalist theocracy. The constitution in his view was created only for those who are a “moral and religious people.” God-fearing in his view translates into a projectile God who throws up on those who do not share his religious vision. Thankfully there are other more spacious religious and spiritual paths.

Like millions of other LGBT people I feared God as a young person because of the religious messages I received that God had disdainful disgust for us. Like millions of other young LGBT people I considered suicide. That is one of the reasons that Dozier’s imagery and words are destructive not life-giving.

If the arc of spirituality bends towards inclusion Dozier’s views are not part of that moral trajectory. Pew Research polls reveal approximately 65% of Catholics and Protestants have positive views of gays, while only 29% of Evangelicals do. Among Post-Moderns 91% have favorable views of LGBT people while 80% of them support same-sex marriage.

The moral arc towards inclusion has a foundation of spiritual wisdom from many traditions. Christian wisdom settles largely on a message of generous expansive love matched by acts of mercy, kindness and justice. The notion of repairing the world is a central underpinning in most branches of Judaism. While Buddhist philosophy is rooted in seeking the happiness or well-being of all Buddhist practice points to the inter-connectedness of all sentient beings.

Religious leaders can be found in most traditions that, like Dozier, use their position and authority to tear apart, diminish and demean others at any cost. The climate they create is quite different than that of those who beg to differ but who seek a world in which none are harmed or excluded. The bullies who cloak themselves with the mantle of the Divine are no different than schoolyard bullies who are stopped only when their behavior is challenged.  That choice is in our hands.

We participate in the movement of the moral arc of inclusion when we actively engage in creating a world which acknowledges the goodness and compassion inherent in every person. A world in which imagery of a puking God is replaced with a spiritual path of generous inclusion in which there are no outcasts. That is a life-giving journey acknowledging and celebrating difference.  

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Robert V. Taylor

Watching the news is often an exercise in testing your endurance about crises, disasters and heart-breaking stories.  The tsunami of bad news buries the abundance of good news stories that exist. If we are what we surround ourselves with then paying attention to the good news stories alters our experience of being alive.

A man I know was determined to stop watching or reading the news because he said it made him feel helpless and despondent. A friend of his challenged him – “There’s an invitation in the news inviting you to respond to an issue and become a participant in repairing the world.” It was a transformative challenge for him.

Finding himself repeatedly drawn to stories about the lack of access to education plaguing young girls around the world he began to educate himself on the issue and ultimately give of his time to work with others to build schools aimed at educating girls in Africa and Asia. His life has been changed by the work he has become passionate about. He says, “I’ve become a proselytizer seizing every opportunity to talk with anyone I can about the need to educate girls. I tell stories of the amazing work people are doing!”

His proactive response to the challenge of the bad news that had overwhelmed him is a story of good news. Some media platforms are responding to the yearning for good news.  With its CNN Heroes awards and features CNN has tipped its hat to highlighting positive transformative stories of ordinary people putting compassion and hope to work.

Huffington Post has taken a bold step in launching their Good News platform to counter the cynicism that much of the news invites. Arianna Huffington says that, “Those of us in the news media have provided too many autopsies of what went wrong and not enough biopsies.” She has raised the bar and that is worth cheering!

With every act of compassion, with every idea implemented to improve the lot of others, with each word of kindness the experience of being human and being alive is transformed. The courage, imagination and voice of each of us have a cumulative energy and power to polish the world.

The real crisis and heart-breaking stories invite us in, reminding us of our common humanity and our need for one another. The mantra of media executives is that the titillating, the scandalous and the invented crises are what the public responds to or craves. That presumption and the life-draining news that results from it can only be changed by you and me.

In neighborhoods, offices, community groups, families and towns across the country the stories of the good abound. When you intentionally tell those stories you create a different energy. When you interject a conversation about gloom and doom news with positive stories you shift the narrative of what is possible, of what it means to be human.

The negative news is highly overrated. The way to change those ratings is to engage with the positive stories. Not to avoid the awful realities or crises that exists for many, but to invite ourselves and others into a fuller narrative. Good News will become more highly rated, more sought after when we make our need for it known. Social media reminds us that it lies in our hands to do that!

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Robert V. Taylor

The “politics of envy” in the United States is political fodder masking a truth that Dr. Martin Luther King pointed to almost 50 years ago. He said his entire work pointed to one goal – the creation of a “beloved community” of Americans. His prescient words invite a new conversation about who we are.

The Pew Research Center reports that two thirds of Americans believe that conflicts between the rich and the poor are strong or very strong. The stagnant or falling wages for the poor and the middle class over the last decade stands in sharp contrast to increasing wealth held by a few. The Great Recession and the Occupy movement make those data starker.  

The data do not reveal envy of the wealthy.  Instead Pew and the latest Gallup research reveal that most people want jobs, fair wages and opportunities to work and succeed. Fairness is a very different conversation than the envy that some expediently talk about.

It’s not politically fashionable to talk about the poor these days. Those who dare to couch it in language about the “working poor” as if honest honorable work is a bearer of poverty. The political consensus that most of us implicitly support is that it is more prudent to worry about the middle class. It is a false either/or compact. It diminishes all of us by casting some aside.

Marti Luther King believed that the moral arc of the universe bends toward justice.  While we celebrate his leadership on civil rights we generally ignore his leadership on economic issues made plain in his Poor People’s Campaign.

King was clear that civil rights and economic opportunities are questions of justice collectively pointing to the overarching vision of creating a new “beloved community” in the United States. His faith and politics were rooted in how to create that community.

Imagine leaders who lead us to a new sense of oneness as people; who remind us of our need for one another; who celebrate the richness of our collective strengths; who see strength in our diversity and who are not fearful of the truth that none of us prosper unless the well-being of all is possible.

Imagine that leader being you and working intentionally to make a beloved community possible. It’s often said that we get the leaders we deserve. I’m not sure that is true. Instead we often cede the public conversation and leadership to the alpha types who have their own agenda about political power.  All too often we disengage out of exasperation.

There is another path that celebrates Dr. King’s living legacy. Celebrating your leadership and work to bring about the beloved community, you begin to shift the expectations of what kind of society and people we want to be.  King believed that it was possible to “transform opposers into friends” and “transform the deep gloom of the old age into exuberant gladness of the new age.” That possibility lies in your hands; in the possibility of organizing for our oneness when the well-being of all is a value.

This moment in history is an invitation to that dream becoming a reality.

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Robert V. Taylor

Is it possible to imagine peace in the New Year? It is if you claim your voice and imagination. The world needs that from each of us. Every intention and act of yours shapes what it means to be human and create a culture of peace as you take steps in that direction.

Peace sounds too big, too overwhelming to many.  Instead of being debilitated by what you can do to bring peace about back up and approach it from two other vantage points. Peace emerges when conflicts are resolved and ended. Peace in the tradition of the Hebrews is all about actions that promote the well-being of all. Not too different than the Buddhist intention of happiness for all beings.

When you think of ending a conflict, or seeking the well-being of another, or desiring happiness for others the possibility of peace is reimagined.

Your own choices and awareness will invite you to make a difference in the year ahead. These steps might add to your intentions:

Be Intentional. Peace is only possible when your hope becomes an active virtue. A specific intention to make peace will ground and make you accountable. Perhaps you will actively work with the children in your life to model attentive listening that transforms misunderstandings and makes reconciliation possible.

End a Conflict. Choose to end a conflict in your community, at work or in your family. When the happiness or well-being of all is a goal it becomes possible to imagine a resolution that moves those involved beyond entrenched positions.

Choose Compassion. We are made for compassion. Your intention to live a life of compassion creates a ripple effect among all whom you engage with. Every compassionate action of yours invites others into the circle of compassion. Learn from organizations like the Charter for Compassion or the Compassionate Action Network.

Say Yes to Peace by saying No to violence or bigotry. Join others in breaking the silences that give permission to violence or threats against people who are perceived as different.  Show up to a rally against school bullying; participate in a school board or legislative meeting to provide protections against discrimination.

Engage with the world and Universe to remember that we need one another.  Learn about an issue affecting the well-being of the planet or about a religion or culture you do not understand. Share your learning’s with those in your orbit; write, blog and speak about them. Your voice will mitigate fears of the unknown, illuminate others and point to our oneness.

With these and other choices you may already have made your voice and imagination is engaged in shaping a world where a culture of peace is possible. The happiness and well-being of yourself and others is all bundled together. Ending conflicts wherever you encounter them opens the path to a happy life of well-being for all.

Peace in the New Year depends on your active engagement!

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Robert V. Taylor

The Protester has been elevated by Time Magazine to a richly deserved new status. When you claim your voice as an individual you become more fully alive. When your voice joins together with the voice of others for the well-being of many you become more fully human. The Protesters invite us to new awareness about our oneness as human beings.

From the streets of US cities to those of Egypt, Libya, Syria, Myanmar and other countries a common human thread is being given voice to. It is the human yearning for our interconnectedness and shared humanity to be dignified and honored.

In place of the narrow interests of a few, the Protesters who Time honors as the Person of the Year demand that the well-being of all be reflected in political and economic arrangements marked by fairness and opportunity.  It is a reminder that our humanity is all bundled together. 

While the specifics of what that looks like will always vary from country to country the yearning for freedom and accountability stands in stark contrast to the violence inflicted by severe distortions of economic and political benefits that accrue only to a few. The magnificence of each person flourishes when the well-being of all marks how we engage with one another.

No wonder Time highlights the Protesters. They invite us to remember that our humanity and purpose is best discovered together.

The invitation to this truth is discovered each time we claim our voice. With every seemingly small contribution in our local communities our voices collectively turn into actions that seek to expand what it means to belong as members of the one human family. Every voice is of value; every voice is important; every voice is needed.

How will we each join with others as Persons of the Year in words and acts that point to the truth that we perish or flourish together?

Robert V. Taylor

The Holiday Grinch is incensed that White House cards do not refer to Christmas. While the Grinch makes political hay the rest of us celebrate the holiday spirit that Hanukkah, the Winter Solstice and Christmas invite us into. It is a choice about whether to define life by a spirit of steadfast exclusion or discovering our oneness.

Sarah Palin has sharpened her holiday knives according to the LA Times, with a full attack on Fox News about the “odd” nature of this year’s White House card. She is incensed that the card does not refer to the Christmas values of “family, faith and freedom.”  The unwed teenage girl who gave birth in a roadside feeding trough to the son named Jesus does not reflect the values that Palin has in mind.

The furor has been joined with political expressions of horror that this year’s card has “no Christmas” in it according to Business Insider.  Their gallery of sixteen different White House holiday cards shows that the “no Christmas” message has been consistent.

This is a life-draining energy storm in a tea cup! The holiday celebrations invite a life-giving energy.

The origins of Hanukkah lie in the miracle believed to have happened with scarce oil burning in the candles for eight days instead of one. It is a holiday about the scattering of the profusion of light. Whatever your tradition Hanukkah is an invitation to be an active participant in the spirit spreading of luminous light pointing to a power greater than ourselves.

In December Solstice celebrations the shifting of the earth’s axial tilt in relation to the Sun is cause for celebration. The beginning of more light filled days or the dawning of shorter days has been celebrated in cultures in the northern and southern hemispheres. The Solstice celebrations are about the human and spiritual cycles of death, birth and rebirth. They are a reminder of our interconnection with the Universe.

Christmas may be a specifically Christian celebration but it is also freely claimed by those rooted in other traditions or none at all. The vulnerability of a child born out of wedlock in precarious circumstances is a story that invites us in with our vulnerabilities. Beyond the theologies of God taking on human form Christmas is a reminder for many of the Holy found in each person. In taking stock of love made manifest in an infant there is cause for celebration and remembering our oneness with the rest of the human family.

Gifts, festivities, music and rituals reflect the celebratory time of the holidays. It’s not surprising that the holidays scatter the light of goodwill no matter how glum things might be. Or is it that the holidays invite us to remember that delight in one another, in hope and in our shared human story is still possible?

The Grinch’s may promote exclusivist views and try to spread divisiveness. But the choice of living life with delight in our oneness brings a life-giving energy to life beyond the holidays.  

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Robert V. Taylor

How dangerous is His Holiness the Dalai Lama? The South African government in denying him a visa to attend Archbishop Desmond Tutu’s 80^th birthday celebrations appears to believe he is a danger to freedom loving people. His life, like that of Tutu’s, points to a very different message of the inter-connectedness of all things and people.

The South African government has rejected the Dalai Lama’s visa application, according to The Times of India, as “incomplete.”  With one of the world’s most progressive constitution’s the “New South Africa” has enshrined the rights of freedom of expression and those of women, children and gay and lesbian people in its constitution. The Dalai Lama’s pending visit tests the spirit, intent and letter of the values of that constitution.

The denial of his visa is a reminder of the old apartheid South Africa in which freedom of speech and association was ruthlessly denied. In the nineteen seventies the then Minister of Justice responded to concerns about the house arrest – or banning – of those whose voices were at odds with apartheid.  He said that those under house arrest had as much freedom “as a goldfish in a bowl.”  Is the new South Africa beginning to act like the old one?

Tutu and the Dalai Lama are iconic figures because they are moral leaders who will not be silenced in speaking truth about the well-being of all people. Tutu’s Ubuntu – that a person is only a person in the context of other people – is very much related to His Holiness’ emphasis on the intertwined nature of all human life. Both are passionate advocates for freedom and compassion. Their personal friendship and affection is longstanding.  

© 2011 Zapiro (All Rights Reserved) Printed with permission www.zapiro.com

The recent cartoon from The Times of London points to the real reason for trying to silence the Dalai Lama in South Africa which is pressure from the Chinese government. If that is true it is ironic that the new South Africa, free of the colonialism of apartheid would subject itself to a new colonial master.  The dangerousness of the Dalai Lama lies in the South African fear of ruffling trade and diplomatic relations between China and South Africa.

The courageous lives and leadership of Desmond Tutu and the Dalai Lama would be affirmed by an equally courageous decision to grant His Holiness the visa now. The freedom and compassion of these iconic Nobel Peace Laureates would be matched by the act of issuing the visa now.

Compassion, kindness, reconciliation, justice and the oneness of the human family are the messages of Desmond Tutu and His Holiness. It is moral, inspirational and practical leadership that they invite others to exercise. In a time when there is vacuum in such leadership the world needs to keep hearing from these two leaders.

It is not too late to grant the visa and allow the Dalai Lama to present the Inaugural Desmond Tutu International Peace Lecture on October 8^th the day after he lights the candle on Tutu’s eightieth birthday cake.  The light of their messages may be dangerous to some but the world longs for more of it.

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Watch His Holiness and Archbishop Tutu talk about compassion – click here