Lägg till bokmärkeThe Left Hand of God: Taking Back Our Country from the Religious Right
The unholy alliance of the Political Right and the Religious Right threatens to destroy the America we love. It also threatens to generate a popular aversion to God and religion by identifying religious values with a pro-war, pro-business, pro-rich, anti-science, and anti-environmental stance.
Over the past few decades, the Republicans have achieved political dominance by forging a union with the Religious Right. This marriage has provided a sanctimonious veneer for policies that hav... (show more)
The unholy alliance of the Political Right and the Religious Right threatens to destroy the America we love. It also threatens to generate a popular aversion to God and religion by identifying religious values with a pro-war, pro-business, pro-rich, anti-science, and anti-environmental stance.
Over the past few decades, the Republicans have achieved political dominance by forging a union with the Religious Right. This marriage has provided a sanctimonious veneer for policies that have helped the rich get richer while ignoring the needs of the middle class and the poor, dismantling environmental and civil liberties protections, and seeking global domination. The Right champions the materialism and ruthless selfishness promoted by unrestrained capitalism and then laments the moral crises of family instability and loneliness experienced by people who bring these commercial values into their homes and personal lives. In response, the Religious Right offers insular communities for the faithful and a culture that blames liberals, activist judges, homosexuals, independent women, and all secular people for the moral and spiritual emptiness so many Americans experience.
Yet, however distorted both the Right's analysis and its solutions to America's spiritual crisis may be, it wins allegiance by addressing the human hunger for a life with some higher purpose. The Left, by contrast, remains largely tone-deaf to the spiritual needs of the American people. It is the yearning for meaning in life, not just the desire for money or power, that lies at the core of American politics.
Addressing the central mystery of contemporary politics -- why so many Americans vote against their own economic interests -- The Left Hand of God provides an invaluable, timely, and blunt critique of the current state of faith in government. Lerner challenges the Left to give up its deeply held fear of religion and to distinguish between a domination-oriented, Right-Hand-of-God tradition and a more compassionate and hope-oriented Left-Hand-of-God worldview. Further, Lerner describes the ways that Democrats have misunderstood and alienated significant parts of their potential constituency. To succeed again, Lerner argues, the Democratic Party must rethink its relationship to God, champion a progressive spiritual vision, reject the old bottom line that promotes the globalization of selfishness, and deal head-on with the very real spiritual crisis that many Americans experience every day.
Lerner presents a vision that incorporates and then goes far beyond contemporary liberal and progressive politics. He argues for a new bottom line in our economy, schools, and government. This is a fundamentally fresh approach, one that takes spiritual needs seriously in our economic and political lives. Presenting an eight-point progressive spiritual covenant with America, Lerner provides a blueprint for how the Democratic Party can effectively challenge the Right and position itself to win the White House and Congress. By appealing to religious, secular, and spiritual but not necessarily religious people, The Left Hand of God blazes a trail that could change our world and reclaim America from the Religious Right.
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I really liked this actually - really makes some great points about why people end up voting republican, and what a lot of people feel is missing in the response of the (political) left
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Lerner's book is a badly needed articulation of the value of hope and the power of fear in the lives of contemporary Americans- especially in the context of politics and religion. But his book is more than just politics and religion, it is a carefully argued defense for an axiomatic recalibration in all areas of our lives: a call to revaluate every aspect of our professional, political, religious, familial, and personal experiences according to a new bottom line of generosity and care, hospit... (show more)
Lerner's book is a badly needed articulation of the value of hope and the power of fear in the lives of contemporary Americans- especially in the context of politics and religion. But his book is more than just politics and religion, it is a carefully argued defense for an axiomatic recalibration in all areas of our lives: a call to revaluate every aspect of our professional, political, religious, familial, and personal experiences according to a new bottom line of generosity and care, hospitality and compassion...seeking the awe, wonder and joy in all things...and practicing a way of life that reflects that bottom line.
It is a hope-filled message that sees spirituality as a force that heals past trauma, liberating people from the compulsive drive to reproduce traumatic events. It is a power which makes possible futures otherwise unimaginable: it is that unconquerable voice of justice that inspires us to change the world from what it is to what it should be. It is also that healing dimension of compassion and mercy helping us to forgive the injustice and cruelties of the world, moving us toward reconciliation and peace.
It is this spiritual dimension, this arena of hope, healing and meaning, that Lerner argues the Left has abandoned; thereby leaving many Americans no choice but to seek a politics of meaning with more conservative religious traditions. And it is a politics of fear that mobilizes much of their efforts: a fear that ideologists and strategists of the Right have manipulated and co-opted for their own political gain. It is a fear of terrorists, immigrants, gays and lesbians, feminists, environmentalists, socialists, labor unions, Muslims...to name a few hot points that charge Right-leaning political movements and organization.
Lerner's point is to show that the mass of Americans who vote against their interests (corporate corruption, industrial pollution, ecological devastation, militarism, the ever-growing divide between rich and poor) are actually protecting a deeper need and greater fear...and it is the need for meaning and fear of separation from spiritual community.
Lerner's book educates the Left to understand the historical roots of this Rightward evolution, and to see that it can, and must change its direction.
I do not think it is a tirade against the Right at all. I think it is a measured account of how Americans suffer, and how we often employ self-destructive political solutions to cope with our pain.
His critique of the Left is pronounced throughout the book- especially those secularists who disregard their prophetic social justice roots, and who cast elitist dispersions upon the vast majority of Americans for whom spiritual matters matter a great deal...this denial of history and elitist disdain are key components in why the Left misunderstands their role in our contemporary malaise, as well as their power to change it. Highly recommend it! (show less)
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