jim
joanna <123hop at comcast.net> wrote:
Doug Henwood wrote:
>Who said churches are emancipatory? They tell you to believe
>improbable things, and are full of commandments, rituals, and
>prohibitions!
>
Have you been to a Quaker meeting lately?
Or sat in meditation?
Or even for that matter, stepped into a Unitarian church?
Just curious.
I went to a Quaker meeting once. Not one word was spoken about Jesus or God. I saw no rituals. What I saw was a silent gathering to which those who gathered brought their cares and reflections, and from which some found solace or, at least, a moment to sit with others and reflect upon things other than self promotion, profit, etc. The Quakers opposed the Iraq war from the beginning and work tirelessly to bring food, aid, comfort (with no religious strings attached) to a lot of desperate people.
I went to a Unitarian church once because they were sponsoring a debate between Rabbi Lerner (Tikkun) and a Palestinian. They brought together about a hundred people for this. This was not set in any kind of religious context.
There is no ritual to find at the Zen center in Berkeley where people come to sit and face the things we mostly spend all our time avoiding.
"Religion" covers a lot of ground. Not all churches tell you improbable things and submit you to absurd disciplines and rituals.
Further, "religion" concerns itself with other than material things and, like it or not, these things -- let's call them spiritual for short -- are not just mumbo jumbo -- most people feel that they are deeply interesting and important. A left that has nothing to say about this except to dismiss it as illusion, is a barren left.
Joanna
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