Fri, July 13, 2012
Six Reasons We Can't Change The Future Without Progressive Religion
By
Sara Robinson
One of the great
historical strengths of the progressive movement has been its resolute
commitment to the separation of church and state. As progressives, we
don't want our government influenced by anybody's religious laws.
Instead of superstition and mob id, we prefer to have real science,
based in real data and real evidence, guiding public policy. Instead of
holy wars, othering, and social repression -- the inevitable by-products
of theocracy -- we think that drawing from the widest possible range of
philosophical traditions makes America smarter, stronger, and more
durable over time.
That said:
while we all want a government free of religion, there are good reasons
that we may not want our own progressive movement to be shorn of every
last spiritual impulse. In fact, the history of the progressive movement
has shown us, over and over, that there are things that the spiritual
community brings to political movements that are essential for success,
and can't easily be replaced with anything else.
This is the first of a three-page article. See "Link to External Source Article" below to read further.
From The Urantia Book:
92:7.15
True religion must ever be, at one and the same time, the eternal
foundation and the guiding star of all enduring civilizations.
79:4.9
...religion, true
religion,
is the indispensable source of that higher
energy
which drives men to establish a superior civilization based on human
brotherhood.
16:9.5 Civilizations are unstable
because they are not cosmic; they are not innate in the individuals of
the races. They must be nurtured by the combined contributions of the
constitutive factors of man—
science, morality, and
religion. Civilizations come and go, but science, morality, and religion always survive the crash.
Labels:
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Fri, October 28, 2011
Religion at Occupy Wall Street
By
Kim Lawton
Religion at Occupy Wall Street
KIM LAWTON, Correspondent: For the Occupy Wall
street protesters in New York’s Zuccotti Park, it’s become a familiar
sight—religious groups offering spiritual and moral support.
VOICES AT SERVICE: We represent. We represent. The New York
City communities of faith. The New York City communities of faith.
LAWTON: Growing numbers of leaders from across the
religious spectrum have been supporting Occupy Wall Street’s protest
against greed and economic inequity.
REV. MICHAEL ELLICK, Judson Memorial Church, NY:
This is not just a jobs issue. This is not only a health care issue or a
pension issue. This is also a spiritual issue of the nature of what
has happened in the United States and how we function as a people
together. And that is very, very, much a matter of moral concern, not
only to my Christian tradition but to Islam, and to Judaism, to
Buddhism.
LAWTON:
There have been regular interfaith prayer services at the park. And
religious groups are also providing practical help by donating tents,
food and money. They’ve been opening their facilities to the
protesters, giving logistical advice and helping to get the message out.
ELLICK: Churches are an excellent place to organize
this kind of information because we’re under the radar of commerce or of
government.
LAWTON: Many say there is a prominent spiritual
dimension to what’s been happening. Inside Zuccotti Park is a makeshift
community altar, where protestors of all faiths come to pray or
meditate. In several cities, protest chaplains—many of them seminary
students—minster to the protesters.
ERICA RICHMOND, Protest Chaplain: We are here to
provide a religious presence. We are here to listen to people, to hear
what’s on their hearts. And we’re here to pray with people. And people
do come up to us and ask us to sit with them in prayer, because people
are in crisis and that’s why we are all here.
***************
Please see THIS LINK to read the rest of the article
From The Urantia Book:
99:3.3
The religionist is not unsympathetic with social suffering, not
unmindful of civil injustice, not insulated from economic thinking,
neither insensible to political tyranny. Religion influences social
reconstruction directly because it spiritualizes and idealizes the
individual citizen. Indirectly, cultural civilization is influenced by
the attitude of these individual religionists as they become active and
influential members of various social, moral, economic, and political
groups.
Labels:
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Fri, September 16, 2011
Are You Serious About Being a Christian? Godly Character Is Key
By
R. Leigh Coleman
Pollster George Barna, whose years of research on religion gets to the core of Christianity, recently conducted a survey asking Christians, “What does it mean to be a follower of Jesus Christ?” and “What are the duties and obligations of someone who calls himself/herself a Christian?”
These are pertinent questions to wrestle with in light of the highly debated “signs of the times” and second coming of Jesus Christ among evangelical leaders today.
Barna’s recent book, Maximum Faith,
concludes that without complete determination to live like Christ and
for Him, the path to complete transformation and spiritual growth is
blocked.
“There are several barriers to overcome before many people are likely to persevere and maximize their connection with God,” Barna says in his book.
He
found out that only a small percentage of born-again Christians stick
with the spiritual growth process long enough to become the mature followers of Christ and world changers that they are meant to be.
...
Barna
says there are barriers to spiritual growth. They are broken down into
four categories; commitment, repentance, activity and spiritual
community.
He notes that most churches in America encourage
congregations to engage in religious activities, which is good, but they
are not the only answer to spiritual growth. “While growth in worship, discipleship, stewardship, service, study
and other activities is important, people often fail to realize the end
game of spiritual development is godly character, not worldly
accomplishments,” Barna said.
...
He
concludes that more than three out of four Christians (78 percent)
strongly agreed that spirituality is very important to them.
...
Another challenge
Barna found in the issue of spiritual maturity is the ability to embrace
sacrifice and suffering in order to surrender and submit fully to God.
He said Christians must grow through brokenness during sacrifice. "But churches," he said, "find this unappealing."
...
A third
challenge to spiritual maturity listed by Barna is the importance of
perceiving a faith community or church as a vital support system in the
pursuit of a deeper relationship with God.
Bible
study, prayer, and life sharing activities, in or outside the worship
building, are relied upon by conventional churches as a means of
creating community and a sense of connection to the church.
The goal of these groups is usually about knowledge and comfort instead of commitment and application.
Barna's survey involved a national random sample of adults (18 or older) selected from across the 48 continental states.
********************
Please click HERE to read the entire article...
A Urantia Book quotes - food for thought:
170:3.2
Though Jesus taught that faith, simple childlike belief, is the key to
the door of the kingdom, he also taught that, having entered the door,
there are the progressive steps of righteousness which every believing
child must ascend in order to grow up to the full stature of the robust
sons of God.
193:2.2 Increasingly, must
you yield the fruits of the spirit as you progress heavenward in the
kingdom of God. You may enter the kingdom as a child, but the Father
requires that you grow up, by grace, to the full stature of spiritual
adulthood.
195:10.5
In winning souls for the Master, it is not the first mile of
compulsion, duty, or convention that will transform man and his world,
but rather the second
mile of free service and liberty-loving devotion
that betokens the Jesusonian reaching forth to grasp his brother in
love and sweep him on under spiritual guidance toward the higher and
divine goal of mortal existence. Christianity
even now willingly goes the first
mile, but mankind languishes and stumbles along in moral darkness
because there are so few genuine second-milers—so few
professed followers of Jesus who really live and love as he taught his
disciples to live and love and serve.
And - here is our topical study containing Urantia Book teachings about CHARACTER
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Fri, June 17, 2011
USA misses Top 10 countries in 'happiness rating'
By
Cathy Lynn Grossman
Is happiness really all that? It depends on how you define it.
The business writers at 24/7 Wall St.
have modified a new "Better Life" index, with its multiple measures
including "life satisfaction," and added their own economic and
political measures. The result is a Top 10 happy countries list that
doesn't include the USA.
...Given
our current malaise about the economy, and our long-standing sense of
rampant individualism, is it any surprise that an index that gives high
scores for the cultural concept of a social safety net leaves the USA
out of the top ranking?
Among the top findings, folks doing the happiness dance live in places where they...:
...
Get loads of social services without having to work too hard. Having
abundant natural resources, a thriving services sector and a fairly
homogeneous population helps as well.
... support employment, education and make health care widely available.
... have a good balance of work and leisure time.
So
that explains why you see No. 6 Sweden where folks don't seem to break a
sweat, but not the workaholic folks of Japan and South Korea. Economics
and instability rule out Latin America, southern and eastern Europe,
Asia and much of the Middle East. The out-lier here is Israel, weighing
in at No. 9 on the strength of its score for "household wealth" despite
some fairly low life satisfaction scores.
So who's happiest?
The Ten Countries With The Happiest People,
"most of which have bought and paid for prosperity because their
economies have allowed them to do so," begins with No. 1 Denmark and
continues in order of rank to Canada, Norway, Australia, the
Netherlands, Sweden, Switzerland, Finland, Israel and Austria.
The
Danish are always topping such lists despite not having the highest
scores in many areas. However, they note, this is a country where folks
all think someone's got their back:
Danes
have one of the strongest senses of friendship and community, with 97
percent reporting they had someone other than a family member that they
could rely on. Danish culture and government policy is one of the most
leisure-friendly. Denmark's citizens spend more than 16 hours each week
on leisure time, the second-highest rate in the OECD. The government
also subsidizes a full year of maternity leave.
Note -- no mention of religion or spirituality here. Does God or faith or spirituality have an influence on happiness?
*****************
Please click HERE to access the complete article
And for a thumbnail look at Urantia Book teachings on happiness, click HERE
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