Vote to Change theCulture in America

Network of Spiritual Progressives

Replace a Culture of Materialism andSelfishness with a Culture of Love and Generosity

WhatAmericaNeeds in 2008

If we are to heal the crises of war, violence, injustice,ecological devastationandextremepoverty in theUnitedStatesand around the world, we need a new kind of political

conversation.

In our current political debates, it is taken for granted that ourhighest goals should be unlimited economic growth for the coun-try andpersonal prosperity for individuals. Institutions, legislation,and social practices are evaluatedaccording tohowthey serve thesegoals, how they maximize our material wealth and our power toprotect it from those who would take it from us. This is the old

Bottom Line. What counts in this cul-ture iswhat canbe counted,measured,and used to increase our materialwell-being.

This deep assumption, which ispresent not only in our politics but inalmost every aspect of our lives, has ledto the triumph of greed, materialism,and selfishness. Thisme-firstism playsout in our lives in destructive andpainfulways andhas contributed to thedestruction of our environment andthe acceleration of global climatechange.

We have lost our ability to value each other and the natural worldas embodiments of the sacred, or, in secular terms, as inherentlyvaluable and worthy. Instead we learn to see others, at best, interms of how they can help us get ahead, and at worst, as com-petitors for everything from jobs to love to space on theovercrowded freeways. The price ofmaterial success, it seems, is aBr

ianJensen

certain amount ofalienation from othersand from nature. Then,when that materialsuccess proves ulti-mately unsatisfying, welack an alternate frameofmeaning for our lives.

The speed at which we feel we need to live, coupled with amaterialist worldview, flattens our experience of the world. Themedia intensifies thiswith reality shows that glory in participants’backbiting and ruthless pursuit of their own interests. Electionsare coveredas ahorse race inwhichwe learnalmostnothingaboutwhat the candidates really think about the issues, but only aboutwho is leading in the polls or who has pulled what dirty trick onwhom. Evening news shows flatten life further with scriptedbanter between the anchor-people, which reflects an innerdeadness that we are supposed to accept as “real.”

Phoniness surrounds us and presents itself as the only reality.Thosewhowish for joy, celebrationof the grandeurof theuniverse,loving connectionswith others, and a community ofmeaning andpurpose often feel driven to the margins. Many people feel theyhave to keep to themselves how alienated they feel under ourcurrent political and social systems. It is no coincidence thatdepression, numbness, loneliness, and anxiety are rampant. Weare suffering fromasociety-wide repressionofwhatmightbe calledthe life force, God-energy, or Spirit.

To address this deep spiritual crisis, we need a president andpolitical leaders who are unashamed to talk and act from acommitment to a New Bottom Line of love, caring, kindness,compassion, generosity, environmental sanity, and awe andwonder at the grandeur of the universe.Af

fordableIllustrationSource

/Images.com

Our next president and our Senatorsand Representatives should encour-age the recognition that there isenough, that we can afford to share,and that slowing down and actingfrom love, gratitude, awe, andwonderis actually more satisfying than thefreneticmaterial consumption that isdestroyingour environment.Weneedleadership that can inspire theAmerican people and the people ofthe world with that sensibility, and

with the recognition that our ownwell-beingdepends on thewell-being of everyone else on the planet andof the health of the planetitself. More than someonewho is just charismatic,weneeda leaderwho is committed to this NewBottomLine consciousness.

We need a leadership that can challenge the fundamentalassumption that domination of theworld is a goodway to achievesecurity, and instead advocate for a Strategy of Generosity,recognizing that it is through caring for other people around theworld andeliminating their suffering thatwearemost likely todryup the cesspools of despair, anger, and rage, fromwhich terroristsare able to recruit their suicide bombers.

The followingquestionsmaybeuseful in locatingthe right candidates for those leadership roles.

1. Resolving theWar in Iraq:Howwould your Iraq policy fosterreconciliation among Iraqis and show genuine concern for theirwell-being while bringing our own soldiers home quickly? TheNSPproposes that all furtherwar fundingbe focusedexclusively onbringing home all troops. Would your policy accomplish that, orwould it de facto leave tens of thousands of “advisors” or “pre-positioned forces” inKurdistanorneighboring countries?Howwillyou ensure that the rebuilding of Iraq is done in ways that bestBr

unoBudrovic

protect the interests of Shi’ites, Sunnis andKurds, and how will you withstand thecorporate pressure to maintain majorcontrol over Iraq’s oil resources and oilprofits?Would you issue a public apologyto the people of Iraq on behalf of theAmerican people for the damage we haveinflicted in the past years?

2. Strong Families: How would youchallenge the selfishness,materialismand“looking out for number one” in oureconomy and in our society that under-mine loving family relationships? Howwould you seek to support loving, healthyfamilies?

3. Environment: Will you develop proposals and policies todeepen people’s connection to and appreciation of the earth,including making the fostering of such appreciation part of ourpublic school curricula? Are you willing to propose plans thatwould limit over-consumptionof theworld’s resources (water, food,energy sources and other aspects of the global commons) andprotect them from ownership and exploitation for private profit?Can you imagine any way to use your elected position to begin toheal the crisis in meaning that has caused so many Americans toturn to consumerismandmaterialism to feed their hunger and fillthe void created by selfishness and spiritual deadness?

4.HealthCare: At a very basic level, Americans believe in takingcare of each other and each other’s families. Guaranteeing healthcare for everyonewould be a beautiful way tomanifest that caringas a nation, yet the profit-hungry healthcare industry inhibits ourability to do that. How would you help us make sure that everysingle American gets the health care he or she needs?Would yousupport efforts to direct our health care system to pay greaterattention to theways that people’s emotional,mental, and spiritualwell being affect their physical health?MarkWeber

5. Education:Would you support legislation aimed at requiringschools to teach students to be socially, ethically, and ecologicallyresponsible, and todevelop students’ capacities to care for others, aswell as to teachacademic skills?Howwouldyourplanhelp to fosterthemoral and spiritual sensitivity and imagination of the next gen-erationrather thanencouragingschools to focus exclusivelyontrain-ing students to dowell on standardized tests?

6. Poverty and Homeland Security: The poverty suffered by somany people both here and around the world is a source of greatpain and anger. Do you agree that a United States that demon-strates generosity and care toward the world would ultimately besafer andmore secure than aUnitedStates that devotes its foreignpolicy exclusively to maintaining its status as “number one” inthe world?

We are advocating for a Strategy of Generosity as an alternative toour current Strategy of Domination. As part of this Strategy ofGenerosity, would you support a Global Marshall Plan to allocate1-2% of our gross domestic product each year for the next twentyyears to endingglobal anddomesticpoverty and inadequatehealthcare and education and to healing the environment? Do you

PaulLachine

believe that this is the primary way to provide safety, or do youintend to fund new wars in Iran, Pakistan, Afghanistan or othercountries to continue awar on terrorism?What specificallywouldit take for you to agree that the war on terror is over?

Will you protect the human dignity even of those who aresuspected of a crime or of being an enemy combatant, prohibitingtorture, physical pressure, waterboarding or denial of the rights ofhabeas corpus and a speedy trial?What specifically will you do tostrengthen civil liberties, human rights, and protection of ourcitizens from infringement of our privacy by corporations and bygovernment related agencies?

7.SocialResponsibility:Webelieve thatmanyof thepeople lead-ing corporations actually want to be socially responsible but arelimited indoing soby their responsibility tomaximize shareholderprofitwithout regard to societal consequences.Howcanwedevisepolicies that empower such leaders to act on their principles andthat affirm that shareholders themselves oftenhave concerns aboutthe social and moral consequences of their investments? Forexample, we have suggested legislation that would require everylarge corporation (income over $50 million/year) to get a newcharter every tenyears,with the charterbeinggrantedonly to thosecorporations that could prove a satisfactory history of socialKeyWilde

responsibility to a jury of ordinary citizens.Would you support thislegislation? Do you believe that the “free market,” based as it is inan inequitable distribution of money and hence of inequitable“consumerpower” aboutwhat is tobeproduced, shouldbe theonlymechanism for shaping production of goods?

8. Modeling Personal Responsibility: How can you, yourcampaign, and your staff model what it means to care for others?TheNSPhas called for electedofficials and their staffs to give a fewhours during eachworkweek to hands-on service to the needy, forexample in a soup kitchen or homeless shelter. Would you takethis on?

9.MeaningandPurpose:Do you agree that the economy shouldnot only increase financialwealth but also provideways for peopleto contribute to some highermeaning and purpose? Inwhatwayswould you give priority to resisting our society’s tendency to valuehuman beings primarily in terms of what societal, economic, orsexual needs they can serve? What steps will you take to makepolitics about meaning more than about large monied interests?Will you support electoral reform to eliminate the influence ofmoney and incumbency, replace the Electoral College with thepopular vote, require freemedia time for candidates, ban politicaladvertising, and fully equalize the possibilities of ordinary citizensrunning for office even though they do not have the backing ofcorporate interests?

10.Values in thePublicSphere:Manyof us have worried that openlysupporting values in the publicsphere violates the separation ofchurch and state. This hesitancehas cleared the way for the valuesof the market—profit, competi-tion, narrow self-interest—todominate our common life. Howwould you bring a values-basedSt

ockbyte

moral voice into the public square, affirming that the creation of aloving and caring society is a legitimate purpose of governmentalaction as the expression of the caring impulse of the people?

ANote onElections andPolitical Pundits

In the coming months, you willhear the media, political pundits,bloggers, and the mavens of thepolitical parties refer to certaincandidates as “realistic,” “prag-matic,” “knows how governmentworks,” “electable,” “not toopartisan,” or “savvy.”

Beware the weight placed on theselabels. They are shorthand for“willing to accept thebasic contoursof economic and political power,”even as they work for some limitedbut valuable reforms. The labels

urge candidates to staywithin the limitations of what is instead ofreaching for what might be. In many of our religious traditions,such fixation—“being realistic” and accepting the way thingsalready have been set up in ourworldwhile ignoring the transfor-mative power of God—is called idolatry.

The truth is that a candidate who courageously speaks to ourdistress at the selfishly manipulative way people treat each otherand the earthwill get voters’ attention in awayno candidatehas indecades. If that candidate can then point theway tomaximizing ameaningful life rather than justmaximizingmaterial success, thatcandidate will be electable. By moving beyond the normal rangeof political discourse and addressing the pain and frustrationgenerated by the spiritual and ethical crisis in American society, aRo

bColvin

spiritually progressive candidate canbecomemore viable than themore traditional politicians who stay within the box of conven-tional political discourse.

The Network of Spiritual Progressives has developed a SpiritualCovenant with America that might be a starting point for such aplatform. The Spiritual Covenant can be downloaded fromwww.spiritualprogressives.org . We offer this covenant in a spiritof humility while standing steadfast in our call for a new bottomline of love and caring.

If you are excited about this new vision, please join the Networkof Spiritual Progressives! You can help us spread these ideas. Usethe elections to challenge the conventionalways of thinking aboutpolitics. Don’t waste your money, time and energy backingcandidates who don’t really support your highest ideals andvision of a healthy society. If you can’t find a candidate tosupport, consider becoming a candidate yourself and running onthese ideas. Become amember of theNSPby visiting ourwebsiteand clicking on “Join &Donate.”

Todd

Davidson

What You Can Do Toward a Meaningful 2008 Election

Become a Delegate to Your Party’s National Convention and/or Run for Public Office Usingour Spiritual Covenant with America as the Foundation for your CampaignOrdinary citizens with good ideas can sometimes beat establishment candidates who have all themoney. Butrun even if you can’t win—it can be a great opportunity to speak about these ideas. Contact Nichola Torbett

(Nichola@tikkun.org) formore information.

Attend Candidate Forums and Ask QuestionsCandidatesneedtohearquestions framedfromthespiritualprogressiveperspective inorder tobecomefamiliarwith these ideas. Take this guidewith youwhenyougo to candidate forumsand raise thesequestions, or sendthese questions to the campaigns of candidates you are considering and let them know you represent theNetwork of Spiritual Progressives.

Contact Campaigns and Ask QuestionsLikewise, youcansendthesequestions to the campaignsofcandidatesyouareconsideringand let themknowyourepresent theNetworkofSpiritualProgressives. If enoughpeopledo this, candidateswill begin to respond.

Write Letters to the EditorLook for articles in your local newspaper about the issues mentioned in this guide, and write letters to theeditor articulating this perspective on the issues.

Vote for Your Highest VisionEspecially in theprimary races,peoplewill try to talkyou intosacrificingyourvalues to the“electability”debate.Support the candidate who best articulates your highest vision for the future. If enough of us vote for thecandidateswho stand for our values, those candidates become electable.

Start a Spiritual Caucus in Your Political PartyA caucus is a group of people dedicated to a common set of issues or shared vision. You can start one aroundtheperspectives articulated in this brochure. Visitwww.spiritualprogressives.org andclick onGet Involved formore information.

Invite People to a House PartyMany of the people you know have never heard a spiritual progressive perspective on the issues facingAmerica. Youcan raise the issues in this booklet as focus for theconversation, and/or youcanshowoneof thevideo clips we have on our website. You could also combine this conversation with a campaign debate-watching party. Then get people to go to their local city councils to get them to endorse parts of the SpiritualCovenantwith America (see ourwebsite).

Join the NSPSupport our work in getting these ideas into the public sphere! Go towww.spiritualprogressives.org, and click“Join andDonate.”While you are on ourwebsite, look for a chapter near you, or let us knowyou’d like to beginone.We’ll help you get started.

Distribute this brochure to your neighbors and coworkers. Free copies—call (510) 644-1200.

The Network of Spiritual Progressives is a national interfaithorganization dedicated to a fundamental shift from fear anddomination to love and generosity in our institutions, publicpolicies, and social practices. Please join us and contribute tospreading this way of thinking!

www.spiritualprogressives.orginfo@spiritualprogressives.org

Call (510) 644-1200NSP, 2342 Shattuck Ave, Suite 1200, Berkeley, California 94704