Many of the world’s religious leaders in attendance at the
\nParliament of World Religions taking place in Melbourne, Australia,
\nare in partial mourning for the dream of a new world that President
\nObama promised, and decisively torpedoed in his announcement of major
\nescalation of military forces in Afghanistan.
For political
\nactivists, the issue is often framed in terms of Obama’s failure to
\nlearn the lessons of Vietnam: one cannot win a war against a
\npopulation that has been fighting for many decades for its own
\nindependence. No matter what America’s stated war aims, the people of
\nAfghanistan perceive the American military presence as generating far
\nmore violence and destruction than they faced before the U.S. got
\ninvolved.
For feminists anxious to protect the rights of
\nwomen, the capitulation to Islamic fundamentalism in its treatment and
\ndenial of rights to women by the current Afghani government which
\nAmerica is pledged to support undermines any picture of the US actually
\nproviding a long-term strategy that would defend women’s rights.
And
\nfor working and poor people in the US who are told that serious health
\ncare reform would not only hurt the interests of the health insurance
\ncorporations and the medical profiteers (poor dears!) but also increase
\nthe deficit at a time when it must be reduced, the willingness to put
\nhundreds of billions of dollars into war making with the deficit
\nsuddenly forgotten makes many wonder about distorted priorities once
\nagain.
For the religious leaders of the world assembled in
\nMelbourne Australia for the Parliament, all these issues are quite
\nsalient. Yet what comes most directly to mind for many is the
\nfundamental warp in the Obama Administration’s understanding of what
\ncould actually succeed in providing homeland security.
One
\nreason many global religious leaders celebrated the outcome of the 2008
\nelection was the perception fostered by the Obama campaign that the new
\nPresident really understood that militarism and the use of force to
\nachieve American objectives should be relegated to the dustbin of
\nhistory, at least until every non-violent strategy has been
\nexhaustively tried. We believed we had heard a clear message that Obama
\nrecognized the need to end global poverty and the suffering it has
\ngenerated as the first step that must be given time to work before
\nmilitary options are embraced.
That approach was given teeth by
\nthe vice chair of the Progressive Caucus of the House of
\nRepresentatives, Keith Ellison, who has worked with the Network of
\nSpiritual Progressives to develop a Domestic and Global Marshall Plan
\n(DGMP). The DGMP would have the US take the leadership in bringing the
\nadvanced industrial societies of the world to commit 1-2% of their
\nGross Domestic Product each year for the next twenty to once and for
\nall end global poverty, homelessness, hunger, inadequate education
\ninadequate health care, and to repair the global environment.
It
\nseemed obvious to religious leaders that the meltdown of the global
\neconomy and the obvious role played by the ethos of selfishness and
\nmaterialism presented the new President with a once in a lifetime
\nopportunity to remake the global economy in ways that would
\nredistribute wealth to the poor, thereby generating the very consumer
\ndemands that could rebuild the global marketplace by taking the monies
\nthat were not being spent and putting it in the hands of those whose
\nimmediate needs for food, clothing, housing and basic material needs
\nwould generate a global economic revival and end unemployment.
But
\nthe only way that could happen would be for the Obama Administration to
\nhave put its full energy behind a new approach to homeland security.
\nObama would have had to teach Americans that lasting security could
\ncome from generosity, whereas the strategy of domination of others had
\nproved futile and a guaranteed loser.
Even when Obama started
\npouring trillions into the hands of Wall Street banks and investment
\nfirms there was still a hope in the religious world that he would
\nremain faithful to the peace-oriented insights he had articulated
\nduring his campaign.
No wonder then that the global religious
\nleaders convening in Melbourne are expressing dismay to each other.
\nThey have long known what Obama seems not yet to have absorbed in a
\nserious way: that the path to peace must be a path of peace, and that
\nyou cannot bomb and kill your way to security. This simple insight is
\nthe one thing shared by most of the world’s religious traditions, and
\nit is to testify to the path of peace that thousands of religious
\nleaders are assembled here to affirm a truth that Obama and the world
\nmust take seriously,.
Rabbi Michael Lerner is editor of Tikkun
\nMagazine www.tikkun.org, chair of the Network of Spiritual Progressives
\nwww.spiritualprogressives.org, and rabbi of Beyt Tikkun Synagogue in
\nSan Francisco, California. He is the author of 11 books, most recently
\nThe Left Hand of God (Harper San Francisco, 2006) a national best
\nseller in the U.S.
If you agree with this perspective:<\/p>\n
1. Send this to everyone you know<\/p>\n
2. Attend the Tikkun Conference to “Support Obama to BE the Obama
\nAmericans Voted For” *in San Francisco, University of San Francisco,
\nmini-conference, President’s Day, Monday, February 15, 2010 *in
\nWashington D.C. Full conference June 11-14, 2010. Put aside the
\ndates now. More info:
\nhttp:\/\/www.spiritualprogressives.org\/article.php?story=june2010conference<\/a><\/p>\n