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Rabbi and psychiatrist, editor of the provocative and progressive Jewish journal Tikkun, partner with Sr. Joan Chittester in spearheading an organi­zation called ‘Spiritual Progressives’, Michael Lerner throws down a challenge to all Americans in this timely and insightful book. He sees our society torn between a political/religious con­servatism that “threatens to destroy the America we love” and “the current mis­guided, visionless, and often spiritually empty politics of the Left” (p. 1).

Lerner sees the political/religious landscape in terms of two variant views of the divine mystery. The aspect of the sacred that he calls the “Left Hand of God” is built upon “the loving, kind and generous energy in the universe”. This stands in contrast to those who see God as the great avenger and whose universe is “a fundamentally scary place filled with evil forces”. This is the view he calls the “Right Hand of God” (p. 2).

Lerner’s purpose is not to bash either the Republicans or the Religious Right. He wants to attract the largest possible number of people to the Left Hand of God because it represents “the healthy, hope-filled position of human beings” (p. 32). He also wants to share this vision because he believes it can help Americans to realize that the Religious Right does not own God, religion, and morality.

Lerner observes that “more and more children grow up to be narcis­sistic and self-indulgent, believing that their highest mission on the planet is to accumulate as much money, power, and social status as possible...” (p. 58). He is concerned that there is no viable spiri­tual vision and program either for these young people or for the adults from whom they have learned to see life this way. There is only the incessant voice of the Religious Right, framing religion according to its own agenda. And this is primarily why Lerner is concerned to offer an alternative voice and an alter­native vision. But this voice and vision cannot come from a liberal platform that looks from most perspectives to be godless, amoral and elitist. Somehow the liberal agenda must be infused with an authentic spiritual content.

Lerner believes that it is important for the American people to know that the choice they face is not between religion and secularism (i.e. a philosophy of live devoid of any spiritual content or referent) but “between the Right Hand and the Left Hand of God” (p. 83). In our current situation the Right Hand is prevailing, partially because it complements the reign­ing paradigm of fear created by the tragedy of 9/11. But another reason for this hyper­trophy of fear-based religion is the simple lack of any viable alternative.

At this point in the development of his thesis, the Democrats come on stage. Lerner claims that “Democrats and their allies will continue to lose elections until they become open to understanding the inherent value of a spiritual vision of the world...” (p. 100). He asserts that unless the Democrats are able to incorporate a spiritual vision into their platform they will never win an election. Americans often vote for candidates who do noth­ing to help them economically or politi­cally. But they vote for them because they believe that these candidates some­how have God on their side. As he expresses it, “...the Left will remain politically vulnerable until it is no longer perceived as anti-God and as sneering at the religions and spiritual aspirations of the American people” (p. 125).

Lerner unpacks a great deal of the history that has brought us to this impasse. An analysis of this history, even in summary form, would carry us far beyond the limits of a review. Consequently, we will move to the latter third of the book to consider Lerner’s remedy for this political/religious mala­dy. It is, in brief, a covenant proposal, a spiritual covenant with America.

Covenant may well be the most important concept in biblical theology. The Latin word for covenant is testamen­tum and the Christian Bible consists of an “old” and a “new” testament. The God of the Bible is a covenant-making God, one who reaches out to human beings to invite and involve them in a cooperative, co-creative enterprise to create a world of justice and peace. What better place then to begin to dig ourselves out of the hole we are in than by declaring, sharing, and living a spiritual covenant.

The covenant begins with a pream­ble involving a rejection of the “bottom line” mentality that currently governs much of our decision making, “...eco­nomic and political arrangements that have allowed selfishness and materialism to shape too many aspects of our lives” (p. 228). This rejection is coupled with a positive commitment to a set of spiri­tual values: “love, generosity, kindness, responsibility, respect, gratitude, humil­ity, honesty, awe, and wonder at the grandeur of the universe” (p. 229).]

The first part of the covenant is with American families. “All families deserve a living wage, full employment, afford­able high-quality child care, affordable health care, access to excellent educa­tion, starting with preschool, and flex­ible work schedules” (p. 229). This basic affirmation is complemented by a commitment to create a family-friendly culture, understanding family in all its current manifestations, including single-parent families and gay/lesbian families.

The second part of the covenant con-cerns personal responsibility. Whatever may be going on at higher levels of gov-ernmental and religious structures beyond our immediate control, “we promise to live with integrity, joy, honesty, kindness, openheartedness, compassion, forgive-ness, and generosity” (p. 231). At a time when so many Americans succumb to the victim’s posture, asserting that everything is beyond their control, this covenant challenges us both to be informed about what is happening in the world around us and “to join with others to fund and sup-port spiritual communities that embody our values” (p. 232).

The third part of the covenant deals with social responsibility, including an amendment to the Constitution requir­ing corporations to apply for a new corporate charter every ten years. This would require all corporations to operate at a level where they can demonstrate “to a jury of ordinary citizens a satis­factory record of social responsibility” (p. 233). The thrust of this part of the covenant is to “break through the social disconnection that traps so many people in loneliness and alienation” (p. 322). This requires the cultivation of a way of looking at life in America that under­stands and respects the lives and needs of everyone living in this country: the poor, the handicapped, those in prisons, the undocumented immigrants, and all those who are typically marginalized, misun­derstood, unappreciated, and neglected.

The fourth part of the covenant calls for a values-based educational system. Education, in other words, includes val-ues as well as facts, skills for making a life as well as skills for making a living. We have experienced a reductionism in which being is understood as doing and doing means nothing more than monetary com-pensation. “What do you want to be when you grow up?” comes to mean “What do you want to do when you grow up?” and “What do you want to do when you grow up?” is translated as “How much money do you want to make when you grow up?” Countering this bottom-line think-ing challenges us to create an educational environment where values are important and students learn “to cooperate as well as compete” (p. 234).

The fifth part of the covenant deals with health care. It’s amazing to realize that Germany has had national health care since 1848 while most Americans are still debating its benefits. “Everyone deserves affordable health care.” It’s that basic and that simple; there are no exceptions. Lerner favors a “single-payer system that allows us to choose our doc­tors, hospitals, and treatments...” (p. 235). He also emphasizes that a holistic view of health is many-faceted, includ­ing physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual health.

The sixth part of the covenant tar-gets environmental stewardship. “We will joyously preserve and protect the earth and will seek to reverse the damage done through ignorance and irresponsibility” (p. 235). This will entail rewarding the environmentally-friendly efforts of indi-viduals and corporations. It will also mean creating an international system of ethical consumption that will recog-nize environmental responsibility at every level of producing and marketing food products and other consumer goods.

The seventh part of the covenant commits us to the creation of a safer world. It means understanding that “our well-being as Americans is intrinsically tied to the well-being of everyone else on this planet” (p. 236). Lerner supports a “Global Marshall Plan”, dedicating part of our GDP each year to the elimina-tion of social problems facing human beings anywhere in the world. It is only this kind of positive action that will make it more difficult for terrorists to recruit young people angry and resent-ful enough to die in a struggle against the United States as an arrogant empire, unable to see beyond its national inter-ests. Lerner recommends strengthening the International Court of Justice, end-ing the use of torture when it serves our purposes, and replacing all American troops in Iraq with “an internation-al force that will conduct a plebiscite among all three ethnic communities to determine whether and how they stay together as one country or become inde-pendent states” (p. 237).

The eighth and final part of the covenant deals with the separation of church, state, and science. “We seek to keep religion out of government and government out of religion, and both out of science” (p. 238). Lerner wants to protect religion from governmental interference, as well as from those who try to frame religion as restricted to a particular interpretation. He also wants science to be unhindered in curing dis-ease and “increasing human well-being in ways that are ecologically sustainable and life sustaining” (p. 239).

Lerner affirms that “a spiritual poli-tics based on these eight covenants will provide a new vision and a powerful message, the message of the Left Hand of God”. It will mean that when voters are looking for a candidate or platform providing spiritual vision and purpose, they will not be restricted to voting for a member of the Religious Right. All Americans will realize that they have a choice and that the choice really does make a difference.

 

Dr. Ron Miller is Chair of the Religion Department, Lake Forest College, Lake Forest, Illinois. He is Co-Founder of Common Ground and Reviews Editor for Interreligious Insight.