OPINION: Spiritually Bypassing Politics?
OPINION: Spiritually Bypassing Politics?
By Vajra Ma
**For the purposes of this discussion I am not distinguishing between religion which is based in dogma and spirituality which is largely free from specified beliefs. Both come under the umbrella of a world view, that is, who are we, what is Life about, what are we here on Earth for and what is our place in the Cosmos?
The Spiritual is Political
“The personal is political” is a well known phrase in feminism. I go further. I maintain “the spiritual is political.” The spiritual view of a people is what determines politics. It determines the structures of government, corporations, academia, society overall, including family, sexuality, and human rights. To see how the spiritual is political one need only look at the Project 2025 agenda which is rolling out in the United States today, roundly supported by the right wing Christian evangelicals and the right wing Republicans in Congress. The agenda is to dismantle the government and turn the United States into a Christian Nationalist Nation. This is not my opinion, it is a fact. The slimmest of research into the Project 2025 makes this clear. It is no secret.
Treat and Move Your Feet
A phrase used in some spiritual circles is “treat and move your feet.” Treat meaning pray, move your feet means take outward action. What does it mean for me to move my feet? It is one thing to have been apolitical in the past, quite another to be apolitical at this pivotal point in United States history when democracy is being dismantled and fascism established. (If the reader does not recognize fascism when it’s happening, please educate yourself.) (1) Spiritual bypassing at this time enables fascism. Silence is consent. Lest one say “my prayers are not silence,” I say if we aren’t moving our feet, we’re spiritual bypassing. “Treat and move your feet.”
This and That
Can I live the loving, neutral Divine Principle of Oneness while moving my feet in response to divisive and rancorous worldly circumstances? Yes. To do so, I employ the perspective of “this and that” rather than the polarized “this or that.” To treat only would mean one does not move their feet in the relative (human, 3D) world. The equivalent in the health area would be if one were ill and treated only with prayer, firmly denying the use of medicine or medical procedures. That denial is the stance of Christian Scientists. But most of us are not Christian Scientists and are not bound by their dogma. We can encompass this and that.
SOM Philosophy
Ernest Holmes, the founder of Science of Mind was originally influenced by Christian Science. He eventually broke from that rigid doctrine as he developed the SOM philosophy which synthesizes what he called “the Golden Thread of Truth”–universal principles of love, creative power and oneness woven through all world religions, philosophies, and even science. Holmes came to say if a pill gives relief by all means take a pill. In other words, treat and move our feet.
The Point is to Traumatize
I wonder, would an Ernest Holmes or anyone of his universal world view advise us to pray but not move our feet in response to the current violations of the U.S. Constitution? The violations of due process, court orders, habeas corpus, rule of law? Would he counsel us to be silent about the brutality playing out visibly on our streets on both undocumented immigrants and US citizens? How ought we to respond when a pastor looks up at the armed ICE agents on top of a building and preaches the words of Jesus to them with his arms wide open, to which they shoot him in the head with a pepper ball, knocking him to the ground? What ought we do when a man drives up to day care to drop off his toddler but is grabbed by ICE agents, his child crying “Papa! Papa! Please don’t take my Papa!” and the child is put alone in a separate police car and driven away? Even if they are reunited, the terror has been done. Terrorism is the point. Multiply this by many thousands. (Russell Vought, a main architect of Project 2025 said, in a leaked video a year before Trump was re-elected, “We will traumatize the federal employees.” They did. And are.) Their aim is to detain and deport millions. Detention centers are being built across the country. Silence is consent.
Informing Ourselves
I believe to be a responsible citizen, particularly at this time, requires due diligence to at least inform ourselves about what is going on. To not be informed about violations such as those mentioned above and to not speak up in any form about them, how could that be anything but spiritual bypassing? Being informed is the first and irreplaceable step in moving our feet. Being informed is not burdensome. Written blogs can take no more than five minutes a day. My top six recommended blogs and other sources (any one of which is sufficient) are:
1) Heather Cox Richardson — Cannot recommend her too highly! Articulate, grounded, super-informed professional U.S. historian. A daily five-minute-read email newsletter. Plus up-to-date YouTube videos if one prefers spoken word. What I love about her is she correlates what’s happening today with what has happened in past U.S. history. I find this fascinating and affirmative. Her perspective gives me scope, hope and vision without diluting the gravitas of what is going on in our country. Dare I quote the Bible? “Without vision the people perish.”
2) What the Fuck Just Happened Today (WTFJHT). This daily five-minute email read is a condensed digest of U.S. politics. Fully documented with links. Top of the digest summarizes the contents in a single paragraph and that one minute alone is enough to keep apprised.
3 Ground News. https://ground.news/ “Top Stories from around the world. Compare how different news publishers frame the same news. Read the news from multiple perspectives…See through media bias…”
4) Marianne Williamson Brilliant, clear weaving of spirituality with responsible citizenship. Available on Substack dot com or email newsletter, includes video versions.
5) Meidas Touch Network An independent media on YouTube with nearly six million subscribers. It won a Webby Award. The Trump administration is trying to close it down. Videos on YouTube or blog form via meidastouch@substack.com
6) The incomparable Rachel Maddow also gives us scope, hope and vision, with entertaining story telling. Monday nights on MS Now. Plus her documentaries–Ultra and Ultra Two which trace the origins of Trump’s “America First” motto. The original “America First” movement during World War II, which included several Congress members, advocated supporting Hitler. Her latest documentary, Burn Order, which came out just this month reveals the parallels between the incarceration of Japanese U.S. citizens during World War II and what’s happening to immigrants today.
Time and Means
We have the time and means to stop fascism in this country. We’ve done it before. Heather and Rachel have shown us this. We can move the feet of the fascists to the fire! We can adhere to the Constitution and evolve our democracy into “a more perfect union.” But the time and means are short. The time is NOW to treat–and move our feet.
Recommended reading: The End of America: Letters of Warning to a Young Patriot, by Naomi Wolf, (Chelsea Green Publishing, 2007. Contains the ten planks of the fascist playbook. Every one is plainly visible in the U.S, today.)
