Like other levels of development on the spiral of consciousness (such as warrior, traditional, modern) the postmodern level of consciousness carries its own set of dignities and disasters. What I will attempt to do in this post is mention some ideas I have centered around one of its plusses, even though this simultaneously means the possibility that some will no doubt miss the point and reply with an entire litany of minuses (oh the joy of blogging!).

Dialogue or ‘conversation’ (a word, thanks to my friend Brian McLaren, that is all the rage within some sectors of discussion today) is important in just about every area of life I can conceive of. It’s an important element in all relationships, be they familial, political, spiritual, religious or educational. And it seems that all good dialogue demands a certain degree of openness about or sensitivity toward the idea that none of us knows everything – even within the universe of what we ‘think’ we may know – and THAT, I’m suggesting, is the cornerstone of dialogue. It’s called ‘humility.’

Since mine is a world of research, I’m often staggered at the thought of what I don’t know and sometimes dismayed at what I thought I knew that, as it turned out, I really didn’t. But this is a good thing – something that’s good for all of us – because it alters or should alter the way we converse with others. At a minimum it seems it should inspire us to err toward the side of congeniality.

As I flit through the blogging world I’m often disappointed in the real lack of conversation taking place. A lot of people seem to be speaking past one another, missing the point of posts only to latch onto pet-peeves or to indulge in the art of scapegoating, demonization of others or weaving wild speculative conspiratorial theories. Perhaps it’s the anonymity of the internet beast itself that is to blame for occasional episodes of disrespectfulness that seem to squirm their way out of us before we could catch our tongue  – a forum to vent or rage in ways we’d never do in person. I’m sure I’ve been guilty of this, how ’bout you?

In light of the enormity of the world’s problems, this is unfortunate. If ever there were a time to sit down and talk things through, to share ideas – even ones that require us to be vulnerable – I think that time is now.

So much war. So much killing. So much violence and hatred and bigotry. It’s time for an alter call of humility and graciousness.

Here’s hoping for a world of peaceful dialogue!

I was reflecting on my ‘real’ job which is peace and reconciliation via The David Group International. Specifically I am evaluating plans for a fall meeting in the Middle East. It may or may not happen, but just the idea of it triggered a plethora of thoughts in my mind.

Governments are corrupt. Often to the core. What a shocking statement, eh?

There are times when, while looking at the big picture of anything from corporate greed leading to the abuse of third world countries to political and geo-political war games, power struggles, egoic madness, et.al, that I’m tempted to say that things are relatively hopeless regarding justice for what has become the nameless/faceless masses of earth’s citizenry.

It takes a while to talk myself down from these episodes – usually a good long cigar and a bit of Frangelico helps – added to that a very large dose of ‘just do what you can do and leave God’s business to God’ and eventually I rebound again.

But today, for whatever reason, I couldn’t get past these political statements of ‘regret’ put out by the U.S. over such issues as the recent Gaza blockade debacle where innocents (one of them a U.S. citizen) are slaughtered – yes, I believe that’s the appropriate word – and little if any action from the international community is taken.

For our part, the word from the Oval Office was that we ‘regret’ that the Israeli government has committed such a senseless and lawless act upon the high seas.

How nice… a group of people (unarmed and representing no particular government) giving their lives to putting politics aside in the name of extending humanitarian aid are killed and the best we can say is, “we regret this.”

Wow, way to invoke justice on behalf of the victims of this lawless act of unabashed murder. We showed them, didn’t we? We REGRET what they’ve done.

Let’s say that President Obama’s oldest daughter gets mad at his youngest daughter, bloodies her nose and shoves her down the steps and out onto the White House lawn. What should he do? What would he do?

Can you imagine the absurdity of telling his youngest that he ‘regrets’ what her older sister has done and then leaving it at that?! Really? No punishment. No discipline. No consequences whatsoever? Is that what happens in the real world of parenting? Could even the most abusive of parents respond that way?

Eckhart Tolle says that the only thing more insane than the “I” is the “we.” It seems that when the collective is involved all sense of reality is sometimes lost. And so it is that the collective world looked at the actions of the Israeli government and responded with sheer, unabashed insanity. Not even a slap on the wrist.

Do you remember the 60’s song War? The lyrics blare with the words “War, good god ya’ll, what is it good for?!” I’m hearing it in my head right now… except it goes “Regret, good god ya’ll, what is it good for?!”

And that is what makes many of them choose to work in the mines… work in harm’s way day in and day out. What is the option? What other employment opportunities do they have? Where do they go if they have little education and even less money? The short answer is ‘nowhere.’

So they work in mines. Underground. Year in and year out. In unsafe and sometimes even deplorable working conditions.

The news that this mining company had multiple citations as recently as last month does not come as a surprise. And the fact that they haven’t paid their fines nor fixed their problems does not come as a surprise either. Why should they? After all, this is about ‘the bottom-line.’ It’s about making a profit and that means doing things as cheaply and efficiently as possible – even if that means putting people’s lives at risk.

It makes me wonder what the lives of these men trapped far below ground could have been like if the company they worked for gave a rip about something more than making money for their shareholders. It makes me wonder what the entire coal industry would do if overnight they were forced to switch from a single bottom-line (profit alone) to a triple bottom-line (people, planet, profit).

Well, I guess the reality is that you and I can wonder all we’d like because it aint gonna happen. Not now. And perhaps not ever. And why should it? Because as long as we live in a world where people are expendable and cash is king, people will die while those they work for continue to get rich.

So when you see the representatives of this mining company on the news spewing all their public relations crap, just remember that the lives they’re talking about are lives that always have and always will take second place to making a profit.

Welcome to the disastrous side of our Capitalistic system.

Yesterday I saw a sound-bite from Rick Warren, one of the (if not THE) leading voices of Evangelical Christianity today. It was Easter Sunday, and his message?? According to the clip, it was one of reminding people that we live in a world that is ‘broken’ and that does not function ‘perfectly.’

Even though I could hear it through ears that once-upon-a-time were a part of this movement, on this day, this Easter Sunday, I wanted to puke. Really, it made me that nauseous to think that the best message institutional religion has today is that soon we’ll all be dead and can finally get out of here.

I would like to suggest that, as in the day of Jesus, it is not the physically observable world that is ‘broken,’ rather it is the ‘religious world’ that is broken. This is why the strongest words of Jesus were reserved for the most institutionally observant of his day. He resorted to calling them everything from ‘hypocrites’ to ‘snakes’ to ‘children of the devil.’

I think if Jesus were walking among us today he’d still pretty much feel the same way – those who profess to know God seem to have everything right except the story!

Was it not the apostle Paul (a real hero to today’s evangelical) who said that he prayed that we might have “the power to comprehend… what is the breadth and length and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, so that you may be filled with all the fullness of God”? And didn’t he also follow this by saying that there was “…one God and Father of all, who is above all and through all and in all”? And with all this good news are we really to think that we’re powerless to create a better world, a better life – right here, right now? That the best we have to say on Easter Sunday is that we live in a screwed up broken down pit of hell?

Jesus came to reveal God. That was what his ministry was about. And in doing this he affirmed that all of us together (Jesus, God and us) could all be One. Paul followed this with the exact same message of an “all in all” God. Peter (the one the Catholic Church refers to as ‘the first pope’) affirmed that we were even made “partakers of the divine nature.”

And so what is the bottom-line message of an Easter Sunday sermon – and remember that Easter is about resurrection, new life, victory, indescribable joy – that we live in a screwed up world? That’s the best we can do – the best story we can cobble together? Frame the story so that people keep coming to our church, giving their tithe and following all that we say as a coping mechanism to usher them out of this life and into the next? Hey – nice public relations move for your church, but it doesn’t say much about the God you claim to serve.

I’m thinking that Easter is one of those days we probably ought to draw near our fellow-man with charity, words of comfort and encouragement, extend a helping hand, share from our abundance, etc. In other words, maybe it’s a day that should inspire us to more kindness and compassion toward ourselves and others and for one Sunday of the year – just one – we should lay aside religion’s favorite tool of fear to celebrate the power of the One we serve and who works to make all things right.

This was no site-seeing tour. It was ten days of meetings with both Jewish and Palestinian citizens and government officials. One such group is simply known as ‘the Refuseniks’ – Israeli citizens who refused to serve in the military because of an unwillingness to contribute to the grievances and abuses occurring with regularity within the occupied territories. Their only agenda was peace and justice for all.

These were people who knew the landscape of abuse from the inside-out. They spoke of the unethical settlement-building, land-confiscation, wall-building, unwarranted arrests, torture, home demolitions and a host of other grievances occurring in the face of international law opposing them. These were people, some of whom had endured arrest and ill-treatment by their own government. And some of their stories are simply too heart-wrenching to tell. It’s easier to pretend that such things just don’t happen. But they do.

Perhaps the one thing that bothered me most were the number of Israelis who scoffed at the breaking of international law by reminding us that the U.S. often does not observe such law either. This argument seemed to be their ace-in-the-hole. “International law,” said one Jewish leader, “was nothing more, nothing less, than kangaroo court.” It was their way of forbidding we take the moral high ground or to argue from an ethics standpoint.

“What have we become as a nation,” I wonder? It’s a question that not only must be asked, but pressed.

Along the way we met many wonderful Jewish people. And we met many wonderful Palestinians. And both groups continuously stressed their desire for peace – a word we heard much more often than a call for ‘justice.’

Justice seeks to make amends, to set things right. Justice is a call for immediate action to overturn things that are wrong. And the entire issue of ethical wrongs is often the first casualty of any conflict. But make no mistake: Justice is the key issue in this dispute.

While it would be easy to succumb to despair, I had to remind myself that we did not travel to the Land to become discouraged, but to become prepared; prepared to speak, to write, to share what we had seen. And so that is what I have done and will continue to do.

I do not seek to speak against one side in favor of the other, but to speak against the diabolical false self that is of the ego and knows nothing of our true nature – our higher and divine nature. And it is THAT nature that screams out imploring, “What are we doing?” “What will we do next?” “When will we care?” And even more, “Can humankind exist when it is becoming so obvious that civilization is anything but civilized?”