Spiritual Perspectives on America's Role as a Superpower

Description

Are we the world’s good neighbor or a global bully?

This timely book provides us with an opportunity to pause and reflect on what may be the most pressing issue of our day: What are America’s global responsibilities as the only remaining superpower? What should we be doing with our resources, energy, talent, and strength? What shouldn’t we be doing?

"Those of us who live with spiritual convictions, or who worship in religious communities, sometimes have the opportunity to hear from the pulpit, from the bima, in the prayer hall, in the zendo, or elsewhere what one spiritual leader believes on these issues. This book is for those of us who want a variety of opinions, for those of us who want to understand the issues more deeply and make up our own minds."
—from the Introduction

Spiritual Perspectives on America’s Role as Superpowerinvites you to explore these essential questions with sixteen of today’s most profound religious and spiritual teachers. Coming from a wide variety of faiths, including Protestant, Catholic, Muslim, Jewish, Buddhist, Vedantist, and interfaith traditions, this intriguing volume’s contributors bring a crucial point of view to the already-intense national debate centering on America’s place in the world: that of spirituality.

An invaluable resource for those wishing to better understand varied spiritual viewpoints on America’s role as superpower, these thought-provoking original essays provide a lucid introduction to the historical, moral, and theological aspects of this controversial issue.

Sujets

• Essays
• Philosophie et théologie
• State
• History of the United States
• Politics of the United States
• Politics
• Religion

Informations

• Publié par: Turner Publishing Company
• Date de parution: 13 septembre 2013
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9781594735554
• Langue: English

Extrait

Contributors:
Dr. Beatrice Bruteau
Rev. Dr. Joan Brown Campbell
Tony Campolo
Rev. Forrest Church
Lama Surya Das
Matthew Fox
Kabir Helminski
Thich Nhat Hanh
Eboo Patel
Abbot M. Basil Pennington, OSCO
Dennis Prager
Rosemary Radford Ruether
Wayne Teasdale
Rev. William McD. Tully
Rabbi Arthur Waskow
John Wilson
S PIRITUAL P ERSPECTIVES
ON
AMERICA S ROLE AS SUPERPOWER
Created by the Editors at SkyLight Paths
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C ONTENTS
Introduction
The Editors at SkyLight Paths
Part 1
How Did We Get Here? Historical, Political, and Spiritual Perspectives
Dual Citizenship
John Wilson
From Nationalism to Patriotism: Reclaiming the American Creed
Rev. Forrest Church
Spiritual Reflections on America in a Global Neighborhood
Kabir Helminski
Called to the Task of Peacemaker
Rev. Dr. Joan Brown Campbell
Superpower versus Spiritual Power-Choosing Wisely
Matthew Fox
America Is a Light in This Dark World
Dennis Prager
Is America Losing Its Soul?
Tony Campolo
Part 2
Making Change through Our Lives
Things Are Not What They Seem to Be-Nor Are They Otherwise
Lama Surya Das
In Every Generation, Pharaoh
Rabbi Arthur Waskow
Waging a Greater Jihad for America
Eboo Patel
Anger and Its Effects on Us, and the World
Thich Nhat Hanh
Part 3
Making Change through Our Spiritual Communities
America as an Interspiritual Superpower: A Vision to Be Realized
Wayne Teasdale
American Empire and the War against Evil
Rosemary Radford Ruether
Congregation versus Superpower: The Inner Work for Peace in the Local Community of Faith
Rev. William McD. Tully
Sharing a Sacred Supper: The Moral Role of a Superpower
Dr. Beatrice Bruteau
A Source of Hope, an Instrument of Peace
Abbot M. Basil Pennington, OSCO
Discussion Guide
About the Contributors
Copyright
Also Available
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Introduction
D ifficult issues are debated each day in our seats of government and in the media. The op-ed pages, talk shows, radio commentaries, telecasts of congressional debates on C-Span-all of these voices are clamoring to be heard. But frequently, we remember only what we have most recently heard from whoever happened to last have the microphone. The din of opinion often becomes simply noise, and we turn away, no longer listening.
Some issues beg to be thought through. Some issues are so fundamental that we cannot ignore them.
This timely book is an opportunity to pause for a few minutes and reflect on one of the most pressing issues of the day. We have collected into one place the ideas of some of today s most profound religious and spiritual teachers. Each contributor invited to be a part of this unique volume has come to conclusions-not all of them definitive, by any means-grown out of the rich soil of a thoughtful spiritual life.
The questions could hardly be more basic for who we are as a people: What are America s responsibilities in the world? What should we be doing with our resources, energy, talent, and strength? What should we not be doing?
Writing expressly for this volume, sixteen of our most eloquent spiritual teachers-from Protestant, Catholic, Muslim, Jewish, Buddhist, Vedantist, and interfaith traditions-address one overarching question: What role should America-the only remaining superpower-play in the world?
Along the way, many other issues are discussed as well, including these: How are we like, and different from, superpowers in the past? What is the historical background of those ideas that guide us as a people: freedom for all, the balance of individualism and responsibility, inalienable rights, separation of religion and state, and democracy? Should spiritual people with spiritual convictions have any influence over national policy? What does it mean to be believers and citizens at once?
Specific issues, however, are generally avoided here. Should we deploy troops? How should the United States vote on a particular issue in the United Nations Security Council? Where should we send aid? Larger issues-including historical, moral, and theological ones-are the subjects of these reflections.
Our hope (we the editors and on behalf of our sixteen teachers) is that you will be able to make your own thoughtful conclusions. Then-and even before then!- start the discussion in your own local community, church, synagogue, temple, zendo, retreat center. (See the discussion guide at the back of the book for help on this.)
Part 1 deals with the more basic questions: How Did We Get Here? Historical, Political, and Spiritual Perspectives. How did we become what we undeniably are: the world s only superpower, more powerful and more wealthy than any other nation in history? Roman, Chinese, Incan, and Spanish empires and other superpowers of the past have not had the reach, influence, resources, and might that compare with the United States in the twenty-first century. Historians and pundits write books and give speeches on this subject all the time, but rarely are we given the opportunity to listen to other perspectives.
Parts 2 and 3 discuss how spiritual people can effect change around these issues. To use an old phrase, we can be the change that we seek in the world, and we can do it through personal action and commitment ( part 2 ) and through our communities ( part 3 ). Regarding the latter, Rev. Bill Tully warns us not to prejudge the effectiveness of communities of faith and spiritual practice:

Local religious life-by most estimates lived in about 350,000 congregations of all kinds-is lively and varied and bears little relationship to media preoccupation with institutional decline, televangelism, or abusive behavior by clergy. Down here, where we live our faith, we also think, pray, meditate, and experiment with the life-and-death questions.
In every community, Tully writes, there is leaven in the lump.
Each contributor to Spiritual Perspectives on America s Role as Superpower is an American citizen, with the exception of Vietnamese Buddhist teacher Thich Nhat Hanh. As an exile from his homeland for nearly forty years, Thich Nhat Hanh has most often resided in Plum Village, France; but he is really a citizen of the world. His perspective, and his spiritual practice suggestions, are the most unusual contribution to the book.
Despite their American identity, the other contributors offer a great deal of self-criticism in these pages. Rosemary Radford Ruether draws distinct parallels between political and military empires of the past and a clearly emerging American Empire. Rabbi Arthur Waskow uses the analogy of America as Pharaoh in the world today. Kabir Helminski uses the metaphor of the global neighborhood to show where he finds us at fault:
If the world were reduced to the scale of a neighborhood, a third of the neighborhood would be without safe drinking water, sufficient food, and adequate shelter. The United States would be an expensive apartment building with a sophisticated alarm system and armed guards. More and more we disregard the wishes of the neighborhood and resist most attempts to form cooperative organizations to improve our environment or lend a helping hand to our neighbors. We threaten preemptive attacks against neighbors we consider dangerous (or whose real estate we covet?).
Tony Campolo is not the only one to use statistics that paint an unflattering portrait:
Of the twenty-two industrialized nations of the world, the United States is dead last in per capita giving to the poor peoples of the world. By way of comparison, let me point out that on a per capita basis, for every dollar that America gives to the poor of the world, the people of Norway give seventy.
Each of the contributors seems to believe in the necessity for a frank and honest look at who we are and who we have become.
There is also great optimism here as well. The contributors tend to agree that the United States did not become the most powerful nation in the world by accident. There is something great about the American character and spirit that is not easily found elsewhere. Wayne Teasdale explains:

It is not an exaggeration to say that in the long, troubled history of this fragile but exquisite planet there has not been a more inventive society than America. It is surely true that there are many societies with equal creativity, i.e., the ancient Greeks, the Arabs during the golden age of Islam, classical China, India, Japan, Germany, France, Spain, and Britain. Then there are the unique approaches to the natural world and culture found in numerous indigenous societies, notably the Australian Aborigines, Native Americans, and the countless tribes of Africa.
Creativity is a universal human attribute, and yet, in the United States this precious trait has received a scope of activity that is virtually unlimited. In this sense, America can be regarded rightly as a multifaceted inventive genius, a practical intelligence that knows no bounds.
Dennis Prager is not just optimistic; he is confident of America s power to do good in the world: No other country approaches America as a force for good on planet Earth. If a meteor destroyed the United States at this time, the world would be overrun by cruelty.

It