Breaking Down Silos: Why Spirituality and Politics Need Each Other

Breaking Down Silos: Why Spirituality and Politics Need Each Other

Excerpt from the book “Making Global Sense“

Guest Commentary by Judah Freed

To improve life on our planet, I encourage bridging a chasm in our minds dividing personal and spiritual growth from social and political change. Closing the gap is hard, as hard as bridging the gap between our heads and hearts, at least for me. Closing the gap is necessary.

Those of us focused on social change and politics often want nothing to do with personal or spiritual growth. We may attend a church, temple or mosque, yet we seldom or never seek psychotherapy or counseling, never enroll in crazy “woo-woo” workshops. Atheistic, agnostic skeptic, or deist, we may equate mysticism with escapism. We may never bother to pray or meditate. We rarely sit silent alone in nature.

If politics and social change matters most in your life, you may resist me inviting you to think about personal growth and spirituality. You may say contemplating the navel only locates lint, or it wastes time, or it’s too frustrating, or too irrational. I’ve felt these feelings and thought these thoughts. Cynicism is faith disappointed.

The Spiritual Aversion to Politics

Those of us focused on personal growth or spirituality often want nothing to do with politics and social change. We might contribute to ecological or humanitarian causes like saving whales or feeding hungry babies. We seldom or never work on any grassroots campaigns. We equate politics with corruption. We may never bother to vote.

If spirituality or personal growth matter most in your life, you might resist me inviting you to think about government and social justice. You might say politics lowers your vibes too much, or it’s too frustrating, too dirty, too disgusting. I have felt these feelings and thought these thoughts. Cynicism is idealism dismayed. 

Are such binary views irreconcilable? Black-or-white thinking stops us from seeing our whole world in breathtaking colors. Between dueling duality mountains lays the adventurous land of balance where we dwell creatively from our peaceful center. At the extremes, fear and unease push us to seek the familiar shelter of kings or other masters. 

Uniting the Personal and Global, Not Church and State

By closing the gap between spirituality and politics, we unite self-improvement and world improvement. 

As we make sense of life with global minds, we discover separation and isolation are illusions. Indeed, we are the world, and the world is us. Our natural oneness or unity or connectivity makes us globally mighty. Why not join hearts and hands instead of giving up?

A caveat — Uniting spirituality and politics is NOT the same as uniting religion and government (or ideology and government). Such an unholy union historically breeds theocracy and tyranny. Whenever any heavenly belief becomes the law, all hell breaks loose. 

If I believe everyone is sick, and if I have the only cure, then it’s my moral duty to force my cure upon everybody, for their own good! Such thinking justified persecutions like the Spanish Inquisition, Indigenous conversions, witch burnings, the Holocaust, China’s Cultural Revolution, and Taliban beheadings. We force others to agree with us so we can feel safe among fellow believers. It’s an old human shadow habit.

Wisdom of Thomas Paine

Thomas Paine wrote, “Of all the tyrannies that affect mankind, tyranny in religion is the worst.” In a letter to Jefferson, he added, “Give power to a bigot of any sectary [sect] and he [sic] will use it to the oppression of the rest.” No group has a right to impose its religion or ideology upon society. The separation of church and state (any faith) protects rights and liberties better than any other measure to avoid the abuse of power.

I would not breach that wall. Instead, I am proposing that a global sense of life unifies spirituality and politics in a freedom-loving way that honors both conscience and reason. I’m willing to try.

The views expressed in this opinion column are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of FāVS News. FāVS News values diverse perspectives and thoughtful analysis on matters of faith and spirituality.