Michael Lerner at the Parliament of the World's Religions

We're asking everyone we're we're exploring the future of religion. So in your understanding what is the what what would you say is in terms of if religion is going to meet the challenges that we have which you laid out very well in different ways the political challenges the ecological challenges which are dramatic at this point in history and we don't necessarily have that much time to change. What's the most important things that religion has to come to terms with and change as it moves forward in the next decade, next two decades? Do you feel? Well, everybody recognizes that the first thing that has to happen is for religion to overcome its uh the triumphalism and chauvinism that exists within each religious tradition so that we can affirm the human the unity of all humanity, the oneness of everyone on this planet and our common set of interests and recognize that there are many different spiritual paths to it connecting to the highest truth or to the God of the universe or whatever is the appropriate language that you want to use that there is not just one path but there are many paths. So this is step one but step one is only gets us to the level of common rationality that most people already h have that is most people do know that um all the all the the major religious traditions are saying the same thing in different languages and that they need to overcome their tower tower of babel kind of relationship and get together. But then secondly, we need to get those religious and spiritual traditions to take seriously their own message that the world could be based on love and kindness and generosity and compassion instead of just uh using that as cheerleaders to get people into church or synagogue or mosque or um or into a um Buddhist meditation to instead insist on developing a strategy to change the world so that the world would reflect those values. not just uh have an escape from the world where we can nourish our highest values but instead take those uh spiritual visions outside of the religious community into the mainstream of political and economic social change. Would you say then that that's also one really important aspect for religions change? That's one thing we've been thinking about is not just the triumphalism and exclusivism which is so important but also the doctrines that have been so fundamental to most traditions not necessarily Judaism but so fundamental to most traditions of a of a kind of a fundamental escapism where the world is not necessarily redemptive in the way that you're speaking about the world um needs a different spiritual approach that is based on the concept of tikun t i ku n it means to transform and heal and repair this world, not to escape into some other world, not to uh um think of this as a mere um uh prelude to the real reality. This is the world that needs to be healed. This is the world that needs to be transformed. The spiritual reality uh traditions have important things to add to this world, but they need to focus on how to bring about a world of kindness and justice, of compassion and generosity here. and to take those not as just abstract expressions but concrete realities to make them real. And that means to transform the the world in such a way that everyone gets to share the resources of this of this planet equally and everybody orients towards the planet with awe and wonder and not simply in a utilitarian way. and everybody ret resp responds to other human beings in a non-utilitarian way recognizing the each other human being as a partial embodiment of uh the god of the universe. How are we doing? We're we're doing terribly at the present moment. We are um uh we are very far away from having the religious um and spiritual values of the human race being taken seriously. Not by the rest of the population, not by the religious people either. The religious people use these words without actually meaning them. and we need to get people to mean them. How long do we have before before we're in trouble? We're in trouble right now. And um unfortunately the way it works is that the people who are most in trouble are those who are at the are suffering from the effects of the advanced industrial world. We've managed to uh concentrate the worst effects of a global ecological crisis on those who are most powerless in the third world. So they will fuel it first. But nevertheless, um the people in the advanced industrial societies are feeling it at a different level. They're feeling it at the level of the breakdown of loving relationships. The uh the the um spiritual vacuity of life and the its manifestation in everything from divorce to um uh uh to um drug abuse and uh alcohol abuse and to in deep emptiness in daily life. your own tradition, Judaism, what do you feel is the most the most important thing for Judaism to change as it moves forward into the future? Because it's it's playing a, you know, a central role in a lot of the the mythos that's driving a lot of people's ideas about this time in history. Yeah. I mean, Judaism, like the other religions on this planet, is deeply distorted, has has within it uh triumphalist and chauvinist elements that must be overcome. and they they manifest most distortedly in the way that um uh Israel is treating Palestinians today without the loving and caring and generosity that have been the central message of Judaism. So Judaism has lost its way. It is not a manifestation of its own highest values and it needs a tremendous tikun a trans an internal trans. Judaism needs an internal transformation so that it can be um in its actual practice an embodiment of the love, generosity, kindness and social justice and peace values that we talk about but don't actually live. Take me forward 40 years, you know, something like that. What does religion look like? Do we have a new tradition? Do we have new religious traditions developing? Do we have the same traditions that are radically changed? What's the what's the what what do things look like? Um there there needs to be and there will be a renewal within every religious tradition. We do not want to see a merging of all religious traditions into one. Instead, we want to keep the variety of religious approaches and uh that have h have each within them uh sets of great deal of wisdom and a great deal of um value in their specific traditions. Each path is an appropriate path. The key is not to focus so much on what's the right path as to get uh clarity about the goal and to really keep that goal in front of one in a very real way and continually re-evaluate what one is doing in light of the goal. Is this path generating more kindness and generosity and love? If it isn't, how does can it be altered? If it can't be changed from within, discard it and go to create something new.