Anyone wtaching Rabbi Michael Lerner on the span?

[burythehatchet]

This guy is brilliant. He made a lot of great points but the one about John Kerry was amazing. The comments were within the contaxt of what he considers one of the greatest problems with the left: Our disdain for those of the religious right.

He said that before the dem convention 65% of dems and 90% of dem delegates were opposed to the war, yet we picked a candidate who was 100% for the war. We actually were hoping to put up a militaristic candidate so that we could fool the right, and then hoping that the president would change course and become a president for peace. That showed an incredible amount of elitism and disdain for the rank and file of the right.

I thought it was a great insight.

[niyad]

1. He is amazing. I caught about the last 45 min-- missed the part about

kerry, but absolutely agree. will be checking out the web site in just a few.

[ayeshahaqqiqa]

3. Website?

If you have a link, would you mind posting it please?

[burythehatchet]

5. he is editor of Tikkun -

http://www.tikkun.org/

edit - his book is The Left Hand of God

[ayeshahaqqiqa]

6. Yahu!!!!

This is a great site and great news! All religious progressives need to interconnect! Thank you thank you thank you for the link!!!!!!

[ayeshahaqqiqa]

2. I wish I got cable

the Rabbi sounds like a very astute fellow. I would amend what he says about the left disdain for the religious right and replace it with disdain for religion in general. I've been seeing quite a lot of it here lately, directed not only against Muslims but Christians and other peoples of faith. What's funny is that some claim we people of faith are being intolerant, based not on our postings but on news reports of others of our religion. Most religious posters here are tolerant and want seperation of church and state, and come here for support, and sometimes what we get is just the opposite. This doesn't help the liberal cause, but fractures it.

[burythehatchet]

4. you nailed it. That's precisely his point

Bonus: He offers ideas on how to understand this and change the dynamic. I'll be buying his books fer sure.

[Bob3]

7. I'm sorry but after watching the Religious Right in action

during the Terry Schavio (sp?) horror story, their war on science, their continued spouting of hatred of anyone who is not like them, and their frighteningly obvious wish to turn this republic into some kind of theocratic state run by them, contempt is the best I can manage. Add to that the scary wish for the end of the world, this movement is dangerous and their leaders are among the worst enemies this republic has. I'm sure their are many good and decent people who go to these churches and the but that's not the problem, the problem is people like Pat Robertson who can call for the killing of an elected leader of another country and get at most a tut tut from the media and the GOP.

Frankly I'm sick and tired of people telling the left we don't understand the religious right- Shit Jimmy Carter was a southern Baptist, and Clinton was either a Methodist or a Baptist himself. Did that help them with the religious right - of course not.

[sandyd921]

8. Interesting

I took a look around his site and found some very intriguing stuff. I started reading Lerner's "Hostile Takeover: Thoecracy in America" excerpt from his book. He has some good stuff there I think. I will add that I consider myself an agnostic (Jewish background). I think he has something there regarding the "spirituality gap" that progressives ignore at their peril. I will re-visit the site when I get a chance and take a closer look at the Rabbi's ideas and the religious left movement that he represents.

Here's the link for the book excerpt: http://www.tikkun.org/magazine/tik0601/lerner