Wednesday 23 January 2008

Now that we have blended the notion of secular and sacred, here Gandhi will make more clarifying notes.



Gandhi...did not identify the "private" sphere with the "sacred" and did not cut himself off from public activity as "secular." Yet he did on the other hand look upon certain cultures and social structures as basically "secular" in the sense that their most fundamental preconceptions were irreligious (even though they might, on occasion, appeal to the support of religious cliches). Some of the most characteristic and least understood elements in his non-violent mystique follow from this principle which implies a rejection of the basic idea of the affluent industrial society. A society that lives by organized greed or by systemic terrorism and oppression will always tend to be violent because it is in a state of persistent disorder and moral confusion.



In my first reading, I somehow skipped over the part in the parenthesis. What a mistake. In the past few days, I was once again taken back by how politicians turn to simple "religious" cliches to sell their product - themselves. How quickly religious language is used in the process of empire building. Just the simply notion of the U.S. being a "Christian country" is an attempt to make a "secular" society that is sustained by a degree of "organized greed" into a sacred body. If those cliches had any depth to them, the empire would collapse because the notion of something like the Reign of God being the same as the oppressiveness of our society is blasphemy - that is, it uses the language of faith to describe something that is not a part of that vision. Non-violence cannot go along with the society that needs to perpetuate violence in order to sustain and even build its power and viability. The peaceable Reign of God (and I would include Gandhi's vision in this) is able to see that such a society is and will be violent unless it completely turns around and grabs hold of a vision that does not use violence to establish itself.



Connection: It is a very short trip from non-violence into the domain of violence. They are as far apart as two realities can be and yet, we quite easily trip from non-violence into violence when we live within a society that harbors violence so readily. So, every step we take needs to be a part of the prayerfulness of the Reign of God.



Spirit of Gentleness, you take us from the domain of hopelessness and greed and self-centered living and you show us the way of your peace. Too often, we cannot go into that place to which you bring us. Be our strength again today...to turn around....again. Amen.