Conversations at the Leading Edge of Faith
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Michael Dowd
is America's evolutionary evangelist. A former UCC pastor and pioneer in the sustainability movement, he is the author of the bestselling book, Thank God for Evolution, which was endorsed by 6 Nobel Prize-winning scientists and by religious leaders across the spectrum. Learn more about Michael and his wife and mission partner, noted science writer and family educator Connie Barlow, here.
Subscribe RSS Feed- God: Personification ≠ Person April 11, 2013
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[...] Robert Reich: Fixing the Economy (2 Minutes) [...]
I’m disappointed that you would include/endorse a political ad on this site. I did not think finger pointing and judgement of any group of people would ever be a part of your open-hearted message.
A political ad? I don’t understand, Cullen. Please explain what you mean.
Cullen, I just rewatched the clip to the end and noticed that it was paid for by MoveOn.org. So at least now I see what you mean.
I still think this is a Christian issue and an evolutionary issue because it’s about justice – and has everything to do with the common good.
This was a good, concise explanation of how we got into this mess, even if it was over-simplified. It is also clear that the deficit cannot be fixed without increasing revenue (i.e., higher taxes on the relatively wealthy); all the problems can’t be solved by cutting expenditures. However, the deeper problem is one of core values. We have become much too individualistic a society to survive well, socially and ecologically. We need to find a way to help more people understand that as a species (both globally and within the U.S.), we are here together with and for each other, and for the environment which sustains all life. Private wealth is meaningless without the sense of mutual caring and responsibility – and without a sense of mutual acceptance and forgiveness, even if we still need laws to keep us from hurting each other in our present state of spiritual development. Only with a more-developed sense of “oneness” can we find truly just solutions to our economic and ecological woes. And this is where all the religious institutions can help. By teaching love, compassion and oneness (and not teaching us which religious box is better than the other religious boxes). There are no boxes, in any ultimate sense. The boxes are only constructs of our minds.
I think this is right on, but how does it address the bigger problem of an economy whose foundation is the accelerating human consumption of natural resources in a world of limited natural resources and a somewhat fragile ecology. Wouldn’t the rate of consumption continue to accelerate faster as the middle class grows globally and gains buying power? The question is how to evolve the economy away from accelerating consumption. the desire and drive to consume natural resources likely has it’s roots deep in our genes.