Similar thoughts from a Jewish perspective

Michael Lerner, writing in the most recent issue of Tikkun (published before the election), voices thoughts very similar to Bill Moyers', but couched in a Jewish context. Excerpt below, with the full article here.

The path of the American patriot, like the path of the Jew loyal to Judaism, must entail a universalist concern for the well-being of everyone, a passionate commitment to repairing the damage done to our environment, and a commitment to restructuring the global economy in ways that produce both justice and environmental sustainability; we must abandon cultural arrogance and learn from the wisdom and richness of the traditions of others, and share our own cultural and economic resources with others.

This transformation of consciousness is a spiritual transformation, a reshaping at the deepest levels of one's own cultural, religious, political and psychological makeup in order to truly see oneself as linked to the health of the planet and all of its inhabitants. In the context of the Jewish people, we call this transformation a Global Judaism: the transcending of every aspect of our tradition, every prayer and song, every religious practice, and every cultural prejudice that teaches us to see the other as being less than our equal or to see our needs as more important or pressing than their needs. That is the revolution in thought that Tikkun magazine is pioneering.

In the context of American politics, this transformation of consciousness is expressed in our call for a New Bottom Line so that we'd begin to think of our institutions as productive, efficient or rational only if they went beyond producing material well-being for some (the narrow economistic framework that has dominated both mainstream and left-wing thinking) to also foster more loving and caring, more generosity and open-heartedness, more ecological and ethical sensitivity, more awe and wonder at the grandeur of the universe, more awareness of our interdependence with every other person on the planet, and more celebration, gratitude and joy. Our point is that human beings have a set of needs that are not adequately understood in terms of the Old Bottom Line that continues to dominate American economic and political thinking.

In a piece written this past week, Lerner also issues a call to action very similar to our own mission here in this blog.