Is the chalice fire an antidote to Trumpism?

This is the first article in a series on "Individual And Social Factors Which Support Trumpsim." It is fascinating not that Donald Trump, "The Donald," got elected President of the United States, but that citizens actually voted for him to become their President. Who are these people? What made them do it?

As these questions have been studied, "Who are these people who voted for Donald Trump," and "What made them do it," answers have been discovered and rather than view these answers through a poltical, psychological, and sociological lens alone, the articles on this topic published here will also look at the spiritual dimension.

The first reason that people have voted for The Donald could be construed as cynical and practical. These voters wanted, on a practical level, what Donald was promising: tax cuts for his 1% bank rollers, and jobs for the working class. These folks were willing to make a bargain with the Devil to get what they wanted. These folks are described as the Republican Party which got in line in the House of Representatives, the Senate, and GOP headquarters hoping to ride Trump's coat tails.

Trump did deliver on the tax cuts to his rich supporters but he has not improved things for his working and middle class supporters and the GOP, especially after the mid terms are growing increasingly disenchanted.

While the deal with the Devil has worked well enriching the 1%, the deficit is at a record high which our children and grandchildren and perhaps elders, if their social security and Medicare benefits are cut, will have to address. The failure to provide jobs is based more on the awareness that Trump's promises were a charade because the loss of jobs may not have been due as much to the globalization of the economy as automation and increased reliance on AI (Artificial Intelligence).

The spiritual lessons from acting on these practical incentives for electing Trump is that we have ignored the basic principles of justice, equity, and compassion at our peril. Further, there has been an impervious ignoring of the interdependent web of existence - in other words, "robbing Peter to pay Paul" is not a long term viable strategy, and pain has been inflicted on multitudes of people for the benefits of small minorities which impoverishes the social fabric.

Unitarian Univeralist principles are an antidote to Trumpism. They are the balm, the medicine, for the sickness of spirit present in a cynical and mean spirited society. In the darkness which has befallen our nation and the world, a flaming chalice of love, truth, beauty, and goodness can light the way.

Editor's note: This is article #1 in a series on the spiritual antidote to Trumpism

What is the interdependent web of all existence?

Have you notice that those who preach morality are often the most immoral?

Have you noticed that those who insist on the rule of law know all the loop holes?

Have you noticed that those who insist on justice engage in systemic injustice beneath their awareness.

Hyprocrisy is the burden of those who preach to others the good.

It is written in the Tao Te Ching that:
When Tao is lost, people want to be good.
When goodness is lost, they insist on kindness.
When kiindness is lost, they create ritual.
When ritual is lost, they rely on faith and loyalty.
When faith and loyalty are questioned, there arises confusion.
When confusion abounds, people try to predict the future.
Predicting the future descends into folly.

Folly begets crisis and trauma that may lead to a dawning.
With the dawning arises an idea that there must be a better way.
The Way is found on a search for Truth and Meaning which is beyond description.
The wise have found their way back to Tao.

Unitarian Universalists covenant together to affirm and promote seven things, the fourth of which is the free and responsible search for truth and meaning. This truth and meaning is to be found not in goodness, kindness, ritual, faith, loyalty, confusion, folly, crisis and trauma, but back at the Center, the Ground of Our Being, the Indescribible Basis of the ten thousand things which is beyond comprehension, and in which we trust, which UUs have named the "interdependent web of all existence."

UU A Way Of Life ministires index - Number of drunk driving deaths in U.S. in 2016

• Deaths in the U.S from drunk driving in 2016 = 10,497
• Number of people killed in U.S. every day in 2016 from drunk driving = 29
• Number of my children killed in drunk driving crash in 1993 = 2

For more click here.

Ask Alexa - How can we stop mass shootings in the U.S.A.?

Alexa: There was another mass shooting in a night club in California and I am wondering what can be done to stop them?

The hearts of the American people will have to change to rescind the second amendment.

My Kind Of Church Music - I Wish It Would Rain, The Temptations

What good is silence?

In Industrial Psychology they call it "sink time."
Sink time is time to sit in silence, to let the data settle, to let the smoke clear off.

How do we digest all that we have taken in when we scurry from one thing to another?

We need time to reflect, to digest, to just relax.

Unitarian Univeralists tend to be busy people.
UUs think a lot and want to fix things.
UUs are searching and trying to rectify injustice and make the world a better place.

Are UUs nothing but Social Workers and Activists?
UUs value their covenant which affirms and promotes seven principles.
Affirmation and promotion takes perspective and deliberate and purposeful action.
To be purposeful and deliberate, one must be thoughtful.
To be thoughtful, one must be quiet.

First Principle Study Group - Class #2 - The Fall/Redemption theological model and the Creation Spirituality theological model

            The first principle states that we affirm and promote the inherent worth and dignity of every person. Many of us raised in the Christian tradition were taught that we are born with our souls contaminated by the Original Sin and to be acceptable to God we have to be baptized to remove the stain. In other words, there is a meta narrative promulgated that people are inherently inadequate and defective.

            Father Matthew Fox one of the founders of what is called Creation Spirituality took an opposite position on the issue and maintains that we are born with the Original Blessing not in Original Sin. We are creations of God and in the Genesis story God, at the end of the six days of creation surveys all that He has done and proclaims that what He has created is good.

            The perennial psychology which is composed of the teachings of all the great religions tells us that in every human being there is a Spark of the Divine. We are taught that we each are an extension of God’s love of His/Her creation.

            The problems start with our human conditioning or socialization as the sociologists call it which can facilitate our growth and development but also traumatize us, abuse us, and instill warped understandings of who we are as a person. As we grow, we lose our innocence and learn that there is evil in the world that produces suffering, anguish, and grief. Into this experience of pain and suffering comes religion which tries to explain the causes of our suffering, our human condition, this “veil of tears” as the Catholics call it, or Maya as the Hindus call it and promises us that the religion and the religion’s representatives have the power to relieve our suffering or at least mitigate it.

            Prescriptions are given for how to live, and prayers to say, and regulations to be complied with if we are to be “saved” from our painful existential condition. All along, the idea that we have a self, and ego, that is real is assumed and reinforced.

            In Unitarian Univeralism, members covenant together to affirm and promote the inherent worth and dignity of every person and this principle raises at least two further questions: from whence does this worth and dignity come, and what is this object called a “person.?

  

            In this course we will be exploring these questions and attempt to understand from where and what worth and dignity arise, and what comprises a person who possesses this worth and dignity.

Questions: 

1. What stands out for you when you compare the "fall/redemption model" with the "Creation Spirituality model?
2. What do you think about the idea that there is a "divine spark" in every human being?
3. What do you think about the idea that human innocence is extinguished by social conditioning?
4. What practices and beliefs have you been taught by religion or secular society that will save you from suffering, condemnation, and death?
5. What gives human beings "inherent worth and dignity" if you think they have it?
6. What comprises the "self", the personal identity which we create, that seems so real?
7. How has your identity, or your sense of self changed over time?
8. Is this self which has changed over time real or an illusion?

Skill development

Take one of the characteristics of comparison of the Fall/Redemption Model and the Creation/Spirituality model  and apply it to your own life describing how it has affected your beliefs, your feelings, and your behavior. Once you have created a coherent description, share it with an intimate other or interested person. (The ability to articulate a coherent narrative about the beliefs that have influenced one's life, leaves one in a position of "agency", that is the ability of choose what beliefs a person wants to keep or change in one's life.}

Values

As you compare the Fall/Redemption Model and the Creation Spirituality model, which aspect of this comparison matters the most to you? Which aspect do you think matters the most to the society and culture in which you live? How is this value expressed and manifested in your life and the life of your society?