Product Description

The unholy alliance of the Political Right and the Religious Right threatens to destroy the America we love. It also threatens to generate a popular aversion to God and religion by identifying religious values with a pro-war, pro-business, pro-rich, anti-science, and anti-environmental stance.

Over the past few decades, the Republicans have achieved political dominance by forging a union with the Religious Right. This marriage has provided a sanctimonious veneer for policies that have helped the rich get richer while ignoring the needs of the middle class and the poor, dismantling environmental and civil liberties protections, and seeking global domination. The Right champions the materialism and ruthless selfishness promoted by unrestrained capitalism and then laments the moral crises of family instability and loneliness experienced by people who bring these commercial values into their homes and personal lives. In response, the Religious Right offers insular communities for the faithful and a culture that blames liberals, activist judges, homosexuals, independent women, and all secular people for the moral and spiritual emptiness so many Americans experience.

Yet, however distorted both the Right's analysis and its solutions to America's spiritual crisis may be, it wins allegiance by addressing the human hunger for a life with some higher purpose. The Left, by contrast, remains largely tone-deaf to the spiritual needs of the American people. It is the yearning for meaning in life, not just the desire for money or power, that lies at the core of American politics.

Addressing the central mystery of contemporary politics -- why so many Americans vote against their own economic interests -- The Left Hand of God provides an invaluable, timely, and blunt critique of the current state of faith in government. Lerner challenges the Left to give up its deeply held fear of religion and to distinguish between a domination-oriented, Right-Hand-of-God tradition and a more compassionate and hope-oriented Left-Hand-of-God worldview. Further, Lerner describes the ways that Democrats have misunderstood and alienated significant parts of their potential constituency. To succeed again, Lerner argues, the Democratic Party must rethink its relationship to God, champion a progressive spiritual vision, reject the old bottom line that promotes the globalization of selfishness, and deal head-on with the very real spiritual crisis that many Americans experience every day.

Lerner presents a vision that incorporates and then goes far beyond contemporary liberal and progressive politics. He argues for a new bottom line in our economy, schools, and government. This is a fundamentally fresh approach, one that takes spiritual needs seriously in our economic and political lives. Presenting an eight-point progressive spiritual covenant with America, Lerner provides a blueprint for how the Democratic Party can effectively challenge the Right and position itself to win the White House and Congress. By appealing to religious, secular, and spiritual but not necessarily religious people, The Left Hand of God blazes a trail that could change our world and reclaim America from the Religious Right.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #162955 in Books
• Published on: 2007-03-01
• Released on: 2007-03-13
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 416 pages

From Publishers Weekly
Named one of Utne's 100 American Visionaries, Rabbi Lerner, editor of Tikkun magazine, delivers an ambitious proposal called a "Spiritual Covenant with America." Before detailing his plan, he provides an extensive survey of American history and ideology, rife with examples of dominant and controlling attributes favored by those on the right (the "right hand of God") who believe in a frightening world replete with evil and ruled by an avenging God. This contrasts with what he considers the loving, kind and generous tendencies of those at the "left hand of God," who instead believe in a compassionate and merciful deity. These delineations occur on both sides of the political aisle—and not solely within one religion. Rabbi Lerner addresses both the "intolerant and militaristic" tactics of the political right and the "visionless... often spiritually empty" tenets of the political left with an even hand. His vision of a country devoid of poverty, homelessness, unemployment and uninsured citizens comes with an actual blueprint, in which Americans rededicate themselves to traditional values of love, kindness, respect and responsibility. Unfortunately, the rays of hope delivered in this impassioned proposal are buried in an often rambling and repetitive dialogue that may alienate those most likely to respond. (Feb.)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

From The Washington Post
Two years ago, Thomas Frank's blockbuster What's the Matter with Kansas? posed a question: Why do so many blue- collar conservatives vote for Republicans at the expense of their own economic interests? Liberals everywhere immediately responded with vigorous head-nodding. Although Frank made a few stabs at answering his question -- Democrats haven't taken seriously parental concerns about our garish popular culture, and some conservatives favor cultural issues over economic well-being -- his frequent references to these Americans as "deranged" (eight times in the first chapter alone) implied that the real solution was to cure their irrational behavior. Fortunately, Michael Lerner has weighed in with another take on the question in The Left Hand of God: Taking Back Our Country From the Religious Right (HarperSanFrancisco). A social thinker with impeccable liberal credentials -- he's a Berkeley-based rabbi, sometime Hillary Rodham Clinton guru and the editor of Tikkun magazine -- Lerner has studied this question for three decades while conducting psychotherapy research. He's concluded that America is in the midst of a "real spiritual crisis," one that has been recognized and exploited -- but not solved -- by the Republican Party. For the first half of the book, Lerner diagnoses the symptoms and causes of this crisis and argues that "the search for meaning in a despiritualized world ... leads many people to right-wing religious communities" and politics. Among the thousands of people Lerner and his colleagues have interviewed, some common concerns surfaced time and again: eroding societal values, America's troubling emphasis on money and greed, unstable families, the attempt to place monetary value on everyone and everything, and spiritual isolation. Right-wing religious institutions appeal to these concerns by providing communities of comfort and instructions on how to change this status quo; right-wing politicians promise to fix the problem by imposing their own solutions. No wonder voters of modest means are attracted. But as Lerner expertly details, the proffered solutions don't eliminate the concerns so much as they trade on their political value. Concerned about unstable families? Just outlaw gay marriage. Worried about popular culture? Impeach those activist judges. And it's there, he argues, that liberals have the opportunity to craft a progressive "Spiritual Covenant with America," a blueprint that composes the second half of the book. From economic to family to national security issues, Lerner outlines a politics of meaning that connects traditional liberal values to what have been inaccurately defined as conservative concerns. The Left Hand of God is ambitious, sprawling and sometimes rambling, but it serves the vital purpose of articulating a progressive religious alternative to the conservative flavor of religion that has dominated American politics and society for the past 30 years. -- Amy Sullivan

The Politics of Meaning
Copyright 2006, The Washington Post. All Rights Reserved.

Review
"A highly decent and challenging critique." -- Kirkus Reviews

"A renewed politics far more profound than either the Republicans or the Democrats have been able to muster…." -- Richard Upford-Chase, Moderator of the General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church USA

"An enormously important book…practical steps we can take to launch a spiritual revolution and save this beautiful planet." -- Robert Thurman

"An insightful, inspiring book by Rabbi Lerner that can put America back on track." -- Arun Gandhi, president, M.K. Gandhi Institute for Nonviolence

"Lerner is a rare voice of sanity and intelligence in a nation where our moral values have been corrupted …." -- Howard Zinn

"Michael Lerner is the most prophetic intellectual and spiritual leader of our generation. We ignore his wisdom at our peril!" -- Cornel West, author of Democracy Matters: Winning the Fight Against Imperialism

"THE LEFT HAND OF GOD reclaims the common ground of peace and social justice which gird all authentic spiritualities…." -- Reverend John Dear

"The Left Hand of God serves the vital purpose of articulating a progressive religious alternative." -- Washington Post Book World

"The blueprint for the next stage in the spiritual development of our planet." -- Deepak Chopra

"[T]his book pulsates with life and spirit and the passion of the prophets of old. Bravo! " -- Matthew Fox

Customer Reviews

Answer is not for atheists to believe in a God
I'm going to use a lot of quotation marks here, because it just seems appropriate in discussions like this which focus on issues in a relatively naive, simplistic, and pop fashion. Fair warning.

The "answer" for any "spiritual void" that supposedly may exist on the left, etc., and "taking back our country from the religious right", unfortunately is not simply for atheists, agnostics, secular humanists, etc. to give up one of the basic tenets of their beliefs--that of not believing in the existence of a God, or at least admitting not knowing--and adopt the central tenet of "the other side", to believe in the existence of a God, but this time the merciful, etc. one of the New Testament. That's silly. (Besides, why automatically assume that "the left" is a monolithic block of atheists, agnostics, materialists, etc.? The right is the side that's generally associated with materialism anyway.) No, there's nothing wrong or automatically "spiritually void" about humanism, atheism, the scientific method, etc. in themselves--if there's anything lacking on "the left" along spiritual lines, it's a not strong-enough committment to those very values, their development, what those values really mean, imply, and lead us to, and a naive belief that because the simplest forms of those ideas seem correct enough, that they're all that's required to think, and to eventually win. So more of the opposite approach may be the solution--not a grafted-on belief in a God, but rather a real development and committment to humanism, respect for humanity, humbleness, action, etc. separate from superstition and "faith". We need a more viable non-religious "spiritual" alternative to all the God-talk. Too bad spiritualism is usually thought of as God-based.

empty secular society and overly absolute religious attitudes are shared problems
What do the Left and the Right have in common? A sense of meaninglessness in what is called the "real world"--work--unites us all. So Lerner begins his examination of the spiritual ills that unavoidably shape our politics. Lerner does not give a solution, only hints, for this longing for meaning, raising the question of why more of us don't do more to change the work world--namely, fear.

One of Lerner's main themes is the nature of two voices we all must deal with, that of fear and that of hope. Ironically the voice of fear usually results in efforts toward what he calls the more aggressive and adamant right hand of God, the voice of hope allows us to stay with the more ambiguous, seemingly weaker side, the left hand of God.

So throughout this book Lerner shows all too often not only the political right by also the political left giving in to fear and choosing the right hand. Lerner presents some helpful history. At the very least read the chapter "The Religion of Secularism and the Fear of Spirit." He has had a lot of exposure over the years in his activism to those who are determined to exclude all religion from the political sphere. Also be sure to read "Elitism on the Left." His analysis rings true and is gentle yet sophisticated.

I couldn't help but feel Lerner is less a writer per se than a leader, organizer, spiritual director, and activist. His discussion will make you want to join his larger support group or spiritual network. At first I thought this was a kind of informal church of Jew, Christian, and any other religion or spiritual searcher, that I would love to have joined, but it appears to be wholly spiritual--you won't meet in person, unless you become involved in some of Lerner's activism.

Thank God for Rabbi Lerner. I think we need to support his voice and presence as spiritual leader in the political sphere. His web site is impressive and inclusive.

When do the religious cross the line in politics? On a somewhat humorous note, in a long footnote Rabbi Lerner reveals a time when I think he crossed it: Bill Clinton had given a speech that was clearly using Learner's unique language of "meaning." (Oddly when the president uses your writing without acknowledgment, this is a compliment; anyone else and it's called plagiarism.) The White House then asked Lerner to consult with them before saying anything more. Lerner agreed! I couldn't help but think of the Hebrew prophets. I don't think they would have agreed -- they wouldn't have been allowed to say anything significant!

Intriguing
Repetitive. The whole thing could have been condensed to one chapter. After a certain point, I couldn't read anymore. Nevertheless, the concept is inspiring.