Under the doctrine of the separation of Church and State, can there be a place for spirituality in politics? Or should we keep our spiritual ideas and views out of it, and keep our politics free of spiritual influence?
During the heat of this campaign season (which is, truly, unlike any other I have seen in my lifetime), I think it might be interesting to see what the CwG material has to say about all this.
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NOTE: Saturday is Prose & Poetry Day here on the blog, a time to take a moment once a week to relax the mind, open the heart, and access the soul through the gift of prose from one of the many books of The New Spirituality, and through the poetry of m. Claire, author of the forthcoming volume, Silent Sacred Holy Deeply: Heart.
For this week’s prose we offer…an excerpt from Tomorrow’s God…
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I want to know how this New Spirituality will affect “real life” on our planet. I mean society’s day-to-day stuff. Like, say, politics.

Oh, it will throw politics into a complete upheaval.

All right.

When Tomorrow’s God is embraced, politics will change in several important ways.
In the days of The New Spirituality the idea that politics and spirituality do not mix will be abandoned forever.
Remember, The New Spirituality says that politics is your spirituality, demonstrated. In the days to come, this will be recognized at last.
Some societies on your planet believe that politics and spirituality should be separated. I observe this to be one of the most non-functional and non-beneficial ideas ever visited upon the human race.

But, that’s the whole basis on which my country was founded! That is one of America’s prime values. The United States prides itself on its “separation of church and state.”

That is beneficial.

I don’t understand. I thought you just said that it wasn’t.

Okay, let’s define our terms, so that you can understand.
If you define “Church” as an organization that teaches a specific doctrine in a very specific way, and “State” as the institution which is empowered to create and implement the laws which govern your people, it is of benefit for these elements to be separated.
If you define “spirituality” as the sum total of your cultural values and your most sacred beliefs, and “politics” as the process by which you select the people who will write and pass laws, as well as the method by which laws are adopted, then it is not of benefit for these elements to be separated.
It is not the function of the State to promulgate specific religious doctrines. It is therefore not beneficial for a particular church or religion to exert its influence on the mechanisms by which a state governs. No church or religion speaks for the conscience of all of the people, and such influence would thus be unfair to those who do not agree with the doctrines and point of view of the church or religion in question.
Yet it would be beneficial for your cultural values and your most sacred beliefs to influence the process by which you decide who shall propose laws, and how they shall be adopted, because each individual making that choice is presumed to be, and is asked to be, voting his or her conscience.

You seem to be describing the difference between collective impact on an entire system and individual impact on specific people or proposals within that system.

Exactly. Politics is a process. The State is an institution.
If the process by which you determine who shall propose and write your laws, and by which those laws are eventually adopted, does not include any place for your cultural values and your most sacred beliefs to be expressed, what good are those values and beliefs?

So you think we should be mixing spirituality and politics?

You already are mixing politics and spirituality in the United States—and your nation has one of the highest violent crime rates in the world, more children living in poverty than a nation with your gross national product should ever tolerate, racial and sexual lifestyle discrimination on a massive scale, and millions of people living without medical care, proper nutrition, adequate housing, safe streets, two-parent families, or any real hope for a better future.

Okay, I don’t understand. I thought you said that we needed more spirituality in politics. Now you’re telling me that we already mix the two in the U.S.—

—and all over the world—

—and all over the world, and we’re a mess.

The problem is not that humanity’s beliefs are mixed up in politics. The problem is that humanity’s beliefs are mixed up, period.
You have a bunch of mixed up beliefs. You are all mixed up.

I thought you were a God of No Judgment.

I am.

That sure sounds like Judgment to me.

It is not. It is an observation. To say that it is raining outside is not the same as saying that rain is bad. I am simply observing that, given where humanity is saying that it wants to go, given what humanity is insisting that it wishes to experience—namely, a world of peace and harmony and happiness—you are headed in the opposite direction. If you think you are going to produce that result using the behaviors you’ve been exhibiting, you are really mixed up. It’s not going to happen that way.
Let me repeat that.
It’s not going to happen that way.

And you think that bringing spirituality into politics is going to make it happen?

One last time: your spirituality is already being brought into politics. You are just not admitting it. At least not in your country. In some countries it is openly admitted, and that is more honest.
Once again, the problem is not that you have kept spirituality out of politics, but, rather, the nature of the spirituality—of the cultural values and sacred beliefs—that you have brought into the process.

So, you’re saying that our present cultural values and sacred beliefs are infecting, rather than enhancing, our political system.

Yes. Not only in the United States but around the world, your politics have been adversely affected by your spiritual beliefs.

(To be continued next Saturday…)
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If you experience that you received benefit from this excerpt from Tomorrow’s God you are going to love Happier Than God, the newest book in the CwG cosmology. Described as “a Master’s Guide to Spiritual Awakening,” this extraordinary new work has just been released and is available now. Click on the Happier Than God icon at the right of this blog page for more info, and embrace one of the most empowering books you will ever read.
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This week’s gift of poetry
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All of This:
it is preparation for
walking in the world
as Light.
You have been found now,
and the running of many lifetimes
is over.
So as each layer of dust
is wiped clean
from the surface
the You
you have known
must disperse.
Let this Light become
Your speech & Your silence.
Let the grief
that has lived you,
pass away.
Let the people
who love You,
Love Themselves.
Let the earth shake,
the stars burn
the skies break
when You do:
as painful as this part is,
You were meant
to
Know Your Light.

(You Were Meant – Em Claire – copyright 2007 – all rights reserved)
For more of the work of this new poetic voice you are invited to visit www.mclairepoet.com.