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1/7# A quick comment, prompted by a post today by a Democrat consultant suggesting that "a core problem with the left/Dems is discomfort with the idea of a person as a spiritual being with innate dignity."
2# It seems to me there are far too many over-quick pronouncements regarding what "left/Dems" are all about, and, especially, regarding what human spirituality entails. And that becomes problematic in a hurry when an assumption gets made that the "left" tends to be "unspiritual."
3# My own political sentiments are ultimately deeply radical. I'm also a person who's deeply spiritual, as reflected in my being a minister ("postmodern Buddhist"). And I've done work with Rev. Jim Rigby, shown here rather politically engaged re non-documented persons' treatment:
4# And of course Gandhi, MLK, Thich Nhat Hanh, Malcolm X, the Berrigan brothers, Sister Helen Prejean — for them, and for so many like the, being a spiritual person and being a progressive political person are a *same thing.*
5# How we tend to define "religion" and "spirituality" in the modern West is culturally and historically shaped and it tends, imho, to be often rather simplistic and presumptuous.
[below: Daniel Berrigan; Sister Helen Prejean]
![5# How we tend to define "religion" and "spirituality" in the modern West is culturally and historically shaped and it tends, imho, to be often rather simplistic and presumptuous. [below: Daniel Berrigan; Sister Helen Prejean]](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Eobd6ydXIAACpEi.png "5# How we tend to define \"religion\" and \"spirituality\" in the modern West is culturally and historically shaped and it tends, imho, to be often rather simplistic and presumptuous. [below: Daniel Berrigan; Sister Helen Prejean]")
![5# How we tend to define "religion" and "spirituality" in the modern West is culturally and historically shaped and it tends, imho, to be often rather simplistic and presumptuous. [below: Daniel Berrigan; Sister Helen Prejean]](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/EobeD9-XYAc7OrY.jpg "5# How we tend to define \"religion\" and \"spirituality\" in the modern West is culturally and historically shaped and it tends, imho, to be often rather simplistic and presumptuous. [below: Daniel Berrigan; Sister Helen Prejean]")
[below: Daniel Berrigan; Sister Helen Prejean]
6# And there can be tendencies to project onto our cultural heroes analogous simplistic presumptions. Socrates, often imagined as quintessentially rational, for instance, was a deeply religious person, and Jesus of Nazareth was deeply political. https://thesideview.co/journal/the-contemplatives-socrates/
7/7# Both religion and politics are of course a MESS. But I feel we stand to benefit when we attend less to over-quick assumptive labels, and look more to the enactment of actual felt values...especially when values are expressive of a lived *practice* of sought worth and wonder.
