In Memory of the Trampled Wal-Mart Worker: A Contemplative Rant
Here’s some unhappy post-Thanksgiving news: Wal-Mart Store Employee Trampled to Death by Black Friday Shoppers. It’s a grim story. Not only did frenzied shoppers trample an employee, but they just kept on stepping over his body once he fell. They pushed fellow employees who were trying to help him out of the way. And then they got angry when the store closed, in the wake of the poor man’s death.
Do we need any more proof that the American Dream has collapsed into a commercial nightmare?
My friends, we who believe that life ought to be organized around contemplation rather then consumption have a large and difficult task ahead of us. First of all, I think we must be clear that traditional forms of religion, or even currently popular forms of spirituality, appear to be powerless to fight against the forces of mammon. I’m afraid that we can expect little or no help from the various institutional churches, since the liberal churches seem to be stuck in a quagmire of declining membership while the conservative churches come across as ignoring pretty much all issues except those involving the regulation of middle-class sexuality. And we most assuredly cannot expect any help from the panoply of new age or post-religious spiritualities, since they are so mesmerized by the ‘law of attraction’ and so forth that they appear to be more part of the problem than part of the needed cure.
If you’re a conservative Christian and you’re worried about sex, then do something about human trafficking. If you’re a liberal Christian and you’re worried about the ongoing relevance of your faith, then take a stand against excessive consumerism. If you’re a non-Christian but interested in Christian contemplation, then at least recognize that contemplative spirituality demands that people come before either things or money or ideology. Regardless of your political or theological persuasion, we all need to address the question of how our faith should inform our relationship to the earth, to natural resources, and to sustainable living. And in any case, I believe this kind of activism will only make a difference if it begins with a life of deep, sustained, daily prayer.
The Rolling Stones once sang, “I shouted out, ‘Who killed the Kennedys?’ When after all, it was you and me.” Likewise, my friends, it was you and me who trampled to death that Wal-Mart employee in the midst of a Black Friday rush. We must avoid the temptation of seeing our culture as divided into consumerist goats and non-consumerist sheep. That just introduces another dualism into our lives, and solves nothing. We are all mad shoppers, we are all air and water polluters, we are all eagerly hypnotized by our baubles and trinkets while the world around us gasps in a fever.
The question is, what are we going to do about it? And I think the answer must begin in silence, sustained silence. From there, we must remove the beams in our own eyes. And I’m not sure what comes next, because I’m still working on those first two steps for myself. But I believe the Spirit will lead us. We just have to snap out of the reverie long enought to be lead-able.
I may not have the answer, but here’s something I do believe: the Spirit’s leading must involve a combination of contemplation and action. We who hear the call to silence do not have the luxury to recite our Jesus Prayer ad nauseum while everyone else goes to hell. At that point, our contemplation becomes infernal. No, we bask in the silence in order to be empowered to live Christlike lives. We must be prepared to cast the money-changers out of the temple. And we must begin by dealing with the money-changers who are our own selves.
Quote for the Day
We become contemplatives when God discovers Himself in us.
— Thomas Merton, New Seeds of Contemplation
Register now for the February Ken Wilber Course
The class I will be teaching on Ken Wilber’s A Brief History of Everything is now listed online at Emory University’s Center for Lifelong Learning. If you register early, you can save $10 on the course fee. (I don’t know when early registration ends, but as of this writing it’s still going on). If you’re new to Ken Wilber or just want a communal setting for exploring Wilber’s ideas as presented in one of his most accessible books, this is a wonderful class. Evening at Emory always attracts a variety of people from different cultural, religious and philosophical backgrounds, which makes for some great discussions as we explore the power (and limitations) of Wilber’s integral ideas. If you live in or near Atlanta, I hope you’ll sign up for the class.
Here’s the course information:
A Brief History of Everything
American philosopher Ken Wilber’s writings combine eastern and western spirituality, psychology, biology, cultural theory, and other strands of contemporary thought to create what the author calls “integral psychology.” Wilber bridges science and religion, explains the dynamics of human consciousness and moral development, and speculates on future evolution of our species. Despite the complexity of his thought, many of Wilber’s books are surprisingly accessible, including the textbook for this class, A Brief History of Everything. In this class we’ll read the book, discuss its merits, and consider how Wilber’s ideas can impact the scientific and spiritual communities. Tuition includes textbook.
Instructor: Carl McColman, MA in Professional Writing and Editing, Author of The Aspiring Mystic
5 sessions: Wednesdays, February 18-March 18 / 7:00-9:00 pm
Registration fee: $130 Register now — register early and save $10!
What will be covered:
Session 1 – Introduction to Ken Wilber
- Flatland, Boomeritis, and other Wilberisms
- Integral Practice
Session 2 – Read A Brief History of Everything, Introduction, Chapters 1-5
- The “Twenty” Tenets
- The Spectrum of Consciousness
Session 3 – Read A Brief History of Everything, Chapters 6-10
- The Big Three
- The Four Quadrants
- States and Stages
Session 4 – Read A Brief History of Everything, Chapters 11-14
- Taking meditation deeper
- On the Way to Global
- Realms of the Superconscious
Session 5 – Read A Brief History of Everything, Chapters 15-18
- Flatland and its Discontents
- Ego and Eco
- An Integral Vision: Where are we going?
Hope to see you there!
Quote for the Day
The saint knows that the world and everything made by God is good, while those who are not saints either think that created things are unholy, or else they don’t bother about the question one way or another because they are only interested in themselves.
The eyes of the saint make all beauty holy and hte hands of the saint consecrate everything they touch to the glory of God, and the saint is never offended by anything and judges no man’s sin because he does not know sin. He knows the mercy of God. He knows that his own mission on earth is to bring that mercy to all.
— Thomas Merton, New Seeds of Contemplation
Beloved Dust
Beloved Dust: Tides of the Spirit in the Christian Life
By Robert Davis Hughes, III
New York: Continuum, 2008
Review by Carl McColman
This is actually just a “teaser” review. I just got my copy of Beloved Dust yesterday, which means I’ve only given it a cursory glance: so I’m only going to do a brief mini-review of this book for now. But this book deserves a careful reading, so after I’ve read it, I’ll come back and write about it in greater depth. Let me offer a disclaimer: Bob Hughes was my spiritual director in the late 1980s, so I am a wee bit biased here. He teaches theology at the University of the South in Sewanee, TN, and embodies the fullness of the splendor of Anglican spirituality, from its catholic sacramentality to its joyous optimism in the Holy Spirit. Here, in his first book, he is proposing a “reconstruction of spiritual theology” in today’s post-modern, post-triumphalist, post-Vatican II world, engaging honestly with the challenges posed by interreligious dialogue and with the exciting emergence of serious lay spirituality in our time, as evidenced by the popularity of the writings of Thomas Merton and Richard Foster, or the success of organizations like Shalem or Spiritual Directors International. In conversation with significant voices such as Pierre Teilhard de Chardin and Simone Weil, Beloved Dust explores where the Holy Spirit may be taking us: using as its overarching metaphor the notion that we earthy humans are made of dust, washed over by the tides of the Spirit’s love, care and grace.
I’m excited about this book, and I suspect to do it justice I will need to read it slowly and reflectively. So it may be a while before I can post a more thorough review. Meanwhile, I suspect most of the readers of this blog will want to own and read this book thoroughly — so buy it now and read it alongside me.
Not in there!
Becky Garrison sent me a link to this wonderful drawing, from a blogger who calls himself Naked Pastor:
The Charter for Compassion
This looks pretty cool: a group of religious leaders, including folks like Desmond Tutu and Joan Chittister, are spearheading a campaign to draft a universal “Charter for Compassion.” Perhaps this could be the Magna Carta of the 3rd millennium? Part of what’s neat about it is that anyone can contribute ideas or language for the charter via this website:
Here’s what the website says about this:
By recognizing that the Golden Rule is fundamental to all world religions, the Charter for Compassion can inspire people to think differently about religion. This Charter is being created in a collaborative project by people from all over the world. It will be completed in 2009. Use this site to offer language you’d like to see included. Or inspire others by sharing your own story of compassion.
Looks like a project well worth participating in.
At the Botanical Gardens
Pretty much every Sunday Fran, Rhiannon and I drive to Athens, GA, where my father lives. We take him out to lunch and sometimes do other fun stuff — like today, we visited the Georgia Botanical Gardens, to enjoy the fall foliage, which is just now peaking down here in the south.
Here’s a snapshot I took of Dad, Fran, and Rhiannon…
… while Fran took this photo of me, in one of my more “mystical” moments.
