Spiritual Development Blog

The Spiritual Development Blog is a mini-journal about how the spiritual development stages play out in our culture. It...

--points out correlations between the spiritual development of individuals and that of the larger culture.

--aims to show how those displaying the traits of spiritual maturity lead our culture forward while those holding back progress tend toward spiritual immaturity.

--occasionally offers opinions on the spiritual development stage of some public figure or group, based upon comments or values they put forth.

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AHA’s Naughty List: Actor Denzel Washington

A serious problem in society is that people generally do not understand the spiritual development stages. There ARE atheists who are as Denzel Washington describes - no conscience, no remorse, just want to dominate. Traditionally religious people often mistake ALL atheists for the pre-religious, or what I call "Lawless" kind.

What most traditionally religious people fail to realize is that most atheists are NOT like this. They are post-religious. That is they don't need the rules of religion to govern their behavior. On my website I call them Rationals. instead of not having a conscience, people at the Rational level have a conscience that comes from within. It is not dependent upon the rules of the church, or even of society. It is a deeper form of morality than those who just follow the rules.

Furthermore, in general Rational level folks are more devoted to social justice. They take into account the needs and feelings of people who don't fit into their same social group. This is a more mature stance than the traditionally religious people who think only those who believe as they do are right.

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Humanism is Love

Margaret's comment in response to an American Humanist Association article entitled Humanism is Love. The original article (Feb, 2012) appears on the click for more info link below.

How about...Humanism is love that refuses to separate us from other humans on the basis of beliefs?

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Racism in the GOP? Margaret's commentary on an AlterNet article

The original article (1/20/12) appears on the "click for more information" link below.

In the eyes of the Right, "those people" are not "real Americans." They never can be.

I am not sure the racism card isn't being somewhat overplayed in this article. But the author has correctly picked up on an essential trait common to the most vocal members of the GOP: "my-group-itis." Ostracizing ANY kind of outsider will do: This reality speaks to why there should be no surprise when Republican audiences cheer the death penalty, dying people without insurance, or heckle soldiers who happen to be gay.

This vocal GOP these days limits its "group" to white stably-employed Americans (who don't need to worry about health insurance,) heterosexual, and preferably male. Many of us who react against their elitist proclamations do so because we feel we are a part of a larger group--ALL Americans or preferably all of humanity, or even all of the universe. Our circle of concern is wider than our most immediate group.

The GOP "my-group-itis" can also be called ethnocentricity and is typical of the second of four levels of spiritual development. Those who rail against the GOP proclamations, in broad general terms, tend to be at the third (worldcentric) or fourth (universal) level.

Yes - I am saying that today's most vocal GOP spokesmen proclaim a spiritually immature message - either because they themselves are spiritually immature, or in effort to manipulate the vulnerable masses. The sooner more people understand what spiritual maturity looks like, the sooner the elitist, racist, homophobics will lose their hold on our society.

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