What do we do when our religious traditions betray us? Shrug? Walk away? or fight back?? New year calls for honest recking.
The brave women and people of Iran remind us today to fight fearlessly when religious leaders and fear based dogmas miss the mark and abuse faith in terrible ways that turn the spiritual paths into a war zone. Patriarchy rules by rules, buys more time and power with binary bias and divisions that sanctify the spirit over the body, prioritise men over women, leverage law over love.
But more and more of us are saying NO to this old time religion - Muslims, Christians Jews, and more.— Time’s Up.
Which is why on this first shabbat of the new jewish year, this time of reckoning and repair it’s vital for me to remember why we gotta keep going way below the Bible Belt - to uncover bias, to talk back to this sacred text, to expose fault lines where the Torah is not only modeling man-made religion but is also hiding older versions where there is opposition, resistance, alternative and luscious ways to live the life of sacred truths - and love.
Would you kill your best friend for suggesting a religious alternative? Would you burn down a city for its faith in other gods? Along with these demands this week’s chapters in The Book of Words also remind us to pursue justice, feed the poor, let the land rest, eat healthy -
How do we pick the healthy from the unhealthy in our religious inherited traditions so we can reconnect to what is sacred and life affirming and discard the hatred and the fear based fury that is part of our DNA?
Slowly. and with love. All year long.
Check out today’s new vid.
Shabbat Shalom. Shana Tova!
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Inspired by Iran