God
in the World II
“At the
same moment when massive global institutions seem to rule the world,
there is an equally strong counter-movement among regular people to
claim personal agency in our own lives.”
Diana
Butler Bass (Grounded, p.21)
When I read the news now,
or try to comprehend how the world really works, I come away as
baffled as a child. Giant corporations, billionaires, a multinational
banking consortium and underground government operatives all working
behind the scenes to manipulate currency and the flow of goods and
services to their advantage. It seems like the fantastic scenario of
a James Bond movie. As someone who grew up in a small mill town in
North Carolina, it's hard for me to wrap my head around such
conglomerates being in control of the world. I think it's probably
difficult for most other folks, too. And since we cannot effect the
major players, or even know who they are, we have turned our
attention to our personal world, and the things we do have a modicum
of control over.
In the words of Diana
Butler Bass in Grounded, p.21, “We grow food in our backyards.
We brew beer. We weave cloth and knit blankets. We shop local. We
create our own playlists. We tailor delivery of news and
entertainment. In every arena, we customize and personalize our
lives, creating material environments to make meaning, express a
sense of uniqueness, and engage causes that matter to us and the
world.” We have a need to feel that even as there is a massive
cyber war swirling in the the stratosphere, we singlets here on earth
can grow a carrot and a tomato, and raise a chicken or two. We can
survive in spite of all the goings-on that we cannot begin to
comprehend. This effort to control what we can, underpins the
movement of our spiritual grounding as well. In massive
numbers—according to Paul Zuckerman in Living the Secular Life, p.
60, 660,000-700,000 people per year for the last decade in America
alone—we are leaving the large traditional religious institutions,
and finding what we experience as holy in the world around us.
As the planet becomes
more managed by unseen forces that control the wealth, we move ever
closer to our grounded world of home and humankind. We go where we
are comfortable, where we feel we have some choice in shaping our
lives, and we locate our spiritual connections right where we are.
Some see this as disastrous; as the population becoming
anti-religious, but that doesn't seem to be the case. The vast
majority of people, almost 70%, profess belief in God, Universal
Spirit, or a Higher Power, but they do not encounter that sacred
presence in institutions. Instead, they find divinity in the natural
world, and in other people. Perhaps what seems like a revolutionary
change is not a disaster at all, but is the true meaning of
Emmanuel—God with us.
In the Spirit,
Jane
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