PIVOTAL JUNCTURE

I believe we are facing global challenges that only global efforts of one kind or another will be able to meet. AIDS and other pandemics which are on the horizon, such as the Avian Flu, global warming and pollution, ethnic, religious and tribal conflict on a worsening scale confront us every day. Some of these problems are ancient and perennial. Some, like the dark side of technological progress, only came about in the last 150 years or so. The thing they have in common is that they are all too big for the human race to handle unless it unites. It's not the "Martians" that will finally bring us together in order to confront a common and otherwise indomitable foe, it's ourselves. At least that is the hope.

We are on the verge of developing the technology that will enable us to defeat hunger, wipe out disease and turn poverty into a thing of the past. Similarly, this is the first time in human history that we have the means to organize on a scale that will enable us to deliver and universally disseminate the solutions we are rapidly developing. Global transport, global communication, global manufacturing are all in place. However, if we fail to develop at the same time, a global spiritual and political vision that is commensurate with the sophistication and maturity of our scientific and technological expertise, all our accomplishments in that area will come to naught. A world in which, thanks to global communication and the information revolution, everyone knows how the "other half" lives, in which there are no secrets of class and privilege helping to sustain the status quo will not tolerate gross inequities. We will either unite in the healing embrace of a global vision that manifests in different yet complimentary ways: As a global religion, as a global government, as a global movement in culture and the arts, or we will become increasingly divided, radicalized, intolerant and extreme.

One might ask, in view of this, "What is the role of religion at such a pivotal time in the evolution of human society and culture?"

Though vulnerable like every other social institution created by man, to various forms of debasement and perversion, religion is the locus for what little spiritual light human beings are able to attain. It is how we organize ourselves around the knowledge we regard as holy. Religion is the structure we erect to preserve, disseminate, develop, explore and protect the insights and revelations our mystics and prophets provide. Furthermore, these insights and revelations into the fundamental nature of existence form the model from which we intuit moral law:

Revealed:

“It’s what we think about the spiritual or metaphysical nature of the universe, that determines how we act in the universe, it is from our knowledge of these things that the laws governing our behavior and morality emerge.”

If we are to navigate and bind together the broken pieces of our fractured world, religion is the treasure-house (and yes, the treasure is mixed with trash) where we will find the answers that we need.

Because in today's world the conflicts we are most urgently called to resolve include a strong religious dimension, only a voice that is at once a valid exponent of the religious point of view and an unbiased participant in the religious community as a whole will be able to effectively address the moral and spiritual issues with which we are confronted. That voice should originate therefore in a community that is constructed in equal measure from, and belongs in equal measure to, all the great religious traditions. That voice should originate in the house of we.

Revealed:

“The world exists because of justice, order, compassion. And people try to manifest those virtues.”

For more information, please visit the House of We Web Site: www.10thgeneration.org/h.o.w/main1.html

http://tribes.tribe.net/houseofwe