NYT article on Spiritual Progressives: Way Off the Mark!
I want to take this oportunity to say that I've never seen such a horrible representation of what is supposed to pass for objectivity as I saw in the New York Times by Neela Banerjee last week. I read an AP article about the conference of the Network of Spiritual Progressives and I failed to even remotely recognize any of the descriptions as they were supposed to be related to the conference I was actually attending. First, the mainstream media writers need to get off the old track and understand that this is not about left and right political stereotypes, as the headline disappointingly displayed. [Title: Religious Left Struggles to Find Unifying Message ]
Last week in D.C.
photo by Iddy
This is an interfaith movement - a beautiful, successful one at that - and it isn't a "struggle to find a unifying message." Instead, it's a journey of learning about one another and understanding what happens at the crossroads where our common values meet. There are not simply lefties or Democrats standing at the crossroads. Everyone is welcome. This is not a partisan game we're playing. This is about hope and vision; not about playing "gotcha" with the Religious Right. God is not a Republican. God is not a Democrat. The media needs to come to terms with the fact that millions upon millions of American citizens are people of faith, yet their core common values are not being represented in the public.
If we put a mirror up to the face that our nation shows its own people and the people of the world, we would not see a reflection of our own faces. In what is allegedly the freest and most democratic nation of the face of this earth, we SHOULD be seeing a reflection of who we are, as decent people of many faiths (and some of no faith whatsoever), but all we see is domestic and foreign policy built around the self-interest of those who have usurped the power and left us to fend for ourselves as units of economy rather than as human beings.
It's high time for that to end. We need to take our country back.
If Neela Banerjee or her editors are reading this, I ask them to please take themselves out of the old stereotypical forms of writing and thinking and look at this with some objectivity, as any professional journalist should.
The Washington Post's article, Religious Liberals Gain New Visibility: A Different List Of Moral Issues was much more professional and realistic.