The Left Hand of God:
Fundamentalism in American Politics
and a Progressive Spiritual Alternative
Lecture by Rabbi Michael Lerner, editor of Tikkun magazine
April 6, 2006
Rabbi Michael Lerner, editor of the influential magazine TIKKUN for the past 20 years and one of the most insightful critics of American politics, culture, and society, spoke at UMass Amherst on April 6, 2006 in a lecture titled “The Left Hand of God: Religious Fundamentalism in American Politics and a Progressive Spiritual Alternative.”
In his provocative and often controversial essays, Lerner challenges our political and religious thinking. His latest book, The Left Hand of God: Taking Back Our Country from the Religious Right, from which his lecture was derived, argues that the so-called Religious Right has gained power by speaking to the real spiritual hunger of many Americans but channeled that hunger into support for war and militarism, cuts to programs for the poor, tax breaks for the rich, and environmental irresponsibility.
Lerner presents a “Spiritual Covenant for America” which critiques both the Religious Right and the hostility of many liberals and progressives to spirituality and religion, giving voice to liberals in the religious world as well as many secular people who are spiritual but not religious. He calls for “a New Bottom Line to offset the globalization of selfishness and materialism” and introduces a fundamentally new approach to what it would mean to take spiritual needs seriously in our economic and political lives.
Cornel West has lauded Lerner as “the most prophetic intellectual and spiritual leader of our generation.” Jim Wallis, author of the bestselling God’s Politics, calls Lerner “one of America’s most important spiritual teachers, a contemporary prophet whose insightful and visionary thinking has already had a profound impact on American culture and thought.”
Lerner is the founding editor of TIKKUN magazine, and co-chair with Cornel West and Sister Joan Chittister of the Network of Spiritual Progressives. He is the author of ten books including Healing Israel/Palestine and Spirit Matters. Utne Magazine named Lerner one of its 100 American Visionaries. He has two PhD’s: one in philosophy from the University of California, Berkeley, and one in clinical psychology from the Wright Institute. He is also rabbi of Beyt Tikkun synagogue in San Francisco and Berkeley.
This lecture was presented by the Office of Jewish Affairs and cosponsored by the Political Economy Research Institute, the departments of History and Judaic & Near Eastern Studies, the Western Massachusetts Interfaith Coalition for Peace and Justice, SAGE, and the American Friends Service Committee.
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