Friends on the #religious #left: What do you find fulfilling about your denomination or particular congregation?
I'm interested in developing my sense of spirituality, as someone with generally #nontheist and #humanist views. Obviously strongly looking into local #UnitarianUniversalist groups, as well as trends within #Buddhism and #Quakerism.
How has religion informed or played a role in your #activism?
re: Spirituality and Activism
@gabbybray ...and I've yet to find folks doing liberation work while following those paths, perhaps because, in a way, those paths point to a reality that is greater than the world that can be experienced by our senses, and beyond language and ego, thus somewhat calling into question the basis on which a lot of activism occurs. But I know that without people doing that work, I wouldn't have the free time to explore all this.
re: Spirituality and Activism
@gabbybray I guess all this is to say, I've become much more spiritual through reading folks like Alan Watts and (separately from Advaita/Zen) Robin Wall Kimmerer, but thus far I've been keeping my spirituality separate from my activism so that I can develop it further away from group-think and the always-constant-urgency of fighting for justice. Hopefully you'll have better luck!
re: Spirituality and Activism
@amikigu Thanks for your response! I definitely also feel that tension between developing a personal spirituality and expressing it in that way.
I like your description of religious instututions as "group-think-y." That's part of the reason I stepped back from my old church, and also something that I've experienced outside of religion, working with groups like DSA.
Spirituality and Activism
@gabbybray Oh cool, you'll probably find a lot of cool people in all those traditions. I think I've realized, in pursuing activism through certain religious or spiritual groups, that I'm perhaps an individualist anarchist, because even the UU group I visited recently that was organizing around Extinction Rebellion seemed a bit group-think-y and growth-minded about their motivations. I'm going in a more Advaita Vedanta/Zen Buddhism direction...