c. 1998 Religion News Service

(The Rev. Meg Riley directs the Washington Office for Faith in Action for the Unitarian Universalist Association.)

UNDATED _ When, on national television, Patrick Buchanan declared culture war at the 1992 Republican Convention, I sat bolt upright. I was so appalled by the bigotry I felt compelled, in the same way my father had 50 years earlier at seeing Hitler’s venom, to enlist as a soldier on the other side of Buchanan’s war.

And so, while the right wing waged battles nationwide _ often in the name of God _ on reproductive choice, sexuality education, and gays and lesbians, I began to travel endlessly to congregations, campuses, and conferences.

I presented information to people of faith whose beliefs were like my own about the mission, purpose, and agenda of the so-called religious right. I wanted others to be as passionately concerned as I was. After each presentation, the first response would almost invariably be,”We need to organize the religious left to counteract what the religious right is doing.” I agreed, at first. But after six years of working heart and soul with every mainstream or progressive interreligious group that’s come down the road to do just that, I’ve changed my mind.

You name the interfaith coalition, alliance, or network for justice, and I’ve given it a whirl. I’ve also gathered with many nameless constellations of faith-based leaders, always feeling that if we could develop a clear message, become more effective communicators, get better funded, cultivate good media coverage, we could be successful at launching a huge faith-based movement.

Time and time again, we have accomplished particular, concrete goals. But time and time again, we have not”organized the religious left.” And I know now we will never organize it. What’s more, I have become convinced that organizing the religious left is neither a practical nor a desirable goal.

Impractical because we resemble a stampede of porcupines more than a flock of sheep. Undesirable because the last thing our country needs right now is yet another shrill, self-righteous voice forcefully claiming to speak for God.

Don’t get me wrong. We need to keep gathering across faith boundaries. But I don’t think organizing a unified front is our primary task in counteracting the religious right.

Instead, I’ve come to believe the most important action we as people of faith can take to counteract the religious right is to rediscover our own religions and create spiritual homes for ourselves. I say create because, at present, many houses of worship fail to engage many of us in transformational, spiritually nurturing, visionary meaning-making. In fact, as a minister currently serving in a non-parish position, I’m quite honestly amazed so many people keep going back to congregations that offer so little in return for the investment of precious time.

What would it mean to create nurturing spiritual homes? It would mean risking the kind of vulnerability everything in our culture tells us not to risk. It would mean having honest conversations with each other about love, violence, money, sexuality, time, children, work, addiction, and all of the other things that fill up our private lives. It would mean trusting each other. It would mean trusting ourselves. It would mean trusting God.

Making ourselves more vulnerable seems like the last thing we want to do in times already frighteningly risky for most of us. The urge to create, instead, a”religious left,”a unified front, is an expression of our desire to be less vulnerable. It is an expression of our fear _ the same fear the followers of Pat Robertson, Pat Buchanan, and others are expressing, that something we hold dear might be taken from us.

In my experience, the power of any coalition is only as strong as its members’ willingness to be fully engaged in its work. Many coalitions I am involved with these days involve so little engagement I can hardly stay awake through the meetings.

I am left longing for a vitality that can only come from deep within, from the soul. It is our souls, when nourished and alive, that make our lives juicy, that empower us to take risks, to be authentic, to hope. It is our souls that wake us up, give us new energy to solve old problems.

Before we can form effective coalitions, alliances, or networks, we need to create faith-homes. Homes that nurture us, yes, but which also stoke the fire necessary for passionate and energetic struggles for justice.

END RILEY

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