Category Archives: Religion / Spirituality

Peter Birkenhead, in Salon, takes a whack at Oprah: he starts with her latest self-help project “The Secret” (which does sound pretty sketchy) and then zooms out and tries to tear down all of Oprah Culture:

For these believers, self-knowledge is much less important than self-“love.” But the question they never seem to ask themselves is: If you wouldn’t tell another person you loved her before you got to know her, why would you do that to yourself? Skipping the getting-to-know-you part has given us what we deserve: the Oprah culture. It’s a culture where superstition is “spirituality,” illiteracy is “authenticity,” and schoolmarm moralism is “character.” It’s a culture where people apologize by saying, “I’m sorry you took offense at what I said,” and forgive by saying, “I’m not angry at you anymore, I’m grateful to you for teaching me not to trust shitheads like you.” And that’s the part that should bother us most: the diminishing, even implicit mocking, of genuine goodness, and of authentic spiritual concerns and practices. Engagement, curiosity and active awe are in short supply these days, and it’s sickening to see them devalued and misrepresented.

He concludes by essentially calling for more scrutiny of Oprah’s humongous cultural influence:

If you reach more people than Bill O’Reilly, if you have better name recognition than Nelson Mandela, if the books you endorse sell more than Stephen King’s, you should take some responsibility for your effect on the culture. The most powerful woman in the world is taking advantage of people who are desperate for meaning, by passionately championing a product that mocks the very idea of a meaningful life.

Related Post: Lee Siegel TNR article on Oprah

(Hat tip for Salon article: Chris Yeh)

Alan Shimel, Chief Strategy Officer of StillSecure, a Mobius VC company, has a great personal reflection up on his blog. I met Alan briefly the other week when he stopped by Seth‘s office (and my desk). In only a couple minutes of talking I felt the emotional warmth oozing out.

Why is he reflecting now?

There comes moments in all of our lives where we stop and want to bookmark where we are and reflect on who, what and why we do what we do.

It’s short, personal, and gratitude-filled. A key to happiness is to be aware of and express your gratitude.

He quotes the movie Wall Street:

“Man looks in the abyss, there’s nothing staring back at him. At that moment, man finds his character. And that is what keeps him out of the abyss.” —Hal Holbrook, Wall Street

When I pause and reflect, I, like Alan, see a very lucky man indeed — a full plate of activities and adventures, wonderfully supportive friends and mentors, a loving and non-dysfunctional family, really solid roots (same bedroom, same house, same neighborhood in San Francisco my whole life!), and self-confidence that any time I come to plate I’m capable of hitting a home run. All the while, I’m lucky because I have significant challenges ahead of me — ones that will doubtless bring their fair share of failure and self-doubt, which, when cycled through, ultimately strengthens a person.

When you look into the abyss, what do you see?

Sen. Barack Obama delivered what Andrew Sullivan called “the finest public speech on religion in public life in years”. Here’s the link. I agree it’s good. I’ve been thinking about this after reading Stephen Carter’s book God’s Name in Vain (which I don’t recommend). Obama hits the mark with these grafs:

Each day, it seems, thousands of Americans are going about their daily rounds – dropping off the kids at school, driving to the office, flying to a business meeting, shopping at the mall, trying to stay on their diets – and they’re coming to the realization that something is missing. They are deciding that their work, their possessions, their diversions, their sheer busyness, is not enough.

They want a sense of purpose, a narrative arc to their lives. They’re looking to relieve a chronic loneliness, a feeling supported by a recent study that shows Americans have fewer close friends and confidants than ever before. And so they need an assurance that somebody out there cares about them, is listening to them – that they are not just destined to travel down that long highway towards nothingness….

In fact, because I do not believe that religious people have a monopoly on morality, I would rather have someone who is grounded in morality and ethics, and who is also secular, affirm their morality and ethics and values without pretending that they’re something they’re not. They don’t need to do that. None of us need to do that.

But what I am suggesting is this – secularists are wrong when they ask believers to leave their religion at the door before entering into the public square. Frederick Douglas, Abraham Lincoln, Williams Jennings Bryant, Dorothy Day, Martin Luther King – indeed, the majority of great reformers in American history – were not only motivated by faith, but repeatedly used religious language to argue for their cause. So to say that men and women should not inject their “personal morality” into public policy debates is a practical absurdity. Our law is by definition a codification of morality, much of it grounded in the Judeo-Christian tradition….

This brings me to my second point. Democracy demands that the religiously motivated translate their concerns into universal, rather than religion-specific, values. It requires that their proposals be subject to argument, and amenable to reason. I may be opposed to abortion for religious reasons, but if I seek to pass a law banning the practice, I cannot simply point to the teachings of my church or evoke God’s will. I have to explain why abortion violates some principle that is accessible to people of all faiths, including those with no faith at all.

Now this is going to be difficult for some who believe in the inerrancy of the Bible, as many evangelicals do. But in a pluralistic democracy, we have no choice. Politics depends on our ability to persuade each other of common aims based on a common reality. It involves the compromise, the art of what’s possible. At some fundamental level, religion does not allow for compromise. It’s the art of the impossible. If God has spoken, then followers are expected to live up to God’s edicts, regardless of the consequences. To base one’s life on such uncompromising commitments may be sublime, but to base our policy making on such commitments would be a dangerous thing.

Psychology Today has a nice article on the Call of Solitude, in which it argues a lack of solitude can block creativity, peace of mind, and deep relationships.

I’m a big fan of alone time, especially if I’m facing a meaty decision or need an extra strong burst of creativity. Solitude is also a key component of my "spirituality" — a term I use without quite knowing what it means. What I do know is that peacefulness is good for the soul.

Here’s a telling graf from the article:

"I’m away from office and won’t be back for a week. The machine is   not set up to record incoming messages." This is what you may hear when you   call Peter Suedfeld, Ph.D., a University of British Columbia psychologist   who studies solitude–and is well-attuned to the benefits of time alone. In   researching the effects of sensory deprivation–the ultimate   alonetime–Suedfeld found that after just one hour in a dark flotation   tank, people show lower blood pressure, higher mental functioning, enhanced   creativity, and a more positive mental outlook.

"My research implies that people are chronically stimulated, both   socially and physically, and are probably operating at a stimulation level   higher than that for which our species evolved," Suedfeld says. His   recommendation: limit the assault of modern technology, as he does with his   phone message, to allow for more time alone.

On a related point, Paul Throsey had a sub-par and bizarre op/ed in the New York Times yesterday on "America the Overfull" which noted that each year more people inhabit the earth, which means more crowding (and thus, solitude a more elusive goal).

"Anyone can become angry — that is easy. But to be angry with the right person, to the right degree, at the right time, for the right purpose, and in the right way — this is not easy." – Aristotle, The Nicomachean Ethics