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 This is Topic: Spirit in PoliticsFollowing are the News Items published under this Topic.
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 The Case Against Faith. Religion does untold damage to our politics. An atheist's lament.
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By Sam Harris
Editor's Note: We are posting this outspoken article on religious faith because we believe that all truth-centered spiritual organizations need to maintain open, vigorous, ongoing, and disinfecting dialog on the pathologies and abuses of religious faith. While we do believe that religious faith should be examined and challenged by postmodern society, we do not agree with "throwing the baby away with the bath water." But, powerful bestsellers such as Sam Harris's “The End of Faith” and “The God Delusion” by Richard Dawkins will certainly stimulate thinking to help the secure spiritual seeker and postmodern spiritual organization re-think what is appropriate for a non-pathological faith in today’s world...
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Published Nov 14, 2006 - 10:23 PM
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The Peoples of the World are Sovereign
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By Byron Belitsos
How should world patriots address today's most urgent global problems? Our new IS content editor, Byron Belitsos, recently coauthored the book - One World Democracy— a comprehensive manifesto of planetary patriotism—to answer that single question. This book calls for democratic world government and the rule of enforceable global law—a federation of all nations—with the ability to abolish war and convene a world legislature. The coming world union under law that One World Democracy describes is a favored theme in recent discussions about "integral politics." This first chapter from Byron’s book, courtesy of Origin Press, describes the basis of the coming global social contract: the inherent sovereignty of the world’s people - the political basis of the coming world democratic government that will rely on the growth of the integral commons.
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Published May 26, 2006 - 09:38 PM
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Poll: Americans educated in pop culture, not civil liberties
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If life were a university, Americans would do better majoring in popular culture than in history, a survey released this week shows.
The McCormick Tribune Freedom Museum poll found that Americans' knowledge of television shows such as The Simpsons and American Idol far surpasses their familiarity with the First Amendment.
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Published Mar 04, 2006 - 01:34 PM
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US celebrates its most misread freedom
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It may be America's most important gift to the world. It began 220 years ago this week. Yet many Americans, it seems, still don't understand what it entails. It's the country's unique experiment in religious freedom, rooted in the First Amendment to the Constitution.
As the first historic act in the experiment - the 1786 Virginia Statute Establishing Religious Freedom - is celebrated in Richmond Wednesday, many see that lack of understanding as a challenge for the growing religious and ideological diversity in the United States.
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Published Jan 18, 2006 - 03:27 PM
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What the people of the world are saying
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Nearly two-thirds of the world's citizens believe they are not being governed by the will of the people, and fewer than half believe elections are free and fair, according to a global poll by the BBC.
But opinion varies sharply from region to region on whether national elections are free and fair, the study, commissioned by the BBC World Service and conducted by Gallup International, found.
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Published Sep 15, 2005 - 03:05 PM
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America: land of spiritual hunger
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Many in the US yearn for a 'religion of the spirit.'
In recent polls, 84 percent say spirituality is important in their lives, and 62 percent consider themselves "deeply spiritual."
How did America become a land of spiritual questing?
Leigh Schmidt, religion professor at Princeton University, takes issue with what he sees as a facile analysis of the "new spirituality" that has tied it simply to watershed events of the 1960's and New Age philosophies. Nor is it always, he says, an outgrowth of the occultism in early American life, as some have asserted.
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Published Aug 30, 2005 - 03:05 PM
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Progressive spiritual activists mingle
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A variety of reasons brought an estimated 1,300-plus people from throughout the nation to the University of California, Berkeley, on Wednesday for the start of a four-day progressive spiritual activism conference.
But it was the goal of getting their moral values represented in the political arena that appeared to unify the crowd.
"I think that this has the potential of becoming this decade's cultural Woodstock," said Brown, a member of a Methodist church that encourages interfaith participation. "It's long overdue."
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Published Jul 25, 2005 - 03:36 PM
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What place for God in Europe?
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Across Europe,the conflicting currents of secularism, Christianity, and Islam are compelling Europeans to wrestle with their values as never before. In this first installment of a three-part series, the Monitor examines the forces that are shaping European identity - and explores why the Continent is debating what role, if any, religion should play in public life. The following is an extract from a longer article....
"The clash between those who believe and those who don't believe will be a dominant aspect of relations between the US and Europe in the coming years," says Jacques Delors, a former president of the European Commission. "This question of a values gap is being posed more sharply now than at any time in the history of European-US relations since 1945."
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Published Feb 22, 2005 - 04:55 PM
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Haj faithful urged to reject terrorism
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Appeals for Muslims to disavow terrorism and condemn the use of Islam to justify violence were heard across Mecca yesterday as two million pilgrims reached the climax of the annual Haj pilgrimage.
As the faithful prepared to end the festival with the stoning of the devil, a ritual which has cost hundreds of lives during past stampedes, the state-appointed preacher at the Grand Mosque spoke of the "putrid" phenomenon of using the Koran to justify terrorist attacks.
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Published Jan 21, 2005 - 04:01 PM
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New Survey Calls for Greater Inclusiveness and Civility Among National and State Leaders
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Four in five (80 percent) respondents surveyed by Zogby International in late December for the non-partisan Center for the Study of the Presidency (CSP) call for inclusive national leadership.
"We wanted to know if people are willing to seek a 'higher ground,' to move American politics to both a greater level of civility, and to re-establish a system that can make more effective policy," CSP President David Abshire said. "This poll clearly shows that people want inclusive, creative leadership-not polarization and stagnation."
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Published Jan 07, 2005 - 03:03 PM
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Survey: World Fears for Future
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People around the globe largely mistrust their political leaders and nearly half fear the world will be less safe for their children, according to a survey issued on Thursday.
The survey, carried out in 60 countries by the Gallup International polling organization for the Swiss-based World Economic Forum, also found that business leaders have a better image than the politicians -- but not by a huge margin.
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Published Nov 18, 2004 - 04:04 PM
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Personal morality beats social justice at the polls
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The biggest factor shaping Americans' votes on Nov. 2 was the mother of all sleeper issues--"moral values."
In nationwide exit polls, one in five voters said moral values were the most important issue in casting their votes, outpacing every other major topic. Those "values" voters overwhelmingly went for President Bush over Sen. John Kerry, 79 percent to 18 percent.
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Published Nov 06, 2004 - 03:04 PM
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Religious Freedom Poll: U.S. mixed on religious freedom
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Respondents say they value tolerance, but half don't see need for separation with state
It was clear to Thomas Jefferson that if the government wasn't kept out of religion, it could end up telling people which church to attend.
Many people today don't share the statesman's concern over separation of church and state.
While most Americans highly value religious freedom and tolerance, nearly one in two doubt the need to maintain strict separation of church and state, according to a national survey released today by the Council for America's First Freedom, a Richmond-based organization dedicated to promoting and educating citizens about religious liberty.
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Published Sep 15, 2004 - 03:42 PM
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Desmond Tutu's Recipe for Peace
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Nobel Laureate Desmond Tutu is one of the world's most beloved religious figures. A longtime foe of apartheid, he retired as Episcopal archbishop of Cape Town, South Africa, and was then named chairman of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, the organization charged with bringing to light the atrocities committed during apartheid and achieving reconciliation with the former oppressors. Beliefnet conducted an email interview with him about his latest book, "God Has a Dream."
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Published Apr 14, 2004 - 04:16 PM
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How religion defines America
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Unlike some other Western countries, the United States remains an overwhelmingly religious society. The BBC programme What the World Thinks of God examines the modern world's relationship with God. Among those taking part is Dr Richard Land who explains how profoundly religion influences American society and politics.
The USA is a very religious society. Evidence abounds demonstrating Americans' deep and abiding religious convictions.
A Gallup Poll released in November 2003 found that six out of ten Americans said that religion was "very important" in their lives.
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Published Feb 25, 2004 - 04:38 PM
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US Intel Officer Links War, Religion
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The Pentagon's new deputy undersecretary of defense of intelligence has a penchant for publicly casting the war on terrorism in religious terms, it was reported Thursday. Lt. Gen. William G. Boykin, whose promotion and appointment was confirmed by the Senate in June, has said publicly he sees the war on terrorism as a clash between Judeo-Christian values and Satan, said the Los Angeles Times.Appearing in dress uniform before a religious group in Oregon in June, Boykin said Islamic extremists hate the United States "because we're a Christian nation, because our foundation and our roots are Judeo-Christians. ... And the enemy is a guy named Satan."
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Published Oct 19, 2003 - 08:20 PM
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The True Clash of Civilizations
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According to a new survey, Muslims and their Western counterparts want democracy, yet they are worlds apart when it comes to attitudes toward divorce, abortion, gender equality, and gay rights-which may not bode well for democracy's future in the Middle East.
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Published Oct 19, 2003 - 05:44 AM
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Tutu: It's better to talk than to fight
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Tutu says the world can learn about peace from South Africa
South Africa has shown the world that there were better ways to deal with bitterness and conflict than going to war, Archbishop Desmond Tutu said, Truth and Reconciliation (TRC) chairperson, said today.
"It is better to talk than to fight. Whatever war can do, peace can do better,"
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Published Oct 19, 2003 - 05:03 AM
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Politics, Not Religion, Spurs Violence, Pollsters Told
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Most worshippers, even in war-torn areas of the world, see politics rather than religion as the cause of violence and strife, according to a new survey of people of faith around the world.
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Published Oct 19, 2003 - 04:47 AM
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