Bill Walz

I offered in one column a new political philosophy termed ìspiritual secularismî that I hope will stir new thinking. It attempts to reconcile what appears to be a contradiction, but I hope will come to be understood as merely paradoxical, striving toward a new wholism in our social and political thinking. I am quite convinced that if our secular policies are not informed and inspired by spiritual principles like inclusiveness, humility, compassion, peace, beauty, tolerance and personal responsibility to the totality of Creation, humanityís presence on the planet will become like a virus that transmutes into a lethal pathogen that kills its host, and in the process, itself.

Politics is consciousness. It always has been. The end of hereditary aristocracy, the struggles against racism and sexism, and the fight for workersí rights are all examples of a new, more expansive consciousness transforming the political landscape. And if we are to have a new politics, we must bring to it a new consciousness. We must expand our consciousness to enfold the entire planet in a vision of kinship, peace, sustainability, aesthetics and universal responsibility for even ìthe least among us,î not only the poor, but the animals, the plants and the earth itself.

Globalism is, indeed, the overriding issue of the day, but not as it is being presented. The issue isnít the globalization of the American capitalist-consumer economic system and whether this is a threat or boon to our own original model. The issue is the ramifications for the health of all humanity, including Americans, of continuing down a path that extols power and wealth, but that I am convinced has humanity, like lemmings, headed over a cliff.

We must enlarge our American vision from ours as the land of unbounded individual financial opportunity to one that enfolds every person in the basic dignities of peace, personal freedom, civil liberties, meaningful work, home, health, education, respect and caring within the bosom of a healthy, beautiful and sustaining environment. Our economy must refocus into meaningful jobs that support this vision and that shares its wealth with compassionate generosity, not concentrates it in the hands of the most ambitious, leaving far too many without dignity and security in their lives. The corporate/bureaucratic stranglehold on American life must be broken to avail more opportunities for small shop businesses where people have more individual choice and control. Careers in the arts, culture, small farming and human services must be made more viable.

America likes to think of itself as a very religious nation. Perhaps the religion of churches that preach exclusion, war, intolerance, ìGod wants you to be rich,î parading piety in the public forums and focusing on selective moral issues emanating from a culture dead two thousand years ought to give way to a fundamental spirituality that reminds us that, ìYou cannot serve God and mammon.î

Jesus spoke of the blindness of personal greed and arrogance that seals a person, a nation, humanity from its essential soul. I belong to no church. I am not a religious person.

I am, however, a deeply spiritual one, and I pray that my nation may embrace spirituality in its secular doings, to become ìa light of the world, a city set on a hillî that shows the way, not to a culture of unlimited personal riches and license, bankrupting the planet, but that will ìlet your light so shine before men that they may see your good works.î I pray that we may wake up from our gluttonous and greedy dream to lead the world into a new era that takes us to the 22nd century as a healed, beautiful, creative and prospering planet, not a dying one.
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Bill Walz is a UNC Asheville adjunct faculty member and a private practice teacher of mindfulness, personal growth and consciousness. Contact at This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it or 258-3241.