  The Association for Global New Thought (AGNT) has initiated a series of online salons based on various topics. The New Thought on the News salon began in January 2018 and occurs monthly at 5:30 PM Pacific daylight Time. I have found this timely and powerfully engaging. I have been involved in the New Thought movement for about eight years now and was initially drawn to it by articles written in the local paper by Rev. Justin Epstein, who was the minister at Unity of Hilton Head at that time. Rev. Epstein had deep connections to Hinduism and particularly to the work Paramahansa Yogananda. I had had a long-standing interest in Hinduism. I also had a decades long involvement with interfaith work. After attending his services for a little while it seemed to me that Unity was an ideal faithpath to promote interfaith understanding. Since my early teens I’ve considered myself an activist, particularly with respect to environmental issues and indigenous rights, and have found it important to keep abreast of the news and issues that most concern me. For much of the time that I have been involved in the New Thought Movement I have encountered resistance to my activist proclivities and my interest in worldly events. A central concept of New Thought is the importance of consciousness in manifesting the world we wish to see. Many long time practitioners of new thought hold that the answer to the problems in the world is through prayer and meditation and that ultimately our task is not to change the world so much as it is to see it rightly. I do agree about the centrality of consciousness in manifested reality, but I also believe that one should stand in their belief and be present as a harbinger of positive alternatives to unsatisfactory circumstances. Only in the last several years have I witnessed stirrings of a different point of view among New Thought adherents. There are now a number of ministries that I am aware of that hold that it is important to remain conscious of what is going on in the world and that when we find ourselves in circumstances where it is appropriate we must stand up and speak out. In fact, last year I attended a marvelous event sponsored by Rev. Darlene Strickland’s Unity of the Blue Ridge with the theme of Our Love Is Power, Standup, Speak Up, Show Up. The choice of Marianne Williamson as a keynote speaker signaled the sincerity of the organizers as change agents. This New Thought on the News salon is based on the premise that we must attend to the news, to the issues in the world, but that we must interpret them from a New Thought perspective, and not accept the slant that is presented to us by the media, which has a vested interest in exploiting fear and uncertainty in order to sell their products. The moderator of this program is Dr. Barbara Fields who serves as the executive director of AGNT, and who served as program director for the first modern Parliament of the World’s Religions in 1993. The inspiration and central reference for this series is a book by Jim Kenney entitled Thriving in the Crosscurrent: Clarity and Hope in a Time of Cultural Sea Change. Mr. Kenney is a longtime friend of Dr. Fields and was global director of the Council for a Parliament of the World’s Religions up to and including the parliament which was held in Barcelona in 2004. There are some preparatory tutorials for this salon based on Mr. Kenney’s book and there are some very useful diagrams provided which clarifies the concepts, click here for links to those materials. Mr. Kenney presents the central concept of the sea change as having four foundations: interdependence, paradigm shift, cultural evolution, and the emerging global consensus of values. His book is rich with visual intuitions and potent metaphors. Among these, in keeping with the idea of sea change, is the notion of cultural values presenting as waves, and that there are periods of transition, where the wave of old values are descending and the wave of new values are arising, and that, necessarily, this period of transition generates turbulence. One of the key understandings of what we are seeing in the news these days in the strident voices calling for a return to older ways, to fundamentalist values, and the demonization of those involved in the ascendancy of these new values, are the manifestation of this turbulence. A choice metaphor of his is that of the “eddy”, which anyone who has ever spent time in a river is familiar with and uses this apt metaphor for the counter motions observable in the general flow of change. Perhaps the overarching theme of Mr. Kenney’s work is that cultural values are inevitably moving ever upwards and outwards, evolving, as they approach the realities that human culture must face. Although he arrived at this viewpoint independently, he frequently references Steven Pinker’s book The Better Angels of Our Nature which presents a great deal of data supporting this view. A prime example of this evolution of cultural values is the institution of chattel slavery, which was universally accepted and defended well into the 19th century, it is now generally recognized that slavery is everywhere and always wrong. Another example is patriarchy, which since the 1960s has rapidly diminished in its scope and power. All of which is not to say that these problems have ended, but that they are rapidly moving out of the realm of issues of central concern. Another key point that Mr. Kenney presents is that although this cultural evolution continually trends upward in the history of our shared world, there are times when this evolution is greatly accelerated. He posits, and I agree, that we are living in just such a time. Regarding the salons themselves, the general format includes an introduction by Dr. Fields of this month’s topic, introductions to guest speakers by cohost Stephen Pope, a recap of the foundational perspectives by Mr. Kenney, followed by presentations and responses by guest speakers and the hosts. The salons are presented via Zoom and those watching the live presentation have the opportunity to chime in and express themselves on the various points presented. Guest speakers have included such luminaries in the New Thought Movement as Dr. David Alexander, Rev. Temple Hayes, Rev. Kevin Ross, Dr. Kenn Gordon thus far; and scheduled for upcoming salons are Dr. David Goldberg, Dr. Roger Teal, and Dr. Michael Beckwith. Click for bios of these and other leaders in AGNT. I am deeply grateful for this initiative by the AGNT which is both timely, deeply engaging and very energizing. I wholeheartedly recommend this salon to readers of this post and suggest that they check out the other salons made available by the AGNT. Click to view previous sessions of the New Thought on the News solons.
0 Comments
For the last few months I have been watching an online presentation/dialogue called 'New Thought On the News' produced by the AGNT with their executive director, Dr. Barbara Fields serving as host. This particular salon is structured around concepts found in Jim Kenney’s book Thriving in the Cross Current: Clarity and Hope in a Time of Cultural Seachange. These monthly exchanges are a little over an hour and this last one focused on racism, racialism and radical regeneration. Recognizing that I, as well as Mr. Kenney come from that class of people considered as white, male and privileged and that our lived experience of racism is inadequate to allow us to speak for all people, nevertheless Mr. Kenney’s wisdom is distilled from deep engagement with major global institutions dedicated to establishing peace, justice and understanding in these troubled times. I understand that an hour is a significant commitment for many people and I was moved to produce a 15 minute edit of this last session focusing on Mr. Kenney’s opening remarks. Click on the image below to open the video on my Interfaith Advocate Vimeo site. The most important takeaways are his development of the idea of two different types of racism and his belief, which I share, that the trend of development in our cultural values is inexorably upward and that there are moments in time where many patterns converge and truly marvelous changes are possible and further that we live in such times. I reached out to Dr. Fields and sent her the link to the video posted below. I was granted permission by the AGNT and Mr. Kenney to share this piece among the interfaith groups I’m working with. Each of these salon sessions have been very stimulating and useful for me and I suspect they would be too many of you as well so here's the link to the AGNT site where the preliminary materials and all of the sessions thus far are available.  |
AuthorThis is Jim's Interfaith Blog. Any text which appears in Green also serves as a clickable link. Click on the categories below to filter your view to topics which interest you. Archives
May 2021
Categories
All
|
|
Interfaith Advocate |
RSS Feed