The Mudcat Café TM
Thread #76702   Message #1366752
Posted By: CarolC
29-Dec-04 - 11:22 AM
Thread Name: Birmingham play closed by mob
Subject: RE: Birmingham play closed by mob
I think this attempt to separate secular and religious/spiritual liberal thought is an artificial construct. Much of what we think of as some of the most secular liberal thought has its roots in religious/spiritual thought. Much of what the "West" holds as its liberal secular values have their roots in the teachings of Jesus, who was not a "Westerner", but a Middle Easterner.

And Gandhi may have had a spiritual foundation to the philosophy that motivated him and that shaped some of his tactics, but it was humanism that he was promoting when he worked to elevate the living standards of the poor in India, and to gain political independence for his country. It was tools found in the secular world that he was using to help lift people out of poverty, such as this simple, portable, charkha spinning wheel, and the promotion of spinning and weaving as ways of improving the material circumstances of the poor, as well as using economic leverage through the use of the charkha spinning wheel as a way of accomplishing a political goal... the independence of his country from colonialism.

I think it is not really possible to say "this is entirely secular liberalism" and "this is entirely religious/spiritual liberalism". That is a false dichotomy.

One other non-Western engine of liberal thought that I mentioned earlier in this post is the teachings of Jesus, who, as I mentioned was a Middle Easterner, and not a "Westerner". I can find others, but I don't have time right now. Maybe later today.