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Paris, Friday, February 4, 2005

Here from my little perch in the Cyber Spiral, I see, am in touch with, and participate in what I can only describe as an underground, honest-to-goodness spiritual movement. Most of the people I hear from, write to or work with are not involved in any kind of formal church, but their minds are tuned into a cosmic wavelength, and an earthly one; I know more healers than I can count, and they are all helping people. Of the thousands who read Planet Waves, the one thing that seems to be the common denominator is a spiritual orientation.

To some extent, this is an above-ground phenomenon as well. I remember Conversations with God and Celestine Prophesy being big hits. I know there were more than a million copies of A Course in Miracles in circulation many years ago. There is an enormous neo-Pagan movement; Burning Man and numerous other festivals draw many people whose orientation is on some aspect of where community meets ritual meets cosmic connection.

Yet the spiritual movements stand in the shadows of the much more rambunctious modern religious movements, particularly the two fundamentalist ones that are convinced the world is ending, and that each is the other's eternal mortal enemy. This is a hard act to compete with. And given the outrageous views of many who call themselves Christians, I am deeply reluctant to say out loud that I have any association with Jesus. I fear people will assume I'm someone who wants to bomb Satan in Falluja.

When I state out loud that I am Quaker, I do so in a combined act of spiritual commitment, conscience and defiance. While Quaker is one of the few Christian faiths that opposes war as a matter of community standard, I am aware that across America there are many, many people, churchgoing or not, who take their religion to heart, and who are clear about the part of the Bible that says "Thou shalt not kill." There are many who understand the simple message of the Gospels. There are many who see the hypocrisy of what is unfolding in the world today, and I am sure I am not alone when I take offense at religion being used to sell warfare. That, of course, has been going on forever. But I like to think I live in the modern world, not during the Crusades.

Here is a message from the American Friends Service Committee, the branch of the Quakers that deals with issues of war and the military.

http://www.afsc.org/iraq//movie.htm