Politics And Spirit

THURS., NOV. 26, 1992, 12:13 PM
BOB’S STUDY, ANN ARBOR

You have decided, without great enthusiasm, to focus your next Ruminations, which you shall write either just before or just after Christmas, on politics and economics. This means you shall share some of the ideas and convictions I have shared with you. You never can affirm that this is the only position I take, for I do influence people in all forms of government and in all aspects of the economic system. But there just is little in My Holy Scriptures that can guide you, or anyone, to an approved way of governing a nation or the best way for money, goods, and services to be exchanged.

One principle does hold, of course: that any form of government and any political action should recognize spirit as a factor in life. I should prefer that it be My Spirit that is acknowledged, and My ways the ways of any government. However, I recognize that such a fine motivation rarely works out the way it should, given My love for diversity, My creation in concert with this love, and My allowing of choice in the earth. The other side of this principle is that I do not favor governments, political forces, and individual “servants” who deny the reality and influence of spirit. This has been blatant in communist regimes, but almost as bad in your own secular culture.

The notion that measurability should be a central value, with the devaluing of forces, like spirit, that don’t lend themselves to accurate measurement, is one I cannot support. But of course the fact that any system does not acknowledge spirit does not mean that spirit is not at work, through spiritual people doing spirit-enhanced tasks. You got a feel for this in Cuba, both from those who claimed to be atheistic communists and those in the churches who desired to be recognized as part of the revolution. There was a spirit of sharing there that surpassed that generated in your more Christian culture.

This highlights the difficulty I have with political and economic systems. I have feelings for both equality and inequalities. I like to see a spiritual person succeed in life, earn riches, and then be able to decide and give much of that to needy people and causes of his choosing. I also find favor in governments that tax, sometimes excessively, in order that certain important services be available to all of its citizens. It takes from the rich in order that the poor shall have enough of life’s necessities.

I am much more approving of a rather simple life, without desires for luxuries and expensive wants, than of selfish affluence. Yet to force this means depriving certain successful spiritual people of opportunities for sharing and giving. I also approve more of the motivation to live life simply than of the necessity for doing so. This means that I approve of your present voluntary simplicity than of that in earlier years, when you had far fewer choices.

The representative democratic government that is yours in this culture is pleasing to Me in some ways, but its processes and its compromises often are other than what I would favor. Certain people are not represented well, if at all. I am not completely against some military strength, for My relevant Scriptures do indicate I led armies to victory over foes that should have been defeated. Yet I cannot approve of the kinds of weapons currently being made, with destructive power that goes beyond military might. I certainly prefer peace to war, but some of the earth’s present conflicts are necessary for what I consider right to be maintained. Still, it is hard for you, or any human, to be able to see these conflicts as I do.