saying. Such universal cynicism and skepticism become their
universal explanation, their operative religion, and also their
greatest vulnerability.REORDER: Every religion, each in its own way, is talking about
getting you to this reorder stage. Various systems would call it
“enlightenment,” “exodus,” “nirvana,” “heaven,” “salvation,”
“springtime,” or even “resurrection.” It is the life on the other side
of death, the victory on the other side of failure, the joy on the
other side of the pains of childbirth. It is an insistence on going
through—not under, over, or around. There is no nonstop flight to
reorder. To arrive there, we must endure, learn from, and include
the disorder stage, transcending the first naïve order—but also still
including it! It amounts to the best of the conservative and the best
of the liberal positions. They hold on to what was good about the
first order but also offer it very needed correctives. People who
have reached this stage, like the Jewish prophets, might be called
“radical traditionalists.” Loving their truth and their group enough
to critique it. Critiquing it enough to maintain their own integrity
and intelligence. These wise ones have stopped overreacting but
also overdefending. They are usually a minority of humans.Based on years of spiritual direction, with people both in the United States
and in other countries, I have observed that the implications of this journey are
different for those who identify as either conservative or liberal. Conservatives
must let go of their illusion that they can order and control the world through
religion, money, war, or politics. This is often their real security system; their
intense religious language often shows itself to be a pretense and a cover for a
very conservative politics. True release of control to God will show itself as
compassion and generosity, and less boundary keeping.
Liberals, however, must surrender their belief in permanent disorder, and
their horror of all leadership, eldering, or authority, and find what was good,
healthy, and deeply true about a foundational order. This will normally be
experienced as a move toward humility and real community. They must stop
reacting against all authority and tradition, and recognize these are necessary
for continuity in a culture along with basic mental health—which allows them
to belong to something besides themselves.