Taking That Hazardous Leap

I received this from Dr Anne Fraser. Dr. Fraser has her Phd from Harvard in Comparative Religion. Her observations shed needed light on why traditional faith responses are so tepid re: OWS. We can only look to the emergent churches, it seems, for substantive support. Even then with caution--if they are offshoots of mainline denominations--since only a certain amount of inventive behavior will be tolerated.

So, from Dr. Fraser:

Today I finished reading Stephen Batchelor's Buddhism Without Beliefs and thought the last three chapters, entitled Freedom, Imagination, and Culture, were beautiful and so inspiring and reminded me of all you are dealing with concerning the church and OWS.

Although he is writing about Buddhism, his message applies so strongly to Christianity, which, it seems to me, like Buddhism, is centered around suffering and its recognition and alleviation through a radical path that takes great vision and imagination and can't be constrained by institutions. I really recommend the book, particularly the last three chapters.

Here is just a little taste of what he writes, "Part of the appeal of any religious orthodoxy lies in its preserving a secure, structured, and purposeful vision of life, which stands in stark opposition to the insecurity, disorder, and aimlessness of contemporary society. In offering such a refuge, traditional forms of Buddhism provide a solid basis for the ethical, meditative, and philosophical values conducive to awakening. Yet they tend to be wary of participating in a translation of this liberating vision into a culture of awakening that addresses the specific anguish of the contemporary world. Preservation of the known and tested is preferable to the agony of imagination, where we are forced to risk that hazardous leap into the dark."