US Presidential candidate’s hard-hitting call to conscience

Marianne Williamson, bestselling author, spiritual guru, and Democratic candidate for US President (2020 and ‘24) addressed Parliament of the World’s Religions on August 16 at a session listened in by Lotus.

I want to begin by telling a story, something that happened to me when I was about 15. One day after Sunday school (on Saturday for the Jewish), we went into the sanctuary where I heard the rabbi speak out against the Vietnam War. I thought, ‘Wow, the temple can be relevant!’  It impacted me so much that I have never forgotten it. A couple of days later at dinner, however, my mother told my father, “I hear the rabbi’s in trouble.” Apparently, a lot of people weren’t very happy with the rabbi coming out against the Vietnam War.

I learned a lot from those two incidents. That conversation with my parents showed me how the world works. We all know what conscience is – the still, small voice of God. It is in all of us except a very tiny percentage of the world’s people who are apparently born without one. And the person who has no conscience is called a sociopath. A person who has no remorse or conscience or regret for a shameful action is called a sociopath.

There is such a thing as healthy shame. But we the religious clergy or leaders or nonprofit leaders here know the dirty little secret about how our country and our world operate. We have a socioeconomic-political system that mitigates against the real expression of conscience. It’s one thing for us to say, ‘Oh, we need to care about the authoritarians who are at the door.’ And we do. But what I believe is our greatest calling is to create a world where they couldn’t even get that close to the door. That’s the real problem.

Franklin Roosevelt said that we wouldn’t have to worry about a fascist takeover as long as democracy delivered on its promises. James Lawson (the civil rights leader) who spoke before me was correct. Don’t worry about the strong man as long as you feed that hungry child. You won’t have to worry about the authoritarian as long as you make sure that people have healthcare, that people have food, that people have dignity, and that people can work at one job. And when Cardinal Blasé Cupich spoke about our worrying about environmental sustainability more, he’s right. But every clergy person knows how likely it is in many cases that if at your religious service, you speak about environmental sustainability, you would be told by a board member later, ‘Oh, you stay away from political issues’ because there are people who give money to this church or who give money to the synagogue or give money to this ashram.

And you know, to them it’s all a hoax. This is a moment in history when it’s not enough for us to say we really should be the conscience of the world. It’s time for us to face how hard that is in today’s world. Do you really speak out as a non-profit activist? As a religious leader? And I can tell you, if you speak out as a political candidate, the institutional resistance is harder to our daring to suggest that feeding a child is more important than corporate profits, that poverty in the global south is more important than corporate profits, that humanitarian and democratic ideals are more important than corporate profits. Ooh, you are radical.

I would say that religion is radical. In today’s world, we are to honestly not only take it in as an abstract, not only even take it in our hearts, but take it in viscerally in our gut to really believe, to really stand, to really dedicate our lives to the idea that we must walk in mercy, we must walk humbly with our God and we must love one another. It is not to always be liked. The people pleaser in us must die in order for the genuine spiritual leader to live.

In a world where unfettered vulture capitalism has come to dominate the way our nations operate, repudiating that and rejecting that is the great social and spiritual calling of our time.

In a world where unfettered vulture capitalism has come to dominate the way our nations operate, we are living at a time where repudiating that and rejecting that is the great social and spiritual calling of our time. And if we do not take up that calling, there will be no keeping the fascists away. There will be no keeping the strong man away. If the people of Germany had not been so desperate, Hitler would not have been able to harness the power that he did. As long as you have large groups of desperate people, you will have a fascist or authoritarian just licking their chops, waiting to come in. Because when people are desperate and people are damaged and people are vulnerable, they will go with anything that promises a better way.

So, while one world is crumbling in our midst, another world is struggling to be born. I believe that we are called to be the birth doulas to the new as spiritual and religious leaders, non-profit activists, and any of us who are called by the great religious wisdom of the world. We are here to testify and bear witness to the crucifixion and to bring forth the resurrection. We are here to testify, to bear witness to the agony of the suffering of the Israelites in Egypt, and to be the Moses consciousness that will lead the world to the Promised Land.

This is not a time for sissies. This is not a time for lightweight spiritual platitudes, and this is not a time for religious hypocrisy. This is a time for each and every one of us to say whether it was as in my case that I was lucky enough to hear my rabbi, who did not lose his job by the way, or we have been inspired by any other religious, spiritual, political, or social leader, let us be gone with any aspect of self or society that would shut us up.

We are here to love one another and we’re gonna stand on that. We are here to promote justice, mercy, and love in our hearts for every man, woman, child, and for the earth itself. Whether the world appreciates it, whether the economic order appreciates it, whether the political order appreciates it, whether our donors appreciate it, or whether any other institutional reality mocks us, derides us, or seeks to obstruct us, our success lies in the fact that we can look in the mirror and say to ourselves, including on the last day of our lives, ‘Damn, I laid it down while I was here.’

Lead picture courtesy a video recording by Parliament of the World’s Religions.