On Spiritual Activism

There are animal rights activists. These are people who call attention to abuses to animals and who work to defend the rights of these often defenseless creatures. These people risk being ridiculed and sometimes risk their own necks in their work.

There are gay rights activists — people who call attention to injustices and abuses towards gays. These people also risk their jobs and sometimes their personal safety in this work.

There are political activists — people who call attention to corruption within our government and abuses of power. These people risk their jobs, their reputations, and personal safety to work towards changing political systems… in our communities, in our country and in the larger world.

I am a spiritual activist.

Let me define “spiritual” as that which pertains to the human spirit… that spark of energy that generates love. The human spirit is the manifestation of that spark, or power. It’s invisible, like electricity. The human spirit is invisible to our eyes, but discernible to our hearts.

My agenda is simple. Like animal rights activists who expose abuses to animals and like environmental activists who expose abuses to our environment, my agenda is to call attention to and expose spiritual abuse. My agenda is to raise awareness and reduce spiritual abuse in the world.

Spiritual abuse is anything which attempts to break the human spirit.

The human spirit is manifested by the more honorable qualities of a person’s character… qualities such as courage, the capacity to love and forgive, compassion, and generosity.

That which breaks the human spirit can usually be narrowed down to having originated from fear. Some of the forms that fear takes include malicious gossip, manipulative or controlling behavior, bullying, and betrayal of trust. These types of acts are, at some level, all attempts to break someone’s spirit… usually because a fearful person’s proprietary vision of reality has been threatened.

On the positive side, it is also on my agenda as a spiritual activist to call attention to examples of authentic soulfulness. Author Sarah Breathnach writes:

The authentic self is the Soul made visible.

The soul is pure love. In an authentic soul, there is no fear. And so the human characteristics of courage, compassion, generosity, and the capacity to love and forgive are manifestations of authentic soulfulness. I try to walk my talk on this. I tell my stories not to brag, but to share lessons I have learned on my own humble  journey towards a more authentic and soulful life.

Like other activists who put their jobs, reputations, and personal safety at risk, I have sometimes encountered intense resistance to my work. That comes with the territory. An activist must be thick-skinned. I am not easily intimidated and I hold fast to staying connected to my Authentic Source.

Because of the risks involved, activism is not for everyone. Not everyone has the stomach for it. It’s sort of like a calling. If you are called to be an activist… whether it’s spiritual, animal rights, political, or whatever… you can’t not do the work.

You might also like: On Bullshit Busting…

(c) copyright 2011 Genie Webster. All rights reserved.