Moving Out of a Fear-Based Culture

By Harv Bishop

To some, social and environmental justice are regarded as controversial; an unwarranted intrusion of liberal or left-wing politics into religious teachings.

Dr. Kenn Gordon, spiritual leader of Centers for Spiritual Living, the umbrella organization for Religious Science teachings, isn’t buying those arguments.

Social justice is an outgrowth of our natural compassion as human beings, says Gordon. If New Thought ignores social justice we repress our humanity, he adds. Few people would actively choose war, starvation, environmental destruction, or inequality. Our basic human needs are more alike than we realize.

I caught up with the globe-traveling Gordon last fall in Denver and later at the Parliament of the World’s Religions in Salt Lake City.

What changes do you see in New Thought?

“There is something happening in our world today, not in just who we are at Centers for Spiritual Living, but in the grassroots movement that is happening in New Thought and in the world itself. Ernest Holmes [founder of Religious Science] was fond of saying, ‘There is a power in the universe that is greater than I am and I can use it.’ We are moving to a place where we are saying ‘There is a power in the universe that is greater than I am, I can use it and it can use me.’

“That is the evolutionary step that we are in right now. The awakened people in our movement are already seeing that. We are moving to being more about surrender to the Higher Power than simply using the Science of Mind to be able to create a better life for us as individuals. It is about creating a world that works for everyone.”

What gives you hope the world can change?

“If you asked people in the world the basic questions about what makes a livable life, which is what we do at our centers, what you find is there is very little disagreement between most people. I would venture to say for the majority of the 7.2 billion people on the planet that is true.

“Let me give you an example. In 1960’s and early 1970’s my father was somewhat of a hawk. I was not. I once said, ‘If we were to go to Russia, the Soviet Union, and gather a million people and ask how many people wanted war, how many people wanted deprivation, how many people wanted starvation, how many people wanted violence, I don’t think very many people would put their hand up.’ Now, if you were to go to North America or the Western world, and gather a million people, and ask the same question, I don’t think that many more people would really want that to happen.

“We fall asleep to the fear. Fear is what motivates us and drives us, instead of the creative possibility of transformation. So we really have become a culture that is fear-based. At our centers we are no longer about fear and competition, but we are about creativity. By teaching people that they have a creative nature, and to ask themselves questions, they suddenly realize that there is not that much separation between people.

“When it boils right down to it we all want the same things. Of course you might want a green car and I want a red car. You might be driven by money in your life, and I might be driven by service. However, even though you are driven by money, you don’t want to see people die and you don’t want to see your family suffer, and neither does anyone else on the planet. Our basic motivations and needs are the same in the world.

“There are always those who are poor in spirit who are going to be against social justice or oppose it for their own malingering motives, but they are such a minority. Even with those people if you took away the idea that the only way to get the solution they wanted was through the old means such as violence, or fear or competition to get it you would probably discover that they all wanted the same thing.”

What does New Thought bring to the table to support that change?

“New Thought is an oasis that teaches people to be creative in their thinking, as opposed to being competitive, and to be new in their thinking, as opposed to holding the old ideas in place. What we teach humanity is that there is a bigger idea of life. Problems in life need a bigger idea and, when that bigger idea enters in, that is the solution.”