Keith Burgess-Jackson, J.D., Ph.D.

To the Editor:

Re “It’s 2009. Do You Know Where Your Soul Is?” (Op-Ed, April 19):

Bono eloquently expresses a 21st-century religious sensibility. While recognizing the poetry, relevance and symbolic power of our great religious traditions, we must be bold and creative enough to apply their messages in universal ways.

What we need now is not more privatized and narcissistic “spirituality,” but rather ways of being religious that take us beyond ourselves and direct us toward our neighbor who, in this global village, may live thousands of miles away. In the process, we may even broaden the definition of what it means to be “religious.”

Thank you, Bono, for reminding us of the transformative power that this economic crisis holds for the soul of our nation.

(Rabbi) Leon A. Morris
New York, April 20, 2009
The writer is executive director of the Skirball Center for Adult Jewish Learning at Temple Emanu-El.

Note from KBJ: There is a morally relevant difference between persuading me to give money to foreigners and coercing me (via taxation) into giving money to foreigners. Somehow I doubt that Jesus favored coercion.