Unfortunately right now religion is being used to legitimate people’s group and political identities rather than actually destabilizing all identities so that new relationships can be developed across every possible boundary. Kula strives to see past fundamentalism to create a dialogue between wisdom and practice in people’s real lives.

Unfortunately right now religion is rearing a very ugly head again in the world and including here in the United States. And that’s because religion is being used to legitimate people’s group identity, people’s political identities and hardening them rather than actually destabilizing all identities so that we can actually develop new sorts of relationships across every possible boundary. I work on the reimagining of religion that way. The shame is now we have a split worldwide, but a real split in this country between what I called “fundamentalists” – religious fundamentalists. We know who they are. They actually know exactly what the God they believe in says all the time forever. And then we have secular fundamentalists. They are just as certain as religious fundamentalists about what the God they don’t believe in says. And I think the real challenge is most of us are not fundamentalists of either stripe. We’re trying to make our way in the world. And religious wisdom, and tradition, and practice actually is just one really potentially important tool or resource to help us navigate that way. And I like to create that kind of dialogue between wisdom and the practice in people’s real lives. Recorded on: 8/15/07