Editorial January 22, 1990 Issue

In the middle of brute materialism, what do spiritual ideals mean?

Michael D. Rissler

Spiritual ideals can be powerful and all-encompassing. Because they're ideals, they can also be uncompromising, consistent throughout. But when we take spiritual ideals into the world—into the workplace, into a marriage, into our responsibilities as citizens and neighbors—we soon learn that we need to be wise as well as idealistic. It's wisdom that comes gradually sometimes. What it means, though, is that we need to find ways to incorporate spiritual ideals into our lives without overlooking the human condition that can be far from idealistic.

People can go to great lengths to escape from what they view as evil and injustice. Even the terrorist can believe that violence can further his or her idealism. Ordinarily, of course, most people won't even consider such extremism. But, the question of how one remains faithful to radical spiritual ideals is profoundly important to most of us. We don't want to compromise if we believe that such compromise is harmful or will separate us even further from our ideals.

One doesn't have to be extraordinarily spiritually-minded to understand that hope, faith, and love are what fuel our lives. We work, we play, we join together in all kinds of activities because of such materially intangible aspirations. Whatever we believe opposes such qualities can weigh heavily on us, like being deprived of needed nourishment.

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