Insights for Change: Unleashing Our Spiritual Imagination
The Sufi mystic Rumi once wrote, “Stop acting so small. You are the universe in ecstatic motion.” There’s a lot of acting small in the world today—whether speaking big but pitting people against each other, not seeing beyond the status quo, not believing one has much to contribute, or knowing one has much to contribute but not doing so. All of us fall prey to one or more of these small-acting tendencies at one point or another. Many of the systems of our society encourage these tendencies. But as Rumi notes, how we act doesn’t change the fact of the spiritual wisdom and imagination rooted within us and our communities. It is always there for the tapping. And when we do, great things become possible. We can, quite literally, change the world.
Faith & Philanthropy, an exploratory joint grantmaking initiative that aims to shape “a philanthropic landscape that embraces the transformative potential of spirituality and faith to address the pressing challenges of our time,” recently released a Spiritual Imagination report featuring twelve grantees rooted in various spiritual traditions that are leveraging faith and spirituality for social impact. We’re thrilled to see this philanthropic initiative coming together.
Below are quotes featured in the report from the leaders of the twelve organizations, talking about why spirituality matters in the work they do and how it makes the work different. These innovative leaders emphasize that political solutions alone are insufficient to solve our big problems, that spiritual principles are also needed to address issues like gun violence, incarceration, and climate change. They also express a need for spiritual practices that create and sustain inner resilience, insight, and hope. Finally, they see spiritual values as a foundation to foster connections that transcend divisions, creating a larger sense of belonging and mutual respect. Spirituality is not just about individual well-being; it is also a calling to take responsibility for the collective health of society and the planet.
Just as Rumi encourages us to embrace the full scope of our inner universe, these leaders remind us that true change requires going beyond surface solutions to strive toward a vision of the world that honors our interconnectedness and shared dignity. Spirituality empowers us to operate beyond scarcity or fear, with expansive power to create change for the good of humanity. Each of the reflections below is a meditation on the intersection of faith and social impact. We invite you to take time with each one, letting it enter into conversation (or a dance) with your own spiritual imaginings to spark new inspiration and ideas for a better world.
And then read the full Spiritual Imagination report from Faith & Philanthropy here to learn more about the work and impact of these leaders.
“You can’ t solve spiritual problems like gun violence and mass incarceration with a political solution alone.
My spirituality has challenged me to continue looking for answers to some tough questions, including questions about the work itself. That’s where this idea of the “circle of human concern” comes from. What would it look like to shift the consciousness of our religious institutions to create a wider circle of human concern, rather than seeding these institutions to become more radicalized, either to the far right or, I would argue, the far left? When I see the circle of human concern narrowing, that’s when we need a stronger spiritual grounding, because it helps us reach a shared understanding of justice.”
“Young people are trying so hard to get it right, and yet it feels like everything is against them. They need a safe place to learn tools—spiritual tools, leadership tools, communication tools—so they can choose which ones help them be most successful.
I would be lying to a young person if I told them they could get through life without believing in something, without having some understanding of something bigger than themselves and how we are connected. And how can we practice that connection unless we realize that our spiritual lives are important?”
“Many Tribes place a high importance on ‘acting on behalf of humanity,’ not just our Tribe. And we’re the only people who have had a collectively owned land base since the beginning of time. So we have a great deal of experience on governance and community.
The problems humanity is facing are totally interconnected and interwoven. If you isolate the climate crisis from the political arena, there’s no way out. But if people were guided by Indigenous spiritual values and an understanding that our problems are interrelated, then it would be easy to see that solutions are as well.”
“Many of our grantees say their funders don’t care about the spirituality part. We believe social justice movements can’t truly succeed without integrating the spiritual imagination into the work.”
“Spirituality is woven into all of our work, but we haven’t been able to tell that part of the story. It’s beautiful that funders are starting to recognize that the work is enriched when people can bring their entire selves to it.
At its core, IMAN’s mission to foster health, wellness and healing is directly informed by our spiritual principles – the universal yearning for love, liberation and justice. This includes building bridges and making communal relationships the most significant aspect of our work, fully expressing the Prophetic tradition of showing gratitude to the Divine by showing gratitude and being in service to mankind. Whether it is through physical, mental or spiritual care, IMAN is determined to leverage the spiritual principle of ‘himmah’ (noble aspirations) to radically reimagine the world from as it is to what it can be.”
“We would have given up a long time ago if we didn’t believe in spiritual things. We were born from water and we fight to protect it.
We aren’t just restoring the river in order to help the environment. This is our life. It’s how we reconnect with spirit and feeling whole. Feeling at home. The world is different than people think. We can manifest miracles into this realm and bring everything back into equilibrium.”
“The Southern Rural Black Imagination is regenerative when boundless and interdependent.
In our legal and advocacy work, we’ve always understood that land is central to our liberation. But as we expanded that vision, we began rooting ourselves in agrarian folkways, ancestral arts, and ecospirituality. It really ignited the community in a way that had not happened before. The work of cultural preservation is the antidote to the suffering caused by white domination and racial hierarchy. There is a lot of suffering, but there’s so much joy in the cultural preservation, in the cultural reclamation. And that’s what our Ancestors also wanted us to carry with us.”
“The Bible has a lot to say about race and injustice. How do we help people see that?
Biblical principles are embedded in all of the content that is created, the work that we do, and the spaces that we hold. Because of that, people begin to see that there’s just a different spirit about the people here. We intentionally hold grace for each other in tough conversations about race and privilege. And those conversations lead to action because biblically, if I love my neighbor, I should have a desire to be in proximity to my neighbor. I should advocate for my neighbor. I should have a desire to fight for those things that are needed in this person’s family, in their personal life, in their community, in the workplace, in the church and the evangelical church.”
“There’s so much within Buddhism that helps an individual become more whole and more insightful and to end violence.
Spirituality fosters a connection to something much larger than your current circumstances. For people experiencing incarceration, being connected to something bigger and having a spiritual practice is hugely important. It gives access to a sense of hope and possibility that can be truly life-changing. Spirituality can provide a context to make sense of the unimaginable, and tools to unlock us from the confines of our minds.”
“There are so many people right now who exist in such anxiety and despair. Even if you’re doing okay yourself—you’re healthy, you’re paying your bills—you feel that something isn’t right for us now. How do we create a space where everyone knows their human rights are sacred?
Faith has been weaponized by some for their own gain. One antidote is drawing language from faith traditions that inoculates against that in resonant ways. So we’re focused on making connections between our deeply held moral and spiritual beliefs and some of the most pressing issues of our time. In the next few, important years, we are connecting the dignity of all people to healthy democratic practices and reproductive healthcare.”
“My queerness is what saved me. It was that moment of rupture that started me down the path of being willing to be brave and live into a theological imagination.
A lot of the folks who are fighting for LGBTQIA+ rights won’t talk about faith, either because it’s been a source of personal pain or societal exclusion or both. Christians have dominated the opposition for a long time. But for those of us whose God has been stolen, I believe it is our responsibility to reclaim our moral leadership. And it should be our heart’s desire to tell the truth about God, that we are cherished by the Divine exactly as we are. To reclaim space for marginalized people. To remind our community that you don’t have to endure the violence and shame and don’t have to give up your faith either. And if you aren’t a person of faith, there’s still space for you here too.”
“It’s not just a crisis of our democracy. I would argue there’s a spiritual crisis underneath all that, a crisis of making meaning of who we are and who we want to be. We can’t just legislate our way out. If we want to tend to what’s happening underneath, then we have to invest in strategies, people, and organizations doing that tending work.
The infusion of spiritual grounding and principles into social justice movements helps draw the circle a little bit wider, and towards the sense of the greater “we.” It offers a vision of hope and liberation that includes everybody.”
Insights for Change is our series to pose questions and share short insights (our own and others’) for thinking creatively about faith and social change. They may be full-baked, half-baked, or just a pile of raw ingredients to play with. We hope they start conversation or inspire ideas. We invite you to add your own thoughts, experiences, and ideas to the mix.