Liberation 2010: an Interview with founder Mark Anthony Lord
I had the privilege of interviewing Mark Anthony Lord, founder and director of the Bodhi Spiritual Center and the visionary behind the upcoming conference Liberation 2010. We spoke about many things including the upcoming Liberation 2010 conference, his sense of the relationship between organized religion and spirituality, and his thoughts on the growing significance of the spirituality movement.
Liberation 2010 is not just an event but an ongoing community forum. Check out the webcast conference call on Oct. 7. Liberation 2010: Answering the Call to Greatness will occur from April 08-April 11 at the JW Marriott Los Angeles. Register and Learn more about upcoming activities on the Liberation 2010 website or call the office at (773) 248-5683.
Sharon: You refer to LIBERATION 2010 as a spiritual conference, not a religious one. How do you define spirituality? How is it different than religion, than faith?
Mark Anthony: I see spirituality as centering on the spirit of oneness. Oneness is vitally important to spirituality. We are one in God and are brought together through that oneness. Religion centers on truth and substance—which are good things—but it can become a way of creating dogmas and rules. Often religions establish themselves as ways to distinguish and separate one kind of practice and tradition from another. Spirituality on the other hand is trans-denominational—it is about transcending separation. We come together in the oneness of spirit.
I believe faith, on the other hand, is a personal experience. My faith, for instance, is my belief in the power of Unconditional Love, NO conditions, and in the potential for transformational goodness in every moment.
Sharon: Do you see a spirituality movement growing in this country?
Mark Anthony: Yes. We are witnessing a shift right now and I believe we are nearing a tipping point. More and more books are coming out on spirituality and more and more people are looking to this growing movement for sustenance and renewal. Spirituality does not ask you to choose between your religion and your faith; it wants you to have both. People are searching for this kind of liberation. They are craving to find a place where they can explore their spirituality freely.
Sharon: Will people who belong to an affirming or welcoming congregation find spiritual healing from Liberation 2010? What gifts can they bring to the spiritual movement?
Mark Anthony: Everyone has a gift and religious people will bring the gifts of their own journey to our larger spiritual work. Religious people will also receive a gift on both spiritual and psychological levels. They will develop a sense of total love, total acceptance without ideas of separation. By asking people to practice laying down the ways in which they are separate from God and one another, participants will gain a clearer sense of the separations they are holding onto and will be able to go back home and help heal many of the divisions in their own congregations.
Sharon: How do you account for the division of sexuality from spirituality and how does your work seek to heal this division?
Mark Anthony: Our ideas about sexuality come from a puritanical, fear based society. Sexuality is scary precisely because it is so powerful. But we rarely ask how our sexual energy if allowed to be free might be used for good. At Liberation 2010 we look at how our spirituality and our sexuality can come together so that we can become spiritually free, and in this freedom be able to experience a full-body, full-being “yes” to God. Our sexuality is part of our spirituality and we need to begin to understand its power and its gifts to transform our world. Seeing this connection will be part of the work of Liberation 2010.Sharon: What kind of spiritual work will you be doing at the conference? What can participants expect?
Mark Anthony: What we will be exploring in Liberation 2010 is a kind of radical healing that starts by getting us off the triangle of “victim, hero, and victimizer.” If God is oneness we cannot change a system by making others wrong. We need instead to change the way we view the world. We believe that spiritual transformation is not for the faint hearted – it actually can be hard work because it forces us to look within at our own fears, prejudices and separating beliefs. We will teach people spiritual practices, tools that will free them from LGBT- phobia—either as victimizers or as victims of it--so that they in turn can fully empower others to do the same.The work will begin by helping people to heal themselves. We will discover together what burdens we are carrying from our LGBT-phobic world and how it has limited us. We will then have a releasing ceremony where we will let go of our fears and free ourselves. Only after we have released our fears can we discover the beauty of what lives underneath: our greatness and our oneness with God. We’ll ask: “Who am I when I’m released from LGBT-phobia?” “Who can I be in the world when living from God essence?” When we can become free, we are than able to discover our own greatness that will in turn help others to find theirs.
Sharon: Tell me a little about your upcoming book, Scared Boy, Sacred Man?
Mark Anthony: This is my story of life behind a mask, but in many ways it is a universal story. The book tells the story of my spiritual journey from a gay, Catholic, shame-based boy who rejected God to becoming a fabulous, self-loving, affirming, gay man who absolutely loves God and has not one shred of doubt that God loves me.