About Pray for Democracy
As you consider joining the Pray for Democracy/Act for Democracy Campaign, it is reasonable to want to know who I am and why I am launching it. Here’s a brief introduction to my background and my purpose in this undertaking.
Student Movement. I grew up as a Lutheran Christian and even studied to be a Lutheran Minister. When that didn’t work out I became a leader in the Student Movement of the 1960s. At San Francisco State, I served as Student Vice President, Student President, and the first Coordinator of the student-initiated Experimental College, which became a model for more than 250 similar initiatives and a major pillar of the Student Movement’s program for Student Power.
Spiritual Philosophy. Those of us in the Student Movement in the 1960s and 1970s had a good run, but that Movement ran its course, and I decided I really did need spiritual grounding for my life, so I pursued a number of Eastern spiritual disciplines along with a couple of Western spiritual innovations. Ultimately, I found my spiritual foundation, which led to my book, In Search of a Revelation: An Essay in Spiritual Philosophy. I summarized that philosophy this way:
Grounded in the reality that we all inhabit a living conscious Universe, we can all take the journey to find inner knowledge, attain the goal of that knowledge, come back and transform ourselves, and then take action for the benefit of our own lives, the life of our species, and the life of the Earth.
Progressive Movement: Also, I thought hard about the successes and failures of the Movement of the 1960s and formulated a mantra that has guided him since: learn the craft of business to put it in the service of economic, social, and ecological justice.
In the 1980s, I contributed to the Progressive Movement in Berkeley California in a variety of ways, serving twice as Co-Chair of Berkeley Citizens Action, the independent local progressive political organization that elected the Mayor of Berkeley and a majority of the Berkeley City Council throughout most of the decade.
Impact Business: During the 1990s, I helped launch Progressive Asset Management, the first full-service broker/dealer specializing in socially responsible investments and coordinated broker services, social screening, and investment banking. And then, at the turn of the Millennium, I joined with Joe Gross to form Sustainable Systems, which, among other projects, has served as: Co-Coordinator of three international Building the Sustainable Economy Conferences; Lead Consultant for the Bay Area Family of Funds, the first Impact Venture Fund to go to scale; and Manager of the Communications Technology Cluster, Oakland’s first Impact Business Incubator/Accelerator.
Right now, I’m a member of the Leadership Team for Our Planet Our Future with a number of projects in Africa helping to advance the field of Regeneration Development, and I serve on the Boards of the Alliance for Community Development, TechEquity, and Tamalpa Institute.
Spiritual Realism: Through my whole life, I have continued to practice Philosophy as a way to guide my understandings and my actions. I’m launching the Pray for Democracy/Act for Democracy Campaign because I made a discovery, at least for myself, about the power of prayer and how prayer works. I did this as a result of formulating a Philosophy, which I am calling Spiritual Realism. (You can explore it here: https://spiritualrealism.substack.com/). I give a brief description of my discovery in the Backstory section of this website.
As I thought about the challenges we are facing, it became clear to me that one of the most powerful actions I could take is to launch the Pray for Democracy/Act for Democracy Campaign. I hope you will agree and join the Campaign.
James Hurd Nixon