When Marc Daniels stood to address Dr Ben Carson at a campaign stop in Jefferson Monday, Daniels was already familiar to those who attend political events. It was Daniels’ second visit to Jefferson; he also spoke to Gov Chris Christie during a campaign visit in December.
Daniels lives in Springfield, IL, and works as a marketing representative selling to Army and Air Force post exchanges. He has traveled considerably in his work and has experienced cultures based on his own Judaism as well as Christianity and Islam. He said he has found most people in the world to be righteous.
He is using opportunities with candidates in Iowa to transform “the polarizing hate rhetoric” in the 2016 campaign cycle with his own “Weed Out Hate” campaign. He speaks of pulling weeds of hatred from our spirits and composting them.
Daniels’ premise is that every faith and culture has its own latent method to pray for rooting out and composting our “inner weeds” into spirituality. He uses weeding figuratively and literally. “The physical act of weeding out hate amongst different races and ethnicities helps us weave our unique righteous intentions into the American fabric,” Daniels told GreeneCountyNewsOnline. “Weed Out Hate is a new kind of civic prayer. We don’t ask God to bless our country over others. We ask God to cleanse our souls according to what needs to be done. Call it ‘spiritual homeopathy’ if you will.”
According to Daniels, a conservative candidate who calls on Christianity is not equipped to lead a society of diverse heritages. “We should not all be expected to act as righteous Christians. There are righteous Muslims as well as righteous Jews,” he said. “Conversely, Liberals avoid this paradox by governing on a secular level only.” He added that most Liberals’ social consciences are rooted in spirituality.
“What is different about Weed Out Hate is that it has the potential to unify Liberal and Conservative ideologies,” Daniels said.
His Weed Out Hate campaign is part of his personal philosophy that was shaped by a visit to the former Dachau concentration camp in Germany. He said that at the site of such evil, he heard mockingbirds singing that day, singing a message that we should weed out the hatred among diverse people. He has written a book, “Heaven’s Garden,” first published in German, on the idea that hatred is similar to weeds in our spirit and can be pulled out, just as weeds from a garden.
“Every religion prays to weed out hate differently. Extremists believe that the way to weed out hate is to weed out each other,” he said. “The righteous must cross traditional grassroots lines and unite in the intention to symbolically weed out hate (by rooting out weeds collectively), praying the way their heritage wants them to pray. The diverse nature of these peaceful prayers enriches the mutual ‘compost’ of the Promised Land of our hearts and souls.
“We build Promised Land within ourselves spiritually, which makes us worthy for the evolved political Promised Land of government and society,” Daniels said.
He mentioned Democratic candidate Bernie Sanders’ call for an economic revolution. “Only a spiritual evolution will trigger an economic revolution naturally and organically. We clean up our own inner ecologies so that we become motivated to save the planet. Anything less than this will lead to perpetual government gridlock, fascism and war,” he said.
Daniels has spent a lot of time in Iowa. He has spoken at four campaign stops of Donald Trump, has attended four Hilary Clinton events and spoken twice, has spoken at two Christie events, and single events forJohn Kasich, Marco Rubio and Ted Cruz. He has given them all kippahs Jewish prayer caps. Trump laughs at him, Clinton listened to him, Kasich was “not interested” and Christie is “intrigued.”
He is particularly concerned by Trump’s campaign rhetoric, saying that he is using Muslims as a scapegoat just as Hitler used Jews. He thinks, though, that “the power of the people is stronger than Donald Trump’s hate.”
Daniels said he is not financially able to follow the candidates to New Hampshire after the Iowa caucuses, but he appreciates the opportunities available in Iowa. “It’s something, that anyone like me can plant himself in Iowa and possibly change lives forever,” he said.
