justice

Bells

/ uurevjeff / 1 Comment

(As background context, when I started at the Unitarian Universalist Congregation of Smithton, I found an old fashioned school bell sitting on the pulpit, which inspired this sermon.)

I moved into my apartment here in Smithton a little over a month ago. In the weeks preceding installation of my internet access, I sat reading most evenings in my easy chair. On the first night of silent study, I was suddenly jolted out of my chair at 9:00 p.m. by the siren of the Volunteer Fire Department in the building next door. Apparently, they test the alarm with a single cycle each night at exactly that time. A few nights later, the alarm sounded three times in the wee hours of the morning. I have subsequently learned that our fire company responds to many emergency calls in the region, particularly accidents up on Interstate 70.

Roughly once an hour each day, I also hear the horns of the passing trains and the bells of the crossing gates on Peer Street and Second Street, just a few blocks north and west of the church. The laying of the old Baltimore and Ohio line preceded the founding of this congregation in 1860 by just a few years. Now run by the CSX Corporation, the track running through Smithton hauls materials from as far north as Detroit and as far west as Chicago and St. Louis, and from a wide range of destinations throughout the Southeastern United States.

And, periodically throughout the week days here in Smithton, the carillon of the Hope Lutheran Church just down the street chimes. The sound of traditional Protestant hymns float through the air, bringing a calming lilt to the small town quiet. Hearing the tones makes one bemoan the lack of a town commons at that intersection, perhaps with a gazebo for summer concerts and a grassy space for playing children.

Bells serve a myriad of roles in our lives. Doorbells and telephones announce the approach of visitors, heralding their desire for our company and conversation. Dinner bells, often used on farms where the sound must traverse great distances to reach the listener, proclaim the availability of food and the time to cease work and begin the meal. Clocks chime the hour and awaken us from our restful slumbers to start the work day. Timers alert us to completed tasks, and warn us not to exceed set limits.

At a race, a bell announces the final lap. While on Wall Street, a bell proclaims the start of the trading day. In a store, a bell may summon us from the front of the line to someone who will assist us. While in a hotel, we may use a bell to summon that help to us. At school, bells signify the time to move and change our locations and the focus of our studies. Around the neck of a cow or a cat, a bell notifies of comings and goings. And, wind chimes simply resound with the gentle tinkling of just being in the breezes.

Here at the Unitarian Universalist Congregation of Smithton, we have our own bells. The bell in our steeple was donated when our current structure was built in the late 1880’s. For more than 100 years, our name was the Thomas Universalist (then Unitarian Universalist) Church, in honor of that donor. The ringing of our bell continues to announce to the surrounding community the commencement of our Sunday morning service each week.

We have another bell – a far less imposing figure of a bell. Going through the historical files of our congregation, one finds many mentions of “Mr. Thomas from Philadelphia,” who donated our steeple bell in spite of never seeing our building in person. But, it wasn’t until I found this lone slip of paper that I learned the story of this other bell. It reads:

My mother, Barbara Hermann Bolling was born in 1881. When she was 18 years
of age she became ill with Typhoid Fever and to summon help she was given this
bell.
I am donating this bell to the church for its use only and to remain a part of the church.
Please record this donation in the minutes at your next meeting.

Signed, Clarence Bolling, August 14, 1983

Several aspects of this piece of paper intrigued me. A common disease around the world, typhoid plagues have ravaged human civilizations for centuries. The earliest recorded outbreak occurred in Athens in the fifth century B.C.E., when one-third of the population of this then-thriving metropolis succumbed. In the late 19th century, typhoid fever was well known in American cities, where the typical mortality rate in cities like Chicago averaged 65 per 100,000 people a year. The most notorious carrier of typhoid fever was New York cook Mary Mallon, also known as Typhoid Mary. In 1907, as the first American carrier to be identified and traced, she was associated with 53 cases of the disease and three deaths.

A vaccine was developed by the U.S. Army around that same time. With vaccinations and advances in public sanitation and hygiene, most developed countries saw declining rates of typhoid fever throughout the first half of the 20th century. Antibiotics were introduced in clinical practice in 1942, greatly reducing mortality from typhoid. Today, the incidence of typhoid fever in developed countries is around 5 cases per 1,000,000 people each year. Yet still, an outbreak in the Democratic Republic of the Congo in 2004-05 recorded more than 42,000 cases and 214 deaths.

Probably more curious to me, however, was the wording of the letter, especially when combined with the nature of this unusual gift. Now, I am somewhat knowledgeable of antiques, although I will admit that bells are not a specialty. But, I have little reason to imagine that this bell has any particular monetary value. So, placing conditions that the bell’s donation is contingent on its being used for the church only and that it remain a part of the church is unusual at the least. Even if an item has significant resale value, the recipient of a charitable gift is typically under no obligation regarding the item’s use or eventual disposition.

And yet, upon my arrival, I found this bell not only in the building, but prominently placed here on the pulpit, literally at the nexus of our worship center. I can well imagine that the impetus for putting this bell here is long past and inertia has allowed it to remain in its place. But, as one who tries to stay attuned to the little synchronicities that occur in life, I am inclined to see some meaning in the intersecting vectors of my life with this bell.

For instance, its shape is reminiscent of traditional school bells, when teachers taught many grade levels in a single large room. So, this bell can represent for me my teaching role as minister, and our commitment to lifelong learning. This bell can represent our collective search for truth and meaning, whether that portrays our individual efforts, or our collective labor to provide religious education for children, youth, and adults.

Like other elements of this congregation, this bell represents our long history, serving its function for 120 years. It becomes part of the rich legacy that this building and its hundreds of inhabitants forged in this region, bringing the message of hope and love to the frontier bursting with industrial growth, and the eventual booms and busts of our economy.

But, what strikes me most about this simple bell is the story of its origin. The original purpose of this bell was to summon help. The ringer was calling out from her sickbed for someone to come and offer assistance, to provide sustenance, to support her resistance to a terrible disease. In this way, our lives do indeed resound with the sound of bells. All across the world, bells are tinkling, ringing, chiming, sounding, clanging for help.

(ring bell) When Port-au-Prince, Haiti was rocked by a catastrophic earthquake on January 12, 2010, it affected close to 3.5 million people, leaving hundreds of thousands dead and causing untold suffering for those who survived. Already the poorest nation in the Western hemisphere, Haiti is rife with radical inequality, its society systematically leaving out large numbers of people. For them, daily survival was a challenge even before the earthquake.

(ring bell) The genocidal war in western Sudan’s Darfur region has raged for five years, killing more than 300,000 and forcing 2.5 million to flee their villages. The war has particularly targeted women and girls, who face armed attacks each time they leave their camps to find firewood, food, or work. The Sudanese security forces and their allies have used rape and sexual violence as a deliberate strategy of war as a way to shame and destroy families and communities. The violence and subsequent displacement weaken women’s support networks and their access to livelihoods, even as many more of them are now heads of households, making it all the more difficult for them to survive.

(ring bell) In this country, our state and federal governments continue denying men and women who love each other of basic human rights. Gay and lesbian couples face discrimination, and still fight for their rights in areas including adoption, employment, taxes and benefits, and their ability to openly serve in their country’s armed forces. This same government that purports to support the family enforces unjust immigration laws. We spend billions of dollars rounding people up, breaking up families, shutting down businesses, and deporting people who are working, learning English, and putting down roots here. Our broken immigration system divides families and keeps loved ones apart for years and even decades, which discourages them from following the rules and working within the system.

(ring bell) The Unitarian Universalist Service Committee stands with those who are working to reverse the cycle of collapse and dependence that has historically plagued Haiti. As hundreds of thousands of survivors stream out of the city in search of water, food, medicine, and shelter, the very structure of the Haitian countryside is changing. Many villages have doubled and tripled in size, and people are scrambling to feed and house everyone. UUSC is partnering with Haitian organizations and social movements to ensure that their vision becomes reality. We can answer this bell by contributing our financial resources, and by becoming members of the UUSC.

(ring bell) While the Unitarian Universalist Service Committee supports a viable peace process to end the conflict in Darfur, action now is needed to weave a web of protection for women and girls in this war-torn land. The UUSC is working to improve women’s livelihoods and leadership skills, as well as providing human rights training, coordinating among humanitarian aid agencies in Darfur, and improving security for women living in camps. We can answer this bell by supporting advocacy campaigns, such as the UUSC’s Drumbeat for Darfur campaign, which calls for constant action urging the White House, Congress, and other institutions to make ending the genocide one of their highest priorities.

(ring bell) The Standing of the Side of Love campaign of the Unitarian Universalist Association is building interfaith support for equal treatment for lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender people in all matters of law. We are working with coalitions and lobbying governments at all levels for laws that protect everyone who face violence, intimidation, and discrimination because of their identities. We affirm the full humanity of all people: harnessing love’s power to stop oppression; honoring the spark of the divine in each and every person; pledging to uphold love as a guiding principle in our treatment of others.

We live in a time when most organized religions are experiencing a decline in active participation. Like Barbara Bolling, we lie ailing in our beds calling out for help. We call out for people to listen to us. We call out for people to be with us. We call out for people to share their lives with us in common purpose and commitment. We do that by sounding the bell of freedom of belief, a well recognized sound in this great nation, made famous at least figuratively by our steeple bell’s cousin across the state in Philadelphia. And, while we may respond to bells ringing for specific causes or concerns, the framework within which we hear that music and respond to those vibrations are the principles of Unitarian Universalism.

So, we will continue to ring our steeple bell at the beginning of services every Sunday. But, we ring our bell not just to proclaim the start of worship to the neighborhood. We ring our bell as a way of answering all of those calls for help that we hear each day. We ring our bell to summon help from others as we struggle to nurture spirits and heal the world. And, we ring our bell in remembrance of those who have gone before and kept this Unitarian Universalist pulpit serving Smithton, Southwestern Pennsylvania, and the world vibrant and free.

Meet Oscar

/ uurevjeff

Last Sunday, I introduced a new friend to my congregation. Being from Western Pennsylvania, home of Punxatawney and Groundhog Day, it was only natural that I meet the world’s first Unitarian Universalist groundhog. Please meet Oscar, who you can see here reading his favorite web site. Like me, Oscar is a fan of pizza (veggies only, please). Last Sunday, Oscar helped me tell a story for a Time for All Ages segment, which he would like to also share with our cyber friends.

This is a story about a bunny named Michael. Michael was not quite a grown up rabbit yet. But, the adult rabbits saw that Michael was very smart for a bunny, very creative for such a youngster, and unafraid to share his notions with other rabbits.

Michael lived in a community of rabbits (which is called a warren) on the border between a lovely green meadow and a majestic forest of oaks, elms, and maples. Michael liked his warren, but always sensed that their lives could be better – that perhaps there was more to life than frolicking in the meadow, or munching on wild nuts and berries.

One day, Michael strayed far into the forest and into a large rock outcropping on a hillside overlooking the whole forest, where he met another rabbit. Her name was Margaret. But, this rabbit was not the same color of brown of other rabbits Michael knew. And, this rabbit seemed very thin and not as big and strong as the rabbits from Michael’s warren.

Margaret told Michael that she lived in a warren on the other side of the forest, a place where there were many foxes that hunted the rabbits and made it difficult for them to gather food for the upcoming winter. So, Michael returned home and talked to the elders about sharing their food with the rabbits of this other community. But, the elders replied that warrens never shared food before and that he needed to worry about winter and his own warren.

Months went by and the snows came. One day, Michael wandered through the forest near the rocks and ran into Margaret again. She looked very sick and said that her warren was almost completely out of food. So, Michael returned to the elders and asked once again about sharing food. But, the elders replied that now was a bad time to give away food, because winter could go on for another month or more.

The snows finally stopped, and Michael once again found Margaret in the woods. Her warren was in deep trouble because their food had run out and the spring rains had flooded their homes. So, Michael once again appealed to his elders, who agreed to quickly send some food to Margaret’s warren. But, the rescue party was disorganized and paid no attention to the clouds building on the horizon. Halfway through the forest, a huge storm descended and the rabbits had to abandon their food to avoid being swept away by the rains. Michael led them to cover in the rock outcropping until the storm passed.

When Michael and the other rabbits finally returned home, their warren was in a state of panic. Huge machines were moving mountains of earth and destroying the homes of Michael’s family and friends. At that moment, Michael had an idea. He quickly gathered all of the rabbits and told them to take what possessions they could and head back to the rock outcropping. In the meantime, he ran to Margaret’s warren, and told the elders there to gather their belongings and follow him to the rocks.

Over the next few weeks, the two warrens worked together to build a new home amidst the rocks, which sheltered them from rain and snow, and protected them from the foxes. Michael and Margaret eventually married and had many bunnies of their own and the new warren lived happily ever after.

The moral of this story is that a good idea alone is never enough. An idea will fail if people are unwilling to change, if the timing is wrong, or if there is no plan to implement the idea. An idea will only work if people want to change, the timing is right, and there is a vision to accomplish the idea. Perhaps this is a valuable lesson for us all as we begin new church years.

Re-dedication Sunday

/ uurevjeff

I would like to put out there the suggestion that Unitarian Universalist churches consider placing the last Sunday of July on their liturgical calendars as Re-dedication Sunday, in memory of the event on July 27, 2008 at the Tennessee Valley Unitarian Universalist Church. We did this at our service last Sunday at the Unitarian Universalist Congregation at Shelter Rock, resulting in a ritual that many in attendance found deeply moving.

I include much of non-sermon text below as the context for the service. The intent was to recognize that our sanctuaries are sacred spaces into which we bring much emotion throughout the year. The idea of Re-dedication Sunday is to cleanse our worship rooms of the past year’s accumulation of pain, anxiety, fear, and despair so that healing may begin anew.

==================
Re-dedication of Worship Center Service Elements

Call to Worship

The first peace…is that which comes from within the souls of men when they realize their relationship, their oneness, with the universe and all its powers, and when they realize that at the center of the universe dwells the Sacred, and that this center is really everywhere, it is within each of us. This is the real peace, and the others are but reflections of this. The second peace is that which is made between two individuals, and the third is that which is made between two nations. But above all you should understand that there can never be peace between nations until there is first known that true peace which is within the souls of men.
— Black Elk in The Sacred Pipe: Black Elk’s Account of the Seven Rites of the Oglala Sioux (1953)

Chalice Lighting

Let there be light!
Let it shine in dark places,
in moments of pain,
in times of grief,
in the darkness of hatred, violence, oppression,
where there is discouragement and despair.
Wherever darkness is to be put to flight,
Let there be light!
— Gordon McKeeman, Unitarian minister quoting Genesis 1:3 (from 1997 UUMA Worship Materials Collection)

Remembrance

Spirit of Life and Love that we know by many names, enter this space as we honor those whose lives were lost on Sunday, July 27, 2008. One year ago tomorrow, a man entered the Tennessee Valley Unitarian Universalist Church in Knoxville with a shotgun. In a few short moments, the violent expression of his hate and frustration left two people dead, several wounded, and many shaken with trauma. We remember and honor those directly affected by the shootings at the Tennessee Valley Unitarian Universalist Church. We also remember and honor our own feelings we have experienced and will continue to experience related to this and other similar events.

We light a candle in memory of Gregory Joseph (Greg) McKendry Jr., of Knoxville, Tennessee. He was an usher and board member of the Tennessee Valley Unitarian Universalist Church.
We light a candle for Linda Kraeger. She was a member of the Westside Unitarian Universalist Fellowship in Farragut, Tennessee.

We take time now to remember the joys and the pains that entered through these doors today. We reach out to those who have come in today with heavy hearts; those who are struggling; those among us who are grieving; those who are caring for a loved one; those who are anxiously waiting for an unknown future, and all who are living with illness. We remember those who are home bound or hospitalized or, for whatever reason, could not be present with us today. May their names and faces be brought to mind. May they be assured that they have not been forgotten, and by our reaching out may they know that their presence is missed. Let us also celebrate the accomplishments and successful passages of life events we share today.

Just like our tools of technology, we occasionally need to reboot our lives so that we can better respond to life’s challenges and welcome life’s happiness. We need to cleanse our minds of outworn thoughts of guilt or shame. We need to cleanse our souls of outworn ways of living and being. Throughout the past year, this worship center has been a receptacle for the emotions brought in by the highs and lows of our lives. Just as we need help recovering from the challenges and the excitement of life, we should periodically cleanse our sacred spaces. Today, let us set about the work of cleansing ourselves and our religious home for the busy work in the year to come.

Offering

You may have noticed these boxes to my right. Standing on the Side of Love is a public advocacy campaign, sponsored by the Unitarian Universalist Association, promoting respect for the inherent worth and dignity of every person. Standing on the Side of Love will confront exclusion, oppression, and violence based on identity. Based in the aspiration to create beloved community, the campaign will pursue social change through advocacy, public witness, and speaking out in solidarity with those whose lives are publicly demeaned. All people, not just Unitarian Universalists, are invited to stand, speak, worship, march, roll, and live on the side of the love. Now, in the spirit of remembrance and of unconditional love, I ask the ushers to come forward to collect our morning offering to support the work, the witness, and the wonder of this religious community.

Ritual of Re-Dedication

When I first heard of the events in Knoxville one year ago, I felt a sick dread in the pit of my stomach. Beyond the senselessness of the act, as a long-time religious education teacher and as a parent, I was particularly struck by the occurrence of the act during a children’s play. All that day, I read updates of the news, seeking more facts; seeking information; searching for some reason or explanation.

I talked with others about the event so that I could share my emotions and pain. For we know that by sharing our pain, we can work toward lessening its debilitating impact on us. We can imagine moving beyond these initial emotions toward response, toward action, toward reconciliation. That is the nature of resilience.

Sometimes, we come here on Sunday mornings to share our pain…our pain of anger, our pain of fear, our pain of frustration, our pain of sadness. By sharing in covenant our love for each other and for all of humankind, we build on the knowledge that a shared joy is doubled in the sharing and that a shared pain is half a pain.

I ask you now to rise and form a circle. In this circle of our congregation, let us today re-dedicate this worship room as sacred space. As the chalice, the symbol of our living tradition, is passed among you, hold it for a moment and place into this vessel the fire of your own commitment to this place. May the combined power of our thoughts and feelings cleanse this space of the past year’s accumulation of anxiety, fear, and despair, so that healing can begin anew.

As this flame consumes a year of pain, may this chalice represent the foundation of that joy that is our commitment to the inherent worth and dignity of every person. We remember not only the love we have for the victims of terrible events, but for anyone whose life is so bereft of compassion, that violence against others seems their only recourse. We remember to love and to forgive those who, either through mental illness, their own suffering from abuse or violence, or other challenges of life, must be held accountable for their own acts of violence perpetrated on others. Our commitment to justice, equity, and compassion in human relations calls on us to do this.

As we pass our chalice, let us join in singing the hymn Comfort Me.

Benediction

Please join hands for our closing words. For centuries, Unitarian Universalists have offered to the world the promise of hope; the promise of a world without hate; the promise of a world with equity and justice; the promise of a world without violence. Together, we here present affirm to build hope, for a hope shared can become a vision for the world. Now, more than ever, let us challenge ourselves in the coming year to stand on the side of love, offering the world in this sacred space the promise of hope.

Blessed be, Amen, and Let it be so.

Gross National Happiness

/ uurevjeff
I am thinking of moving to Bhutan.

Seriously, though, while there are certainly problems with any effort like this, I applaud the effort at grand vision. We assume that the way things are in the world are “natural” and somehow intrinsic. I find it refreshing to see that someone somewhere thinks otherwise and imagines a better way.

============================

Published Date: 10 May 2009
By Seth Mydans in Thimphu, Bhutan
Forget quantitative easing, fiscal stimulus or liquidity injections. Gross national happiness could be the way forward. The tiny Buddhist kingdom of Bhutan, high in the Himalayan mountains, is working on a rather different answer to the global economic meltdown than the rest of the world. “Greed, insatiable human greed,” said Prime Minister Jigme Thinley, describing
what he sees as the cause of today’s economic catastrophe in the world beyond the snow-topped mountains. “What we need is change,” he said in the whitewashed fortress where he works. “We need to think gross national happiness.”

The notion of gross national happiness was the inspiration of the former king, Jigme Singye Wangchuck, in the 1970s, as an alternative to the gross national product. Now, the Bhutanese are refining the country’s guiding philosophy into what they see as a new political science, and it has ripened into government policy just when the world may need it, said Kinley Dorji, secretary of information and communications. “You see what a complete dedication to economic development ends up in,” he said, referring to the global economic crisis. “Industrialised societies have decided now that GNP is a broken promise.

“Under a new Constitution adopted last year, government programmes – from agriculture to transportation to foreign trade – must be judged not by the economic benefits they may offer but by the happiness they produce. The goal is not happiness itself, the prime minister explained, a concept that each person must define for himself. Rather, the government aims to create the conditions for what he called, in an updated version of the American Declaration of Independence, “the pursuit of gross national happiness”.

The Bhutanese have started with an experiment within an experiment, accepting the resignation of the popular king as an absolute monarch and holding the country’s first democratic election a year ago. The change is part of attaining gross national happiness, Dorji said. “They resonate well, democracy and GNH. Both place responsibility on the individual. Happiness is an individual pursuit and democracy is the empowerment of the individual.

“It was a rare case of a monarch’s unilaterally stepping back from power, and an even rarer case of his doing so against the wishes of his subjects. He gave the throne to his son, Jigme Khesar Namgyel Wangchuck, who was crowned in November in the new role of constitutional monarch without executive power.

Bhutan is, perhaps, an easy place to nimbly rewrite economic rules – a country with one airport and two commercial planes, where the east can only be reached from the west after four days’ travel on mountain roads. No more than 700,000 people live in the kingdom, squeezed between the world’s two most populous nations, India and China, and its task now is to control and manage the inevitable changes to its way of life. It is a country where cigarettes are banned and television was introduced just 10 years ago, where traditional clothing and architecture are enforced by law and where the capital city has no stoplight and just one traffic officer on duty.

If the world is to take gross national happiness seriously, the Bhutanese concede, they must work out a scheme of definitions and standards that can be quantified and measured by the big players of the world’s economy.” Once Bhutan said, ‘OK, here we are with GNH,’ the developed world and the World Bank and the IMF and so on asked, ‘How do you measure it?'” Dorji said, characterising the reactions of the world’s big economic players. So the Bhutanese produced an intricate model of well-being that features the four pillars, the nine domains and the 72 indicators of happiness.

Specifically, the government has determined that the four pillars of a happy society involve the economy, culture, the environment and good governance. It breaks these into nine domains: psychological well-being, ecology, health, education, culture, living standards, time use, community vitality and good governance, each with its own weighted and unweighted GNH index.All of this is to be analysed using the 72 indicators. Under the domain of psychological well-being, for example, indicators include the frequencies of prayer and meditation and of feelings of selfishness, jealousy, calm, compassion, generosity and frustration, as well as suicidal thoughts.

“We are even breaking down the time of day: how much time a person spends with family, at work and so on,” Dorji said. Mathematical formulae have even been devised to reduce happiness to its tiniest component parts. Every two years, these indicators are to be reassessed through a nationwide questionnaire, said Karma Tshiteem, secretary of the Gross National Happiness Commission, as he sat in his office at the end of a hard day of work that he said made him happy. Gross national happiness has a broader application for Bhutan as it races to preserve its identity and culture from the encroachments of the outside world.”How does a small country like Bhutan handle globalisation?” Dorji asked. “We will survive by being distinct, by being different.

“Bhutan is pitting its four pillars, nine domains and 72 indicators against the 48 channels of Hollywood and Bollywood that have invaded since television was permitted a decade ago. “Before June 1999 if you asked any young person who is your hero, the inevitable response was, ‘The king,’ ” Dorji said. “Immediately after that it was David Beckham, and now it’s 50 Cent, the rap artist. Parents are helpless.” So if GNH may hold the secret of happiness for people suffering from the collapse of financial institutions abroad, it offers something more urgent here in this pristine culture.”Bhutan’s story today is, in one word, survival,” Dorji said. ” Gross national happiness is survival; how to counter a threat to survival.”

Gun Deaths in Pittsburgh

/ uurevjeff

I may be living in New York City now, but I am a long-time Pittsburgher. Today, I can only think of the heartache being felt in my City after the senseless deaths of three police officers at the hands of yet another disturbed gun owner.

When will this ever end?

I’ve heard all of the arguments before. Tell them to five girls who have lost their fathers, and two wives and a fiance now left widowed. Please, tell them to their faces why these men needed to die to protect your right to own firearms.

How about a silly example. Let’s say that I loved bowling more than anything in my life. I bowled every day and owned 16 different balls for different lane conditions. But, every year, thousands of people were being murdered and injured by people with bowling balls. Yes, I can argue that I have a constitutional right to pursue happiness. Yes, owning a warehouse of bowling balls is legal. And yet, I would not for one second think twice about giving my passion up completely if there was any hope that getting rid of bowling balls (or at least making it marginally difficult to obtain them) would save innocent lives. I place the value of human life above a legalistic fanaticism to maintaining my rights and to the pursuit of a unique form of pleasure.

Pick your study. Gun-related deaths per capita in the United States dwarf those of other developed nations. In some instances, our rate of gun violence is 10 or even 20 times that of other developed nations. Quibble away with the statistics, but this is simply unacceptable.

A long-time friend said that the shooter was opposed to ‘Zionist propaganda’ and was fearful that his right to own weapons would be taken away. “He always said that if someone tried to take his weapons away he would do what his forefathers told him to do and defend himself.” Is this the right the gun lobbyists in this country really want to defend? I say that the right of the police, as well as hundreds of millions of innocent citizens, to live their lives free of fear and violence trumps paranoid delusions and reactionary propaganda about what the founders of this country really intended.

This madness will not end until enough citizens petition their legislators to enact sane gun control laws. We cannot hope to address this issue until the voices calling for reason and responsibility outnumber the dollars of the gun lobbyists.

Network of Mutuality

/ uurevjeff / 2 Comments

I have just returned from a worship service at our seminary in honor of Martin Luther King, Jr. Day. During the service the words of his Network of Mutuality were read.

We are caught in an inescapable network of mutuality, tied in a single garment of destiny. Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere. There are some things in our social system to which all of us ought to be maladjusted. Hatred and bitterness can never cure the disease of fear, only love can do that. We must evolve for all human conflict a method which rejects revenge, aggression, and retaliation. The foundation of such a method is love. Before it is too late, we must narrow the gaping chasm between our proclamation of peace and our lowly deeds which precipitate and perpetuate war. One day we must come to see that peace is not merely a distant goal that we seek but a means by which we arrive at that goal. We must pursue peaceful ends through peaceful means. We shall hew out of the mountain of despair, a stone of hope.


Reminded of these powerful and prophetic words, I am even more deeply saddened by our recent draft Statement of Conscience on Peacemaking.

At first, I was willing to shrug my shoulders at the inevitability of its ambiguity. We are, after all, a diverse denomination in many ways, especially regarding the philosophy of international law and politics. But, Dr. King reminds me that we must come to see that peace is not merely a distant goal that we seek, but a means by which we arrive at that goal.

I am not asking that the Statement of Conscience be couched in a dogmatic framework of certainly, shutting out those pursuing anything less than absolute pacifism. I wrestled with Just War theory for decades myself, so I of all people respect the intellectual struggle this topic engenders. I am asking, however, that we consider adding language to the statement not only open to pacifism, language not merely welcoming of pacifism, but language that takes pacifism within the bosom of Unitarian Universalism and embraces it with all of the love we can muster for its challenge and its promise.

I propose that we seek language that expresses the opinion that, in time, we must commit ourselves to the belief that killing can never end killing, and diplomacy can never end injustice. Only love can lead us to a world where humanity can seek the promise of a community of hope without war. I cannot imagine better words than those written by Dr. King as a framework for committing Unitarian Universalism to a path to becoming a peace church.

Peacemaking: Draft UUA Statement of Conscience

/ uurevjeff / 4 Comments

I have reviewed Peacemaking: A Draft Unitarian Universalist Statement of Conscience (November 2008 draft). I am not surprised at the content, and frankly wonder how it could have taken so long to craft the statement.

Aside from this one note of snarkiness, the draft certainly expresses the point of view I expected, since the Association is simply not ready to become a peace church. That said, my main response is this. Someday, maybe in the not too distant future, we are going to have to get off the fence. Someday, we will no longer be able to rationalize our use of violence…ever. Because if you support war, in the end it does not matter what your rationale is. You are still supporting war. Which means that we have compromised our first principle to affirm and promote the inherent worth of every person.

Now, I have made the personal choice to become a pacifist, so it is fair to ask me how we can resolve conflicts that seem to meet all the criteria for engaging in a just war. I ask you to imagine a possibility. Imagine that a country is engaged in a terrible civil war and innocents are being slaughtered on both sides. All diplomatic avenues have been exhausted. The only solution left would seem to be to load up the planes and ships with soldiers and guns and send them over to invade.

But, instead of sending 100,000 soldiers with tanks, rifles, and bombs, what if we filled all those planes and ships with 100,000 peacekeepers and crates of food, medicine, and other supplies? Using the same infrastructure one would use to support a military force, what if we unloaded 100,000 people, armed with only good will and knowledge to help the country rebuild? What if those 100,000 people simply walked, arm in arm, across the border and into the middle of the fighting? What would happen?

Some would almost certainly die. Ten, a hundred, even a thousand. But, some would walk and continue walking. They would be joined by the people of that country, becoming a human arrow of nonviolence into the country. In time, the shooting would stop. Impossible, you say. I say, “Why not?” People are already dying and will continue to die. You cannot kill people to make them stop killing. Killing only produces more killers, if not now, then in the next generation. Only by irrevocably breaking the pattern of killing can we end war.

The UUA Statement of Conscience is a present-oriented statement and probably reflects the opinions of the current membership of the Association very accurately. But, war and violence is never going to end through incremental transformative change. It will take a nonviolent revolution to end war. It will take enough people committed totally to peace who are willing to sacrifice everything to end war. We must begin building a peace army to engage in that revolution.

Peace and PTSD

/ uurevjeff / 2 Comments

I recently completed a unit of Clinical Pastoral Education (CPE), at the Veteran’s Administration Hospital here in Pittsburgh. During my time at the VA facility, I visited patients in various life and medical conditions, met some amazing people, and learned a great deal about myself and my ministry. Early in my time there, I met a Vietnam veteran. The visit shaped my entire time in CPE and, in one way has brought me close to the end of a road in my life.

First, I need to share with you the landmarks I have passed on this particular path. When I was 10 years old, my oldest brother, Jon, was my hero and, next to my father, my most important role model. He went to fight in Vietnam. It was 1968, the worst year of the war. The television news bombarded us nightly with images of death, reports of opposition to our involvement, and editorials questioning our core goals as a nation and as a people.

I saw and heard these reports. But, all I cared about was that Jon would come home safely. I did not care about falling dominoes. I did not care about the welfare of people halfway around the world. I wanted our armed forces to bomb our enemy into oblivion so that Jon, my brother, would not be harmed.

Jon finished his tour of duty and returned home. We celebrated in our dining room the night he got back. There he was, thinner and a little older, but still the brother I knew and loved. Almost the next day, however, the change started. Jon talked less and spent much more time alone. He stayed up all hours of the night, reading voraciously. He and his wife quarreled more often. Jon’s patience with his children grew shorter. I did not know what was happening, but sensed that some part of my brother was missing.

I entered junior high school and began a lifelong passion for history, particularly about Nazi Germany. I, too, read voraciously. One book, titled Treblinka, chronicled the events that occurred at the concentration camp of that name in Poland. The account introduced me to the Holocaust and engaged my curiosity and revulsion about the potential for humans to harm each other. My interest in that era of our past gradually shifted away from battles and military strategy, to the people of Germany…not the soldiers and fanatics, but nurses, store owners, professors, and ministers…everyday people. I still believed in war, at least that we needed to fight wars to protect ourselves, our way of life, and our basic principles of freedom and democracy.

One thing that did die in me during that time was my belief in God. Like many people who travel the path that leads to atheism, I could not imagine how the God that all of my friends believed in could ever allow a thing like the Holocaust to happen. Why would the father of Jesus condone war at all? As a result, I lived unchurched for many years, until I happened to discover Unitarian Universalism.

In Unitarian Universalism, I found a religious home that shared my revulsion for war, but still welcomed those who felt that sometimes war is necessary to defend freedom and democracy. Unitarian Universalism welcomed the lifelong learner in me who taught religious education classes and wrote curricula for other churches to use. While writing one of my curricula, Thinking the Web, I explored the theory of Just War. Just War is a doctrine of ethics asserting that a conflict can and ought to meet the criteria of philosophical, religious, or political justice, provided it follows certain conditions. An example of these conditions would be “Just cause,” which states that the reason for going to war needs to be just, such as recapturing things taken or punishing people who have done wrong. Another example is the condition of “Proportionality,” which states that the force used must be proportional to the wrong endured, and to the possible good that may come. The more disproportional the number of collateral civilian deaths, the more suspect will be the sincerity of a belligerent nation’s claim to justness of a war it fights.

Taken in it’s entirety, the conditions defining Just War made a good deal of sense to me. At the same time, however, I also wrote a class session on conscientious objection and began to explore the philosophy of pacifism. Honestly, I found unconditional pacifism untenable. I admired Gandhi’s vision of nonviolent resistance, but frankly felt that the position taken by the historic peace churches – the Quakers, the Church of the Brethren, and the Mennonites – simply avoided the challenges we face in a modern global society.

When I entered the seminary, I took a class on Unitarian Universalist History. I wrote a paper on the Unitarian response to Nazi Germany. My research revealed much division in the 1930’s on the issue of pacifism. Those advocating absolute pacifism, led by John Haynes Holmes of the Community Church in New York City, were challenged by ministers such as James Luther Adams, who had traveled in Nazi Germany and foresaw the horrors to come. Many Unitarians straddled the fence, eventually supporting the effort once the European conflict erupted, and more strongly after Pearl Harbor. I found myself sympathetic to what I called Realistic Pacifists, who abhored war, but recognized the necessity of the practice.

And yet, throughout this journey, my doubts grew. I lived through the Gulf War and then the invasion of Iraq. I saw Just War theory brutalized by those with financial motivations, or historic biases against the Muslim people. I read more history, now revealing even more complicity by the United States in the birth and growth of Nazism in Germany and the hatred of America by the Japanese. I began to see more clearly the attitude of Gandhi and Jesus, that violence only propagates more violence, continuing the cycle of humans harming one another.

Which brings back me to my latest landmark on this particular road. One day, I entered the room of a patient. We only shared 30 minutes or so together. Somehow, at that moment, this man decided to share with me his experiences in Vietnam. I believe in synchronicity – that sometimes two events or two people can come together in some larger meaning, but that there need not be any identifiable cause for the meeting. What this man had been feeling for 40 years came flowing out with me.

During CPE, students spend time in clinical sites, in small group processing exercises, and in more traditional learning sessions called didactics. Just the day before, my group learned about Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) during a didactic. This man exhibited every symptom.

  • He had been exposed to traumatic events during the war;
  • He reexperienced these events over the years in flashbacks and nightmares;
  • He had never been able to talk about things even related to the experience that would trigger these memories;
  • He experienced persistent difficulty with sleep, anger, and being hypervigilant, that is, sensitive to things such as loud noises; and
  • He had experienced these symptoms for years and they significantly impaired his ability to function in social and work settings.

As we spoke, I shared my feelings about my brother and stories Jon had shared with me. He told his own stories, including one about a Vietnamese girl who used to come into the soldiers’ PX. He said that the soldiers bought her whatever she wanted because she was so pretty and innocent. He went on to tell me that, one day, he picked her up…and she exploded. She had been booby-trapped.

He began to cry and I joined him. He was frustrated by his tears, but I told him what I had learned the day before. You have been through a traumatic experience. Crying is the reaction any normal person should have when faced with such an abnormal experience. These tears have waited 40 years to come out of you.

Afterwards, I reflected on this visit and felt deep sadness for this man. I could only imagine the tragedy of his life for the past 40 years. I realized fully for the first time that the victims of war include not only the dead, the wounded, the imprisoned, and the displaced, but all of the soldiers engaged in the conflict, their families and friends, and everyone whose lives they touch. I realized that no cause, no reasons, no justification could warrant the destruction of war, the destruction that war caused this man for the past 40 years. And, I knew that we will continue to devastate the lives of men like this until we end war; until we disavow all violence toward one another; until we pledge once and for all not to harm each other.

Therefore, I have committed to live the rest of my life nonviolently. I will militantly defend the innocent with my own life if needed. But, I will strive never again to harm another person mentally, physically, or emotionally. I make the distinction set forth by John Haynes Holmes in his 1916 book New Wars for Old, in that I will lift my “militancy from the plane of the physical, to the plane of moral and spiritual force.” As a human being, I will struggle to maintain this pledge. As a human being, I recognize that I will harm others. But, as a human being, I know that we have the potential to end war; we have the potential to love each other; we have the duty to try to live nonviolently. The cycle of people harming one another cannot stop until enough of us pledge to end our violent behaviors.

Will I advocate that the Unitarian Universalist Association join with the Quakers, the Church of the Brethren, and the Mennonites, and become a peace church? Yes. But, I will also advocate that we understand that the path to pledging to nonviolence can be long and difficult. I will advocate patience and understanding as people struggle with the commitment. As a noncreedal peace church, Unitarian Universalism can become a home for people struggling to make this commitment where they will not be judged for their current position on the matter; a home for further discussion about both the practical and the theoretical issues of war and peace; and a home for people to share their feelings and experiences openly in loving community.

(this is the bulk of the text of a sermon I delived on Sunday, August 10, 2008 at the First Unitarian Church of Pittsburgh)

Mother’s Day

/ uurevjeff / 1 Comment

I know, I am early and there are 44 shopping days left until Mother’s Day. Sadly, that statistic tends to dominate our thinking regarding holidays. Hardly a celebration remains unsullied by the taint of consumerism.

As a father, I admit to appreciating a day devoted to my dedication as a parent. But, isn’t our reward knowing every day that we did our best to raise our children to face the world and, hopefully, make it a better place? Wasn’t my reward all of those years with my own children and the opportunities to coach, advise, and educate others’ children? Do I really need a card, or a grudgingly purchased gift to confirm the quality of my fatherhood?

This wasn’t the original purpose of the holiday. Unitarian abolitionist Julia Ward Howe wrote the lyrics to The Battle Hymn of the Republic after reviewing Union troops in Washington, D.C. in 1861. However, the ensuing four years of death and destruction convinced her that peace was the only path for a sane society to pursue. With the outbreak of more madness in the Franco-Prussian War in 1870, Howe issued a proclamation calling for a congress of women to “promote the alliance of the different nationalities,the amicable settlement of international questions,the great and general interests of peace.”

After achieving her goal, Howe’s Mother’s Day for Peace was celebrated for several years, but never achieved national recognition. In 1914, President Woodrow Wilson declared the first national Mother’s Day with an intent to honor mothers, but commercialization of the holiday quickly became rampant. The original meaning of the holiday was soon lost.

Last summer, some colleagues in Kansas City initiated an effort to reclaim Mother’s Day. Julia’s Voice is a group of “mothers and others” joined together to return Mothers Day to its original intent. They are looking for people across the country to join with them on May 11 to speak out against war. I will be preaching on the subject on May 4 (the Sunday before Mother’s Day) at the First Unitarian Church of Pittsburgh and I encourage others to join them.

The best way to honor mothers is to incorporate the best qualities of motherhood into our social policies and governmental actions. The best way to honor mothers is never again to put them, their children, or their partners in harm’s way. The best way to honor mothers is to strive for a world where peace becomes the norm. As an aspiring Unitarian Universalist minister, I have always been frustrated at our lack of unique holidays. We have our rituals, such as Water Communion and Flower Communion, but our liturgical calendar seems filled with observances from other religious traditions. Let us work to reclaim this holiday created by a Unitarian and embodying an important principle of our denomination — the goal of world community, with peace, liberty and justice for all.

Illusions in America Today #8

/ uurevjeff / 1 Comment

The news last week that 1 in 100 Americans are currently in prison should shock every citizen of this nation. Our elected officials want desperately for us to feel “safe,” which really translates into being complacent and satisfied with the status quo. In fact, this trap of safety is what should appall us into action, as we watch another generation lose their futures and dreams in the bureaucracy of the criminal justice system.

No matter how one assesses this issue, a system that incarcerates 1% of your population for criminal activity is a failure. Every dollar spent on building prisons is a dollar not spent on education, health care and job creation. Every brick laid for prison walls is a 100 year commitment to maintaining a physical facility at a time when we are closing down mental hospitals, bridges are collapsing, and social service agencies scramble for dollars just to stay open.

If we agree that the current system is broken beyond repair, what is the answer? First, society must address the core basic needs of its people in order to prevent the roots of crime – economic injustice, hate, and lack of opportunities. Instead of mandatory sentencing, we should have mandatory funding for education and health care for every citizen. Every dollar spent on policing should be matched by at least a dollar on community development and economic improvements.

How would an intentional community handle this issue? Our intentional community is committed to nonviolence, so the top priority must be placed on dealing with crimes involving violence. But, what are the roots of violence? The best way to address violence is to live nonviolently in every aspect of life, which includes not only personal relationships, but economically as well. No one should earn money at the expense of another’s well being. Every citizen must receive equal treatment and access to services and freedoms. But, most importantly, every citizen should expect to contribute to the well-being of the communities and to their neighbors. These are expectations that should be taught from the youngest ages and accepted by everyone in the community regardless of age or ability.

Would we ever incarcerate anyone? Yes. But, only those whose repeated acts of violence show that they are presently incapable of normal social interaction. At that point, they give up their rights as equal citizens and enter into a mandatory program of treatment and training designed not to punish a criminal, but to truly reclaim a human being. For nonviolent offenders, there are many useful tasks that can be assigned as compensation to the community for their lawlessness. Forced labor is not cruel and unusual. Locking someone up in a tiny cell for years on end is cruel and unusual. Forced treatment and training is an infringement on absolute individual rights. But, it enforces the right of the community to survive and thrive which, in the end, best serves the rights of the individual as well.

Just as education is not solely the responsibility of professional teachers, the management of criminal acts is not solely the responsibility of trained law enforcement agents. We must reexamine our notions of justice and address every level of the system in order to better use our precious financial and human resources.