by WUUC | Feb 17, 2017 | Minister Blog
Our sister Christian denomination, the United Church of Christ, has adopted the slogan “God is Still Speaking” in order to convey their belief that God’s “revelation” is continuous and did not end with the death of the prophets. As religious liberals we place ourselves in contradistinction to religious conservatives by gaily (and gayly) leaping out of the closet of fundamentalism and conservatism.
Our Puritan ancestors took a risk when they chose to give power to the people in their choice of a church governance structure that was fair and just. Some of those Puritans after arriving in America, along with Unitarians in Transylvania, took a risk and cast off Trinitarian theology. Our many Universalist founders took a risk in declaring that a loving God would never see his children suffer in hell and condemnation. Standing on the side of love, with an ethic of fairness, and innovation in thinking; they all took the risk of being called heretics.
In 2017, and in these trying times, we are asked again to look at what we are holding onto that keeps us from moving forward. Is it our traditional and orthodox beliefs about how we have always done Unitarian Universalism? Are we willing to risk being heretical in the way we do church, to risk being heretical towards our own deeply held beliefs about what Unitarian Universalism should be?
In the 20th c. there arose from both the Jesuit order and the Black Church, prophets who had listened deeply to the voice of the divine in the words of the poor and oppressed. From their communion with the poor and oppressed, God revealed to them a new and heretical theology, now called Liberation Theology. Liberation Theology declares that the only God worth worshiping is the God that is solely concerned with the pain of those who suffer at the hands of the elite and privileged. Liberation Theologians declared that Jesus was sent to save the oppressed, the prophets were born to release slaves from bondage, the scriptures were written to declare that God had preference for those predestined by birth to be poor and oppressed. It was an intentionally subversive theology.
Black and Catholic Liberationist Theologians broke from the doctrinal interpretation of the scripture of their own denominations. They were not concerned with preserving their respective traditions, nor were they worried about losing years of theological history; they were focused on the liberation of the poor and oppressed in society. As a result, both are still thriving and doing the work of justice in the world. They are sustained because people are attracted to their commitment to justice.
What is God/Spirit/Wisdom speaking in 2017 to us Unitarian Universalist heretics? Many of us had hoped that our historical gains in the past had achieved freedom and justice for all (or at least put us on track to achieve this goal). We felt hope when we elected the first Black president in US history. We hoped, yet, for years we didn’t quite listen well to those who told us that our hopes were a bit misguided.
With open hearts, Unitarian Universalists are now listening to the many voices of the marginalized in the U.S. The oppressed in this country are crying out to us that their suffering is unbearable and that they need help from our faith to achieve freedom. In spite of the emotional feeling of hopelessness in this moment, we are allowing our hearts to open to something beyond optimistic and motivational hope. We have long cast off the polar opposite of hope, fear. What is left when we go beyond both hope and fear? Risk, we are beginning to take risks.
What do our risk-taking founders speak to us in this moment, what do the Liberation Theologians have to tell us? Can we begin 
to picture a denomination that is primarily concerned with the welfare of others and less concerned about its own self-preservation? The voice of revelation is here in this moment asking us to look at how we do church. Is our worship inclusive, are our many projects beneficial to the oppressed in this country? Is our religious education building ethical Unitarian Universalists or are we more concerned with indoctrinating Unitarian Universalism in our children?
When we take risks on our own behalf the results are often mixed. I have known many people who live lives of risk, veering into what I would call recklessness. I struggle to explain the fine line between risk and recklessness. A dear elderly friend of mine helped me with this in saying that no risk that she has ever taken with the benefit of others is reckless. I believe this is what constitutes responsible risk taking: We are responsible to the needs of others.
Risk is that action taken when our traditions no longer serve its purpose, when there is no proven formula that would guarantee our next action will be beneficial. Risk happens in the moment that our calculated and previously held “hope” falls into hopelessness. It also requires that we have moved beyond the fear of hegemonic power. Risk happens in the present moment and there is no right or wrong way to do it. There is also no guarantee that it will work, nor does it require that we feel hopeful about it working.
If done well and responsibly, it is done with the concern of other’s well-being in mind. We can be assured that those risks that we take as people of faith, as religious liberals, and as Unitarian Universalists are the right ones when we are taking them for the sake of the marginalized in this country. We must risk losing all for the sake of others.
by WUUC | Feb 17, 2017 | Minister Blog
My heart is moved by all I cannot save: so much has been destroyed
I have to cast my lot with those who age after age, perversely,
with no extraordinary power, reconstitute the world.
-Adrienne Rich
U.U. feminist theologian, Sharon D. Welch describes “risk” as responsible action taken within the limits of bounded power. In its finer moments, religion has served us well in navigating our personal ethic in the face of insurmountable power. The Buddha rebelled against the caste system in accepting untouchables into his order, Jesus ministered to social outcasts and hung out with some questionable characters, and the Prophet Muhammed (Peace Be Upon Him), upended the ruling class with his religious community. Each of these prophets lived with an ethic of risk, not necessarily for the sake of social justice, but because they were unshakable in their persistence to live life according to their personal ethics. They each lived and taught an ethic of risk in the face of fierce and violent powers.
Sharon D. Welch invites us, religious liberals, to operate from an “ethic of risk.” As Welch describes it an “ethic of risk” involves “naming the resources that evoke persistent defiance and resistance in the face of repeated defeat.” We have within our movement, our American civil rights past, and communities of resistance in the US resources that evoke persistent defiance in the face of hopeless situations.
Risk is an action taken without regard to our feelings of hope or hopelessness. It is defiance that is responsible to others and rooted in the words and deeds of prophetic persons. It is done in community and with “casting our lot” with those who live accordingly.
Let us name these resources together as we contemplate “risk.” Let us find communities of resistance to partner with in our faithful work. Let us take a risk in this month of March.
by WUUC | Jan 25, 2017 | Minister Blog
This month as we celebrate Black History Month, let us contemplate identity politics together. A narrative heard in the media these days from those from the so called
“alt-right” is that we have become a society that is overly concerned with “identity politics.” Identity politics concerns any individual, group, or organization from marginalized populations that stand up for their rights as citizens and human beings. Identity politics have been part and parcel of our civil rights movements, the UUA’s own support of marriage equality, and our support for the movement for Black lives. Identity politics can be said to be a norm in Unitarian Universalist justice work. As people of faith, who understand that ultimately identity is a social construct that causes suffering, how do we respond to the critique that our identity politicking is causing separation and division?
The larger question for us is, what are the origins of this identity politicking and are we to blame for the separation of people in this country into distinct identities? Generally, white people in this country have the privilege of being exempt from the need to identify and from being categorized. During our ASJ social justice assembly in January, we watched a brief film where a white gentleman revealed that being a white male allowed him to look in the mirror and see only “a person.”
This is not true for many of us, women look in the mirror and often see woman, Black people look in the mirror and see Blackness. Many Trans persons look in the mirror and see an identity construct that isn’t congruent with how they know themselves. What are the sources of these identity constructs?
Identity politics is part and parcel of the landscape of American society, Black persons were placed into the identity caste system when they landed in the country. They were not Black people in Africa, they were just persons from different tribes and geographical regions. I have a Puerto Rican friend who was shocked to learn that he had a marginalized identity when he moved to the continental US. In Puerto Rico, he was simply a person, here in the Continental U.S., he was a Hispanic person with less rights and less humanity. Neither he nor any of us created our identities, we were assigned these identities by forces out of our control.
As long as identity is a factor in the administration of justice and fairness, than identity politics must be an equalizing factor in the world. It is a statement of privilege to declare that we must get beyond identity politics, one that doesn’t see that the ignoring of identity will only silence those who are oppressed.
It is our job to figure out the complex work of how to be a unified people that celebrates diversity. How do we hold the paradox of unity and diversity, multiplicity and oneness?
The faith that can hold paradox is a mature faith, our paradox is that we know that we are not separate yet we must affirm differences. The key for us is to find those ultimate principles, those transpersonal elements that unite us as human beings. We all wish to be happy, we all have persons that are the objects of our love, we all have inherent worth and dignity. Identity politics can be holy and faithful, if we use it as a path to eventually go beyond separation. Identity politics will not go away with simply wishing it away; it will go away when we embrace the reality of our separation and begin working towards unification and healing.
by WUUC | Jan 25, 2017 | Minister Blog
“If a man’s [person’s] ego has been stabilized, resulting in a sure grounding of his [their] sense of personal worth and dignity, then he is [they are] in a position to appraise his [their] own intrinsic powers, gifts, talents, and abilities.” -Howard Thurman
Scanned: December 14, 2005
Howard Thurman
at Marsh Chapel
March 6, 1959
Historical
As religious liberals who reject the doctrine of original sin, we believe we are born with an inheritance of what Parker Palmer calls “original blessing” and not an inheritance of evil. This identity of “blessing” allows us to have faith in our own ability to positively contribute to the world. We can be sure, whatever the results of our actions, that we are doing the right thing when we act from a place of authenticity.
Similarly, a doctrine of original blessing requires us to look for the best in others. As we are born good, so are others, regardless of whether they are acting out of this place of goodness. It is our work as holders of an identity of blessing to both bring forth the best in ourselves and to help others find their best selves.
The joy of aligning our identities with blessing, with inherent worth and dignity, is that we have only ourselves to look to when we are in need of wisdom. The pain of this religious orientation is that we have only ourselves to reconcile with when we make mistakes. It is our community that can provide guidance to help us re-center ourselves when we miss the mark. It is also our community that can help us forgive ourselves. It is our community that can help bring forth the blessing of goodness that is our human inheritance.
by WUUC | Dec 23, 2016 | Minister Blog
It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of Light, it was the season of Darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair, we had everything before us, we had nothing before us…
So begins Dickens A Tale of Two Cities. Its modern title could be called “A Tale of Two Countries” for this is what America feels like now; not one country but two. Two coasts and everything inbetween. It feels like the seasons Dickens describes so well.
What will connect the coasts and the heartland and plains and desert and southern regions? Certainly not the war of words fought in the media. For the media is another example of the parallel but non-intersecting universe the coasts and the middle of the country occupy. And each “side” has built the other up out of fear and anger and lack of real experience of the other.
One of the gifts of being in Montana for 7 years was the people I encountered and interacted with that I never would have otherwise. Because my friend Judy Fjell was born there, she would take me to places that I would never have ventured because of my East Coast born and bred stereotypes. I ended up in tiny taverns in the middle of nowhere that were filled with animal heads and mining instruments hung all over the walls. And some of the best burgers I have ever eaten. Judy would usually know one of the folks working there because she grew up with them and they would carry on in conversation while I kept my mouth shut.
I was also offered fresh venison, antelope, and elk from the parishioners I served. As a resolute and judgmental vegetarian, I refused their offerings for the first 5 and a half years. I learned that not all hunting was trophy hunting but a way to provide for and feed a family. My friend Steve told me that hunting in his teen years, putting wild game on the table was a way for him to contribute to the family. Yes, I became a born-again carnivore. But more importantly, I came to understand a way of life that had been caricatured rather than accurately portrayed. If I had remained in Montana, I would have learned to hunt my own meat sources. And I came to appreciate ranch life with all of its difficulties and challenges. How it was a way of life. Guns have a place in that life but I can’t see them having a place almost anywhere else. I mourned the raping of the land of Montana by the mining industry. Fracking had just started when I left. My 7 years there were soul changing and thought expanding.
I have been accused of being someone who occupies “either or” but no middle ground. Quick to judge and form an opinion. I am less so after those 7 years in Montana. As was said to me out there, “We like it subtle here.” As a New Yorker, that took some getting used to. I learned some of the cultural nuances and even came to appreciate some of them. So I consider myself lucky because for 7 short years, I got to inhabit somewhere other than the two coasts that formed me. And consequently, I cannot write off “those people” and call them “stupid uneducated, or ignorant.”
If we are going to be a tale of one rather than two countries, we are all going to have to take up residence in the lives, minds, and hearts of those who do not look like, think like, or live like we do. We are going to have to listen rather than pontificate. I am not suggesting that we compromise our values. I am suggesting that ours are not the only ones. We need to learn how those who we see as “other” were shaped, how their values were formed. Some of that can come from scholarly research. But the bulk of it, the meat of it, the heart of it, will come from one on one personal interaction. The coasts are going to have to make the “journey” to the middle of this country. We will have to be curious, inquisitive, open, and non-judgmental. We are going to have to discover what each of us wants and needs and find a way that is acceptable to all of us to get those wants and needs met. This is not work best left to politicians anymore. It is the work of the people. Us.
Get curious. Listen. Make the journey to the “heartland.” It is the only way to “have everything before us…”
by WUUC | Dec 16, 2016 | Minister Blog
The year in review of those who have died always gives me pause. But this year in particular, several persons who are notable also had a profound effect on my life.
- Leonard Cohen wrote the songs that Judy Collins covered in my teen years. In particular, “Suzanne.” The title track from his last album, “You Want It Darker” was somehow prescient.
- I was too young to follow Tom Hayden in his SDS days but I remember going to hear both he and Jane Fonda speak at Yale one evening. He walked the talk and made the transition from defying the system from outside to changing it from within.
- Pat Summit. She took women’s collegiate basketball to a level of respect that no one else could, Title IX or no Title IX. Her Lady Vols were talented and fierce. As was she. Alzheimer’s took her way too early.
- I knew him as Cassius Clay before his conversion to Islam. He and Howard Cosell (who I could not stand to hear talk in his New York accent which distorted words) would put on quite the duel of words for the public. But it wasn’t Ali’s bravado or boxing that impressed me. It was his conscientious objection to the Vietnam War and the jail time he served.
- Fidel Castro. I have a picture of my parents and me at age 10 standing in front of sign at Guantanamo Bay that points to the place where Castro cut off the water supply to the American base. I would visit Cuba again in 2000 with a church tour. He is neither a devil or a hero to me. Too often the oppressed becomes the oppressor.
- Janet Reno was mocked and scapegoated. But no one succeeded in discrediting her. She could not be bought by any political party. He allegiance was to the law. The first female Attorney General.
- Elie Wiesel, Holocaust survivor and author. Seeing him speak at Linwood College in Oregon years ago was profound. Two things he said that stay with me: “Silence is a denial of the truth.” And, “Never call a human ‘illegal.’”
And there was Maurice White of “Earth, Wind, and Fire.” Pat Conroy whose books needed better editors but were raw, brutal, and powerful. Playwright Edward Albee’s “Who’s Afraid of Virginia Wolff” blew the lid off of marriage.
Each year a reminder of loss and a twinge of grief. And each year gratitude for both the extraordinary and ordinary persons who left their mark.
Peace, Shalom, Salaam,
Rev. Lo
Our Puritan ancestors took a risk when they chose to give power to the people in their choice of a church governance structure that was fair and just. Some of those Puritans after arriving in America, along with Unitarians in Transylvania, took a risk and cast off Trinitarian theology. Our many Universalist founders took a risk in declaring that a loving God would never see his children suffer in hell and condemnation. Standing on the side of love, with an ethic of fairness, and innovation in thinking; they all took the risk of being called heretics.
to picture a denomination that is primarily concerned with the welfare of others and less concerned about its own self-preservation? The voice of revelation is here in this moment asking us to look at how we do church. Is our worship inclusive, are our many projects beneficial to the oppressed in this country? Is our religious education building ethical Unitarian Universalists or are we more concerned with indoctrinating Unitarian Universalism in our children?
