Musings from my Journey

Saving Paradise

2011-03-06T11:46:00.000-08:00

Sermon delivered, First Unitarian Church of Harrisburg, 3/6/11

To begin this morning I am going to do something we don’t do much here in our church, I am going to read to you from the Bible. This passage comes from the book of Luke, ⁶ ⁷¹chapter 17:

Once Jesus was asked by the Pharisees when the kingdom of God was coming, and he answered, ‘The kingdom of God is not coming with things that can be observed; nor will they say, “Look, here it is!” or “There it is!” For, in fact, the kingdom of God is among you.

This passage speaks of a magical, mystical, mythical place that is spoken of through all time and amongst all peoples, sometimes shouted from the mountains and in other times spoken in a barely audible a whisper. Falling from the lips of prophets, both ancient and modern.

In Sumeria they called it the cosmic mountain. The Norse people knew it as Valhalla, The book of Genesis speaks to us of Eden, Christians speak of “the kingdom come”.

Paradise, the perfect place where all is well. The sun shines on us through clear blue skies and the weather is always perfect. No one is homeless or hungry or sick or tired. I know, whatever time or place in history I was, upon hearing of this place, I would have set out to find out how to get there. And I probably would have been willing to follow some pretty odd rules to ensure I could get in. Because chances are my life here on earth involved at least some difficulty and might have found me in the midst of any number of catastrophes such as famine, drought, war, epidemic illness or other suffering.

All spiritual paths I am know have as their primary reward the revealing of the secret that leads to an eternal life of blissful happiness. It may be called heaven, paradise, nirvana or peace. The myths and legends of these paths differ, but the end goal remains consistent, an eternity in paradise.

In the mainline Protestant church tradition in which I was raised, there was a clear path to heaven. You had to believe in the three person Godhead: Father, Son and Holy Ghost. You needed to cleave to some basic doctrine: the virgin birth, the crucifixion and resurrection of Jesus Christ. You had to believe that Jesus died for our sins through a doctrine called substitutionary atonement, in which he redeemed the sins of that first couple, Adam and Eve, who lived in harmony with God until they disobeyed him. All of their descendants—that is, all of us humans—inherited the stain of their horrible sin. God eventually satisfied his need for retribution by sacrificing the life of his only son as atonement for this collective sin. Because of Jesus’sacrifice, God and humanity can live in harmony once again. This unbending doctrine claims Jesus’ suffering as the most important thing, more significant than any of his teachings, more significant even than his resurrection.

A lot of classic Christian thought didn’t make very much sense to me, so I left that church when I was 14. But nine years of Sunday school and my seminary education left me believing that I had a reasonable grasp on the core teachings of Christianity. So as I read the book “Saving Paradise” by Rebecca Parker and Rita Nakashima Brock, I was alternately shocked, annoyed and disbelieving. From this work, I learned that the overwhelming Christian focus on the death of Jesus and the doctrine of the substitutionary atonement, did not take hold until nearly 1000 years after the death of Jesus.

Parker and Brock spent nearly 5 years on the research that culminated in this book, which began as an exploration of the cross and its symbolism through Christian history. Their first book together, “Proverbs of Ashes” had traced and discussed atonement theology, including the damage that had been done in its wake, so in this work they sought to trace the most prominent symbol of that theology, the cross.

The cross is arguably the most powerful symbol in Christianity, in its depiction of suffering and death, it offers redemption from the destruction. If we believe that Jesus died for our sins - then we are saved — not in this life but in the next. It promises us heaven, not in this world but in the next.

Parker and Brock traveled all over Europe, visiting ancient churches and catacombs and delving into early texts. In the churches and other places where worship was held, over and over again, they found the living Jesus, representations of his life rather than his death. They also saw a surprising number of depictions of what appeared to be Eden or paradise. Murals depicted scenic rivers, forests and meadows, trees and flowers, lions lying down with lambs. There were angels and saints helping people. And these scenes did not take place in the clouds or some other ethereal place, they took place here on earth.

While their research took them to the oldest know Christian ruins in Rome and Turkey, they did not find crucifixes there. What they did find in those early Christian sites was images of life and of joy, not death and suffering. Instead of a dying, bleeding Jesus, those early Christians worshipped among depictions of a Jesus here on earth, experiencing the many wonders of the earth, coexisting in love and joy, with both nature and his fellow people.

Jesus, the man they all followed, was himself was a subversive figure, a man who was successful in a different way, not of success and worldly fortunes but of peace and relationships. There isn’t much evidence that they worshipped him in these earliest times, just that they were following his teachings. His teachings were relatively simple and steeped in ethical grace, a concept that carried two elements within it: the grace of the core goodness of life on earth, and humanity’s responsibility for sustaining and sharing it. Jesus’ parable of the loaves and fishes is a perfect example of this concept. It is described six times in the four Gospels.

And here are the core teachings: Humanity’s task was to be the earthly manifestations of God. When we did this, we created Paradise.

The early Christian communities would today be called socialist, possibly communist. They shared wealth rather than accumulated individual fortunes. They cared for the sick, the abandoned and the orphaned. They were more concerned with cultivating compassion than privilege. They defied the social norms of the Roman Empire, often refusing to serve in the army. An interesting note: when Karl Marx wrote, “to each according to need,” he was quoting the book of Acts, which describes life in a Christian community in the early church.

Their travels and research convinced Parker and Brock that Christianity, for its first thousand years, considered Paradise to be in the here and now, right here on Earth, and it was later Christianity that shifted the focus to crucifixion and empire. For the early church, paradise was this world, permeated and blessed by the Spirit of God. They saw a world that was "lit by a power from within,"[1] a world that was “luminous, good and delightful”.[2]

As Christianity grew more popular and became the official religion of the Roman Empire, it began to develop more structures of hierarchical power and struggled with its role as a criticizer of the power structures it now belonged to. Literature about Paradise proliferated. Although this earthly Paradise had many facets, individuals could experience it fully only in community worship. Life in Paradise was a shared experience that provided sustaining life for all members together. A society of “ethical grace” measured itself by the well being of its most vulnerable members, by its enhancements of human sociability and love, and by the creation of sustainable and decent life for all. [3]

Around the time of Charlemagne, a ninth-century European king, things began to change. As Charlemagne, a Christian, waged war against the pagan Saxons, his armies destroyed Saxon towns and villages, demolished their sacred shrines and forced them to convert to Christianity. His armies marched with the Cross at the front, marking a change in the use of the symbol of the cross, once a symbol of love, community and resistance to oppression, it now was back to being a symbol of oppression.

Charlemagne wanted to unite Europe under his rule and he needed Christian soldiers to do his bidding, but he had a problem. Good Christians were pacifists — you don’t kill someone in God’s paradise. He needed a different kind of Christianity, so he began to support a few marginal theologians who said that Jesus’ death through crucifixion was proof that God thought death and suffering could be a good thing. So therefore, killing non –Christians was acceptable and if God didn’t want us to kill them, he’d stop us. And these same theologians posited that if we were really living in paradise, there would be none of these non-believing evil folks in it, so this can’t be the real paradise. The real heaven must come in the afterlife, if we live according to God’s law we will get there.

The first known image of the murdered Jesus on the cross appeared at the cathedral in Cologne, somewhere around 965. In the centuries that followed, crucifixes became ever more gruesome and bloody. During the same time period, the communion ritual began to reflect the theology of the Atonement: eating Jesus’ crucified flesh and blood became a way to vicariously experience his sacrifice. Depictions of the living Jesus began to disappear, as well as literature about and depictions of an earthly paradise.

Armed with this new theology of violence and redemptive suffering, Kings and Popes were free to use good Christian troops in their armies. As the centuries marched on, Europe was washed in blood as various wars, the Crusades and the Inquisition developed and the idea of “holy violence” as a way to gain entry to paradise took hold. By the late Middle Ages, Christianity no longer sought to create paradise in the here and now, but was focused on getting to paradise somewhere else, the gift of Jesus’ violent death. Suffering became the preferred spiritual path. Brock and Parker write this:

“Christians lost their footing in paradise and began a precipitous slide into a pit of hell of their own making.” “The church in western Europe had once been in love with the risen Christ, who joined his bride in the earthly garden of delight and helped her tend it. Beginning in the ninth century, [the church] began to doubt her lover and took a violent Lord into her bed, lay with him, blessed him, and finally, took him into the Christian family by marrying him.”[4]

As the middle ages gave way to the Renaissance and the Protestant Reformation the religious literature was again filled with thoughts of Paradise. There was a longing for the original pristine innocence of Eden. Twenty thousand Puritans crossed the Atlantic from 1620 to 1640, partly on a mission to establish a new Eden in the North American wilderness. And it is out of that migration that our spiritual ancestors, the Unitarians and Universalist came.

So, here’s the most astonishing thing: Unitarian Universalism focuses more on this world, the present and how we live here and now. Not like the Christians, who believe that paradise is a place we may go when we leave this world.

But if Parker and Brock are right, we UU’s may be more in sympathy with the most ancient, orthodox Christianity than those modern day Christians! Now the ancients spoke of Christ as a living presence in the here and now, and that may not work for us, but what his presence meant for them — kindness, generosity, service and justice, are things we value as well.

There may be more harmony between true orthodox Christianity and us than we ever would have imagined.

Peter Morales says this: “If we look at our own movement through from this perspective on religion, I think we see ourselves in a slightly different light. Both halves of our movement, the Unitarian half and the Universalist half, were created as reactions against what Christianity had become. In a religious world dominated by the rigidity of a Catholic hierarchy and a dour Calvinism that saw humanity as utterly depraved, the Unitarians and the Universalists rebelled.

We owe a particular debt to our Universalist forebears in this regard. They, even more than the Unitarians, rejected the very premises of orthodoxy. They argued, in the theological language of their day, that God is not an angry judge. The Universalists said that God was a loving father and that no loving God would create humanity for the purpose of condemning most of them to eternal punishment his example of a life ruled by love. Ballou taught that we can create a heaven or hell right here on earth.”[5]

Very few of us current Unitarian Universalists claim a Christian identity—and yet we are far closer to the teachings of the early Christians than are the vast majority of churches that claim to be Christian. Our emphasis on love, on community, on justice, and our focus on this life rather than some future heaven is actually closer in spirit to the early Christian congregations than are churches that teach people that Jesus died so that they can go to heaven after they die.

If you look closely you can see that our principles reflect those very same tenets found in the early church, couched in our non-theistic language, but nonetheless virtually the same.

We too seek to build a society of “ethical grace” which measures itself by the well being of its most vulnerable members, by its enhancements of human sociability and love, and by the creation of sustainable and decent life for all. When we do this, we create beloved community, our version of Paradise.

We here and in our wider denomination struggle to create beloved community, a community of individuals striving to respect and love one another; to search into our lives and our spirits with honesty, curiosity and compassion; and to serve others in what ways we can in whatever ways they need. We are searching for Paradise, one that is here on earth, one that can be brought about through the transforming power of Love.

Brock and Parker remind us that paradise matters, that there are consequences to what we give our faithfulness, and that paradise should not just be a mystery, but a mission.

Held in the firm and loving embrace of our community, we can love and mourn and open our heart to the joyous, arduous and incredibly messy task of working together to find paradise.

May it be So

Sources and Inspirations

Rita Nakashima Brock & Rebecca Ann Parker, Saving Paradise: How Christianity Traded Love of This World for Crucifixion and Empire. Beacon Press; Boston: 2008.

Rebecca Ann Parker, We Are Already in Paradise. UU World, Summer 2010: May 15, 2010.

Rev. Daniel Budd, Saving Paradise, a sermon. First Unitarian Church of Cleveland: November 8, 2009.

Peter Morales, Paradise: Lost or Stolen?, a sermon. Jefferson Unitarian Church: August 17, 2008

[1] Parker and Brock

[2] Ibid

[3] Budd

[4] Brock and Parker

[5] Morales

You Might as Well Face It, You’re Addicted to Technology

2010-12-08T05:59:00.000-08:00

Sermon delivered at the First Church of Harrisburg on December 5, 2010

In the scheme of all the things that can happen in child rearing, my son Stephen was pretty easy to raise. We did not have any of the serious problems with him that parents worry about and pray they will never have to face. But we did encounter something that we had no idea how to deal with………… computer gaming. When he was in about 7^th grade I loosened the reins on his use of the computer and he very quickly became an obsessive gamer, playing a game by the name “Call of Duty”. He played this game online with other folks from all over the world, which I thought was cool, until he began spending all his spare time at home on the computer even refusing to come to the table for dinner. And when we insisted he come to the table or go to bed, he became an angry young man who I did not recognize.

One of my greatest fears as a parent was that my child would become addicted to alcohol or drugs, instead he was addicted to gaming. I believe that if it were not for his serious commitment to music and performing, we might have had a much more difficult time with him, but his love of music kept him from descending fully into that world.

This was something I had no experience with and no tools to deal with, and we, his parents, were the ones who had provided him with the very resources that threatened to consume him. I would never have given my child alcohol or drugs, but in rapid succession I got him a cell phone and then unlimited text messages. Then he needed an IPOD, oh and a portable DVD player. Then an I-phone. Oh and a laptop to take to school. And I’m sure there is something else I am forgetting.

And lest I point a finger at my son, in this same time frame I became increasingly connected to my work life, available virtually 24 hours a day for the wants and needs of my bosses, my co-workers and my clients. I acquired a laptop, IPODS, DVD player and I was also really good at finding things on the internet. I was known as the google queen. I was modeling the very behavior that I was concerned about when he displayed it.

About now, you may be thinking, so what? What’s wrong with using all the available technology to our advantage? I am not anti technology by any stretch of the imagination, but I am afraid of who we are becoming. We live in the same houses, but we don’t need each other to talk to or listen to, to ask about what a word means or what the news is or when Dad will be home. We can use dictionary.com, consult CNN and check Dad’s Facebook status. We can each listen to our own music choices, no negotiation or compromise needed, and we have multiple televisions and movie delivery devices in the house, so we can each watch exactly what we want to….. alone. We can be entirely selfish, insular units of self amusing entertainment and information systems. That sounds like a scary science fiction movie to me.

I recently read a piece in the NY Times called “Hooked and Gadgets and Paying a Mental Price”. This article explores the idea that our relentless juggling of things like e-mail, phone calls and other information is changing how we think and behave. Some scientists believe that the way we use technology today is actually rewiring our brains.

The article also addressed what it called “the myth of multitasking,” looking at the popular wisdom that tells us that multitasking makes us more efficient and effective. According to researchers, the opposite is actually true, not only did self identified multi taskers perform worse on a series of simple tasks, but they were much worse at filtering out irrelevant information, less efficient at juggling problems and even took longer to switch from one task to another.

Some studies have found that this constant barrage of information puts stress on the lower centers of our brain, causing us, among other things, to become almost Pavlovian in our response to the visual or audible signals that indicate that we have mail, a text or an incoming call, leading us to be compelled to answer, often ignoring more important or meaningful activities.

There was much in this article that gave me pause, including the fact that studies show that people, on average, consume 12 hours of media a day, but the studies about the effect on children were the most troubling to me. Study results are increasingly supporting the theory that constant digital stimulation is creating children who have very short attention spans and cannot focus on quieter pursuits like reading, set priorities or resist impulses as well as children could just a generation ago.

Research out of Stanford suggests that the heavy use of technology, especially by children, diminishes their capacity for empathy. Clifford Nass, a researcher there says this: “The way we become more human is by paying attention to each other”. (repeat)

Now I am not suggesting that we unplug ourselves from all of our gadgets and live off the grid or that we throw away our i-phones and blackberries and ban our children from texting and the internet. What I am suggesting is that we each consider how much time we are spending engaging with our electronics, that might be better spent interacting with the actual humans who occupy the same space as we do. Just for a minute, stop and consider what sort of life we are modeling for our children.

We all want the best for our kids. I know that I was glad to be able to provide all this stuff for my son. But we also need to give the best of ourselves to our children. So sometimes, we can turn off the phones (all of them), the blackberries, the TV, the internet and any other information delivery device I have forgotten. And yes, we can require our kids to do the same, despite the fact that they may tell you that you are ruining their lives. Take the time to breathe deeply, to sit peacefully in meditation, to read, to take a walk with your loved ones, to eat dinner while no one is texting or watching television or listening to their IPOD. While it is true that many of us are required to be “plugged in” by our employers, I would like to suggest that there are things that we give up by being endlessly connected to technology, that are simply not worth it.

One of the things my family did was to take family vacations with another family that were deliberately low tech. We did not go to theme parks or resorts but to state and national parks. We stayed in cabins or tents, with campfires and wildlife, no internet or DVD players. The kids don’t necessarily remember the majestic beauty of the Tetons or the geological anamolies of Yellowstone, but they remember the stories by the campfire, the silly made up songs to pass the long drive, the thunderstorm in the desert that we watched roll in for several hours. Precious moments that involve nothing more advanced than a match put to firewood.

Each of these electronic devices has a purpose and some very positive aspects. Cell phones allow us to keep track of our loved ones, Kindles allow us to carry thousands of books around, Facebook allows us to keep up with the lives of friends all across the country, online photo albums allow grandparents and aunties and uncles all over the world a little glimpse into the lives of far away family.

Technology does not have a soul, it is not evil or bad and we do have significant control on how it impacts our lives. We just need to be a little more aware of its effects on our families, our relationships and our children, to take care that we are not replacing our need for authentic relationship with electronic companionship, that we are not using gadgets to try and fill the hole in us that can only be filled by meaningful relationships, by love and hope, by hugs and authentic conversation. We would do well to heed Emerson’s advice that we be careful what we worship.

There is an oft told story by Unitarian minister Clark Dewey Wells, that goes like this: "Several years ago and shortly after twilight our 3 1/2-year-old tried to gain his parents, attention to a shining star. The parents were busy with time and schedules, the irritabilities of the day and other worthy pre-occupations. 'Yes, yes, we see the star - now I'm busy! Don't bother me.'

"On hearing this the young one launched through the porch door, fixed us with a fiery gaze and said, 'You be glad at that star!'"

You be glad at that star.

While many of us love our gadgets, the truth is that we love other things much more: the sound of our children’s laughter, the crinkle around our partner’s eyes when they smile, the touch of another human being. When we become caught up in the worship of our technology, when our so-called time saving devices consume us, we miss real life. We lose the perfect, messy, wonderful, simple things, that are what make meaning out of our lives, that are the essence of what is good and grounding and holy in our lives.

I hope in the coming weeks we will all find time to pause and “be glad at that star”.

May it be So

Sources and Inspirations

Matt Richtel. Hooked on Gadgets and Paying a Mental Price, The New York Times; June 8, 2010.

Rebecca Traister. No More Vacation: How Technology is Stealing Our Lives., Salon.com, July 15, 2010.

Clark Dewey Wells. The Strangeness of This Business: A Meditation Manual for 1976, UUA, Boston.

Why I think the Rally to Restore Sanity Was a Good Idea

2010-10-31T15:52:00.001-07:00

A distant cousin of mine posted a picture of a sign from the Rally to Restore Sanity that was not very nice. He and I could not have any more discordant political and social belief systems, but I enjoy trading opinions and ideas with him on many issues and he never fails to make me think. And guess what – we never call each other names. My exchange with him led me to write this blog entry about why I believe that anything that tries to “Restore Sanity” to our country is something I wholeheartedly support.

I grew up in a family where “winning” and/or “being right” about things was of the highest value. Claim your ground and stand on it even if it turns out that you were horribly wrong. And, since you are right, name calling and behaving in a disrespectful way is OK, because you are, after all, RIGHT. I have spent a great deal of my adult life unlearning that behavior and that process began when I realized that I was acting more like a 9 year old than an adult. That way of moving through the world is immature behavior and it was time for me to grow up!

So when I see this exact behavior taking over as the as the way we conduct ourselves in public, when name calling and disrespect are a regular (and acceptable) part of our political and personal discourse, it makes me very sad. In the past, especially in times of war, we have given other bigots and ideologues a “bully pulpit”, but for the most part, we ignore those on the fringes who engage in name calling and hate speech. And I do not ever remember learning of another time in history where Americans just believed the most outrageous claims and “facts” without doing one single moment of research for themselves. I am no Einstein, but I know that if something seems incredible and unbelievable it is probably not true. I certainly would not accept it as fact just because some news or radio show host said it.

Thirty years ago we had two parties, widespread political disagreement and many social issues on which the two parties vehemently disagreed. But the politicians did not engage in hate speech, the news endeavored to tell us things that we needed to know without political slant (which they succeeded at most of the time). Now, on the television and radio, people feel free to engage in name calling, obfuscation and, well, plain old lying, regardless of its effect on our country. Our leaders used to hold fast to their opinions on what our country needed, and act on them in their political life and yet be friends in their private lives (Ronald Reagan and Ted Kennedy for example). Now, if you are on the left and disagree with me you are a communist or you hate America and if you are on the right and disagree with me you are a fascist or a white supremacist.

Which is why I love the idea of a Rally to Restore Sanity. Ultimately, I believe that there is no “side” that has the monopoly and on the name calling and half truth telling that has taken over the airwaves, and BOTH sides are responsible for allowing them to do so. If we didn’t watch them or listen to them, if we didn’t parrot the misinformation, and yes, outright lies, we heard from them, they would quickly be off the air. The rest of us, the great mass of folks who believe what we believe, sometimes with great conviction, are tired of the hateful way in which our politics are being conducted. We know that we can disagree without being disagreeable, we have done it before.

Most Americans wish to listen to each other with respect, because in our hearts we all know that we are better and stronger working together than when we are broken into our own factions, using all our energy to scheme against each other. Maybe we can take some advice from our Grandma. Let’s count to 10 before we say something we might regret, let’s not say anything unless we can say something nice, and let’s not lie. And I would like to have a moratorium on calling each other anything that ends with “ist”. We know that we cannot solve our countries many difficult problems by name calling or yelling at each other. We cannot solve them by telling half truths and getting more people to be on our side. We cannot solve them by blocking each other’s legislation, refusing to compromise and then voting each other’s candidates out of office every two years Now, more than any other time in our history, we need to start acting like grownups. We MUST work together, in the words of Dr, King: “We must all learn to live together as brothers or we will all perish together as fools”.

It is my most ardent hope that this rally has started a movement of folks who want a return to civility, which I believe is most people. I want us to be able to talk about important, meaningful, REAL things again. I want us to remember our manners, mind our tongues and behave like adults. Is this too much to ask?

Because, as Jon Stewart said at the Rally: “ This was not a rally to ridicule people of faith or people of activism or to look down our noses at the heartland or passionate argument or to suggest that times are not difficult and that we have nothing to fear. They are and we do. But we live now in hard times, not end times. And we can have animus and not be enemies.

But unfortunately one of our main tools in delineating the two broke. The country’s 24 hour political pundit perpetual panic conflictinator did not cause our problems but its existence makes solving them that much harder. The press can hold its magnifying up to our problems bringing them into focus, illuminating issues heretofore unseen or they can use that magnifying glass to light ants on fire and then perhaps host a week of shows on the sudden, unexpected dangerous flaming ant epidemic.

“If we amplify everything we hear nothing. There are terrorists and racists and Stalinist and theocrats but those are titles that must be earned. You must have the resume. Not being able to distinguish between real racists and Tea Partiers or real bigots and Juan Williams and Rick Sanchez is an insult, not only to those people but to the racists themselves who have put in the exhausting effort it takes to hate. Just as the inability to distinguish terrorists from Muslims makes us less safe not more”

May it Be So.

Suzanne

Sermon: “Civil Disobedience, Pink Underwear and Arizona SB 1070”

2010-09-26T11:39:00.001-07:00

Unitarian Church of Harrisburg, September 26, 2010

On July 29^th of this year I was sitting beside idyllic Kezar Lake in Maine. And I was pacing around like a caged animal. Many of my clergy colleagues and UU laypeople from all across the country were in scorchingly hot Phoenix, there to protest on the day that the new Arizona immigration law, SB 1070, was set to take effect. I knew that a number of them planned to engage in civil disobedience and get themselves arrested. I spent the day feeling very unsettled, compulsively checking the various sources on the web that were giving updates on what was happening there. As the day stretched into the night and the 29 UU’s who were arrested, remained in jail, I was worried. I felt very guilty for not being there with them.

Which led me to examine why the UUs and others were there. What exactly were they protesting? Did they think that there should be unrestrained immigration into our country? Were they in favor of blanket amnesty for approximately 12 million undocumented residents that are in our country now? What was in SB 1070 that was so bad? I decided I needed to do some research.

What I found was a great deal of confusing and contradictory information on every aspect of the immigration issue and a long history of controversy, discrimination, incrimination and finger pointing from every side. SB10170 is a bill that was passed in response to the frustration of many of the folks in Phoenix, a city which is, by nearly anyone’s account, awash in undocumented residents. More than 500,000, according to the Department of Homeland Security.

I also found that it was passed in the wake of many publicly stated half truths and blatant appeals to the racism that so often rears its ugly head when economic times turn difficult. I found that the two most cited reasons for its necessity were:

1. The rising crime rate in Phoenix, ostensibly perpetrated by the undocumented. The truth is that the violent crime rate in Phoenix has dropped 23% since 2004.

2. The rise in drug related kidnappings for ransom in recent years. What they don’t tell you is that they are almost exclusively of drug traffickers by others involved in the drug trade. And in 2009 the number was down 11%.

Now I don’t tell you these inconsistencies to get you to agree with me, I tell you because I want you to be wary of what you accept as truth. There is as much incorrect information out there as there is correct, so be careful what you believe!

One of those in Phoenix leading the war on the undocumented is the Sheriff of Maricopa County, "Joe" Arpaio. He is responsible for law enforcement in Maricopa County, as well as running the county jail, among other duties. He calls himself "America's Toughest Sheriff and is known for his outspoken stance against illegal immigrants and for running a jail that routinely sees the mistreatment of prisoners , especially those of color. He is the subject of FBI, Department of Justice and Federal Grand Jury investigations for civil rights violations and abuse of power, and is the defendant in a federal class-action suit for racial profiling. He is also the purveyor of the infamous pink socks and underwear that are required for all inmates in the Phoenix jail.

SB 1070, which was passed with anywhere from 66-77% of the public supporting it, includes among its provisions a requirement that an “official or agency of the state, county, city, town or political subdivision”:

make a reasonable attempt to determine the immigration status of a person during any legitimate contact made, if reasonable suspicion exists that the person is an alien who is unlawfully present in the U.S.

and

transfer an alien unlawfully present in the U.S. who is convicted of a violation of state or local law immediately to the custody of ICE or Customs and Border Protection, on discharge from imprisonment or assessment of any fine that is imposed.

and

Prohibits officials or agencies of the state and political subdivisions from being prevented or restricted from sending, receiving or maintaining an individual’s immigration status information or exchanging that information with any other governmental body

So why has this law become a focus for our Standing on the Side of Love campaign? Why were so many Unitarian Universalists willing to fly all the way to Phoenix and even get arrested protesting it? In reading what those who went wrote on that topic, I found the following reasons:

Because it targets immigrants who are of certain ethnic backgrounds and therefore sanctions or even requires racial profiling.

Because, it unfairly affects folks who have been in the US for years, law abiding in every way other than their immigration status.

Because it breaks up families and destabilizes the homes of children, many who are US citizens.

Because it dehumanizes and terrorizes people and encourages the spread of fear and hate.

Because we want those in Phoenix, no matter who they are or what their status, to know that they are not invisible and alone.

There are many different interpretations and opinions of this bill and immigration in general. There are many who would disagree vehemently with those characterizations of the bill. This is not a topic on which we UU’s are of one mind, I would guess that there are some in this congregation who do not agree with nearly any of what I just said.

But I hope you will at least consider the two reasons that I have for believing this bill is wrong.

Because, in its utter disregard for the basic humanity of those who are undocumented, it violates our first principle.

and

Because we all know that there has to be a better way

Many of you recognized the poem I read earlier. It is engraved on the base of the Statue of Liberty that stands in New York Harbor. I do not believe that those words speak to how most Americans feel today about the many immigrants who seek to come here. I actually don’t think most Americans felt that way when those words were first inscribed on the statue in 1903. A quick review of history tells us that in each generation, certain people from certain countries or ethnic groups have been discriminated against and reviled in this country. Since the first restrictions on immigration were passed in 1875, laws have been passed to keep “them” from coming here legally. The stated reasons have a familiar ring: they take our jobs, they are all on the dole, they commit crime. Chances are these things were said of our ancestors as new immigrants. The xenophobia and racism that cause us to scapegoat and revile one group or another always rises in a deafening chorus during hard economic times. But we do not have to stand by in silence and allow the same pattern to repeated yet again. Ultimately I think that is what many of those in Phoenix were saying.

In my reading I did not even begin to scratch the surface of this two hundred year old, mind bendingly complex issue, but I have reached a few conclusions for myself:

I believe that people should not be deliberately humiliated when they are detained.

I believe that our government bears some responsibility for creating the situation we now find ourselves in.

I believe that no one deserves to be called illegal. A person is not their status.

I believe we need to put criminals in jail, but that being undocumented does not make one a criminal

I believe we need to address our broken immigration policy in this country in a sane way that respects the humanity and dignity of all people,whatever their status. I know we can find a different way to approach this problem, a way that includes sane rational engagement with the actual facts and invites input from all affected parties. I believe we cannot adequately measure the effect of the undocumented immigrants on our employment or crime statistics due to the nature of the underground economy in which they function. I would suggest we stop with our dueling statistics and set about to try something completely different to deal with this problem.

I believe that unjust laws call for radical actions

I still believe that every person has inherent worth and dignity.

I invite you to become more informed on this issue for yourself. I invite you to engage in conversations with each other in a way that is respectful of the wide range of opinions that are held by kind and caring people.

Most of all, I invite you to remember that all of the statistics, be they about undocumented workers or their citizen children, law enforcement officers or protesters, involve and affect living breathing human beings. People who, for the most part, are just trying to feed their families, be they immigrants or law enforcement.

We will never all agree on this topic. And most of us will never go to a protest in Phoenix or anywhere else on this issue. But we can ALL stand and proclaim that the hate mongering and name calling is never acceptable. Never.

May we each, in whatever way we can, seek opportunities to speak for the voiceless and lend our power to the powerless.

May it be so.

Suzanne

The Absence of Civil Discourse

2010-09-03T12:25:00.000-07:00

Lately, I've been really disheartened by the polarization in this country and have been reading everything I can find that talks about it. I just can't stand how mean we all are to each other and that we are getting absolutely nothing accomplished as we refuse to listen or to acknowledge that the “other side” might have a point or a good idea. I have been trying to figure out how this happened, thinking that maybe that information would point the way to a solution.

I was reading a book called “Crazy for God” by Frank Schaeffer and he was talking about the rise of the Religious Right, specifically around the abortion issue and I realized that he might have hit on something. Here is what he said (slightly edited):

“It seems to me that by demanding ideological purity on abortion (and other single issues) both parties have worked to eliminate the sorts of serious, smart pragmatic people who make competent leaders. What we are left with is those willing to toe the party’s ideological/theological line, who are talented at kissing the asses of their parties ideologues,raising money and looking good on TV, but not much else.

But what if absolute consistency on any issue from the left or the right, religious or secular, is an indication of a mediocre intelligence and a lack of intellectual honesty? What if the world is a complex place? What if leadership requires flexibility? What if ideology is a bad substitute for common sense? What if absolute ideological consistency, let alone purity, is a sign of small mindedness, even stupidity?”

Yep, I think the man has something there. What we have here, in so many public arenas, not just politics, is the triumph of mediocrity. And for some reason, we have followed our political leaders like lemmings, becoming more and more mediocre and inflexible, developing into a country of ideologues, who have, for the most part, lost sight of "why" we believe what we do. I do not believe we have become more "stupid", at the moment we are just behaving like we have.

And as long as we keep paying attention to these folks, listening to their many pronouncements, which are often fact free, we will not get anywhere. Eventually,our great democracy will be a pale shadow of its former self. And, despite what we hear said on talk shows and on TV, it will not be the fault of one side or the other, the "socialists" or the "tea party" will not have done it alone. We all will have done it together, mostly because we couldn't be bothered to look up actual facts, comb through pages of legislation or read publications and articles that presented both sides of the issue.

If we don't wake up and find a way to work together to solve these huge problems, we citizens of the United States, having behaved for a long period of time like spoiled babies, may get exactly what we deserve. That will be very sad.......

May we save ourselves before it is too late!

Praying for strength, courage and wisdom for us all,
Suzanne

Memorial Day Sermon 2010

2010-08-29T09:27:00.000-07:00

“A Time to Remember”
Rev. Suzanne M. Marsh
Unitarian Church of Harrisburg
May 30, 2010

Memorial Day is a tough holiday for many Unitarian Universalists. After all, our principles tell us that we “affirm and promote the goal of a just and peaceful world”. Many UU’s are pacifists, or quasi pacifists. We can’t get our minds around the idea of a holiday that seems to be a celebration of war.

We find ourselves caught up in the cacophonous cries from both sides of the issue, one group claiming that on this holiday what we experience is not patriotism but nationalism or jingoism. This side tells us that there is no such thing as “just war” and that we cannot celebrate and honor the lives of those who served and died in war in a land where we do not belong, where many innocents died, which we entered for all of the wrong reasons.

And the other group tells us that we must honor our soldiers, and insist that our government and therefore our troops are always right. They tell us that anything less than full support of the troops, and the war, is unpatriotic or even traitorous.
This is not a new dilemma for UU’s. We have a long history of an uneasy relationship with the idea of war and while we have always had outspoken critics of war among us, we have also had those who supported war, especially when they felt the cause was just. One of our great Unitarian theologians and preachers, Theodore Parker, proudly displayed in his study the musket that his grandfather, Captain John Parker, used when he led the rebel troops to meet the British at Lexington Common. And our own Julia Ward Howe wrote the lyrics to that great tribute to war “The Battle Hymn of the Republic”.

We have had our pacifists as well. William Ellery Channing published a number of essays against the very idea of war , and on the eve of the Civil War, Adin Ballou published his essay on “Christian Non-Resistance” . And most of us know the story of how Henry David Thoreau went to jail rather than pay taxes to support what he deemed to be an unjust war.

One of our most famous pacifists and early proponent of non violent resistance was John Haynes Holmes from the Church of the Messiah (later Community Church) in Manhattan. He took on the American Unitarian Association in 1918 when it essentially tried to make every church support WWI. He also maintained his absolute anti-war position during WWII, which cost him dearly. In his treatise “New Wars for Old” Holmes said this: “ Thus, as regards the question of peace, the non –resistant asserts, without qualification or equivocation of any kind, that war is the sum of all villanies and peace the sum of all blessings.” His position is very clear and unequivocal. But what do we do with those who feel otherwise?

Unitarian Universalists have a tricky relationship with war. It is my opinion that most of us consider ourselves proponents of the “just war” doctrine. War is to be avoided at all costs, but if all else fails, sometimes we just have to fight. But regardless of what we each believe about war, this brings us back to where we are today, struggling to properly celebrate Memorial Day.

Garrison Keillor wrote a column in 2008 about a conversation he had with a military couple. It spoke to the patriot/traitor debate. Here, in part, is what he said:
“What is mysterious to us civilians about the military is the Semper Fidelis part, the discipline to march into extreme danger to carry out wholeheartedly a mission about which you yourself are deeply skeptical. "Theirs not to reason why, theirs but to do and die," as the poet Tennyson wrote of the Light Brigade that rode into the valley of death on the orders of an arrogant idiot, and men have been riding off to death in behalf of many arrogant idiots ever since…………... This is a heroism that is not expected of you or me.

Many men have been carried to the cemetery with honor guards and rifle salutes who, if the truth be known, knew their missions were not worth the price but went anyway. Many, many of our honored dead were dissenters.

What makes no sense at all is when the arrogant idiot expects us civilians to support his unprincipled policy as a way of "supporting our troops." The troops are not mercenaries, they are American soldiers in a long, proud tradition going back to Gen. Washington's Continental Army at Valley Forge, and what gives their mission dignity and meaning is that it comes from a constitutional government in which war is not a point of personal privilege but a matter to be openly debated, opposed, protested, reported. For the troops to fall into line is a noble thing; for civilians to fall into line is shameful."

I know there are those among us who feel like Holmes, who agree with Keillor, who fall in line with our government’s current policies. I also know that there are those here who have lost loved ones to war. There are those who have family members serving right now in harm’s way. We know of the sacrifice of soldiers, of humanitarian workers, of many others who have served in the past or who currently serve proudly and with honor in war zones all over the world. And we also know this, if they come home, even if they are physically intact, few of them come home without hidden scars.

Perhaps just for today, right here and now, we can sweep aside the politics and focus on the actual people. Because when all is said and done, when we are done discussing all the grand theories and ideas about the why or the why not of war, it is actual human beings who go to war. They go for so many reasons: out of duty, economic hardship, love of country. And whatever we think of their reasons, the overwhelming majority of them went because they believed what they were doing was necessary and right.

These breathing, bleeding, real people and their loved ones pay the price and it is that suffering and sacrifice of our fellow human beings that we gather to honor today.
Let tomorrow be for debate, today let us remember and bear witness.

May it be so

_________________________________________________________________
Sources and Inspirations

“Christian Non-Resistance” An Essay by Adin Ballou. 1846

“Discourses on War” William Ellery Channing. Ginn & Company; Boston, 1903.

“Theodore Parker: Yankee Crusader” Henry Steele Commager. The Beacon Press; Boston, 1947.

“Historical Dictionary of Unitarian Universalism” Mark W. Harris. The Scarecrow Press; Lanham , MD, 2004.

“I Speak for Myself” John Haynes Holmes. Harper & Brothers; New York, 1959.

“New Wars For Old” John Haynes Holmes. Dodd, Mead & Company; New York, 1916.

“Theirs is Not to Reason Why” Commentary by Garrison Keillor. April 2, 2008, Tribune Media Services.

Resurrection?

2009-04-09T18:24:00.000-07:00

Having just in the last few months found a number of my high school classmates on Facebook, I am newly intrigued with reading about their lives and looking at whatever pictures they put up. It is interesting to me that I am this fascinated, even with those I did not know well, did not like or who appear to have religious and/or political affiliations that I do not share.

Many of them I have not seen since that post graduation summer of 1978, a sweet time of parties, concerts on the lawn at an outdoor pavilion, picnics and liminality, dwelling in that space between childhood and young adulthood. But somehow I care what they think of me and I want to know how their lives turned out. Are they happy? Did their dreams come true? Who are they now? Whose are they now? Why does this all matter to me?

In the midst of this holy week contemplation I noted the status of a classmate who I knew just barely who had previously identified himself to me as a pastor. His status says: Can you really celebrate Easter if Jesus didn't rise from the dead?... If Christ has not been raised, then your faith is useless & you are still guilty of your sins. In that case, all who have died believing in Christ are lost! And if our hope in Christ is only for this life, we are more to be pitied than anyone in the world.... But in fact, Christ has been raised from the dead! 1Cor 15:17-20 nlt..

Hmmmmm. This is a conundrum, the whole "sinner needing to be saved" thing doesn't really work for me and I intensely dislike the atonement theology. But what really bothers me about this is that it does not consider that the resurrection might be available to all of us, that all people might be able to see resurrections occur in their lives, whether or not Jesus was raised from the dead, died for our sins, or even existed at all. Resurrection does not belong to any one religion, the idea of it did not originate with Jesus and it does not belong to the religion about him. It belongs to all people everywhere. Did you notice that this whole Easter thing really brings out the Universalist in me?

Then I went back to wondering why I cared about what my classmates of long ago thought of me and why I wanted to learn about them and I discovered that these two subjects were related. All humans want resurrection, not the bodily kind that is in the Christian Easter story, but a kind that lets us have a "do-over", that allows us to change the course of our lives when they run off the rails, to mend our relationships, to right a wrong done by us or to us and, yes, to get those popular kids from high school to finally like us.

And here's the thing: this resurrection that I believe in always gives us hope that we will get a second (or third, fourth or ninety-seventh) chance to be what and who we always wanted to be, an opportunity to finally reveal our best selves. It promises that we can be defeated today and have another chance tomorrow. To me that covenant with all peoples is much more miraculous than a one-time raising of one dead body. But, that's just me.

Here's my Easter benediction:

As we celebrate today the newness of life, the rebirth of the earth and the continuance of the circle of life, let us be reminded too of the resurrection
Not the raising from the dead of a single person through a divine miracle, but the resurrection we see each day in our midst

From the glimpse we get of one we have loved and lost when we look into the eyes of a child, to the rebirth that we witness when those around us triumph over challenges great and small.

May we know that resurrection is indeed a promise, not a divine one, but one that we make with one another.

Let us hope that in each day we can find a way to keep that promise
And be agents of resurrection for each other.
Blessed Be
Amen

Happy Easter and Passover,
Suzanne

The arc of the moral universe can be seen today to be bending towards justice....

2009-01-20T16:10:00.000-08:00

Today is January 20^th, a historic day in the story of my beloved country. My country has a distinctly checkered past, many of our actions have not been things I would have chosen for us to do, but what’s done is done. Today the first African American president will be sworn in as President of the United States. I have chills writing that. It is indeed a marker of a remarkable change in the making, a distinct sign that the shadow side of the America of my childhood is stealing away into the night. Not a moment too soon.

I choose to believe that today is a new beginning, that something extraordinary is in store for us. We will begin today to take baby steps towards an America that cares for its people, no matter what or who they are. An America that is more kind and just, an America, where the taking care of each other is everyone’s responsibility. In other words, the village is returning.

I do not believe that Barack Obama has superhuman abilities or the solution to everything. I do believe he is a decent and principled man, and that he will lead us from a place of humility and a desire to serve rather than a place of personal aggrandizement and hubris. That alone will make the coming years inestimably better than the last.

I will not always agree with him and sometimes he may make me grumble. He will make errors and stumble, for that is what human beings do. I will not abandon him nor forsake him, for in a village that is what we do for each other, we help each other when we stumble, we engage in decent and respectful discourse when we disagree and we forgive each other, again and again and yet again. Out of this we create beloved community.

President Obama I am filled today with light and hope. I have never had a President I felt I could really trust. I believe in you and your model of servant leadership. May you find the strength and courage to guard these ideals and bring humility and sanity to our country and its policies. When you look behind you, I will be there.

May the Spirit hold and guide you.

Praying for courage and wisdom for us all, Suzanne

On Obama and Rick Warren

2008-12-23T14:41:00.000-08:00

Much discussion has ensued on Obama's choice of Rick Warren to deliver the Invocation at the Inauguration. I have read many opinions on this subject over that last few days, many thoughtful, some just a wee bit crazy. Some have already declared Obama a traitor to the progressive movement that voted him into office, others proclaim it is much ado about nothing. I am in neither camp. I am however, very disappointed in this choice.

Rick Warren is not just an anti-gay evangelical, he and his church members have a long list of folks they have disdain for: divorced folks, heterosexuals who are "living in sin", the Jewish people and those who are pro-choice, to name a few. His is definitely not a "big tent". He also worked tirelessly for the Passage of Prop 8, a campaign to deprive GLBTQ people of their civil rights, that succeeded largely because the campaign was waged on the airwaves, the public inundated with waves of ads that contained half truths and outright lies. Not a shining moment for a man who states that he loves everyone.

There are many evangelicals who would have been better choices, those who largely share Warrens theological viewpoint, but do it in a vastly more respectful and thoughtful way. Folks who would not declare that Jewish folks aren't going to heaven or compare homosexuality to alcoholism. Jim Wallis comes immediately to mind.

I will not dismiss President-elect Obama because of his choice of Warren and I remain deeply hopeful about his presidency. I disagree with his decision, but I will not let it lead me into a valley of despair. It will serve to remind me that idolatry and hero worship are dangerous things.

I wholeheartedly agree with Obama that all sides of various political issues need to be expressed and discussed in a public forum, and addressed by the President. I am looking forward to finally having someone in that office who is the President of everyone in the United States, not just those with whom he agrees. I hope and pray that he will continue to support civilized dialog among those who feel that when we disagree we need not be disagreeable. But he would do well to remember that conversations are difficult with people who profess to hold the one and only "answer key" to life.

However, this issue is different, because at question here are my basic civil rights. In my opinion civil rights should not be a matter of discourse at all, especially by those such as Rick Warren, who are in possession of their full rights as citizens.

I am today a bit sadder, but alas wiser. Most importantly, I still have hope.

Wisdom and Blessings on us all,
Suzanne

Standing on the Side of Love

2008-11-15T16:09:00.000-08:00

Through a pretty random set of circumstances, I had the privilege of delivering the Invocation at the New York City rally that was part of the co-ordinated rallies across the country today, set up to protest the passage of several propositions (in CA, AZ, AR and FL) that deprive GLBT folks of their civil rights. It was an amazing experience and an incredible honor.

After Prop 8 passed I was unable to write much about it. I felt like I had been physically assaulted and robbed of my civil rights. I was 3000 miles from my fellow mourners, surrounded by people who were exuberant over Obama's victory (and rightfully so). I felt raw and broken for all of my people back in California.

Today's rally served as a balm to that wound. All the way across the country from CA, 4-5 thousand New Yorkers showed up on what promised to be a rainy afternoon. They showed up in love, in outrage, in sorrow and in solidarity. I am deeply grateful to them. I am able now to rise and resume the fight, one that we will eventually win.

Here is the Invocation I delivered today:

I bring you greetings from California!!!

It fills my heart to see all of you here this afternoon. Thank you all for being here today as we come together to stand on the side of love.

Spirit of life and love and all things holy

We are grateful for this day, for those who have gathered here with us in the service of what is good and true and right

We pray that here among all of these justice seeking people we might find calm and grounding in a world that seems at times to have gone quite mad

We are reminded that wherever we come from, whatever faith tradition or ethnic background or moral ground, we are called to be the hearts and hands and voices of justice for those who have yet to be permitted to claim their rightful place as full and equal citizens.

We have come her today to bear witness to this pain, to cry out for justice for our brothers and sisters in California, in Arkansas, in Florida and in Arizona as well as for all of those, wherever they are, who live with the relentless beat of fear in their lives. For those who rise each morning to find that they are still second class citizens.

We will, in fact we must ensure that every person everywhere has the civil rights, indeed the basic human rights; they have been guaranteed as citizens of our nation.

We are reminded of this truth; we are the ones we have been waiting for.

We the people are the ones who have the power to change the future. Despite what has been lost, we must not lose hope and resort to blaming and finger pointing. At the center of this quest for love and acceptance for all people, let us not harbor seeds of hate, anger or distrust. That which is given freely and in love gives the greatest return.

May we be the change we want to see that we may bring about the America that has yet to be realized, a society where there is freedom, liberty and justice for all. No exceptions

The future is created by people who go against trends and expectations and instead form communities of life and spirit, of love and compassion of friendship and equality.
By people who have the courage to begin to live out a brand new story long before that story even seems possible

Let us join together now and write that new story, one of equality, love and justice.

May it be so

May we all be blessed and healed,
Suzanne

The election, money and Micah

2008-10-30T09:31:00.000-07:00

As I have tried to find space to think and breathe late in this political season I have been thinking about how the electoral system in our country came to degrade into what it is today. When I first came to be cognizant of political campaigns in the early ‘70’s there was some mudslinging (and I daresay there has nearly always been) but ultimately it was usually exposed for what it was, absurd and unfounded accusations. Since the early 80’s this is not the case. Many people are never brought to account for their smears, innuendos and outright lies.

How can this be so? Where is the free and responsible press? How is it that people still believe that Obama is a Muslim, a friend of terrorists, an Arab and a socialist? It’s hard for me to believe that the end is not near for this country. I try, but it’s hard.

I am an Obama supporter. I believe in him and in his policies. I believe that if he is allowed to implement his vision for this country that some of our greatness can be restored. As I listened to his “infomercial” last night I wanted to stand up here in my little apartment and cheer for him. He gets it, he really does.

As I listened to various commentators later, a good number of them conservative, I was struck by a great truth. They kept saying things like: We can’t afford healthcare reform, we can’t afford to improve education, we can’t afford better programs for poor families……… BLAH BLAH BLAH.

And then, my epiphany. We can’t afford the 2 current wars. We can’t afford the Wall Street bailout, we can’t afford all the wounded soldiers coming home, we couldn’t afford the Reagan military build up. But we did those things anyway, because rich and powerful people demanded that they be done.

We, the people, need to take to the streets and demand that the lives of the poor, the homeless, children and the elderly be found to be worthy of the same consideration as wars and Wall Street tycoons. In fact they are worth more. Not being able to afford the programs that raise their standard of living to a minimum level it is not an acceptable answer. Dip into the same pocket where you got the money for the wars and the bailout. We cannot afford NOT to spend this money. The current administration and all of Congress should be ashamed of the condition of the most vulnerable among our citizens. We should all be ashamed. I know that I am.

The prophet Micah tells us: He has told you, O mortal, what is good; and what does the Lord require of you but to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God?.

What our country, which professes to be wholly Christian and God fearing has perpetrated on its poor is neither just, kind nor humble. To use another word from the First Testament: it is an abomination. May the next president and the people of our country have the courage and fortitude to change this. It is our only hope for redemption.

Hoping for strength when it is most needed,

Suzanne

Why Is This True?

2008-10-12T15:34:00.000-07:00

So… I just got an email from my best friend. It made me cry. Yesterday I sent her the link to the beautifully written, albeit somewhat partisan, analysis of why we should support Obama in the upcoming election. The piece, for the most part, avoided baseless smears and rhetoric and went carefully over the major decision points which one should look at when deciding who to vote for. It ended with this sentence, which struck me as particularly eloquent:

“At a moment of economic calamity, international perplexity, political failure, and battered morale, America needs both uplift and realism, both change and steadiness. It needs a leader temperamentally, intellectually, and emotionally attuned to the complexities of our troubled globe. That leader’s name is Barack Obama.”

Her sister responded with a you tube link, a pitiful short film which, in the worst traditions of propaganda, contained mostly film of Obama sound bites (perhaps taken out of context), ominous music and multiple images of bombs, missiles, chanting Muslim extremists and, of course, the twin towers collapsing. There was not ONE real fact in the 5 minute film and it is titled “Obama’s Arrogance Just Became a Nightmare”

Before you dismiss her sister as a right wing ideologue, let me tell you a bit about her. She is a middle aged woman with 2 young daughters, a recent nursing school graduate and a decent, loving and kind person who is struggling to figure out what she thinks in this world. She wants to be responsible, to look at the facts and decide what is best for her family and her country. But she can’t. Because at this place and time in history, those who control our government and (for the most part) our media have a powerful weapon they use in this political shell game and this weapon is fear.

The maker of this film knows her, she is exactly who the film is made for. A decent caring person, neither far right nor far left, who does not have the time or inclination to research every single thing that she might need to know to make an informed decision. A mother, daughter, wife and sister who does not fathom what happens in places like Afghanistan, Palestine, Beirut, Oklahoma City and Iraq. She just wants to know that she and all those she loves are safe. And this film, devoid of facts, analysis or anything else informative, tells her that if Obama is elected, she and those she loves will be unsafe. The filmmaker knows that terrorist attacks and random bombings are her deepest fears and counts on her inattention to detail while the music is playing, the bombs are dropping and the extremists are screaming. They know she will not notice nuances like the fact that Obama is saying he will not fund “unproven” missile defense systems, that Al Qaeda was not in Iraq before we invaded, that Iraq had nothing to do with the events of 9/11 or that the attacks were not a function of a lack of military funding but a profound failure of our intelligence agencies and yes, even those in the White House at the time.

Most of all they play into her desire to believe that we can be made safe, even in the face of all evidence to the contrary. She is a good and decent person being sold a bill of goods because she just wants to live her life in anonymity….. and safety. She is symbolic of the vast numbers of middle class Americans who are repeatedly bamboozled with this exact type of propaganda into voting against their own best interests. By obscuring everything else behind this “curtain of fear”, they have talked her into voting to continue the utterly failed policies of the last 8 years, which have sent us spiraling into debt (which her daughters will bear the cost of), perched us on the brink of financial collapse, reduced our status in the world to that of court jesters and indebted us deeply to several foreign countries, including what may turn out to be the next great superpower, China.

Somehow they are able to keep her off balance, to distract her into believing that none of this is important, look away from that mess they say, look over here, the boogey man is coming and Obama is unlocking the door for him. And this is why I cry. I cry because I am afraid that I cannot fight the weapons that they use very effectively. I fear that I cannot fight deception, propaganda and obfuscation with fact finding and truth telling. It will not stop me from trying, but I no longer know if it is enough.

You see, I am not afraid of terrorists or bombs. They may indeed strike us again and there is nothing we can do to stop them, the world is too interconnected and porous and I do not believe they are the true threat. What I am afraid of are more mundane things that don't make good 5 minute film clips. Fascism, poverty, homelessness, poor health care, crumbling infrastructure and declining educational systems are what will do this country in, not terrorists.

May we awaken before it is too late for us and our children.

Hope, strength and courage for whatever lies ahead,
Suzanne

Arrived, Safe & Sound

2008-08-31T14:06:00.000-07:00

I have arrived in New York City thanks to the intrepid work of my best friend Sandy!! I arrived last Friday (8/22)in New Hampshire and visited my Mom until Thursday (8/28). I went to Sandy's and we transferred all of my belongings from my car to her mini van. Friday morning we embarked on our drive to NYC. All went well until we were about 17 miles from our destination. Route 95 was backed up and we barely moved for 15 minutes so we got off in the Bronx and took surface streets to 35th & Madison (in Manhattan). We arrived about two hours later, frazzled but proud!!

The apartment is terrific, larger than I thought it to be with ample space for books, two clothes closets and a large storage closet. The three flights of stairs up to it will, in Sandy's words, guarantee that by years end I will have "buns of steel".

Today I went to services at Community Church and met lots of terrific people. It was a pretty strong turnout for Labor Day weekend. I am so excited to begin my Ministry here, I think it is destined to be an awesome year!!!

Tomorrow I think I will explore the city, more later on my adventures.

Peace & Blessings,
Suzanne

Almost there

2008-08-21T15:08:00.000-07:00

I am writing from Webster NY, a suburb of Rochester. I am almost to New Hampshire, I will arrive tomorrow!! I have enjoyed this drive, but am ready to stop driving. I will stay at Mom's for about week and then head to NYC on Friday morning to settle in to my apartment there, beginning my church duties on Tuesday the 2nd. Not too much to take pictures of today, mostly turnpikes, but I have put a picture of my hotel in Webster NY.

On to Epping, NH tomorrow and no more hotels!!

Blessings,
Suzanne

Now, in Iowa

2008-08-19T17:30:00.000-07:00

I'm here in Council Bluffs, Iowa just cross the river from Omaha NE. I spent most of the day driving through Nebraska, a very long state with LOTS of farmland. I was struck today by the vast areas of this country that have so few inhabitants and have wondered about the social and economic conditions that have driven people to the great urban areas, mostly on the perimeter of the country. I have driven so much of the last two days on wide open roads with so few cars, and I can tell you, it was very nice!!!

Today's pictures are the blue Nebraska sky and my Iowa hotel, which looks suspiciously like my Wyoming one!!

On tomorrow to South Bend, IN.

Blessings,
Suzanne

Musings from Wyoming

2008-08-18T19:26:00.000-07:00

I'm now in Cheyenne, WY having driven 650 miles today from Elko. It was a long drive but the road through Utah and Wyoming is flat and fast (the speed limit is mostly 75) so it only took about 10 hours. I have posted a picture of the amazing hills near the Utah /Wyoming border, a spectacular sunset and my hotel here in Cheyenne.

As I drove through Laramie, I thought of Matthew Shepard and wondered if things have changed very much for GLBT folks in rural areas since he was attacked in 1998. I'm afraid of what the answer to that question is, those of us who live in urban areas, particularly on the West coast and in the East get complacent about the threats these folks face as part of the fabric of their daily lives. I refuse to accept that it has to be that way and will continue to work and hope that ten years from now it will be better. The rock will wear away.

Tomorrow on to Council Bluffs Iowa!!!

Blessings,
Suzanne

On the Road at Last

2008-08-17T18:12:00.000-07:00

I'm posting this tonight from Elko, Nevada, the first stop on my trip across the country. I left San Jose at 6 am this morning and got here about 3 pm. Not a bad trip, the car is a bit loaded down (ie: I couldn't get much more in it) so the trip through the mountains around Tahoe was kind of of slow, but once I got into the flatlands it was smooth sailing!! I'm taking 80 until somewhere in Ohio when I head north thru New York and then to New Hampshire to visit my Mom. I'm not sure yet when I will arrive in NYC, but it will be sometime between the last Thursday and Saturday in August. I have posted a picture of both my loaded car and the Econo Lodge in Elko where I am staying tonight. Nevada has a whole lot of nothing......

Over the course of this day I have had a number of feelings, from elation to "what the hell am I doing?". Leaving this morning was very strange, almost dream-like, knowing I'm not going back there for almost 10 months and that I won't see my family until November. I keep thinking of the soldiers who get sent overseas and leave their families behind, including their young children. I'm struggling with the feeling that my relationship with my son will be permanently changed by this separation and even though I think it will be a good and healthy change, I can't help but be a little sad and wistful. Sigh.

More tomorrow from Cheyenne, Wyoming!!

Blessings,
Suzanne

My People Are in Pain

2008-07-27T17:19:00.000-07:00

I know as a person who is “almost” a Minister I should not feel any different about who people are when a tragedy occurs, but the shooting in a Knoxville Unitarian Universalist church today has hit me squarely in the chest. Although I do not believe that I know anyone who belongs to this church, these are my people and they are hurting. So therefore I hurt.

I mourn with the people who are in that congregation, folks who I could have easily known had my life taken me to live in Knoxville. I cry for the family of the man who has died, and the families whose loved ones lie gravely ill in the hospital. I hurt for the Minister, who has lost a congregant and probably a friend and who now must care for all those in his community who hurt, even with his wounds so open and tender. And I care deeply for the man who fired the shots, wondering what in his life has hurt him so profoundly that he came to take such a drastic action as this.

These are my people and I mourn for them, their lost innocence and sense of safety, their loss of a friend and for the violation of the sanctity of their church, their beloved community.

I send to them my love and care, my hope that they can hold each other close and heal from this tear in the fabric of their lives.

Take care my friends and know that you are tenderly held in the hands and hearts of many of us that you will never know. Rest assured that tonight we are reminded of our shared humanity and have felt the rip in our interdependent web of existence. Tonight we are all members of the Tennessee Valley Unitarian Universalist Church. We are all your people.

Praying for Strength, Courage and Wisdom,

Suzanne

Finding the Holy Amid all the Mess

2008-07-03T19:54:00.001-07:00

I have been sooooo busy and have neglected you, my dear blog. In May I quit my long term job, effectively ending a 22 year career as a tax accountant. On June 2nd I began a 10 week Clinical Pastoral Education program. And oh, yea, I got married on June 28th. I have alot of thoughts about all of these events, which I hope to get to later, but I had an experience at the hospital yesterday that has brought me to the "must write" stage.

I have a patient who has been on an amazing health odyssey, but may be turning the corner as we speak. She has suffered so much. Physical pain, loss of control over anything in her life, loss of personal power, it goes on and on. Among these tribulations, she has surgical wounds that have been slow to heal and they need their dressings changed every few days, a process which takes over an hour and causes her a great deal of pain. I was in her room yesterday when the wound care team descended and I could see in her face that she knew what that meant. She asked me to stay with her through the process. I felt terrified and honored at the same time. Needless to say, I stayed.

During the ensuing hour, in addition to bearing witness to her pain, soothing her, singing to her and reminding her to breathe, I witnessed the movement of the divine in those 3 nurses. They cared for her so deeply, one could see that they did each thing with such care, knowing they had to cause her pain, but being unwilling to cause any unnecessary pain. They spoke with her as another being, not a patient, letting her know her wounds were looking much better and they spoke to her about what they were doing in each step. They looked into her face many times, speaking to her, seeing her, acknowledging her humanity. The nurses transcended their nursing skills, which were substantial, and cared for this entire woman, holding her in a way that every one of us as a child of God is worthy of being held.

It was a Holy moment and a humbling one. I felt honored to be among those, who despite all they see in their jobs, despite the fact that they need to do their jobs, hang on to the knowledge of what is the most important to each of us, to be acknowledged and affirmed in our basic, shared humanity.

Namaste my dear nurses, for indeed I saw the God in you today.

Blessings to all who care for others,
Suzanne

Rev. Jeremiah Wright

2008-04-29T20:21:00.000-07:00

I have been watching the “Rev. Jeremiah wars”, as I have taken to calling the media coverage of this prophetic Pastor, with a growing horror. While I have been generally supportive of Rev. Wright, I must admit I was disappointed in his performance at the National Press Club dinner, it seemed like he was being deliberately belligerent, like he was “play acting” into the role that the media expected of him. Unlike the sermons and speeches that have been endlessly mined for provocative sound bites, I failed to see the point of some of the provocations he hurled at the Press Club and that saddened me. It will be a great loss if he becomes a caricature of himself, flinging outrageous statements around for the sake of saying them, rather than to make a profound point, examine historical indignities or tell a bitter truth, as he has done in the past.

That is the Jeremiah Wright that I have experienced, one who has shocked me, made me think and moved me many times towards a greater understanding of both the depth of my flaws and the amazing potential that lurks about the edges of the society in which I live, waiting to be invited in by folks like me, those of power and privilege. I will miss him if he is gone.

I am also deeply chagrined and disappointed at the media and its coverage. I’m not sure why I’m surprised, given the state of the corporate media these days, but each time I experience a more outrageous statement, or a failure to truly report on the context from which a given sound bite was taken, I sigh and shake my head, disbelieving and disheartened. I guess if my idealism is not gone at my age, I’m stuck with it.

Most of all, I am in despair over the idea that this ridiculous hyper-critical examination of what a candidate’s Pastor said when he was speaking in the pulpit, will destroy a candidacy that is, in my opinion, the greatest hope for my country, in what is possibly one of the darkest times we have faced as a nation.

That is the thing I fear the most, because I believe that the future of my country hangs in the balance, and there is no one, save Barack Obama himself, who is protesting this frivolous disregard for the truth, this blatant misuse of the precious right that is the free press. Surely Jefferson and Adams are spinning in their graves. May God help us.

Strength, Hope and Courage,

Suzanne

Resurrection

2008-03-23T17:52:00.000-07:00

It being Easter, I’ve been thinking a lot about resurrection. Not the literal resurrection that many believe in, the restoration to life of the actual body of the crucified Jesus, but the kind that I think that the Passion story was meant to teach us. The resurrection that occurs when we are hopeless and lost, when we have been emotionally, spiritually or mentally crucified, and yet, we see our way clear and are reborn in a way we could never have imagined when we were in the grips of our darkest hour.

I am reminded of the many times I have felt defeated and confused, despairing of ever figuring out what I should do to find my way. Yet somehow, through varied venues and many amazing and surprising displays of grace, I have been able to see the path out, to struggle, to persevere and to ultimately triumph over that which I once thought to be an insurmountable obstacle. I have also witnessed complete transformations in the lives of many others, often in the face of barriers that I cannot even begin to imagine.

That’s the resurrection I believe in, one that does not involve the direct action of a divine being, but rather one that calls to all that is Holy in individual people, that which drives otherwise ordinary folks to dig deep within themselves and to rise up and achieve extraordinary things, to act in ways that enable themselves or others to transform their lives in most amazing and unexpected ways. Those are the miracles I look to when I need a reason to go on and they are taking place each and every day. That hopefulness, those displays of resilience and persistence, of tenacity and courage are what I believe is the point of the story of resurrection in the Gospels.

Here’s my Easter benediction:

As we celebrate today the newness of life, the rebirth of the earth and the continuance of the circle of life, let us be reminded too of the resurrection
Not the raising from the dead of a single person through a divine miracle, but the resurrection we see each day in our midst
From the glimpse we get of one we have loved and lost when we look into the eyes of a child, to the rebirth that we witness when those around us triumph over challenges great and small.
May we rest assured that the resurrection is indeed a promise
Not a divine one, but one that we make to one another.
Let us hope that each day we can find a way to keep that promise
And be agents of resurrection for each other.

Courage for our separate journeys to a collective resurrection,
Suzanne

We Refuse to Face the Truth

2008-03-15T19:10:00.000-07:00

I have spent much of the last twenty four hours listening in disbelief, both to the Rev Jeremiah Wright , whom I once held in esteem, and to the pundits who have declared this “scandal” to be “the end” of the of the “messianic” rise of Barack Obama. (Pastorgate anyone?) I have decided that, rather than rocking back and forth holding my head, I will write this missive. It may turn out to be incoherent, but I hope to feel better for having written it.

First, I have listened to much of the material of Rev.Wright which people find objectionable and I do take exception to his inflammatory tone, his gross mischaracterizations and occasional exaggerations and his racism. However much of what I have heard on talk radio (and not of the right wing variety) is criticism of the substance of his remarks and many are expressing outrage at statements which are, in their essence, true.

For instance does anyone really believe that our government is NOT currently under the control of a group of paranoid, rich, white men? Or that the events of 9/11 were partly brought about by our long term policies regarding Israel and the Palestinian people? Or that the number of innocent people we have killed on foreign soil in the name of democracy dwarfs the number of Americans that have died? For God’s sake someone was even complaining about his remarks about the government’s complicity in the Tuskegee experiments on black men, something the government has admitted!!

It is my humble opinion that Rev. Wright could have said these things in a conciliatory tone and people would still be outraged because, even though I object to the way he said it, Rev. Wright spoke the truth and he has had the audacity to tell of things that we Americans, by and large, do not wish to believe, despite overwhelming evidence. Further, I believe that until we look that beast square in the face, until we accept that we, as a nation, have committed these horrible atrocities, we will be unable to prevent them from being fomented in our names in the future.

I also believe that many white Americans cannot accept criticism of the fundamental policies of the United States from a black man, because, despite all the layers of political correctness we put on it, many white folks feel that “they” should be grateful for all the things “we” have “given them”. And to speak the truth in such a confrontational way, well that’s just not what we expect from people who should be grateful. In truth, white America believes that Rev. Wright should be more like Barack Obama; he’s the sort of black man we like. I’m sorry this is so, but I believe it is.

On the question of whether this will affect Barack Obama’s chances to win the nomination, I will only say this: Rev. Wright was the Obama family Pastor. He was not their spokesperson. If we can hold candidates responsible for everything that anyone they associate with says, then we better fold up this democracy and head north.

I, for one, do not choose my friends and advisors on their likeness to me, on the likelihood that they will be a mirror for everything I hold dear. I rather like the idea that Barack includes people with disparate beliefs in his opinion circle, for it has been my experience that listening to others who hold very different opinions than mine is always a learning experience and rarely a bad one. If we are to weave a stronger, more peaceful America in coalition with those who are not like us (which is what Barack is saying), then listening to the “other” is a darn good place to start.

I remain hopeful about this election and hope this is simply a sandstorm in our collective sojourn out of the desert of the soul in which we find ourselves.

Strength and Courage for the journey,
Suzanne.

Yes We Can

2008-02-05T20:23:00.000-08:00

A few days ago, as I struggled with deciding who to vote for in today’s primary, I perused the Web looking for clues as to the substantive difference between the two candidates I was considering, Clinton and Obama. I must admit that I have approached this election with a bit of a tarnished eye, I was so crushed by the last general election that I was loathe to get my hopes up for this one.

As I searched for some morsel of information that would tell me who to vote for, I came across the text of the speech Obama gave after his victory in New Hampshire and something stirred within me. I knew then that what I wanted was a candidate who could lift me up out of the morass of the last seven years, one who could reach down to the place of retreat in which I am cowering and pull me into the light. I need a candidate who offers me hope for the future of the country I love and that so often lately has made me ashamed. I knew that I needed my candidate’s policies to be ones that benefit the least among us, that care for the poor, the children, the elderly and all those who live on the margins each and every day. But I wanted something more.

When I read that speech, I realized that this country needs a leader who is inspirational, who speaks to that within us that is noble, loving and kind but, most of all can awaken that sense of hope that has fallen fallow in the face of the present administration’s callous disregard for much that we hold sacred. I have found my candidate.

An excerpt from that speech:

But in the unlikely story that is America, there has never been anything false about hope. For when we have faced down impossible odds; when we've been told that we're not ready, or that we shouldn't try, or that we can't, generations of Americans have responded with a simple creed that sums up the spirit of a people.

Yes we can.

It was a creed written into the founding documents that declared the destiny of a nation.

Yes we can.

It was whispered by slaves and abolitionists as they blazed a trail toward freedom through the darkest of nights.

Yes we can.

It was sung by immigrants as they struck out from distant shores and pioneers who pushed westward against an unforgiving wilderness.

Yes we can.

It was the call of workers who organized; women who reached for the ballot; a President who chose the moon as our new frontier; and a King who took us to the mountaintop and pointed the way to the Promised Land.

Yes we can to justice and equality. Yes we can to opportunity and prosperity. Yes we can heal this nation. Yes we can repair this world.

Yes we can.

Well said Obama. I agree with you with all of my heart.

As for the rest of us, we will say it aloud, make it our mantra, our prayer, our hope, our blessing.

Yes we can. And we will.

Strength and Courage for the journey,
Suzanne

The "Something" That You Can Do

2008-01-06T17:09:00.000-08:00

I wrote a sermon to deliver last week at my home church and although I seem to not have much time to write in this log right now, I figure I can at least steal my own work to post here. The sermon was about how doing justice work is hard and its even harder to maintain one's "mojo" for doing it in the face of so much need and so much defeat. I wanted to inspire people to take little steps, to not be daunted by the overwhelming nature of the work and not to feel that whatever they could do would be, to quote my grandfather, akin to "spitting in the ocean". The theme was drawn from an 18th century Unitarian minister who said:

I am only one,
But still I am one.
I cannot do everything,
But still I can do something.
And because I cannot do everything,
I will not refuse to do the something that I can do.

Working on the sermon got me to thinking about my Dad, who was not, on the surface, a social justice crusader, but the more I thought about it, the more I realized that he was. Here's what I said about him:
"I like to say that my father was a mystery wrapped up in an enigma. He was a complex person who was, as we humans are, flawed. But as Luther and I spoke about this service, I realized one thing very clearly, my father fully and completely understood this concept of looking at the world through a justice lens. And as I thought about my childhood, I realized that he, in his own way, was an activist for justice throughout his life, though you will not find his name in any history books and to the best of my knowledge he participated in exactly one protest march.

He was an activist in two ways – He was successful in his work life and by the early 70’s he had risen to the position of District Director of Customs for the Baltimore region and as such had hundreds of employees reporting to him. In this job he was an active promoter of African Americans to positions that had previously been closed to them. He told me once that he did what everyone should do; he gave the job to the best person. Period. It was in fact that clear to him. He looked through that justice lens and acted on what he saw.

When he died, his Assistant Director, Lyle, came to me at the funeral home and asked me if I knew how much my father had done for the black people in his region. I said I thought I did, but as this man told me all of the roadblocks my father had removed from his way, I realized that I did not really know the extent of my father’s commitment. Lyle told me that he and many others believed that my father had not been promoted to Regional Director because of his tireless advocacy on behalf of others. When they discussed it once, my father said that he would not savor a promotion that came at the cost of his integrity. For my father, that was the something he could do.

I said earlier that my father truly understood looking through a justice lens. The reason I know that is because I realize now that this is the thing that my father was talking about all through my growing up years. You see, he had a justice lens and he also gave one to me. And he did not only give it to me, but throughout my childhood, he tirelessly showed me how to use it. He did not take me fishing or hiking, but he taught me how to operate that justice lens. I believe it to be the most important gift he gave to me. My father spoke to me of class and skin color privilege from as far back as I can remember. When Dr. King was assassinated in 1968 we lived outside of Washington DC. When the riots had been quelled, my father took us to the still smoldering areas and asked us what we thought about folks burning their own neighborhoods. He then explained about the lives of African Americans, the hundreds of years of discrimination, the lack of educational opportunities, the poverty they had endured. He then told of the hope that had come to them with the Civil Rights movement and the gains that had been made. And somehow he made me understand their anger and the despair.

He brought that alive for me, I was 7 years old, but I understood for the very first time how privileged I was. I think my father gave me the justice lens that day and I have never looked at the world in quite the same way since. Whenever issues of class came up, my father was quick to remind me that I was privileged not because of anything I had done, but because I had been born into a white, middle class family. It was through him that I came to understand that it was my responsibility to address the justice issues on the ground, where I lived and that I could not stand by and listen to racist jokes or silently witness discrimination or violence. It was, I believed, my responsibility to be one of those people who made the changes. Even in elementary school I knew that is was my responsibility to heed the call to bring justice to all people, to do the something that I could do."

I am amazed that, nearly 25 years after his death, I can still discover new things about my Dad. It made me smile. I wish I held beliefs that would tell me that he can see me, even after death. I'd like to believe he heard that sermon and was proud of me and knew that I was proud of him.

Just in case - here's a tip of my hat to my Dad - a social justice crusader in his own way.

Peace & Blessings for the journey,
Suzanne

A Piece of Quiet

2007-12-12T21:00:00.000-08:00

This time of year, which should be about people loving and caring for each other, has become a frenzy of hedonistic consumerism and it just makes me weary. And I am very convinced that were Jesus to return (and just for the record - I don't think he will) he would be astonished, and likely angry, at what the celebration of his birth has become.

I preached in the Los Gatos church last Sunday on the topic of knowing that we are enough just as we are, despite all of the messages we get to the contrary. I decided to post an excerpt from that sermon here:

I find my spiritual and emotional “piece of quiet” when I am able to access that place deep in my heart that knows that I am not powerless in the face of all that is wrong in this crazy world. It tells me that I can live a life imbued with purpose right here in this spot where I have been placed, whether by cosmic accident or divine inspiration. I may not be able to fix everything in the world, but, I can fix some things, and strive to live my life in a way that make this earth a kinder, more caring and better place ... and so can you.

And however you do that will be the right way, as Mary Anne Radmacher said: "Courage doesn’t always roar. Sometimes courage is the quiet voice at the end of the day saying,”I will try again tomorrow""

We are all limited creatures -- with limitless possibilities. So the best we can do is settle with intention and purpose into this singular, amazing and unique life that we have .. right here ... right now ... in this place we now find ourselves, a world full of tears and pain but also a world full of miracles and joy ... and trust that it is enough ... always enough ... to simply keep trying to be the very best people that we can be

And just as we are, we are enough

Blessed Be and Amen,
Suzanne

Let my people go........and while you're at it, let all the people go!!

2007-12-04T22:24:00.000-08:00

So much for posting here every few days!! I am in crazy mode at the present time. I have been asked to fill a pulpit this Sunday for a Minister who was taken ill. I have a service at the end of this month at my home church, a presentation at the Napa church the Sunday before Christmas and a service to prepare for my home church on the programs at my Internship site, the UULM, to be co-presented with my mentor/supervisor. Plus... I have a training to do for clergy and seminarians on healthcare at the end of January. And the governor is not budging on THAT subject, don't get me started...... Finally I have to arrange several “UU Voices for Healthcare” trainings at UU churches around the Bay. Hence I have not posted much!!

Anyway – I was planning the end of December service with Luther, a man from my church who I admire, and he commented that I seem to be profoundly am influenced by the writings of Dr. King. The more I read of his writings, the more I believe that he was, at the time of his death, moving from his position as a champion for civil rights for blacks, to a believer that which afflicted black people, afflicted all people who were poor, albeit minus the additional oppression that comes with their skin color. He would have been a powerful voice for economic justice for all people had he lived. I am sad to consider the situation we are in today and to imagine what he might have accomplished had his life not been cut short.

That’s all I can write now, except to say that I came across a quote a few months ago that I would like to share:

Who we listen to determines what we hear.
Where we stand determines what we see.
What we do determines who we are."
-Robert McAfee Brown

Peace & Blessings for the journey,
Suzanne

Now is the Time

2007-11-25T17:21:00.000-08:00

This is my first blog, inspired by my 18 year old son on a road trip I took with his band “The Swing Kids”. As we discussed my being away next year, he asked me if I would send him emails or call him to describe my day. This led me to thinking about my journey thus far; from tax accountant to minister, and wishing I had kept a diary. Well better late than never, so henceforth I will share my thoughts here on my journey to the Ministry.

I have been particularly inspired on this journey by two quotes, which I will explore in later postings. For now, here they are:

“Now is the accepted time, not tomorrow, not some more convenient season. It is today that our best work can be done and not some future day or future year. It is today that we fit ourselves for the greater usefulness of tomorrow. Today is the seed time, now are the hours of work, and tomorrow comes the harvest and the playtime.” WEB Dubois and

"Power at its best is love implementing the demands of justice. Justice at its best is love correcting everything that stands against love." Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.

Let me just say now that I can use companions on my journey and I hope you will come along!!

Peace & Blessings for the journey,
Suzanne