Too soon to heal
Kim Hampton resists pressure to begin the healing process after the death of Michael Brown.
Too often in the U.S., black people and black communities are asked to start the healing (or reconciliation or forgiveness) process before our slaughtered are even buried . . . .
How can a community heal when a knife is stuck in their back 10 inches, brought back out, and then plunged in again? (East of Midnight, August 24)
The Rev. Cynthia Cain is not ready to “move on.”
Unlike our President and so many others, I do not pray for an end to the protests in Ferguson and for peace at all costs. Not if peace means people have gone back to sleep. Let them stand up, even with anger if that is what it takes, and let this rage spread as far as it must, for ignoring this situation has not made it better, only worse. (A Jersey Girl in Kentucky, August 23)
The Rev. James Ford marks the anniversary of the murder of Emmett Till.
So much has been accomplished since then.
And so much that is so deeply wrong continues. As long as someone’s life is in greater danger in this country because of the color of their skin, we need to keep the issue alive, to not allow ourselves to lull into some state of denial.
We need to remember. (Monkey Mind, August 28)
Love is not enough
Pushing back against “Standing on the Side of Love,” Christine Slocum says, “Love is not enough on its own.”
We need love, and we are loved, and there is more to do. The next time you hear, “God is love,” ask yourself, “so then what?” What are you doing because of this love that you have? How do you improve the world because you are loved? The world needs love, and it needs more. Never forget that. (Loved for Who You Are, August 25)
When an African-American colleague tells the story of a traumatic encounter with the police when she was three years old, the Rev. Meg Riley writes, “I am stopped in my tracks, recognizing anew how totally and completely I will never know anything but my own (white) experience.”
From that moment on, in every other memory she carries, she has woven in a lack of safety and a constant threat that I can never imagine. Because she is joyful and generous, because she lives with a giant heart and spirit, I presume that she and I more or less inhabit the same planet. And then I hear just this tiniest formational sliver of her story and I realize I haven’t the faintest idea how she professes and lives her theology of love for people of all races. (HuffPo Religion, August 28)
Andrew Mackay considers the role of outsiders in working for change.
Though there are moral principles at stake here, the question those who wish to help need to ask is “if we can, how can we help you?” versus “I know what can help you.” Respect for autonomy, whether in the black community, or indigenous peoples fighting Chevron and mining companies, or whatever group is engaged in struggle, is important. Part of the Freedom Summer was allowing the oppressed to gain political tools to use against their oppressors. Supplying power to others, not using your own power in their name. (Unspoken Politics, August 26)
The Rev. Thomas Perchlik, who ministers in the St. Louis area, offers suggestions about how people can respond to Ferguson.
The best way you can stand in solidarity with us is to look at your own community. If it has not been done, look at how often police in your area stop people of color in proportion to their percentage of the population. Talk to people in your community about how much they trust the police officers to protect them. Ask the Police if they feel trusted. (Rev. Thomas Perchlik’s Weblog, August 22)
Looking back
As he celebrates 20 years as a religious educator, the Rev. Dan Harper takes stock of his experiences.
So why have I stuck with it? Well, I still believe that religious education is important. Occasionally I have seen our congregations save the lives of children and adolescents; more often, I have seen congregations serve as anchors for kids, stabilizing influences in their lives. Equally importantly, now that so many adults come to our congregations with no background in organized religion, religious education for adults becomes increasingly central to congregational life. (Yet Another Unitarian Universalist, August 28)
Andrew Hidas remembers the advice of a long-ago spiritual director.
Live. Be involved. Do. Move. Quit dividing the world into sacred and secular, spiritual and profane, body and mind. Don’t worry about the “What,” just make sure you get after the “Do.” (Traversing, August 22)
Organizing for mission and usefulness
The Rev. Dawn Cooley suggest a “6H” approach to organizing congregational mission—healing, holding, hearing, helping, handing off, and homecoming. Here’s the first H, healing:
HEALING those participants who are spiritually wounded and struggling, providing resources (such as pastoral care and counseling) to those in spiritual need who choose to participate in the life of the congregation. So many people come to us desperate for our message of love and acceptance. And so many of those already with us have crises in our lives during which we need a community of love and support. Before any of the other steps can take place, people need to be spiritually rejuvenated. (Speaking of, August 25)
Cooley also applies the 6H approach to making the UUA a “relentlessly useful” organization. (The Lively Tradition, August 28)
Knowing and unknowing
The Rev. Dr. David Breeden thinks of agnosticism as a spiritual practice.
Contrary to the cliche, agnosticism isn’t about not deciding. It’s about honestly facing what we know about knowing itself. It is, as the Victorian biologist, T.H. Huxley, who coined the term, said, “not a creed but a method.” (Quest for Meaning, August 28)
The Rev. Dr. Carl Gregg revisits the biblical story of Eve and the tree of knowledge.
This connection is intentional between being mature enough to comprehend moral complexity (good and evil) and being mature enough to be self-aware of adult sexuality. The capability of understanding the messiness, complexity, and gray-areas associated with adult moral reasoning emerges around the same time as adolescence and puberty. So in the trajectory of human psycho-sexual development, we can see the root of that correlation between eating the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil and one’s body beginning to come into fruition (if you will) in a way that brings a very different kind of knowledge — a carnal knowledge sometimes called a “loss of innocence.” And once you “eat of such fruit,” childhood innocence is lost — just as Adam and Eve could never go back to their previous naked and carefree life in the Garden. (Pluralism, Pragmatism, Progressivism, August 28)