Truth and Meaning: The Way
To some of you, I am a fresh voice preaching a simple message of hope and compassion. To others, I am a bearded anarchist tossing bombs at sacred institutions. Perhaps I am both.
Many of you may be thinking, “I like what he says, but it’s just not realistic. It isn't human nature to be the way he suggests.” To you, I respond, “Who says so?” Babies are not born violent, or sinful, or racist, or homophobic, or misogynistic. We teach them these things. We teach them to love guns, to lie and cheat, to covet money, and to hate people different from themselves. We teach our boys that rape is OK if the girl provokes it. We teach our girls that they are innately less worthy, less intelligent, less capable.
Some of you may be thinking, “I like what he says, but it’s just not practical. We can’t change the world to be that way.” To you, I respond, “Why not?” We teach our children that the world is the way it is because it is the product of centuries of progress and civilization. We teach our children that great people led us down this path and that we must not stray. And I ask, what if those people were wrong, or misguided, or misinformed? What if those people made the world the way it is today because it was to their advantage to do so?
A few of you may be thinking, “But, there is no way out. The system is too big, the changes required are too massive, the people with money and power will never let change happen.” To you, I respond, “What can you do?” If you could teach just one child something you were not taught, what would you teach? Would you teach them confidence in themselves? Would you teach them that they are beautiful just as they are? Would you teach them that every person has inherent worth and dignity?
The Way to a better world really is quite easy. Who can follow it? You can. Why should you follow it? Because the way of love is the only right way. What should you do? Whatever you can.
Will it be enough? Who can say? Look at the impact of people who listen to their own inner voice and simply live lives of love. In the end, the world will change. All the guns in the world cannot kill love. All the hate in the world cannot engulf love. All the rules and dogma and intimidation in the world cannot prevent love. Teach love and it will spread.
Sunday, June 2, 2013
Sunday, May 26, 2013
Truth and Meaning: Providence
Truth and Meaning: Providence
Born in 1741, John Murray’s childhood was dominated by a Calvinist father whose fears for John’s soul led him to beat and isolate his son. The boy saw religion as a gloomy means to control people’s behavior. As a teenager, Murray met John Wesley, who encouraged his protégé on the path to the Methodist ministry, and to read books John’s father had forbidden.
Murray started preaching. But several personal crises and family losses, combined with his growing doubts about John Wesley’s theology, propelled Murray into a state of despair. Believing there was a higher purpose in life for him, he left Ireland for England. John heard a sermon by George Whitefield and admired the preacher’s nondenominational, welcoming style. Whitefield soon asked Murray to preach at his Tabernacle in London, where John fell in love and married Eliza Neale.
James Relly, a Welsh preacher, was in London lecturing on universal salvation. As a good Methodist, John despised Relly, but found his arguments persuasive. Murray read Relly’s writings and found that his interpretation of the scriptures made sense. John and Eliza heard Relly preach and both were profoundly affected. John wrote in his autobiography: “It was clear that Christ Jesus died for all, for the sins of the whole world and that everyone must finally be saved…I conceived if I had an opportunity of conversing with the whole world, the whole world would be convinced. It might truly have been said, that we had a taste of heaven below.”
The Methodists expelled John from the Tabernacle.
John’s contentment with life ended abruptly when Eliza and their infant son died. Debt-ridden and despondent, Murray decided to leave the ministry and move to America. His ship ran aground, however, on a sandbar off the New Jersey coast. John went ashore in search of provisions and encountered a farmer named Thomas Potter. Potter had built a meetinghouse on his property for itinerant preachers and was waiting for one who embraced universal salvation. There was no doubt in Potter’s mind that God had sent John Murray for this purpose. He urged Murray to preach, but John refused, preferring to leave his past behind and sail on to New York as planned.
Potter warned Murray, “The wind will never change, sir, until you have delivered to us, in that meeting-house, a message from God.” And the wind remained calm for days until John believed in God’s intervening hand and he delivered a sermon. He felt his sense of calling and purpose return. Over the remainder of his life, Murray spread the Universalist message in America.
Whatever you call it — God, Yahweh, Allah, Nature, Synchronicity — we are all called by providence to heal and not to harm. To paraphrase a quote often attributed to Murray: Go out into the highways and by-ways. You may possess only a small light, but uncover it, let it shine, use it in order to bring more light and understanding to the hearts and minds of men and women. Give them, not hell, but hope and courage. Do not push them deeper into their theological despair, but preach kindness and everlasting love.
Born in 1741, John Murray’s childhood was dominated by a Calvinist father whose fears for John’s soul led him to beat and isolate his son. The boy saw religion as a gloomy means to control people’s behavior. As a teenager, Murray met John Wesley, who encouraged his protégé on the path to the Methodist ministry, and to read books John’s father had forbidden.
Murray started preaching. But several personal crises and family losses, combined with his growing doubts about John Wesley’s theology, propelled Murray into a state of despair. Believing there was a higher purpose in life for him, he left Ireland for England. John heard a sermon by George Whitefield and admired the preacher’s nondenominational, welcoming style. Whitefield soon asked Murray to preach at his Tabernacle in London, where John fell in love and married Eliza Neale.
James Relly, a Welsh preacher, was in London lecturing on universal salvation. As a good Methodist, John despised Relly, but found his arguments persuasive. Murray read Relly’s writings and found that his interpretation of the scriptures made sense. John and Eliza heard Relly preach and both were profoundly affected. John wrote in his autobiography: “It was clear that Christ Jesus died for all, for the sins of the whole world and that everyone must finally be saved…I conceived if I had an opportunity of conversing with the whole world, the whole world would be convinced. It might truly have been said, that we had a taste of heaven below.”
The Methodists expelled John from the Tabernacle.
John’s contentment with life ended abruptly when Eliza and their infant son died. Debt-ridden and despondent, Murray decided to leave the ministry and move to America. His ship ran aground, however, on a sandbar off the New Jersey coast. John went ashore in search of provisions and encountered a farmer named Thomas Potter. Potter had built a meetinghouse on his property for itinerant preachers and was waiting for one who embraced universal salvation. There was no doubt in Potter’s mind that God had sent John Murray for this purpose. He urged Murray to preach, but John refused, preferring to leave his past behind and sail on to New York as planned.
Potter warned Murray, “The wind will never change, sir, until you have delivered to us, in that meeting-house, a message from God.” And the wind remained calm for days until John believed in God’s intervening hand and he delivered a sermon. He felt his sense of calling and purpose return. Over the remainder of his life, Murray spread the Universalist message in America.
Whatever you call it — God, Yahweh, Allah, Nature, Synchronicity — we are all called by providence to heal and not to harm. To paraphrase a quote often attributed to Murray: Go out into the highways and by-ways. You may possess only a small light, but uncover it, let it shine, use it in order to bring more light and understanding to the hearts and minds of men and women. Give them, not hell, but hope and courage. Do not push them deeper into their theological despair, but preach kindness and everlasting love.
Saturday, May 18, 2013
Truth and Meaning: Cleverness
Truth and Meaning: Cleverness
We Americans consider ourselves a clever people. We equate education with knowledge and privilege with power. These are both false assumptions.
True wisdom doesn’t come from a book, but from a willingness to embrace unknowable mysteries and to acknowledge that we cannot know all of the answers. True power is not a birthright passed down through traditions, but is gained only when we use our inherent gifts of reason and intuition to discern our own truth and meaning in life.
We cannot come together through facts and figures, through clever arguments and debate, or through the uncritical application of ancient scriptures. We can only come together by putting aside materialistic and political concerns and by loving the divine within each of us.
We Americans consider ourselves a clever people. We equate education with knowledge and privilege with power. These are both false assumptions.
True wisdom doesn’t come from a book, but from a willingness to embrace unknowable mysteries and to acknowledge that we cannot know all of the answers. True power is not a birthright passed down through traditions, but is gained only when we use our inherent gifts of reason and intuition to discern our own truth and meaning in life.
Love is as the ark appointed for the righteous,Rumi is perhaps the best known adherent of Sufism, the inner and mystical dimension of Islam. Rumi’s writings remind us of the need to seek the divine spark within that connects us all with each other and with all existence.
Which annuls the danger and provides a way of escape.
Sell your cleverness and buy bewilderment;
Cleverness is mere opinion, bewilderment intuition.
-- from Book IV of The Masnavi, by Sufi Poet Jalal al-Din Muhammad Rumi
We cannot come together through facts and figures, through clever arguments and debate, or through the uncritical application of ancient scriptures. We can only come together by putting aside materialistic and political concerns and by loving the divine within each of us.
Saturday, May 11, 2013
Truth and Meaning: Mother's Day
Truth and Meaning: Mother's Day
After Unitarian Julia Ward Howe wrote The Battle Hymn of the Republic, the American Civil War raged on for four more bloody years. Five years later the Franco-Prussian War broke out in Europe and Howe acted. She began a one-woman global peace crusade, starting with an appeal to womanhood to rise against war. She went to London to promote an international Woman's Peace Congress. That effort failed, so she returned to Boston and initiated a Mothers' Peace Day observance on the second Sunday in June. That meeting was observed for a number of years.
There were other movements afoot to create a day honoring mothers. Ann Jarvis was a young Appalachian homemaker who tried to improve sanitation through what she called Mothers' Work Days before the Civil War. When Jarvis died in 1907, her daughter Anna worked to found a memorial day for women. The first such Mother's Day was celebrated in Grafton, West Virginia, on May 10, 1908, at St. Andrew’s Methodist Episcopal Church, where Anna’s mother had taught Sunday School. From there, the custom caught on and eventually spread to 45 states.
In 1913, Congress declared the second Sunday in May to be Mother's Day. The following year, President Woodrow Wilson made Mother’s Day a national holiday. This is long before radio and television, and advertising was still a new industry. But, the growing American consumer culture had successfully redefined women as buyers for their families. Politicians and businesses eagerly embraced the idea of celebrating the private sacrifices made by individual mothers. As the Florists' Review, the industry's trade journal, bluntly put it, "This was a holiday that could be exploited." The new advertising industry quickly taught Americans the best way to honor their mothers — by buying flowers.
Since then, Mother's Day has ballooned into a billion-dollar event. For those who appreciate irony, Anna Jarvis became increasingly concerned over the commercialization of Mother's Day, saying, "I wanted it to be a day of sentiment, not profit." She opposed the use of greeting cards, calling them "a poor excuse for the letter you are too lazy to write." In 1923, Jarvis filed suit against New York Gov. Al Smith, over a Mother's Day celebration. When the suit was dismissed, she began a public protest and was arrested for ... disturbing the peace.
This Mother's Day, let us disturb the peace for our mothers, our daughters and sisters, our wives and partners. Let us disturb the peace for an end to war, an end to attacks on health care, an end to efforts to undercut public education, and especially an end to a culture that endures and supports domestic violence and rape.
After Unitarian Julia Ward Howe wrote The Battle Hymn of the Republic, the American Civil War raged on for four more bloody years. Five years later the Franco-Prussian War broke out in Europe and Howe acted. She began a one-woman global peace crusade, starting with an appeal to womanhood to rise against war. She went to London to promote an international Woman's Peace Congress. That effort failed, so she returned to Boston and initiated a Mothers' Peace Day observance on the second Sunday in June. That meeting was observed for a number of years.
There were other movements afoot to create a day honoring mothers. Ann Jarvis was a young Appalachian homemaker who tried to improve sanitation through what she called Mothers' Work Days before the Civil War. When Jarvis died in 1907, her daughter Anna worked to found a memorial day for women. The first such Mother's Day was celebrated in Grafton, West Virginia, on May 10, 1908, at St. Andrew’s Methodist Episcopal Church, where Anna’s mother had taught Sunday School. From there, the custom caught on and eventually spread to 45 states.
In 1913, Congress declared the second Sunday in May to be Mother's Day. The following year, President Woodrow Wilson made Mother’s Day a national holiday. This is long before radio and television, and advertising was still a new industry. But, the growing American consumer culture had successfully redefined women as buyers for their families. Politicians and businesses eagerly embraced the idea of celebrating the private sacrifices made by individual mothers. As the Florists' Review, the industry's trade journal, bluntly put it, "This was a holiday that could be exploited." The new advertising industry quickly taught Americans the best way to honor their mothers — by buying flowers.
Since then, Mother's Day has ballooned into a billion-dollar event. For those who appreciate irony, Anna Jarvis became increasingly concerned over the commercialization of Mother's Day, saying, "I wanted it to be a day of sentiment, not profit." She opposed the use of greeting cards, calling them "a poor excuse for the letter you are too lazy to write." In 1923, Jarvis filed suit against New York Gov. Al Smith, over a Mother's Day celebration. When the suit was dismissed, she began a public protest and was arrested for ... disturbing the peace.
This Mother's Day, let us disturb the peace for our mothers, our daughters and sisters, our wives and partners. Let us disturb the peace for an end to war, an end to attacks on health care, an end to efforts to undercut public education, and especially an end to a culture that endures and supports domestic violence and rape.
Saturday, May 4, 2013
Truth and Meaning: Sharing Opinions
Truth and Meaning: Sharing Opinions
Midland Daily News staffer Chris Stevens is distressed that ESPN announcer Chris Broussard received angry replies to his comments regarding Jason Collins’ recent announcement that he is gay (“Who’s showing more courage – Broussard or Collins?” MDN, 5/1/2013). Stevens calls on us to air our opinions freely without the fear of being mocked, ridiculed, belittled or intimidated into silence.
I applaud this call to civility. This will certainly be a welcome change from, say, the last 2,000 years of human history. GLBT folk have been burned at the stake, herded into death camps, beaten and bullied by the millions. Gays, lesbians and their allies will welcome a conversation where they do not need to fear being mocked, ridiculed, belittled or intimidated into silence.
Perhaps appropriately, this call from a sports writer will challenge our fortitude and our conditioning. When people express scientific opinions that run counter to nearly every piece of available scientific information, it is hard not to mock or ridicule such an opinion. Few of us would respect someone who argued, for instance, that the earth was flat or that our planet resides at the center of the universe. And to date, the overwhelming preponderance of scientific research indicates that homosexuality is not a “lifestyle” choice, as Stevens labels it.
Unfortunately, opinions such as Mr Stevens' and Mr. Broussard’s have dominated the conversation for centuries, resulting in countless deaths and endless misery. Religious “opinions” based on biblical interpretations enslaved millions of Africans, abused and objectified every generation of women, started dozens of wars of conquest and colonization, and facilitated the widespread genocide of the world’s indigenous populations. The Broussard statements simply reflect one more example. Citing a handful of highly debatable Bible verses taken out of context and never intended to describe healthy, loving gay relationships hardly defends the expression of hurtful and oppressive opinions.
Stevens should spare us his righteous indignation when people point out the implications of these statements. When he uses his public forum to decry the “opinions” of the Westboro Baptist Church — who carry their vile and degrading signs everywhere they peddle their message of hate — then perhaps GLBT folk and their allies will respect his opinion more.
It is not intolerant to point out when someone is being intolerant. Refusing to tolerate intolerant judgments, such as those expressed by Chris Broussard, is a right and the duty of all religious people. For the Bible also says in Romans 2, “you have no excuse, whoever you are, when you judge others; for in passing judgment on another you condemn yourself, because you, the judge, are doing the very same things.”
Midland Daily News staffer Chris Stevens is distressed that ESPN announcer Chris Broussard received angry replies to his comments regarding Jason Collins’ recent announcement that he is gay (“Who’s showing more courage – Broussard or Collins?” MDN, 5/1/2013). Stevens calls on us to air our opinions freely without the fear of being mocked, ridiculed, belittled or intimidated into silence.
I applaud this call to civility. This will certainly be a welcome change from, say, the last 2,000 years of human history. GLBT folk have been burned at the stake, herded into death camps, beaten and bullied by the millions. Gays, lesbians and their allies will welcome a conversation where they do not need to fear being mocked, ridiculed, belittled or intimidated into silence.
Perhaps appropriately, this call from a sports writer will challenge our fortitude and our conditioning. When people express scientific opinions that run counter to nearly every piece of available scientific information, it is hard not to mock or ridicule such an opinion. Few of us would respect someone who argued, for instance, that the earth was flat or that our planet resides at the center of the universe. And to date, the overwhelming preponderance of scientific research indicates that homosexuality is not a “lifestyle” choice, as Stevens labels it.
Unfortunately, opinions such as Mr Stevens' and Mr. Broussard’s have dominated the conversation for centuries, resulting in countless deaths and endless misery. Religious “opinions” based on biblical interpretations enslaved millions of Africans, abused and objectified every generation of women, started dozens of wars of conquest and colonization, and facilitated the widespread genocide of the world’s indigenous populations. The Broussard statements simply reflect one more example. Citing a handful of highly debatable Bible verses taken out of context and never intended to describe healthy, loving gay relationships hardly defends the expression of hurtful and oppressive opinions.
Stevens should spare us his righteous indignation when people point out the implications of these statements. When he uses his public forum to decry the “opinions” of the Westboro Baptist Church — who carry their vile and degrading signs everywhere they peddle their message of hate — then perhaps GLBT folk and their allies will respect his opinion more.
It is not intolerant to point out when someone is being intolerant. Refusing to tolerate intolerant judgments, such as those expressed by Chris Broussard, is a right and the duty of all religious people. For the Bible also says in Romans 2, “you have no excuse, whoever you are, when you judge others; for in passing judgment on another you condemn yourself, because you, the judge, are doing the very same things.”
Sunday, April 28, 2013
Truth and Meaning: For the Love of God
Truth and Meaning: For the Love of God
I recently saw a posting on Facebook that read, “Never forget that God only gives you what He knows you can handle. There is no situation that you are experiencing alone. God walks beside you, always.” My initial reaction was anger — rage that anyone should presume to offer simplistic slogans to people justified in feeling that God has forsaken them. Women abused by violent husbands and told that they are worthless, pushed to the brink of desperation. Teenagers bullied for being gay, or for refusing to conform to social norms, or just for being different who see suicide as their only escape. Children all across the world dying of hunger, drinking dirty and parasite-ridden water because of senseless wars, political corruption, racial discrimination, and greedy manipulation of natural resources.
But then I remembered Viktor Frankl’s incredible book, “Man’s Search for Meaning,” in which he described his experiences in Nazi concentration camps. A belief in a god of love has indeed helped millions overcome great trials and strife over the centuries. So, regardless of my personal lack of belief in a creator who oversees and intervenes in our lives, I still appreciate that many people derive tremendous strength from the love of a higher power that offers them meaning and hope.
I can’t help thinking, however, that we can be far more than passive receptors of divine love. Just as it is wrong to lay the blame for all that is wrong with the world on god’s doorstep, it is equally wrong to automatically attribute all goodness and love to him. And the fact is, few of us today are doing all that we can to spread love in the world.
If we truly want to create a culture of understanding, then we need to concentrate less on our different opinions about the existence or nature of god, and more on the everyday welfare of our brothers and sisters, and on the future we are bequeathing our children. In reality, we are all viewing the same spirit of life and love that we know by many names. We just see that spirit through different lenses, through different windows into the mysteries of existence.
Regardless of my pious preachings and my prayerful proclamations at weekly worship services, I fail as a religious person if I do not do everything I can to help that desperate and abused woman, that teenager considering suicide, or that emaciated child. All of the love for god we express means nothing to the hopeless victims of our indifference if we insist on filtering that love through our personal lenses alone.
I recently saw a posting on Facebook that read, “Never forget that God only gives you what He knows you can handle. There is no situation that you are experiencing alone. God walks beside you, always.” My initial reaction was anger — rage that anyone should presume to offer simplistic slogans to people justified in feeling that God has forsaken them. Women abused by violent husbands and told that they are worthless, pushed to the brink of desperation. Teenagers bullied for being gay, or for refusing to conform to social norms, or just for being different who see suicide as their only escape. Children all across the world dying of hunger, drinking dirty and parasite-ridden water because of senseless wars, political corruption, racial discrimination, and greedy manipulation of natural resources.
But then I remembered Viktor Frankl’s incredible book, “Man’s Search for Meaning,” in which he described his experiences in Nazi concentration camps. A belief in a god of love has indeed helped millions overcome great trials and strife over the centuries. So, regardless of my personal lack of belief in a creator who oversees and intervenes in our lives, I still appreciate that many people derive tremendous strength from the love of a higher power that offers them meaning and hope.
I can’t help thinking, however, that we can be far more than passive receptors of divine love. Just as it is wrong to lay the blame for all that is wrong with the world on god’s doorstep, it is equally wrong to automatically attribute all goodness and love to him. And the fact is, few of us today are doing all that we can to spread love in the world.
If we truly want to create a culture of understanding, then we need to concentrate less on our different opinions about the existence or nature of god, and more on the everyday welfare of our brothers and sisters, and on the future we are bequeathing our children. In reality, we are all viewing the same spirit of life and love that we know by many names. We just see that spirit through different lenses, through different windows into the mysteries of existence.
Regardless of my pious preachings and my prayerful proclamations at weekly worship services, I fail as a religious person if I do not do everything I can to help that desperate and abused woman, that teenager considering suicide, or that emaciated child. All of the love for god we express means nothing to the hopeless victims of our indifference if we insist on filtering that love through our personal lenses alone.
Sunday, April 21, 2013
Truth and Meaning: War and Peace
Truth and Meaning: War and Peace
As a pacifist, I generally resist using war rhetoric and metaphors. So I am hesitant to claim that we are at war. I don’t mean Iraq or Afghanistan, Syria or Yemen, or the countless other American incursions across the globe.
We, each and every one of us in Michigan and in the United States, are at war — a domestic war for the soul of America. The enemy arrayed before us is vast and powerful. The forces we face include:
I have faith that we do. In his autobiography, Gandhi said, “When I despair, I remember that all through history the way of truth and love has always won. There have been tyrants and murderers and for a time they seem invincible but in the end, they always fall.” Gandhi freed a nation from colonial rule without raising a gun, a hand, even his voice in anger. Martin Luther King Jr. freed a people with nothing more than words, energy and conviction. From Seneca Falls to Selma to Stonewall, the ways of truth and love have emerged victorious in our history.
In order to emerge victorious, we must have courage. We must transcend boundaries of belief and unite behind the power of reason and faith in the inherent worth and dignity of all people. And we must always act out of love. I dream of a day when we will all live in loving service to each other, in a place where we are united by our wondrous differences. I dream of a land where no one wants for basic needs; where greed, misogyny, homophobia, ignorance and indifference are banished; and all are free to pursue their heart’s dream free of hate and violence. I dream of total peace.
As a pacifist, I generally resist using war rhetoric and metaphors. So I am hesitant to claim that we are at war. I don’t mean Iraq or Afghanistan, Syria or Yemen, or the countless other American incursions across the globe.
We, each and every one of us in Michigan and in the United States, are at war — a domestic war for the soul of America. The enemy arrayed before us is vast and powerful. The forces we face include:
- Greed — the belief that privatizing schools, prisons, even local government can produce anything other than corruption and abuse.
- Misogyny — the conviction that women are primarily objects for the sexual gratification of men and disposable vessels for the unborn.
- Homophobia — the assertion that gays, lesbians, bisexuals and transgender folk are damaged and dangerous and must be treated as subhuman.
- Ignorance — the rejection of science and reason when they do not support blind faith, immediate gratification of needs and dogmatic views.
- Indifference — the hopelessness of masses of people who feel powerless to stand up and fight for their self-determination.
- Arrogance — a petulant self-righteousness that allows them to stampede any opposing point of view and to stymie any attempt at rational discourse, compromise or legislation.
- Wealth — endless finances devoted to corrupting politicians and influencing organizations to create the appearance of representing the voice of the people.
- Violence — a cold and heartless worship of weapons; suppression of our basic freedoms of speech, religious liberty and assembly; and use of brute military force to answer all problems.
- Hate — an evil attitude manifested from the belief that privilege equates to rightness; that rich, straight, white men control our nation because they are somehow inherently superior.
I have faith that we do. In his autobiography, Gandhi said, “When I despair, I remember that all through history the way of truth and love has always won. There have been tyrants and murderers and for a time they seem invincible but in the end, they always fall.” Gandhi freed a nation from colonial rule without raising a gun, a hand, even his voice in anger. Martin Luther King Jr. freed a people with nothing more than words, energy and conviction. From Seneca Falls to Selma to Stonewall, the ways of truth and love have emerged victorious in our history.
In order to emerge victorious, we must have courage. We must transcend boundaries of belief and unite behind the power of reason and faith in the inherent worth and dignity of all people. And we must always act out of love. I dream of a day when we will all live in loving service to each other, in a place where we are united by our wondrous differences. I dream of a land where no one wants for basic needs; where greed, misogyny, homophobia, ignorance and indifference are banished; and all are free to pursue their heart’s dream free of hate and violence. I dream of total peace.
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