Hello. I am excited to be here this morning with you. I look forward to meeting many of you virtually over the upcoming year with activities that I will be leading and hope you can join me in these contemplations on spirituality.
As Unitarian Universalists, there are no two same paths in a spiritual identity. My own spiritual formation incorporates influences of Hindu gurus, New Thought traditions, and transcendental meditation of my youth, my own connection to nature through my whole life, introduction to Buddhism and Unitarian Universalism in college, the classical music of composers Thomas deHartman and George Gurdjieff, Rumi poems, and I know I am not alone in including the exposure to a Grateful Dead show, for me at the age of 18 in Eugene OR. We connect to things outside ourselves, often in symbols, images, association with others, and our senses.
And like other UUs, my own spiritual identity includes social and environmental justice, which is a spiritual path for me that has included becoming an environmental activist, an anti-war protester, an advocate for LGBTQ+ rights, and more recently as a counter-protestor in Charlottesville VA in 2017, working with Christian clergy in inter-faith activism. My experience in Charlottesville as a counter protester to the Unite the Right neo-nazi rally is what ultimately solidified my decision to apply to divinity school to become a minister. My call to ministry has been the compounding witness to the suffering of our planet, our communities, and neighbors who continue to encounter injustice and harm done by those who obtain power.
I can hold social activism and my spiritual traditions under the “beliefs” of Unitarian Universalism—none of it contradicts any other aspect within our faith. Yet, social justice is a key common denominator for each of us within the UU faith, which is stated in the seven principles of Unitarian Universalism.
The 7 principles of Unitarian Universalism spiritually binds us in our common experience for a more just and equitable world. The 3rd principle is “Acceptance of one another and encouragement to spiritual growth in our congregations,” which supports each other in exploring our own meaning of spirituality and personal faith. Unitarian Universalist thought doesn’t have one principle that contradicts another, including the 6th and 7th principles, which state: “The goal of world community with peace, liberty, and justice for all; and Respect for the interdependent web of all existence of which we are a part.”
This reminds me of what Buddhist Rev. angel Kyodo Williams says– “Love and Justice are not two. Without inner change, there can be no outer change. Without collective change, no change matters.”
If we believe what she says– that “Without collective change, no change matters,” we begin to see that the consequence for this is that our individual identities are intricately linked to collective identities in our interdependent web of life that our 7th principle states.
Rev. Schuyler Vogel from 4th Universalist Church in NYC gave a lecture at the most recent annual UU General Assembly. It is titled “Individual salvation, collective liberation.” He questioned if individual salvation was at all possible without collective liberation. In Buddhism, there is the Bodhisattva principle that as Buddhists, it our responsibility to support the liberation of all before any notion of liberating the concept of an individualized “self.”
Santideva, an esteemed Buddhist monk from the 8th Century, has said in the Buddhist classic “The Way of the Bodhisattva” “All the suffering in the world comes from seeking pleasure for oneself. All the happiness in the world comes from seeking pleasure for others.”
The idea of an interdependent web of “community” extends beyond any sense of individuality. We pursue our own spiritual questioning and support each other’s AND at the same time support equality and justice for all—we can’t exclude one principle for another. Because social justice is such an important part of our collective identity, it must be part of our individual identity—one is linked to the other in of our collective community.
Talking about social justice some more:
We can look at injustice in our lifetimes to see where justice is needed. George Floyd, Brianna Taylor, Elijah McClain, and countless other Blacks in this country continue to die under white supremacy of this country, victims of crimes against humanity taking the forms of modern day lynchings. We have also seen injustices against our LGBTQ+ community in our lifetimes and before our lifetimes.
Rachel, otherwise known as Ben Schatz, is a founding member in the early 90s of a group called the Kinsey Sicks (a dragapella group—that is, an acapella group performing in Drag). They perform live across the country for the last 30 years and now have viral videos across social media. They are advocates for LGBTQ+ rights through their performance art. Rachel did a live monologue in 2018 that was re-released on social media last month, stating that this particular video was being re-released in solidarity with Black Lives Matter. As an attorney for LGBTQ+ rights, Rachel describes how her life, as Ben Schatz, didn’t have the ability to help everyone seeking Ben’s expertise in the midst of the AIDS crisis, as people fought to stay alive, while getting kicked out of their homes, losing their jobs, and losing their insurance plans. Rachel continues to state in the monologue that in the midst of the 80s, of the AIDS crisis in San Francisco:
“If I travelled just a few miles away from it all it was like it wasn’t even happening at all…it was like Syria was right across the street, but nobody noticed…More than the pain of all the dying was the realization of how many people wanted us to die…they wanted us to suffer and disappear. We were just left to die…When all we wanted was to stay alive…we don’t hear much about that now… Every person we kept alive in those years…We insisted on our worth. Gay marriage? I love gay marriage. But that right was won on the backs of 100s of thousands of dead gay men. The best of my generation, whose dying pierced our invisibility…
She continues “Historic events change our lives and we are living through an historic event. And we have the responsibility to shape that event and not just watch it happen. For so many people government is this abstract distant thing. But that thing determines who lives and who dies, who matters, and who is just shit. Ask the folks of Flint Michigan, ask the people in Puerto Rico. Ask the infants and toddlers ripped from their parents at the border by a government who didn’t care enough to track from where they are or even who they are.”
She fiercely states that it isn’t the LGBTQ+ community that should have ever carried the weight of shame—clearly suggesting that those who should be ashamed are those who used the fear of AIDS in atrocious homophobic acts, but also those that sat quietly by and complicit, and those who have privilege and never used it to care for others who were suffering. It is no different in how those of us who have privilege and don’t use it in evil racist acts that are happening to our black brothers and sisters, our Native American brothers and sisters, whose land was stolen from them along with genocide and are subject to ongoing injustices, to the ongoing crimes that continue against our LGBTQ+ community, and the inhumane acts happening against our house-less, who are across the street in every community here in Portland and across the country.
For those who have not been at the church since covid escalated, across the street is a more permanent and sizable homeless camp at SW Main and 13th. I can’t help think of Rachel’s voice, saying our human crisis is across the street. As a new Oregonian, I can’t help but see the plight of homelessness with every drive I make across this city. And once I see, what will I do?
As Rachel says, government rules (and enforcement of those rules) determine who lives and who dies. We have an option to connect with one another to make change that matters to each other. There are varied ways in how we connect to move forward in creating a more just, equitable, and loving world for each other.
Rev. Schuyler Vogel also said in a recent sermon: ally-ship and “solidarity [are] not just talk and protests. We white people are good at those things, but it is not enough. It is not enough, unless we show up a month after the press stop showing up to our vigils,…it’s not enough unless we call our elected officials up again and again and again and again to demand that black and brown people stop dying at the hands, knees, and guns of police, until the streets are just and safe.”
Related to social justice and spiritual guides, I want to bring up the work of “allies” a bit. There has been a lot of discussion in various communities about being an Ally, whether it is an ally to communities of color, indigenous people, our LGBTQ+ community, our poor, and other historically and currently marginalized people.
If we believe as a congregation that our spiritual path is linked to a moral conscience, as it relates to social justice and equality for all, I am personally convinced that as a privileged person with power in our relative society, as I am white, heterosexual, and within a certain class, then I can’t stop at what feels comfortable for myself. If what I feel to be true is only linked to my own subjective privileged experience, how do I move beyond the inertia?
We talk about privileged groups being allies to others, but if social justice and oppression of others is linked to spiritual growth, I believe privileged individuals/groups need their own allies to grow. In other words, we all need allies for support. I need ally-ship to see where my blinders are, and to see where I am stuck so that I can move forward in a world of collective liberation.
We often don’t do our own individual spiritual questioning and searches in solo boxes. We rely on ministers, authors, or friends and family that help shape our views of the world and where we have sought guidance in evolving our views. As members of any community, we are always learning from one another. If we feel there is no growth to be done and no more learning from friends without continuing to seek out those who inspire us, what does spiritual development mean if we are always at our own subjective boundaries?
Those who I have considered teachers and guides over the last couple of years have included Buddhists Rev. angel Kyodo Williams and Lama Rod Owens, Rev. William Barber of the Poor People’s Campaign, among others. Since then, I also follow other non-Caucasian and non-hetero ministers that challenge me every week on what it means for me to be someone who is in a position of privilege and how I choose to use that privilege every day. These spiritual leaders make it very clear to me the artificial divide of individual liberation versus collective liberation and what actions can be taken to be a contributor to a more compassionate and just world.
Growth occurs when I push through inert boundaries—sometimes a Rumi poem, sometimes through a meditation, sometimes experience through activism, but always with the influence of others. If anyone plays an instrument, has learned a 2nd language, or got through calculus in high-school, we understand through experience what passing boundaries, in a trajectory of growth, feels like.
I know our congregations have members already responding in a myriad of ways, but has there ever been a point where there has been enough engagement, and where the work has been sufficient enough for justice? How do we support each other to do more, to see how justice for one, is justice for us all?
Here in Portland OR, I have been one of many here at the church engaging in the protest for Black Lives Matter and against police brutality. This last week our congregation is a proud co-sponsor with the Western States Center as Plaintiffs against the federal government regarding abuse of power.
George Floyd, Brianna Taylor, Elijah McClain, and all the other killings of black fathers, mothers, siblings, daughters, and sons who have died through a white supremacy culture in crimes against Blacks and LGBTQ+ people isn’t a society that Unitarian Universalists at all would condone.
How does all this connect to our own spiritual identities and our identities as UUs? And what can we do to push through our own inert boundaries of comfort to make this world a more just and compassionate place? For each of us that answer may be different. We have a responsibility to do more, so that the sins of racism, classism, and homophobia don’t become our sins through complacency and privilege, so that meaningful and substantial change can take place. After the supportive words, good thoughts, prayers, and protests, what are we going to do next?
The lawsuit against the federal government is one of those things that our congregation is doing next. How do we each individually and spiritually show up for each other in these days?
Our congregation already has a strong history of social justice, so what can I do to help the important work that you do, that has critical impact in our community?
How do we show up for each other in our Unitarian Universalist community? We can grow, support, love, and nurture each other on our paths of inter-connectedness and at the crossroads of social justice and our unique spiritual searches. We are in community together, supporting one another and learning from one another, helping one another in our unique lives.
We can delve into our own individual spiritual identities to find strength, motivation, love for the universe and this world, and faith to contribute to the interconnectedness of our humanity to liberate the collective whole. We transform together—our individual silos are penetrated by each other in ongoing new experiences—in meditation, in connection, and being together in community. We transform with each other–on an adventure together in collective liberation.
Amen.
Topics: Identity