Obama's Service for Grandmother at UU

It is not too often that a very famous person brings the Unitarian Universalist faith into public view. President Elect Obama's mother used to attend East Shore Unitarian in Bellevue WA, where I did my internship. They elected to have her mother's memorial at the Unitarian Church in Hawaii--Honolulu. Here is a U tube video of it, showing the building...


http://www.kitv.com/video/18350671/index.html

Being Snowed In

I admit it, I love being snowed in. The spiritual question I often ponder about myself is, "do I have to be busy?" for the works of a minister are never done. Do I like always having more good works to do? Am I dependent upon such a life style? So when the snow falls, and services get cancelled, as they did all over King County last Sunday, it was a chance to test my spiritual needs.

I love the continual fire in the fireplace, watching snowflakes fall. I love good music and good reading, and finally really watching the Netflix movie that has been on the coffee table...this is our sixth day of being snowed in...the slower pace is delightful. I even made chocolate chip cookies yesterday...imagine taking time for that...and now my puppy is joyfully entertaining us by throwing around her toys and chasing them. What a delight she is.

I love my ministry and my congregation, but a little mini sabbatical is a good thing. How about you?

Can the Pope Become More Irrelevant?

The headlines of an English newspaper implied that the Pope in an address for Christmas to his staff, perhaps a pep talk to them for the new year, said: "'Saving' humanity from homosexual or transsexual behaviour is just as important as saving the rainforests." My immediate response was doesn't he have anything more relevant to say at Christmas? Now I investigate further and find out that the paper largely exaggerated what was said. He actually said "marriage is another aspect of the planet that needs saving." Well ok, he could be saying a lot of things with that...stop living together without a ceremony, have more babies, or...stop finding someone of same sex to love....

I guess I still have to say...isn't there something more important to worry about? Wouldn't it be better to explore more deeply the needs people have for intimacy, and the beauty of the diversity for how we experience it? More affirmation, less condemnation? Seems like he is continuing to be irrelevant with so much poverty, global environment, and war in our midst.

He already has urged his Catholic followers to simplify their lives, become less materialistic....can't he see the irony here? Wouldn't he have to sell the Vatican riches and give the proceeds to the poor before anyone could possibly take him seriously?

If I ever wondered if I made the right decision to leave the Roman Catholic Church, I don't now. (Actually I never have second guessed that decision.) It seems to me that these kinds of pronouncements are keeping people from God, not taking them closer...for God, or ultimate wisdom, Truth with a capital T is about recognizing our common ground, not creating distance between us...it's about our oneness, not our fear of difference. It's about the joy and beauty of the bouquet of humanity, the different colors, cultures and orientations...what is to fear in that? Unless you are insecure, need control, need others to think as you do...

--well ok, we all are insecure, need control and need others to agree with us, but when you are the Pope, or any other kind of clergy you have a spiritual, ethical obligation to keep those amigdular needs under control so that you help god continue to reveal beauty and truth through the lives of all people, particularly those in minority groups.

I know, I just live in a different paradigm...

The Warren Invocation

Obama's appointments to cabinet posts have been fabulous, with record numbers of racial minority appointments, and a 1/3 women...

And I really respect the idea of not cutting communication with people who are not on the same side of issues...that's going to be important both domestically and internationally...so the fact that he went looking for an evangelical person to do an invocation is ok by me, though I think a rabbi would have been a good choice too...but given an evangelical, he could have chosen one who has no respect for the environment and who only is hell bent for "rapture." But instead he chose a person who is working hard to make this place on earth a healthier place. Warren's environmental, HIV, and other charitable leadership is admirable.

But Warren is a segregationist. I doubt Obama would have considered a minister who had on their website that Black people need not come to his church. And yet he has offered this big honor to someone who excludes "unrepentant" gay people from his church. I really wonder if Obama realized this was any deeper than just a disagreement about attitudes about gay marriage? I'd like to think Obama was ignorant, because I would be despondent to think Obama would have made this move knowing what Warran's fuller attitudes on GLBT are.

What I dislike about Warran the most is how he is so ignorant and stereotyping of gay people, referring to bestiality and assuming multiple partners. Heck, I hardly know any gay people who aren't monogamous, though I know a whole lot of straight people who have multiple partners. I recognize Warren is doing some good things in his life with regard to charities, but offering this honor to Warran is a real kick in the teeth to gay and lesbian people.

I'm sure Obama has heard about this by now...I just wish he had invited an evangelical flute choir to march in the parade and had an invocation by a rabbi or a UCC minister...I know he couldn't have invited a Unitarian Universalist--that would have been just too inclusive...

I hope this is the last time Obama is rude to my dear gay friends.

Local Community Radio

It seems like it is a constant theme, the big corporations fearing the little guys...do they really have to be so greedy? Well, I guess that isn't the question, but come on! This time it is a subject close to my heart and to the heart of democracy...the actions of the FCC and how it roles over for the large media conglomerates that are afraid little local radio stations will interfere with their airwaves. Congress delayed approving local radio stations, deciding instead to order the FCC to have independent researchers test the interference of local radio. Bingo, no problem!

Now Congress needs to pass the Local Community Radio Act--which will increase local voices and choices, and will enhance our democracy. Our democracy depends upon diverse opinions being shared and discussed. It is diminished when free press is pressured to slant news or not cover news...all in service to the bottom line, worshipping the dollar.

So let's go Congress; I know you are busy trying to"fix" the other money grubbing financial mess, but this one is easy to fix...

Racism, Language and Progress

Whenever we are clearly making progress on social dynamics such as racism, we can always expect to get some ugly behavior popping up. When Georgia Republican Lynn Westmoreland called the Obamas "uppidy" he was using the good ol' south racist meaning of the word, applied to Blacks who have the odacity to do well for themselves, in this case have Harvard degrees, get elected to the Senate, have lovely family values. Being uppidy used to be cause for getting killed, lynched, or at least severely beaten up.

Republicans aren't the only ones nervous about a "Black" who could become our President. Demos can be just as racist...but my heart goes out to Obama who has to walk a fine line between being articulate and wise, and being "too" articulate and wise. Kinda like Margaret Fuller, one of our UU Transcendentalists in the 1800's who felt the cultural pressure to dumb down her intelligence if she wanted to get a man in her life. She didn't dumb down, and ended up being one of our nation's first women foreign correspondents, and falling in love with an Italian revolutionary. Good for her.

And thank you Senator Obama for being such a wonderful role model for all children, white and black...yellow....brown...and mixed, as you are.

"Privatizing Gains, Socializing Losses"

I heard a good phrase today...about the terrible economic mess we are in...it described the mess as a process of "privatizing gains, socializing losses." Doesn't that just about say it all? Big oil ships dump their oil, we the public and the marine life take the losses; Enron declares bankruptcy amidst criminal charges, and it's employees lose their retirement; we go to war on false pretenses, Halburton gets rich, the American public bankrupts its children; banks act stupid, executives make lots of money, and now we bail them out. Privatizing gains, socializing losses.

can the American public get that? Or are we indeed a nation of (sorry Garrison Keillor) really below average people?

I'm practicing breathing in and breathing out...

He's Clear...and Arrogant

Rush Limbaugh just landed a huge contract renewal of $400 million dollars to continue his radio talk. Wonder what he does with his money. Has he set up any charitable foundations to help children's health or young people get an education? If anyone knows what he does with his money, let me know.

In the meantime, Rush says he'll keep being the voice of conservatives: "I'm not retiring until every American agrees with me." Well that's clear...and arrogant, and devoid of any respect for others' opinions, and blind of the dynamic and beauty of when diverse opinions are shared and understood, a higher wisdom is possible. So many conservatives protesteth too mucheth...with their statements of surity, and then we find out their undercover life of prescription drugs and prostitutes. We'll see what the next chapter of Rush's life reveals.

Perhaps we need Rush Limbaughs, who voice what some think...who put it out there for us to evaluate, for us to define our values, in contrast, more sharply. And to see if there is any meeting ground. Meeting ground is tough to find when he dismisses other people's reality and truth as simply wrong...and so I am challenged to not do the same to him.

What must it be like to be Rush? His very statement separates himself from others. What would it take to have him become part of the rest of us, related to the rest of us, humble in our awareness that we all strive and stumble, and pick ourselves up with the help of our friends. Humble in knowing that we don't know it all, and also grateful that we don't for to "know it all" would create an isolation from others, a not needing of others except maybe to use them, which for me would be a spiritual death. What must it be like to see yourself as the All Knowing One?

The Loss of Tim Russert

I am deeply moved by the effects of the death of Tim Russert. It seems that everyone he interacted with was touched by his compassionate way of being. I put together a chalice lighting with his words to his son,good wisdom to share with any teenager:

Remember, son, you are always loved, but also remember that you are never entitled.
The world doesn't owe you a favor, you owe the world to live a giving and meaningful life.
The best experience of the human heart is to reach down and help someone up.
Work Hard.
Laugh Often.
Keep Your Honor.

Thank you Tim.

Vatican Excommunication of Ordained Women

We all have questions about where we belong, but sometimes it gets easy. Yesterday's Vatican edict of excommunication of any bishop ordaining a woman, or of any woman being ordained makes it clear that they don't want women to share sacred leadership. Of course we have known that forever, but it is always fascinating to watch the dynamics between Rome and its people. Such edicts makes the Roman church's identity clear, and helps its leadership, both men and women, to discern where they really belong.

The question I was faced with in the late 1960's was whether I would stay with the church and try to reform it, or leave. I am so grateful that I was able to cut loose of that church in my early 20's.

How good it is that my current faith tradition, Unitarian Universalism (UU), put that matter of ordination of women to rest in the mid 1800's. We have so many needs in this world, to assure the world's very survival, that it is refreshing to belong to a faith that I don't have to apologize for--it is so great to have as our first UU principle the worth and dignity of all people. We can concentrate on deepening our understanding of what that means in our daily life, discovering our current blinders, rather than putting up barriers to the dignity of woman. Below, the press release about the Vatican:

Vatican, May. 30, 2008 (CWNews.com) - The Vatican has announced that
any Catholic bishop who attempts the ordination of a woman to the
priesthood, and any woman who participates in such a ceremony, is
subject to automatic excommunication.
The decree from the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith,
published in the May 30 issue of L'Osservatore Romano, takes effect
immediately and applies throughout the universal Church. The document
was signed by Cardinal William Levada and Archbishop Angelo Amato,
the prefect and secretary, respectively, of the Congregation.
"Both the one who attempts to confer a sacred order on a woman, and
the woman who attempts to receive a sacred order, incurs
excommunication latae sententiae."

Rev. Wright, Obama, and Freedom of the Pew

This is a message I delivered on Easter Sunday after a week of hullabulu regarding pastors and presidential candidates--

Before I preach today, I was wondering…do any of you plan to run for President? (chuckles and laughter)

Without in any way implying who is the best candidate for President,

I’d like to shed some light on the controversy about Rev. Jeremiah Wright and his parishioner Barak Obama…because it has implications for us and we need to understand our covenant together….

You see, some religious people believe that what the pastor says confines the minds of those in the pews…a belief that could be because they have not known anything different…

Clergy do attempt to define the beliefs and values of the pew in certain orthodox/hierarchical faiths where edicts are read to the faithful on a Sunday morning, even to the extent of implying how to vote on certain political initiatives…

but that is not true of those faith communities whose authority structure is congregational…each congregation being independent of any higher authority…Rev. Wright is a United Church of Christ Congregational minister…Obama doesn’t have to agree with his minister—which is called freedom of the pew! and his pastor has freedom of the pulpit…that is the way with their denomination, and it is the way with ours, and some Baptist congregations—in fact Mike Huckabee, who is a Baptist minister did explain this because he understands it and has lived it.

The secular world does not understand the relationship of the free pulpit and free pew, formed by a sacred agreement, a covenant, that creates a spiritual entity, a congregation, out of a simple grouping of individuals. It is an issue deeper and wider than political free speech.

The controversy that arose this week is a result of several factors: 1) ignorance of this covenant or that it even exists, 2) a lack of knowledge about the cultural depth and meaning of African American prophetic preaching style 3) an assumption that dogmatic preaching is the only way, 4) a conscious attack upon our liberal religious protestant way, 5) not to mention the obvious political motivations.

I never in my right mind thought that all of you would ever all agree with any one of my sermon points! That’s just not very Unitarian Universalist.

Any minister who takes some risks with their sermons would be vulnerable to quotes taken out of context. I would not expect you to ever have to defend me or renounce me or leave the congregation if you didn’t agree with me!

What I do hope is that I give you something to think and feel about that is relevant in your life…that helps you to continue to know yourself more deeply whether because you agree or you disagree, and that you will hear something that motivates you to share our commonly held values of working for more understanding, love and justice in our world.

That said, let me know if you are planning to run for office!

Warmly, Peg