Happy for No Reason

I'm not perky. That may not be a shock to you. I have a dark sense of humor. My wit can sometimes be edgy. My wardrobe is 98% black, and I do get excited, but you may not be able to tell. Those are just the positive bits of my personality. Even worse, this is the last day of Happiness Happens month and it went unnoticed.

I haven't always known that I wasn't perky. In college a few of us decided we were tired of the rules and hypocrisy in our Catholic dormitory and rented a large five-bedroom apartment. This was an amazing time for us all. Those roommates remain dear friends today. We had an extra room and decided to rent it. We gave it to the first person that came along.

Her name was Desiree. How do I describe Desiree? She was the tooth fairy, tinker bell, and a smidgen of Mr. Rogers rolled into one big pink lace ball of Glenda the good witch. She wore roller skates and cracked bubble gum. Worse, she was perky. She rose early singing and giggled her way through every second of the day. I once teased her by telling her she could have been hit by a bus and she would have gotten up, skipped to the bus door, and thank the driver for reminding her to be more careful. She might even had paid him to fix the dent in the bus. You get my drift. After nearly 25 years Desiree and I remain friends and she is still perky and I still roll my eyes at her perpetual excitement.

 

I studied Desiree’s behavior. How could she be happy for no reason? She taught me that I wasn't perky but also that I wasn’t unhappy, but could experience more happiness. She taught me about a practice. The practice of being happy. I learned that this practice involved letting go of attachments in this life. Our attachments are a feeling that binds one to a person, thing, cause, or ideal no matter how destructive they are to ourselves and our relationships. Aristotle said: "Happiness is the meaning and the purpose of life, the whole aim and end of human existence." I believe this. One of my Facebook friends posted a beautiful photo and quote from the American spiritual teacher and author Ram Dass. It reads "our journey is about being more deeply involved in life yet less attached to it.” Again, "our journey is about being more deeply involved in life yet less attached to it." His holiness the Dali llama writes, “Most of our troubles are due to our passionate desire for and attachment to things that we misapprehend as enduring entities.” How might we practice being deeply involved in life while minding our attachments?

If there’s one thing we all have in common it’s that we want to feel happy; and on the other side of that coin, we want to avoid hurting. Yet we consistently put ourselves in situations that set us up for pain. We pin our happiness to people, circumstances, and things and hold onto them for dear life. We stress about the possibility of losing them when something seems amiss. Then we melt into grief when something changes — a layoff, a breakup, a change. We attach to feelings as if they define us, and ironically, not just positive ones. If you’ve wallowed in regret or disappointment for years, it can seem safe and even comforting to suffer. In trying to hold on to what’s familiar, we limit our ability to experience joy in the present.

A moment can’t possibly radiate fully when you’re suffocating it in fear. When you stop trying to grasp, own, and control the world around you, you give it the freedom to fulfill you without the power to destroy you. That’s why letting go is so important: letting go is letting happiness in. It’s no simple undertaking to let go of attachment — not a one-time decision. Instead, it’s a day-to-day, moment-to-moment practice that involves changing the way you experience and interact with everything you instinctively want to grasp. It’s the practice that Desiree taught me.

What is involved in the practice of letting go of our attachments? How do we experience life without attachments? How to we let go of our attachments to people, feelings, our past, and results we believe we can control? The Zen tradition tells us:

Accept the moment for what it is. Don’t try to turn it into yesterday; that moment’s gone. Don’t plot about how you can make the moment last forever. Just seep into the moment and enjoy it because it will eventually pass. Nothing is permanent. Fighting that reality will only cause you pain.

Believe now is enough. It’s true — tomorrow may not look the same as today, no matter how much you try to control it. A relationship might end. You might have to move. You’ll deal with those moments when they come. All you need right now is to appreciate and enjoy what you have. It’s enough.

Call yourself out. Learn what it looks like to grasp at people, things, or circumstances so you can redirect your thoughts when they veer toward attachment. When you dwell on keeping, controlling, manipulating, or losing something instead of simply experiencing it.

Define yourself in fluid terms. We are all constantly evolving and growing. Define yourself in terms that can withstand change. Defining yourself by possessions, roles, and relationships breeds attachment because loss entails losing not just what you have, but also who you are.

Enjoy now fully. No matter how much time you have in an experience or with someone you love, it will never feel like enough. So don’t think about it in terms of quantity — aim for quality, instead. Attach to the idea of living well moment-to-moment. That’s an attachment that can do you no harm.

Friend yourself. It will be harder to let people go when necessary if you depend on them for your sense of worth. Believe you’re worthy whether someone else tells you or not. This way, you relate to people — not just how they make you feel about yourself.

Go it alone sometimes. Take time to foster your own interests, ones that nothing and no one can take away. Don’t let them hinge on anyone or anything other than your values and passion.

Hold lightly. This one isn’t just about releasing attachments — it’s also about maintaining healthy relationships. Contrary to romantic notions, you are not someone’s other half. You’re separate and whole. You can still hold someone to close to your heart; just remember, if you squeeze too tightly, you’ll both be suffocated.

Interact with lots of people. If you limit yourself to one or two relationships they will seem like your lifelines. Everyone needs people, and there are billions on the planet. Stay open to new connections. Accept the possibility your future involves a lot of love whether you cling to a select few people or not.

Justify less. I can’t let him go — I’ll be miserable without him. I’d die if I lost her — she’s all that I have. These thoughts reinforce beliefs that are not fact, even if they feel like it. The only way to let go and feel less pain is to believe you’re strong enough to carry on if and when things change.

Know you can’t change the past. Even if you think about over and over again. Even if you punish yourself. Even if you refuse to accept it. It’s done. The only way to relieve your pain about what happened is to give yourself relief. No one and nothing else can create peace in your head for you.

Love instead of fearing. When you hold onto the past, it often has to do with fear: fear you messed up your chance at happiness, or fear you’ll never know such happiness again. Focus on what you love and you’ll create happiness instead of worrying about it.

 

Make now count. Instead of thinking of what you did or didn’t do, the type of person you were or weren’t, do something worthwhile now. Be someone worthwhile now. Take a class. Join a group. Help someone who needs it. Make today so full and meaningful there’s no room to dwell on yesterday.

Narrate calmly. How we experience the world is largely a result of how we internalize it. Instead of telling yourself dramatic stories about the past — how hurt you were or how hard it was — challenge your emotions and focus on lessons learned. That’s all you really need from yesterday.

Open your mind. We often cling to things, situations or people because we’re comfortable with them. We know how they’ll make us feel, whether it’s happy or safe. Consider that new things, situations and people may affect you the same. The only way to find out is to let go of what’s come and gone.

Practice letting things be. That doesn’t mean you can’t actively work to create a different tomorrow. It just means you make peace with the moment as it is, without worrying that something’s wrong with you or your life, and then operate from a place of acceptance.

Question your attachment. If you’re attached to a specific outcome — a dream job, the perfect relationship — you may be indulging an illusion about some day when everything will be lined up for happiness. No moment will ever be worthier of your joy than now because that’s all there ever is.

Release the need to know. Life entails uncertainty, no matter how strong your intention. Obsessing about tomorrow wastes your life because there will always be a tomorrow on the horizon. There are no guarantees about how it will play out. Just know it hinges on how well you live today.

Serve your purpose now. You don’t need to have x-amount of money in the bank to live a meaningful life right now. Figure out what matters to you, and fill pockets of time indulging it. Audition for community theater. Volunteer with animals. Whatever you love, do it. Don’t wait — do it now.

Understand that pain is unavoidable. No matter how well you do everything on this list, or on your own short list for peace, you will lose things that matter and feel some level of pain. But it doesn’t have to be as bad as you think. As the saying goes, pain is inevitable, suffering is optional.

Fully embrace your happy moments — love with abandon; be so passionate it’s contagious. If a darker moment follows, remember: it will teach you something, and soon enough you’ll be in another happy moment to appreciate. 

 

Early Unitarians, such as Henry David Thoreau, Margaret Fuller, and Ralph Waldo Emerson put an emphasis on individual experience, rather than appeal to scriptures or belief in miraculous events, as the basis for authority in spiritual matters. Freedom from attachments grounds us in our free and responsible search for truth and meaning. It is only through direct and immediate experience of reality that we are prepared for honest inquiry. As Unitarian Universalists we wish for a peaceful world. Our ultimate desire is to feel happy and peaceful. What we are learning is that as Unitarian Universalists striving to live our principles, thus our faith, we are required to practice letting go and being present. Our work is to experience, appreciate, enjoy, and let go to welcome another experience. To be happy for no reason.

It won’t always be easy. Sometimes you’ll feel compelled to attach yourself physically and emotionally to people and ideas — as if it gives you some sense of control or security. You may even strongly believe you’ll be happy if you struggle to hold onto what you have. That’s OK. It’s human nature. A colleague writes, “Perhaps the wisest words I found in my study of happiness come from our Unitarian Universalist poet laureate, May Sarton. "I've been thinking about happiness - how wrong it is to ever expect it to last or there to be a time of happiness. It's not that, it's a moment of happiness. Almost every day contains at least one moment of happiness." Just know you have the power to choose from moment to moment how you experience things you enjoy: with a sense of ownership, anxiety, and fear, or with a sense of freedom, peace and love. Unitarian Universalism promises us freedom. Let us not think of freedom so narrowly and apply it only to belief. The freedom our tradition affords is freedom that is turned toward ourselves. The freedom to be in the moment. The freedom to simply be.

May it be so.

Happy for No Reason, a sermon by the Rev. CJ McGregor at 1stUUPB on Aug 31, 2014.

Reflections on Emerson

In preparing for the sermon this morning I gathered and studied the writings of Ralph Waldo Emerson’s writings, his sermons, his lectures, and his journals he faithfully kept from the early to mid-19th Century. My intention was to select five and offer reflections this morning. As I began reflecting on Emerson’s writings I was reminded of current global humanitarian crises.

I decided that we are entitled to more. Our minds, our hearts, and our souls require more than mere reflections this morning. The three we will reflect on this morning are three that that I called me back again and again. And so, let me offer this first passage.

This is an excerpt of a letter Emerson wrote to an unknown admirer in July of 1841 questioning his creed and his ultimate reality: “I am very much moved by the earnestness of your appeal, but very much humbled by it; for attributing to me the attainment and that rest which I well know are not mine, it accuses my shortcomings. I am, like you, a seeker of the perfect and admirable Good. My creed is very simple; that Goodness is the only Reality; that to Goodness alone can we trust: to that we may trust all and always: beautiful and blessed… Beyond this, I have no knowledge, no intelligence of methods; I know no steps, no degrees, no favorite means, no detached rules. Itself [Goodness] is a gate and road and leader and march. Only trust it; be of it; be it -- and it shall be well with us forever.”

 

Emerson names his creed, his ultimate reality as Goodness. In fact he uses a capital G in goodness which tells us that Emerson is aligning Goodness with the authority of a deity. He is naming his faith, his faith in Goodness. He writes that we can trust Goodness. He advises us to be of Goodness, to be Goodness. Later in this particular writing Emerson asks the question, “shall we not look at every object and empty it of its meanness?” Emerson was a transcendentalist. Transcendentalism centered on the divinity of each individual; but this divinity could be self-discovered only if the person had the independence of mind to do so.

 

Emerson believed in the inherent good in both people and nature. He refuted evil by insisting it was not an entity in itself but rather simply the absence of good. If good was allowed, evil dissipated. But what is goodness? It is hard to declare what is good in general, since people have different backgrounds and mindsets. Something is good if it has importance or value. People, actions, and ideas can be good. Emerson writes, “The purpose of life is not to be happy. It is to be useful, to be honorable, to be compassionate, to have it make some difference that you have lived and lived well.” In his view we all have goodness and meanness inside of us. We are self-reliant and make a decision as to which we will share with the world. We have a choice. The choice between Goodness and meanness.

I hold up these particular words from Emerson because they help us understand the choices we as humans, as a global community, as Unitarian Universalists have when we consider the actions we will impose on one another. My task today is to use Emerson’s words from nearly 200 years ago and offer an understanding of true Goodness.

I’d like to do this by considering the Israeli and Palestinian crisis, the humanitarian crisis in Iraq, and the humanitarian crisis with immigrant families and children crossing our borders in the context of Emerson’s idea of Goodness. You will not hear my opinions. I will share that I believe all involved on either side of these crisis have the innate ability to choose Goodness. That is, all have ethical responsibility. You may think this is naïve, optimistic, and oversimplifying the issues.

That’s okay. So did the Anti-transcendentalists of the 19^th century. Regardless of how others respond to us, our families, our congregations, or our countries we are not granted a free pass from first considering ethical responsibility. Paul Waldman, contributing editor of the American Prospect writes, “As common as the claim is, we can't judge one side's actions by what the other side does. In this as in so many conflicts, both sides — and those who defend each — try to justify their own abdication of human morality with a plea that what the other side has done or is doing is worse.” Waldman is basically saying what Ghandi tells us about our role in conflict, “An eye for an eye makes the whole world blind.”

Waldman paints with a broad brush. Depending on our social, cultural, and economic situation ethical responsibility may look different to each of us. The idea that we might believe we are acting ethically responsible while others would disagree is common. However, if goodness or ethical responsibility is our concern, Ghandi hit the nail on the head. Ethical responsibility must be considered long before a conflict arises or escalates. It is to be the first effort. 

We mustn’t relinquish our responsibility to goodness, especially as retaliation.

Let us look at the examples I named. Remember this is not commentary on who is right and who is wrong. We are exploring ethical responsibility and our responses in relationships with people, countries, races, and so on in the context of Emerson’s writings. First, let us think about the conflict between Israel and Palestine.

In his July 2014 commentary in the Palm Beach Post Ghassan Rubeiz writes, “Attitude is one root of the problem: expressing sorrow over all the dead, Arab and Jew, without accusing a single perpetrator is considered 'betrayal' by the majority on either side of the conflict.” He later makes three predictions for needed changes in the Middle East and writes: “These predictions may sound like political science fiction. Well, at this miserable time fiction is needed. The severity of the situation requires imagination, hope and drastic change in conflict resolution.” Rubeiz leads us to the complexities of ethical responsibility but also suggests a change in how we confront conflict.

 

In this conflict both sides believe they are acting ethically responsible. We agree that this belief is about the varying definitions of ethics. Ethical responsibility or goodness could or should have come into play long before the instigation of the present conflict. What if a decision based on goodness were made long ago by both sides on how to coexist. “Attitude is the root problem.” If in the beginning, before any conflict, both Israel and Palestine had the attitude of goodness, as Emerson describes it, I wonder what form the potential for conflict would have taken. All have innate goodness and all have ethical responsibility for their responses.

Let us focus on the humanitarian crisis on Mount Sinjar in Northern Iraq. A small Iraqi religious minority, the Yazidis, desperately tried to escape the efforts by militants to carry out a genocide against them. There are tens of thousands who remain on the mountain who are under conditions of extreme heat, lack of food, water, unmet basic needs, and threat of attack. Many have died. The Yazidis are an ancient people. They are neither Christian nor Muslim, and are called heretics. There are many levels of the lack of goodness or ethical responsibility in that crisis. Religious persecution and genocide are among them.

Emerson tells us that goodness is within each of us and it is our choice to claim it. In a world that lives by this truth, people choosing goodness, none are at risk of being killed because they believe God is the creator of the world who has placed the world under the care of seven holy beings. This is what the Yazidis believe and because of this they risk extermination.

All gathered here this morning have varying theologies. None of us are killing to create a dominant or one true theology. We aren’t chasing people from their homes and watching them scurry with a few significant possessions only die, suffer, or watch their children die. We are making a choice of goodness. Our ethical responsibility is to respect the inherent worth and dignity of the other including our beliefs. We exist because our ancestors and martyrs believed in freedom. We’ve inherited goodness.

Thousands of immigrant children are fleeing Central America and are unwelcome in the United States. Reporter Halimad Abdullah writes, “The children, many of them arriving unaccompanied from El Salvador, Honduras and Guatemala, have traveled up to 3,000 miles across deserts and rivers, clinging to the tops of trains. They sometimes face rape and beatings at the hands of "coyotes," smugglers who are paid thousands of dollars to sneak them across the southern border with Mexico.” Earlier this month busloads of babies in their mothers' laps, and toddlers were turned back. They were met by screaming protesters waving and wearing American flags and bearing signs that read such things as "Illegals have no rights. They are criminals.” Just to show a tiny bit of my meanness you should know that “illegals” was spelled incorrectly. Children are piled on top of another and kept in cages while they are detained. Some ask, “Why are these children not already declared refugee status?” or “Where is the goodness or ethical responsibility in the human response to this crisis?” Would you agree that ethical responsibility is being dodged? Kathleen McQuillen the director of a Quaker-based organization, questions how the country could spend trillions on war and not have the pennies on those dollars to spend to take care of children in dire need. She said, "It's a simple thing to begin to say, what's important in this world?" People in this movement are pleased that President Obama is showing his inherent goodness and responding by considering an executive order to protect the children.

Let me remind you that at the end of the Emerson passage I shared he asks the question, “shall we not look at every object and empty it of its meanness?” This is our work. Shall we not tip the barrel of humanity and empty it of desire to control leading to war and death, genocide, persecution, and racism. Empty it of its meanness, choose goodness, return to ethical responsibility as the first choice of response.

Goodness is in each of us. What does it require to uncover our innate goodness? What keeps us from goodness? Emerson tells us how to live with goodness — practice being honorable and compassionate. In Spiritual Laws Emerson writes, “A little consideration of what takes place around us every day would show us that a higher law than that of our will regulates events; that our painful labors are unnecessary…. Belief and love — a believing love will relieve us of a vast load of care. O my brothers, There is a soul at the center of nature and over the will of every man, so that none of us can wrong the universe. There is guidance for each of us, and by lowly listening we shall hear the right word.”

The word that is most dear to me in Emerson’s list is compassion. You may know Krista Tippet who hosts the NPR program On Being. While listening to Tippet’s TED talk about linguistic resurrection and reclaiming the word compassion, I remembered how essential compassion is to our goodness and how it informs our ethical responsibility. Tippet says, “When we see compassion it changes for us what we think is possible.”

Many are the stories we hear and read where compassion triumphs, surprises us, or reminds us of the immensity of the human spirit. Compassion eliminates the dark side. Compassion is a choice of goodness and informs our response to the complex ethical decisions we make.

Discovering our goodness or having insight into our meanness is not an overnight process. We are fools if we think that after this sermon we will be perfectly good. We are imperfect. So was Mother Theresa, Ghandi, and Martin Luther King Jr. Again, our work is not to live perfectly. It is to practice, model, and expect goodness to prevail. It is to embrace our ethical responsibilities to one another and the world holding them tight while we decide what our responses will be.

Our pluralistic congregations include diverse beliefs, backgrounds, and personal stories. We do not agree on many issues and we sometimes stand on different sides of conflict given our understanding of the issue. Yet we unite in striving to live out the values and principles that call us to work for compassionate possibilities. With open minds, helping hands, and loving hearts, we work to affirm the worth and dignity of every person and to replace meanness with compassion, fear with acceptance, judgment with love, and insecurity with safety.

May it be so.

Reflections on Emerson, a sermon delivered by the Rev. CJ McGregor at 1stUUPB on Aug 17, 2014.

What is a Committed Unitarian Universalist?

While I was serving as an usher at Sunday services last Fall, a visitor to our Congregation noticed the gold chalice I wear around my neck. He asked me what it was and I said it is the religious symbol of Unitarian Universalism, a flaming oil lamp called a chalice. The visitor immediately replied, “You must really be a committed Unitarian!”

That encounter made me stop and think. This was the first time since I signed the book in 1961 in Pittsburgh that anyone referred to me as a committed UU. What have my 53 years as a UU taught me about what it means to be a committed Unitarian Universalist? The sermon which follows represents my personal answer to this important question. Your answer may differ, and that is as it should be.

UUs put great store by our right to decide for ourselves what is true and what is false. This is in part because we have no official creed, no organizational dogma that one is obligated to accept, internalize, and follow, in order to be a “good” Unitarian. We are therefore free to accept or reject ideas, beliefs, and values that we encounter as we live our lives.

We are members of a truly “free” church. Our great degree of freedom differentiates us from all other faiths, and parenthetically, makes it hard for members of those faiths to understand what it is we actually believe. One simple answer is that UUs hold sacred the right of each individual to engage with others in the perennial search for truth.

We therefore reject the concept that the Old and New Testaments are the primary sources of revealed truth, even though our faith has its roots in the Judeo-Christian tradition. Nor do we posit the idea that our ordained ministers, whom we hold in high regard, are themselves the primary source of truth. Our ministers are there to guide us, to advise us, to call our attention to the moral, ethical, social, and intellectual issues of our day, and to perform pastoral care.

Few of us were born and raised as Unitarian Universalists. We are mainly a Congregation made up of converts from other faiths. As First UU of the Palm Beaches members, we have agreed to fulfill three duties -- to pay a pledge, to attend services on a regular basis, and to participate in church activities.

Our religious understanding imparts to us two essential historically-based concepts: the unity of God as opposed to the Trinity, a denial of the divinity, as opposed to the humanity, of Jesus; and, the forgiveness of God for whatever wrongs we may have committed on earth. The significant Universalist message is that all are eventually saved, and there is no hell.

Compared with the three Abrahamic God-centered beliefs, Judaism, Christianity, and Islam, our key religious teachings are really quite radical. UU independent, revolutionary zeal stands out as an intellectual challenge to traditional religious thought about the nature of God and God’s relationship to human kind. The simple, yet extraordinary message of Unitarian Universalism is, God is one. All are saved.

And yet, for Unitarian Universalists, there is no requirement to believe in God. We are free to question the existence of a supernatural being or what some refer to as a supernatural force. Some of us are Agnostics. A few of us are Atheists. Others are Humanists, Buddhists, Ethical Culturists. In the Unitarian family there is room for believers, doubters, and non-believers alike. The point is because we are free individuals within a free church, each of us is entitled to our own set of beliefs. Regarding the existence of a Deity, there is no single paramount belief that all of us share equally.

When did you first discover you were a Unitarian? Did you, like me, have an epiphany, an “ah ha” moment when you suddenly understood you were a Unitarian? Do you remember “coming out” to your family and friends, prompting some of them to ask, “So, what are Unitarian Universalists and why do you want to join them?” Did you struggle with how to explain your attraction to Unitarianism to those who may have never heard of it before? Were they surprised to learn that your new faith was not God-centered or Bible-centered? Many years ago a new girlfriend of mine who had been accompanying me to church announced she did not wish to continue attending services. When I asked her why, she said, “Unitarian services are not Christian enough for me.”

She had been raised Presbyterian, a Protestant from birth. She missed worshiping in front of the cross, singing Christian hymns, listening to her preacher reciting the miracles allegedly performed by Jesus. I understood why Unitarian church services did not satisfy her. She needed the reassurance of certain familiar symbols. She needed a structured set of approved values. She needed and wanted to believe in miracles. The Christian Gospel gave her joy. Unitarian Universalism is not for everybody.

I recall the very first time I heard a Unitarian minister speak about Jesus. He called him “Yeshuah Ben Yoseph,” and referred to him as an itinerant Jewish rabbi, a man of conscience, critical of the societal norms of his day. This was a concept of Jesus I could relate to...a principled social reformer whose own life was an example to others …. a teacher, a man who spoke truth to power, who risked his life to bring a message of change, hope, and love to his oppressed community.

Perhaps those of you who are visitors today are searching for a new faith. Or maybe you are hurting emotionally, and looking for the solace a caring, spiritual congregation can provide. Possibly you are hoping to find other like-minded persons with whom to communicate, sharing views and experiences. Perhaps you are a parent wondering how to educate your child in a liberal, non-traditional religious environment. Or maybe you are a minority person, a gay person, or an individual with very “different,” unconventional ideas. Here, you are welcome. Here, you are wanted. Here, you are valued and respected.

The Unitarian Universalist congregations have established seven guiding principles our members are asked to commit to. Among others these include working to achieve peace and relieve hunger and suffering in the world. We follow through on this goal via our international NGO, the Unitarian Universalist Service Committee, and by supporting the United Nations, the World Health Organization, and other groups in service to humankind, like Doctors Without Borders. Our principles state the need to respect the interdependent web of all living things and ask us to be stewards of nature. Many local UU churches advocate for conservation, for anti-pollution laws and regulations, for the maintenance of animal shelters that have no-kill policies, and for the protection of endangered species through other organizations like Greenpeace and the Nature Conservancy. UU congregations through their Social Action Committees, mobilize to combine their efforts to combat racism, homophobia, and gun violence. They advocate for the sheltering of abuse victims, and they speak out against inequality, poverty, and injustice at home and abroad.

As a committed Unitarian I personally believe that our faith has endured because of its democratic values, its egalitarianism, and its shared search for truth and meaning. Unitarians reject dictatorial rule, authoritarianism, and elitist, narrowly constructed ideologies. We recognize that bringing about betterment depends on the determination and hard work of many people willing to help those less fortunate.

Committed Unitarians understand if better is to triumph over worse, we ourselves must be the primary engines of change. We have to help make it happen. It is not sufficient simply to pray for a better world. Heartfelt prayer helps one to focus, and it can provide the emotional strength needed to accomplish that which is difficult and often seems impossible. But, Unitarian Universalists do not sit around waiting for miracles to occur through an other-worldly source. We do not rely on a supreme power to do that which we, through collective action, are capable of accomplishing ourselves. We may praise the Lord, but we also roll up our sleeves and pitch in.

What are some of the chief values espoused by committed American Unitarian Universalists today? We believe in the right of all to marry, and therefore, standing on the side of love, strongly support same-gender marriage. We practice gender equality and believe all men and women should enjoy equal status and equal rights. We believe in the right of women and men to determine the size of their families using whatever means of birth control they choose, including the legal right of women to seek a safe medical abortion. We believe in the right of gays and lesbians to adopt children on an equal basis with heterosexuals.

Committed Unitarians believe in the democratic process and reject gerrymandered voting districts that favor one party over another. We believe in the right of every American citizen to vote and reject requirements for voting registration that place a burden on disadvantaged minorities. We believe in the democratic, egalitarian principle of majority rule, and therefore question the fairness of the electoral college system which grants disproportionate power to smaller states at the expense of larger states. We regard the principle of one person-one vote, to be fundamental to democratic decision-making.

Few of us believe that private corporations are the same as persons, and therefore call into question Supreme Court decisions which solidify rights and privileges for companies as if they were human beings. Although we believe in the principle of self-defense, we question the wisdom of stand-your-ground gun laws that permit individuals to conceal deadly weapons on their person and fire them at presumed attackers without the obligation to retreat. We are critical of weak gun laws that allow people to purchase semi-automatic assault rifles and large ammunition clips. We insist that a person’s mental state be a key factor in determining whether or not to grant him or her a license to purchase a gun.

We believe in the peaceful resolution of disputes between nations and peoples, and reject armed aggression, terrorism, and torture. We strongly oppose human trafficking, slavery of whatever type, and living and working conditions that are dangerous to human health and threaten human survival. Above all we support the right of every human being on the planet to have access to sufficient food, essential health care, decent housing and sanitation, basic education, safe drinking water, a reasonable degree of privacy and adequate security.

In matters of faith, committed Unitarian Universalists question many of the age-old biblical stories taken literally by traditionalists and religious fundamentalists. We as Unitarians are inclined not to take such stories literally. Rather we assume they have symbolic importance and are open to broad interpretation.

Committed Unitarians generally reject the many anthropomorphic attributes of God as described in the Bible. God is often equated with a law-giver as in the story of Moses and the Ten Commandments, and a life-taker, as in the story of Noah and the Flood. Law is a human invention and taking life, an unfortunate human pastime. Committed Unitarians doubt that the Deity can be appeased, angered, or delighted by anything humans do or fail to do. Certainly it is hard for us to imagine the Supreme Being loving and hating in the same sense that humans do, or authorizing prophets and messengers to communicate heavenly-approved behavior to humans.

I have my doubts that God has ever anointed a prophet or brought a deceased person back to life. And I don’t think God exclusively belongs to any one group of people or to any nation, race, or culture. I see no likelihood that God favors any particular religion or sect, the so-called “one true faith.” As a modern, educated adult, a teacher who has studied global cultures, I find it hard to believe in the concept of a “chosen people,” a “promised land,” or conversely, the notion that some people are “infidels.”

Traditional religion represents to me, a form of sanctioned social control by an all-knowing, all-powerful God, as interpreted by an authoritative, church hierarchy. But for we Unitarian Universalists, as Thomas Jefferson once said, “God leaves the fate of mortals in the hands of mortals themselves.”

Summing up then, it is not easy being a committed Unitarian Universalist. We have no absolute, dogmatic truths to guide us or fall back on. We are tasked to maintain our individual distinctiveness as Unitarians while at the same time, drawing upon the world’s religious traditions for inspiration and guidance. Our Unitarian Universalist ministers are called by congregations and are primarily responsible to those congregations. Although we are fully aware our ministers are mortal and fallible, we nevertheless hold them in high regard and cherish their advice and guidance. We not only preach equality and democracy, we covenant with each other to practice these virtues as well, in our congregational life and in our civic life. And when we say “all are welcome”-- to our churches, to our congregations, and to our fellowships, we mean all, and not some. We are indeed, a welcoming faith. Committed UUs are proud to wear the golden chalice as they should be, for taken together, we are a light unto the world. May it be so. Amen.

Benediction:
Thank you all for attending the service today. I am reminded that we stand on the shoulders of Unitarian martyrs whose sacrifices have made it possible for us to worship in peace and security this morning. We are thankful for the inspiring legacy that has been left to us. If you came seeking communion with others, may we be your family. If you came searching for a better way of life, may a path be found. And if you came looking for an answer, may your prayers be heard.
Amen.


What is a Committed Unitarian Universalist?, a sermon and benediction delivered by Andrew Kahn at 1stUUPB on Aug 3, 2014.

The Idolatry of Anti-Choice

This is a sermon that I understood I needed to preach but resisted writing.  I have a 28-year career in nursing, the majority of which has been as a Women’s Health Care Nurse Practitioner. I began in a Planned Parenthood affiliate in upstate New York in 1991. I was director of Patient Services of our local affiliate, Planned Parenthood of Collier County in Naples, Florida, from 1993 to 1995, then returning there in 2010 where I am still their lead clinician. I’ve worked in Ob-Gyn private practices. I have high risk labor and delivery hospital experience where I spent 12-hour nights assisting in all types of deliveries. I was a member of a bereavement team for fetal loss, which means I have prepared the bodies of dead infants and sat with grieving families as they cried over them. I am the mother of three children. I have experienced a miscarriage between two of them. As a young adult I have also had an abortion. Why then, despite all those experiences is it still hard to talk about abortion?

It is hard for me to talk about abortion. Why is that? In my support of women’s reproductive rights and complete pro-choice stance …. why is it still hard for me to talk about abortion? I’ve thought about this literally for years ... why?

The language game comes into play. Notice my sermon title choice of the words “anti-choice”. If I’m pro-choice then those opposed to abortion claim pro-life. If they are pro-life am I anti-life? Of course not, but these types of word manipulations are constantly flung back and forth between both ends of the choice “sides”.  Is it because of the subtle and not so subtle messages of our local culture? While I was director of Patient Services of the Collier County affiliate I frequently heard, “oh you work for Planned Parenthood? But we don’t do abortions here, right?” This always felt like a granting of some type of clemency.

Gee, thanks. But now, folks, we do. Finally, once again, Collier County provides access to safe, legal abortions instead of sending women out of the county.  There was a gap of 12 or so years when abortion was not available unless you had transportation to Ft Myers, Sarasota or Miami. This was a result of the one physician who had been providing abortion services who quit due to the stress of opponents’ harassment and a lack of collegial support. But we’ll get back to that later.

Here is why I think talking about abortion is difficult. It is because abortions are horrible. They are no fun. They come after difficult and painful decisions are made and they are stressful, uncomfortable and sad. In our dualistic society with the shrill and constant voice of anti-choice screaming ‘murder’ it seemed that if I admit conflicted feelings about abortion then somehow I am disloyal to my own beliefs about a woman’s right to choice.

Too much of my thinking has been done in response to the accusations and self-righteous claims of those who do not support choices for abortion. My framework has always been; I am either here on this end, or I am over there; on that end.  And that linear and dualistic continuum, my friends, is where I now refuse to place myself.  

As a Unitarian Universalist, I am asked to guard against idolatry of the mind and spirit. Idolatry is defined as the excessive or blind devotion to something. My idol detector goes off the moment something cannot be questioned.  And as human beings we all do it. Unitarian Universalists, for example, get tweaked when others challenge the effectiveness of some of our favorite green behaviors. We saw some of it with the discourse around changing the language of the Seven Principles.

Emerson warns us, a person will worship something and reminds us that we become what we are worshiping.  If I cannot question and wrestle openly and honestly with my own mixed feelings about abortion then I place myself at the one of two ends of the choice spectrum. Even pro-choice camps can slip into fanaticism and idolatry of their position.

A classmate was in an ethics class and they were discussing abortion. He shared his pro-choice position, but when he added his personal experiences of wrestling with the issue he was immediately discounted because he was A: a male and B: he expressed conflicted feelings. He was informed by another classmate that abortion is a medical procedure that is no different than pulling a tooth. Your idol detectors should be sounding their alarms right now. Only one position is acceptable and one way of thinking. And these were Unitarian Universalist seminarians on their path to ministry.

It seems then that I only have two choices;  Abortion never?  Idolatry. Abortion always? It sounds ridiculous but that is how many people understand the issue. If you are pro-choice then somehow you are anti-pregnancy, anti-family or anti-baby and think everyone should have an abortion.  I no longer accept that type of thinking.

Idolatry is dangerous. It creates self-righteousness and zealous earnestness. I’ve walked through many lines of anti-choice picketers when I worked in the Upper Hudson affiliate. Now that I’m back at our Collier County affiliate, it’s been a revisiting of those days now that we regularly have picketers. Idolatry justifies following Planned Parenthood employees around in public, looking up license plate numbers and knowing home addresses and making death threats to medical directors.

One day a new person showed up. And it was her behavior that was the catalyst for finally writing this sermon. Instead of the usual praying and pointing crosses and crucifixes at me this person was screaming. She informed me of the demons within me that I would be taking home to my family. Really? She doesn’t know that as a Unitarian Universalist and especially as a minister, I am required to regularly dance with those demons. But as I walked into the building she began shouting something that (forgive me for the word I’m about to use but it’s the only one that fits) I got pissed. Not just rankled or annoyed or angry but really, really pissed.  (Outraged and incensed might work) “I’m doing God’s work! This is God’s work. I am doing God’s work!” I turned and looked at her red, furious, out-of-control face.  I can still picture her clenched fists as her screeching words cut through the warm morning air.

I am not a deist. God is not a noun for me. It’s more of a verb, maybe a creative force. I’ve experienced the spirit of life and love moving through and around my life. I’ve looked upon the face of that spirit and it’s always been when looking into the face of another. I’ve been privileged to use my hands on behalf of that spirit and have also felt those hands upon me. And it’s always been through the touch of another. This woman screamed blasphemy and defiled the sacredness of every interaction I’ve ever had with my patients -- not just as a nurse but also as a chaplain.

God’s work? No. God’s work is quiet and steady. The work of the Spirit is constant and faithful and experienced in relationship with one another. Hers was not God’s work. Hers was idol worship. And it’s the kind of false worship that allows individuals to fly planes into sides of buildings, or straight boys to drag young gay men through the streets and leave them tied to a fence post. It is the dangerous certainty which results in swastikas being spray-painted on the garages of one our local interfaith activists. It is the challenging of those idols that leads to a silencing of the prophetic voice through assassination or crucifixion.

Idols are False. One Unitarian Universalist minister, in speaking about idolatry, said“The definition of idolatry is taking the partial as the whole, confusing the partial with the whole. “

In the war against a woman’s right to choose the idol is the sole focus of sentimentalizing of infants. Their signs picture sweet (usually white) round-faced babies pleading not to be stripped of their cooing lives. There is no space for the whole of complexity of our human lives. Their idolatrous worship for the state of pregnancy and the belief that babies bring nothing but good things blocks the space for ambiguity, for doubt or for a real relationship with the woman. She can only be considered through her potential identity as mother and the definition of motherhood as the ultimate concern.  It’s false. What is true is that abortion is a reality and always has been.

The Reverend Tom Davis is an ordained United Church of Christ minister who has chaired the clergy advisory committee for the Planned Parenthood Federation of America. He writes in his book, Sacred Work, “Looking back I am struck by the lack of visible opposition to abortion access when it was illegal. The Roman Catholic Diocese of Manhattan did not make any public response to the formation of the Clergy Consultation on Abortion in 1967.” This was a group of interfaith clergy folk who decided to network and help women find access to safe abortions when it was illegal throughout our nation. He adds that neither the “Southern Baptists nor any of the other religious institutions which today vehemently oppose Roe v. Wade made any response to the New York Times front-page article highlighting the work of the Clergy Council.” I repeat, this is when abortion was illegal, a criminal act!

Let’s go back farther;  A 5^th-century papyrus speaks of using herbs and strenuous exercise to induce abortion. Surgical techniques are described by the 2nd and 3rd centuries. During the Civil War era advertisements targeted women with menstrual irregularities. The language of such advertising, "irregularity," "obstruction," "menstrual suppression," and "delayed period" were understood to be euphemistic references to the state of pregnancy. And on it goes up to today’s “abortion wars”. It would take more time than we have today to go through the full history of abortion and abortion laws. And many of you here were, and still are, involved in the front lines of protecting the full scope of women’s reproductive rights. In fact the Unitarian Universalist Association has made Reproductive Justice a study action issue a few years ago.

My point, in relation to the topic of idolatry, is to illustrate the falseness of an abortion-never stance. The question is not whether it is right or wrong. History has already shown us; it just is. And will always be. This becomes even more important as recent laws inhibiting access to birth control covered by insurances nationwide goes into effect. Already, in Texas, a state that has severely limited access to safe and legal abortion, there is a black market for one of the two medications necessary for medical abortion. Pregnant women taking one medication and not both without medical supervision and instruction are in for a rough and dangerous ride.

And let’s get back to our local physician who for years was the only one who provided abortion services to Collier County women. We had rocks thrown through our church windows in the late 90’s when he held a press conference announcing his cessation of abortion services, not simply because of opposition picketing his house and making his life hell, but because he had no colleagues willing to back him up and stand behind him in the face of this harassment.  In reality, many of those doctors who not only wouldn’t publicly support him but spoke out against him, provided pregnancy termination for their own private patients. You see, access is everything. When you have money or insurance, you have access to privileges poor and uninsured women don’t and the right to control one’s own reproductive life is one of those benefits.  Access is everything and abortion never is a myth.

A physician I once worked with shared the frustration and distress over coming into his office one evening and finding his married, Catholic, anti-choice partner performing an abortion on the partner’s pregnant girlfriend. Access is everything. And abortion never is a myth.

Planned Parenthood affiliates have a form called a “Special Consent for Abortion.” These consents are for the women who, after standing on a picket line in front of a clinic harassing others, come into the Planned Parenthood for an abortion. These consents are for the women who are vehemently opposed to abortion but earnestly explain why “in their case” it is necessary. And Planned Parenthood provides the same level of service with the same level of respect as they do for every other patient. Abortion never, a myth.

Are these individuals bad and hypocritical humans? The snarky part who has been treated poorly by anti-choice zealots in the past wants to say YES and let’s deny them access. But the better person in me, the one who has experienced both the giving and receiving of God’s work, understands that we are all human with all our human frailties. We are imperfect creatures in a strange and frightening world.

And that is what idolatry does. It provides a sense of control. It denies the knowledge that we are vulnerable and unsure. As long as our idols have the answers, then I know what to think and what not to think. The sad part is that when we rely on false idols to cut ourselves off from the scary and unpleasant parts of ourselves we also deny the opportunity for transformations, new insights, new awareness and new ways of relating to one another.

A dear friend and colleague, while working for Planned Parenthood, founded the Collier County Adoption Task Force many years ago. I was invited to sit on the committee and was excited that it intentionally reached out to anti-choice groups. The thinking was that while we disagree on abortion, we all agree that adoption is a wonderful possible option when it comes to unplanned and unwanted pregnancies. Many women considering their options are quick to dismiss adoption. The Adoption Task force was aimed at identifying why this was, raising public awareness about the adoption option as well as setting up networks of resources for pregnant women wanting to place an infant for adoption. The committee would be balanced in both pro-choice and anti-choice ‘camps’. Sounds great, right? Way more effective and proactive than praying on the sidewalk or yelling at women coming in to pick up birth control pills.

What do you think happened? Within 2 years the anti-choice groups refused to sit at the table with Planned Parenthood and other pro-choice members. I believe there was a statement about working together with pro-choice groups would be like sitting at the table with Nazis or the Ku Klux Klan. That is idolatry at work. Unable to stand the discomfort of ambiguity or relationship with a perceived enemy, the idolatry of the mythic abortion never is used to pull away to the safety of the regulated world. The idol must be protected at all costs. I honestly don’t remember whether the group disbanded or it became an anti-choice group. Either way, it was a missed opportunity not only for each of the committee members, but also for the recipients of the services which, as usual, are the poorer and uninsured women and families of our county.

I was on call one weekend and the on-call phone began ringing.  Being “on call” means one of the medical staff carries a cell phone 24 hours a day for a week so that our post-abortion patients can reach staff in case of emergencies. When the phone rings it always creates a little anxiety before you pick it up. You never know what is on the other end. In this case it was a woman who had been seen in the clinic for a routine followup the day before. She was convinced her bleeding was abnormal and was scared. Along with my reassurances, there were a number of calls back and forth as she did what I asked her to do and I monitored her via the phone. A number of times it was her spouse who got on the phone with me. Nothing was working for her and her anxiety was rising. Finally I said, “You know, you always have the option of being seen in the emergency room. If you decide to go, I want you to call me first. And if you go, you need to let the staff there know that you had an abortion.” She burst into tears and cried out, “I’m so ashamed, I can’t tell them!” We spent a long time talking. This woman was the mother of three children, had a spouse who had a vasectomy after deciding they didn’t want more children and whether it was a failed procedure or too early for the sperm to clear, had ended up pregnant again. She was in disbelief that she was in the position she was. We talked about difficult and loving decisions. How hard they are to make. I reassured her that it was okay to grieve the loss of this pregnancy, because it was a loss. And that if she was sad about it, it didn’t mean she made the wrong decision. We talked about her three small children and how difficult it is with them sometimes but how much she loved them. I assured her that she was not alone; other women had the same sorts of feelings. At the end of our conversation she promised to call me if anything changed or she went to the emergency room. This was a Saturday evening and when I hadn’t heard anything by Sunday afternoon I called to check in. Her husband’s voice was relaxed and upbeat, “she had a great night! The bleeding slowed down, she showered and slept finally.” I spoke briefly to her and her voice, too, was relaxed as she thanked me for my help. All I had done was to have been present. I listened and responded to the fears and anxieties caused by the cultural climate of anti-choice idolatry. I simply gave her permission to be both relieved and sad -- to grieve the loss and affirm her family’s decision. Together we explored the complex and complicated lives that all women share.

And in that space, between the sad and the relieved, between the profane and the profound, between the uncertainty and the knowing is where the spirit of life and love are found. That is where God’s work gets done. As a chaplain I sit with families as they make decisions about terminating life support for loved ones. I talk with people who make decisions to stop treatments and allow their natural end to occur. These are quality-of-life issues that individuals make after considering the totality of their circumstances. They are heart wrenching and gut punching, while at the same time beautiful and loving, as we fragile humans reckon with the realities of our complicated lives. I can tell you that women weighing their options in the wake of an unplanned or unwanted pregnancy, or with a pregnancy with fetal complications, take their decision-making no less seriously. And sometimes we make difficult decisions that we know are right but are no less painful or complicated. Idolatrous thought would have us believe that difficult decisions should be made easy by a one-way-only approach. But human beings are wonderfully complicated. And life is mostly out of our control, fragile and fleeting. Our lives are bittersweet and sweetbitter.  Life as an interconnected and complicated web is way more fun to explore than the black/white, right/wrong dualistic thinking of those who need false idols. And when we stumble and fall, which we all do, webs make better nets to catch us than straight lines do.

That is why the woman screaming at me that she was doing God’s work had such a profound effect on me. She’s wrong. Any of you who dons the yellow escort vest every week and walks beside a patient entering the clinic; you’re doing God’s work. And the staff that risks harassment and harm to provide safe and effective health care to the poor and working women of Collier County; they are doing God’s work. And for each and every donor who writes a check in support of women’s reproductive rights; you are doing god’s work. And for every one of us that votes against the false idols of anti-choice; we do God’s work.

And our work is not finished. As long as Viagra and men’s sexual health are covered by Medicare and insurance, while women’s access to birth control and abortion are made difficult; our work is not done. As long as women with money and private insurance can quietly slip into private doctor’s offices while poorer women must cross angry picket lines; our work is not done. As long as religious institutions that support women’s reproductive rights remain silent and polite; our work is not done. As long as there are pro-choice voters out there not voting because they think it doesn’t matter; our work is not done.

Blessed be our brains;

 that we may own our own power.

Blessed be our hearts;

 that we may be brave and present for those we love.

Blessed be our spirits;

 that we may create a world of justice for all.

Blessed be our knees;

 that we may stand tall beside one another in all of life’s messiness.

Blessed be this community;

 that we may walk in the path of our highest good.

Blessed be, blessed be, and amen.

The Idolatry of Anti-Choice, a sermon delivered at 1stUUPB on July 13, 2014 by the Reverend Jennifer S. Dant.

Patriotism

Today, on the eve of July 4th, the subject of patriotism is a very appropriate one. What is patriotism? Is it simply the pride, tingling and welling tears we sometimes experience when listening to our National Anthem, watching our flag fluttering in a parade, or hearing a rousing speech? In short, is it a purely emotional response to chauvinistic stimuli?  Or is patriotism something more complex, containing both an emotional, and an intellectual component?

The only book length philosophical study of the subject, written in 1993 by Stephan Nathanson, defines patriotism as “Love of one’s country, identification with it, and special concern for its well being and that of its fellow citizens.

I would qualify that statement by saying that patriotism is love of one’s country because the principles which engendered that country were consistent with universal moral philosophy, and that an unbiased examination of its history demonstrates that it has, to a reasonable extent, manifested those principles in its actions.

Over time, there has always existed among certain people, particularly those of liberal persuasion, an animus towards patriotism, a belief that it fosters aggression, and blinds us to the negative aspects of our nation’s policies. What many who hold this view fail to recognize, is that they are equating patriotism with nationalism, patriotism’s evil twin, which though at first glance, might appear to be the same, is profoundly different.

How do we distinguish between the two? George Orwell contrasted the differences in terms of aggressive vs. defensive attitudes. “Nationalism, he wrote,’ is about power; its adherents want to acquire as much power and prestige as possible for their nation, in which they submerge their individuality. And so while it is accordingly aggressive, patriotism is defensive: it is a devotion to a particular place and a way of life one thinks best, but has no wish to forcibly impose on others.”

Many thinkers throughout the ages have expressed vastly different views on patriotism. Perhaps the best known, and most misunderstood, is Samuel Johnson’s definition of patriotism as: “the last refuge of a scoundrel.” Contrary to popular belief, Johnson was not denigrating patriotism, but rather indicting those who used it falsely, as a way of obfuscating or justifying their own immoral behavior.

Norman Thomas called patriotism “that most complex of motives,” and Leo Tolstoy declared  patriotism to be “both stupid and immoral“. Stupid said Tolstoy, because every patriot holds his country to be the best of all, whereas only one country can qualify, and immoral because it enjoins us to promote our country’s interests at the expense of all other countries, by any means, including war, and is thus at odds with the golden rule. It can be argued here that Tolstoy, like many others, was equating patriotism with nationalism.

So what is the moral standing of patriotism?  Is it a contradiction of a major tradition in moral philosophy which defines morality as essentially universal and impartial, and, therefore, seems to rule out local attachment and loyalty? Or is it essentially meaningless and trivial, “nothing more than the love of an ass for its stall,” as one cynical observer claimed. Or can patriotism be something noble that is consistent with the major traditions of moral philosophy. It all depends, does it not, on the nature and basis of one’s patriotism?

As Americans, are we justified in believing that our country’s core values, and many of its achievements were based on noble and uplifting human ideas? I say we are; the rights and freedoms that are incorporated in our constitution, have universal appeal, have been the driving force of many of our nation’s achievements.

Those same core values ensured that a raw Republic espousing egalitarian concepts in an age of royalty, would survive and prosper, beyond anyone’s wildest expectations.

I mentioned before that patriotism must also be subjected to an unbiased examination of our country’s past and present record, in order to determine whether it has lived up to the standards of moral excellence established by its creators.

It is, of course, impossible to do this without finding numerous instances where the underlying principles of our great republic were traduced, including unjust wars, abuse of individuals and minorities, systemic corruption, imperialism, and oligarchic control of our national policies. Nations, however, are comprised of people, and people are always and everywhere flawed, so it should not surprise or unduly discourage us to realize that the United States of America has had, and continues to have its dark moments.

However, a realistic evaluation of our history, particularly if undertaken in comparison to that of other great powers, would reveal that despite the threats imposed upon it by foreign enemies, and the catastrophes imposed upon it by domestic fools, thieves, and liars, our nation has been the most powerful force for good on earth, and remains, still, a template for those seeking freedom, safety, and economic opportunity.

And when we feel compelled to cite instances where the government of these United States has violated its own Constitution, neglected its citizens, or waged an aggressive and immoral foreign policy, we need to stop and consider the monumental force for good in the world that it has done. Travel back with me 100 years.

The 20th century, the bloodiest in recorded history, ushered in German militarism which threatened all of Europe, and resulted in the Great War of 1914 -18, in which 9 million died. After almost 4 years of static, deadly struggle, in the Spring of 1918, the German Army launched a highly successful offensive which may well have achieved victory if not for the arrival at that crucial time of the Americans, whose intervention assured an Allied victory.  Americans entered and left that war with no territorial ambitions.

The intervening years between the two world wars, saw the emergence of two of the most powerful, barbaric and malignant political philosophies in human history, Fascism, and Soviet Communism. In 1939, the world was plunged into another cataclysmic disaster lasting 6 years and consuming 60 million lives. The intervention of the United States in Europe, along with its almost single-handed defeat of aggressive Japanese militarism assured an Allied victory against world Fascism. And once again, the U.S. harbored no territorial ambitions.

At the end of WWII every major nation involved in it lay in ruins, both structurally and economically; every nation that is except one, ours. We were king of the hill, our infrastructure was intact, our economy, and industrial strength healthier than they’d ever been. Militarily we were supreme, the only nation in possession of atomic weapons. Our troops, stationed around the globe, also occupied large portions of Germany, and the whole of Japan. We could have declared ourselves masters of the world.

Instead, we joined in forming the United Nations, created the Marshall Plan to save Europe from starvation and further ruin, and ruled our defeated enemies with benevolence encouraging them to create their own democracies and re-establish healthy economies. It is no accident that West Germany and Japan became two of the most prosperous democracies in the world during the post-war period. Looking back on this monumental period of world history, and the splendid role the U.S. played in it, it is difficult to comprehend how a citizen of this nation could not feel patriotic, even up to this day and beyond.

By the end of WWII we knew that the Soviet Union had replaced Nazi Germany as the greatest threat to democracy and world peace, but we hoped that this could change peacefully, that the new world organization, the United Nations, could serve as a mediator for peaceful resolution of disputes. Those hopes were soon shown to be ingenuous, and for the next 44 years world peace, such as it was, was maintained by the terrifying Dr. Strangelove prospect of nuclear annihilation.

Throughout these decades, our fears of the Red Menace led us to perpetrate numerous breaches of our Constitution. Here at home McCarthyism crawled out from under the rock of our fears and paranoia to persecute and ruin innocent Americans, and our foreign policy was often skewed, embracing tinpot tyrants around the world because of their alleged anti-Communism. Two wars were fought, Korea and Vietnam, the former a necessary one, the latter a tragically misguided one. Neither, however, was fought for economic or territorial gain.

In the late 80’s, after being held at bay for almost a half century by the prospect of confronting American arms, Communism imploded, leaving the U.S. as the world’s single superpower, and since that point in time, despite the depredations of a group of Islamic psychopaths, most of the damage done to our republic has occurred from within.

Since the end of the Cold War, it has become fashionable among some, to make unfavorable comparisons between the U.S. and the much vaunted Western European social democracies. While some of these comparisons, like those relating to health care are valid, it would do us well to remember that, to a significant extent, countries like Norway, Denmark, and France, among others, were able to spend the last 65 years morphing into their present iterations, because they were under the protection of their American allies for all that time, and did not have to spend a huge percentage of their GDP for military purposes.

I said earlier that this country remains a template for those seeking safety and economic opportunity. My parents were first generation Americans, the children of immigrants. Their education was, by virtue of economic necessity, limited to grade school or less. Despite this they were able to build  decent lives for themselves, and live to see their children obtain graduate degrees. And we were not unusual. Many of my relatives, friends, and contemporaries could relate the same kind of story -- from grade school to grad school. In a single generation, a virtual socioeconomic quantum leap forward. I defy anyone to name another nation where such opportunity exists during those years.

Furthermore, within the context of educational opportunity, we are the only major nation that I know of that, permits people second, and even third chances. Americans can acquire advanced education at virtually any age. One could not do that in England or France, where a child’s educational destiny is determined by age 16.

Despite the serious  political and economic problems inherent in contemporary American society, masses of people still flock to this country seeking a better life; and when you hear our government being assailed for its inept handling of the illegal immigration problem, stop and remember that since the historic revisions of our immigration laws from the 1960’s through the 90’s, no modern industrialized nation has come close to accepting the vast number of legal immigrants that we do.

Finally, let me say this. The dark moments in American history when our Government has breached individual liberties, have a positive corollary. Historically, a healthy dose of retrospective shame, the genius of our independent judiciary, and above all the resilience of our Constitution, have helped ensure that any statutes or policies rashly undertaken while in the grip of fear, such as the cold war witch hunts, don’t survive for long. The rule of law ultimately prevails; and, this was true even in reference to the most shameful chapter in our history, the obscene evil of slavery and racism.

The former, slavery, was redeemed by the blood of 600,000 young Americans killed and perhaps 2 million maimed; and, while we still have a long way to go, the success of our efforts to rectify the latter, racism, can best be evaluated by the reality of a President of African -American heritage occupying the White House for 8 years.

Today, we're in the midst of another dark moment. The American military is still mired down in the war in Afghanistan, the longest in our history, and while we're scheduled to withdraw at the end of this year there is little expectation of success. Furthermore, we're now confronted by the destructive events engendered by our ill conceived invasion of Iraq. Fundamental freedoms taken away in the aftermath of 9/11 have not yet been restored and oligarchs continue to exert enormous influence on our policies by virtue of their wealth and political contributions. Witness, for example, the revolting spectacle a few months ago of prospective Republican 2016 presidential candidates scurrying to Las Vegas to kiss the ring of billionaire gambling tycoon Sheldon Adelson, who fancies himself a kingmaker.

On both the federal and state levels ultraconservative demagogic politicians supported by large numbers of our fellow citizens, who are most often misinformed or ignorant, wish to take us back to the Robber Baron era, and the Supreme Court, once the rational arbiter of thorny constitutional issues has, by virtue of a single consrvative vote, become a political Keystone comedic version of itself, declaring corporations people and removing campaign contribution caps, thus enshrining in our laws the corruptive practices that are traducing our Democracy.

Greed and lack of oversight have left our economy in tatters, excessive materialism has created a cheap celebrity culture, and many of the gains painfully acquired by American labor over decades of strife, have been degraded and reversed. The  morale and determination of the American people is being steadily eroded, while the obscenely wealthy few continue amassing even more wealth.

Even academia has joined the ranks of the predators, raising the cost of a college education to Olympian heights, burdening those who do graduate, 40% of whom can't find appropriate jobs,with major debt.

The morale and determination of the American people is being steadily eroded, while the obscenely wealthy few continue amassing even more wealth. For the first time ever, we are neither the most socially mobile society in the world, nor can we lay claim to having the wealthiest middle class. The former belongs to Western Europe, and the latter to Canada. Tragically, there is considerable evidence that for the first time since The Great Depression, the fabled “American Dream” no longer exists.

This is, in short, an optimum time when there is a need for patriots to come forward and announce “not in my country you won’t” in whatever ways they can, a time to rally and utilize public opinion to counter the deadly effects of apathy, corruption, and greed. If we fail to do so, there will be little enough to feel patriotic about.

And so, I would urge you to dwell, not on the dark moments, but on what America was intended to mean, and what it has meant to you and yours, and, in doing so, remember always that a true American patriot is not defined by stickers exhorting us to "support our troops,” or flag pins in lapels, but by their belief in the principles on which this nation was created.
In closing, let me repeat that a true American patriot is one who believes in the principles on which this country was created.

Declaring yourself a patriot, therefore, should not be difficult, particularly for those here today, because if the essence of our Constitution were distilled into a single sentence, might it not sound something like (our Second Principle): “Justice, Equity and Compassion in Human Relations.”?

Patriotism, a sermon by Rich Palermo at 1stUUPB on June 29, 2014.