Engagement, and Standing Against the Negative

Opening Words

We come together, not to rejoice in the completion of the work of the past, but to commit to new tasks and to ready ourselves for new goals

We come together not to lift up a final truth, but as people who are always seeking deeper insights and new understanding of our selves and our world.

We pledge to continue to seek, to grow, to be good companions on the path, fellow workers in the fields of human endeavor, and faithful lovers who cherish this beloved community.

Of all the themes that I’ve presented so far, I expect that "acknowledging the negative" and "engagement" would be the most obvious to anyone who knows something of our history as a religious movement in both England and the United States. We UUs are proud of our identity as social activists. We like to brag about the influence of our foremothers and forefathers as they helped to lead many of the great reform movements that brought justice and compassion to American society. We’re proud to claim Dorothea Dix, Horace Mann, Clara Barton, and Elisabeth Peabody as our own. Our concern for reform and justice continued into the next century. In the 1960s and early 70s, our clergy and congregations demonstrated remarkable courage as they worked with the civil rights movement to end Jim Crow laws in the South and segregation all across our nation. In the late 60s, UUs were also involved in the anti-war movement.

Today we are recognized, though not always admired, for our stand on the rights of all people, regardless of sexual orientation or gender, to have the same rights and respect as the rest of American adults. We have long considered the work of acknowledging the negative and engaging in the work of reform and advocacy to be part and parcel of what is called religion. From the earliest days of American Unitarianism, we held that religion was not primarily a personal or private matter. The Rev. William Ellery Channing made a claim for the place of social responsibility in religion in a sermon he delivered in 1820.

"Religion, we are told, is a private, personal thing, a concern between the individual and God. … I would maintain that religion is eminently a social principle, entering into social life, having most important bearings on the common weal. …. The social character of religion is not sufficiently regarded."

Today we like to say that we are a religion of deeds, not creeds. We emphasize the good we can do in the here and now on behalf of and with people who are often on the margins of society. Generally, we’re not concerned with the rewards of an afterlife nor do we fear a day of judgment. This is one of the beliefs that distinguishes us from many other religions. Most of us also believe that human beings can take actions that will change the future, thereby altering history. This means that we’re not the playthings of the gods. We do not believe that history is cyclical and that humans are caught in a wheel of events that repeats over and over again. This outlook would set us apart from some of the Eastern religions. (I’m speaking for a majority, but certainly not all UUs. And let me be clear that it isn’t my intention to discredit these religions. I’m just pointing out differences among our ways of faith and thought.)

When we think of social responsibility or social concern, we’re usually talking about several different kinds of activities: charity, education, action. Usually our social-concerns projects are forms of charity or service. We collect mittens or food or give money to help others. We respond to emergencies like earthquakes or the events of September 11. Such forms of action are often the first opportunity our children have to learn and express concern for people they will never see or know. Sharing what we have with others is an important virtue that has to be cultivated — just like honesty, kindness, or any other virtue that we value.

Social concerns projects are often integrated into social education activities. When we learn about the plight of children in refugee camps or the benefits of a public defenders office here in Montgomery County, the goal is not just a desire to create an opportunity for discussion. We hope and intend that discussion will lead to compassionate actions like giving money to Doctors Without Borders or sending a letter to our legislator expressing our concerns and hopes about an issue. Social education can sometimes lead to a new understanding of the common human condition or the special problems of a particular group. Irene Lamb, one of our youth advisors, has run some "prejudice reduction" programs for our congregation and for youth in our community schools. Bob Underhill gathered a group of men to watch and discuss a powerful film "The Color of Fear" which also deals with the racist attitudes and notions that cause damage to all of us. In both cases, the intention was that participants would change their attitudes and actions based on what they had learned.

These are the types of social action in which most congregations of any religion engage. We feel good when we hear how much money we raised for a worthy cause; we’re pleased that the mitten tree is a part of our traditional holiday activities. Most of our efforts at social education are offered as a "come as you like" basis. We’re not into guilt here and we make an effort to respect the variety of opinion that may be held among us on any topic. I won’t pretend that we don’t have a decidedly liberal world view and I know that Republicans and conservatives may feel out of place and even disregarded in our congregations. But on the whole, we make an effort to avoid conflict within our congregations and controversy within the larger community when we engage in social action.

In my opinion, such concerns are limiting, and self-serving. It’s nice to feel good about adding a sack full of cans to the food pantry collection box. I feel hopeful and glad when I add my donation to the box. It’s empowering and cleansing to be able to say that because I was willing to go through a training program or hear some painfully honest words about a serious social problem and how I’m a part of the problem. Now I’ve seen the light and I’m gonna do better! I’ve had that experience, and I think it’s important and healthy. We all need to be shaken up and have our assumptions and our ignorance challenged now and again. But the truth is, it’s not enough. It’s good, it’s important, and it helps. But by the truth and the power of heritage we claim as Unitarians and Universalists and in witness to the example of those who have gone before us, I will tell you that it is not enough.

Let me share some words from Theodore Parker, a Unitarian Minister and fiery abolitionist who was so hated by his opponents that he kept a loaded pistol on his desk for protection. Reflecting on the pernicious social problems of Boston in the mid-1800s, he wrote,

"It seemed to me the money given by public and private charity – two fountains that never fail in Puritanic Boston – was more than sufficient to relive it all, and gradually remove the deep-seated and unseen cause which, in the hurry of business and of money is not attended to. There is a hole in the dim-lit public bridge, where many fall through and perish. Our mercy pulls a few out of the water; it does not stop the hole, or light the bridge, nor warn men of the peril. We need the great Charity that palliates effects of wrong, and the greater Justice which removes the Cause."

Another way to say this is that all the mittens in the world aren’t going to change the reality that there are families in our country who can’t afford to buy mittens for their children. And that, my friends, is really the problem.

Again, I’d say that the mitten tree is a wonderful tradition and I’m sure that our donation of mittens and hats is appreciated and helpful. But if our goal is to ensure that children in our community have the basics of life, then we will need to move beyond service and education and begin to address the causes of poverty in our community. To do that, we’re going to have to look at some very complex failures and systems, study the issues, and be willing to listen to various points of view on a troubling and persistent problem. Our next step might be to focus on a portion of the big issue, something that we can manage, and begin to give voice to our concerns and our objective. I’ll give you an example.

Suppose in our efforts to make sure that children have the warm clothing they need, we discover that one reason for poverty in our area is that people who have prison records have a tough time moving back into the job market. They need counseling to help them learn how to get along in the workplace. They would benefit from some training on the skills everyone has to have in order to endure the ordeal of looking for work. We also discover that the agency that does good work in this area has just been told that their state funding has been eliminated – as it has, according to yesterday’s Roanoke Times.

We could decide to make this cause a part of our Fellowship identity. We’re going to become the congregation that cares about what happens to inmates and their families after prisoners are released back into the community. We’re going to stand with these people because we believe in their inherent worth and dignity. We will say publicly that we believe that former inmates and their families have a right to be a part of society. They should be able to make choices about their lives and their children’s future. This means that our community has an obligation to assist in this transition. This news might call us into another level of action, making a witness to our concern for the needs of former inmates and their families. Letters to the editor, letters to our state delegates, and petitions are part of this work. We can join forces with other groups and individuals to lobby the legislature and get the money restored. We might carry on this battle for years, refusing to quit despite inevitable defeats; expanding our goals with each victory.

That’s just what Dorothea Dix did. You might recall that she was the person who led one of the great reform movement in our country that resulted in better care for people who suffered from mental illness. A member of William Ellery Channing’s congregation, her life of social service began when she accepted his invitation to teach a Sunday School class for working-class girls. Sunday, you may know, was the only day that young people had off from factory work. The churches in Boston offered classes for these young people so that they would have an opportunity for some education, as well as moral instruction.

Through her service to young women, Dix became more interested in the needs of the poor and began to learn about the tragic lives of the mentally ill. She began to study what was known about the causes and treatment of mental illness and took up the cause. She took on the government at both the state and national levels and, with remarkable skill and energy, began to procure funding for institutions that would provide safe havens for the mentally ill. Nothing could deter her or distract her. By her own efforts and the efforts of the many organizations she helped to start, Dorothea Dix changed the way the average person understood the problems and the needs of those who suffer from mental illness and transformed the quality of life of the mentally ill. Both Dix and her followers were criticized for their demands on behalf of those who could not speak for themselves. But they knew that the only way to improve the care for mentally ill was to change the system. It would take more than providing clothes to the naked and food to the hungry. This goal would require education of the public and those who made the laws. It would require social witness, speaking out in public at every opportunity – no matter how unpopular the cause. It would require new laws, new standards for hospitals, and money for new facilities if the mentally ill were to be liberated from basements, barns, and jails and treated like the human beings they are. Ms. Dix and her friends and associates educated themselves about the needs of the mentally ill and the solutions that might help such people. In so doing, they were transformed in their hearts and minds. As they took what they learned and offered proposals for new ways to care for the mentally ill, their actions and words transformed cities and nations.

Some of the recent anti-oppression work that UU congregations have taken on has the same potential to transform our own lives and our society. Some of our most difficult and valuable work has been done in the context of our own congregations. Through the program called "The Welcoming Congregation" UUs have had the opportunity to consider their own attitudes about gay, lesbian, bi-sexual, and transgender people. Some congregations have voted to make a public witness of their stance against the discrimination and violence that people in our society face due to their sexual orientation. Someday we might decide to take this step and work together to transform attitudes and behaviors in our community.

As I mentioned earlier, some of us in this congregation are involved in anti-racism work. We are looking for ways to acknowledge the negative and engage people in our congregation and the wider world, continuing the work of social transformation that Channing and Parker and so many other Unitarians and Universalists took on in the 1800s. This work isn’t easy, even within the safety of our own congregation. The analysis of racism and power offered by the Faith and Action UUA is not acceptable to everyone. What I would hope is that we would continue the conversation in good faith, keeping our hearts and our minds open to ideas that are difficult, and that we would understand that all of us are damaged by attitudes that lead us to assume that any form of categorization and prejudice is acceptable.

Over the next few weeks, the Social Action committee and one of our covenant groups will be working together to explore how we, as a congregation, might acknowledge a problem in our community and engage ourselves in the work of social change. I’m very excited about this initiative and the potential it has for deepening our community. My own experience is that working to transform our community leads to personal transformation and that personal transformation affects the community in which we life,. As David Rhys Williams wrote,

"The precious life that is in me is the same in all. Rich and poor, wise and simple, strong and feeble, we are joined together by a mystic oneness whose source we may never know, but whose reality we can never doubt. Behold, thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself because thy neighbor is thyself."

I look forward to learning and living this lesson with you

May it be so.

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