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(c) Rev. Doug Slagle, Minister to the Gathering at Northern Hills, All Rights Reserved

 

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My partner, Keith Murrell, was born two months premature.  His mother, who was a work at home mom already caring for four children,  suffered several complications that threatened her health during the pregnancy with Keith.  Doctors encouraged her to think about her large family – and consider her’s and their well-being instead of continuing with the pregnancy.  She refused that encouragement to forsake her baby, out of love for the child, and she continued with the pregnancy until it become necessary to induce early labor.

Keith was then delivered premature and he was very sick and underweight.  He immediately went into an incubator in a neonatal intensive care unit.  Over the next month, his condition slowly improved.  At that point, instead of still being in despair over their premie infant, Keith’s parents were filled with optimism.  The child that his mom had loved so much that she risked her own life to deliver, was improving – even though he still had a ways to go until he would be fully healthy.

I recite this story as a way to illustrate the title of my message today – the paradox of Humanism.  Social scientist and author Steven Pinker has written two recent bestselling books, Enlightenment Now and The Better Angels of Our Nature, that have revolutionized 21st century thinking.  The books discuss the paradox of Humanism and its often negative views of the human condition.

With climate change and its dire consequences, with terrorist attacks a constant threat, with viruses regularly emerging that could potentially kill millions, with human rights around the world attacked, with the possibility that artificially intelligent machines may one day dominate people, with fundamentalist religions seemingly gaining influence, and with the rise of anti-democratic politics around the world – including in the U.S. – it seems that humanity is very sick and even faces potential extinction.

Many progressives, liberals and Humanists have responded to these problems with alarm.  They rightly confront right-wing, reactionary forces that want to undue human progress.

The paradox, author Steven Pinker argues, is that the world is much like a premature infant.  Despite the very real truth that we humanity is a long way from perfection, it’s condition has dramatically improved over history and people now enjoy the best conditions ever. 

A part of that paradox, Pinker believes, results from the failure to see that humanity has continuously improved.  Many people hold the mistaken belief that the human condition is getting worse.  That belief, held by many Humanists – including me until I read Pinker’s book – ironically helps strengthen the many reactionary forces that threaten the well-being of humanity.  If the world is so bad, most right-wing politicians and organizations say, then it is all due to progressivism, science, Humanism, and liberal democracy.  America and the world needs, these right wing extremists say, to return to the supposedly good old days with less liberalism, less democracy, less social welfare, and more religious influence.

In other words, Pinker says Humanists are paradoxically helping to create the political, social and religious forces that seek to undermine all that the world has achieved.  Humanity, according to Pinker, is not anywhere close to being as bad off as many believe.  Humanists must continue their work to improve the world, but they should adopt the optimistic and hopeful attitudes of Keith’s parents when he was improving – but still sick.  Yes, conditions for all of the world’s people are imperfect, but humanity is much, much better off than ever before.   Humanists should therefore be upbeat and positive – all as a way to champion the amazing benefits that historic liberal forces have created – and will continue to create.

The problem with many people – Humanists included – is that they cognitively see the world in a mistaken way.  People are prone to think according to what psychologists call an “availability bias.”  People react to things and events that are most available to their memories – those that have very recently happened.  Almost all people fail to remember the truth about the past – or at least study it to see how worse conditions used to be.  Availability bias leads people to essentially be prejudiced in how they think – to only recall and react to recent events – and thereby believe they define reality.

I confess to having availability bias myself – which often causes me to worry and fret.  I can hear ten nice things about me but then hear one criticism, and I focus exclusively on that.  I can also see one seemingly bad event when, if I actually studied the data, I’d see it’s not so bad at all.  I was concerned this past fall when fewer children were attending our services.  When I expressed my concern to RE teachers, one of them – Jennifer Schmahl, told me things are just fine – some kids have aged out of the RE program and others are often engaging in Sunday sports games.  But youth involvement and commitment to GNH, Jennifer said, as witnessed by our youth Holiday program, is still very good.    

One funny illustration presented by Pinker in his book describes a sketch by the original Saturday Night Live comedians.  Gilda Radner and Chevy Chase are lying in bed after making love.  Chase is worried that Radner was not, I use a euphemism here, “fulfilled”.  Radner ponders for a moment and then says to reassure him, “Maybe I was.  I often reach “fulfillment”……….but I don’t know it!”

       That, for Pinker, summarizes how people – and specifically Humanists – often think.  People don’t even know how fulfilled and happy they are.

The situation with many of today’s liberals and humanists is that they highlight only the bad stuff they remember from recent past – the 2016 election, recent police shootings of unarmed black men, the homeless people they’ve just seen at a shelter, perhaps the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks, or recently terrible weather storms.  Their false conclusion according to Pinker:……..the current world is a terrible place.  Many liberals and Humanists become pessimists.  They accept a false reality that history and data do not support.  In every aspect of human life, from civil rights, to death rates, to levels of poverty, things have dramatically improved such that we live in the best of times – regardless of the fact that bad stuff still happens.

In his book The Better Nature of Our Angels, Pinker carefully uses charts and statistics to show that rates of violence, war, murder, and deaths from natural disasters have continually and regularly declined since the dawn of Homo sapiens.  The development of tribes, cities, nations, laws, Enlightenment ideals, advanced technology, and international cooperation have all led to far fewer violent deaths today than ever before.  As Humanists, we lament war, murder, and unnatural death.  But we fail to analyze historical data to see that warfare and violent deaths have steadily declined.

Availability bias is enhanced, according to Pinker, by the media.  Pinker does not attack journalists as enemies, like some politicians, but he still sees them as over-emphasizing bad things.  Indeed, Pinker says that news reporters are governed by the statement, “If it bleeds, it leads.”  Death, mayhem and suffering make for better headlines than do reports that life is getting better.  And the problem is, we as news consumers remember only those stories.

       Just by looking at wars we might remember, each succeeding war the US has fought has resulted in many less deaths.  World War Two caused over 400,000 US military deaths.  The Viet Nam War caused 58,000 US combat deaths.  Total military deaths in both the Afghan and Iraqi wars are 4,200.  That dramatic decline in US war deaths is true for all nations. Humanity is learning from past experience, negotiating more, and avoiding wide-scale wars like World Wars One and Two.  When nations do fight, modern technology and better medical care result in fewer casualties.

Of course, any death in any war is terrible and we must continue peace advocacy.  But as Pinker says, we should also celebrate the fact that the US and the world continue to become less violent.

But if Humanists overlook historical data and persist in a mostly negative attitude about violence, for instance, they cause an added paradox.  They ironically support the arguments of right-wing isolationists like the President, and Kentucky Republican Senator Rand Paul.  Such reactionary politicians want the US to retreat into itself, put up walls around its borders, shun alliances with other nations, and think of itself as an island separate from the rest of the world.  And the likely result, should that come to pass, would be that the U.S. will be made less great and less safe.  Humanists, Pinker argues, should not help these isolationists with a negative view of the human condition.  They should boastfully brag about less violence and unnatural death in the world – and rightfully claim that is due to progressivism of the past.

In this way, Pinker is an equal opportunity critic.  He blames both far-left and far-right extremists for ignoring data and the truth of continual human progress.  Far left extremists champion great ideals but it is often their negative outlook about the present condition of humanity that paradoxically works against what they seek.

And that is true in a number of areas.  Far-left, overly pessimistic extremists, Pinker argues, often unknowingly support far-right extremists who want to defeat forces that improve life.  For instance, Humanists like me see poverty and lament it’s reality.  Far-right extremists use that negativity about poverty and other issues to claim past social welfare programs have made things worse, when they have dramatically made things better.

        This highlights yet another paradox – one called the Easterlin paradox originated by economist Richard Easterlin in 1973.  As all groups of people in the US have steadily increased their incomes – even the poor due to rising minimum wages – the level of happiness for all Americans has historically remained stagnant.  This paradox notes that even as every American class is wealthier now then they were 50 or 100 years ago, the contentment level has not equally increased – even though it has in Western European countries.  Part of the reason is due to rising wealth inequality in America – which justifiably causes some unhappiness.  But the paradox remains.  Most Americans don’t seem to recognize ways they are better off than their ancestors – due primarily to the psychology of availability bias.

In this way, Pinker supports something I often talk about and believe.   Life does not happen at the extremes.  Proverbially, things are never all black or all white.  They are grey.  We live in a world where almost everything is nuanced.  We must therefore encourage balance, cooperation and compromise in how we live and think.  As I’ve said in several past messages, we cannot make perfect the enemy of good or, as the ancient Chinese philosopher Confucius said, “Better a diamond with a flaw, than a pebble without.” 

A balanced view of the human condition sees most areas of life as imperfect but also recognizes the reality that they have consistently improved.  And Pinker has the data and quantitative analysis to prove it.  Liberalism, science and Humanism have built human progress.  Conservatism and religious theism have not.  That is not just a matter of opinion – but proven fact.  Numbers do not lie.

Theistic spirituality, in this case, is reactionary.  It has an inherent availability bias built into it.  The world is full of sin, death and evil, religious theists believe.  They use anecdotal examples to support that bias.  The solution, any theist will tell you, is to turn to an all-powerful but unseen deity to save humanity.  We must worship him or her and follow his or her rules, all in order to escape eternal punishment.

The greatness of Humanism, however, is that it believes in the one and only verifiable means of improving the well-being of people.  Themselves.  My foundational spiritual belief is that it was not some god or goddess that has saved us from past calamity – or will save us from a future one.  The world’s gods and goddesses have instead been scientists working to improve the world, it’s been activists who push for laws to create better living conditions, and it’s been all of us who demand basic rights of life, liberty and happiness.  Humanity is still building a form of heaven on earth.  It’s not finished yet and may never be – but life today is still a glorious thing – especially if we compare it to a thousand years ago when the average life expectancy was thirty years, when two out of three children died before age two, when almost nobody ever travelled beyond a few miles of their birthplace, and when most people were uneducated and lived a life of constant hard work – just to be able to barely survive.  Today, even the poorest and most oppressed live many times better than the poor and oppressed of 1019.

And that’s a paradox everybody should understand – especially Humanists.  Life is still often unfair.  People still hate, discriminate and kill.  Diseases still kill many.  The premature infant that is our human society waits to become self-functioning and fully good.  But we have abundant reason to celebrate the progress the infant has made, and countless reasons to believe more amazing progress is yet to come.  We must still work hard to make things even better – but we, beginning with me, must banish negativity. 

       In that regard, let’s look to the new year with hope and optimism!

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(c) Doug Slagle, Minister to the Gathering at Northern Hills, All Rights Reserved

 

Please click here to listen to the message.  Please see below to read it.

 

Like most of the parents here probably believe, having and raising children are the most rewarding experiences of life – but also the most challenging!  My daughters and I now laugh about their teenage years when they were often furious with me for how I sometimes embarrassed them with uncool dad things I’d say or do in front of their friends.  Or when I set seemingly unreasonable curfews.  And there were times when I was mad at them – and told them, “I will always love you – but right now I don’t like you very much!”

But most of all, as a parent, I think of how rich my life is because of my girls.  I remember as if it was yesterday when they were born.  Childbirth is a miracle repeated thousands of times every day around the world – and yet each birth is simply astounding.  A little human emerges dazed and blinking at bright lights and loud sounds.  The infant is so small, so helpless – and so beautiful.

I sat down soon after each of my girls were born and wrote them letters that I shared with them when they were young adults.  I wanted them to know how honored I felt to be their dad – and what a gift they were to me and their mom.  That feeling I had so many years ago at their birth has not changed.  I look at them now and still see human miracles – beautiful women who are now married and doing great things in the world.

And so the song Michael just sang, “Mary Did You Know?” is one of my holiday favorites.  It expresses several Christian beliefs I don’t hold, but the melody and overall lyrics affect me.  Parents everywhere look at their newborn child and wonder what is ahead.  What ways will she or he love others?  What joys will this child experience?   How will the world be changed for the better because this infant, this miracle of life, was born?

For Mary, she could not know her son would grow to be as great as he was.  I don’t believe Jesus was literally God – but I do believe, from numerous historical pieces of evidence, that he did live – and he did teach wonderful values.  Indeed, his teachings have affected history perhaps more than any other person.  He remains today an exemplar of compassion, empathy,  forgiveness, and love.  When we think of those ideals, we think of him.

But as the song asks, did Mary know he would one day teach and practice such goodness?  We cannot know what she thought, but I imagine Mary had an implicit trust her son would be great – primarily because she must have been a deeply good woman.  Few children are born to be great.  Instead, they become great due to multiple influences – but the foremost of them is because the parents modeled goodness to their children.  Mary’s simple life of poverty created in Jesus empathy for people who live on the margins.  Her humility and gentleness taught him to be the same.  Her inward shame for conceiving out of wedlock influenced his understanding of human weakness – and the vital importance to forgive.

The influence that a parent, particularly a mother, has on a child is often profound.  My daughters are versions of their amazing mom, just I am fortunate to be the product of my mom, who significantly shaped who I am today.

I recently read about the real life story of a man named Emmanuel Ofosu Yeboah.  A documentary narrated by Oprah Winfrey has been made about his life.  He was born in the African nation of Ghana to very poor parents.  He was also born with one severely deformed leg – one that could not be used.  In Ghanian culture, a deformed child is seen as a curse and punishment upon the mother who, it is believed, caused the deformity by past sin.  Because of that belief, Emmanuel’s father abandoned his family soon after his son’s birth.

But Emmanuel’s mother did not abandon her other-abled son.  She loved him all the more.  She encouraged him as a child to adapt and overcome his disability – by getting an education.  At first, she carried him two miles to school every day.  Later, she taught him how to hop on one leg – and so thereafter Emmanuel hopped two miles to, and two miles from his school.

At age 13, his mother became very ill and he was forced to quit school to support her.  Most other-abled persons in Ghana were beggars but Emmanuel was determined to work – and so be began shining shoes, earning $2 a day.  When his mother passed, he resolved to not be stuck as a shoe shiner but to learn to ride a bike and be a delivery person.  He strapped his good foot into a pedal and thereby rode a bike and delivered packages.

After a doctor told Emmanuel about the US charity Challenged Athletes Foundation, he filled out a grant application for money to buy a better bike.  He received $1000 from the organization.  And with a new bike, he set out to raise funds to help other-abled people of Ghana by riding his bike across the 400 mile width of that nation.  His ride and inspirational talks attracted world-wide attention.  Nobody had ever seen someone ride a bike with one leg.   The Challenged Athletes Foundation invited him to California to participate in a bike race.  He did so and finished the 56 mile course in 7 hours.

The foundation also arranged for Emmanuel to have surgery on his deformed leg so that it could be fitted with a prosthesis.  With it, he was then able to walk, run, swim and bike using two legs.  He began regularly competing in triathlons as a way to raise awareness, and money, for other-abled persons.  He received an award for the Most Inspirational Athlete of the Year in 2003 and later was given the prestigious Casey Martin award to an exceptional athlete who has overcome physical, mental or cultural challenges.  Today, he is a worldwide ambassador and fundraiser for the other-abled.

And all of that is due, Emmanuel says, to the influence of his mother who died when he was still young.  Her love, her sacrifice for him, and her persistent encouragement that he learn, grow, and overcome his disability instilled in him the values he now lives by – and shares with the world.  “She gave me the idea that I could go to school and become a great man,” he told Sports Illustrated.

To the kids and young people here this evening, I hope you know the love your parents have for you.  For all the ways they annoy you or force you to do things you think are just awful, please understand they do so because they see greatness in you.  You are someone who will grow up to do awesome things for the world. 

For each of us adults, whether we are a parent, grandparent, aunt, uncle – or not, I trust we sense the tremendous privilege we each have to help shape a child’s life – not just by what we teach or say, but by how we lead our lives.  In that way, this congregation of parents and non-parents are models to the community – and more importantly to our youth.  All of you adults model to our youth how to be compassionate, kind and generous.

Like Mary, we can never know exactly who a young person will grow up to be.  But we can know youth look to us and our actions.  If we are true to our ideals, if we walk our talk, if we endeavor to be encouragers and activists, we will know our children, and the children of this city, will one day give sight to the blind, enable the lame to leap, and help heal the nations.

I wish all of you a Christmas of peace and joy!

(Go change into Santa outfit!)

    

(c) Doug Slagle, Minister to the Gathering at Northern Hills, All Rights Reserved

 

Please click here to listen to the message.  See below to read it.

 

One-hundred and four years ago, on Christmas Eve 1914, World War One was five months old.  After Germany invaded France as a way to quickly win the war, fighting instead bogged down into a stalemate.  French and British forces dug hundreds of miles of trenches to stop the Germans – who in turn dug their own extensive trenches.  Those battle lines remained the same for another three years.  No side was able to win.

But that did not stop the killing.  Attempts to breech the lines were periodically tried.  Bombing, artillery barrages and poison gas were also used.  Meanwhile, multitudes of young men were killed or seriously wounded for no reason.  9 million soldiers died during the war.  21 million were injured.  The war to end all wars was one of mankind’s bloodiest.

Christmas Eve 1914 was cold and clear at the battle front.  Frost covered the ground as both sides prepared for another night of uneasy watchfulness.  Accounts of what happened next are varied but all are true.  At some point, troops on both sides spontaneously stopped shooting and instead began singing Christmas carols.  British troops sang out in English while the Germans listened, and then those roles reversed.  O’ Come All Ye Faithful was sung by the British, followed by the Germans singing Adeste Fideles.  The same happened with Silent Night and its German version – Stille Nacht.

British soldiers peered over the lines and saw the German trenches suddenly lined with candlelit Christmas trees.  Troops on both sides ventured into the no mans land between lines to gather and bury the dead.  Several started friendly soccer games between the two sides.  Still others observed the day and night with prayer and impromptu Christmas services – attended by all soldiers.  One British soldier described what happened to his squad: “We were met in no man’s land by four Germans, who said they would not shoot on Christmas if we did not. They gave our fellows cigars and a bottle of wine, and we gave them a cake and cigarettes.  All through the night we drank and sang carols together.”

Another soldier observed in his diary, “Really, you would hardly have thought we were at war.  Here we were, enemy talking to enemy.  They like ourselves with mothers, with sweethearts, with wives waiting to welcome us home again.  And to think within a few hours we shall be firing at each other again.”

An unofficial Christmas truce had been started not by politicians or generals, but by those most affected by war – average soldiers.  For many of them, the truce lasted all day and night.  For a lucky few, the truce extended until after New Year’s.  This Christmas Truce of 1914 has been depicted in film, opera, poem and song.  One haunting choir piece about the event ends with a plaintive question, “Why can’t all days be like Christmas Day?”

And that plea echoes the sentiment in the song Michael just sang about a much different human tragedy.  The song “Do They Know It’s Christmas” was written in 1984 and performed by an international group of famous pop singers.  The song was a hit and raised nearly $10 million dollars for African famine relief.  Today, the song is played during the holidays to remind us that suffering and hunger still affect many.  Let them know it’s Christmastime.  Feed the world.

For me, the song points out an unfortunate irony.  Huge amounts of charitable financial giving and volunteering occur between Thanksgiving and Christmas.  For several years, members of the former Gathering assembled as a group to serve at the Freestore’s annual holiday food basket give away. 

Freestore coordinators soon asked us, however, to stop our December volunteering.  With so many people wanting to help during the holidays, individual volunteers often have little to do – and that discourages people who came to help.  Better, the Freestore told us, to serve the rest of the year when giving and volunteering are not as common.  Because of so many good hearted volunteers, thousands of hungry people in Cincinnati do not have trouble knowing its Christmastime.

But during the rest of the year, many of those who experience food insecurity or homelessness ask the plaintive question young soldiers asked at Christmas 1914, “Why can’t every day be Christmas Day?”  Charity and kindness, it seems, is wonderfully expressed during the holidays – but too often forgotten afterwards.

I can’t, however, begrudge the fact that compassion is common in December.  That is at it should be.  What better way to celebrate Hanukkah, Christmas, Kwanzaa or Diwali than to serve and give?  But the values of December holidays are not intended to be honored just a few weeks each year.  Christmas and other holidays are instead annual reminders that ethics of peace, charity, good cheer, and kindness are to be practiced every day.  If that were to truly happen, what an amazing world it would be!

The Jesus child, as Bible stories tell us, was born to a teenage mother from a poor and insignificant village.  There was no reason to believe Mary and Joseph’s firstborn would be great – much less one of the most influential persons in history.  The mythical story of Jesus’ birth nevertheless resonates thousands of years later precisely because it tells of his humble origins.  The one who taught breathtaking ideals of forgiveness, love for one’s enemies, sacrifice, service, and generosity was himself born on the margins of society.  There can be no better way to teach compassion than to have suffered oneself.

It was Jesus’ teachings, and the resonance of his birth story, that inspired young soldiers to stop their fighting for a few hours and come together not as enemies – but as brothers.  It’s that same story that inspires us to sing out “Feed the World” and then actually work to make that happen.  The stories and lessons about Jesus need not all be true to nevertheless have had a profound impact.

A few years after Jesus’ death, Paul – who wrote much of the New Testament, decided to leave Jerusalem and venture into areas where the story of Jesus was unknown.  Before he departed, however, leaders of the Jesus movement reminded Paul that while his evangelical intentions were good, he must always remember the poor.  They understood that the foundation of Jesus’ teachings was compassion to the sick and impoverished.  If God’s love is to have any meaning, it must be shown to all – and not just believers and those who choose to convert.

Paul, to his credit, followed that advice.  When he visited Corinth, a wealthy city at the tip of Greece, he found its early Christian churches to be highly exclusive.  They were like clubs comprised of people who believed themselves to be favored by God because of their wealth and good fortune.  Those of modest means were excluded from Sunday celebrations because they were seen as dis-favored by God.  Paul was appropriately shocked and demanded the exclusion stop.  The Bible says he scolded the Corinthians: “When you meet together, you are not really interested in Communion.  Many of you hurry to eat without sharing with others.  As a result, some go hungry while you get drunk.  Do you really want to humiliate the poor?” he asked.  Paul then reminded them that the heart of Jesus’ teachings was to love one another – to live in peace, share, encourage, and help.

Also in the Bible, Jesus’ brother James is said to have taught a vital lesson to people of ALL beliefs:  having spiritual faith in something is good – but it must be proven.  As James supposedly wrote, “What good is it if you say you have faith, but don’t show it by your actions?  Can that kind of faith save anyone?  Suppose you see a brother or sister who has no food or clothing, and you say, “Have a good day; stay warm and eat well”—but then you don’t give that person any food or clothing.  What good does that do?  Faith by itself isn’t enough.  Unless it produces good deeds, it is dead and useless.”

James, in his letter, concludes by writing, “Dear friends, let us continue to love one another, for love comes from God.  Anyone who loves others is a child of God and knows God.  But anyone who does not love others does not know God, for God is love.”

For me, that last phrase represents the entirety of what I believe.  No matter a person’s religion or no religion, the ultimate force for good in the universe is love.  And that ethic is ultimately what Christmas and all other December holidays are about.  We celebrate at this time of year a fictional account of Jesus’ birth.  But even though it may be myth, its lesson is not.  The Jesus child was born to teach love to all humanity.  If we want to know the meaning of life, we must love.  If we want to understand beauty and honest morality, we must love.  If we want to have peace in the world, and peace in our hearts and minds, we must love.

And that love is not the syruppy kind that has little impact.  Genuine love as taught by Jesus is nearly impossible to show.  It’s a love that is given unconditionally – no strings attached.  It’s a love that rejects human impulses for retribution, anger or bitterness.  We must love our enemies, we must love the filthy homeless person, the prisoner serving time in jail, the sick and elderly in nursing homes and hospitals, the other-abled who hunger for acceptance, the poor, hungry and despised of the world, the family member, stranger or fellow church member who has hurt us – or with whom we disagree. 

At this time of year, showing love to all others is almost mandatory.   The message of the holidays is the lesson we get from the song “Do They Know It’s Christmas?”  It’s the answer to the question soldiers asked at Christmas 1914, “Why can’t every day be Christmas Day?”  And that lesson is a simple one:

We must unite in peace.  We must feed the world.  We must love one another.  May we each heed these truths all year long – as if every day is Christmas Day.

I wish you very happy holidays filled with peace and joy…

For a brief talkback time, I will appreciate you sharing how you celebrate the ideals of Christmas now and throughout the year?

(c) Doug Slagle, Minister to the Gathering at Northern Hills, All Rights Reserved

 

Please click here to listen to the message.  Please see below to read it.

 

With all of the young people doing this service – including Klarysa – I guess it’s time for an old guy to speak!  Even so, I’m very proud, on all of our behalf, in our youth and in our Music Director Michael Tacy – for today’s holiday music event! 

As we all know, Michael and GNH’s kids are this congregation’s future.  They are our legacy – and it’s their dreams and their beliefs that will help change this congregation – and change the world. 

In our kids, it’s easy to see a future where differences between people won’t be important.  Whether someone is black, brown, white, other-abled, gay, straight, male or female – such differences are not only welcomed by today’s youth – but I also think most kids don’t even think about them.  People are people and friends are friends – what is the big deal – many of them think.  Old white dudes like myself are fading into the past – and that’s a good thing.  Our kids, and millions more like them, will usher in a profoundly new and much better era.

And so, thank you to Michael…..and thank you to all of our kids for what they bring to this congregation and to our future.  You’re all awesome and everybody here loves you a lot.

In keeping with my theme this month to consider well known holiday songs – and how they can inspire us – I want us to also remember that many kids around the world don’t have the opportunities and advantages we have.

In 1945, a five year old hispanic boy came to New York from Puerto Rico with his eleven siblings and two parents.  They were desperately poor but were able to move in with relatives.  The five year old was blind and did not know English.  In school, he learned to read Braille and speak English – but music was the language he truly loved. At a young age, like our talented kids here, he created beautiful music using almost anything – rubber bands, spoons, or just tapping his feet.

At age 17 he quit school and began singing in small New York nightclubs.  His fame rose and, even though he was blind, he became a 1950’s version of Ricky Martin with thousands of adoring teenage fans.

In December 1970, this musician returned to Puerto Rico and was immediately reminded of that island’s culture, food, music and joy at Christmas.  A friend encouraged him to write a holiday song that would sing to both Hispanics and Anglos.  This musician grabbed a Puerto Rican guitar – a cuatro – and begin strumming some chords.  A few Spanish words came into his head and he soon had the beginning of a soon-to-be famous holiday song.  “Play on, Jose!” his friends told him.  Later, in a recording studio, he added more latin flavor to the song.  It was soon released and became an instant holiday hit.

Today, “Feliz Navidad”, the song this blind musician composed, is ranked eighth on the best selling holiday singles list.  Worldwide, it is in the top 25 of most played holiday songs.  Its singer and composer, as you know, is Jose Feliciano.  As he said about his youth, “Where else could a guy like me come from absolute poverty and be successful?  You know, it only happens in America.”

Feliciano’s youth as a poor immigrant boy is similar to another young boy some 2000 years ago.  Born in present day Israel, the Bible tells us that boy’s birth was such a threat to the tyrant dictator of the time, Herod, that the infant boy, his mother and father had to flee to Egypt to escape being killed.  Herod had ordered all young boys in Israel be killed – all to insure that the child born to be King of the Jews would not survive.  Jesus, like Jose Feliciano, was a poor child of color born into a hate filled world.

Sadly, Jose and Jesus remind us of the plight of thousands of other refugee children who today are separated from their parents and imprisoned simply for not being American.   Last Thursday, a seven year old migrant girl in detention died.  And even though children supposed to no longer be detained, recent reports from immigration services are that there remain over 15,000 children held in detention in the US.

This past June, the New York Times told the story of another migrant boy named Jose who was recently separated from his father after crossing the border.  Jose was sent to Michigan to live in detention.  He arrived there one rainy night clutching a small plastic bag of clothing – unwashed since he’d left Honduras over a month before.  In his hands he also tightly held two pictures he’d drawn – one of his arrested father, and one of his entire family…….which is now displayed for you to see.

Jose was so traumatized by being separated from his father and being held in detention that he cried himself to sleep for over a week.  Later, he began having nightmares while uttering moans in his sleep.  He ate little and refused to shower or change his clothes.  He was afraid his few possessions would be taken from him.  The only thing that brought a smile to his face was when he talked about his drawings – “Mi familia!” Jose proudly exclaimed.  One day, fire trucks with their sirens blarring pulled up to where he was living in Michigan.  “La violencia, la violencia!” he cried out.  Jose could not be consoled for a long time.  The sirens reminded him of the many dangers in Honduras where murders and forced recruitment of children into criminal gangs is common.

Over a month after Jose’s detention, he was able to speak by phone with his mother, still in Honduras.  His father was still in jail in the US for crossing the border without documents.  After the call, Jose became even more withdrawn.  He realized from the call that he would not soon see his family.  He was, and for all I know still is, a child held in detention by the United States.  He’s a modern day a modern day innocent child –  oppressed by hate and cruel indifference.

Jose Feliciano’s song “Feliz Navidad” is a tribute to the vitality of Hispanic culture and all that it has added to America.  It’s also a reminder that there is no “Feliz Navidad or Prospero ano y felicidad” for thousands of migrant children.  Our nation, which has always been a beacon to immigrants, is now imprisoning young migrant children and slamming the door shut on desperate people who seek only to work hard and build a new life.

I have no answers to the immigration issue.  The US cannot throw open its borders, but neither can it close its heart to Hispanic migrants who suffer  – people who live in poverty and fear for their lives due to conditions the US has historically helped cause.

To all of the youth here this morning, to all of us adults, may we be thankful for the opportunity to enjoy a Feliz Navidad.  The joys of this season are real and we should celebrate them as true blessings.  But in the midst of our celebrations, let us also remember our duty as members of the one human family to care for and serve the refugee, the hungry, homeless, poor and helpless children of the world.  As the Bible tells us Jesus poignantly once said, when we serve and love hurting children, we exemplify the heart of all that is true, right and good in the universe.

Thank you to our kids, their parents, and to Michael Tacy for a wonderful morning service.   I wish you all much peace and joy.

       (Introduce youth choir) as they sing “Africa” – a song to also help remind us of the purpose of the season.

(c) Rev. Doug Slagle, Minister to the Gathering at Northern Hills, All Rights Reserved

Please click here to listen to the message.  Please see below to read it.

 

In ancient Greek mythology, only gods and goddesses possessed fire.  Its energy and power were considered too dangerous to be given to humans.  But one god, Prometheus, appealed to Zeus, the head of all gods, to give fire to humans.  Zeus said no but Prometheus disobeyed and gave it to people anyway.

As punishment to humans for accepting such a dangerous thing, Zeus sent to earth the beautiful but impetuous goddess Pandora.  With her, he sent a sealed jar and told her it could be considered a prized gift only if she left it unopened.  But Pandora was unable to resist.  She opened the jar and immediately out poured all forms of evil – hatred, anger, murder, envy, greed, bigotry, and all other forms of nastiness.  At the bottom of the jar, however, remained one promising thing that, if left in the bottle, would be a helpful force for people.  That one thing was hope.

Today marks the next to last day of the Jewish holiday Hanukkah.  Being an eight day celebration, it ends at sunset tomorrow evening.  As most of us know, Hanukkah celebrates the ideal of hope in a dark and troubled world. 

Approximately two-hundred years before the birth of Jesus, a dictator named Antiochus Epiphanes took control over all Judea – present day Israel.  His hatred of Jews was so extreme that he did all he could to insult the religion and its people.  He held sporting games in the holy Jerusalem Temple where the participants were naked.  He slaughtered thousands of pigs in synagogues and in the main Temple sanctuary.  Worst of all, he demanded that Zeus, and a statue of him, be worshipped as a god by all Jews.  He ordered his soldiers to kill anyone who even slightly resisted.  Each of his orders, and many more, were direct affronts to pious, monotheistic Jews.

About thirty years later, a Jewish man named Judah Maccabaeus and his four brothers organized an army to confront Antiochus and his military.  Using guerrilla style warfare, in two years Jewish forces defeated the dictator.  Upon doing so, they rushed to the Jerusalem Temple to rededicate and restore its holiness.  They found its lamp stand and lit it in the sanctuary – as prescribed in the Torah.  To their dismay, they found it held only enough oil for one day.  It took several days to make sacred oil,  so the people were disappointed that the Temple would lose its holiness once the lamp went out.  Over the coming week, however, they were overjoyed to see that the lamp remained lit – keeping their sanctuary holy for eight days during which enough new oil was made.

This event, which Jews have celebrated ever since and will do so again this evening, is a symbol of hope and persistence.  Opposing a brutal dictator, fighting against his powerful army, winning the war only to find their country and their Temple in ruins, the Jewish people refused to give up.  They held onto their faith, which was founded on active hope.

And that theme of hope for Jews has persisted.  I’ve told before the true story of a prisoner in the Bergen-Belsen Nazi concentration camp who jumped into an empty vat that had contained lard to feed prisoners.  He slid around in the vat for some time before rushing into his barracks where he stripped off his shirt and tore it into long thin strands.  The guards and other prisoners thought he had gone mad.

Later that night, however, the man took the fat smeared strands of his shirt and arranged them into a crude menorah.  He promptly lit the middle strand and then one of the others.  It was the first night of Hanukkah and he alone had remembered.  Hundreds of starving prisoners prayed in silence around that menorah.  In the midst of the most terrifying Jewish calamity ever, when they as a people faced being wiped out, Jews refused to give up.  They held onto their faith and hope.

My theme for my four December messages is “It’s a Jingle Bell Rock Holiday.”  That likely sounds far too upbeat for what I’ve said so far, but my intention with this theme is for us to closely consider the ideals of well-known holiday songs.  For today, I want to look at the song “Light One Candle” by Peter Yarrow of the Peter, Paul and Mary trio.  Over the last forty years the song has become perhaps the most beloved of Hanukkah songs – one that sings of commitment to a more just and peaceful world and the hope that it will happen.

(Michael sings “Light One Candle”)

For us, the song’s plea for social justice describes our UU values.  More importantly, and what I want to focus on today, is the idea and psychology of hope as expressed in the song’s lyrics.

Life, as the ancient Pandora myth and the song suggest, is filled with hardship.  We experience times of great joy only to also be confronted with multiple challenging experiences.  What does Hanukkah teach us about such times?  With the current world and its people divided, with freedoms being threatened, with prejudice and hatred getting stronger, with many of us facing personal heartache in some form, how are we to respond?  How might the lyrics of “Light One Candle” inspire us?  Where does hope come from and how might we light it, nourish it, and keep it bright?  Hope, I submit to you, is a vital emotion to have.

Over the last few decades, psychologists have defined the emotion of hope as the perceived capability to solve a dilemma.  Using self-confidence as motivation, people set reasonable goals and plan reasonable ways to meet them.  Hope, in this regard, is not just a feel good emotion.  It’s a cognitive response to difficult circumstances.  For us as Unitarian Universalists, reason based hope could also be described as our form of religious faith.

The magazine Psychology Today says hope is analogous to the little engine that could.  When confronted with a crisis, genuine hope fosters in people the creativity to see beyond their suffering and instead visualize ways to overcome it.  Doing so causes them to make plans, and armed with a new optimism based on their own plans, people then believe much like the little train engine of children’s stories, “I think I can, I think I can.”  Psychologists therefore see hope as an emotion that directly comes from mental cognition and sound thinking.  And that’s a key point.  If our rational brains inform our emotions, instead of our primitive instincts doing so, we are more likely to act with wisdom.  Genuine and lasting hope is not naive.  It is formed by reason and logic.

To think in a way that fosters real hope is to have confidence in one’s abilities to solve a problem.  It also involves, according to psychologists, the ability to formulate realistic strategies to do that.  We, in this church community, have confidence that we can have an impact on reducing homelessness and poverty among children and teens – one of our goals for doing good in the community.  Our confidence leads us to plan ways to do that – to raise money and then volunteer as a church with local organizations.  Our confidence, strategizing, and actual work produce in us genuine hope much the same way that Jewish resisters opposed a tyrant, and Holocaust inmates refused to give up their humanity and their faith.

The song “Light One Candle” implicitly endorses that hopeful but reason based approach.  The song asks us to “light one candle for the wisdom to know when the peacemakers time is at hand.”  It also encourages us to “light one candle for all we believe in” and to remember past pain and the ways we dealt with it.  It calls us to light one candle not just as a spiritual gesture, but as something to inspire social justice action.

The song also tells us to light a candle for the sacrifice required to achieve our goals of peace.  By lighting Hanukkah candles, we are reminded of our responsibility to create change for the good.  We’re reminded of ways to do that – to honor our values, employ our wisdom, and use memories of past hardships – all to not dream of good that magically happens, but to instead believe and then act in ways that will make our hope and faith a reality.

And that is a fundamental premise of Unitarian Universalism.  It’s something else to remember when we tell others just what it is that we believe.  Our hope, what some call our faith, does not rely on a god to address the ills of our lives and world.  We do not worship a savior who rescues humanity.  Instead, UU’s believe that it is us who are one another’s saviors.  That’s a nutshell expression of our spirituality.  We have faith and hope in people, not gods or goddesses, to heal the world.  We accept the wisdom of many religions and we adopt truths from many sources not to please a deity and avoid his or her punishment, but to instead serve humanity.  That’s our duty and it’s what we were born to do.

Our hope, therefore, is not grounded in fear based religion.  Our hope is based on an informed and confident worship of universally true values.  We have the wisdom, ability and heart to work for the dignity of all, to advocate for equality and peace, and to seek truth.  Our cognitively based hope is what I consider the only provable form of religious faith people can have.  That hope creates for us both a better world that we help build, but it also creates our symbolic afterlife.  How we marshal hope to serve others in this life, and all the ways our service is paid forward far into the future, those are our legacies and our figurative heaven.  Personally, I’d rather be on the frontlines of doing good in my life – and thereby changing things for years to come – than I would praying, reading ancient texts, and selfishly trying to earn my ticket to heaven.  Any lasting legacies of good that I do now will be my afterlife reward in how I have affected the future.

Rational hope, expressed in the song Light One Candle, exemplified by Hanukkah, and as the basis for UU spirituality, comes because of three things: 1) we must set realistic goals for what it is we desire, 2) we must craft realistic plans of action to achieve our goals, and, 3) we must think confidently and positively that we will succeed.  Of these three, the most difficult is the ability to think positively.  Experts assert, however, that capability lies within every person.  We each can remember how we have overcome past challenges.  We’ve seen others overcome them too.  We know that success in achieving a goal is not just a prayer, but a proven reality we’ve experienced and seen.   When we remember these, fear, doubt and depression lose their power over us.  We’re able to confidently repeat “I think I can” when any hardship stands in our way.  Reason based hope and faith are only true if they are based on informed – and not emotional – goals, plans, and positive thinking.

I have a good friend who fifteen years ago was diagnosed with an aggressive form of cancer.  Doctors told her only 20% of all similar patients survive past a year.  My friend, though, has an amazing spirit.  She believed she would beat cancer and live to see her young children grow into adulthood.  She first set out to learn all she could about her cancer.  After doing so, she underwent the best treatments available – ones that were daring but promising.  After her treatments, she committed to regular and painful screening.  She also began living in ways that boosted her body’s ability to beat the cancer – by eating the right foods and continually exercising to strengthen her overall condition.  Five years later, doctors declared her cancer in remission.  Ten years later she was told her cancer was not detectable.  Fifteen years later, a milestone she celebrated this past May, doctors told her she was in peak health and effectively cured of cancer.  She now delights in her adult children and six young grandchildren.

Many of you know similar stories.  Such stories, I firmly believe, are not based on a religious miracle or twist of luck.  My friend made her luck.  She is the goddess that caused her so-called miracle.  Committed, confident, informed and strategic, she had a faith and hope based on the kind of positive outcomes you and I can achieve too.

This is the realistic hope of the Maccabee brothers who defeated a tyrant.  It’s the hope of Jews who fought, died and survived during the Holocaust.  It’s the hope of people who refuse to allow democracy or equality die, and it’s the hope of all of us who serve, give and remain committed to this good but imperfect church knowing that it helps improve many lives.  All of us, and all of these people, exemplify the spirit of Hanukkah and rational faith.  Tonight and tomorrow evening, let us therefore light one candle of hope not as some misguided fantasy for a better world, but as a confident assertion that we can, and we will, make it happen.

I wish you all much peace and joy…

Please click here to listen to the message:

Please click here to listen to the message:

(c) Rev. Doug Slagle, Minister to the Gathering at Northern Hills, All Rights Reserved

 

Click here to listen to the message.  See below to read it.

 

I said last Sunday in my message on Native American values that they are remarkably similar to Unitarian Universalist seven principles.  That similarity points to the expansive nature of our spirituality – that UU’s do not confine themselves to specific religious doctrines and philosophies.  We instead commit ourselves to the seemingly perplexing idea that we do not, and cannot know the answer to eternal question humans have posed: Where did the universe come from and how was it created?

Those two questions get at the mind-bending mysteries about eternity and the source of all creation.  If the universe was created by God, what existed beforehand?  Where did God come from and what was she doing before the universe began?  The same question arises from a non-religious notion of the Big Bang as creator of the universe.  What was the stuff that exploded in the Big Bang and where did it come from?  A creative explosion has to have been caused by something.

These mysteries, while we don’t often think about them, are the foundation of Unitarian Universalism.  As UUs, we confess that people cannot answer such questions and we cannot rely on ancient myth to do so.  We ask more questions than we assert having dogmatic answers.  What we DO claim to know are seven principles that guide our thoughts and actions. 

Having more questions about spiritual matters than absolute answers, as an amusing point, is the basis for one joke about UUs.  How do people who disagree with Unitarian Universalism express their disapproval?  They burn a question mark on a UU church front lawn!

But as much as we take pride in our questions about spiritual matters, and our seven principles, we like all people are prone to often ignore our own so-called values.  I unfortunately do not always respect the inherent worth and dignity of every person – perhaps most especially toward a certain orange skinned, fake blonde haired politician – which is not good of me.

I also suggest we do not always understand or practice the UU seventh principle: the interdependent web of all existence of which we are a part.  And for the purposes of my message topic today, that is why I believe we must heed the Native American value of moderation and balance in all things.

Our seventh principle states not only scientific fact, but also a fundamental belief in how everything in the universe SHOULD function.  The universe is not a collection of different things that function independently.  Indeed, as we all know, all life forms and all of the cosmos operate dependently on other forces and things.  A tree, for instance, cannot grow into a towering living organism unless it is nourished from the soil, watered by the rain, and energized by the sun.  The same is true for humans.  We exist and each us thrive because of the finely tuned balance of many complex natural functions.  If any of them should operate outside a balance – for instance if the sun would suddenly become far hotter – we would perish.

As pre-scientific people, Native-Americans understood that truth.  And it was for that reason that they deeply respected the natural world and believed they must live within its well-balanced systems.  They therefore did not over-hunt animals and take their existence for granted.  They did not foul the water, abuse land used for growing crops, or assume they could own any part of nature. 

Their understanding of the universe also informed their philosophy for getting along with one another.  The harmony and balance they saw around them in nature was not just how the universe operates.  They understood that harmony and balance are critical for how people should live.  They must coexist in a harmonious, cooperative and empathetic way.

As I’ve pointed out the last two Sundays, that stands in stark contrast to white European values and philosophies.  Our individualistic approach to life comes from how we see the universe.  Employing a misguided understanding of science, western thought sees the universe as   “atomized” or divided into distinct parts.   Each piece of the universe, westerners often believe, functions more or less independently and according to Darwinian principles – the strongest survive while the weakest are soon eliminated and evolved out of existence.

Western European ideas about how to live are thus guided by such atomized individualism.  People, we tend to believe, succeed or fail due to each person’s ability to fend for him or herself.  And that philosophy has created a white European value to compete aggressively against one another – which has led to what we have today: a divided and very competitive humanity separated by meaningless divisions of race, gender, sexuality, politics, and nationality.  We look past the beauty of our many shared values to instead focus on relatively minor differences.

        Individualism also led white Europeans to believe they could simply take the new American land as their own and plunder its resources for their enrichment.  Individualism led white Europeans and their forebears – including us – to see the universe as something in which all creatures MUST compete – NOT cooperate – to survive.  In order for my so-called race to thrive, others must not.  In order for the US to be great, other nations must be less great.  In order for any of our opinions to prevail, other opinions must be defeated and demeaned.  White Europeans too often fail to understand the interdependence of human relationships, and thus compete aggressively so that one side wins and all others lose.  We fail to see life as Native-Americans did – that there must be a win-win outcome for everyone – so that humanity can live in balance.

Native-Americans knew by experience that humans and their communities cannot thrive as isolated loners.  People are not so smart or powerful that they can exist outside the balance of nature, or without harmony between one another.  Native Americans understood that people thrive only when they live within a cooperative community that constantly works to maintain peaceful coexistence.  Indeed, as I related last Sunday, natives valued tribal harmony so much that they honored all decisions made by tribal councils – even if they felt some were bad decisions.  Indigenous people understood that good decisions will naturally succeed and bad ones fail – to eventually be corrected.  Their wisdom told them that collectivist cooperation and peace were far more important than competition with one side winning and an angry imbalance as the outcome.

Most natives therefore lived in large communal lodges with adults and children eating and sleeping immediately next to multiple other unrelated persons.  Indeed, polyandry and polyamory – having multiple romantic partners – was a common native practice.  Sex was seen as a natural way to strengthen bonds between different people.   Indigenous people did not hold the western view of monogamous marriage as a way to insure that the property of a man would pass down to his progeny.  That western view of marriage originated from an individualist philosophy based on the perpetuation of wealth.

Natives, however, owned no property, but shared equally and widely.  Since it was therefore not important to determine who was the father of a child and thus to whom property will be inherited, sexual relations between natives was very open.  Women in many native tribes were the ones who chose their romantic partners – not men.  In that regard, most native cultures were often socially female centric.  An entire tribe assumed responsibility for the well-being of a child since paternity was often not known.  Even more, human sexuality was seen as fluid so that many indigenous cultures welcomed same sex relationships.

Such cultural practices extended to other attitudes as well.  Believing in the balance within nature, natives did not believe there was anything wrong with other abled persons or animals.  There was, for instance, no native word for disabled.  Their views on many things were not binary – as they are in western culture.  People and things are not good or bad, normal or abnormal, gay or straight.  Instead, all things and all people exist equally, in harmony, and in delicate balance.  Something can be both good and bad, masculine and feminine, abled and other abled.  Indeed, as I’ve suggested in past messages, there is great value in the so-called grey areas of life – the zones between two opposites.  And natives believed this.

Once again, their values contrast with white western views that life IS binary and that people and things are either one extreme or the other.  And that, I believe has led to our culture’s disharmony and lack of balance –  resulting in anger and hatreds toward one another.

Juli Rose shared last Sunday that natives incorporate circles in their spirituality.  Circles, for them, symbolize the continuity and balance of life.  Circles are unending and definitely non-linear.  Indeed, perfectly straight lines do not exist in the natural world.  Bends, curves and complexity are instead the norm.  Circles therefore represent how people should think, act and understand one another – in a non-linear way. 

        The all encompassing quality of a circle epitomizes Native values to understand the universe in a holistic manner.  The universe cannot be taken apart and considered by its atomized parts.  It’s instead a balanced amalgam of many things all existing, cooperating and working together.  A holistic way of thinking, therefore, accepts multiple ideas and truths – much like Unitarian Universalists do.  We do not believe in a linear approach to spirituality – that a person takes one direct line from question to one absolute truth.  Instead, life and spirituality are complex and encompass a wide range of truths.  We celebrate the timeless hope and resolve of Jews, the sacrifice and forgiveness of Christians, the solemn dedication of Muslims, and the reverence for nature of pagans and indigenous people.  Life is not about separating into supposedly right or wrong ways of believing, thinking and living.   It’s instead about celebrating diversity and harmonizing differences into a balance of synchronized cooperation.   

Natives did not have the ability to fully understand how stars and planets operate, but they saw how the moon, sun and stars moved in regularity and balance.  That awareness was ahead of its time, but it proved for natives how nature works and how people must act the same.  One planet in our solar system, or one group of people in our congregation cannot separate from others without chaos or volatility resulting.

The clash between Native-Americans and white Europeans was and is, therefore, a clash between two different sets of values and philosophies.  Natives were collectivists who valued respect, cooperation, unity, harmony, balance and sharing.  White European conquerers of this continent, our ancestors, were individualists who valued competition, aggression, hoarding of wealth, and dominance.  I believe, however, that native culture and spirituality was most in tune with what Unitarian Universalists say they value.  In that regard, I want to move away from a more western oriented way of thinking to begin to think and act collectively as natives did.  They valued respect for all people – even their opponents.  They valued harmony in human relations – trusting that time will determine whether decisions were correct or not.  They refused to fight amongst themselves.  They valued empathy and understanding of differences.  These collectivist values are Thanksgiving ones I want to give thanks for and begin to adopt  – which means I must accept that life is not about my personal wishes, but about everybody’s wishes working together for the common good.

        In that regard, I ask for your indulgence for just a moment.  I believe this congregation is a loving one that is currently imbalanced.  The debate and vote that occurred over the last several months has affected all of us.  Several of our dearest friends say they can no longer be a part of this place because of the vote outcome.  That wounds me not for my sake, but for the sake of this good place.  My message today on moderation, balance and harmony has convinced me that Native American thinking was right.  And, ironically as I pointed out in my recent Harbinger column, that is what our recent banner vote reflected. Two thirds of us essentially wanted the same thing – a banner that would at least in part say “black lives matter” – but that 66% super majority could not agree on how that would appear.  In truth, what seems a negative outcome was actually a positive reflection that GNH IS mostly united and committed to social justice.

But our current imbalance and smoldering angers indicate we do not always practice our seventh principle – to honor the interdependence of human relationships such that we practice balance and harmony in this congregation.  Our passions can get the best of us such that we sometimes hurt those near to us, or who disagree with us.  Disharmony in this place has been caused by all of us – me and you.  I confess to you sorrow over my role in that. 

We must harmonize, we must come together, we must see that even when we disagree, we should not be disagreeable.  I humbly plea for empathy toward each other.  I humbly plea for cooperation, compromise and love to prevail.  Instead of blaming someone else for any imbalance, let’s look in the mirror to see our role for the imbalance.  What we do here, what this place stands for, are so important in the world today.  Will we thrive in loving harmony, or will we be like our culture that is divided into warring camps that dislike and disparage one another?  Let’s look to Native-American values for our answer.

I wish you peace, joy and a Happy Thanksgiving.   

(c) Doug Slagle, Minister to the Gathering at Northern Hills, All Rights Reserved

 

Click here to listen to the message.  See below to read it.

 

All of us are familiar with Steve Jobs and his accomplishments.  Not only did he and his work partner Steve Wozniak develop the first widely used personal computer, Steve Jobs had the inspirational vision to develop the first smartphone – a device that has had a revolutionary impact.  Jobs believed that having a computer in our pockets would not only be popular, it would change how we live.  And, indeed it has.

Jobs’ advice on the secrets of creative success have therefore been widely listened to because they are different from what we often hear.  Hard work, intelligence, and persistence are all a part of any success story, but more important to success, for Jobs, is the diversity of someone’s life experiences.  Multiple life experiences, he said, expanded his creative inspiration.

Jobs said that having a life of diverse adventures and challenges, ones that are unique from the experiences of other people, provides someone with a lot of knowledge.  When that person then “zooms out” to consider those dots of experiential knowledge, he or she can see how they might be connected.   And it is in the connection of dots of knowledge that we are most wise.  In other words, wisdom comes from thousands of diverse experiences we have had – and our creative combination of them into useful and often profound ideas.

As Jobs said, our task is not just to learn facts, but to instead actively live out new and constantly changing experiences that help us evolve.  He encouraged Apple employees to take time off to be a poet in Paris, volunteer in a third world country, practice zen buddhism or dare to try things that they are afraid to try.  He offered the example of Walt Disney who once tried LSD.  While neither Jobs or I advocate the use of illegal drugs, that new experience for Disney enlarged his creativity and gave him the idea to develop his revolutionary cartoons.

Too many people, Jobs believed, live in a bubble of familiarity and watch the world happen around them.  Creative and wise people, however, are those who venture outside their bubble to no longer watch the world, but instead immerse themselves in it to experience amazing things.  When we collect multiple good, bad, challenging, inspiring, boring, or dangerous experiences that are outside our everyday lives, we have the stuff that builds wisdom.

Ironically enough, I’ve connected dots of knowledge and experience to craft my message today – one entitled “Thanksgiving Values of Native Americans: Honoring the Wisdom of Our Elders.” 

Steve Jobs, Native Americans, and elders may not seem related, but in an unusual way they are.  Within all of the many Native-American cultures is a deep respect for elders.  That is not simple respect for older people.  It was and is respect for any person who has lived a full and diverse life.

For us and for indigenous people, full and diverse lives are usually those of older people.  But that is not always the case.  An elder to Native Americans is a leader, teacher, healer, or spiritual guide who is recognized by others as having acquired useful awareness about how to lead a worthwhile life.  The key attribute of an elder is someone – usually an older person – who has used life experience to develop great wisdom.

That Native American value to honor elders is one that originated from a realization that for a tribe to survive, it must rely on the wisdom of a few.  Those few persons knew from experience ways to hunt effectively, the signs of changing seasons, strategies to live peaceably, treatments to cure the sick, advice for leaders and warriors, and a host of other effective and virtuous ways to live.  Elders did not just have a mental storehouse of facts, they had an uncommon intuition into the human heart and the workings of the natural world.

Since the lifespan of most ancient indigenous people averaged less than thirty years, those who lived a lot longer had survived not just by luck, but by doing what Steve Jobs advocated.  They used their life experiences to gain insights and thereby live longer.  They connected the dots of their knowledge to form a wise philosophy – which they then shared.

Most of all, elders passed on a Native-American belief that old age and death are not to be feared but instead embraced as a part of the great circle of life.  We’re born, we live for a time, and we have an afterlife physically and spiritually.  That Native-American belief contrasts with white European fears of growing old, dying and being judged.  Our culture fetishizes youth all in order to avoid thinking about the inevitable facts of aging and death.  But indigenous people have a far more positive and uplifting understanding of them.  One indigenous poem about the circle of says this:

We understand who we are –

We know where we came from –

We accept and understand our destiny here on Mother Earth –

We are spirit having a human experience…

While it is dangerous to apply indigenous beliefs to all native cultures, most embrace the idea of the circle of life – that of birth, life, death and then rebirth of the body, and an afterlife of the spirit.  People, natives believe, are just what the poem I read states.  People are physical manifestations of spirit.  Spirits come from the stars and inhabit people and all other creatures.  During one’s life, the challenge is much like what UU’s believe – a person is to use his or her talents to benefit humanity and all creation.  When one physically dies, most natives say, Mother Earth, who has nourished the body, reclaims it in a different form – as a flower, a moose, or a mountain.  But the spirit of a person moves into the sky, towards the light, to dwell forever in a beautiful spirit world.

And these native beliefs shape their acceptance and even celebration of the aging process and of dying.  There is no fear but only reverence for wise older people.

Modern Native-Americans, however, have sadly forgotten to honor their elders.  Many contemporary Native-Americans have adopted the white cultural obsession with youth.  Traditional indigenous leaders, teachers, and healers are now often ignored with the result that ancient tribal customs and languages are being lost because young people do not learn or practice them. 

New studies have shown, however, that ancient indigenous ceremonies and healing practices were and are effective in the emotional and physical well-being of natives.  The use of natural herbs for healing, and sacred native ceremonies to inspire participants, were and are highly effective in maintaining native physical and emotional health.  But, as I said, that is being lost.  Even worse is the current isolation and mistreatment of many Native-American elders.  One older Native-American, who is one of the last persons able to fluently speak his tribal language, says he is often mistaken by whites as hispanic – and is thus accused of being an illegal immigrant.  The truth, of course, is that he and his ancestors are more a part of this land than any white European.

The wisdom of elders, according to most indigenous people, comes in four ways.  First, people must be part of a large community – and be willing to always expand that community.  Meeting and interacting with a diversity of people extends our awareness of other beliefs, lifestyles and cultural practices.

Second, people should purposefully seek new adventures, challenges and even hardships.  Learning a new skill, persevering through a crisis, or traveling to a new land are all ways to open our minds, evolve,  and experience the freshness of life.

Third, people should embrace the mission statement of life.  For indigenous people that was to enjoy the work that humans are to do – to serve, love, share with, and teach others.  Living is not a hardship, but instead a joyous way to improve humanity and all creation.  When we live out our purpose, natives and modern neuroscientists agree, we find great contentment.

Fourth and finally, people must be active in order to evolve.  Sitting in a figurative bubble to watch or read about the world has minimal value.  To learn and grow, we must get in the arena of life and do the things others are too lazy, arrogant, or too afraid to do.  In other words, by living out our life purpose, we not only improve the world – we improve ourselves. 

My own life experience proves this last point.  I attended seminary for a time and it had some value.  But I did not evolve into a half-way decent minister until I’d spent time actually doing the work of one.  And it is precisely that idea that natives understood.  The humble and active servants in native tribes, both men and women who experienced all the ways to effectively live and serve, were the ones who became wise elders.

For me, this Thanksgiving, I plan to listen to the wisdom of Native-Americans – the first true pilgrims to this land.  I have so much to learn from non-western, non-white cultures.  I want to begin to practice the good values of people un-like me – particularly marginalized ones of this nation – Native-Americans and African-Americans.  In many ways, they respect people and nature far more than money and wealth.  That’s a wise but difficult value to adopt for this 59 year old white man, but it’s a challenge I hope to meet.

I wish you each much peace and joy.