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

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Sometime between 16,000 and 20,000 years ago, large areas of the earth were covered with glaciers.  That resulted in lower ocean levels which in turn opened up a land bridge across the Bering sea from Asia to present day Alaska.  People from Asia migrated across that land bridge and spread by land and sea southward.  They were America’s real first Pilgrims.  By at least 11,000 years ago, these indigenous people, known as Clovis people, had settled across much of western North America and into Central and South America. 

Moving with the Clovis from Asia and across the land bridge were buffalo.  They too spread into the wide open areas of North America.  At one time, bison ranged from Northern Canada south to Mexico, and east to west from California to New York and even south into Florida.  Although buffalo are large animals and difficult to hunt, they were a vital resource for indigenous people.  Many indigenous tribes moved with buffalo herds since they were so dependent on them.

Indigenous people hunted buffalo by surrounding slower ones, or by chasing some over cliffs.  Every part of a buffalo was used – the skin and fur for clothing and shelter, the meat for food, horns and bones for carving into tools, and tendons and sinew for rope and sewing.  Luther Standing Bear, a current member of the Lakota tribe, says that when buffalo roamed in the multitudes, indigenous people were “frugal in the midst of plenty.”  They killed only what they could use.  That allowed for the bison population to accommodate the relatively few taken by natives.

The relationship between bison and indigenous tribes therefore had a spiritual dimension.  Natives believed spirits of their ancestors inhabited buffalo and other animals.  All of creation, they believed, are animated by a great spirit.  Indigenous people were part of a spiritually harmonic co-existence with the animals they hunted, the plants they gathered, the prairie and mountains on which they lived, and with the sun, moon and stars that directed their lives.   And so buffalo, like all of creation, were deeply respected.. 

As recently as 1800, there were over 200 million buffalo on this continent.  But then white Europeans began spreading across the landt and, with their guns and horses, initiated a mass slaughter of both buffalo and indigenous people. 

Contests were held for killing the most number of bison in a short time.  One settler in Kansas set a recored by killing 120 buffalo in forty minutes.  Passengers on trains were encouraged to shoot buffalo – just for fun – from the windows as they rode.  Most white hunters only took the skin – leaving the rest of the animal to rot.  Wiping out bison was also seen as a way to eliminate indigenous people.  One Army general said buffalo hunters did more to defeat indigenous people than did soldiers.

In a little over one-hundred years, from 1800 to 1907, buffalo were rendered nearly extinct.  Only a few hundred survived in the first national park of Yellowstone. 

A similar mass slaughter happened to indigenous people in North America.  At the time of the white Pilgrims in 1620, there were approximately 18 million indigenous people in North America.  By 1900, there were less than 250,000.

The near extinction of bison and indigenous American people offers, for me, a sobering insight into Thanksgiving values I should honor.  The story of the first celebration of that holiday is one many of us know.  A small remnant of English immigrants to North America had survived a difficult first year to then reap a decent fall harvest.  Their survival was largely due to the help they received from local indigenous people, the Wam-pan-o-ag, who taught the Pilgrims hunting and farming techniques suited for the continent, and introduced them to a new crop – corn.

A feast of gratitude was held at which Pilgrims and Wam-pan-o-ag attended. The majority of food was provided by the natives.  Thanks were offered by the Pilgrims for their own hard work, and for the blessings of God.  If any gratitude was expressed to the natives, it was not lasting.  Less than fifty years after that first Thanksgiving, the Wam-pan-o-ag tribe had been mostly eliminated by a war with the white immigrants and by diseases brought by them.  Surviving Wam-pan-o-ag people were sold into slavery.

This November 24th, most of us will honor that supposed first Thanksgiving with a celebration of our own.  Thanksgiving has largely remained non-commercial because it’s based on Pilgrim values of gratitude and giving.  While those values are good, they overlook ones from the first true Pilgrims to this land – those of the Clovis people and their descendants –  a people who have dwelled upon this continent for twenty-thousand years.   White Europeans and their ancestors have been here for only 400 years.

It is Native American values, ones that continue today in all Indigenous cultures, that I believe ought to be honored at Thanksgiving.  Their values are timeless ones that represent the highest aspirations of humanity – ones like respect, sharing, mutual cooperation, and reverence for nature.   

White European values stand in stark contras to those of indigenous people.  Indeed, those values determined what happened to Native-Americans and to the buffalo.  Unrestrained individualism, for instance,  has resulted in a dog-eat-dog ethos – every person for him or her self.  The land, sea and air are abused for values of convenience and profit.  Competitive values cause aggression, violence and prejudice.  Values honoring the accumulation of great wealth foster inequality and poverty.  Instead of valuing ethics of indigenous people like the inter-dependance of all things, sharing, and cooperation, people today often define themselves as separate from others – based on politics, opinion, race, nationalism, gender and spirituality.

I submit, therefore, that many of the values honored at traditional Thanksgiving meals are ones to question and perhaps abandon.  We need a return to values practiced by people who lived close to the land and who survived and thrived not by competition, individualism and pursuit of wealth, but by selflessness, collaboration and, most importantly, by respect.

I believe respect is the basic law of life – and indigenous Americans agreed.  While there were and are many indigenous tribes each with their own spirituality, all of them believe respect is a foundational value.    For indigenous Americans, respect means treating every person with decency.  Extra respect is shown to elders, parents and teachers.  People must avoid hurting the feelings of others – much like they avoid a deadly poison.  One should be humble at all times since all are equal.  Every person’s privacy must be honored.  Respect means, to indigenous people, to never intrude on another’s quiet moments or personal space.  It means speaking in a soft and non-threatening voice.  It means never interrupting others, and never demeaning someone in their absence.  Respect includes honoring the beliefs and opinions of others, listening to others with courtesy, and following the wise advice of others.  Indigenous people believe that the respectful sharing of ideas brings about what they call the “Spark of Truth.”  An essential component of the search for truth, most indigenous people believe, is to respect decisions made by leaders, councils and meetings.  Even if a decision is a bad one, natives believe the mistake will make itself known – and be corrected – in due time.   Respect, therefore, does not mean agreement with others, but rather the honoring of a cooperative decision making process.  In other words, indigenous people understood the merits of collaboration.

Also, very important to indigenous people is a respect for the earth.  Since all people come from and are nurtured by the earth, it must be honored as our mother.  One should equally respect all of earth’s creatures – and rise up to defend them against abuse.  As many Native-Americans believe, special scorn should be heaped upon those who literally or figuratively spit upon their mother – and the earth is our ultimate mother.   Disrespecting her is the greatest of misdeeds.

Above all else, indigenous values define who they were and are as a people – and how they live.  White Feather, a current Navajo leader and Medicine Man, recently said, “Native-American isn’t blood;  it is what is in the heart.  It is the love for the land, the respect for it and all who inhabit it.  It is the respect and acknowledgement of the spirits and the elders.  That is what it means to be Native-American.”

While few of us can claim indigenous heritage, we can nevertheless adopt values to which Native Americans adhere.  In truth, we already do so if we do our best to live by the Golden Rule.  Respect, for me, is all about treating others as we wish to be treated.  Echoing my belief, Black Elk, a past indigenous American leader said, “All things are our relatives;  what we do to everything, we do to ourselves.”  And the Pima indigenous tribe’s motto is, “Do not wrong or hate your neighbor.  For it is not he or she who you wrong, but yourself.”

Such expressions enhance the overall ethic of the Golden Rule.  All creation is interconnected in a way that the well-being of one affects the well-being of all.  Since that is true, if I hurt you, I hurt myself.  If I bless you, I bless myself.  We cannot be human unless we are equally blessed or equally oppressed.  We stand or fall together.

Indigenous spirituality, like almost all other forms of spirituality, understands that logic.  Since all people and all things come from the same source and all are made of the same elements, then all things are worthy of dignity.  Respect is therefore the law of life.

What I lament is the current proclivity to not practice that essential law – this Golden Rule for all things.  People today often think only in terms of “me” and “I.”  You hurt me.  Or, you are different from me.  Or, you disagree with me.  You want food and things that I want and so I must oppose you.  Because you are against me, I must hate you and even try to eliminate you.  Only I am responsible for my well-being.

The white European value of individualism has thus run amok.   What began as an Enlightenment value promoting the natural rights of individuals, has become instead a philosophy of selfishness, arrogance, and abuse of others.  That was the ideology of the first white Pilgrims and all who followed.  Arriving on a wide open continent where nobody owned any of it, they arrogantly presumed to take for themselves all that they could get – the land, the water, the animals.  And they cruelly eliminated the people who stood in their way – people who from centuries of mostly peaceful coexistence, could not imagine deception, hoarding of wealth, violent arrogance, and individual ownership of land.  Indeed, their attitudes of cooperation, sharing and mutuality seemed simple-minded to white Europeans – and was all the more reason to kill them.

This Thanksgiving, I encourage us to ponder the greater meaning of respect – a meaning that the first real Pilgrims to this continent understood.  To be true to ourselves, we cannot just look at obvious examples of disrespect – people with open arrogance, bigotry and hate.  I want to blame the hateful passions swirling in our nation on far right politicians and white supremacists and yet, if I am honest, I know such divisive passions can also come from me.  How have I disrespected those I disagree with?  How have I failed to cooperate, affirm and support my family, my friends, my church, my community and nation?  How do I abuse nature, pollute her and disrespect that of which I am part?

Like any of us, Indigenous Americans were not perfect.  There were fights between tribes and some natives were selfish.  But across the broad spectrum of their many cultures, were values that came directly from a basic respect for the earth and for each other.  For me, I want to abandon many of the values of our current culture to honor instead values of the true first Thanksgiving – one celebrated fifteen thousand years ago when a small band of Asiatic immigrants ventured upon this continent, saw its teeming abundance and breathtaking grandeur, and then vowed to worship and respect it……and one another too.   

I wish you all much peace and joy.    

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

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On November 6, 1860, Americans went to the polls in order to choose one of three candidates for President.  As most people know, Abraham Lincoln won that election – but with only 40 percent of the vote.   The result was a deeply divided nation.  A simple majority won, but a sizable Southern minority was very angry.

Almost immediately after the election, deep South states began to  secede from the United States.  South Carolina seceded first, followed by six other states.  By the time of Lincoln’s inauguration on March 4, 1861, those seven states had formally established the Confederate States of America and elected its own President and Congress.  The very survival of the United States – what the Founding Fathers had risked their lives to create – was at stake.

In that atmosphere, Lincoln took the oath of office and delivered his first inaugural address.  He held out an olive branch to the South – saying the Federal government would not interfere with the institution of slavery where it already existed.  He also pledged not to send troops into seceding states while differences were negotiated.  But, he also argued the non-negotiable premise of the US constitution.  Every US State agreed, when they entered the Union, that they enjoy some rights of self-government, but only within a constitutional boundary that granted the Federal government overall authority.  Implicit, but unsaid in his speech,  was that secession is illegal.

Lincoln finished his speech by extending another offer of reconciliation to the South and calling upon the common ideals that  formed America. “We are not enemies,” he said, “but friends. We must not be enemies. Though passion may have strained, it must not break our bonds of affection. The mystic chords of memory, stretching from every battlefield and patriot grave to every living heart and hearthstone all over this broad land, will yet swell the chorus of the Union, when again touched, as surely they will be, by the better angels of our nature.”

Six weeks later, however, dark angels of aggression led Confederate troops to fire on Fort Sumpter – and the Civil War began.  Over 600,000 people died in America’s bloodiest war.  It ended four years later with the abolishment of slavery.

Last year, the well known historian Jon Meacham wrote a book entitled The Soul of America: The Battle for Our Better Angels.  He borrowed the phrase “better angels” from Lincoln’s first inaugural address – just as I borrowed it for the title of today’s message.

Meacham was motivated to write the book because of widespread shock over the policies of President Trump and a sense that America faces a crisis of values and even of its very existence. Many people, including me, view our current government’s policies as regressive.  The US, it seems, is moving backward as immigrants, women, people of color, and LGBTQ persons are further marginalized and stripped of their rights.  The institution of democracy appears to be used against itself.

  As a capable historian and writer, Meacham tries to calm these concerns.  While he clearly says that we live in divided times, he is optimistic America will endure, based on the durability of our values.  Our nation’s better angels, he says, will prevail despite these troubled times – just as Abraham Lincoln said they would at another moment of national division.

What is necessary for the survival of America, according to Meacham, is to heed the better angels of which Lincoln spoke.  A careful reading of his words show that he appealed to the common bonds of unity, to our nation’s historic fight for human rights, and to the even greater ideal that people are connected the Golden Rule ethic to love our neighbors, our sisters and our brothers.  We must not, he said, be enemies divided by our passions.

Lincoln spoke at an existential moment for America.  Would it survive with its values intact?  Or would violence, angry passions, and division destroy everything?  As I’ve said, many people believe we are in danger of a similar crisis moment today.

I discussed positive Halloween masks in my messages the last two Sundays as a way to focus our thoughts on ways we can be models of goodness.  We have no credibility speaking against hate and a lack of civility unless we model love, unity and kindness amongst ourselves – and in our community.  In this time of trouble, we resist best by being examples of decency and love that stand in stark contrast to the forces of hate.

I chose all female masks to discuss this month for a reason.  I believe the virtues, ideals and good inclinations that can help lead us out of troubled times are mostly feminine.  The policies and attitudes put forward by the President and his government are a form of hyper-machismo.  Arrogance, bullying, angry speech, fear of those who seem different, tribalism, misogyny and lying can only be stopped if a majority of people adopt attitudes opposite to them.  We must celebrate facts and truth over opinion and so-called alternative facts.  The common sense search for truth is symbolized by goddesses Justicia and Prudentia whom I discussed two weeks ago.  To celebrate the courage of women who stand up to male harassment, we can wear the positive mask of the handmaid – a figure I talked about last week.  And, to reject mostly male attitudes of acrimony and violence, we should wear better angel masks – the topic of my message today.

I submit what has too long defined our nation is a form of masculinity characterized mostly by aggression and violent anger.  Indeed, those dark angels are what Lincoln spoke against by appealing to the good angels of peaceful reconciliation and cooperation.

And we can appeal to those same better angels today by following them ourselves.  We must aspire to compassion, selflessness, truth, resilience and empathy.  As I’ve said, those are mostly feminine attributes.

Ultimately, to heed our better angels is to be guided by the authentically feminine in each of us – women and men.  While biology and the influence of gender specific hormones determine some of our attitudes – for men to be more action oriented and for women to be more open to peace – all men are not necessarily aggressive and all women do not necessarily support reconciliation.  As sociologists point out, global cultures have historically been male dominated despite the population being over 50% female.  That is because many women have accepted male dominance.  If a woman wants to succeed in a man’s world, she learns to sublimate her feminine better angels to instead think and act like a man.  Men have no incentive to think and act like a woman since society has not valued them.  The result has been a persistently masculine culture of competition and aggression supported by both sexes.

Women have thus been caught in a catch-22 situation.  Even as women may want to follow their better angels, they cannot.  They must neglect their good instincts and embrace aggression instead.  When they do so, however, women are criticized for being power-hungry, pushy and rude.

On the other hand, if a woman is sensitive, cares what other people think of her, and advocates for discussion and compromise, she is accused of being emotional and weak.  Men don’t want women to be like them, and they don’t want women to be who they are either.  I believe that is why there is so much anger and hatred toward diversity, social justice and cooperation in our nation.  We seem to have lost touch with female inclinations that exist in all of us.  But that must change.  And as we often say, we must be the change we want to see.

The benefits of heeding more feminine instincts are well documented.  Steven Pinker, a Harvard professor of psychology, in his book entitled The Better Angels of Our Nature: Why Violence Has Declined, says that there has been a continual decline in violence throughout history.  Wars have gradually become less frequent and less bloody.  Murders, tortures and random killings have declined as well.  Entire societies are no longer wiped out as they were only a few hundred years ago when male dominant colonial powers killed large native populations.  Today, Steven Pinker argues, is one of the most non-violent times ever – even though wars, murders and rapes still happen.   He attributes this continual violence decline to several factors, but a primary one has been the ever increasing influence of women and their values.

Women have helped reduce wars because of the human cost they exact.  Women understand the sacrifice it takes to raise children – and the waste that occurs when sons and daughters become cannon fodder.   Women have thus historically encouraged their husbands, and taught their sons, to be less angry and violent.

Women have advanced other social benefits as well.  One global study indicates that the more women who serve in parliaments and congresses, the better a nation’s education system becomes.   Women not only advocate for the rights of women, they do so for the rights of children and other marginalized people.  Female politicians help reduce political corruption.  Women, more than men, promote increased charity.  Female business owners, managers and members of Boards of Directors bring about, studies show, more success for an organization and greater benefits for its employees. 

Women have equally encouraged world religions to be more inclusive.  Women have promoted the use of gender neutral language when referring to God, Yahweh, and Allah.   Christian, Jewish and Islamic feminists have pushed male religious leaders to share spiritual leadership and reduce gender discrimination.  Since religion has historically been used as a pretext for war and oppression, women have pushed religions to be true to their ethics of peace, compromise and equality.

What all of this indicates to me is that today’s troubled times ironically offer an opportunity.  Just when it seems our culture is headed toward disaster, the truth is likely very different.  Dark angels may now be rallied in opposition to humanity’s good inclinations, but they do so because they know they will lose.  Abraham Lincoln and the historian Jon Meacham will be proven correct – the better angels of our nature, those that mostly come from women, will prevail. 

It’s no accident, I hope, that as women are ascendant in their willingness to speak out against male dominance, human culture will advance for the better.  I remain hopeful that President Trump represents one of the last gasps of success that white, straight men, as a group, will have.   People and forces who fight with deceit and hatred do so only when they are weak.  Strength, instead, has no need to attack or cheat.  Truth and goodness may seem diminished right now, but that is only because of the temporary shadows dark angels cast.

My own life, while not extraordinary, tells me that hopes for the nation and world are not in vain.  People can overcome a reluctance to embrace mostly feminine attributes.   For too much of my life, I bought into the fallacy that male aggression is good and, because I’m not that way, I thought of myself as deficient.  I’m still told by some people to not be sensitive, and to stop caring what other people think of me.  I’m far from perfect, and I sometimes fail to follow better angels, but when I do, when I’m not afraid of showing compassion, of caring how my actions affect others, of encouraging cooperation and compromise over fighting, I know I’m at my strongest.  Indeed, that often requires me to summon the courage to be what society has told me I shouldn’t be – a man who occasionally believes, speaks and acts with inclinations that are identified as feminine.

That does not mean I’m ineffective or weak.  I hope it means instead that I’m human – someone who thinks and behaves in ways that are neither all male, or all female.  I hope to live as balanced as possible – one who understands the few evolutionary and biological benefits of maleness, softened and complimented by the goodness of women.  That is a kind of balance I wish for everyone – and for our culture.  We need to rebalance and allow ourselves and our culture to embrace feminine inclinations to affirm what is true and virtuous.  

In these current troubled times, when hyper-masculinity has made too many people lose sight of eternal human virtues, we need more than ever to wear the positive masks of our mostly feminine better angels.

I wish you each much peace and joy.

(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.

 

In the book of Genesis, which is the first book of the both the Christian Bible and Jewish Torah, a story is told about one of the supposed great patriarchs of ancient Israel – a man named Isaac.  He and his wife Rachel have difficulty conceiving a child and so, with his wife’s approval, they purchase a handmaid, named Bilhah, to be a surrogate birth mother – and sex slave to Isaac – so the couple can have children.  Bilhah, in the story, conceives two sons by Isaac  – both of whom are immediately taken by Rachel as her own.  Bilhah remains a handmaid to Isaac which, in Biblical euphemisms, means she is a sex slave.

The story is shocking to modern sensibilities and, in some respects, it’s unfair to judge and condemn the story since it is from a pre-modern culture.  It is also hypocritical to judge the story too harshly since many of it’s customs are evident in today’s world..

Women in ancient societies had little status apart from their sexual purity, fidelity to a husband, or ability to bear children and be a servant.  In essence, girls and women were valued for their bodies – objects to be sold, bought and used by men.  It was a male dominant culture in which women had no rights and were, for all intents and purposes, property themselves.

That status for women is, I believe, mostly still true today.  In 1984, Margaret Atwood wrote a novel entitled “The Handmaid’s Tale” about a dystopian America that uses the story of Isaac, Rachel and the handmaid Bilhah as the foundation for its laws and government.  Due to a terrible rise of female infertility, caused by environmental pollution, a group of elite, religiously fundamentalist men stage a coup.  In Atwood’s story, the coup leaders rename America as Gilead, they suspend the Constitution, send armed men into the streets to shoot protesters, and immediately pass laws stripping women of their money, their property and their ability to work except as a direct servants to men.  Gilead’s government is a moralistic theocracy similar to Iran’s – only Christian.  Women are rigorously controlled because the focus of society is to serve God, men and the increased birth of children. 

Virginal daughters from upper class families are ordered to become stay at home wives of well-off men – and caretakers of their children.  They are to wear blue clothing as symbolic of their moral purity.  Since most women in Gilead are infertile, these wives collude with their husbands to enslave the few women who can still bear children.  Nevertheless, these elite women are merely adornments for their husbands – and caretakers of children they did not bear.

Women of the middle class who can conceive are forced to become handmaids. They are women whose sole purpose is to serve as breeding surrogates for the elite men and their wives.  Children that the handmaids bear become children of those couples.  Handmaids wear red robes symbolizing the blood of birth.

Middle class women who are infertile are forced to become prostitutes for the elite class of men.  They must wear purple clothing and spend their lives in brothels.

Women from lesser classes are forced to be cooks, maids, and servants to the elite men and their families.  They must wear striped clothing as a symbol of their prisoner-like status.

Atwood’s novel focuses on the life of one handmaid named Offred – which literally means “of Fred” or, belonging to Fred.  All handmaids are similarly named as “of” their male master’s first name.

The novel has found new resonance over the last two years with the election of Donald Trump and the start of the #MeToo movement.  As much as the book is dystopian fiction, its depictions of men, and the women who collude with them, ring frighteningly similar to paternalism existing today.  As in the story, too many men and women today, particularly religious fundamentalists, consider a woman’s role to be either as an object for display, as a bearer of children, as a sexual object, or as a domestic servant.  If we think about it, that is mostly how the President treats women in his life.

Equally as frightening for me is the ability of today’s religious fundamentalists to control our current nation’s laws and government much as they completely do in the fictional Gilead.  Atwood’s book offers a vision of how fundamentalists could take control of the US.  Religion and false morality are used to control people and pass restrictive laws – particularly against women and others considered immoral.  For instance, in the fictional Gilead, gays and lesbians are arrested and quickly executed for being “gender traitors.”  Like women, homosexuals have historically been marginalized and targeted by straight men and religious zealots who, due to insecurity about themselves, cannot abide anyone who attacks the myth of religion or of male power.

“The Handmaid’s Tale” is now a TV series playing on the streaming service Hulu.  It is one of the most watched and talked about TV shows today.  Margaret Atwood says her book, and the TV show, should be warning calls to what is happening now in the US – and how much worse it could get.

My October message series is entitled “Positive Halloween Masks” and I intend for it to champion the values women offer society by suggesting positive female masks women and men might wear.  My message last week suggested we wear masks of ancient Roman goddesses Justitia and Prudentia.  Jusiticia represents the search for truth and how that ideal must replace a rush to judgement and the use of opinions to replace facts.  Prudentia is Justitia’s goddess companion who guides her in a search for truth with common sense and virtue.

Today, I suggest the possible wearing of a Halloween mask and costume that represents a handmaid.   As a seemingly negative costume, I believe a handmaid instead represents sacrifice, courage and strength.  Indeed, she is the ultimate sexual assault victim who heroically transcends her victimhood.  As Hillary Clinton recently opined about #MeToo women, they are courageous figures who “resist, insist, persist and finally enlist.”

The story of Biblical Bilhah, the story of Margaret Atwood’s handmaid, and the true stories of millions of other women throughout history who have been abused and exploited by men – are all ones of quiet strength and fighting back.  I believe its time for such women – heroes all of them – to be positively celebrated.

Like almost all sexual assault victims, Offred the handmaid realizes that in order to survive both mentally and physically, she must remain silent about her traumas.  And her self-imposed silence is reinforced by men who literally force Offred and other Gilead handmaids to wear leather straps across their mouths – so they cannot speak or scream.

As surrogates whose sole purpose is to procreate, Offred and the relatively few other women who can conceive are controlled in what they can and cannot eat.  Their monthly cycles are also closely monitored so masters can assault them on the best days for conception.  While Gilead calls such intercourse “sacred ceremonies,” they are in truth rapes of the handmaids – all while masters’ wives watch, much as the Bible implies that Rachel allowed and watched Isaac’s rape of Bilhah.

Offred learns to mentally erase her rape experiences.  In one harrowing scene, she is shown dreaming and thinking of another place and time, mentally oblivious to what is happening to her, all during the several minutes her master has his way with her.

The attacks on handmaids in Atwood’s story are also routinely done against women today.  Many men still assume they have a right to use and abuse women’s bodies as they wish – often in the name of supposed morality.  They seek to control women’s reproductive decisions and her rights as an autonomous and fully equal person.  And such actions take a profound toll on many women. 

Studies show, for instance, that the reaction of sexual assault victims is often to compartmentalize memories of their trauma.   They store them in remote parts of the brain as a way to avoid, as much as possible, reliving the assault.  Other negative effects can also be unconscious – such as irrational fears, anxiety, sleep and eating disorders, relationship problems, depression and addictions.  Many sexual assault victims, studies show, cannot recall details of their trauma unless they are remembered after intensive therapy.  Other victims, instead of mentally forgetting an attack, regularly experience vivid flashbacks of their assaults and feel once again the terror and humiliation of what happened.

All of these conditions result from what is commonly called post-traumatic stress disorder or PTSD – a dysfunctional emotional response that is widely acknowledged as a problem for combat soldiers and victims of horrific accidents.  But, as we saw with the Kavanugh hearings, women are not believed to suffer symptoms of PTSD.  Sexual assault victims are also taught by our society to think they caused, deserved or even wanted an assault.  Women’s reaction is therefore to remain silent – often for many years – until an assault is too late to be charged as a crime.

The result is a culture, supported by both women and men, that utterly fails to understand sexual assault, its negative effects on victims, and the well documented reasons why they frequently suppress the harassment and do not immediately report it.  Only 40% of all sexual assaults are ever reported – and reasons for that are several.  Women fear that their every behavior will be scrutinized, that they will be shamed for their sexual history, or they will be labeled as mentally unbalanced, manipulative or simply as a liar.

Indeed, according to a study by Stanford University, myths about false reports of sexual assault are widespread – ones like “women cry rape when they regret having had sex,” or “women accuse wealthy and powerful men of rape in order to enrich themselves,” or “there was not enough physical evidence to charge a man with rape so the woman must be lying,” or, as I earlier mentioned, “if a woman was truly raped, she would have immediately called the police.”   Because of these myths, ones recently repeated by Donald Trump, a women is far more likely to be believed when she is robbed than when she is sexually assaulted.  The truth is, according to Stanford’s study, only 2% of all sexual assault reports are made up – the exact same percentage as that for all other false crime reports.

Women of the #MeToo movement, for whom I’ve used the handmaid to represent, should therefore not only be believed, but also honored for the courage to share their stories – despite all of the negative repercussions that befall them.  Indeed, news reports this last week indicate that Dr. Blasey Ford and her family are still unable to return to their home because of continuing death threats against them.  Meanwhile, Mr. Kavanaugh, as a member of the Supreme Court, now enjoys free federal protection for he and his family.

The Handmaid’s Tale, as both a book and TV show, is resonating with many people today because the characters are depicted as strong and intelligent resisters.  They are not meek and fragile.  Offred submits to the overwhelming state power against her, but she also resists – secretly conspiring against Gilead’s government while she gains the confidence to confront her male master with a forthright awareness of his true position.  She understands the implicit power female victims hold over abusive men.  Misogynists are actually very insecure.  They must constantly assert their manhood because, at their core, they’re quite weak.  The women they abuse, harass and diminish, however, persevere with quiet dignity and are far more resilient.  It is their truth, power and legacy that will ultimately prevail.        

In that light, Offred enjoys a close sisterhood with other handmaids.  Enslaved as they might be, the handmaids nevertheless refuse to sacrifice their humanity and compassion.  Simply by refusing to be defeated, by surviving to fight back – they exemplify the spirit of #MeToo women today.  Strong in courage and coming together to validate and support one another, women are no longer silent victims.  They are instead victors.

And it’s that paradoxical truth that tells me the #MeToo movement will not be easily stopped.  Men have extraordinary power, but they are no match against women with truth on their side.  To support them, I encourage a continued celebration of all who stand against abuse, who come out of the shadows to share their assault stories, and who represent handmaids across the millennia – women like the Biblical Bilhah who was exploited by one of the supposed great men of the Bible. 

Try as men like Donald Trump might – to control, humiliate and disbelieve handmaids, their efforts will fail.  The era of cultural, economic and political control by white, straight men will soon end.  I believe that is a primary reason why some white straight men are so angry and fight so hard against many social justice causes.  An age of dawning equality for both genders, and all people, is now emerging.  This new age may suffer occasional setbacks as it is birthed, but it will nevertheless have the final victory.  And for this old, white, gay man, that time will gladly come. 

 

(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.

 

Mahatma Gandhi once described himself as a humble but earnest seeker after truth – which, as he said, is another name for god.  Gandhi’s sense that truth is an embodiment of god also causes me to capitalize Truth and often use it to indicate my concept of god.

When people ask me, as they often do, what Unitarian Universalists believe, I offer them my basic theology – one which I had before I became a UU.

I believe every person is proverbially climbing one great symbolic mountain in the universe.  It’s summit is what everybody spends their lives seeking, but nobody ever makes it.  The summit is to know all truth or, in other words, to meet god.  We each want to know the mysteries of life and death, as well as a complete awareness of what is good and evil.

But we all seek the summit of Truth, or god, in different ways.  Some search for it with the Bible and through the teachings of Jesus.  Others do so through Buddhism………or the teachings of Muhammad……..or the study and applications of science.  It need not matter how we seek Truth – just that we pursue it.

The essential idea of Unitarian Universalism is that all paths to find Truth are good since they all aspire to the same goal.  They’re also all good since each offers unique and valuable insights on how to get to the summit.  UU’s don’t proclaim any path toward it is better than another.  We look to each path for what is helpful.  Our worship, if you want to call it that, is NOT for any specific path or spirituality, but rather to honor and engage in the act of seeking truth.  That’s why I’m here and I imagine it is why you are too.

That search for truth leads me to my October message series theme and my topic for today.  Along with most of you, I’m disgusted with the negativity, nastiness and brutality of today’s culture.  As enlightened as we may think we are, humanity today can be as indifferently mean spirited as its ever been.  And I believe that is precisely because people all over the world no longer seek truth.  They believe they already know it and then angrily state only they are right and all others are wrong.

So instead of celebrating traditionally scary masks that children and adults like to wear at Halloween, I want to promote positive masks to wear as a way to encourage a less mean spirited and more united culture.  As spiritually minded people, we want to avoid things that divide, and instead embrace values that unite.  And so I plan to offer, over three Sundays, masks I believe reinforce all that is good in the human spirit.

For today, I want to encourage the wearing of two goddess masks and costumes – those of ancient Roman goddesses Prudentia and Justitia.  Justitia is otherwise known to us as Lady Justice but her literal purpose is to represent the search for truth.  She is usually depicted blindfolded, carrying a sword, and holding balance scales.   All three items are intended to symbolize ways used to determine truth.  A blindfold is worn by Justitia to prevent bias and promote an unbiased examination of facts.

She also holds balance scales symbolizing the intent to weigh facts and determine which are most truthful.  They also indicate a desire for fairness.  Truth does not deny one set of facts in favor of others. 

Finally, Justitia carries a sword as a way to say that truth is sharp edged and the line between truth and untruth is razor thin.   A sword also indicates that truth is absolute and unsympathetic.  Emotions should be avoided when determining what is true.

Ancient Roman philosophers, following the teachings of Aristotle and Plato, understood that while Justitia is a virtuous figure who symbolizes a search for facts, she must crucially be paired with the goddess Prudentia.  Prudential, or prudence,  is associated with the virtue of wisdom but her primary value is in using common sense to determine the most virtuous actions.  She holds in her hands two items – a mirror and a snake.  The mirror symbolizes what is real versus what we may hope something to be.  It’s purpose is to also foster self-awareness.  We may hope that things, or ourselves, appear a certain way, but a mirror depicts reality.

She also holds a snake to represent practical wisdom.  Indeed, that is what Prudentia is most known for and why she is always a companion to Justitia.  Something may be true alongside something else that is also true.  The key is to use common sense to determine what is most virtuous and thus most true. 

       For instance, Lady Justice stands for the universal proposition that killing another person is wrong.  But she also supports the truth that the right of self-defense and fighting against evil are good.  Prudentia guides Justitia to understand that seemingly competing truths demand a resolution – in this case the idea that rational self-defense, even if it means killing another, is good and more true than the general ideal of “thou shall not kill.”

I believe these Justitia and Prudentia can tell us a lot about how we and our culture should think and act.  We need Lady Justice to search for little ’t’ truth as well as capital ’T’ Truth.   But we need Prudentia to insure our fact finding search is virtuous and wise.  In that regard, Unitarian Universalists represent, at their very best, the ideal of prudence.  Millions of people may shout from their pews and Temples that their vision of god or Truth is absolute.  No other versions of Truth, they say, are possible.  Their claims, as we know, lead to fundamentalism as well as anger and violence.  Global human culture is now divided and filled with hate all because people think only their god or Truth is right – instead of allowing prudence to guide them in the awareness that all religions (or no religion) have elements of truth and that what everybody seeks is the same thing.

We rely on Prudence to tell us that the truth we all can agree on is that we each seek, we each SEEK, capital ’T’ Truth – the summit of the mountain I earlier spoke.  As UU’s, Prudentia’s mirror of reality, and her serpent of wisdom, inform our common sense that the one value that can and should unite Christians, Jews, Hindus, Muslims, Atheists and many others in a spirit of collaboration and respect is Justitia and her search for Truth.  In other words, the UU plea for religions, cities and nations is that we live in peace with one another because we are all bound by a common desire.  We must therefore embrace Justitia, as she is guided by Prudentia, and come together as we each seek what us true.

Our UU approach to spirituality should therefore be applied to how we approach other aspects of life.  Just as we turn to Prudentia to guide Lady Justice in spiritual matters, so too must we use her for secular matters.  Common sense must guide us in determining what is true and good in every matter.

I believe it was intentional that ancient Romans assigned the virtues of prudence and justice to female deities.  Indeed, of the four ancient primary virtues – Prudence, Justice or Truth Seeking, Fortitude, and finally Temperance – all but Fortitude were female goddesses.  Women were seen by the ancients as having the moral purity to behave with decency, care and kindness.  Ancient Roman culture was no less male centric than today’s society, but it at least had the awareness to see in women unique qualities that come, perhaps, from women’s biological roles as bearers of new life and essential sustainers of it.  Such responsibilities demand not only common sense and an even temperament, they may impart in women a hunger for what is good and true – justice – so that their progeny will be accepted into a world that is often unfair and unequal.

It’s dangerous to stereotype since one can always find an exception to any generalization.  But in my mind, a majority of women, along with some men, exhibit the kinds of attributes needed to counteract the sometimes angry, violent and rash attitudes of many men.  And so it’s the positive values women hold that I believe are essential in today’s world – particularly the values I discuss today. 

We need more common sense SEEKING of truth, a primarily feminine value, instead of claiming to already know it.  And that extends, as I’ve said, not just to spirituality but to politics, climate change, wealth and racial inequality, and other important matters.  Today’s culture is often defined by a primarily male approach to truth – which is that beliefs are arrogantly stated as fact.  Open mindedness and the virtue of withholding opinion until evidence is judiciously determined is not valued today.  Nor is the value of prudence used to determine the most virtuous course of action.

The recent suggestion that Brett Kavanaugh assaulted a female student over thirty years ago was met, by many men and even our President, as worthy of derision.  Boys will be boys, many said, and that should have no impact on whether Kavanaugh is good enough to sit in judgement over millions of people for the rest of his life.  Led mostly by older, white, straight men, many were and are so convinced in their belief that women lie or that they secretly want to be sexually assaulted, that leaders of the Senate refused to order a full and comprehensive FBI investigation and allow a Justitia search for truth.

        Such a paternalistic attitude extends back to the male writers of the Adam and Eve story.  Reading that mythic story carefully, you’ll note that Satan deceived Eve and it was she who then deceived Adam into eating the apple – an act that many male artists and ministers over the years have attributed to Eve’s use of sex to tempt Adam.  That story has been a major reason why women are not trusted since, as many men assert as fact, women are easily deceived and then act as deceivers themselves.  Many men refuse to seek the real truth about themselves and their learned misogyny and gender bias.

While it might seem logical that such attitudes would divide the sexes – and in some respects they do – the truth is that our entire society is now defined by predominantly male attitudes.  Close-mindedness, a lack of prudence, and an unwillingness to seek truth have been imprinted on our overall culture.  Both women and men act with prejudice toward those they disagree with.  We are polarized as a nation, and even to some extent as a congregation, along fault lines of assertions of truth instead of a united and prudent seeking of truth.  That attitude characterizes both sides in any debate.  As the late Senator Patrick Moynihan said, “Everyone is entitled to their own opinion, but NOT their own facts.”  Truth is truth no matter what one may believe but our culture has forgotten that.  People now assert their beliefs are fact and so we have competing interpretations of spirituality, politics, morality and even science such that there is no firm ground of truth on which to stand.  As President Trump’s administration said last year, there are even so-called “alternative facts” – which is an implicit way of saying you have your truth, we’ll have ours.  This nation, our church community, and most of all each of us need to put on the costumes of Justitia and Prudentia and their desire to search for truth – a truth filtered by virtue and common sense. 

We as Unitarian Universalists believe in Justitia – in the search for truth and justice for all.  The very definition of truth, however, is that it is NOT belief but instead provable fact.  Our minds must be open, therefore, to seek truth and to rely less on what we simply believe.  That means we are open minded not only to the influence of our own biases in what we think, but we are also open to learning new insights on any subject.  Most of all, I believe we must apply the UU standard for spiritual matters to secular matters.  If we each earnestly seek what is true, then we ought to  unite in that search, with love for one another, and stop the division, rancor and ill will that can sometimes be held toward those who are taking different paths toward truth..  If we don’t do that, then we will act the same as religious fundamentalists who presume to tell the rest of humanity that that they’re wrong and headed for hell.

I hope you will remind me in the days, weeks and years ahead to  wear the masks of Prudentia and Justitia in a spirit of open minded, common sense search for what is true and good.  I promise to encourage the same of you.

   

 

(c) Michael Tacy, Music Director to the Gathering at Northern Hills, All Rights Reserved

 

Please click here to listen to the message:

(c) Rev. 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.

 

In the 2000 and 2004 election years, a loose assembly of people, who called themselves The Billionaires, began attending large public events dressed in Tuxedoes with top hats or ball gowns with fake pearls and diamonds.  They held signs stating things like “Corporations are People too”, “Still loyal to Big Oil”, “Billionaires for Wealth-care” and “Warning: Universal Healthcare May Be Harmful to Profits.”  They also appeared at post offices on April 15th, dressed the same way, holding signs thanking everyday folks for paying their share of taxes since they did not.  These mock Billionaires adopted names like Phil T. Rich, Tex Shelter, and Meg A. Bucks

The group used satire to make social statements about wealth in our country.  Instead of shouting angry words of protest, they poked fun at elites while making their point very clear.  They weren’t  ignored by onlookers but instead were widely applauded and sought after for  photographs.  For me, it was a highly effective, creative and playful way to make an important point.

This month, I plan to look at different humorists and how they used their wit to not only make people laugh, but also to slyly make political and social statements.  Clowns, court jesters and comedians have historically been taken for granted as simply funny people.  But they are much more than that.  Great political humorists, beginning in Ancient Greece, have used satire, irony and parody to cause both laughter and thought provoking introspection.  Indeed, today’s political and social comics like John Stewart, Steven Colbert and Michelle Wolf continue a tradition of speaking truth to power.  As one commentator puts it, political and social humorists hold a mirror up to us and to society – but in funny and empathetic ways.

Today I’ll look at the comedy of Will Rogers – considered one of the great and most beloved political and social humorists of the 20th century.  At his premature death in an airplane crash in 1935, there was widespread national grief that had not been seen since Lincoln’s passing.  Rogers had been named a best friend by millions of Americans and, for many elections, he’d  received millions of write-in votes for President.  Franklin Roosevelt eulogized him by saying, “I doubt there is among us a more useful citizen than the one who holds the secret of banishing gloom with hope and courage.”

In my mind, Roosevelt owed Rogers even greater praise.  Rogers’ homespun, common man, often ungrammatical humor frequently satirized politicians and the wealthy.  His popularity soared during the Great Depression as his wit and concern for the so-called little guy  helped build popular support for many of Roosevelt’s programs like Social Security and the National Relief Act.

Rogers was simply himself – someone who was part native-American, born in Oklahoma, and entirely self-made.  He spoke and wrote in common people’s language with made up words, slang, and misspellings.  He was asked by one reporter why he ignored proper syntax.  His reply, “What’s syntax? Sounds like bad news.” 

        “You use bad grammar,” replied the reporter.

        “Shucks,” declared Rogers. “I didn’t know people was buyin’ grammar.  I’m just so dumb I had a notion it was thoughts and ideas.   I write just like I talk.”

His political humor was the hallmark of his comedy.  “A fool and his money are soon elected,” he once said.  “Everything is changing,” he also noted.  “People are taking their comedians seriously – and the politicians as a joke.” 

“If stupidity got us into this mess, then why can’t it get us out?” was another observation. 

“The trouble with political jokes is they often get elected to office,” was another.  And, “Congress is deadlocked and can’t act.  I think that is the greatest blessing that could befall this country.”

One of his best lines was, “I bet after seeing us today, George Washington would sue us for calling him ‘father.’”

The greatness of Rogers’ political humor was that it spoke to the conditions of his time while also being timeless.  His jokes resonate as much today as they did 90 years ago – something which makes him unique when compared with many contemporary humorists.

In that regard, his comedy also keenly made fun of general human nature.  “Everything is funny, as long as it’s happening to somebody else,”  he once said.   “Too many people spend money they haven’t earned, to buy things they don’t want, to impress people they don’t like,” is still very true.  “Never miss a good chance to shut up” is one of his quips I particularly appreciate.  “When you find yourself in a hole, quit digging,” is another.  “It is better for someone to think you’re a fool than to open your mouth and remove all doubt,” is a line still quoted today.   “When you’re through learning, you’re through” was a great piece of wisdom.  A funny line I empathize with was,  “Long ago when people cursed and beat the ground with sticks, it was called witchcraft;  today it’s called golf.”  Finally, he observed, “The older we get, the fewer things seem worth waiting in line for.”

Many people have said Rogers’ political and populist humor was in a uniquely American style – one that followed in the humorist footsteps of Washington Irving and Mark Twain.  Rogers championed ethics of hard work, frugality and plain common sense.  In doing so, he also promoted with his comedy a strong American skepticism of elites, the super-rich and all politicians.  Like many Americans of the past, his attitudes toward them were not animated by vitriol or hate, but rather with a bit of understanding and gentleness.  He rarely made fun of a politician by name but chose to joke about politicians in general.  His jokes and observations were a warning, of sorts, about the seductive ability of greed and power to diminish otherwise good people.  Two observations he made about wealth and money made everyone a target.  “The income tax,” he said, “has made more liars out of Americans than golf.”   He equally observed, “Money won’t make you happy, but everybody sure wants to find that out for themselves.”

Those jokes are funny because they’re universally true – and they’re true for me.  I’ve experienced the pleasures money can buy and, while I know they are false forms of happiness, I can still be seduced by the fake security of money and materialism.  Indeed, Rogers noted that his humor was not the kind that evoked deep belly laughs but instead some chuckles followed by a nod of agreement.  One often has to stop and think just a bit about what he observed.  One joke of his that makes me chuckle, think and squirm a bit was: “Good judgment comes from experience, and a lot of that comes from bad judgment.”

How many of us can relate to that observation?  I know I can.  And that gets at what was so wise and particularly good about Will Rogers.  When we have a point to make, or a particularly strong opinion, how we share that is crucial.  Do we come across as an angry scold, as a self-righteous preacher, or even as a hypocrite?  Or, are we able to remain true to ideals of humility, kindness and empathy? 

In other words, can we inject a bit of self-deprecation in what we opine to others – something that Rogers regularly did – proclaiming in an “aw shucks” way that he had no great intelligence since all he knew came from reading newspapers?  He also often said that he had no skill as a funnyman by saying, “There’s no trick to being a humorist when you have the whole government working for you.”

Those are humorous truths but they also make fun of him – even though we all know that to find humor in things takes great skill.  Rogers made insightful points about greed and sticking up for regular people with humility and gentleness – virtues which I fear the current culture is rapidly losing.  For me or you, if we have a point to make or a criticism of what someone has done or said, might we try to gently laugh and find some ironic humor in the offense – and then state our case in ways that does no harm?  People who do that are often deeply loved and appreciated – as it is clear Will Rogers was.

Making fun of oneself is an endearing quality in particularly decent and humble people.  Like Rogers, Abraham Lincoln did so with jokes about himself.  He told a story about a man who once came up to him with a gun.  “I promised myself if I ever saw a man uglier than me, I’d shoot him,” the man told Lincoln.   “Well,” said Lincoln very dryly, “If I’m uglier than you, then shoot me now – because I don’t want to live any longer!”

This practice of funny self-deprecation is one that does not shy away from stating opinions and criticisms, but it implicitly says that when we criticize others, we should do so with a healthy awareness that we too are imperfect.  Jesus showed that with his humorous teaching that before we point out a small speck in someone’s eye, we should first remove the log in our own.  If we think about it, that’s funny!  Who can have a log in their eye?  Nobody.  We can share gentle criticism, Jesus taught with the story, but we should be humble enough to know we have significant faults too.  And if we’re truly humble, we might – as many lovable humorists do – make fun of, and laugh at ourselves too.

And that speaks to my advocacy for self-awareness – one that Will Rogers had about both himself and about Americans in general.  Self-awareness is one fo the most important qualities I believe one should have.  Do we truly know and admit to both our strengths and our weaknesses?

It is said that satire humor points out the imperfections of things as they are – with the contrasting desire for things as they should be.  The group of Billionaires that I earlier mentioned gently satirized wealthy people by making fun of things they support – like the Supreme Court opinion that corporations are like people, or that the rich push for laws that enhance their considerable wealth.  Instead of welfare for the poor – something all societies should have, the Billionaires held signs advocating wealthcare – which is in fact what they seek, but won’t admit.  That’s funny satire!

Will Rogers had the ability to be aware about himself and all America in such funny ways.  “Advertising is the art of convincing people to spend money they don’t have for something they don’t need,” he once said.   He thus joked about both the mercenary tactics of advertising AND the materialistic tendencies we all have.   That is being keenly and humorously aware.  “Congress is kids who never grew up – is all.”  That’s a gentle observation he made that is both critical and slightly funny.  Adult men and women, our leaders! –  who think they’re big stuff but who are nevertheless like little boys and girls. 

When he was asked if voters can be fooled, he replied, “Darn tootin’.  Of all the bunk handed out during a campaign, the biggest one of all is to try and compliment the knowledge of the voter.”   That one has a bite to it but many of us know it has basis in fact when many voters – me included – have no solid idea of what makes a good candidate to be a judge, or the intricacies of macroeconomics that Congress must implement.   

“No man is great if he thinks he is,” he wisely said.  That’s an especially humorous and true statement.  It especially points out the humility that’s admirable in great people while it bursts the arrogance bubble of most politicians and, if we think about it, of ourselves too.  If I get a lot of praise for one of my messages, I of course appreciate it but I can also start to think I’m really good!  And then the next Sunday comes along, I deliver a stinker of a message, and all my delusions of being good seem ridiculous.

I’ll leave us with a final wise joke from Will Rogers that speaks to his abilities as a humorist – while it teaches a lesson as well.  “Common sense,” he said, “ain’t common.”   That, to me, is brilliant.  Many of us think we have common sense but to truly display it and practice it is often rare.  We know we should be more humble, less materialistic, and kinder to friend and stranger.   All of that is common sense.  But to live those ideals out, to really be them, well, let’s say I still have a lot to learn.  The humor and wisdom of Will Rogers teaches me to laugh at all of the flaws in the world, and more importantly, in myself!

To follow a frequent practice here, I now invite your thoughts and comments.  I’m particularly interested in the ideas of self-awareness and comedy – how humor can be effectively used to shine a light on ourselves whether as individuals or as a nation.  And that humorous shining light might then help us reflect and change for the better….

(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.

In my message on radical hospitality last Sunday, I told one of the parables Jesus used to teach ethics of hospitality.  I don’t offer such stories because I believe they are from God, or that they offer unique wisdom.  Instead, I occasionally relate them in messages because many of are so effective in teaching universal ideals of goodness.  I used a Jesus story last week about a man hosting a banquet to emphasize the spiritual reasons for being hospitable.  Showing radical hospitality to all is one of three ways that Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. believed we create a world-wide Beloved Community. 

Another Jesus story, as told in the Biblical book of Matthew, says a very wealthy young man approached Jesus and asked him what he must do to go to heaven.  As a Jewish man, Jesus replied that he should follow teachings in the Torah.  The rich guy asked “Which ones?” 

That question annoyed Jesus.  Ideals like “Don’t kill,” “Don’t steal,” and “Love your neighbor,” he said, are not ranked from most to least important.  “Follow them all,” Jesus said.

“Well,” the rich guy said, “What else must I do?”  Jesus likely then looked at him intently and read the guy like a book.  Here was a snotty, full of himself, young man who thought money could buy him anything he wanted.  So Jesus knew what would be almost impossible for the guy to do.  “Go and give all your money to the poor and then come follow my teachings,” Jesus told him.  The rich guy looked shocked, turned around, and slowly walked away.  He loved his money too much.

Jesus followed up that encounter with one of his most famous statements……..  “It is more difficult for a rich man to enter heaven,” he said, “than it is for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle.”

For centuries, and still today, that statement confounds and frightens wealthy Christians.  They take little comfort in what Jesus next said………….“With humans, this is impossible.  But with God, everything is possible.”

Jesus implied that wealth brings many dangers.  People are prone to rely on money as the source of happiness and security.  Instead of prioritizing love and goodwill in the world, many wealthy people believe money buys them contentment.  Jesus knew that we’ll-being, instead, comes from serving, giving, and compassion.  Those are things that even some wealthy people practice – so they are difficult to adopt – but not impossible.

I relate this story because it colorfully teaches what is truly valuable in life and death.  Being great is not about being rich or powerful.  It’s not even about building human equality which, as Dr. King said, only creates stagnant sameness – instead of constructive oneness.  People must build a form of heaven on earth – one where we don’t just tolerate one another – we honestly love one another.  People must therefore build a world-wide Beloved Community compromising the entire one human family.

Three things, Dr. King believed, prevent such a beloved community from being created – exclusivism, materialism and militarism.  I addressed the antidote to exclusivism last week.  Next week I’ll discuss the opposite of militarism, non-violence, which was one of Dr. King’s priorities for a beloved community.

Today, I suggest the antidote to materialism is a humble attitude toward wealth.  In other words, it’s a gift to our souls to be simple.  Money and things are not the problem.  They are just objects with no value other than what we assign them.  Instead, It is the way people think about money and things that needs to be continually checked and changed.  No world religion condemns money itself.  Nor do they condemn wealthy people.  Instead, it is the selfish obsession with money and things that work against any Beloved Community.  Arrogance, greed and the over appreciation of luxury are what most religions say are evil.  What is it that a beloved church like us values – its building, budget, salaries, and the amounts donated?  Or, is money simply a tool by which a beloved church serves, loves, enlightens and grows people?

Much like Jesus taught, Jews encourage a love of people over a love of money.  They believe all people are made in the image of God – of Yahweh – and so every person has innate dignity.  Everybody should have sufficient food, clothing, housing and healthcare precisely because they carry the image and dignity of God within.

Jews believe it is selfishness that causes some people to see money as their own – instead of as a resource for the common good.  Rabbis sometimes tell in their Sabbath services the story of a man in a rowboat who suddenly begins to drill a hole beneath his seat.  Others in the boat are upset and loudly demand he stop.  “Why should you care?” the man asks.  “I’m only drilling under my seat.”

The point Rabbis make is clear.  A self-focused attitude is destructive not only to the individual, but to everyone.  It threatens the dignity of all humanity.

Islam, not surprisingly, teaches the same ethic.  Muhammad and his wife Aisha were practitioners of voluntary poverty.  A person can be rich, Muhammad taught, but he or she can and should renounce the benefits of wealth by living as simply as possible.  Muslims agree with Jews that wealth and resources belong to everyone.  Muslims are to substantially share the wealth they hold with the poor not out of charity, but because most of it is not theirs anyway.

This voluntary frugality, so that all may benefit from money, is an often overlooked principle of Islam.  Imams tell a story of two equally pious friends who die and head for paradise.  At the entrance, Allah invites one of the men to immediately enter.  The other must wait.  When that man asks why he must wait and his friend is immediately invited in, Allah tells him its because his friend had only owned one shirt in life, while he had owned two.

Buddhism teaches about money in very similar ways.  Rich people are not bad and neither is money.  Instead, Buddhism says that attachment to money, food, sex, or any other pleasure is the real problem.  Attachments cause people to worry that they will lose their prized possession – and those fears create anxiety and a lack of peace.  Someone can be rich as long as they have learned not to be attached to money or things.  To let go of wealth, the rich should see it as something to alleviate the suffering of others.  Being generous is a way to both prevent attachment and do good at the same time.

There is a Sufi Islam story that teaches this universal ethic.  A man and his family are fearfully traveling through a forest known to harbor thieves.  The son is tasked with carrying the family’s bag of gold – because it’s very heavy.  The boy is also the strongest one to fight off robbers.  When they come to a fork in the path, the son asks which way they should go.  The father stops to think and then tells his son to leave the bag of gold at the fork in the path.  By doing so, he tells his son, whichever path they choose will be free of burdens and fears.  The lesson is clear.  Money and things often cause anxiety and a lack of peace.

As a quick aside, despite the arrogant claim by most religions that their’s is the only legitimate one, the truth is that most religions are similar in what they believe.  Who is Christ, Yahweh, Allah, Buddha or Brahmin but the same source of Truth?  They each represent a fundamental ethic: when we practice love towards everyone, and not just love for ourselves, we find Truth and contentment.

That confirms the point I make today.  A beloved community envisioned by Martin Luther King is a holistic one – a type of utopia where everyone lives cooperatively and at peace.  As King once said, “We must rapidly begin the shift from a ‘thing oriented’ society to a ‘person oriented’ society.  When machines and computers, profit motives, and property rights are considered more important than people, the giant triplets of racism, materialism and militarism are incapable of being conquered.”

While there are many who love people and not money, including many in this congregation, several very wealthy people are outsized role models of that.  Charles Feeney is an Irish-American businessman who started Duty-Free shops around the world.  Over the last thirty years, he has given away nearly all of his $8 billion dollar fortune to organizations that promote world peace and improve healthcare for the poor.  At the age of 84, he promises to die with no money.

JK Rowling, author of the Harry Potter books, was once worth over a billion dollars – an English woman richer than the Queen.  She too has committed to giving most of her wealth away.  She is also a big believer in paying taxes – saying they are another way to care for the needy.

Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg is surprisingly a person who has decided to give away most of his money.  He and his wife have pledged 99% of their wealth in the coming years to charity.  He lives relatively simply – wearing jeans, hoodies and eating at McDonalds.  Says he, ”I really want to clear my life…so that I have to make as few decisions as possible about anything – except how to best serve the community.”

These super rich people are, indeed, role models.  Sadly, however, well-off people are statistically the least generous of any demographic.  The wealthiest 20% of Americans, those making $200,000 or more a year, donate on average 1.3% of their incomes.  The bottom 20% of Americans, those making $30,000 or less, donate on average 3.2% of their incomes.  As Jesus and other spiritual prophets understood, wealth can lead one to depend on it as a source of well-being – instead of as a tool to practice compassion, humility and charity – attitudes I believe offer real contentment.

As a practical matter, I suggest this church and all of us as individuals practice simplicity in our lives, and generosity toward those in need.  We do that to intentionally build a Beloved Community here and around the world.

  As I indicated earlier, every world religion teaches the same principles about money and people.  It is not money that is the root of evil.  It is the LOVE of money that is the source of negativity in our world.  Indeed, as we know from commentators about racism like author Ta-Nihisi Coates, discrimination is rooted in the economic exploitation of one group of people for the benefit of another.  This is true of sexism and male attitudes toward women.  Problems like climate change, violence, corruption, poverty and even physical and mental disease are all indirectly caused by greed and humanity’s love of money.

Toward that end, I suggest we as a church community, and we as individuals, make an intentional pledge to continue using our money and resources efficiently and with simplicity.  I believe we already do that at the Gathering at Northern Hills in many ways, but I also suggest we must be vigilant about it.  That means reducing our use of resources as much as possible – electricity, paper, food and water.  We can resolve to setting our thermostats slightly lower or higher than what we do now, we ought to use digital media instead of print media whenever possible, limit buying packaged processed foods for our snacks, purchase local produce, practice “reduce, reuse, recycle”, encourage carpooling in fuel efficient vehicles, and use volunteer labor, whenever possible, to maintain our building.

Simplicity also means our Board, and all of us, examine the budget to be sure each expense meets our criteria to focus as much as possible on meeting community basic needs so that we can generously serve the needs of the poor and oppressed.  That means each expense item in our budget ought to be justified by how much it serves not just us – but outsiders too.  My salary must not be immune from that examination.  As a congregation, we must be on the lookout for any waste, inefficiency or improper spending.  All of this is not for us amass more money, but to enable us to give more and thereby continue our desire to be a truly Beloved Community.

To aspire to the sublime heights of a Beloved Community, I encourage us to regularly meditate on how that is expressed in everything we do and say.  Martin Luther King, echoing the teachings of Jesus, had obviously had done such deep thinking.   Genuine love aches at the bigotry and exclusion we see in the world – and it yearns instead for radical inclusivity.  Genuine love rejects selfish use of money as it thrills at charity and generosity.  Genuine love, as we’ll discuss next week, is always non-violent in speech and action.  I encourage you and me, together, to deeply ponder these truths.

I wish us all peace and joy.

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

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I visited a church a few years ago whose members were nice enough as they pleasantly greeted me and Keith.  As we toured the building after the service, we came across a small, drab social room lit by bright, white florescent lightbulbs.  (I find such lights horrific – the kind of harsh lighting found in warehouses and prisons.)  Centered in the middle of this room was a card table on which a lone coffee urn was placed.  Powdered creamer, sugar packets and styrofoam cups were arranged beside it.  What particularly struck me was a small basket in front of the urn with a small sign on it that said, “Coffee. 50 cents.”  This comprised the church’s hospitality – no snacks, no hospitality volunteers, no members to greet newcomers.  Needless to say, Keith and I were the only ones in the room.  For that matter, within ten minutes after the end of the service, the church was virtually vacant.  Those who attended had quickly scurried for the exits.

I’m particularly obsessed with being a good host – someone who likes to create inviting, warm and generous get togethers.  They need not be over the top ostentatious, but they should be, in my opinion, events that convey care and appreciation that guests have chosen to visit.

Spiritually, I’m also convinced that hospitality is not just a matter of being nice to a guest.  It is, instead, the means by which relationships are formed, enlightening conversations take place and a frame of mind fostered that encourages people to stay, learn, and plan work.  When someone is a good host, she or he extends themselves sacrificially for the benefit of another.  When many of you have hosted me, you gave a gift of yourselves – your time, your home and your food – with no expectation that I reciprocate.  For me, that’s the essence of being spiritual – to sacrifice oneself for the greater good of others – and for the world itself.

As a great human teacher, Jesus was also particularly in favor of sacrificial hospitality.  Religious hypocrites condemned him for attending parties where he drank wine, ate good food, and enjoyed the company of diverse people – particularly those on the margins of society including criminals, non-Jews, and prostitutes.  He taught by example that social events are a way to show love and, more importantly, a way to encourage positive change in the host and the guest.  His parables frequently used parties as symbols of the goodness and love we are to extend to others – and as I said – especially to the people who are different from us.  A good host, he implied, is almost like god – someone who loves generously and unconditionally.

Other world religions believe the same.  For Jews, the Torah teaches to welcome and serve strangers as if they are dear friends – since Jews have experienced a long history of horrible mistreatment as strangers.  They must intentionally do the opposite.

The Koran says Muslims are to show lavish hospitality to family, friend and stranger equally – with special care shown to orphans, widows and the poor.

The Hindu Upanishads or Scriptures take these teachings one step further.  A guest or stranger is to be considered a representative of the gods.  How we act as hosts is thus a mark of how spiritual we are.

So, as many of you know, I place a high priority on hospitality at the Gathering at Northern Hills.  Our social hour is not just a time to chat with friends.  It is a spiritual time during which we practice our ideals – to be more understanding, serving, and open hearted.  What happens in the Quimby room is at least as essential to the work of this congregation as is what happens in this Sanctuary.

Time and again I see so many of you spend extended time talking to and welcoming guests and visitors.  You are also diligent and sacrificial serving as hospitality hosts – something which we ask of every able member.  Coffee and snacks are just not just elements of an after-service meal.  They’re our symbolic wine and bread communion representing who we are and what we do.  We welcome, we come together, we give, we serve, we improve ourselves so we can then improve the world. 

Interestingly, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr agreed.  He was particularly focused not on just creating a more racially just society, but on creating a holistic, world-wide version of Jesus’ overall morality.  That meant, for King, to build a beloved community that serves and loves all people equally.   It was his vision of heaven on earth – a picture of paradise that humanity, not god, must dedicate itself to create.  To do so, Dr. King believed we must conquer three things that work against any beloved community: exclusivism, materialism and militarism.   

Encouraging the opposite of those three forces is therefore the theme of my August message series.  How do we practice the antidote to militarism and thus become a more beloved church?  By emphasizing non-violence in all we say and in all we do – the subject of my message in two weeks. 

How do we serve and love people, and not money or things – and thus be less materialistic?  By being simple in wants for ourselves, and generous in serving and meeting the needs of others – what we’ll look at next Sunday. 

How can we prevent appearing exclusive and instead highlight our inclusivity?  We must practice, Dr. King believed, not just nice hospitality, but radical hospitality – the subject of today’s message.

To that end, the word radical is defined as “believing there should be great social or political change.”  I believe that for the Gathering at Northern Hills to advance its purpose as a beloved community, it must advance it’s level of hospitality.   In many respects, our hospitality is reactive – we warmly welcome all who peacefully come here.  To raise it to the next level, I believe we must discern and then implement ways to instead be proactive in our hospitality.

Jesus told a parable, a story intended to teach, about a wealthy man who asked his servant to invite other well off persons like himself to attend a large and lavish banquet.  It was to be his way to love others and make new friends.  The servant reported back, however, that all of those he invited had made excuses of self-importance and were too busy to attend.  They essentially acted like elitist snobs in turning down the invitation. 

The host was upset but he quickly realized that people like him were too dependent on their wealth and power to seek something as simple as friendship. So he thought of a new and daring way to express his love and make new friends.  He asked his servant to go out into the city streets and invite the not self-important people – the poor, crippled, sick and homeless.  In this way he not only was able to express love to others, he did so to people who could not repay him.  He found and invited humble folk who were authentic and open to receiving and giving love.

While Jesus was primarily teaching about humility and how those who have little are the most aware about the value of love and friendship, there is another lesson as well.  If one is to truly practice the ideal of being hospitable, one must do more than just offer nice hospitality to those who choose to show up.  One must intentionally invite people to attend – especially those who do not depend on status, power and money for their supposed security.

For me, offering radical hospitality answers the question many spiritual people ask.  What would the great prophets of history do in today’s world?  Who would Jesus invite to a party?  Who would he exclude?  Who would the Torah say to deport – or kick out of a party?  How would Mohammad, the Buddha or the Brahmin serve their guests?  The answers are simple.  They would take the radical step to invite, welcome and serve not the wealthy, arrogant, small minded elites who think they already have everything they need.  The great spiritual prophets would invite the homeless bag lady, the immigrant child separated from her family, the black single mom working two jobs to support her family, the addict looking for a new high, the gay teenager shunned by his peers.   In other words, those who hunger for authentic affirmation.

For us, as we desire to strengthen this beloved community, I suggest we consider taking equally radical steps to increase our inclusivity.  For us to be radical in our hospitality, we can follow what Jesus taught.  Like the host in the parable I just described, I suggest we focus on finding new relationships with people from whom we expect nothing in return.  Indeed, one of the best ways we can understand others, particularly those who may be different from us, is to be their friend.

Sue Cline, who currently is the leader of our Service Planning Team, recently suggested to the team that our congregation stop trying to integrate Sunday services because many black and white Unitarian worship practices and religious beliefs may be too different.  Instead, she proposes that the Gathering at Northern Hills invite members of a predominantly African-American church to become our friends – not by attending our services but by inviting them to a dinner party.  Our purpose, like the man in Jesus’ parable, would be to simply make friends, be hospitable, and show love. 

Any dividends that result – like cooperation between the churches or attendance at each others’ services – those may or may not happen.    Our goal is to build a beloved community of caring friends not for the sake of increasing our numbers here, or making GNH integrated, but for the sake of fostering mutual understanding and love.

Experts say that while all humans, no matter their race, tend to practice what is called “homophily” – to mostly associate with people of similar background and interests – the beneficial results from black and white friendships are significant.  At a time when a huge majority of both white and black people have no close friend of the other race, the greater spiritual issue is not about integrating Sunday mornings but instead integrating people’s personal lives.  To be someone’s friend, to trust in someone as a confidante, to be their supporter or their gentle critic is, as we all know, a valuable asset.  Inviting a black congregation to join us for festive meals, with the intention to build relationships, is a tangible way to practice radical hospitality – something that gets at the heart of being a beloved person or community.  We are not loving to get something in return, we are loving because it defines what is good and true.

As a practical matter, I encourage you to share your thoughts about this idea with Sue Cline, or me, and offer your help in making such purely relationship building dinner events happen.

Our congregation is in the process of discussing a Black Lives Matter banner.  I empathize with the opinions of people on both sides of the issue.  But I also know that a banner is only one means to great end.  Ultimately, I believe we all seek a vision of a universal beloved community.  In one of Dr. King’s earliest speeches, he said, “Our ultimate aim is to foster and create the ‘beloved community’ in America where brotherhood is a reality. . . Our goal is genuine intergroup and interpersonal living…”

As a Minister, Dr. King understood the greater spiritual implications of what he advocated.  Indeed, all of his beliefs were guided by his Christian understanding of reconciliation.  The enemy of black people is not the white person, he believed.  It is, instead, misguided views about human sisterhood and brotherhood.  A beloved community is so much more than systemic racial integration.  As Dr King said, “Desegregation will only produce a society where men are physically desegregated and spiritually segregated…It leaves us with a stagnant equality of sameness rather than a constructive equality of oneness.”

I could not agree more.  Dr King understood better than most that no matter one’s religious beliefs, wealth or station in life, human oneness is a deeply spiritual ethic.  It goes far beyond banners, desegregation policies, and government policies.  It is about hearts knit together.  It’s about looking into the face of any person and seeing not gay, poor, other-abled, latino, Black, white – but simply seeing a kindred soul with the same yearnings, dreams, and, yes, flaws – as all others.

If we love, we must reconcile.  If we love, we must feel empathy and understanding.  If we love, we must stay togthery.  These statements are nothing new – but they are so often forgotten in our mostly self-focused rush to assert our own agendas.

Our desire to be a beloved community means we must stay not only united, but remain committed to gentle speech and lack of judgement for one another.  If we fail in ourselves being a beloved congregation by allowing issues to divide us, or having some leave, then we will fail in ever becoming a beloved community that widely includes people of color and other marginalized persons.  We must be what we want the world to be – members of one human family that work together, share together, serve together, and love together.  Let us find ways to be radically hospitable to better practice those ideals.

       

(c) Michael Tacy, Music Director to the Gathering at Northern Hills, All Rights Reserved

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