{"id":2835,"date":"2015-02-08T20:41:29","date_gmt":"2015-02-09T03:41:29","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/thegatheringcincinnati.org\/?p=2835"},"modified":"2015-02-08T20:41:29","modified_gmt":"2015-02-09T03:41:29","slug":"february-8-2015-finding-spiritual-inspiration-from-best-picture-nominated-films-selma-and-keeping-our-eyes-on-the-prize","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.gnhuu.org\/index.php\/2015\/02\/08\/february-8-2015-finding-spiritual-inspiration-from-best-picture-nominated-films-selma-and-keeping-our-eyes-on-the-prize\/","title":{"rendered":"February 8, 2015, "Finding Spiritual Inspiration from Best Picture Nominated Films: 'Selma' and Keeping Our Eyes on the Prize""},"content":{"rendered":"

(c) Doug Slagle, Minister to the Gathering, UCC, All Rights Reserved\"&"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

To download and listen to the message, please click here. \u00a0To read the message, please see below.<\/p>\n\n

 <\/p>\n

Please watch the video at this link: \u00a0https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=ZzbKaDPMoDU<\/a><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Writing in the New York Times this past Tuesday, David Brooks – who is called a liberal\u2019s favorite conservative – wrote about the difficulties of being a secularist, atheist or humanist in today\u2019s world.\u00a0 As the ranks of the non-religious grow, from today\u2019s historically high levels of twenty per cent of adults and a third of those under thirty, Brooks asserts that secularists will need to find a positive expression of their beliefs.\u00a0 If secularism is to thrive, it needs to offer the world a moral code that motivates people to act in ways that positively impacts the culture, he writes.\u00a0 Since secularists don\u2019t call on centuries of religious theology or Scripture, since they do not rely on hope for an otherworldly eternity to motivate them, they must develop cohesive communities of like minded people.\u00a0 They must also, Brooks suggests, put forward a consistent moral code that is inspirational enough<\/b> to rally people to serve causes greater than themselves.<\/p>\n

I read this column just as I was sitting down to prepare today\u2019s message. Brooks offers a reasonable point – one that might speak to us.\u00a0 It is not enough for any person or any group to simply be against something.\u00a0 In politics, spirituality, morality and life itself, the best way to create change is not to be critical, but instead positive.\u00a0 Secularists and humanists must not as much be against religion as they should favor a logical and loving alternative that truly inspires people – something which Northern Hills and the Gathering already offer and which must continue.<\/p>\n

Over the past five years during February, I have looked at three Oscar nominated movies to find spiritual inspiration.\u00a0 I\u2019m doing the same this year.\u00a0 Last week I looked at the film Imitation Game.\u00a0 Today, I examine the film Selma.\u00a0 While that movie focuses on a pivotal period during the Civil Rights fight of the 1960\u2019s and how Martin Luther King, Jr. strategically steered passage of the Voting Rights Act, the movie implicitly offers a message that is subtly complimentary to one regarding equal rights.<\/p>\n

In its one word title, there is no reference to Dr. King, his greatness or to any of the leaders who strategized with him.\u00a0 \u00a0 Selma is a place that represents the struggle for equal rights – much like Birmingham, Watts, Ferguson, Seneca Falls or Stonewall also do.\u00a0 But more than just being a place, Selma represents a community of people inspired not by God or visions of heaven, but the very worldly, here and now concerns of justice and dignity.\u00a0 Selma can be for us much of what David Brooks writes – a symbol of the positive<\/b> purposes a diverse but united<\/b> community of people can offer the world.<\/p>\n

The movie is really a collection of how everyday people came together to bring about change.\u00a0 In it, we watch as Annie Lee Cooper tries to register to vote – but runs up against the wall of Southern systemic barriers to that basic right.\u00a0 We watch in shock as Jimmie Lee Jackson, a young black deacon in a Marian, Alabama church, is shot to death by a white policeman when he tried to protect his mother from being beaten by white police during a protest.\u00a0 We see the horror of four young black girls blown up and killed by the local Klan in their Birmingham church – which was used as a meeting place by black protesters.\u00a0 We learn of the efforts by John Lewis, a Congressman today from Georgia, who led the Student Non-Violent Coordinating Committee in Selma.\u00a0 We learn of the local group who had worked to end segregation, register blacks to vote and confront local racist politicians – years<\/b> before Dr. King and his Southern Christian Leadership Conference came to Selma.\u00a0 We watch the many whites who joined the Civil Rights protests – ones like Unitarian ministers Clark Olsen and Olof Miller who were savagely beaten for participating in the Selma march, or Detroit housewife and mother of five children, Viola Liuzzo, who joined the Selma march and was shot in the head and killed by four Klansmen.\u00a0 We see the hundreds of black protesters, young, old, women and men, who are run down by police on horses, beaten and bloodied during the Selma to Montgomery march.<\/p>\n

What we see in the film is a community bound together in action despite their different backgrounds and beliefs.\u00a0 We see people stirred and motivated to act in a positive<\/b> and non-violent manner.\u00a0 We see their leaders, including Dr. King, give direction and eloquence to these everyday people – but Dr. King and other leaders did not and could not carry the Civil Rights protest on their own.\u00a0 Leaders cannot lead unless there are people who are with them, people who are willing to act.<\/p>\n

Selma is a movie that ultimately honors a large and diverse group of people – it honors a grassroots social movement, one founded on centuries of oppression felt by everyday people.\u00a0 We look back on the 1960\u2019s and see the monumental force of Dr. King, but the movie Selma underscores the fact that history is not made by single individuals.\u00a0 History is a fabric of stories woven together by the deeds and lives of countless everyday people.\u00a0 It is these people, usually nameless and unknown, who comprise historical movements – be it the American Revolution, the fight against slavery, or the Civil Rights efforts.\u00a0 It is from the ranks of such broad social movements that individual men and women rise up to be leaders and give inspiration to the multitudes.\u00a0 Instead of great men and women making history, the reverse is true.\u00a0 Historical forces that comprise diverse groups of people help make certain men and women great.<\/p>\n

And that is the case with Martin Luther King, Jr..\u00a0 He was the inspiring leader, the brilliant strategist, the voice in the wilderness who beckoned a generation to peacefully correct the wrongs of the past – but he was only one<\/b> man. \u00a0 Diverse groups of common people, comprised of Annie Lee Coopers, Jimmie Lee Jacksons, Viola Liuzzos, Clark Olsens and thousands like them – they are the often forgotten ones, the heroes and martyrs of history, of whom the movie Selma celebrates.<\/p>\n

In this fiftieth anniversary of the Selma marches, we are rightfully asked to heed what the movie honors.\u00a0 And, yes, we are also asked to ponder why the events fifty years ago echo the events of just a few months ago – of peaceful black protesters marching against oppression but facing white police aggression.\u00a0 The protests of Selma and Ferguson are sadly linked across half a century.\u00a0 One event asks us to remember and honor.\u00a0 The other calls us to speak out and act.<\/p>\n

But for us as members of Northern Hills or the Gathering, the message of the film also extends beyond our call to help reconcile racial wounds.\u00a0 In many ways, we are like the people of Selma.\u00a0 There are issues in our churches and our communities that need to be addressed. \u00a0 How we come together, how we, with all of our different backgrounds and traditions, work together to address the challenges of our time will say much about who we are.<\/p>\n

The last time I spoke here I asked us as individuals and as congregations to cooperate in acquiring what I call purpose driven wealth.\u00a0 That kind of wealth is not comprised of money or things, but of meaning, self-actualization and purpose.\u00a0 We earn this wealth by acting according to our purpose for living – to be positive agents of change in our families, churches and communities.\u00a0 I suggested three goals for our two congregations.\u00a0 First, to increase and improve our congregation care teams – to organize people who are trained and skilled in offering listening ears and empathy to fellow members who are hurting.\u00a0 Second, I suggested both congregations cooperate and serve together in hands on outreach efforts for the poor, marginalized, hungry and homeless.\u00a0 Third, I suggested we plan, implement and support ways to build racial justice and reconciliation through our Sunday services, our verbal witness and our hands on work.<\/p>\n

I reiterate these suggestions.\u00a0 I don\u2019t want to forget them.\u00a0 Interested persons for each of these goals, in both congregations, can contact me or other leaders and initiate plans to meet, discuss and implement positive<\/b> goals for our futures.\u00a0 Beyond these specific goals is a much larger one – one that we might learn from the movie Selma.\u00a0 Our primary cause is to make a difference in the lives of ourselves, our children, our friends, and in our world.\u00a0 We exist as people and as churches to serve others at least as much as we serve ourselves.\u00a0 We offer a spirituality that is unique in its radical embrace of any and all people, to love them, to serve them, to be a force of free thinking and human compassion.\u00a0 But to do this we must come together – moving beyond differences to unite in ways that will better fulfill our purpose.\u00a0 We do so not for a god, not for a hoped for eternity in some abstract heavenly abode, but to instead help build a heaven on earth, right here, right now – an earthly paradise of peace, equality, decency and equal opportunity.<\/p>\n

This worldly heaven, one that Dr. King spoke to and envisioned, requires we heed the example of everyday people celebrated in the film Selma.\u00a0 As diverse people, the Civil Rights marchers came from different backgrounds and traditions.\u00a0 But they found a way to unite.\u00a0 One of the beautiful images of the film Selma is a scene where thousands of people link arms to peacefully confront forces of intolerance blocking their way.\u00a0 Men, women, black, white, brown, ministers, rabbis, children, senior citizens, liberals, conservatives, northerners, southerners – all in one body – uniting to address the compelling cause of their time.<\/p>\n

Like them, we too must come together and link arms for the compelling cause of our time.\u00a0 We must cooperate.\u00a0 We must support one another in humility and kindness.\u00a0 We must sacrifice.\u00a0 We must serve –\u00a0 each in our own way.\u00a0 Leaders and ministers do not make a church, just as Martin Luther King did not constitute the Civil Rights movement. \u00a0 Everyday people did – and everyday people, acting in common, are the heroes of history and of our two churches.<\/p>\n

The causes for our time at the Gathering and Northern Hills may seem small but they are important for our witness as people who defy division and seek spiritual unity that embraces universal ideals.\u00a0 To that end,\u00a0 our two congregations have been given a special opportunity – to meet as different but like minded people, to get to know one another, to discuss ways to cooperate, to dream of a combined body that will be greater, stronger and more purpose driven than either congregation left alone.<\/b> \u00a0 This opportunity we have, much like that which history gave to the people of Selma, is to move beyond our individual or congregation desires.\u00a0 I did not join the Gathering just<\/b> because I liked the Gathering.\u00a0 I joined because it was a place I could live out my purpose in life to serve others.\u00a0 That goal is much bigger than me or my personal beliefs.<\/p>\n

I\u2019ve heard about a few differences that might separate our congregations – mostly involving a few Sunday service practices.\u00a0 No two sets of people with proud histories and traditions will ever be the same.\u00a0 Indeed, our differences represent not stumbling blocks but, instead, wonderful diversity.\u00a0 The people depicted in the movie Selma prove that point.\u00a0 Some were activists who worked to change laws.\u00a0 Some were advocates of confrontation.\u00a0 Others were persons who saw the symbolic power of non-violence, attacked by forces of hate, as a way to build empathy in hearts and minds.\u00a0 These groups differed in strategy and tactics.\u00a0 But they found a way to unite according to their higher purpose – that all people have the right to be heard, respected and represented.<\/p>\n

And those are ideals we also share.\u00a0 We are not Northern Hills members.\u00a0 We are not Gathering members.\u00a0 We are not motivated by small differences.\u00a0 We are members of a universal<\/b> community of idealists, servants and activists, like the protest marchers of Selma, who envision a better world.\u00a0 Yes, we each have our own unique histories.\u00a0 Yes, we have our unique Sunday service practices that are meaningful and good.\u00a0 Crucially, however, we share the important motivation to promote an alternative spirituality of reason and logic, focused through a prism of service and love.<\/p>\n

As the Selma protest marchers neared the end of their fifty mile journey to the Alabama capital of Montgomery, under the malevolent gaze of the Ku Klux Klan, racist police officers, and Governor George Wallace – forces that would divide instead of unite, the marchers sang in unison: \u201cKeep your eyes on the prize, hold on, hold on!\u201d\u00a0<\/b><\/p>\n

Those marchers knew too well that far too many change movements in history have fizzled out because their members lost sight of the prize – they focused on negativity, fear, uncertainty and differences instead of positive solutions. \u00a0 And the ultimate prize for which they labored fell from their grasp.<\/p>\n

<\/b>My friends, we cannot allow the same to happen to us.\u00a0 The prize we seek is not the glory of our individual congregations.\u00a0 It is not for our own comfort.\u00a0 It is for the glory of our common cause<\/b>.\u00a0 We must harness that opportunity to build upon our cause<\/b>, we must heed the calling of our shared beliefs, we must listen to our collective hearts that beat to a unifying and thoughtful spirituality.\u00a0 I see us as one people who value the traditions of the past, but who also respect and compromise with the traditions of others, all in order to keep our eyes on the prize<\/i><\/b>.\u00a0 That prize, that glory, will not be a bigger church – with more members and more money.\u00a0 It will instead be the greater realization<\/b> of our purpose as people and congregations. We must march boldly forward united in our vision of being positive<\/b> spiritual change agents.\u00a0 Together, we too can be Selma.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

I wish you all much peace and joy.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

(c) Doug Slagle, Minister to the Gathering, UCC, All Rights Reserved To download and listen to the message, please click here. \u00a0To read the message, please see below.   Please watch the video at this link: \u00a0https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=ZzbKaDPMoDU   Writing in the New York Times this past Tuesday, David Brooks – who is called a liberal\u2019s […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2835","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.gnhuu.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2835","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.gnhuu.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.gnhuu.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.gnhuu.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.gnhuu.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2835"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.gnhuu.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2835\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.gnhuu.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2835"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.gnhuu.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2835"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.gnhuu.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2835"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}