Rev. Mary Grigolia
November 12, 2000
1. MICAH 6:8 I will tell you what Life wants from you: To do what is right; to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God.
2. Pray Until Something Happens....P.U.S.H
Pastor Joe Kirkwood, from Amarillo, Texas, had an opportunity to be in a group of pastors invited to meet with Christians who hold office in the U.S. government:
Washington was incredible in so many ways.
I was first given a tour of the White House where I was told by secret service not to pray out loud, but I could pray silently as we went along through the house. The secret service man told me that on several occasions they had people who would appear to be praying then go on a sit down strike inside the White House followed by throwing blood on the walls of the White House in protest against the President. Over the mantel in one room is the "White House Prayer". It says something like "May all who live in this House abide to live in righteousness and moral character".
I was then taken to the top of the Washington Monument to find a souvenir shop run by the Masonic lodge. The shelves were filled with books on the Masonic lodge. It seems that the Washington monument is a symbol of free masonry. As you could imagine I began prayer on top of the monument.
The next morning I had dinner with 30 "born again" US Congressmen. These men shared how they are desperate for our prayers. Many of them privately told me of how lonely they were. They felt like they could talk to no one without the danger of it appearing in the Press. Some told of how the Gay & Lesbian's have taken over Washington. They even infiltrate the offices of the Congressmen. (They explained in detail how they are able to infiltrate).
Some of the congressmen told me with tears in their eyes of how women had been hired to seduce the Christian Congressmen so they could be caught in compromising situations. They also shared how money would show up in unmarked envelopes to get them to vote in favor of Gay & Lesbian agendas.
One Congressman said that because he voted to impeach the President that he was even threatened by people inside the White House. This man is a spirit filled Believer and now was in a battle to hold his seat in congress. He told us that he had even suffered night mares of losing his children and family. When he told us this we stopped and laid hands on him in prayer.
During all of these sessions we became very close. Our purpose was to talk about "Separation of Church and State," but we found our dialogue more on giving these Christian Congressmen encouragement. You could sense that many of them felt like giving up. Before we left we saw God move upon each of them with encouragement. One of the main topics of discussion was the upcoming election. I was told that the next President would most likely appoint four new Justices appointed. They told us that the Christian vote nationwide had dropped in the last two years by 20%. Each Congressman who spoke to us begged us to call Christians to pray and to vote!
The day following one on one discussion with members on congress was the most exciting. We were escorted by guard to the Supreme Court! Chief Justice William Renquist granted us a visit in a private room at the Supreme Court Building. The room which few people ever lay their eyes on was covered literally in 24 karat Gold. I have been all over Europe, but have never seen anything like it and (pictures were not allowed). Before Chief Justice Renquist arrived several of us were selected to ask him direct questions! I was one of three people given this great opportunity. Just to let you know, Chief Justice Renquist is probably the second most powerful man in the world. Even several members of Congress said that they had never personally seen or met Judge Renquist.
It was a little overwhelming to say the least. Finally after some waiting an old figure of a man appeared at the door. Immediately everyone (about 30 people) including congressmen rose to their feet and began to applaud this conservative man who has led the fight for morality. As I was standing there applauding and feeling a little intimidated I had a glimpse of how powerful our Lord and Savior really is.
Even Judge Renquist will one day bow His Knee before Christ and yet Jesus is my best friend. This revelation helped me when I stood to ask him my question! Chief Justice Renquist is very concerned about America. Many of the decisions for righteousness of late have been lost by a five to four vote. It was easy to sense the loneliness in Judge Renquist's eyes.
Three years ago his wife passed away and it has been hard for him to recover from it. Can you imagine not being able to tell people what you think for fear it will be used against you later on in court? Who does this man confide in? Most who know him say he is a forced recluse. We all had a time of prayer while at the Supreme Court.
While inside the Courtroom you can see on the wall the face of Moses (first law giver) holding the Ten Commandments. It was hard to imagine how this nation has drifted so far from the Bible!
There are so many more things I could share, but it would take days to write it all down. I have been asked to return again next year. I was also told by Congressman Dickey to consider bringing a few trusted Pastor friends with me when I come next year. Dick Armey told me that this is the most crucial election in the entire history of the United States. Several others confirmed it as well.
In conclusion I beg each and every Christian to P.U.S.H. (PRAY UNTIL SOMETHING HAPPENS)
In His Service,
Pastor Joe Kirkwood
THIRD READING: Thomas Merton, “Conjectures of a Guilty Bystander”
We are all convinced that we desire the truth above all. Nothing strange about this. It is natural to man, an intelligent being, to desire the truth. . . . But actually, what we desire is not "the truth" so much as "to be in the right." To seek the pure truth for its own sake may be natural to us, but we are not able to act always in this respect according to our nature. What we seek is not the pure truth, but the partial truth that justifies our prejudices, our limitations, our selfishness. This is not "the truth." It is only an argument strong enough to prove us "right." And usually our desire to be right is correlative to our conviction that somebody else (perhaps everybody else) is wrong.
Why do we want to prove them wrong? Because we need them to be wrong. For if they are wrong, and we are right, then our untruth becomes truth: our selfishness becomes justice and virtue: our cruelty and lust cannot be fairly condemned. We can rest secure in the fiction we have determined to embrace as "truth." What we desire is not the truth, but rather that our lie should be proved "right," and our iniquity be vindicated as "just." This is what we have done to pervert our natural, instinctive appetite for truth.
No wonder we hate. No wonder we are violent. No wonder we exhaust ourselves in preparing for war! And in doing so, of course, we offer the enemy another reason to believe that he is right, that he must arm, that he must get ready to destroy us. Our own lie provides the foundation of truth on which he erects his own lie, and the two lies together react to produce hatred, murder, disaster.
* * * * *
Planning this service, I imagined that we’d appreciate an opportunity to reflect on the electoral process, with the presidential election finally behind us. As the events of the past week unfolded and wrinkled, we have had a most extraordinary civics lesson; it a protracted experience of our national community, how we are connected to one another. As Unitarian Universalists we bring a unique spiritual perspective to the table: We affirm the worth and dignity of every person and of the community itself. Our tradition challenges us not to demonize one another.
We would probably all agree that we’ve seen increasingly slick packaging of political sound bites, pandering to our fears and changing tastes, and that it seems that our political parties sunk to new lows in packaging their candidates and competing for votes. Yet, looking back in American history, the presidential election has always been a ferocious struggle to choose a new top dog or primary ape.
And yet this time is different. Because it’s not history yet. This is our time. And we have the responsibility to face and name the dangers and opportunities, to create and maintain a dynamic and healthy community. We have the challenge of not falling into “us against them” thinking or acting.
We look with incomprehension at the atrocities in civil wars around the world. We have the luxury of living in a country that has a booming economy and a two hundred year old tradition of democracy. And yet even in this time of plenty, when our candidate’s path is blocked, emotions rise, we wrap ourselves with the cloak of righteousness, we posture, accuse and blame the other side. We sue and counter sue. Where is the spiritual challenge in this melee?
In the Bhagavad-gita, the ancient scripture of India, young Prince Arjuna is considering whether it would be spiritually right to fight in the civil war that has divided his family. He is guided by Lord Krishna, disguised as his charioteer. Krishna teaches Arjuna that there is no escape from the battle. Life is not a spectator’s sport. You must enter the fray, respond, and live with the consequences of your actions. This electoral process looks a lot like the battle in the Gita.
Our fifth Unitarian Universalist principle affirms the right of conscience and the use of the democratic process in our congregations and in society as a whole. This is a religious and spiritual issue, and not just a civic matter. Philosophically, Unitarian Universalists reject a top-down model of authority in which someone tells us how to think or believe or vote. We trust each other to use our minds and our conscience to make sense of our experience, to weigh our options, to come to our own conclusions, and to choose a course for our lives and our society. We believe that Lord Krishna was right: It is our spiritual duty to be part of the battle.
We UU’s love our principal that talks about the interconnected web of existence, as long as it refers to giant sequoias and the rain forest. How easy it is to forget that it also refers to all those who voted differently than we did. How easy to lose faith in our fellow citizens. Who among us hasn’t assumed that we have the right answer, the right way of looking at the nation’s problems and potentials? Who among us doesn’t believe that righteousness lies on our side alone. How easy it is to get polarized into “us against them” thinking. If candidate A doesn’t win, American morality continues down the slippery slope. If our candidate B doesn’t win, women’s reproductive rights will be rolled back forty years. If our candidate C doesn’t win it’ll just be business as usual, with the multi-billion dollar drug companies calling the shots and the international mega-corporate polluters destroying the rain forest.
We are running in a relay race where we see our team-mates as the problem. We are polarized and have lost respect for each other. We need to create a shared vision, by listening to each other instead of identifying each other as the problem and placing each other judgmentally into neat little cubby holes.
It’s hard for me to read Pastor Kirkwood’s letter and not hear the enemy. It’s human nature to take sides in a confrontation. Thomas Merton wrote that we need someone else to be wrong so that our half-truths may pose as truth. The religious right is concerned about how to keep our children safe and our families together. How much easier to blame someone else – those pesky gays and lesbians -- than to look inside oneself. Those of us affirming gay rights respond by wrapping the flag of the Civil Rights Movement around ourselves as we allow ourselves to be manipulated emotionally, seeing only enemies and demons on the other side, intimidated by ignorance and threats, retreating from the real battleground which is finding common ground in our neighborhoods and workplaces and schools, day to day, as people who also want to protect our families and empower our children.
Last Monday, the Lakewood City Council held a first reading of a proposed amendment adding sexual orientation to the city’s Hate Crime legislation. That day, the Plain Dealer ran a story about the aftermath of last year’s confrontation in Lakewood. They interviewed a number of Lakewood residents and ran my picture. Several days later, my 80 year old neighbor, Madelyn asked me, “Why didn’t you tell me I was living next door to a celebrity?” Cindy and I have lived next to Madelyn for 3 years. This was the first time we had discussed gay rights and the first time she had ever discussed it outside a religious setting where it was flatly condemned. Madelyn was curious and supportive.
At the City Council meeting, a question arose: Should the Council confine their work to maintaining the infrastructure of the city? Or do they have a mandate to lead, to assess the needs of the community and act to meet those needs? I applaud the Council’s decision to be active leaders. As in the Gita, action is a spiritual obligation. It is also the essence of the Jewish teaching, as we hear in the words of the ancient prophet Micah. Life asks us to do what is right, to act with kindness toward all the people, and to walk humbly together. Community is a shared spiritual practice.
This election shows us more clearly than ever before, the need to find common ground. This doesn’t mean that I stop working for civil rights. Or that you stop looking for guidance in the holy book of your choice. It means that we must not let ourselves be tempted to demonize one another. If we let anyone push us to that position, we have truly lost.
No matter who wins the election, WE are responsible to monitor, challenge and support our leaders and to make our vision known. All of us were challenged to decide which candidate and which party to trust with the guidance of our common good. If our leaders are stumbling and have lost their vision, it is up to us to remind them, to remind ourselves and each other. We need the whole community to continue forward.
This protracted civics lesson could go in two different directions. It could encourage people to get involved. It could invigorate the voting process, where people will have seen that individual votes determined the outcome of the election.
Or the blaming and name calling, the lack of leadership and kindness could disgust people.
So far, neither candidate has shown leadership in responding to the bitterness with a way forward together. And so it is up to us.
You have been given a card. I invite you now to reflect on your deepest concern for our lives as a community of communities, a nation. Choose one and write it on your card. When you have finished, turn to someone sitting next to you or close by and share your concern.
As we await the out-come of our presidential elections, let us exercise and take up Joe Kirkwood’s challenge, to Pray Until Something Happens. Let us put our prayers in the form of affirmations. I ask you to consider what you would affirm for our country, including those who voted for Bush, Gore or Nader, and those who didn’t vote, because they believe that the election doesn’t affect them. What would you affirm for this fragile community of 21st century Americans? When you have finished, please stand and join our closing circle.
Copyright ©2000 by Mary Grigolia