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Message from the District Executive Florida Congregations and links Consultation on Youth Task Force
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A DEFINING MOMENT
Rev. Dr. Marni Harmony September 16, 2001 from the words of Gerard Manley Hopkins: SHALOM, SHALOM, V'EIN SHALOM. Words from the prophet Jeremiah. "Peace,
peace, when there is no peace." "Grant us peace, thy most precious
gift, O Thou eternal source of peace," say the words from the liturgy
of the Jewish Prayer Book. "Enable us to be its messenger unto the
peoples of the earth." And in the words of St. Francis, "God,
make me an instrument of thy peace." In this longing, today, I must
believe we are all united. In the middle of the 19th century, the great Unitarian minister William
Ellery Channing cried, "Must the sword devour forever? Must force,
fear, pain, always rule the world? Is the kingdom of God, the reign of
truth, duty, and love never to prevail? Must the sacred name of neighbor
be only a name among us? Must the divinity in our nature never be recognized
with veneration? Is the earth always to steam with human blood shed by
our hands, and to echo with groans wrung from hearts which violence has
pierced? Can you and I, my friends, do nothing, nothing to impress a different
character on the future history of our race? You say we are weak; and
why weak? It is from inward defect, not from outward necessity. We are...faint
within,-faint in love, and trust, and holy resolution. Inward power always
comes forth, and works without....Go forth, then, friends of humanity,
peaceful soldiers...and in your various relations, at home and abroad,
in private life, and, if it may be, in more public spheres, give faithful
utterance to your deep, solemn, irreconcilable hatred of the spirit of
war." Are we at war? I don't know. It's a word we've heard this past week,
and there seems to be general agreement that we are. For now, it's apparently
a war against terrorism, a frightening, faceless enemy whose ways are
based in fanaticism and hatred. I do not understand references to the
perpetrators as faceless cowards. Would that they were cowards and would
retreat when we mobilize our might. But human beings who have worked and
plotted for years to try to destroy our great nation and who are willing
to die in this service are anything but cowards. They are a cold, cunning,
calculating, cancerous clan who feed on the poisons of fear and hatred
and envy. May their seed and their feeding trough dry up; may the people
of the world come to our senses and isolate these ghosts of evil. As I said on Tuesday night, many of us are torn between our deep commitment
to nonviolence and our knowledge that hatred poisons the human spirit...and
our deep, fierce anger that this has happened. An anger that is strong
enough that we cannot help but have thoughts of revenge; we want to see
the perpetrators-the masterminds- brought down and punished. I suppose
that needs to happen. That would serve the cause of justice. But I grieve
the form I fear that punishment will take. I hope to God we will not squander our energies on revenge or retribution.
Some of you will vehemently disagree with me. That's ok. The deeds are
done. The horror is real. The horrific results are real. Isn't it time
we learned that hatred begets hatred; violence begets violence.? Can't
we decide to stop the spiral of violence now? Just refuse to perpetuate
it. And pray, I mean really pray, for an end to violence. Does the world
want to see an America that becomes obsessed with punishing anyone who
challenges or hurts us...or might the world want to see an America that
lives up to the greatness of our ideals and stands firm for freedom and
understanding and peace? Shall we be obsessed with pinpointing blame or
walk the much more difficult path of trying to understand cause? Does
the world need us to be the source of further hatred and violence or of
love and mercy? Not a naive, passive mercy that just hopes if we love
enough this evil will go away. But a wise and active mercy that is clear
and firm in containing the cancer. Have the chickens, indeed come home to roost? Are we reaping what we
have sown? I went back to a little book written by Dom Helder Camara in
1971 titled Spiral of Violence. In it he writes, "If there is some
corner of the world which has remained peaceful, but with a peace based
on injustices-the peace of a swamp with rotten matter fermenting in its
depths-we may be sure that that peace is false. Violence attracts violence.
Let us repeat fearlessly and ceaselessly: injustices bring revolt, either
from the oppressed or from the young, determined to fight for a more just
and humane world." (Pp.33-34) But I do wonder at my own wisdom in trying to do anything but offer comfort
this morning. Yet, God help me, I have to ask aloud, How many towers have
we knocked down in Baghdad? What country was it that dropped the first
nuclear bombs on civilians in Hiroshima and Nagasaki? What country herded
Native Americans like cattle along a Trail of Tears? And were there not
people in this country who cheered when we bombed Iraq and spoke of "winning"
a war that killed civilians and devastated an entire ecosystem? Wittingly
or not, we are far from innocents in creating this culture of hate in
the world. I stand utterly incredulous when I hear people ask, "How
could anyone hate us this much? Or why?" Where have these people
been? Is our true greatness-and I believe this is a great nation-based on the
power to meet attack with attack or might it be our true greatness to
model for the world the ability to take our justifiable rage and horror
and transform them into the strength to stand against violence of any
kind? Might that stand not signal to the world that it is time to end
the cycle of violence that everyone of good heart-and that's most people,
my dear ones-longs for so desperately right now? I understand that we
must protect ourselves against the very real and present danger of further
terrorist attacks. I understand and reluctantly accept that we must figure
out a strong response that will undoubtedly involve loss of life. But
I wonder what would happen if the US, along with the sustained and necessary
military strategizing, were to stand up TOMORROW and say to the world
that we sincerely and deeply regret our arrogance, our insensitivity,
our blindness to past wrongs wrought by our misguided imperialism? If
nothing more, I wager a major blow would be dealt to the worldwide anti-American
sentiment. For people of my age coterie, the assassinations of John and Robert Kennedy
and Martin Luther King, Jr. were defining moments in our lives-that is
to say, events that anchor our whole perspective on life. I know where
I was and who was with me, and I still carry the deep pain and disillusionment
in my heart. For a younger group, the explosion of the Challenger was
a similar defining moment. One of my first thoughts upon hearing of Tuesday's
unimaginably horrific events was that the day would become a defining
moment for a new generation. But as I have sat and mourned and let the
reality of the events sink in, I realize it will be a defining moment
for all of us. All of us. The dead and the injured and their families
are far from the only victims of this week's terrible events. The circle
is wide enough to include all of us in this country; all of us, I think,
who are citizens of this planet. We are all wounded for the rest of our
lives. We will carry the particulars of this lived trauma in our bones
from now on. We are a nation, and indeed a world, that has been robbed
of our most basic sense of security. We are, as some commentators have
said, living in a new country...indeed a new world. There is a particular and unique personal pain that most of us here have
been spared: we did not lose a partner or mother or father or child or
co-worker or neighbor in this carnage. While we must hold in our hearts
and prayers the unspeakable and unique individual human losses, it is
important to say that every single one of us is affected by and a victim
of this evil. No one of any conscience remains untouched. Even as we grieve, even as we try to make sense of the senseless, please
remember to notice the moments of heroism and beauty. It is a remarkable
theological truth-out of the ashes of evil WILL rise the spirit of beauty
and truth. We have seen it already. Think of those on Flight 93 who had
the presence of mind and greatness of spirit --in the face of terror and
the near certain knowledge of their own death-to make a successful effort
to thwart the hijackers from making another hit on a vital part of our
country. Remember the police and fire personnel who rushed into the first
WTC tower in an effort to help, only to lose their lives as the tower
collapsed. Hold up the individuals who, in the darkest hours of grief,
conveyed information from phone calls from loved ones to officials that
has helped to track down the hijackers. And hold up now the thousands
upon thousands of persons who will be actively involved in the healing
and rebuilding. I pray that what also arises out of the ashes is a deep humility. Humility
is utterly and uncompromisingly necessary in a worthy world leader. There
are good reasons to be proud to be an American; but let our pride be tempered
with a true understanding of our UU Seventh Principle--that we really
are interdependent. We are not better because we're bigger; we do not
have the right to do whatever we want to serve our own interests without
thinking of the consequences for other peoples and nations. We are not
great because we're wealthy; we are only great as we engage in actions
that reflect our founding principles. Let us admit that we do not always
do that. Let us admit that we fall short of our ideals. Let us admit that
there are still things this 225 year old country needs to learn. We all want to do something. The somethings we can do are both small and great. Be together. Comfort one another. Life is too short for hate; please let it go. Take this opportunity to put pettiness in perspective. Pray. Pray for everyone. Pray especially that our leaders may somehow find or stumble into the wisest course of action. Pray for those planning future terrorist actions that they may find their way home to their hearts. And pray for the innocents-present and future-of this "war" on terrorism. Yesterday morning, my heart broke yet again reading of the climate of
fear that is now so pervasive in the lives of people in places like Afghanistan.
A teacher was quoted as saying, "We have suffered so much. Every
night so many children go to bed hungry...What do we have to live for?
Let the rockets come and set this whole country on fire once and for all."
God, what despair. Please open your heart to the reality of this kind
of suffering. Challenge bigotry. Patronize Arab and Muslim businesses.
If you're in the market, please don't sell this week unless you also buy.
If you need a concrete act, give blood. But remember that our nation needs
spirit infusions as well as blood transfusions. Now, as perhaps never
before, we must initiate-yes, initiate--conversations with our neighbors
about what we, as Unitarian Universalists, stand for. Please learn our
Seven Principles-memorize them. Do not miss an opportunity to talk about
them and be guided to action by them. We must teach our children and our
world, as we recite every Sunday, that hatred destroys the human spirit.
We must teach our children and our world that violence is wrong. That
violence is not an acceptable way of dealing with either conflict or frustration.
Violence is fast; it's ugly; it's chaotic; it's frightening. We must help
others truly understand what we know to be true: that the world we share
is an utterly interdependent world; that what hurts one hurts all. Don't
be paralyzed by fear, even if you're scared-and we are all scared. Go
inside and find the fearlessness that may be the antidote to terrorism.
And deepen and expand the love that is the only antidote I know to hate
and fear. Strengthen your own equanimity and tolerance for not knowing
what to do. Yet at the same time, remember that holding someone's hand
IS doing something. Be gentle with others and with yourself for our wildly
fluctuating emotions-we are all in grief. And while not being in denial
about the true fragility of our situation right now, believe that we can
and will find actions that cause the least further destruction and suffering.
With all my heart I want to offer a hopeful word this morning. And yet
the best I can do is to stand with you in shared horror and pain. The
little bit of hope I cling to is that there are so many others as shocked
and confused and hurt as we are. Maybe together we can dedicate ourselves
to the work necessary to assure that it is more than just talk to speak
of the preciousness of each child in our world. Maybe we will let this
event speak to us about the need to change the conditions whereby radical
evil, born of fear and misunderstanding and hatred, can arise. Maybe it
will be this event that sears into our consciousness the resolve that
the human community really must stand together or fall apart. Maybe it
will be this horror that will turn us around. May it be so. |