Euthanasia

in my post on the Death Penalty and Universalism I wrote: “To me, that seems a bit arrogant on our part to think we have the ability to judge the worthiness of a life to continue or to be halted; regardless if the method is done in what the supreme court deems to be a humane methodology.”

I think I hit a contradiction in my theology that will need to somehow be reconciled.  I happen to believe that there may be end of life choices that are humane to be made… such as euthanasia when there is no possible hope of a person to recover from a terminal illness or in an alzheimer’s coma or only being maintained by extraordinary life supports.  But my comment above regarding the death penalty seems to fly in the face of this other issue that many families are facing in our age of medical miracles that can sustain the human body long after the brain ceases to interact with its world.   Are we not judging the worthiness of life by pulling the plug on a loved one who nolonger is able to have the quality of life that we have determined as worthy of living? 

Unitarian Universalists uphold the principle of “a free and responsible search for truth and meaning.”  This means that we are each responsible to wrestle with these issues for ourselves.  In the process, we may come to differing conclusions to the challenges that living in the 21st century offers.  It would be easier to have a pontiff like the Pope to decree what we are to believe on this or that issue.  And if the answers contradict other 21st challenges, sobeit, someone with more responsibility for my soul has given the answer.

That is not how Unitarian Univesalism works however.  We are each responsible to work out our own salvation with fear and trembling.    In doing so, we come to differing positions and these differing positions allow us to have a richness in our discerning our journey in community with each other.  

I wrote a sermon entitled:  When Death is the Only Choice” which delves a bit into this issue.  Here is an excerpt from that sermon:
“End of life questions are unique to our time because for the first time in human history we have the ability to prolong life. We are now able to postpone death by decades. Events that would have been fatal at the beginning of the 20th century, now in the beginning of the 21st century are only temporary set backs. Neither Karen Ann [Quinlan] nor Terry [Shiavo] would have made international attention in 1907. They both would have died shortly after their initial medical traumas.

“The debate regarding Euthanasia and Assisted Suicide, now at a fevered pitch, is a consequence of enhanced power to extend life. Euthanasia is defined as “the intentional killing by act or omission of a dependent human being for his or her alleged benefit.” Assisted suicide is defined as “someone providing an individual with the information, guidance, and means to take his or her own life with the intention that they will be used for this purpose. When it is a doctor who helps another person to kill themselves it is called ‘physician assisted suicide.’” [http://www.euthanasia.com/definitions.html]

“Opponents to assisted suicide and euthanasia have a few arguments that do cry out for our consideration. Disability advocates like the national disability civil rights organization TASH see assisted suicide as a means for profit driven Health Maintenance Organizations to cut costs in medical treatment. Assisted suicide is only a true choice for those who financially can pay to receive medical care or receive assisted suicide. Those who do not have the financial ability may be left to the mercy of the Health Maintenance Organizations or HMO’s. Already, stories are being told of managed care companies overruling physician’s treatment decisions because of cost factors, with sometimes the overruling hastening the person’s death. There may be some truth in the disability advocates argument if legal assisted suicide were to be made available.

“It has been argued that cost savings to Health Maintenance Organizations do not figure into assisted suicide decisions. However, the studies that state cost savings as being minimal only look at the last month of life. Yet, in Oregon where assisted suicide law exists, the definition of terminal illnesses is having 6 months to live. Suddenly the half a billion dollars saved in the final month becomes several billion saved over six months. Would several billion dollars be an incentive for HMO’s to encourage assisted suicide options?

“Numerous studies have shown the inequitable medical treatment given to blacks versus whites. “African-American women die from treatable illnesses (e.g. diabetes, hypertension, etc.) at twice the rate of white women and African-American men die at a rate almost three times greater than white men. [Sunday Oregonian 6/7/98]”

“Bio-ethicists have expressed concerns that permitting assisted suicide presents new opportunities to victimize minorities. One African American bio-ethicist said, “People know they don’t get the health care they need while they’re living.  So what makes them think anything’s going to be more sensitive when they’re dying.” [Detroit Free Press 2/26/97].

“In the first year of Oregon’s assisted suicide law, all but one of the requests for assisted suicide were requested “for fear of losing functional ability, autonomy, or control of bodily functions [Oregon Health Division, 1999]” In the Netherlands, where voluntary euthanasia exists, physicians report that more than half of requests are because of the fear of loss of dignity.

“Thousands of people with disabilities rely on personal assistance and feel that needing help is not undignified but has enabled them to live. TASH and other disability advocates state the current “public image of severe disability as a fate worse than death …” [Coleman, Diane, J.D. 2002. "Not Dead Yet," in The Case Against Assisted Suicide - For the Right to End-of-Life Care.] Their argument is that people with severe disabilities would be pushed into assisted suicide because of this public image of relying on personal assistance as an indignity.”

This is a complicated issue and one that I will continue to struggle with in terms of my theology and in terms of my own desires for end of life care.  There seems to be no easy answer.  May we each find our own reconciliation to this 21st century moral dilemma.  Blessings, Rev. Fred L Hammond    

 

Death Penalty and Universalism

The Supreme Court ruled 7 to 2 that capital punishment via lethal injection is not unusual or cruel punishment.  All of the justices left the door open for more litigation to prove that capital punishment is unconstitutional.  So this was not a case regarding the death penalty per se but only regarding this method of implementation.  

Can a person who has a Universalist theology be a proponent of the death penalty?  Does Universalism contradict such a stance? 

The orthodox view of universalism states all experience salvation through the death and resurrection of Jesus.  There are no exceptions.  All will be reconciled with their creator, God through the redemptive actions of Jesus on the cross.  All are saved. All are going to Heaven.  Period.  

This orthodox stance is as controversial today as it was in John Murray’s day.  The notion of an elect who are saved is therefore disputed and rejected.  Bishop Carlton Pearson, a pentecostal minister, had a conversion experience where he embraced this universal stance.  He was expelled from his church as a heretic for preaching that God would embrace and redeem everyone including ‘murderers and fornicators.’  He calls it the gospel of inclusion but it is identical as far as I can tell to John Murray’s notion of universalism.   His opponents have built up a wide array of arguments stating how he has erred from the one true path.   He certainly is no longer advocating what is considered to be orthodox Christianity of the Nicene Creed. 

So given the fact that this notion of universal salvation remains a controversial one even today.  The question remains for me.  Can someone be a universalist and support the death penalty?  What does this say about us if the answer is yes.   Does it say, we have the right to judge a person’s worthiness of living life based on their actions against the current laws of society and we then let God to sort it out after we put the person to death?  To me, that seems a bit arrogant on our part to think we have the ability to judge the worthiness of a life to continue or to be halted; regardless if the method is done in what the supreme court deems to be a humane methodology.  

Orthodox Christianity or at least those proposing a Christianity that requires a confession of the mouth and of the heart to proclaim Jesus as personal savior, maintains the possibility of what I remember being called deathbed salvation.  The notion goes like this, a person who has committed the most heinous of sins [I will let your imagination come up with what those might be.] can at the moment of death ask Jesus for forgiveness for those sins, and salvation and entry into heaven is then assured.  All their sins are at that moment are wiped clean.  I think this is the reason [I could be wrong]  why a minister / chaplain is present to the person on their last walk to the execution chamber in prison for the hope of a last minute repentance. Of course, we rarely hear of death row conversions as that would be against the hope that this person is now burning in hell.  [Another notion that Universalists and Unitarian Universalists do not believe in.]   But this notion of deathbed salvation seems equally crazy to me as the arrogance of judging a person no longer worthy of having life, believing in universal salvation and sending them on to Heaven by killing them.

Now many, but not all,  Unitarian Universalists with a Universalist theology no longer believe in the doctrine of a here after in heaven but still believe that all of humanity has the potential for reconciliation.  They still believe that all of life has a worth to have life that goes beyond the actions that life may have committed. There is still the belief that redemption is available to all even if they humanly find it hard to grasp it. 

I’d like to hear some comments on this as I find it a curious position to take: To believe in universalism and to believe that the death penalty is an appropriate judgment for a crime. 

In case you have not surmised… I am opposed to the death penalty.  I believe that if someone is convicted of a crime that is heinous [again, I leave the definition of heinous to your imaginations] that the best punishment is life imprisonment perhaps with solitary confinement.

Blessings, Rev. Fred L Hammond               

AIDS in Guam

I am bit taken aback by the communication power of the Internet.  My intention of this forum is to discuss Unitarian Universalism in Mississippi where I currently serve two congregations.   In my post on the new MSD District UP! Program, I compared this innovative program for small congregations to the development strategy used to develop the Interfaith AIDS Ministry that I led for 15 years in CT.   Focus on one thing and do it well.  Then build on that success. 

I wrote to Mr. Patrick who posted the comment regarding the AIDS situation that the GUAHAN Project is facing in the Pacific Islands.  His work is as an AIDS instructor in Hawai’i.   He wrote back: We recently visited Guam to provide some training, and saw how hard it was for the AIDS Service Organization and the local Salvation Army. Migrants from Micronesia have been arriving in Guam seeking care and a better life. The endemic shortage of healthcare providers there has meant many go without adequate or any care despite desperate need. Our friend at the Salvation Army, Simion Kihleng, reported that many of the Micronesians he works with literally have nothing but the clothes on their backs. Their children go to school with nothing, and their hopes for a better life remain unfulfilled.  So, I have been using a little of my free time after work to encourage people to consider helping some people in Guam, Micronesian and beyond. I really appreciate your assistance and support.”
I also received this information from the Executive Director of the GUAHAN Project :

“Please visit our website for the latest in GP’s ramping-up of outreach services in the poorest and least fortuante communties on Guam.  In remote locations away from the tourist areas and shopping centers on Guam, many people from the nieighboring islands live wihout water, power and sewage infrastruture.  There are no roads, just rocky paths that are so rough and undeveloped that school buses, garbage trucks and most emergency vehicles do not pass over them to get to these villages.  There is no trash collection so people discard their waste by the side of the roack gravel trails.
 
My brother visited Guam from Los Angeles for a few days last week and I took him to one of the communities caller “Zero-Down,” named so because customers could buy homestead properties for no cash down and low monthly terms.  Problem is, no utilities or proper water drainage was designed in these parcels of land.  My brother said he was “disheartened” and was taken aback at what he said was “no less than total squalor.”  I think that most of us living in these U.S. Pacific Island Jurisdictions become so engrossed in promoting our islands of the the sun-sand-surf vacation resort destinations that we forget that some of our own people live in hopeless situations.   
     
“High rates of domestic violence, rape, drug abuse and child abuse occure in these places.  Nearly all victims have no way to report these offenses or are unable to do so because of fear of reprisal.  STD rates are astronomical and there have been outbreaks of dengue fever and other communicable diseases impacting people with little to no resources.  As you might expect, truancy is very high and there now appears to be a growing number of undocumented individuals here.  I posted some photos of “Zero Down” in the GP website Gallery.
 
“Your messages help us to focus more on the plight of our own brothers and sisters in our region.  The GUAHAN Project intensified the outreach servces to these areas to provide greater HIV/STD prevention and education services, access to OraSure CTR, urine-based testing for STDs and critical referral services.  We will combine beneficial activities such as a clothing donation component to the current outeach program.  The GUAHAN Project is committed to supporting our neighboring islands’ social service needs as our time and resources allow. -Alexis Q. Silverio, GUAHAN Project Executive Director-”

This adds to his comments below in the UP! program posting.  We can no longer live on this planet and think that what  we do here in Mississippi  has no impact anywhere else on the planet.  Our life here is connected to one another.  The love we share here can make a difference elsewhere.  If you feel so moved to help the people in Guam and the Pacific Islands, check out the website of the GUAHAN Project.  Blessings abound, Rev. Fred L Hammond

Cousin George W. Bush??

I am an avid amateur genealogist.  [Did I just hear someone say rabid?] I enjoy tracking my ancestors and learning more about their lives, who they were, what they thought, what kinds of struggles did they have.  This all fascinates me.  It also fascinates me to discover how I am related to other people.  It is for me a clear sign of the interdependent web of which we are all a part.  

Ancestry.com has a feature that allows someone as rabid about genealogy as I am to look up famous people and their connections to your family tree.  Of course, the connections are only as good as the research that people have done to confirm these connections.  I discovered that I am related, albeit, distantly, to some 6 presidents and 6 first ladies, as well as Rev. William Ellery Channing, one of the icons of Unitarian history.  Interesting, if this sort of thing excites you.  

What startled me is that one of these Presidents that I am distantly related to is none other than President George Walker Bush through his mother, Barbara. 

Now for those of you who know me know that I am not a huge fan of our President.  In fact, I have pretty strong opinions about where I think he should be instead of at the White House.  But the fact that somewhere  inside him and inside me flows the same DNA has stirred up some things for me.   

First, that someone so [Fill in your own expletives @%$#&*!] could be even remotely related to me is astounding.  But it reveals another thought… oft times expressed as “there but for the grace of god, go I.”  I don’t know what experiences he may have had that led him to being the type of persona I see in the media.  For that matter I am not even sure what experiences I have had that were directly responsible and linked to the expression of my own unique persona.  But here I am and here he is on this planet.  Opposites in our opinion, hanging steadfast in our stubbornness to believe that ours are the right ones. Stubborness must come from his mother’s side of the family as it must come from my father’s side of the family.   

In my quest to understand my heritage, I learned several years ago that one of my great grandmothers, several generations back, was Adrienne Cuvelier.  She was the mother of the first white male born in the New World–New Amsterdam, before it was New Amsterdam, to be exact.  It was her family which is claimed to be responsible for one of the first massacres of the native people here.  She instigated revenge for the killing of a white man after a poker game with the native peoples.  In revenge, the men from the fort in the middle of the night crossed the river into New Jersey to slaughter men, women and children of the native people.  Many were decapitated with their heads placed on stakes brought back to the fort.  Grandma Cuvelier was so deranged that it was said she played kick ball with one of the heads after it fell off the stake.  The chief of this village, it is written, is said to have asked what kind of people would kill their own sons and daughters.  Many of the tribe had intermarried with the families from the fort and therefore white blood flowed within their beings. 

I remember feeling sick, physically sick when I first read this historical account of my ancestors role in this brutal attack.  It was unimaginable to me to act in this manner.  And I wondered what part of her still existed in my veins. 

What her act represents to me is the  beginnings of White Privilege in this country.  The belief that whites are so privileged to act in a manner that this behavior coming from other people would be considered at best; arrogantly rude or as in the example given above; down right evil.  Not justifying the act of the native person’s killing of another person, but for the members of the fort to lay blame on an entire village of people is to declare those people as an other, an object that can be gotten rid of as easily as one would get rid of an insect infestation.  To separate oneself from the shared biological connection these people had is a form of schizophrenia, it is to disown a part of our selves.  And, given that my ancestors included 6 Presidents and 6 First Ladies means that others of my ancestry were in the position to strengthen this notion of White Privilege as it developed in America.  

It is said that all people can trace their DNA back to Africa.  Which means that we are all related some how, albeit very distantly.  So when we find ourselves disagreeing vehemently with another person, whether they are in the same room as us, in the news media or across the globe in Iraq or North Korea, know that he or she is kin.   And just as I may disagree with my immediate family on a variety of issues–just listen in on my families annual Thanksgiving political debates–I do not wish any harm to befall them. 

So too, I wish only well being for my Cousin George Dubya.  I close with this Metta. 

May all in my immediate family dwell in peace in their hearts and minds and in their actions. May all in my immediate family know their own well-being.  May all in my distant family dwell in peace in their hearts and minds and in their actions.  May all in my distant family know their own well-being. May all living in other lands dwell in peace in their hearts and minds and in their actions.  May all living in other lands know their own well-being. Namaste… Rev. Fred L Hammond          

   

Unlimited Potential!

” We are simply too small to do the things we want.”   “It is the same people doing all the work.”   “How can we grow when the things we believe we need to do takes having additional members.”  Those of us belonging to Unitarian Universalist congregations in Mississippi, hear these comments all the time.  It can be quite frustrating. 

What if there was a way to focus on one thing and do it well in our small congregations?  What if there was support for our congregations to learn one specific skill set that will enable us to focus on one thing within our congregation and do it well?  What if we were able to have the same quality worship of congregations that are larger than us?  What if we were able to have an Children’s Religious Education program that was able to entice the children to come every week? What if we were able to have a signature social justice and action project that was known in the community? What would happen if we focused on just one thing and did it well?

Well, my friends in small congregations, our positive thoughts, our intentions of the heart, our intercessory prayers, our supplications have been heard.  Mid-South District, which serves some 30+ congregations in Mississippi, Alabama, and parts of Georgia, Florida and Tennessee are developing a model program to help small congregations, under 70 members, to do exactly these what if’s. 

This past Thursday, Connie Goodbread, Mid-South District (MSD) program consultant,  held a conference call with leaders of the Mississippi congregations to introduce us to a new program she, with MSD Growth Trustee Norman Horofker and District Executive Eunice Benton are developing a new offering entitled Unlimited Potential! (UP) Program.  The upcoming MSD Annual Assembly in Valparaiso, FLorida, May 2-4 will have a session for leaders of congregations to discuss this program in more detail.  If you are a member of a congregation in Mississippi, I encourage you to consider attending this Annual Assembly and learn more about this program. 

Here is my take on what is being proposed. 

I was the co-founder of Interfaith AIDS Ministry in Danbury, CT.  A non-profit that provided prevention and support services to people and their families infected and affected by HIV/AIDS.  When the organization began, we focused on doing one thing well.  We did not set out to be a large organization providing multiple services but instead decided to do one thing that was needed by the community impacted by HIV/AIDS. This is not to say that we didn’t do other things but our focus was on one thing–ancillary supports to families.  This program over time grew and as the medical resources for people living with HIV/AIDS changed and the demographics of the pandemic changed, we changed and adapted our programs.   So from the time I stepped in as Executive Director ot the time I left to enter Meadville Lombard Theological School in Chicago, the agency naturally grew from one part time position to a compliment of 8 staff with three very strong programs; A full service HIV/AIDS nutritional program with nutritionist and complete food pantry,  Brazilian focused prevention case management, and youth focused AIDS prevention education.   We still did other things but these became our signature programs, the ones that we did exceptionally well in serving the needs.   

Congregations also cannot be expected to do all the things that a large congregation can… and in our association, a large congregation is over 500 members and currently tops out at about 1500 members.  Yet, many small congregations, especially those under 70 members, look at large congregations with, for lack of a better term, congregation envy.  And at the same time state that they enjoy the intimacy of being a small congregation.   This sets up an ongoing cycle and low and behold the small congregation remains where it is; not able to do all the things that it feels it must do and not able to do the things that it can and must do because it is focused on what it is unable to do. 

As I understand the concept, UP! will ask for three to four members from each congregation to form an UP Team, who will be asked to  attend hands on trainings over the course of 18 months with Connie Goodbread serving as consultant to each congregation.   The congregation will be asked to focus on doing one thing, and doing it well.  For one congregation it might be figuring out how to best utilize the Our Whole Lives Curriculum instructors to provide this vital program to the greater community.   How to set this program up.  How to market it to the right audiences that would be interested in having their children receive a comprehensive sexual education program.  This becomes the one thing this congregation does well and it allows the congregation to live out its values.  For another congregation it might be to focus on how to become radical in its hospitality.  Then Hospitality becomes the one thing this congregation learns how to do well. 

The intention of this program is not to focus on growth in members.  The intention of this program is really to do one thing and do it well.   When the community sees and experiences the congregation doing this one thing well, it will attract people who appreciate this one thing done well.  Then after doing this one thing exceptionally well, the congregation can focus on the next thing to do well so that in time it then has two things that the congregation does extremely well. 

There are probably already things that each congregation  under 70 members does well. The UP! program is geared to assist the congregation in doing one more thing really well.  I hope the congregations within the MSD will take full advantage of this gift that is being offered and attend assembly this year.  It is bound to be an exciting offering.  I will see you at District Assembly!  Blessings, Rev. Fred L Hammond     

A thoughtful reflection on UU Values and Republicans

I came across this blog today by a Unitarian Universalist Republican.  Many in our congregations ( primarily Democrats and Green Party members)  find the two  concepts incompatible with one another.  This blogger shows that liberal religion and conservative politics do not have to be nor should they be oxymorons.  It is a good read with good things to think about.   

http://uurepublican.blogspot.com/2008/04/are-uu-values-compatible-with.html

I have also added this blog to my blog roll so others can refer to this site later.

Blessings, Rev. Fred L Hammond

Mississippi Employment Protection Act: Faith or Fear

Appeasing opponents is a dangerous game in politics, it sometimes backfires.   When Mississippi Immigrants Rights Alliance (MIRA) met with state representatives regarding the negative impact 37 anti-immigrant bills would have, not only on immigrants, but all of Mississippi’s citizens; they were told that ” ‘at least one bill dealing with immigration’ to relieve the political pressure being put on the members by right wing forces in their districts” (from MIRA en ACCION! newsletter April 2008) had to be passed.    What was not known to MIRA that the most heinous, the most inhumane, the most un-Christian [and I use this term in the most biblical sense of the term] of these bills would be the one.

Senate Bill 2988, the misnomered Mississippi Employment Protection Act, was passed by unaninmous vote in the Senate and almost unaninmously in the House. This law would criminalize undocumented employees with a felony and employers would lose their license, permit, or certificate to do business in the state for up to one year,  lose government contracts and placed on a government contract ban for up to three years and shall be liable for any costs incurred by the agencies or institutions by such cancellation of contract or loss to permit to do business in the state. 

The right wing forces are quick to quote scriptures to justify their actions against a woman’s right to choose, against same gender marriage, and to justify the actions of our government against innocent people in other lands.   Here is the scripture that I am going to use to state this action by Mississippi Legislators is unjust, unlawful, and against the moral code of how we are to live with each other.  

Leviticus 19:33-36.  (King James Version)  And if a stranger sojourn with thee in your land, ye shall not vex him. But the stranger that dwelleth with you shall be unto you as one born among you, and thou shalt love him as thyself; for ye were strangers in the land of Egypt: I am the LORD your God. Ye shall do no unrighteousness in judgment, in meteyard, in weight, or in measure. Just balances, just weights, a just ephah, and a just hin, shall ye have: I am the LORD your God, which brought you out of the land of Egypt.

This law criminalizes people who have come here to find work that the US government  and US corporations denied them within their own lands with the passage of NAFTA.  Since the dawn of time people have traveled the globe looking for a better life.  This is a right that is the birthright of every human to be able to choose  where they want to live. 

We have taken from these people their livelihoods in their countries by exploiting their laws against them, stealing their lands and their resources out from under them for our American consumerist greed.   And then when they come here looking to better their lot, we tell them they are not welcomed here.   We respond not with the remorse of what we have done to their homeland by our greed, but with the arrogance of supremacy, of being rulers of the world, of being gods in our own sight. We seek them out instilling fear with our guns brandishing in the air in public and private arenas. (see Mira en Accion! February 2008) When we do hire them, we pay them below generally acceptable standards.   We ignore and violate Leviticus 19:33-36 by these actions. 

Remember from whence you once came.  Our nation is a nation of immigrants.  Some here by their free will, others sold into slavery and degradation by the wills of others. We have struggled against our racist past to proclaim that freedom is a value we bestow to all people who live here.  It does not show our freedom, our highest moral ground when we treat these new immigrants to this land with such distain and fear.  

What this law does reveal is that America (because similar laws are being passed across this land) and specifically Mississippi is fearful and insecure.  To have to resort to such heinous acts with this legislation is an act of fear not faith.   It reveals that the people of this state have little faith their needs will be met even though Jesus (whose name is proclaimed on every hillside and street corner in this state) taught that even the sparrows who neither tarry nor toil are well fed by their heavenly father who loves them.  It makes me question the people in this state who shout “Lord Lord” on Sunday and cheer the passage of this law on Monday what Jesus are they proclaiming Lord.  

Certainly not the Jesus who claimed to fulfill Isaiah 61:1″The Spirit of the Sovereign LORD is on me, because the LORD has anointed me to preach good news to the poor.  He has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim freedom for the captives and release from darkness for the prisoners. ”  Later in the chapter it reads:  “Aliens will shepherd your flocks; foreigners will work your fields and vineyards”  This too, is a result of the message that Jesus claimed to have fulfilled.   

If this is the Jesus they have faith in, then they would have sought another solution than this law because they would know that the two greatest commandments according to Jesus is to Love the Lord your God with all your heart, mind and soul.  The second is to Love your neighbor as you love yourself.   

This means to me, that I want my neighbors, documented and undocumented, to have the best life possible here in Mississippi because that is what I want for myself.   I don’t want to be criminalized for working in this state.  So why would I want someone else to be criminalized.  I don’t want to lose my certification to work in this state so why would I want another person to lose their certification, their livelihood, because they hired someone capable of doing the job.  

Governor Barbour has claimed to have created 50K jobs in the last four years with thousands more in the pipeline.   http://www.governorbarbour.com/speeches/2008SOS.htm.  He claims that there are more high-paying skilled jobs than ever.  So why the irrational fear of not enough jobs in this state when every indication is there is plenty and more on the way?  I know the reports that are saying we are moving into a recession, and penalizing employers with loss of permit to work and contracts in this state helps prevent deepening a recession how?  

Jesus did not come only to give a ticket to the here-after.  Anyone can offer eternal life because it is an unprovable claim on this side of death’s door.  Once death has occurred, how are you going to take umbrage if the claim is false?   Or as Universalist Christians believe; everyone has entry to the life eternal so the exclusive ticket offer is moot. 

But Jesus’ message had a more important here and now component.  His message states we are to have life and have it abundantly–on this side of the pearly gates.  His message proclaims the hearts of men and women no longer need to to live their lives with fear and despair, but could be transformed to live with generosity of spirit, with love and compassion, with a desire for justice to flow through the land.  These are his teachings.  Or do the right wing forces of Mississippi not believe the truth and power of their savior’s message? The right wing forces who pressured the state into passing this heinous act must not because this anti-immigration law convicts them of their unbelief. 

I am not a Christian and yet I believe this message. I see the rightness in doing unto others as I would have them do unto me.  It is a transformative message.  It is a message that would seek to humbly and compassionately find another solution to undocumented immigration.   I for one will pray this law is repealed when it is discovered it is unenforceable and unfundable.  May we live our lives with the integrity our faith convictions offer us… even if it means to live life along a narrower path…one that recognizes the abundance of grace for all of us immigrants in this land.   Blessings, Rev. Fred L Hammond

       

Tailgate spirituality

During our Adult Forum at one of the congregations I serve, a member mentioned that sometimes he goes outside and sits on the tailgate of his truck and ponders lifes’ mysteries.  Another member mentioned that he too does this as well.  The wisdom these two people offered to the group discussion from these tailgate ponderings were absolutely marvelous. 

There is a different perspective that one can develop when placing oneself in a setting that is a bit different from the usual.  The usual perspective one has of pick-up trucks is from the driver’s or passenger’s seat.  We face forward and steer the vehicle on the road, whether that road is paved, gravel, or dirt.  From the tailgate, one gets to look where one has been, gets to look up at the sky, the clouds, the stars in the universe.  When sitting on the tailgate, one is not too concerned with the direction one is going in, one simply enjoys where one is.  These are profound spiritual perspectives that are important as we are usually more concerned with the direction we are headed rather than just enjoying the moment.   We need these moments of respite to allow our spirits to breathe with the wind instead of fighting the headwind.   

As a child, I used to ride in my father’s pick-up truck over to the fields and woods that my grandparents owned.  To watch the dust get picked up and swirl behind the truck was a beautiful sight. I remember sitting there and watching the tall sunflowers that grew along the graveled road bob their heads up and down as the truck passed by.   I remember our beagle, Booze, would barely be able to contain himself in the truck as we approached the brook.  He would jump to one side of the truck and then the other and then at the opportune moment would jump out to run in the fields.  There was a sense of joy in the freedom, Booze displayed at riding in the back of the pick-up truck. 

More recently, I rode in the back of a truck south of Chiapas, Mexico when the group I traveled with was going to El Pacayel, a small ejido in the mountains near the Guatamalen border.  The bed of the truck had a wood structure with canvass attached to it that provided a covering over head.  So it was hard to see the terrain except through a few openings in the front and in the back of the truck.   Perspectives were limited by this arrangement.  Yet, it made the ride through this terrain mysterious and wonderfully exciting. 

At one point in our riding this truck, we stopped at a house where the farmers had steamed white corn and were selling it to passer bys. To the corn we applied mayonaise and hot sauce and it was the best corn on the cob I have ever had-both sweet and spicey.   It was a moment of learning more about these marvelous people.  It was a moment of laughing and joking with them.  It was a moment of grace and gratitude of having a small bite to eat and some drink with them.   It was a moment of sharing our common humanity with them.

I wonder if there are others whose spiritualities were informed by the experiences they have had while being in the back of a pick-up truck.  I wonder if others have pondered the questions of life while sitting on the tailgate of their truck.  I’d love to hear your stories…  There is bound to be some nuggets of wisdom that were found while tailgating with one’s heart. 

Blessings,

Rev. Fred L Hammond

Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King

Today marks the 40th anniversary of Rev. Dr. Martin  Luther King’s assassination in Memphis, TN.  Unitarian Universalists had a special relationship with King’s civil rights movement.  Over 200 Unitarian Universalist clergy answered his call to come to Selma to protest the voting registration policies.  During that call Unitarian Universalists lost Rev. James Reeb to a fatal beating.  These were dangerous times and Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King was able to engender hope and freedom for all of America. 

There are two things that happen when a man like Martin Luther King is killed.  Either he is placed high on a pedestal or his detractors inflate his failings.   Both are true regarding this man.  His work with civil rights has elevated him on a pedestal for many making him untouchable and his legacy as unrepeatable by any other person. His admirers have called him an American Saint (even though Baptists do not canonize people) and Prophet.  His detractors inflate his flaws–his womanizing and his alleged plagiarizing on his doctoral thesis.   The truth is that this man, this human being, was both saint and sinner.   He led a people to the mountain tops.  He made some mis-judgments along the way.  

The lesson is this…  We all have the potential to do wonderful and great things to help right society’s wrongs.  We all have the potential to make errors in judgment and behave poorly as a result.   One does not discount the other.  As humans we can accomplish great and wonderful things regardless of our human failings. We can do things that create suffering and still have moments of grace where good things happen through us.  Humanity is neither 100% good nor 100% evil.  We are a mixture of both. 

To place a person on a pedestal of 100% good is to deny our own potential of doing great things to improve society.  To place a person in the other direction is to deny our own potential to do things that create suffering.  We potentially will do  both and have probably done both in our own eyes and in the eyes of others. 

 Let’s honor Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King for the human he was.  A man who strove to help set a people free in the land of the free.  Who sought to make things right and reduce the suffering of so many individuals and families.  A  man who also  brought suffering to his own family because of his own human inclinations.  Because Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King was human, we too can strive to help set people free in this land of the free.    May we continue his legacy by seeking the path of non-violence in all of our deliberations and actions. 

Blessings,
Rev. Fred L Hammond

5 UU myths debunked

The following is an adapted excerpt from a sermon I gave entitled “Identity Crisis”.   I thought it would be helpful for those exploring Unitarian Universalism to have a minister’s perspective on these very common myths about us.   

1.  Myth:  Unitarian Universalism is a new religion. 

No.  While the Unitarian and Universalist denominations merged in 1961, Unitarian Universalism is a faith tradition with roots in the Protestant reformation of the late 1500’s and theological thoughts going back to the founding days of Christianity.   Unitarian and Universalism thought were profound shapers of the formation of the United States of America.  Five Presidents have been either Unitarian or Unitarian influenced; Thomas Jefferson, John Adams, John Quincy Adams, Millard Fillmore, and William Howard Taft.   Thomas Jefferson never officially joined a Unitarian church however,  there is enough documentation to suggest his religious beliefs were very much aligned with Unitarian thought.  John Quincy Adams was raised in his father’s Unitarian church but later joined a Congregational church as an adult.  For fundamentalist Christians to claim that the founding fathers were intending a Christian nation to be developed is a weak argument given the profound influence of Unitarian theology in colonial America which was non-creedally based.   

Judith Sargent Murray, wife of John Murray the founder of Universalism in America had a profound impact on the social development of this country.  Her writings on education,on women’s issues, and on social concerns were ahead of her  time and influenced the development of public education, the suffrage movement, and the development of modern social work. 

2. Myth:  Unitarian Universalists can believe whatever they want. 

Not true.  Yes, we are a creedless faith just as our spiritual ancestors the Puritans did not have a creedal test for membership.  But just as our Puritan ancestors did, we have covenanted together to uphold certain standards.  Today we call those standards our seven principles.   And while our individual theologies may differ from one another, these theologies are to support our striving to live out these seven principles.  If our beliefs counter these principles, then we are challenged to examine our beliefs and explore how to bring them into alignment with these principles. 

3. Myth: Unitarian Universalists do not have a faith.  

No, I have a very strong faith.  My faith is not handed to me from some text book written thousands of years ago by a people who could not even imagine my life and culture.  My faith is an intimate and personal relationship with my here and now.  My faith is concerned with how closely I live my values now, and not on whether some hereafter judgment will allow me to enter a heavenly paradise. My faith is focused here in this life; the hereafter will take care of itself.   Yes, I have a strong faith.     

4.  Myth:  Unitarian Universalists are wishy-washy in their values. 

No. I am very firm in my values.  My values are based on my ability to sift through the lessons of humanity, seeing what is moral and good.  Using my intellect, my faculties of reason and experience; I weigh out the measure of what constitutes liberty, justice, and equality.  My values guide me to act in certain ways to help correct societal ills.  Many of us have come to conclude that one need not think alike in order to embrace others into our family. We have learned that from great diversity comes greater ideas and wisdom that can guide us in living our humanity collectively.  Our values give us the basis from which we are free to explore other religious thoughts without being threatened that those thoughts might reveal a truth that contradicts our presumptions.  My faith is firm in its values. 

5.  Myth: Unitarian Universalism is a cult.  

No.  Just because someone may not understand another’s faith does not mean the other person is in a cult.  There are distinct characteristics of a cult.  Cults tend to be insular.  Cults tend to want to separate from society.  They tend to want to isolate members from those from outside the group, including their friends and family.  Cults insist that their way of being and doing is the only course of action that is correct.  Cults tend to discourage questioning and free thinking about their beliefs.   Cults tend to have a central key figure who is charismatic and whose totalitarian authority is supreme above all others. We Unitarian Universalists want to question.  We want to encourage our young people to have critical thinking skills.  We want our young people to find a spiritual path that exemplifies and strengthens their values and moral convictions.  We want to be engaged in society, to seek improvements for all people, of all classes, races, and sexual orientation.  Our faith has been engaged with American Society since the days of King George III.  We value the democratic method of governance within our congregations.  No, we are not a cult.  In fact, we have our seven principles that we covenant to uphold that would help prevent any of our congregations from becoming cult-like. 

If you would like more information on Unitarian Universalism please check out http://www.uua.org or watch this video on youtube  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wezp1W2HKlU 

Blessings,
Rev. Fred L Hammond