In 1979, twelve Texas state senators fled from a vote they considered to be unfair and undemocratic. They became known as the “Killer Bees” for their tactic of killing a bill by breaking quorum. I’m so grateful that the Dems are breaking quorum to prevent the Gerrymandered redistricting map proposed by the Republicans. Republicans are correct in saying that Texas Democrats drew unfair maps when they were in power. Dirty politics is nothing new in Texas. Republicans are correct in pointing out the hypocrisy of Democratic indignation, but historical crimes are no justification for crimes today. There is something particularly evil about watering down the votes of Black voters and the vote of other People of Color so Texas Republicans can deliver extra congressional seats to Donald Trump. As I said in church Sunday, I consider myself to be nonpartisan. My two issues are universal human rights and environmental sustainability. To claim that these are partisan issues is pure demagoguery. I am just as concerned about human rights for conservatives as for progressives, but no one is attacking the voting rights of white Texans the way Republicans are trying to Gerrymander away the vote of People of Color. No one is attacking heterosexual Texans’ right to marry the way the Republican Party is constantly attacking the LGBTQIA community. No other faith is forcing their religion upon Texas school children in the same way Republicans are forcing the 10 commandments into public classrooms. And no one is trying to control the sex lives of Texas men the way Republicans are trying to police the reproductive lives of women. To be nonpartisan does not mean to remain silent when partisans attack the rights of others. Being nonpartisan means living by principles that extend fairness to everyone across the economic, social and political divides.
There is a quote attributed to Saint Hildegard of Bingen, but which is actually taken from an article about Hildegard written by Elaine Bellezza: “We cannot live in a world that is not our own, in a world that is interpreted for us by others. An interpreted world is not a home. Part of the terror is to take back our own listening, to use our own voice, to see our own light.” Regardless of whoever said the quote, I love it because it calls us INTO a life of reverent honesty and AWAY from a life where we surrender our hearts and minds to clergy or to religious dogma. Scientific mysticism is a passionate sense that life is holy, but it does not fall into escapism or superstition. It calls us to a honest reverence that can be seen with our own eyes and felt with our own skin. Saint Hildegard was a nun, but she also studied medicine and is often credited with bringing natural history to Germany. Her rapturous hymns to the sacred did not require escape from this world to another supernatural one. The heavenly music she heard came from the infinitely deeper pulses of THIS world. The tapestry she painted traced the web of life. Scientific mysticism is not an appeal to fear, but an appeal to confront our fears so that we might be fully alive. As the quote implies scientific mysticism is the the courage and honesty to “take back our own listening, to use our own voice, to see our own light.” Hildegard’s religious reverence was embodied in her study of botany. Her prayers for healing did not lead her to the world of snake oil miracle cures. She incarnated compassion by studying medicine and seeking justice. There are religions that seek to bind us and religions that seek to set us free. There are religions that seek to indoctrinate us and religions that seek to awaken us from our trances. Saint Hildegard is a lasting reminder that there can be a religious reverence which explores our own subjective inner world while also helping us live out our highest truths and values in the objective world we share with every other sentient being.
To truly fight fascism, it is not enough to fight the fascism of Donald Trump. Donald Trump is not in prison because his values are often shared by the rich and powerful of this nation. They just haven’t expressed the vulgarity of unequal wealth and power so openly. To truly oppose fascism we, ourselves, must come to understand that discrepancy of power and possession is the very heart of violence. Until we clearly discern that poverty itself is violent we will live in the trance of fascism. To truly oppose fascism we must end our own practice of evaluating the worth of persons through the lens of property rights. And, finally, to truly oppose fascism we must ourselves stop believing that national boundaries are any kind of excuse for neglecting our duty to seek a common justice for all humankind. To truly oppose fascism we must break our own trances and realize might does not make right and that personal wealth is a very sorry measure of success.
The charge of “socialism” has silenced voices of compassion for too long in this nation. Is it socialism or simple decency to hold that those who work hard all week should be able to obtain the necessities for a life of dignity even if they were born into poverty? Is it socialism or simple decency to hold that the fate of the earth should not be left in the hands of those who profit from its destruction? Is it socialism or simple decency to hold that those make the decisions of war and peace should not profit from the weapons industry? Is it socialism or simple decency to believe that prisons and detention camps should not profit financially from the plight of the incarcerated? Is it socialism or simple decency to hold that healthcare for the poor should not rely on the whims of the wealthy? As much as we hear condemnations of socialism in this land, one would have to search to find any who have actually read even one page of of Karl Marx, not to mention more modern and democratic forms of socialism. We need not repeat the mistakes of fledgling socialist attempts to build a government that serves our one human family instead of hierarchies of hoarded wealth and power. Perhaps, it is time to ask ourselves a question. If our exploiters all agree that socialism is evil, might it not hold one of the keys to our liberation
I finally return to the pulpit this Sunday. It has been strange to sit on the sideline through such an important time in history. My first act upon returning from my surgery is to respond to a negative review our church got online. Someone wrote: “Of all places, Churches should not be taking a political stand. There is a reason for separation of church and state. Its sad to see that a church seems to have a focus on politics. My spirt hurts every time I drive by this building.” I certainly agree that churches shouldn’t be partisan, but politics is just how we treat each other in the real world. Universal human rights are not partisan, but they are political. The church has a prophetic obligation to confront injustices committed by the state. Silence in the face of injustice is just as political as speaking. For the church to be silent in the face of injustice is not only “getting political,” it is getting in bed with the state.
I always find it interesting that early Christians were accused of being Atheists. To some observers, the threat of the early church was not that they had a wrong creed, but that they seemed to have no real creed at all. The “creeds” the early church recited were more like hymns than philosophies. Their faith could not be reduced to fundamental tenets, but only to a life of love. Bad religion around the world affects us all, but Christians in the U.S. bear a particular responsibility to renounce the false Christ of capitalism and empire and to come home to the naked love of humankind that Jesus and all great spiritual teachers have called us.
Traditional Christianity often teaches three unhelpful doctrines that make it harder for believers to respond to the ecological crisis. The first unhelpful doctrine is the idea of a special creation where a supernatural being created a profane world. If nature is not seen as itself holy we may neglect this planet while striving for some other, supposedly better, world. We must, instead, teach that this world is a precious gift from a mysterious source, and we are its caretakers. The second unhelpful doctrine is that the earth, the plants, and all the animals were created for human beings to use. If we only look at animals as our food, trees as our lumber and the earth as our property, it will be difficult to honor nature as having value in and of itself. The third unhelpful doctrine is that human beings are supposed to control nature. If we custom design the world for ourselves and treat other species as our possessions we risk losing the rich biological diversity that makes this such a beautiful world in the first place. It is an eternal duty to make sure our worldview remains sane as our understanding of the world increases. Human beings have created countless temples to God. Sometimes we even fight over our definitions of that God. But, whatever our source- whether supernatural person or natural process- He, She or It has made only one temple- and that is the temple of nature. It is the very essence of idolatry to choose religion over nature.
I’m receiving karma for my smart aleck sense of humor. I’ve been an animal rights person my whole adult life. In addition to being vegetarian, I wear fake leather belts and shoes. But, when I had my heart surgery, they had to rebuild my aortic stem using tissue from a cow. I lost all my Gandhi points. And now someone in the church has hidden little cows for me to find all over the building. As someone who has done more than my fair share of practical jokes, I have to admit this is nicely played. What goes around, comes around.
Christians who join in the persecution of religious or gender minorities may quote Paul, but they have not understood that Paul’s ultimate punchline is almost always that we are all in need of grace. Paul said a lot of unhelpful things, but his summary statement was almost always that the law is only fulfilled by love. Paul expected us to outgrow his limited understanding. Even if we find verses in Paul’s writings that directly contradict Jesus’ ever expanding message of love, Paul himself taught we are to follow love, not religion, and not Paul. And, let’s be clear, when someone says they take the bible literally it means they take it superficially. To persecute people because they do not fit your religious stereotypes based on a superficial understandings of ancient texts is not piety- it is spiritual ignorance and political fascism. Spiritual piety is not appointing ourselves as God’s bouncers. Spiritual piety is living our own lives as sacrificial offerings for others whether we think they are worthy or not. Judgement finds no place in the Sermon on the Mount and it should have no place in the church today. It is strange indeed for Christians to claim that providing food and housing is government overreach, but that imposing our own sectarian moralism on everyone else is not. To the LGBTQ siblings in our human family, I offer my deepest apologies for those members of the Christian faith who have offered you judgment instead of grace, rejection instead of hospitality, and ancient moralisms instead of love in our own place and time. Please know If a Christian cannot look beyond your genitals and see your loving heart, it is they who are trapped in perversion, not you.
We white people cannot think our way out of racial privilege because that would mean using our own experience to try to understand those whose experiences may have nothing to do with us. Instead, we must listen to the voices from outside the racial bubble into which we may have been born. And, we must grieve, not only the false narratives that hold up violent white men as the shapers of history, we must also grieve the false sense of superiority that imagines itself standing at the center of humanity’s story. Racial justice does not mean shoe horning the story of other peoples into a Eurocentric narrative. Racial justice means reshuffling the deck of power and wealth. It means listening to experiences that may have nothing to do with us. We must leave behind our illusory castles of assumed centrality and find our proper place as equal members in the one human family. We will lose some of our unfair wealth and we will lose some of our power to dominate others, but we will discover our larger human family and gain our own human hearts.
