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Love of country
The Rev. Monica Dobbins wants a new word to describe people who love their country.
I would like to be a Matriot. I don't want to serve the Patri-archy by being a Patriot. I want to love my country, my real country, the Mother to which I was born, remembering (in my body) that all the lands of the Earth that have given birth to people are sacred and holy. I want to remember (in my heart) that anyone who knocks on my door is my neighbor. I want to remember today what real freedom is, and put myself to helping us all get free. Let us be Matriots today. (Facebook, July 4)
The Rev. Beth Johnson doesn’t celebrate Independence Day. She acknowledges it.
I acknowledge that the declaration of independence “holds these truths to be self evident that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness” and that it did not apply to the indigenous people who were being genocided, or the African people they were enslaving, or to men without property, or women. . . .
Today I declare my commitment to a moral revolution of values and to whatever actions it takes to make real the true liberation of all people. (Facebook, July 4)
After an art exhibit depicting refugees is vandalized, Liz James writes that, even in Canada, “A good country is made by showing up, repainting, and trying again. (Liz James Writes, July 5)
Don’t give up the fight
Acknowledging his own privilege, Doug Muder writes that many similarly fortunate people too easily give up the fight.
Our lives have not trained us for the situation we are in now. We usually don’t need moral stamina. . . . We’re weekend athletes. The first mile of the marathon was really energizing, but shouldn’t it be over by now? My side hurts. Can’t I quit?
. . . .[But there’s] a moral death in that direction. Once you start not looking, not seeing, not worrying about things that don’t affect you, the part of the world you have to ignore keeps growing. Eventually, you have to start ignoring more or less everything. (The Weekly Sift, July 2)
The Rev. Amy Shaw reminds us that civility is another form of giving up.
If you are privileged, if you could shut your mouth and close your eyes and sip some tea through this current presidency and not be at almost any risk at all, then I am asking you to do something you don't do often.
I am asking you to be quiet.
I am asking you to stop arguing respectability politics with people of color, with LGBTQ+ people, with disabled people, with people who are at direct risk from the current climate of hatred and evil.
Some of us are fighting for our lives. (Facebook, June 30)
The Rev. Tom Schade attended a protest that almost didn’t happen.
[Just] around the corner, DSW was advertising a 70% off sale.
Maybe in another time and place, many of us would have gone home with new shoes.
But protest is not a picnic, or an outdoor concert, or a block party. It is people, acting on their own, to press their anger, outrage, and demand for justice on the government. It is supposed to be a bit wild, and out of control, and ours, even if it as peaceful as a church picnic. (The Lively Tradition, July 1)
Such a task before us
The Rev. Karen Hering urges us to feed the future by caring for ourselves and others.
Whatever your age, young or old or anywhere in between, take care of yourself in these troubled times and take care of others. Take care of the inner child within you and the young ones around you. Take care of the hopes not yet nested. Take care of your mate and your elders and your friends. And, whenever you can, let others take care of you, too. (Karen Hering, June 30)
The Rev. Dr. Cynthia Landrum, noting the death this past week of Unitarian Universalist Wendi Winters, writes that “Shootings get closer and closer to the people I love here on Facebook all the time.”
If I have any hope in all of this, it’s that as we grow more connected, our resolve to repair the world, to build beloved community, to bend the arc toward justice, is strengthened. . . .
This . . . . place we build between us, the connections in this place when we’re at our best, it helps our wounds to heal, our fragments to unite, our spines to stiffen, and our muscles to grow strong for the task. And oh, dear ones, there is such a task before us. (Facebook, June 29)