Sermons

READING “Begin” ~ Rumi ~ (adapted by Jose Orez from a version by Coleman Barks in The Soul of Rumi)

BEGIN

This is now.  Now is,
all there is.  Don't wait for Then;
strike the spark, light the fire.

Sit at the Beloved's table,
feast with gusto, drink your fill

then dance
the way branches
of jasmine and cypress
dance in a spring wind.

The green earth
is your cloth;
tailor your robe
with dignity and grace.

~ Rumi ~ (adapted by Jose Orez from a version by Coleman Barks in The Soul of Rumi)

READING ~ Martin Luther King, Jr. #584 A Network of Mutuality

We shall hew out of the mountain of despair, a stone of hope.

SERMON

When Kent Price and I first thought about having a Sunday morning service that focuses on values-based voting, faith & politics, and the statements of support for four of the six ballot questions from our Maine Unitarian Universalist State Advocacy Network, I could not have imagined the kind of week we have just had in the Presidential campaign. Nothing I might say this morning will be any greater call to us as voters to exercise our right to vote – at all levels of government – and to bring to bear the full complement of our religious and ethical commitments in choosing how to vote than the continuing revelations of moral and ethical failures of at least one of our major candidates. It is not my intent to talk directly about the presidential campaign and I shall in no way suggest which candidate ought to receive your vote. It is, however, my intent to share some thoughts about how our faith and values ought to inform the methods by which we make our choices and cast our votes. And, it is my intent to encourage each and every one of us to bring to bear all that our Unitarian Universalist faith has to offer with regard to the issues that confront us in this time, as Martin Luther King, Jr. might say, of both despair and hope.

Sometimes what we might have said in a lengthy discourse can be said in just a few sentences. Sometimes what might have been implied with a comment or a look must rather be said from every pulpit and lectern and in every kitchen and locker room and with every gathering of young people everywhere. That sometime is now. My lengthy discourse about using our Unitarian Universalist faith, principles, sources, and history to come to just and well-reasoned conclusions about how we might support or decline to support the six citizen initiatives on our Maine election ballot must today be rendered in a few sentences. Please, dear Spiritual Companions, read the position papers offered to us this day by the members of MUUSAN as you consider whether to support these four things.

Ballot Question #5: RANKED CHOICE VOTING
Unitarian Universalist Principles:

• Fifth Principle: The right of conscience and the use of the democratic process within our Congregations and society at large
• Second Principle: Justice, equity, and compassion in human relations

Ballot Question #4: RAISE THE MINIMUM WAGE
Increases the minimum wage to $12 per hour by 2020
Unitarian Universalist Principles:

• First Principle: The inherent worth and dignity of every person
• Second Principle: Justice, equity and compassion in human relations
• Seventh Principle: Respect for the interdependent web of all existence of which we are a part

Ballot Question #3: BACKGROUND CHECKS FOR FIREARMS
Closes legal loophole for 40% of Maine firearm sales or transfers not now requiring background checks
Unitarian Universalist Principles:

• First Principle: The inherent worth and dignity of every person
• Second Principle: Justice, equity and compassion in human relations

Ballot Question #2: STAND UP FOR STUDENTS
Establishes a provision to support public education by taxing a 3% surcharge on the portion of any household income exceeding $200,000 per year
Unitarian Universalist Principles:

• First Principle: The inherent worth and dignity of every person
• Fourth Principle: A free and responsible search for truth and meaning
• Seventh Principle: Respect for the interdependent web of all existence of which we are a part

In the Parish Hall, there are plenty of hand outs for you to read and take with you today that lay out the Unitarian Universalist faith-based reasoning on these four questions. Certainly, we can talk about all these questions – and the other two which are about the legalization of recreational marijuana and a bond question – during our shared potluck meal.     Thank you in advance for your attention to these initiatives and to the work that MUUSAN done to help us put these questions in a faith context.

Sometimes what might have been implied with a comment or a look must be said from every pulpit and lectern and in every kitchen and locker room and with every gathering of young people everywhere. That sometime is now. Today, we must not shy away from placing our faith at the center of the conversation about politics. Unitarian Universalism has a long history of promoting justice, equity, and compassion.   We also have a long history of showing up and standing up and speaking out in the face of injustice, cruelty, and violence. Let this be one more time when we are among those who take a stand for love and justice.

President John F. Kennedy is remembered as saying on more than one occasion – “The hottest places in Hell are reserved for those who in time of moral crisis preserve their neutrality.”[1] These words are based on words from Dante’s Inferno and similar words are also attributed to The Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Regardless of their origin, we might do well to take them to heart during this election season. Before I relinquish my soapbox, I need to respond to one moral crisis about which I am in no way neutral.

There is a word that supporters of Donald Trump are mocking in their defense of their man’s sexual talk and behavior. Do you know the word?

Yes – the word is consent. The notion that mutual and informed consent is required prior to engaging in sexual or sexualized behavior lies at the center of healthy and positive relationships. The lack of consent – or the lack of the perceived requirement of consent – results in rape, incest, sexual assault, sexual harassment and a lifetime of pain and suffering for those who are objectified and used for the sexual or power domination of others. Honorable and honest women and men have spent decades reinforcing the requirement of consent with themselves, their partners and most especially, I think, with our children. It is never – never – never ok to force sexual or sexualized behavior on another person. We have seen how devastating it is when bosses, priests or pastors, politicians, movie stars, athletes and others with elevated status use their power and position to take advantage of others for their own gratification.

When President Bill Clinton was finally able to acknowledge his actions with a White House intern - long after the fact, I admit, his comment about why it happened is something that all people with power and position might keep in mind at all times. Bill Clinton – for whom I make no excuses; he was wrong – period – when asked what made him think it was ok to treat an intern as a sexual object said, “I thought I could.” His sense of his own importance and the esteem that his position granted him and the heightened belief that he could do no wrong completely defeated any internal caution or sense of ethical or moral responsibility to himself, his wife, his intern or the country that might have kept him from committing acts that can never be excused; forgiven – perhaps, but never excused. There is nothing that excuses such behavior. There is no excuse for the President using his position of power and authority in this way. No excuse for a pastor or a priest to use their power and position in these ways. … No excuse for an athlete or movie star or parent or teacher or TV reality or sitcom star or politician or the person next door or the mostly drunk student at a college party. No excuse.

Without consent, we encourage perpetrators and sacrifice victims. Without consent as a basic requirement – ALL THE TIME - EVERY TIME, we are all complicit in perpetuating what we have come, sadly, to know as our “rape culture” here in the United States of America.

It is a moral crisis when people, whether the candidate or his sons or his media-based supporters or his political base would mock the essential moral and legal principle of consent when seeking to dismiss claims of abuse and harassment with regard to non-consensual sexual or sexualized behavior.

Now, please understand, I make no pronouncement about the actual facts of what Mr. Trump, or anyone else, actually did or did not do. I was not there. I am not involved in the criminal justice system that tries to get to the truth of allegations and denials. For that, I am grateful. There is grace in this world of ours. BUT – when the defense used to defuse and dismiss allegations of forced sexual behavior is to mock and denigrate the concept and requirement of consent, I cannot remain silent, I am not preserving my right of neutrality and I shall not be found in the hottest places in hell as a result of my silence on this issue.

Am I over-the-top angry about this mocking of consent? You bet I am. There are those who may not know that October is Domestic Violence Awareness month. There are millions of people – men, women and children – who experience sexual and psychological violence from those they know, some from those they love. Where there is no consent, there is a crime. Sexual harassment in the workplace is illegal – for very good reason. Sexual violence and forced sexual behavior in all circumstances is illegal – for very good reason. We who believe in the value and worth of every person must support the vulnerable and confront the perpetrator. We need not advocate for or seek the de-personalization of offenders, but we must hold them accountable for their behavior, regardless of their positions of wealth, influence, or power. Too many people have suffered for too long. Some of those people are in this room this morning or have family members (as I do) who have suffered too much for too long. Too many people have worked too long and too hard for reform and for a changed culture that will not tolerate or permit sexual harassment or unwanted sexual behavior. We have come too far, though not yet far enough. We have cried too many tears. We have rocked those who are suffering in our arms too many times. No. Enough is enough. It stops now. It stops here. It stops with us. We uphold the tenants of our faith when we say, “Enough. It stops now.” We forget our faith when we lose our courage to speak and act for love and justice.

We are people of a deep and abiding faith – a faith that revers freedom, reason, and tolerance. We are the people who don yellow Standing on the Side of Love shirts and march for justice and equal rights and an end to racism, sexism, and all manner of isms that permit or promote violence in thought, word or deed. We are the people who proclaim with clear voices and open hearts that LOVE is our doctrine and SERVICE is our prayer.

Let this be our payer –
Oh Great Spirit of Love and Truth,
Whatever else the next 20 something days before the election bring us,
may we be guided by our faith and not our fear.
Whenever we hear someone saying that her or his or their misdeeds pale in comparison to those of someone else, may we reject that argument, for ours is not a race of moral equivalency to the bottom of that ladder.
When the political discourse becomes too angry or disrespectful of others whose opinions and positions differ, may we hold dear the religious and ethical principles that guide us in our search for truth and meaning and to live a life worthy of our efforts.
Above all, may we know that there is a Universal Love that embraces each and everyone one of us that will not let us go.
Namaste.

Blesses Be. I Love You. Amen.

[1] One of President Kennedy's favorite quotations was based upon an interpretation of Dante's Inferno. As Robert Kennedy explained in 1964, "President Kennedy's favorite quote was really from Dante, 'The hottest places in Hell are reserved for those who in time of moral crisis preserve their neutrality.'" This supposed quotation is not actually in Dante's work, but is based upon a similar one. In the Inferno, Dante and his guide Virgil, on their way to Hell, pass by a group of dead souls outside the entrance to Hell. These individuals, when alive, remained neutral at a time of great moral decision. Virgil explains to Dante that these souls cannot enter either Heaven or Hell because they did not choose one side or another. They are therefore worse than the greatest sinners in Hell because they are repugnant to both God and Satan alike, and have been left to mourn their fate as insignificant beings neither hailed nor cursed in life or death, endlessly travailing below Heaven but outside of Hell. www.jfklibrary.org/Research/Research-Aids/Ready-Reference/JFK-Fast-Facts/Dante.aspx