Minister’s Reflections: Rev. Rod Debs,  April, 2011    “Gratitude, Loneliness, Wholeness”

“Life is a gift for which we are grateful.

We gather in community to celebrate the glories

and the mysteries of this great gift.”

–Margorie Montgomery

What if religion is deeper than beliefs? What binds us together? What makes us whole?

In recent months, a couple walked into the fellowship asking to be married. After marriage conversations they took the wedding manual I have compiled and went home to write their own ceremony. I helped them polish it up over the months before their wedding. I printed it and taped it into my red binder. With pencil in hand, I practiced what they had written. I discovered that I did not believe what they wrote about being born alone and living most of our lives solitary until a lucky few of us find someone special who will share our passions, our sorrows and our joys with us. Nope.

I do not believe we are born or live alone. But it was their wedding. Like them, many people experience life with a deep sense of isolation and loneliness. Escape from loneliness is truthfully what marriage meant to the couple. So I celebrated their marriage. I delivered their marriage sentiments.

Many think they are alone. I am in awe of the air and light, the hands and eyes that greeted me at birth. Before birth, I was bathed in warm fluids, massaged by my mother’s movements and voice, and nourished by her body. My world gives me clouds and moon and sunshine, rain and soil and green growing plants, cars and houses and clothes, hands and voices and eyes, ideas and words and feelings, dogs and rabbits and birds, and countless new discoveries minute by minute. I have been unattentive, lonely and anxious many times in my life. I have never been alone.

My Unitarian Universalist religion is neither a matter of believing in a supernatural nor in salvation sacrifice nor in heavenly destination. What grasps me in saving grace, are those moments of awe and humility and gratitude for the gifts of life. Despite the realities of hunger and pain and fear, I receive gifts of nature and community, gifts of surprise and generosity, gifts of breath and awareness. I am not alone, nor am I a believer. I am the awed, humble, grateful recipient of gracious gifts.

We are bound together in our different points of global community, sharing a common life together. Thank you for your commitment to fellowship and to greater interconnected wholeness! From winter to spring, may we awaken to the immediacy of life’s gracious gifts.

Blessings!

Minister’s Reflections: Rev. Rod Debs,  March, 2011    “Pilgrimage to Turda”

For the first time in history, in 1568, these words of toleration became “law of the land”:  “No one shall be reviled for his religion by anyone,… and it is not permitted that anyone should threaten anyone else by imprisonment or by removal from his post for his teaching, for faith is the gift of God….”  “no one shall compel them for their souls would not be satisfied” (Edict of Torda).

For our Minister’s Sabbatical this May, Jeannette, Juanita and I will be joining other Unitarian Universalists on a two-week pilgrimage to Romania, including Turda where the historic Act of Religious Toleration and Freedom of Conscience was issued by Transylvania’s King John Sigismund and the Diet of Torda.

The Religious Freedom which our nation’s founders built into the U.S. Constitution protecting each individual’s “right of conscience” was born in 17^th century conflict and debate among Catholic, Lutheran, Calvinist, and newborn Unitarian Churches of Transylvania.  You and I today enjoy a great degree of freedom from being “reviled” and from threat of imprisonment and from losing our jobs because of this historic precedent.

Even so, we know friends who have lost their jobs because of faith or absence of faith.  We know what it is to be “reviled” and “compelled” by coercive religious or secular acquaintances, relatives or co-workers.  Ridicule, intimidation, discrimination, and violence are still a part of our society, for all of our Constitutional protections of the “right of conscience.”

It’s easy to be drawn into returning intolerance when that’s what we feel around us.  So to remind ourselves, we celebrate the words of King Sigismund’s minister, Francis David who declared:  “We need not think alike to love alike.” Such Religious Freedom is a delicate flower.  When Transylvania’s monarchy changed from being Unitarian under King Sigismund, Francis David was to die in a dungeon for his religious “innovations.”

Celebration Sunday: We have so much to celebrate at this Fellowship!  In March, every friend and member is invited to commit what you are able, in support of all that we do and all that we stand for in the world.  Jeannette and I will be giving generously because we are excited about what this Fellowship does and the message we embody on the Emerald Coast.

On Sabbatical in May, we will represent this Unitarian Universalist Fellowship to Unitarians in the villages of Romania.  Our Sabbatical pilgrimage to Turda, birthplace of religious toleration, is an occasion to celebrate our Unitarian Universalist Fellowship on the Emerald Coast, rich with diverse religious and secular sentiments.  A time to celebrate our nation’s Constitutional protections of the “right of conscience” and of religious freedom.

453 years since the Edict of Religious Toleration, may we not just “tolerate” diversity.  May we “celebrate” our congregation’s, and our nation’s enriching diversity!   The Unitarian Universalist Principles read: “Grateful for the religious pluralism which enriches and ennobles our faith, we are inspired to deepen our understanding and expand our vision” (UUA Bylaws).

Today, it is ours to graciously and courageously promote the realities of religious integrity:  “no one shall compel them for their souls would not be satisfied.”

When sex is mentioned in adult company, some people clam up like they are walking on thin ice!  For me it brings up guilt and shame. Others seem to have anger and defensiveness. Wouldn’t it be great to re-file sex under “pleasure” in our mental filing cabinet‽

Check out what has been said about our Unitarian Universalist sexuality curriculum on Oprah.com: “Adventures in Adult Sex Education” by Amanda Robb, http://www.Oprah.com/Relationships/Adult-Sex-Education

Several years ago our trained sexuality educators, Patty and David, facilitated a group of UUFEC adults to explore issues of sexuality and wholeness using the sexuality curriculum OWL, Our Whole Lives.  Sensuality, physical relationships and sexuality are part of being human throughout our whole lives. The discussions and exercises were safe, liberating and just plain fun.

Now for the first time, UUFEC is offering three OWL curricula: K-1st grade, 7-9th grades and high school.  The first sessions are geared for kindergarten to first grade children and involves their parents.

The curriculum for grades 7 through 9 has six young people signed up.  Their parents previewed the entire curriculum prior to their enrollment.  The teen high school OWL curriculum was also previewed by parents before they began the class.

Trained OWL facilitators are Micah Krider, Miriam Lavandier, Gil Brown, and Jane Park. They are leading the initial three OWL classes, with the assistance of Don Harrison and Sandy Urbanczyk. The final curriculum for grades 4 through 6 is expected to be offered later this spring. Perhaps we will be able to offer Adult OWL again soon.

OWL sexuality education for our lives’ wholeness is one of the best things the Unitarian Universalist Association has to offer us as member congregations. OWL was created by a team of sexuality professionals, sexuality educators, psychologists and PhDs, commissioned in 1999 by the UUA and by the United Church of Christ for use in churches and schools.

I could not be more pleased that our children of all ages, and we adults as well, are exploring healthy sexuality, free of shame and fear, at the core of human wholeness.  Thank you to parent volunteer Micah Krider who spent so much time in training, preparation and now teaching! Yours is a special trust and joy, sacred work.

Thank you to parents who are providing for your children’s sexual health and wholeness by previewing the OWL curriculum and making it possible for them to participate!

Blessings!

Rod Debs, pastor

“Time is a dressmaker specializing in alterations.”

-Faith Baldwin

I worked for six years in one of IBM’s “job shops” that contracted fabrication of printed circuit boards, connector cables and cable harnesses. Much of that time I worked as a Quality Auditor reading blueprints and sample-inspecting components at various stages of production.  I remember one of the old-timers, a woman who built complicated cable harnesses and who had seen managers come and go—she said to me:  “If it’s good, it will change. If it’s bad, it will change” (John A. Simone, Sr., adapted).  Her wisdom kept me going —if only to see what would happen next!

The news, whether from reality-based journalists or from opinion reporting media, creates a lot of fear among both the well-informed and the misinformed.  Reality is, the earth and people are hurting economically, militarily, nutritionally, etc., while others of us are floating along with relatively stable resources.   Yet, we fear for the future of our kids, our friends, ourselves and for strangers.   A lot of indicators don’t look good. Yet…

“Change always comes bearing gifts” (Price Pritchett).  It’s just impossible to imagine the gifts, the surprises of 2011. Our bulldog minds imagine many threats and grab hold of those fears.  That’s an evolutionary survival mechanism of our brains, to focus on threats and to ignore good possibilities. Mark Twain laughed at this in himself:  “I am an old man and have known a great many troubles, but most of them never happened.”

Andre Gide wrote:  “Oh, would that my mind could let fall its dead ideas, as the tree does its withered leaves!”

I don’t know your calming (spiritual) practices, whether sitting meditation or gardening, staring out the window periodically, or prayer.  Whatever they are, life’s quiet wisdom and openness rejuvenate in those moments we attend to the great “cloud of unknowing.” As a tree drops its withered leaves, our fears calm and our spirits heal. There is much to do, directing our powers to healing a hurting world—including our own spirits!  What can we do?  So much of the time I carry nagging concerns without a clue of anything constructive to offer.  Mark Twain modeled creative engagement of the issues of his day.  He luxuriated in surprises, in change:  “Loyalty to petrified opinion never yet broke a chain or freed a human soul,” he said.

As I am still and “know that I’m not God,” I am open to occasional insights of little actions I can do, and greater accomplishments, joining with others both within and outside our UU Fellowship.  I am excited by the surprising activities unfolding at the Fellowship, and just as excited about new ideas for collaborating in Interfaith activities on social issues!  Watch our youth lead the way!

We sing our collective Affirmation each Sunday:  “Roots hold me close; wings set me free….” Pauline Kezer writes:  “Continuity gives us roots; change gives us branches, letting us stretch and grow and reach new heights.” May we be calm and attentive, ready to embrace the surprises of 2011!

Blessings!
Rev. Rod Debs, pastor

Minister’s Reflections, December, 2010                                   Rev. Rod Debs, pastor

“The Reason for the Season”

Could there be more than one?  Consider these many Reasons for the Season, Blessing the world:

Gifts! Have you seen the iPad?  My colleague in Huntsville showed me what it can do.  Fun!  Electronic engineering is amazing!  Inventors build upon past technological explorations, exercising our collective human powers to create stuff in collaboration with the natural world.  Our Unitarian forebear William Ellery Channing did not preach human depravity, but, humanity’s “divine powers of soul,” “created in the image and likeness to God,” our ability to love, and also, to make and to do.  This season after Thanksgiving, many of us window-shop, and we sometimes get to unwrap amazing, new gadgets, gifts that celebrate our divine human power of productivity!

Family and Friends! Whether you travel “over the river and through the woods to grandmother’s house…” or give a big smile and a “Happy Holiday” greeting to the check-out clerk and enjoy the season at home with your cat, this is the time to celebrate love for our constant companions on life’s journey.  It is also the time to embrace the “widow, orphan and stranger” into the circle of kinship.  We sometimes “entertain angels unaware.”

Generosity! Though we sometimes purchase stuff to give loved ones, it is our feeling of gratitude for family and friends and neighbors that is most appreciated, however we express it.  When we take an attentive moment, or travel far to be with loved ones, they receive that most precious gift:  affirmation that their life is important to someone.  We all long to be recognized for who we are, and, valued.  Gift-giving is a celebration of our precious connections and gratitude for one another.

Feasting! Whether it is a cookie in a napkin wrapped in a bow, or a huge family feast, complete with chaos of distant relatives and their significant others, sharing holiday food with family, friends, neighbors and with strangers, is the time-tested practice of hospitality.  Our bodies, our earth and our loved ones share a grounding wholeness when we eat together.  We don’t have bodies, you know.  We are bodies.  We are also the food we eat, and the earth from which it grows.  We celebrate our earthy connections, feasting on the earth’s bounty, brought by many hands to our table.

Story, Music and Dance! Celebrating traditions together brings the joy of deep oneness.  It’s magical,  like a school of fish weaving and moving as one.  In our home “The Night Before Christmas” is recited and Bing Crosby sings “White Christmas.”  I love the story of “Good King Wenceslas.”  What are your joyous traditions?  What moves you in harmony with loved ones?

Greenery and Light! Twinkling lights cover evergreen and palm, celebrating the return of light even on the longest night, Winter Solstice.  It takes a little effort to hang greenery, ice-sickle lights or other decorations that brighten the season.  But it can be as simple as a table-top display of your Winter Holiday spirit.  Without the greenery and lights, our winter homes with dormant plants and darkened houses could look rather stark and cheerless.  I think the country-folk (pagans) of the Old Religion knew a lot about how to inspire hope in the dark of winter by lighting fires and enjoying evergreens!

The Child in a Manger! Though we also feel occupied by violent and rapacious forces, thousands hanging on crosses of suffering all along our roadways, the birth of a child to even the poorest among us is a miracle and reason for going on.  According to the life and teachings of Jesus, a new birth might bring forth from us fresh energy to face today’s challenges as compassionate care-givers in the world, as inspired teachers of the next generation, and as humble witnesses of a just and gracious future beyond our imagination.

Grumpy judgmentalism is the trap where we find those who claim theirs to be the only reason for the season!  May we have open-hearts to celebrate many “reasons for the season,” cheerfully embracing others’ joys:  “Yes, and that too!”

Holiday Blessings!                         Rev. Rod Debs, pastor

May all who enter here trust one another so surely
that they may share the deep fires that burst into anger
as much as the sweet spring waters
that swell into laughter;
the slow erosion of wounded tears
as much as the soaring song.

-Eileen Karpeles

Years ago, someone gave me parenting advice. She said, “There are some things you can’t teach another person. Only life can teach them.” How do you influence another person?

- Dialogue, sharing the “air space” by listening to every voice as well as sharing our own wisdom and experience is one way we influence and are influenced. Going around the “Listening Circle” displays that we are truly “grateful for the religious pluralism which enriches and ennobles our faith” (Principles, UUA ByLaws).

- The Hebrew prophets, lips touched by fire or running naked through the streets, were voices crying in the wilderness: “Woe to those who are at ease in Zion” (Amos 6:1). In the 60s and 70s, we protested in the streets, as today in France. Our bumper stickers read: “If You’re Not Outraged, You’re Not Paying Attention!” But today, I avoid street preachers and angry demonstrators. Friendly ones? Perhaps.

- Many reason, argue and debate. Some reason from critical analysis and the fluid authority of academic consensus. Others reason from literal Scriptural interpretation with clergy claims of exclusive access to truth in a sea of deception. To the righteous, anyone who disagrees has their eyes blinded and is beyond reason.

- Some have given up on influencing adults and open private schools: Christian Academies, Yeshivas, Madrassas. Others struggle to shape public school curricula or to starve public schools out of existence. For lasting influence, get them young, impressionable.

- Some have turned to the politics of legal coercion. Dialogue is over. It’s power politics. Ownership of media outlets. Big money for sleazy ads. Since civil exchange on thorny issues doesn’t impassion voters, political rhetoric uses the psychology of fear and anger: enraging disinformation for “righteous” ends.

- Some organize outright violence against “evil- doers” at home and abroad. Human brains are vulnerable: perceived threats hijack human attention, bypass critical reason and dialogue, and trigger action. In a perceived battle of good against evil, all manner of violence feels justifiable by otherwise kind people.

- Some do not speak— or speak simply, bearing witness to the truth as they know it. Then, through their actions and behavior, year after year, their lives speak.

Unitarian Universalist congregations across our nation are sanctuaries in which we promise—we “covenant to affirm and promote” “the right of conscience” and “the inherent worth and dignity of every person.” “Grateful for the religious pluralism which enriches and ennobles our faith,” we “promise to one another our mutual trust and support” (Principles, UUA ByLaws). We seek to be a safe place for every person’s integrity where no one needs to leave at the door their religious sentiments nor any other part of their humanity.

When confronted with uncomfortable diversity, when we simply do not approve, how we choose to influence one another matters a whole lot! May we ask ourselves: How would we like others to influence us? By dialogue of mutual listening? By reality-based critical reason? Bearing witness? By lives that speak?

Blessings,
Rod Debs

Minister’s Reflections                                                              Rev. Rod Debs, September, 2010

Pray for common ground with your political opponents, then walk on that fertile soil. Too many important political issues in America today are polarized, and the inevitable result is paralysis. “The opposite of love is not hate, but fear.” We fear sliding down a slope from the height of our own self-right-ness. We fear our adversary. We fear losing control. And we cease to love. – David Batstone

I don’t go to a Chaplain for counsel very often. I have in my toolbox various means of coping with anxieties: breathing meditation, understanding where an antagonist is coming from, looking for some redeeming quality in offensive views, celebrating diversity (it takes all kinds!), humility (I’m not in charge of the world), and submission (I am not required to win over others, only to faithfully bear witness).

But at this particular conference, I made an appointment with the Chaplain. My colleague asked me what was happening. I started to unload. I had been taking notes. Some call it journaling. We talked. Then the Chaplain observed something about my energy being in my head (?) chakra. I don’t know anything about such things. She suggested that I might seek to move the energy down to where I can ground myself on the earth. Because I am not the confrontational type, perhaps it is my growth opportunity to find my grounding and when I need to speak, to stand firmly on the earth and to speak. I don’t have to have worked it all out, she advised. Just speak what I know in my gut to be true. I need not direct my speech to the powerful because they are probably not listening anyway. My message is to other folks —the people, the ones who need me to speak.

I did stand to speak several times as the conference proceeded. I didn’t say anything profound. When I had some concrete technique to share, I offered it to the group as an alternative to what I was hearing (as offensive). I did not have to name the negative, just offer the positive and practical alternative.

I strongly identify with my Quaker heritage. Rather than waging verbal battle against those who have chosen violence as a remedy for the enemy’s violence against us, Quakers bear witness by their actions, and secondarily by their words to the path of just peace for which they are willing to live and die, if necessary. Civility, peace is the path as well as the destination.

It seems to me that our Unitarian Universalist “Standing on the Side of Love” campaign is also a positive approach to fighting oppression. Rather than attacking those who are causing pain, those who are:
– denying the civil right to marry whomever one wishes,
– creating immigration laws that discriminate against Hispanics and ethnic minorities,
– circulating hate and false information about Islam, attacking Muslims, mosques, and The Qur’an,
Unitarian Universalists are offering to stand with the oppressed, to promote compassionate policies, and to celebrate what binds us together in mutual trust. We are standing on the side of love, rather than fear and hatred.

The temptation is to rail against hate radio and TV, against divisive politicians, and against policies and ideologies that discriminate. When one is exasperated and feels powerless against the rising tide of misinformation and meanness, it’s our human tendency to strike back. What is needed is more light and less heat. Civility.

We have within ourselves two wolves, according to a Cherokee tale, a kind and helpful wolf and a wolf that is murderous and vicious. The two wolves struggle with one another for our soul and for the soul of the nation. Which one will win?

The one we feed.

May we Unitarian Universalists find the courage to stand up and to speak with civility and respect, because we are all one people, one earth, and one community of nations.

“Violence destroys community. . . . It leaves society in monologue rather than dialogue. Compassion and nonviolence help us to see the enemy’s point of view, to hear his questions, to know his assessment of ourselves. For from his view we may indeed see the basic weaknesses of our own condition, and if we are mature, we may learn and grow and profit from the wisdom of the brothers who are called the opposition.”
-Martin Luther King, Jr., Nobel Peace Prize (1964)

Minister’s Reflections                                                            Rev. Rod Debs, September, 2010

What is our public image here on the Emerald Coast?… I’m often told that people don’t even know the UU Fellowship is here.  Others have heard of us and think we are anti-Christian.  Does this match with your impression of our reputation?

Alex, and now Chris, are working hard to design our www.uufec.com website to reflect the love and hospitality we share and extend toward all who come among us.  In the words of Frances David, “We need not think alike to love alike.”

Our website address www.uufec.com is displayed on the “Wayside Pulpit” along the front sidewalk.  It also presents intriguing thoughts for drivers passing by, such as the words of Thomas Jefferson:  “Difference of opinion is helpful in religion.”

Unitarian Universalists across the country are taking to the streets with one phrase that I believe reflects the soul of our congregations:  “Standing on the Side of Love.” There is love in the world.  There is also a lot of fear.  Unitarian Universalists want it to be known that we are “Standing on the Side of Love.”

Unitarian Universalists from Boston to California are carrying their yellow banners (with the red heart) calling for “Marriage Equality.”  We are “Standing on the Side of Love” when we publicly stand for the civil right to marry whomever you wish.

Unitarian Universalist Association President Peter Morales, UU ministers and members travelled to Phoenix in August, carrying our banner high in opposition to Arizona’s anti-immigrant legislation.  We are “Standing on the Side of Love” when we stand for just and humane immigrant legislation.

Now we find that in Florida, a Gainesville church is collecting copies of the Holy Qur’an which they will burn on September 11.  At our Fellowship Board meeting on August 16, the UUFEC Board unanimously resolved that we would join ourselves with Unitarian Universalists across our country and declare publicly that we are “Standing on the Side of Love” when we show respect for other faiths and for their sacred texts.  We will not sit in silent acquiescence.

A Board member has funded purchase of the large banner “Standing on the Side of Love.”  Contact me (revdebs@gmail.com 225-3826) if you would like to order a T-shirt, yellow with red heart and bold words: $15.

As Unitarian Universalists we promise to affirm and promote the right of conscience, everyone’s.  You need not jump on any band-wagon, even our “Standing on the Side of Love” public campaign.  I invite you to learn about Islam, its people and its Holy Qur’an by attending the September 12 service.  We will hear the Qur’an read in Arabic and English.  Our Muslim exchange student from Tunisia, Feriel is excited to explain the Qur’an and her faith to us and to answer questions.  Bring your friends.

On the Emerald Coast, may Unitarian Universalists come to be known as “Standing on the Side of Love.”  Blessings!                          Rev. Rod Debs, pastor

Minister’s Reflections, August, 2010                                                                         Rev. Rod Debs

Three bricklayers working on the same project are asked what they are doing.  The first says, “I’m laying bricks.”  The second says, “I’m erecting a wall.”  And the third says, “I’m building a cathedral.”

You’ve heard the story.  What does it bring up for you?  Is there a message here?

The “50 Year” speaker at last year’s UU Minister’s Days, told of an amazing practice he developed over his fifty years of ministry.  Rev. Clark Olson would come up with promising, sermon topics three months ahead.  Then he would invite members of his congregation to meet him for coffee to discuss each topic—no printed material at first.  Over the next couple months, each small group of members would discuss their topic, find resources, and finally present the Sunday Service on the topic.

Rev. Olson described the services as having a rich diversity of arts and insights, sometimes involving several speaking voices.

• Sunday, October 10, I would like to present a service on the bricklayers story and the related topic, What are we doing? I need not be the only “vision-caster” here.  I am inviting you to contact me (225-3826, revdebs@gmail.com), and we will consult together to create a Sunday Service at UUFEC that brings wider insight and feeling.

• Sunday, November 21, I would like to present a service on Gratitude. Do you have experiences, music, poetry, stories, insight that would make this topic come alive with inspiration and meaning?  Please contact me if you would like to collaborate on either topic, listening, researching, learning and leading.

Although your Minister has been credentialed, ordained and called to the roles of Settled Minister, I am convinced that my role, and yours, is to empower one another’s “shared ministries”—including shared spiritual leadership.

Essential to religious community is the sharing of gifts:  life wisdom, resources, insights and inspiration.  If we choose to collaborate in creating select Sunday Services, we will listen, research, and expand upon one another’s vision.

I invite you to, more than attend UUFEC, come participate and share leadership here as your life and responsibilities allow!  There are Friendship Circles, committees, and informal relationships available at UUFEC.  In these short hours between birth and death, may you experience what the song “Wake Now My Senses” means with its lyrics: “Giving, receiving, as love shows us how.”

Blessings!                                       Rev. Debs

Is Unitarian Universalism the last stop before the country club, some kind of a social club? Some would say we just talk about religious values and individual and social transformation—and don’t do anything but talk.

This caricature of Unitarian Universalism has an element of truth in it.  But I think it’s a superficial perspective of a mission that is much more worthy.  Past president of the UUA, William F. Shulz writes:

This is the mission of our faith:

To teach the fragile art
of hospitality;
To revere both the critical mind
& the generous heart;
To prove that diversity
need not mean divisiveness;
And to witness to all that we
must hold the whole world
in our hands.

Ours is not just the art of hospitality, but “radical hospitality” in both teaching and practice. Our doors and windows are open, inviting greater diversity of persons and perspectives to broaden and change us.  Unlike a country club, we strive to exclude no one from our circle of compassion and celebration.  “Radical hospitality” means that the earth and all that is on it are embraced in our covenant of “mutual trust and support.”

There are those who say that our pluralism, our covenant to “affirm and promote the right of conscience,” affirming whatever beliefs each person’s integrity demands of them, “washes out” any religious identity within our community. They say we have no mission.  They say Unitarian Universalists are the ones who knock on yourdoor for no particular reason!

I would reply that absence of creed does not reduce us to some indistinct blandness of “anything goes.”  Rather, pluralism weaves a vibrant, rich and colorful fabric of community, each in our own sparkling integrity, each in mutual support and trust toward the other.

More specifically, our pluralism involves a sincere humility that no ancient book, no religious bureaucracy, no genius prophet has the final word how to magically attain a better world. It will take all of our hearts, all our hands and reasoning heads, working together as well as individually to save us.

Sociologists may say that strong fences make good neighbors, that exclusive organizations are stronger than ones that accept diversity. This may be true.  It is also true that a small-minded mission is not worthy of our life commitment.  It seems to me that our mission is universal hospitality, to bless the whole world, in all its diversity, in all its brokenness.  We build our fences to include and embrace all. Edwin Markham wrote:

“He drew a circle that shut me out—
Heretic, rebel, a thing to flout.
But Love and I had the wit to win;
We drew a circle that took him in.”