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American but peace american world

by: uusf.org

Publication date: 2022-06-08

Topics: american, world, people, american but peace, unitarian universalist, sermon

Contributor: https://divining.app

Language: English

American but peace american world: He's the kind of peace that makes life on earth worth living the kind that enables men and nations to grow into hope and to build a better life for their children not merely peace for american but peace for all men and women not merely peace in our time.

Addeddate: 2022-06-08 18:31:59

Church: uusf.org

Identifier: uusf_org-20111023SFComplete

License: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/

Scanner: Internet Archive Python library 3.0.1

Text: Yet it seems to me this is exactly what where our tradition is most helpful by reminding us that despite the apparent unpopularity of views like these according to the major media those who hold them are far from alone quite the contrary there are billions the world over and of a long line of soul stretching back through the founding fathers in the pilgrims and met renaissance thinkers all the way back to antiquity people who see patriotism as love of democracy. Be doers of the word. And not merely heroes. Those who look into the perfect law the law of liberty and persevere. Being not hears who forget. But doors who act. They will be blessed in that doing. Love is the spirit of this church. And service is its prey. This is our great covenant. To dwell together in peace. To seek the truth and freedom. And he'll want to know. The first reading this morning is by april davis. Who is the national iranian minister of all souls unitarian church in washington dc from 1944 to 1955. This is from his work the prison of our provincialism. When i was a boy in an english school i made the following agreeable discovery. Goodbye in minsk good fortune i have been born into the finest home. In the finest city. In the finest country in the world. Yes. Attended the one true church and had summons by one of the best preachers precisely at a time when churches were true and preachers were better than they'd ever being since life began. More about this was only the beginning of the matter. It was also revealed to me that old contest struggles whorls wars. The english have always been right. Except when they be opposed to the welsh. In this latter case. And found everything was still right because the welsh although frequently defeated by the english. I didn't fare ripley somehow turned defeat into a subtle kind of victory. It responded to be welsh and defeated by the english than to be any of the other stock and undisputed conquerors. It was father more disclosed to me that people who spoke english. Had been appointed by god to rule the world. The appropriateness of this arrangement was indisputable since everywhere english was spoken. Justice was exalted in respectability enforced. Who could deny. The evidence was everywhere conspicuous. The english-speaking suzerainty had ended the dark knight of the past and ushered in a universal morning of enlightenment. It was also present to be told that across the ocean traversed by great british lines. And by a few other ships of no account except. Not having being built in britain they would dangerous to travel upon. That was another nation that spoke english. Even if in perfectly namely america. If it's true that these other english because it made a little trouble from the home country from time to time. Within the family and entirely for the best. Just as it was taught me a good thing that the americans have killed off most of the wild indians and put the terapeutas so much better use than when the indians had it. Indeed i was not at all surprised to learn. Did the indians robert glad to be killed but once they understood them out of properly and the fuse 25 is far from wanting things the way they used to be. Fake be placed under the protection of their exterminators and put on display at national festivals and wild west shows. It also seemed natural that. Second only to the british. The americans made excellent merchandise. Good spanish manufactured elsewhere were not good. And those manufactured in germany were particularly poor. As evidenced by the letters stamped on them. Drgm men. Disgustingly rahman german make. Curiously enough people like the germans and the french. Compose good music and painted famous pictures. They even had railway trains but of course they did not run on time and some of them were far from safe. Ask more remote peoples like those of india to china or japan they were naturally clear clear in the sense of being in comprehensible and. Quit because they were comical. Gradually oldies queer people were being made more normal. And it was the purpose of hastening this benefits. Persisted in sunday school we took up a weekly offering. For the foreign missions. We. English speaking christian white people we're going to make the whole world good. That is to say we were going to make everyone else. Almost as nice as we were. Search. Where's the world of my childhood. And such dear friends. With one variation or another with the world of your childhood. Even if you were so fortunate as to being born into a more cosmopolitan environment. What's a richly favorite jewelry saved her being brought up a unitarian. The advantage is scarcely worth mentioning. It is only by unceasing effort. Strenuous from first to last. Any of us break down the prison of his. Or her provincialism. Here ends the reading. Today is united nations sunday. United nations was born here. In san francisco. Let us recite together the. Words of the un charter. Which are printed in our bulletin number 475. Will say this in unison. We. The peoples of the united nations. Determine to save succeeding generations from the scourge of war. To reaffirm faith in fundamental human rights. In the dignity and worth of the human person. In the equal rights of men and women and of nations large and small. To promote social progress and better standards of life in larger freedom. And for these ends to practice tolerance. And to live together in peace as good neighbors. To unite our strength to maintain international peace and security. To ensure that armed force shall not be used. Save in the common interest. To employ international machinery in the promotion of the economic and social advancement of all people. Have resolved to combine our efforts. To accomplish these ends. The goal of a world community with peace liberty and justice for all. Is a mighty eagle. And how do we get there from here from a complicated. Diverse. Unfinished lives. I'm reminded of a young woman in my congregation in plainfield new jersey. The church was very actively involved in peace efforts. And she came to me one day and said. I'm a single parent with two small children and i can't come to the meetings in the evenings. Micon go to the rallies and demonstrations. Look what i can do. Is drive peacefully. I tried to let people come in if they want to enter the road i'm on i try to be considerate. I tried to be gentle in my driving. I hope and pray that it makes a slight difference so that when. The person that i did not confront awful. Homecat. Gets through his or her office that can be more gentle with the people they meet there. We begin humbly with ourselves where we are today. Nobody invite us during this time. Quieting reflection. To consider. Relationships that we may have. That i'm not. Not working very well not. Easy not. Caring not loving in some way. And just in our hearts to think. How we might. Bridge over make amends reachout. Say i'm sorry. Even just smile and say hello. Because it begins with a simple practice. Day off today. Being peaceful. In all living. In the way we live in this world in the way we treat each other. In the way we make small ripples in a pond to reach out to the larger world. Sorry i didn't fight us dark to come together in silence. About hearts. And just ask. For the piece for the wisdom for the courage. To recharge. In love to the larger world and to reach in. With acceptance and love. Myself. And diamond. Our second reading this morning is by chamas ashley johnson. Relief from 1931. 2010. An american author and professor at the university of california san diego. This is from his the sorrows of empire. Empires do not lost and that ends are usually unpleasant. Americans born before wwii have personal knowledge. And in some cases personal experience of the collapse of at least six and files. There's a nazi germany. Imperial japan. Great britain france the netherlands and the soviet union. If one includes all of the 20th century three more major empires came tumbling down. The chinese. Austro-hungarian and the ottoman. A combination of imperial overreach rigid economic institutions. And an inability to reform week and all these empires. Leaving them faithfully vulnerable. In the face of disastrous wars many of which the empire's themselves invited. There is no reason to think that an american empire will not go the same way. And for the same reason. If efforts globalization delay the beginnings of that collapse for a while. The shift of militarism and imperialism settles the issue. There is one development that could conceivably stop this process of overreaching. The people could take control of congress. Reforma. Along with the corrupted election laws that it made in a forum for special interests. Turn it into a genuine assembly of democratic representatives and cut off the supply of money to the pentagon. And the secret intelligence agencies. Sailing such a reform. Nemesis the goddess of retribution and vengeance. The punisher of pride and hubris. Weights and patiently. For her meeting with us. Hirons the second greeting. We will not join in singing the hymn you will find in your order service done on the lower right-hand side a peaceful old humanity. I was serving as interim minister of a small community church. And i had to use some of a lovely 1843 parsonage they are and i. Took the occasion to buy. As advertised i think it wasn't the last whole earth catalog. A whole earth. Why. A flag that is with an image of the earth seen from outer space. As the parsonage was right there on the village green with a prominent flagpole the whole set-up was perfect. After leaving new england in 1993 however the flag had remained in storage. Until a couple of weeks after the world trade center and pentagon attack stand years ago. My 21 year-old daughter came home from the university of new mexico the next weekend and declared her intention to hang it out front. My den wife and i looked at each other for a second and gulped. Every other house in the neighborhood had an american flag. But then we went sure let's hang it up. Where it remained for many months. I was nervous at first and comforted by the courage of my family members convictions. Plus. Having it out there reminded me. What i believed in. And what makes sense to me. Religiously. And politically too for that matter. In the ten years since september 11th 2001 the spirit of our sixth unitarian universalist principal. The goal of world community with peace liberty and justice for all. The spirit of that. Principal has not really been heard from much in the country at large. Or even in most of our congregation. Well. The nation has been going through a surge of patriotism. And this is fine no means unexpected or probably not that bad a thing when you think of it. I mean. I love america. And i agree with the late william sloane coffin yale university chaplain during the sixties and later minister of the riverside church. In new york city when. William van koppen said love of country is a wonderful thing. But why should love stop at the border. The sixth unitarian universalist principles challenges us to love across borders. To uphold the other principles we believe in with everyone. The world over. Western religion. Judaism christianity and islam all began with the well-known stories found in the book of genesis. Reading these tales and. The subsequent scriptural elaboration of centuries one sees how. The ancient hebrews idea. Of yahweh there one god crew. An enlarged over the centuries how would it been for abraham little more than a family or clan god. Evolve into a tribal god and from that over still more time into a universal god. How the prophets up to and including jesus express. Or is it reveal. Recipe for living harmoniously with that universal god. A god so non provincial that as jesus poetically describe it she causes the rain to fall upon the rich and the poor alike. And bring sunshine to both. The joust. And the unjust. Search. Is one way to study the old and new testaments and the coroner. As western civilization's progressive and ever-deepening understanding of what it means to be right radical monotheists to worship. One god above all others not. It doesn't say that i shall worship. One god and no more nobody has above what does this mean. And into study this how the understanding through an enlarged and expanded. This living god from the god of abraham and then the patriot act's in the prophets in jesus and mohammed how it kept getting to be a bigger concept. You know the words one way to understand the bible the koran and all of these other world scriptures is that a record of growing. Human self-awareness of our sacred connections to one another and to the natural world all around. Clearly our unitarian universalist forebears. Thought this way. Our forebears all the way back to ancient israel. Thought this way it is fired them to strive to establish here on earth. Communities of faith in goodwill where justice and peace prevail. Indeed this hope. The messianic hope. For a new and harmonious order. What's at the heart of hebrew prophecy and central to christian efforts over the centuries to establish. Die kingdom come. Honor. As it is in heaven. Inspired the pilgrims efforts to found on these shores. A new zion. Moreover such hope inspired those who drafted our country's democratic institutions. And somewhat paradoxically provides the mythic background informing the american dream. Within unitarian universalist tradition the sixth principle specifically incorporates the messianic hope. If not the language of earlier covenants from are you you passed. For instance the five points of unitarianism preached by the progressive james freeman clarke in the late 19th century the final one being. In human progress onward and upward forever. Or the 1935 washington declaration which affirmed the power of men of goodwill and sacrificial spirit to overcome all evil and progressively established the kingdom of god. It was in this hope of spirit that the renowned humanist candice patton in the late forties announced himself. Anti-world citizen. When i was a religious education student at the shaker heights ohio unitarian church in the 50s and 60s. There was a church-wide effort to signing members up as world federalist. A program to promote the concept of world citizenship both my parents signed up in fact half the shaker church did but sadly the movement. Over the decades has had little effect. As chalmers johnson noted in this morning's second reading our american foreign policy is not and never really has been focused on supporting and upholding the united nations. Rather american foreign policy is based. On domination. Ever since 9/11 one here's a lot on the major media about how the united states exports democracy all over the world. I love democracy. And i love america. But as a student of history i feel compelled to point out that mostly united states foreign policy has had more to do with imperialism. Take for instance liberia. And the philippines. America's foremost colonies i think it's fair to call them that. In africa and asia. We became engaged in liberia before. Our american civil war before this church was established. We became. We named its biggest cities capital is monrovia. And. It's nash national currency is the united states dollar. Given these long and close ties one would expect liberia to be doing pretty well. In fact it is one of the most impoverished and dangerous places on earth. 20 years of civil war has left the country in economic ruin and overrun with weapons. Corruption is who arrived unemployment and illiteracy endemic were it not for the 15,000 united nations peacekeepers anarchy would rain in liberia. The situation in the philippines. Is not good either. Before the spanish-american war when we conquered it the island negros. Could feed the entire philippine archipelago. Today after 11 decades of democratic education the island is entirely owned by 12 families who produce 60% of the sugar exported. From the philippines. The children of those who chopped the sugarcane starve because their families have no land to grow their own vegetables. Sadly road. Former. Attorney general ramsey clark. Most americans do not have an opinion about foreign policy worse than that when they do think about it. It's in terms of. The demonization of enemies and the exaltation of our capacity for violence. And former attorney general clark is right. It was all but impossible to discuss military spending in this country. Even before. 911. Consider. We have. 22 commissioned trident nuclear submarine. Which are first strike weapons. Any one of those submarines can take out 408 cities hitting each with a nuclear warhead 10 times as powerful as the bomb that incinerated nagasaki. This is all from one submarine. And we have. 20. Two of them. In the words of the former attorney-general our foreign policy is based on the use of our military might as an enforcer. Exactly is teddy roosevelt implied when he said that we should speak softly and carry a big stick. What does snap mean. It means do what i say or i'll smash your head in i won't make a lot of noise about it i'll just do it. For those who actually believe in the goal of world community with peace liberty and justice for all our task is clear. Retaking democratic control of our beloved country's foreign policy. This is a tall order especially in light of the near blind marshall patriotism infusing the major media. Instead of putting our country's resources into two central asian wars and propping up corrupt regimes. Like those of king abdullah in saudi arabia weed. The people all over the world need to empower the united nations. What do united states generally under funds in g d legitimizes. The un. A few years ago i helped design and run a cinema of the spirit movie video series. At the church i was serving. We opened the series with genghis blues. A delightful documentary about the ease and open it. With which people from the tiny central asian country of tuvalu embraced a group of americans who came visiting. I was struck by how naturally and joyfully these ancient people and their american guests got along. Why shouldn't they. The people of cuba are not much different from the people of liberia or the philippines afghanistan we're california. They want peace and tranquility. Food clothing and shelter they want a safe place to live. They want have decent jobs. At a living wage to enjoy their music and celebrations and to enjoy the company of one another. But in order to get these things we. The people of the world are going to have to mobilize politically. And as i said before it's not going to be easy. It's hard enough devising strategies for democratizing america but to take that one step further and successfully influence global policies. That's not going to be easy at all. As the late author and social critic arthur kessler observed shortly before his death. The most persistent sound which reverberates through man's history is the beating of war drums. Indeed just since the end of wwii there have been by one estimate 197 separate wars. America's war on terrorism is just one of many. One of our other uu principles the 5th. Espouses the use of the democratic process throughout society. This is laudable but also lamentable given the situation we have in our country today where the cost. A running for office has become so exorbitant. That only the wealthy or their surrogates. Can be elected. Another related problem is the fact that 95% of everything american see read or here comes through the editorial offices of six huge news and entertainment conglomerates. These conglomerates all but completely dominate. The dissemination of news. They are not interested in nuance they are interested in ratings. And they have been beating the war drum steadily since september 11th 2001. I don't actually i don't even have that huge a problem with marshall cries lord knows we've heard them in the past is arthur kessler makes clear. What i do have a problem with is the lack of other voices to balance the war cries because we all know they are out there. Nevertheless there is no alternative voice on the mass media. There is an alternative voice but for the time being and perhaps until the major media are no longer owned by so small and marshall a crowd. We. Not diane sawyer or jim lehrer are the alternative voice. We. And other people of faith and conscience are the only alternative to the mass media. The mass media says terrorists are evil former president bush regularly referred to us i'm a bin laden as the evil one. President obama. Following suit had the evil one rubbed out. However we unitarian-universalist say something different or at least. This unitarian universalist.. Yes bin laden was a criminal maniac. But it was not the apotheosis of evil anymore than ferdinand marcos was or for that matter the american foreign service. If it were all so simple. Wrote the late nobel prize-winning writer and gulag survivor alexander solzhenitsyn. If only there were evil people somewhere insidiously committing evil dream deed and it were necessary only to separate them from the rest of us and destroy them. But the line dividing good and evil cuts through the heart. Of every human being. And who is willing to destroy a piece of his own heart. In the language of universalism everyone has some of the divine as well as the capacity for evil in them. The history of our unitarian universalist faith has been a history of coming to terms with that fact. And if learning how to live graciously creatively and safely together. As a community. From tribal community to regional communities to a national community and now have we bought the courage and hotspot and acumen to pull it off. Into an international. Community. The image of airliners crashing into the world trade center maybe the first crystallizing new image of the 21st century. The two central images of the 20th century were first. The nuclear mushroom cloud and s pictures of the whole earth. Taken by our. Apollo. Astronaut. This picture. All three of these powerful images have changed and continue to change our collective global consciousness. We unitarian-universalist are not the only people who want to turn this situation around. Last year's eric's. Guard this past year's arab spring has made this clear. Billions of people around the world want to turn this around people of every faith. People don't usually want or like war. Its armament manufacturers and professional soldiers who do. Many other thoughtful people including some in positions of influence and importance one-piece real piece. Consider the words of president john kennedy spoken on june 10th. 1963. What kind of peace do i mean. What kind of peace do we seek not a pox americana enforced on the world by american weapons of war not the peace of the grave or the security of the slave i am talking about january 9th he's the kind of peace that makes life on earth worth living the kind that enables men and nations to grow into hope and to build a better life for their children not merely peace for american but peace for all men and women not merely peace in our time. But peace. For all time. One thing we know. As president kennedy went on to elaborate in that same speed. Is that recognizing and making strong the apparatus of world community is part of the solution to our global dilemma. Another thing we know in the words of american lunar a astronaut edgar mitchell. Is that we are all in this together. In outer space one develops an instant local consciousness rights astronaut mitchell. A people orientation and intense dissatisfaction with the state of the world and a compulsion to do something about it. From out there on the moon international politics look so petty you want to grab a politician by the scruff of the neck and dragged him a quarter million miles out and say look at that you son of a b****. Instead of a war on terrorism it seems to me that our sixth uu principle calls us to work for and support another way. A way of recognizing the world trade center and pentagon attacks as criminal acts and demanding that the perpetrators be brought to justice under international law and tribunals. Doing self course explicitly affirms the rights and prerogatives of the united nations. Its proper role in the world and our country's proper allegiance to its international mandate. Here in the united in the united states unitarian universalist. Have been among the strongest you and supporters from its very beginning. Indeed ruu un office with the one of the first-of-its-kind established to link unitarian universalist from all across the continent to the work and efforts of the united nations. You use and others. Of. Like heart and mind. Again. President kennedy. We seek to strengthen the united nations to help solve its financial problems to make it more effective instrument for peace to develop it into a genuine world security system a system capable of resolving disputes on the basis of law of ensuring the security of the large and a small and of creating the conditions under which arms can finally be. Abolished. Even speaking up for such things in the post 9-11 era of heavy-duty jingoism. Can be scary. Yet it seems to me this is exactly what where our tradition is most helpful. By reminding us that despite the apparent unpopularity of views like these according to the major media those who hold them are far from alone. Quite the contrary there are billions the world over and of a long line of soul stretching back through the founding fathers in the pilgrims and met renaissance thinkers all the way back to antiquity. People who see patriotism as love of democracy not love of domination. Boosie religion is practicing justice equity and compassion not denouncing heretics who long for the reign of international cooperation not one of increasingly ruthless imperialism. I close as i began. With a reading. The second one now by the late rev a paul davies of all souls unitarian church in washington dc. I am an american dad and i believe in my country i believe in the great principles upon which my country was founded principles that declare that all people everywhere are created free and equal and are endowed by their creator with the universal right to life liberty and the pursuit of happiness. I believe that my country must exert itself to live up to the standard of these great principles and must do this in the future more than ever has been done in the past. But i also believe that such principles. Whenever they are sincerely loved and worthily put into practice will cause americans to join hands with people of goodwill throughout the world. For these indeed are universal principles. They came to america not only from washington and jefferson but from many others of all nations and races in all parts of the earth. True americans should therefore be true internationalist. And if they believe also in a religion of good were combined with freedom of belief as unitarians to. They must respect humanity universally. And do everything they can to bring about a better. Happier world. I'm in. My family and i joined the unitarian universalist church in knoxville tennessee and the other 70s. One of the reasons we became members was because we thought that. As part of a community of liberal people we could do more to say servicos or social justice. We believe that working with other members of the church we could make more of a difference in knoxville. And so one of the reasons many of you have joined this chart community. Is because it is actively engaged in the issues of social justice here in san francisco. Such as the after-school program up on top the men's winter shelter. Faithful fool street ministry and much much else. But if the local church wants to make a difference in the larger world. Cooperate with others to be effective. So we join together to support the unitarian universalist united nations office. Which can support programs all over the world. Programs encouraging the inherent worth and dignity of individuals. And the goal of world community with peace. Justice and liberty for all. One of these programs is every child is our child. In the manual kroger region of ghana africa. Kill the uu uno works with a local group queen's mother's association to find homes healthcare and education. The children have been orphaned by aids. Other programs focus on women's empowerment in today after the service. There will be a panel discussion. The empowerment of women for a better world. In another program to you.you uno is collaborating with the organization for refugee asylum and migration. Help days whooping tortured in the middle east. Our church is making plans to help a twenty-year-old man from iran come here to san francisco. Education is an important aspect of the unlv office. Several of our high school students and members have attended an international seminar studying current social issues. And the unos internship program college students and graduates. The director of iun office mr. knots. Subs at the unitarian universalist voice at the un lobbying for uu values. In the on-going debates on social justice and economic issues facing the world community. And so this is all morning. To give generously. To continue our support of the work of the united nations office of the unitarian universalist. And to give power to our stated goal of a world community. With peace justice. And liberty. We will not receive your morning offering thank you. Join me in singing our closing hymn 148. Assault hold hands for the benediction. Take courage friends. The way it's often hard the past is never clear. And the stakes are very high take courage. 4 deep down. There is another truth. You are not alone. Thanks for listening to this podcast of the first unitarian universalist society of san francisco sunday morning worship service for more information or downloads of previous audio services go to uusf. org check out our monthly newsletter weekly claim and much much more.