The Christ Life

What does “the Christ life” look like? (This is what John’s Gospel calls “eternal life”; I like to call it “the good life”). It is a life of non-violence and one that exposes the myth of redemptive violence. It is a life of grace and goodness, a life of forgiveness and moral strength and courage. It is a life that confronts the false claims and values of “the System” (what John’s Gospel calls “the world” in its delusional and alienated state) and refuses to get sucked into a spiral of bitterness and hate. It is a life committed to compassion and justice for the disenfranchised and most vulnerable among us. It is a life of loving God, loving others, and loving self in healthy and transformational ways. It is a life of balance between joy and sorrow, giving and receiving, suffering and contentment. 
   --the Rev. Chuck Queen in his blog, A Fresh Pespective

Secular Ethics and Disarmament

His Holiness the Dalai Dama has a wonderful book, Beyond Religion: Ethics for a Whole World, that was published in 2011.

In writing about the book, His Holiness has written:


This book may seem strange coming from someone who from a very early age has lived as a monk in robes. Yet I see no contradiction here. My faith enjoins me to strive for the welfare and benefit of all sentient beings, and reaching out beyond my own tradition, to those of other religions and those of none, is entirely in keeping with this.


I am confident that it is both possible and worthwhile to attempt a new secular approach to universal ethics. My confidence comes from my conviction that all of us, all human beings, are basically inclined or disposed toward what we perceive to be good.... In view of this, I am of the firm opinion that we have within our grasp a way, and a means, to ground inner values without contradicting any religion and yet, crucially, without depending on religion.

In his book, the Dalai Lama has a section entitled, "The Futility of War," that that ends this way:

In the remaining years of the twenty-first century, we must ensure that we do not repeat the mistakes of the past. The only way to reduce the level of violence in our world is for more and more people across the globe to consciously adopt a stance of disarmament. Disarmament is compassion in practice. What is required, therefore, is both inner disarmament, at the level of our individual hatred, prejudice, and intolerance, and outher disarmament, at the level of nations and states. Rather than pouring salt on the wounds we have inherited from earlier generations, we must start to heal our divisions by committing ourselves to dialogue, cooperation, and understanding. As the population of the globe continues to grow, and as large nations like China, India, and Brazil race ahead with rapid economic competition for natural resources--not just fossil fuels but also basic necessities like water, food, and land--will inevitably intensify. So it is vital that that our younger generations, the guardians of our future, develop strong awareness of the futility of war. We can learn from the great achievements of Mahatma Gandhi and Martin Luther King Jr. to recognize that nonviolence is the best long-term approach to redressing injustice. If the twentieth century was a century of violence, let  us make the twenty-first a century of dialogue.


That last sentence seems especially important in this time of wrangling with Iran over its nuclear program.

MLK for Today

Monday, January 16 is the official holiday celebrating the birth of the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Many of his speeches and sermons, regardless of the circumstances of his time, resonate very much for our own time, for today. In today's lingo, one can say that Dr. King worked on behalf of the 99%.

Here is a portion of his speech delivered on April 4, 1967 at Riverside Church in New York City to the group called Clergy and Laity Concerned. The speech is entitled,  Beyond Vietnam: A Time to Break Silence. (The full text may be found here.)

I am convinced that if we are to get on the right side of the world revolution, we as a nation must undergo a radical revolution of values. We must rapidly begin the shift from a "thing-oriented" society to a "person-oriented" society. When machines and computers, profit motives and property rights are considered more important than people, the giant triplets of racism, materialism, and militarism are incapable of being conquered.

A true revolution of values will soon cause us to question the fairness and justice of many of our past and present policies. on the one hand we are called to play the good Samaritan on life's roadside; but that will be only an initial act. One day we must come to see that the whole Jericho road must be transformed so that men and women will not be constantly beaten and robbed as they make their journey on life's highway. True compassion is more than flinging a coin to a beggar; it is not haphazard and superficial. It comes to see that an edifice which produces beggars needs restructuring. A true revolution of values will soon look uneasily on the glaring contrast of poverty and wealth. With righteous indignation, it will look across the seas and see individual capitalists of the West investing huge sums of money in Asia, Africa and South America, only to take the profits out with no concern for the social betterment of the countries, and say: "This is not just." It will look at our alliance with the landed gentry of Latin America and say: "This is not just." The Western arrogance of feeling that it has everything to teach others and nothing to learn from them is not just. A true revolution of values will lay hands on the world order and say of war: "This way of settling differences is not just." This business of burning human beings with napalm, of filling our nation's homes with orphans and widows, of injecting poisonous drugs of hate into veins of people normally humane, of sending men home from dark and bloody battlefields physically handicapped and psychologically deranged, cannot be reconciled with wisdom, justice and love. A nation that continues year after year to spend more money on military defense than on programs of social uplift is approaching spiritual death.

America, the richest and most powerful nation in the world, can well lead the way in this revolution of values. There is nothing, except a tragic death wish, to prevent us from reordering our priorities, so that the pursuit of peace will take precedence over the pursuit of war. There is nothing to keep us from molding a recalcitrant status quo with bruised hands until we have fashioned it into a brotherhood.

For Hiroshima Day

August 6, Hiroshima Day, commemorates the first ever atomic bomb attack, by the United States, on Hiroshima, Japan in 1945. It is estimated that 90,000－166,000 persons died from that attack. A second (and last) atomic attack was carried out three days later, also by the U.S., on Nagasaki, Japan.


Having been born almost two years later, I grew up in the shadow of the bomb. I grew up in the first generation knowing we could bring the world to an end. Now we know that we can bring the world to an end not only by nuclear destruction, but through environmental destruction as well. 


I remember  in elementary school we had bomb drill practices when we had to get down under our desks for awhile. Families were encouraged to build bomb shelters in their backyards for survival. I don't think many did though. At least, none that I knew of. Anyway, "the bomb" was in the air, so to speak. We were probably even shown documentaries on such.


I also remember later seeing the movie called, "On the Beach," depicting after the bomb. I even read a couple of novels depicting after the bomb.


Not too many years ago, I read a book I found at my local library telling stories from the survivors called, hibakusha. At this time I also read from the library, a book by a Japanese man survivor written not too many years after the bomb.

I guess you could say I have been haunted by the bomb. This threat of nuclear destruction is one reason I believe we are going to have to get along in this world.  I am not one of those who looks forward to the end of the world for Jesus to come back. I believe that part of why we are here is to love and care for each other. Compassion--not hate, destruction, and war--is the way.


The above is why I am so dismayed by the current action of Congress in our deficit crisis. There is no excuse for the wealthy not doing their part and for putting it all on the poor and the needy. All this warmaking and defense spending must be cut.


All human life everywhere is sacred including terrorists, Democrats, and Republicans.


I Declare World Peace.


Read Atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Rich Man's Coup of America and Women's Challenge, and sign the Charter for Compassion. You can also declare world peace, too.

What the World Needs Now

I have felt for some time that the religion writer Karen Armstrong is a prophet for our time. As a self-taught religious historian (comparative religion) she came to the conclusion that compassion is what ties the religions of the world together. She found that the main religions all developed in a time of conflict and that their answer was compassion based on the Golden Rule of treating others as one would wish to be treated.

This last book of hers, Twelve Steps to a Compassionate Life, is a companion to her Charter for Compassion initiative. The Peace Advocate has its own page for that Charter (See the tab at the top or go here.) and the Charter's website is here.

I have read several of Armstrong's books now. (See the Beautiful Books tab at the top or go here.) I have thoroughly enjoyed them and have learned much. They read fairly academically in a dense, but interesting manner. The first chapter in this book may read that way, but the main thrust of the book is much more practical and straight forward.

Armstrong begins with compassion from and for the individual and ends up with compassion from nations for the world. She stresses the meditation of the Buddha on the Four Immeasurables and she continues to stress the Golden Rule.

She emphasizes that the book is a how-to. I have now read the book through and hope soon to reread it and study it. Reading groups are encouraged and there are resources for them available. The Charter's Facebook page has a page of its own devoted to the book.

As the old song says:

What the world needs now is love, sweet love
It's the only thing that there's just too little of
What the world needs now is love, sweet love,
No not just for some but for everyone.

I believe that time is now.

Quotes on Egypt and the Middle East

Yesterday I read two poignant pieces regarding Egypt and the Middle East.


The first one was the Monday forum on religion in USA Today. That piece was In Changing Egypt, Where Will Faith Fall? by Stephen Prothero. There Prothero based his piece on the thought of the twentieth century Protestant theologian, Rheinhold Niebuhr.


I give a quote from Prothero that I especially noted and  with which I certainly agree:

My prayer for America in our new age of digital politics — an age in which a tweet is worth far more than a thousand spoken words, and the "Google Guy" Wael Ghonim seems to wield as much power as (or more than) a head of state — is for some combination of modesty, exertion and wisdom.

I hope that our leaders will be modest enough to see how (and how often) what we have done or left undone in the Middle East has backfired on us. We have spent trillions of dollars and spilled untold blood in a seemingly endless effort to bring democracy, American style, to Iraq and Afghanistan. Yet Egyptians — citizens of a nation with more people than Iraq and Afghanistan combined — won the right to write their own future in just 18 days and with little to no U.S. help.

 The second piece yesterday I especially noted was by CODEPINK co-founder, Medea Benjamin who had attended protests in Tahrir Square in Cairo, Egypt and while in Madison, Wisconsin to discuss her time in Egypt, attended the protest in Madison over collective bargaining rights for public workers. Her piece entitled, "From Cairo to Madison: Hope and Solidarity are Alive" was published in both CODEPINK's blog, PINKtank, and The Huffington Post. Benjamin noted that there was solidarity between the two protests. In Egypt there had been signs in solidarity with the workers in Madison and in Madison there were signs noting the protests in Egypt.  She included this:

Egyptian engineer Muhammad Saladin Nusair, the one whose photo supporting Wisconsin workers went viral, now has thousands of new American Facebook friends. He wrote in his blog that many of his new friends were surprised by his gesture of solidarity, but he was taught that “we live in ONE world and under the same sky.”

“If a human being doesn’t feel the pain of his fellow human beings, then everything we’ve created and established since the very beginning of existence is in great danger,” Muhammad wrote. “We shouldn’t let borders and differences separate us. We were made different to complete each other, to integrate and live together. One world, one pain, one humanity, one hope.”

The Not OK Corral

I have been quite taken, shaken by the shootout killing in Tuscon, Arizona on Saturday, January 8.  Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords, holding a constituents meeting called, "Congress on Your Corner" at a Safeway (?) supermarket, was critically injured. Six people, including a U.S. judge and a nine-year old girl were killed and several others were injured.

One of the earliest and most impressive commentaries I saw was a blog post/sermon by Fred Hamond, author of the blog, Unitarian Universalist Minister in the South, and a minister in Tuscaloosa, Alabama. His post was entitled, Find the Cost of Freedom.

Here are a couple of excerpts:

This treating others as we would have them treat us is hard work, it seems.  It is far easier to denigrate others, to ostracize others, to refuse to understand the other’s plights.  Yet, we must begin to see that each person is part of who we are as a people.  When one person suffers in our country, we all suffer.  When an injustice is done to one person; injustice is done to all of us.   

...

 To undo the history of our nation’s propensity to violence takes each of us to transform our own hearts towards peace, towards nonviolence in all areas of our lives.  Not just in reducing physical violence against another but also seeking to reduce emotional and spiritual violence towards others.  A harsh word as we have seen can engender physical violence in another. 

I recommend the full post.

May Peace Prevail in Arizona and in the United States! Condolences and prayers regarding the victims and their families.

9-11

911 is an emergency call, a call for help in distress. To me. that is part of what 9-11-01 was about.

Afghanistan was in distress, Israel-Palestine was in distress. People of the Muslims faith, especially extremists, were in distress. There was hurt and there was pain.

I deplored the response of my country. All out war was not the answer.

I believed that 9-11 was a wake-up call for the United States of America to change its ways in the world, to change its ways of doing its foreign policy business. 9-11 was blowback for our building up of the Mujahedeen in Afghanistan and the Taliban, too, and for our ungainly, overarching support of Israel against the Palestinian people who had lived in the Land for centuries.

For me. 9-11 was my own wake-up call. It was a call to learn of another faith, Islam, and to learn of and  involve myself in foreign policy. I have since learned about other faiths and I have devoted myself to working against war and for world peace.

I have always believed in the Golden Rule--treating others as they would wish to be treated--and I now believe that even foreign policy should be built on that rule. This is maybe wishful thinking, but it is not stupid thinking. I am convinced that the Golden Rule actually works. People respond as to how they are treated.

In accordance with the Golden Rule which is  held by all faiths and in opposition to the Islamaphobia that seems to be pervading this country and the ensuing acts engendered by it, I continue and especially at this time urge folks to sign the Charter for Compassion and to support it.

The Peace Advocate has been a supporter of the Charter and even has a separate page devoted to it. Please go to the tab at the top, learn about it, and sign on.

On this 9-11, there are people in this country who are in distress, too. May the Charter for Compassion be in effect.

A Photo and a Song

This is a follow-up to my previous post, "A Place for the Other."

Here is the photo ~

Here is the song, "Somewhere," albeit the lyrics, from the musical, West Side Story ~


There's a place for us, 
Somewhere a place for us. 
Peace and quiet and open air 
Wait for us 
Somewhere. 

There's a time for us, 
Some day a time for us, 
Time together with time spare, 
Time to learn, time to care, 
Some day! 

Somewhere. 
We'll find a new way of living, 
We'll find a way of forgiving 
Somewhere . . . 

There's a place for us, 
A time and place for us. 
Hold my hand and we're halfway there. 
Hold my hand and I'll take you there 
Somehow, 
Some day, 
Somewhere! 

(Music by Leonard Bernstein, lyrics by Stephen Sondheim.
 © 1956, 1957 Amberson Holdings LLC and Stephen Sondheim. Copyright renewed.
 Leonard Bernstein Music Publishing Company LLC, Publisher.)


I would also like to point readers to Monday's On Religion Forum piece in USA Today, "Division vs. Unity" by Eboo Patel that is posted here.

Patel ends his piece saying, "In America, everyone has a place. In America, we are better together."

A Place for the Other

Here is a short video of  comparative religion writer and initiator of the Charter for Compassion, Karen Armstrong, being questioned about the Muslim community center proposed to be built two blocks from the site of the former World Trade Center. I was quite taken with Armstrong's answer, feeling that she had spoken a truth.






I would also like to point readers to the op-ed e-letter, Green-Dog Democrat, of Joe Burgess of my town of Frankfort, KY. His current issue entitled, "The Washington Post March over Gingrch and other ignorami" is on the controversy surrounding the center. It is posted on the web here.

Additionally, I note that the two arms of my faith community, the Unitarian Universalist Association and the Unitarian Universalist Service Committee, sent a joint letter to New York's mayor, Michael Bloomberg, in support of the center.

Awesome August

I am exploring and reading a book. It is about a holy conversation that was held on the battlefield of what we in Kentucky call, a feud, such as that famous one held in the post-Civil War hills of Eastern Kentucky/West Vrginia.

The book is that of  Bhagavad Gita: A New Translation by Steven Mitchell (New York: Three Rivers Press, c 2000).

The book, often called just Gita, is part of the foundational poetic epic of India and it was a favorite of Emerson and Thoreau. Gandhi called it his mother.

I happen to be getting into the Gita, coincidentally, in the auspicious month of August. On August 6, 1945, the United States of America  initiated an atomic bomb attack on the city of Hirhoshima, Japan. August 6  is also the day that the Christian ligurgical calendar reserved for the Transfiguration of Jesus . On August 9, 1945, the United States attacked--atomically again --another city of Japan, one called, Nagasaki.

Robert Openheimer, a U.S. scientist witnessing the first atomic explosion on July 16, 1945,  quoted the  book the Gita.

Mitchell writes in his introduction:

The climax of the Gita is its eleventh chapter, in which Krishna appears to Arjuna in his supremem form. It is a terrifying theophany, a glimpse into a level of reality that is more tha the ordinary mind can bear. Arjuna sees

the whole universe enforded, with its countless billions of life-forms, gathered together in the body of the God of gods.

 Krishna dazzles his sight blazing in

the measureless, massive sun-flame splendor of his radiant form.

This is a vision of pure energy, which does not discriminate between good and evil, creation and destruction. No wondered it entered modern history through the story of Robert Oppenheimer's response to the first atomic explosion at Alamogordo on July 16, 1945. What other image form literature could have been so uncanny right for that occasion?

If a thousand suns were to rise and stand in the noon sky blazing, such brilliance would be like the fierce brilliance of that mighty Self.

As the bomb exploded, Oppenheimer thought of another, later verse:

I am death shatterer of worlds annihilating all things.


Chapter twelve in the Gita, the chapter following the sight of  radiant Krishna, contains these words:

He who has let go of hatred, who treats all beings with kindness and compassion ...

The same to both friend and foe ...

that man is the one I love best.


According to the Gospel stories. aftter Jesus was transfigured, he descended the mountain and began a journey of holy conversation to Jerusalem where he was crucified.

Before Jesus was arrested, he told his disciples, as the apostle Paul later told the Christian community of Rome:

Love one other.


On August 23, my husband and I celebrate our thirtieth wedding anniversary.


May Peace Prevail On Earth!

I Declare World Peace.

May you do so also.


_______

For more about the Gita, see Karen Armstrong's The Great Transformation.

UUA Statement on Peacemaking

Note: This Statement of Conscience was passed at the recent General Assembly of the Unitarian Universalist Association. It is taken from the UUA webpage that is found here. I commend it and the Association.

Creating Peace


2010 Statement of Conscience

We believe all people share a moral responsibility to create peace. Mindful of both our rich heritage and our past failures to prevent war, and enriched by our present diversity of experience and perspective, we commit ourselves to a radically inclusive and transformative approach to peace.



1.Our commitment to creating peace calls us to the work of peacebuilding, peacemaking, and peacekeeping.

Peacebuilding is the creation and support of institutions and structures that address the roots of conflict, including economic exploitation, political marginalization, the violation of human rights, and a lack of accountability to law.



Peacemaking is the negotiation of equitable and sustainable peace agreements, mediation between hostile parties, and post-conflict rebuilding and reconciliation.



Peacekeeping is early intervention to prevent war, stop genocide, and monitor ceasefires. Peacekeeping creates the space for diplomatic efforts, humanitarian aid, and nonviolent conflict prevention through the protection of civilians and the disarmament and separation of those involved in violent conflict.



2.We advocate a culture of peace through a transformation of public policies, religious consciousness, and individual lifestyles. At the heart of this transformation is the readiness to honor the truths of multiple voices from a theology of covenant grounded in love.



3.We all agree that our initial response to conflict should be the use of nonviolent methods. Yet, we bear witness to the right of individuals and nations to defend themselves, and acknowledge our responsibility to be in solidarity with others in countering aggression. Many of us believe force is sometimes necessary as a last resort, while others of us believe in the consistent practice of nonviolence.



4.We repudiate aggressive and preventive wars, the disproportionate use of force, covert wars, and targeting that includes a high risk to civilians. We support international efforts to curtail the vast world trade in armaments and call for nuclear disarmament and abolition of other weapons of mass destruction. We repudiate unilateral interventions and extended military occupations as dangerous new forms of imperialism. In an interdependent world, true peace requires the cooperation of all nations and peoples.



5.For Unitarian Universalists, the exercise of individual conscience is holy work. Conscientious discernment leads us to engage in the creation of peace in different ways. We affirm a range of individual choices, including military service and conscientious objection (whether to all wars or particular wars), as fully compatible with Unitarian Universalism. For those among us who make a formal commitment to military service, we will honor their commitment, welcome them home, and offer pastoral support. For those among us who make a formal commitment as conscientious objectors, we will offer documented certification, honor their commitment, and offer pastoral support.



6.Our faith calls us to create peace, yet we confess that we have not done all we could to prevent the spread of armed conflict throughout the world. At times we have lacked the courage to speak and act against violence and injustice; at times we have lacked the creativity to speak and act in constructive ways; at times we have condemned the violence of others without acknowledging our own complicity in violence. We affirm a responsibility to speak truth to power, especially when unjust power is exercised by our own nation. Too often we have allowed our disagreements to distract us from all that we can do together. This Statement of Conscience challenges individual Unitarian Universalists, as well as our congregations and Association, to engage with more depth, persistence, and creativity in the complex task of creating peace.

II. Historical and Theological Context

Our Universalist faith in the oneness of the whole human family teaches us that peace is necessary; our Unitarian faith in the sacred potential of each person teaches us that peace is possible.



A. Historical Practices

For two hundred years, Unitarians and Universalists have worked to build peace by removing the underlying causes of war. As early as 1790, Universalists gathered in Philadelphia declared, “Although a defensive war may be considered lawful, yet we believe there is a time coming, when the light and universal love of the gospel shall put an end to all wars.” The Massachusetts Peace Society, founded by Unitarians Noah Worcester and William Ellery Channing during the War of 1812, helped launch the first peace movement to include both those repudiating all violence and those supporting defensive wars, to welcome members of all religious persuasions, and to affirm that nonviolence is humanly possible as well as divinely commanded. Since that time, Unitarian and Universalist peace efforts have continued to be informed by those principles. Though we have always held diverse views on the justification of defensive and humanitarian wars, at our best we have worked together to end the violence of slavery, to promote international law, to liberate Jews and others from Nazi tyranny, and to build the United Nations and other institutions of international cooperation. This Statement of Conscience builds on this tradition by challenging individual Unitarian Universalists, as well as our congregations and Association, to engage in a variety of nonviolent and peace building practices.



B. Theological Principles

This Statement of Conscience is grounded in the following Unitarian Universalist theological principles:



The fundamental unity and interdependence of all existence. The interdependence we have long affirmed has become the daily reality of our globalized world. Our interdependence makes it both possible and necessary that we see the peoples of the world as one community in which the security of each nation is entwined with the security of all others.



The transforming power of love. We affirm the reality of love as a dynamic power within and among us. This power moves us to create relationships of compassion, respect, mutuality, and forgiveness; to love our neighbor; and to recognize everyone as our neighbor. We stand on the side of love when we work for peace.



The inherent worth and dignity of all persons. All human beings have the right to a meaningful and fulfilling life, including physical safety and economic and social well being. All have the responsibility to work on behalf of the dignity of others.



Human freedom. Most human beings are free moral agents with the capacity to make choices and are accountable for these choices. Human freedom may be used creatively or destructively. These possibilities are expressed not only in our individual choices and actions, but also in the institutions and social structures we create. Peace is the product of human choices that empower human agency and extend the possibilities for human freedom.



Rejection of moral dualism. We reject as false the sharp separation of good and evil, refusing to assign individuals and nations into one category or the other. Moral dualism can blind us to our own and our nation’s capacity for evil and to the inherent worth and dignity of those whom our nation labels as enemies. In the midst of ambiguity we can build peace by cultivating the goodness in ourselves and others.



Cooperative power. Power is created and expressed in complex networks of human relationships. Power can be used to create or destroy, to liberate or oppress. Preventing war and creating nonviolent alternatives require the use of cooperative power—power with, not power over. Cooperative power is grounded in a commitment to mutual persuasion rather than coercion.



Justice and peace. Justice concerns the fair ordering of human relationships, including social and political relationships. War signals the breakdown of fairly ordered human relations. Peace is an attribute of relationship; it is a process, not a stagnant state. Peace emerges as our social and political institutions become more cooperative and more just. Lasting peace rests on just relationships.



Humility and open-mindedness. We affirm an open-mindedness that makes us suspicious of all claims of finality, including our own. Humility allows us to take strong stands while remaining open to the possibility that we are wrong or that future circumstances may call for a different position.



III. Calls to Action

Creating peace calls for action at all levels of human interaction. To be effective, our actions must be incorporated into existing structures and institutions, and new systems must be created. We support the Unitarian Universalist Peace Ministry Network in its work of identifying resources, disseminating information, and evaluating methods to create a culture of peace on all levels.



Creating Peace in Our World

We covenant to advocate vigorously for policies and participate in practices that move our nation toward collaborative leadership in building a peaceful, just, and sustainable world, including:



•supporting the Unitarian Universalist-United Nations Office in advancing the United Nations’ efforts in promoting peace, and its implementation of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights;



•supporting the Unitarian Universalist Service Committee in ending the use of torture and addressing institutional violence in all its forms;



•supporting the Unitarian Universalist Association and our congregations in influencing public policy decisions made by the U.S. Congress and Administration; and



•participating in international civilian peace building, peacemaking, and unarmed peacekeeping teams.

Creating Peace in Our Society

We covenant to act in the wider community in reducing the causes of institutional and structural violence by:



•supporting Association and congregational initiatives aimed at eradicating all forms of cultural, political, and economic oppression;



•supporting the socially responsible investment of our Association and congregational assets; and



•supporting Unitarian Universalist Ministry for Earth in advocating lifestyles and policies that promote harmony with our natural environment.

Creating Peace in Our Congregations

We covenant to create peace through worship, religious education, and social action by:



•developing Peace Teams to provide training in compassionate communication and conflict resolution, and to engage each congregation in multi-level action toward a culture of peace;



•working through congregational governing bodies to develop and honor behavioral covenants in all aspects of congregational life;



•working through our lifespan religious education structures to provide workshops on conflict resolution and compassionate communication, to encourage understanding and participation in social justice ventures, and to utilize Unitarian Universalist resources such as “Peacemaking in Congregations: A Guide to Learning Opportunities for All Ages”;



•becoming a resource for creating peace within our communities in cooperation with other faith traditions and community organizations;



•working toward the reduction of violence in our communities by supporting community policing, economic development, and conflict resolution;



•supporting veterans, military service members, conscientious objectors, and their families, and providing them with opportunities to share what they have learned; and



•supporting nonviolent resisters and their families, and providing them with opportunities to share what they have learned.

Creating Peace in Our Relationships

As individuals we covenant to:



•learn and practice the skills of compassionate communication;



•honor the behavioral covenants of our congregations; and



•adopt lifestyle changes that reflect reverence for the interdependent web of all existence.

Creating Peace within Ourselves

We recognize that peace begins with each person and covenant to:



•develop for ourselves and our congregations spiritual practices that cultivate inner peace;



•sustain these practices as foundational to wholeness, forgiveness, and reconciliation; and



•practice loving-kindness and compassion toward ourselves, and pay attention to the ethical insights that follow.

In reverence for all life, we covenant to practice peace at all levels of human interaction.



Last updated on Wednesday, July 7, 2010.


Unitarian Universalist Association of Congregations
25 Beacon Street
Boston, MA 02108
617-742-2100
info@uua.org



© Copyright 1996 - 2006 Unitarian Universalist Association of Congregations. All Rights Reserved.

BP Alternatives

Upon consideration of the disaster of what is commonly called, the Gulf Oil Spill, it seem to me there are a couple of individual and collective alternatives to BP, to wit ~



   Be Present!

    ~ and ~

   Be Peace!



I would say that we need to change our mindset.


In addition to B and P, it seems that we need to include the letter C for Compassion, as in Compassion for all others and the earth, itself.


I know this may sound simplistic and rather silly, but it is not as easy as it sounds.


May Peace Prevail On Earth! ~ I Declare World Peace.

I Am An Uzbek

"I Am an Uzbek, is that a crime?

This is not a Kyrygyz house, this is mine."

I am an Afghan, I am a Muslim

I live in Pakistan, I live in Iraq

I am a Christian, I am from Palestine

I am Jewish, I come from Poland

I am a Christian, I come from Guatemala

I am a Christian, I come from Mexico

I am a poor American, I have no home

I am a shrimper, I lost my job

I am a human being, I live on Earth

I am living, I am breathing

Is that a crime?

--Anne G. Woodhead

Books!

Books have guided me on my spiritual and activism journey. It seems there is usually another book with my name on it just around the corner.

Here is a list of some books of rather recent vintage that have guided this Peace Advocate and provided the backdrop to my blog. I provide the list by author and group by subject or relatedness. The year given is the year of publication. I share these books to let folks know where I am coming from and with hope that some may perk readers' interest. There are a number of other books by some of these authors that readers may find helpful.


I will have to give some credit to my husband. He and I have both had a chance to read the last few years since our children have been grown and he has retired. He has pointed out a number of them to me and we have had some good discussions.

Karen Armstrong ~ 

• 
  
  A History of God (1993)
• 
  
  Jerusalem: One City, Three Faiths (1996)
• 
  
  The Battle for God: Fundamentalism in Judaism, Christianity, and Islam (2000)
• 
  
  The Great Transformation: The Beginning of our Religious Traditions (2006)

John Dominic Crossan ~

• 
  
  Jesus: A Revolutionary Biography (1994)
• 
  
  With Jonathan Reed ~ In Search of Paul: How Jesus' Apostle Opposed Rome's Empire with God's Kingdom (2004)
• 
  
  God and Empire: Jesus Against Rome, Then and Now (2007)

Marcus J. Borg ~

• 
  
  The Heart of Christianity (2003)
• 
  
  Jesus: Uncovering the Life, Teachings, and Relevance of a Religious Revolutionary (2006)

John Dominic Crossan and Marcus J. Bog ~

• 
  
  The first Christmas: What the Gospels Really Teach About Jesus' Birth (2007)

Brian D. McLaren ~

• 
  
  Everything Must Change: Jesus, Global Crises, and a Revolution of Hope (2007)

Greg Mortenson and David Oliver Relin ~

• 
  
  Three Cups of Tea : One Man's Mission to Fight Terror and Build Nations--One School at a Time (2006) 

Greg Mortenson ~

• 
  
  Stones into Schools : Promoting Peace With Books, Not Bombs, in Afghanistan and Pakistan (2009)   

 Malalai Joya with Derrick O'Keefe ~ 

• 
  
  A Woman Among Warlords: The Extraordinary Story of an Afghan Who Dared to Raise Her Voice (2009)

No Island

Below is one of my favorite quotes that keeps returning to my mind and one that I believe we all should take note of and keep in mind in this time of ours.

According to WikiQuote, it is by Anglican divine and metaphysical poet, John Donne (1572–1631), and is from his Devotions Upon Emergent Occasions (1624), "Meditation 17." You can read more about Donne himself here.

I give the sexist language as Donnne wrote it. Please pardon him. He was a man of his time in that regard. I still believe the thought here counts.

No man is an island, entire of itself; every man is a piece of the continent, a part of the main; if a clod be washed away by the sea, Europe is the less, as well as if a promontory were, as well as if a manor of thy friends or of thine own were; any man's death diminishes me, because I am involved in mankind; and therefore never send to know for whom the bell tolls; it tolls for thee.

Compassion: The Charter & the Principles

 

On Sunday, April 25, I led the Unitarian Universalist Community of Frankfort in a Circle Worship service entitled, Compassion: The Charter & the Principles. In the previous post, I gave the Compassionate Quotes that were read in its worship circle. In this post, I give the main substance, the background material, if you will, for that service.

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A special woman of and for our time, a woman named Karen Armstrong, has a special project/initiative. 

An Englishwoman, Karen Armstrong describes herself as a religious historian. She has a degree in English literature from Oxford, but has become known as a self-taught scholar of comparative religion. A former Roman Catholic nun, she has also referred to herself as a free-lance monotheist and is the author of twenty-two books. The four that I have read and found quite meaningful are A History of God, Jerusalem: One City, Three Faiths, The Battle for God: Fundamentalism in Judaism, Christianity and Islam and The Great Transformation: The Beginning of Our Religious Traditions. Her latest book is called, The Case for God (2009). She has also written a book on Buddha, one on Mohammed, and one on the Crusades. There is an entry about her in Wikipedia Encyclopedia.

In her study, Armstrong found, as she put it, that her work had continually brought her back to the notion of compassion. "Whichever religious tradition I study," she said, "I find I find that the heart of it is the idea of feeling with the other, experiencing with the other, compassion. And every single one of the major world religions has developed its own version of the Golden Rule: Don't do to others what you would not like them to do to you." She has said that Confucius was the first sage to state this rule and that Jesus was the one who, many centuries later, put it in its positive form: Do to others what you would have them do to you.

In 2008, Karen Armstrong was awarded the $100,000 TED prize to fulfill her wish to change the world based on her giving the talk of her life. TED, a small nonprofit, helped with the launch of a Charter for Compassion. A website was set up to begin developing a Charter for anyone, anywhere, online to contribute ideas. Eventually, these submissions were whittled and honed by a Council of Conscience consisting of eighteen high-level religious leaders and thinkers. The Charter itself was formally launched on November 12, 2009. The online Charter is open to affirming signatures by the general public. The website also consists of submissions of original, individual acts of compassion. There is also a Facebook page. The Charter has partner organizations and faith communities, including the Unitarian Universalist Association. There is even a Compassionate Action Network.  (On Saturday, April 24, organized by that Network, Seattle, WA signed the Charter and became the first Compassionate City. There was a day of events centering around the Charter and compassion. Karen Armstrong even gave a talk.) Armstrong who would like the Charter for Compassion to be the basis for a movement has said that she wants to make compassion "cool." I put it as compassion being "in" rather than "out." I firmly believe that compassion needs to be both widely practiced, furthered, and promoted especially in our world today.

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Charter for Compassion

The principle of compassion lies at the heart of all religious, ethical and spiritual traditions, calling us always to treat all others as we wish to be treated ourselves. Compassion impels us to work tirelessly to alleviate the suffering of our fellow creatures, to dethrone ourselves from the centre of our world and put another there, and to honour the inviolable sanctity of every single human being, treating everybody, without exception, with absolute justice, equity and respect.

It is also necessary in both public and private life to refrain consistently and empathically from inflicting pain. To act or speak violently out of spite, chauvinism, or self-interest, to impoverish, exploit or deny basic rights to anybody, and to incite hatred by denigrating others—even our enemies—is a denial of our common humanity. We acknowledge that we have failed to live compassionately and that some have even increased the sum of human misery in the name of religion.

We therefore call upon all men and women ~ to restore compassion to the centre of morality and religion ~ to return to the ancient principle that any interpretation of scripture that breeds violence, hatred or disdain is illegitimate ~ to ensure that youth are given accurate and respectful information about other traditions, religions and cultures ~ to encourage a positive appreciation of cultural and religious diversity ~ to cultivate an informed empathy with the suffering of all human beings—even those regarded as enemies.

We urgently need to make compassion a clear, luminous and dynamic force in our polarized world. Rooted in a principled determination to transcend selfishness, compassion can break down political, dogmatic, ideological and religious boundaries. Born of our deep interdependence, compassion is essential to human relationships and to a fulfilled humanity. It is the path to enlightenment, and indispensible to the creation of a just economy and a peaceful global community.

I urge folks to explore the website and affirm the Charter. (You can do so here.)

~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Karen Armstrong's book, The Great Transformation; The Beginning of our Religious Traditions of 2006, was about what is called, The Axial Age, the period from about 900 to 200 BCE, when Confucianism and Daoism in China; Hinduism and Buddhism in India; monotheism in Israel; and philosophical rationalism in Greece, all came into being.

In the concluding chapter of The Great Transformation called, "The Way Forward," Armstrong wrote:

We are living in a period of great fear and pain. The Axial Age taught us to face up to the suffering that is an inescapable fact of human life. Only by admitting our own pain can we learn to empathize with others. Today we are deluged with more images of suffering than any previous generation: war, natural disasters, famine, poverty, and disease are beamed nightly into our living rooms. Life is indeed dukkha [suffering, out of kilter]. It is tempting to retreat from this ubiquitous horror, to deny that it has anything to do with us, and to cultivate a deliberately "positive" attitude that excluded anybody's pain but our own. But the Axial sages insisted that this was not an option. People who deny the suffering of life and stick their heads in the sand are "false prophets." Unless we allow the sorrow that presses in on all sides to invade our consciousness, we cannot begin our spiritual quest. In our era of international terrorism, it is hard for any of us to imagine that we can live in the Buddha's pleasure park. Suffering will sooner or later impinge upon all our lives, even in the protected societies of the first world. Instead of resenting this, the Axial sages would tell us; we should treat it as a religious opportunity.

We must continually remind ourselves that the Axial sages developed their compassionate ethic in horrible and terrifying circumstances. They were not meditating in ivory towers but were living in frightening war-torn societies, where the old values were disappearing. Like us, they were conscious of the void and the abyss. The sages were not utopian dreamers but practical men; many were preoccupied with politics and government. They were convinced that empathy did not just sound edifying, but actually worked. Compassion and concern for everybody was the best policy. We should take their insights seriously, because they were the experts. They devoted a great deal of time and energy to thinking about the nature of goodness. They spent as much creative energy seeking a cure for the spiritual malaise of humanity as scientists today spend trying to find a cure for cancer. We have different preoccupations. The Axial Age was a time of spiritual genius; we live in an age of scientific and technological genius, and our spiritual education is often undeveloped.

... We now have to develop a global consciousness, because,whether we like it or not, we live in one world. Even though our problem is different from that of the Axial sages, they can still help us. They did not jettison the insight of the old religion, but deepened and extended them. In the same way, we should develop the insights of the Axial Age.

~ ~ ~

I believe the Charter of Compassion closely aligns with both the principles adhered to by Unitarian Universalists and the sources of faith of Unitarian Universalism. 

 

UU Principles and Sources of Faith

There are seven principles which Unitarian Universalist congregations affirm and promote:

• The inherent worth and dignity of every person;
• Justice, equity and compassion in human relations;
• Acceptance of one another and encouragement to spiritual growth in our congregations;
• A free and responsible search for truth and meaning;
• The right of conscience and the use of the democratic process within our congregations and in society at large;
• The goal of world community with peace, liberty, and justice for all;
• Respect for the interdependent web of all existence of which we are a part.

 

Unitarian Universalism (UU) draws from many sources:

• Direct experience of that transcending mystery and wonder, affirmed in all cultures, which moves us to a renewal of the spirit and an openness to the forces which create and uphold life;
• Words and deeds of prophetic women and men which challenge us to confront powers and structures of evil with justice, compassion, and the transforming power of love;
• Wisdom from the world's religions which inspires us in our ethical and spiritual life;
• Jewish and Christian teachings which call us to respond to God's love by loving our neighbors as ourselves;
• Humanist teachings which counsel us to heed the guidance of reason and the results of science, and warn us against idolatries of the mind and spirit.
• Spiritual teachings of earth-centered traditions which celebrate the sacred circle of life and instruct us to live in harmony with the rhythms of nature.

These principles and sources of faith are the backbone of our religious community.

~ ~ ~

During the sharing time, someone asked me why I thought the Charter for Compassion was so important. Since I have trouble thinking on my feet, I had trouble answering that question. I since have pondered some and am trying to express it. I could probably use a complete blog post to answer the question, but, instead, will try to do so here.

As someone said on the Charter's Facebook page, the Charter for Compassion is very close to my heart. I was a member of the Christian church most of my life and I believe the Charter speaks to Christianity's deepest affirmations and mission, especially that of Jesus himself. I have always been a strong believer in the Golden Rule. While still having a strong religious impulse and trying to follow Jesus, I have come to see the unity of the religions at their core. I believe that the Charter for Compassion is an answer for today's religious strife. I also believe it is an antidote to the mean-spirited and and hard-line approach that seems to have been so in vogue recently. 

Not believing that war is the answer, I believe that compassion is. I have never agreed with the War of Terror on Terror. I have always believed that 9-11 was, in the larger sense, a wake-up call for the United States and its foreign policy and relations. Revenge and killing were not and are not answering that call. I have believed that the United States was called to change its ways. To treat others in the world as we would wish to be treated. Every person is important. Every culture is also important. I look to the line in our Declaration of Independence about all being created equal and endowed with certain unalienable rights among which are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. I have never believed that all this was to be just for Americans. I believe we need to put on different glasses.

By extension, I also believe that especially in this time of the earth's fragility and climate change, we need to have compassion for all the earth and its beings and creatures.

As people have said, we are all one. We are all connected.

I have been a big believer in the efficacy of and need for consciousness-raising or awareness-raising, as one might say. I also believe in putting my name one the line and standing up for for what I believe in. I see the Charter as a tool for the endeavor that peace may prevail on earth.

Compassionate Quotes

On Sunday, April 25, I led the Unitarian Universalist Community of Frankfort in a Circle Worship service entitled, Compassion: The Charter & the Principles.

Below are the "Compassionate Quotes" that we read in our worship circle:

1. Human being is a part of the whole called by us universe, a part limited in time and space. He experiences himself, his thoughts and feeling as something separated from the rest, a kind of optical delusion of his consciousness. This delusion is a kind of prison for us, restricting us to our personal desires and to affection for a few persons nearest to us. Our task must be to free ourselves from this prison by widening our circle of compassion to embrace all living creatures and the whole of nature in its beauty.–Albert Einstein

2. Because of our very vulnerable offspring, the fundamental task for human survival and gene replication is to take care of others. Human beings have survived as a species because we have evolved the capacities to care for those in need and to cooperate. As Darwin long ago surmised, sympathy is our strongest instinct.–Dacher Keltner, co-director of UC Berkeley's Greater Good Science Center 

3. If any think they are religious, and do not bridle their tongues but deceive their hearts, their religion is worthless. Religion that is pure and undefiled before God, the Father, is this: to care for orphans and widows in their distress, and to keep oneself unstained by the world.–New Testament Letter of James

4. Religion that is more life enhancing, affirming, and morally compelling advocates doing what is right and good, because it is the right thing to do. But still, we can go one step further. The highest form of religion empowers a person or community to do what is right and good, not only because it is the right thing to do, but because the person or community is permeated and immersed in a divine, magnanimous, unconditional love. Mature religion is self-validating; it is egalitarian, holistic, inclusive, transformational, and filled with compassion and grace. –the Rev. Chuck Queen

5. There's one rule that lies at the heart of every religion -- that we do unto others as we would have them do unto us. This truth transcends nations and peoples -- a belief that isn't new; that isn't black or white or brown; that isn't Christian or Muslim or Jew.  It's a belief that pulsed in the cradle of civilization, and that still beats in the hearts of billions around the world.–President Barack Obama

6. Compassion is something that needs to be encouraged, like an endangered species, perhaps.–John Tarrant

The Side Bar

If readers have not done so, I urge them to mosey up for a visit to The Side Bar in the right of the The Peace Advocate blog.

In The Side Bar, there is an array of non-alcoholic, peaceful selections from which the visitor may choose.

At the top, there is a PINK widget-link for the CODEPINK site, Women Say No to War. Next, comes a peace quote from President Obama. (We hope he believed what he said.) This is followed by another PINK widget-link for the main site of CODEPINK: Women for Peace and one showing that I support us getting out of Afghanistan. Next is a widget-link to the website and text of the Charter for Compassion which I believe is a great document and effort for peace. I encourage visitors to support and promote this initiative. There, then, is a very important little message-prayer-wish-"mantra" for peace itself.

The following section consists of links to peaceful and, thus, Blissful Blogs. Some are CODEPINK-related and some are by Central Kentucky bloggers.

I then have a little section about me followed by the public followers of this blog.

The next section is a Facebook one: a share button, my Facebook badge with link, the Charter for Compassion page, and the CODEPINK: Women for Peace page. 

The next-to-last section consists of a list of peaceful, Lilting Links, including others related to CODEPINK, the UN (I serve on the board of the Frankort Chapter of the United Nations Association.), other peace groups, including some for Palestinian freedom and human rights and peace for all of Israel-Palestine, and also those of my religious affiliation. I also have reminder-reference links to the UN Declaration for Human Rights and the US Constitution. Included in the Lilting Links are also links to the websites of the members of the Congressional Sixth District of Kentucky with their contact information.

The final section consists of The Peace Advocate's blog archive.

Note that visitors to The Side Bar may taste, sip, and drink as they so choose, but overindulgence is discouraged. I hope that the visit is found to be tasteful, enhancing, and helpful.

Please note also that visitors to The Side Bar are asked to leave their weapons without and to refrain from quarreling and fighting within.

I encourage visitors to become Peace Advocates themselves.

The Remedy

Compassion, locally and globally, is the remedy for the world's ills.

A video from the Charter for Compassion: