Address: “Being a UU in a Time of
War”©
The Rev. Sarah Lammert, USR,
The rain was driving nearly sideways over the
Back our gathering place under the
bridge, I had been a bit surprised when we first arrived to see a woman
standing there with an American flag and a sign that said what I thought was “Communists
for Peace.” “That’s an interesting
combination of messages” I thought to myself.
Upon closer inspection I realized that she was not a “Communist for
Peace” but was a counter-demonstrator accusing the peace marchers of being
communists! As we passed by her small
group, she kept yelling at us “Where are
your flags? Where are your flags? Where are your flags?”
I guess we could have thought to
carry some American flags along with our cardboard peace signs, most of which
ended up in garbage cans along the bridge as they succumbed to being
waterlogged en route. Certainly I felt
patriotic as I paused in the middle of the bridge, searching the gray skyline
hanging over
Since 2003 the
During World War II, the American
Public, while separated by an ocean from actual conflict, was truly engaged
with the war effort. War bonds were
hawked by everyone from children going door-to-door to famous movie stars like
Abbott and Costello and Irene Dunne. “Making
do with less” became the rallying cry as luxury goods were rationed, salvage
drives were launched, and women at home planted
Perhaps because
About a month ago, my UU colleagues
in
In our Seven Principles, which
express the things most commonly affirmed among us, the foundational values
expressed are founding the 1st and 7th principles -- the
individual worth and dignity of every person, and the fundamental interconnection
of life. In other words, every life is
precious and we must then do what we can to ensure that each person has access
to the basic human rights that allow them to live with dignity, and for their
potential to unfold. And, even more, our
fate as one individual, privileged or not, is inextricably tied to the fate of
all others. As MLK put it “We are tied together in the single garment
of destiny, caught in an inescapable network of mutuality….For some strange
reason I can never be what I ought to be until you are what you ought to be. And you can never be what you ought to be
until I am what I ought to be.” All
of our other principles – the right of conscience and the use of democratic
process, the goal of world community with peace liberty and justice for all,
etc, stem from the first and seventh
War makes it all but impossible for
us to live out our principles in any meaningful way. War not only undermines and annihilates
individual lives, but affects whole nations, destroying cultures, the environment,
economies, and the infrastructures that provide basic services like water,
transportation, healthcare, housing, and communication. It tears apart communities, devastates the
lives of children and families, and can lead to the loss of civil liberties not
only in the actual war zone but in the home nation of the aggressor, as we have
seen. War may start out with noble
intentions, but it is also based on secrecy, propaganda and lies. The human cost on the victims of war is
obvious, but it may be equally devastating to the soldiers who must then try to
reintegrate themselves into a life at home which may suddenly seen quite
alien. War leaves deep scars on the
psyche of entire peoples, leaving behind hatreds that can easily flare up, like
the dying embers of a campfire stoked by new winds of change.
I fear that the war we are currently
engaged in could leave our nation cobbled by debt, unable to fund critical
initiatives domestically, while only adding to the economic and racial gap
between those who have and those who have not.
I fear it that even worse, it may leave our democracy without a soul.
During my upcoming sabbatical, which
begins in January and runs through the middle of June, one of the things I plan
to do besides travel and writing, is to take a class at
In the ministry business we like to
say that Sundays come apace, and despite the devastation of that week Wesley
found himself standing in his pulpit the next Sunday, with no sermon prepared
and less than half of his congregation before him. Many were still in makeshift refugee camps
and others simply didn’t dare come to worship.
Wesley found himself neither expressing his pity and compassion for the
victims of this violence, nor spewing anger and bitterness towards the
perpetrators. Instead he was filled with
sadness and shame for his entire country, for all of them together. He spoke about how violence diminishes all of
us, and makes us less than human:
How
it eats up the souls of those who perpetrate it and robs them of their
humanity. How it thrives on our base
instincts that we have sought so persistently to tame and overcome by building
up religious systems, whole cultures and civilizations!
A society that tolerates violence
[he concluded], a nation that is built on perpetuating violence on others,
anywhere, any time, is on its way to ruin.
For violence is a cancer. It eats
from within.[2]
As Unitarian Universalists, who care more about
how life is lived on this earth than we spend time in anticipation of a reward
in a paradise to come, we are called to grapple with the hard truth of living
in a time like this one – a time of war. Not only do we seem to be caught in some kind
of hellish purgatory in Iraq, but our administration is making noises about the
War on Terror being unending. I have to
concur with Dr. Ariarajah that to build a society on the idea of perpetual
warfare is to set in motion the ruin of that society. Even on a spectrum of political identity –
from liberal to conservative -- it seems to me that we all need to be concerned
and in action to end the aggression in Iraq, demand that timetables and plans
be set into motion for withdrawal, and that we resist with all our might
beginning all over again in Iran or elsewhere.
Would we but invest a fraction into
the study and implementation of a worldwide peace plan as we have into the
study and implementation of war. Peace
isn’t just a distant ideal or a noble aspiration, it requires difficult,
transformative work in our personal lives, in our relationships with others,
and at the level of institutional and national systems. Racism plays a part in perpetuating war – it
will require all of our engagement with antiracism, anti-oppression and
multiculturalism to bring about peace. Classism
and economic injustice play a part in war – to counter this means some serious
commitment to creating educational and job opportunities for all people. Peace seems simple, but living it is a
challenge. We seem to have accepted that
a certain amount of violence is inevitable, and we have allowed that culture of
violence to seep into our children’s games, our political rhetoric, our
entertainment, our language, and our lives.
No wonder we bemoan the lack of general civility on our roads and in our
public spheres! We must ask if there
isn’t another path – another way – beginning with ourselves, and expanding out
to our homes, our villages, our cities, our states and our world.
Whenever I attend a rally these days
I hear a simple cry: “No Peace, No
Justice.” It gets repeated over and over
again until one isn’t sure what comes first, justice or peace. One seems to stem from the other. The great thing about getting out on a march,
though no one in
Amen.