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Confronting Our Shadow Side
Deshna Ubeda
A few months ago, I met with a group of about 12 "Young Leaders in Religion." I'll admit, I felt a bit of pride for being labeled as both "young" and a "leader" and I sat, with my chin just slightly raised, around a table of these intelligent, passionate, spiritual, intellectual human beings, feeling like co-conspirators that could change the world for the better if we just put our heads together. I felt confident and equal to those around me, though clearly many of them had higher advanced degrees than I do, as well as more education in our field and certainly many of them had a higher intelligence or creative mind than I do. But I didn't spend my energy thinking about that nor did I think too much about our ages. I never thought about our economic differences, and not once did I consider myself better or worse than any of them. Why? Because we were part of a team, a gathering of like individuals with a shared interest and a passion for the intelligent and informed perspectives on religion. We were all different, yet all the same in my mind.
As part of our meeting, we went around the table and introduced ourselves and what we were passionate about. There were a few women there that introduced themselves as black, one of whom also included in her introduction a passion for race equality. When they labeled themselves as black and so clearly emphasized this importance, for a moment I was taken aback. First of all, I hadn't even thought of it. I quickly looked around the room to see if there were other black people there. There was one other woman, who was obviously not just white European but of some other ethnic descent- maybe Latina, I couldn't really tell. I wondered for the first time what ethnicities the people at the table were... And then I sat perplexed as to why that was such a prominent part of these women's introductions. After all, I didn't say, "Hello my name is Deshna. I am a white woman..." Then I pondered why, in today's world do we STILL need to be focusing so much attention on race? It caused me a bit of discomfort and I believe it was because all of sudden we weren't the same anymore and I really didn't FULLY understand where they were coming from. Were we not on the same team? My human mind, which desires to label, group, and classify, wondered.
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Church Burnings and Southern Resistance — Is It 1963 Again?
Irene Monroe
This lesbian minister laments how disconnected the equality efforts for different groups — for blacks, women, and gays — currently feels.
I am a child of the Black Church. And like so many of my African American LGBTQ brothers and sisters we continue to have a troubled relationship with our places of worship. But like so many of them, I, too, am unsettled by the news of this recent spate of church burnings. None of the church burnings have been labeled as hate crimes- yet I cannot help but notice these church burnings are occurring suspiciously in rapid succession following the Charleston black church massacre, which left nine dead-including its senior pastor. The day before the church massacre, exactly one hundred and ninety-three years prior, “Mother” Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church was burned to the ground due to the racial violence of a mob of white slave owners. Mother Emanuel, however, rose from her ashes soon after the Civil War in 1865, and the doors of the church has been open and welcoming ever since, even with this recent incident.
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Parishioners hold hands and sing during services at the Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church in Charleston on June 21, 2015. (REUTERS/David Goldman/Pool)
The Charleston Murders: The Final Battle in the Civil War?
Bishop John Shelby Spong
It was a brutal murder of nine people in an AME Church in Charleston, South Carolina. The victims, including their pastor, who was also a member of the South Carolina State Senate, were gunned down by a racist killer who wrapped himself in the symbols and rhetoric of the Confederacy. This was not America’s first gun-related mass-murder, but this one turned out to be dramatically different in one significant detail. On the next day, the heart-broken African-American mourners confronted the murderer of their loved ones. Their words to him were not of anger, blame or even revenge, but only of forgiveness. That act, so beyond expectations, opened the reservoirs of racial emotions, held for so long just beneath the surface of this nation’s political life. As a result racism visibly began to die. Within days politicians across the South moved to take down the Confederate flags. The call to take this step in South Carolina was led by two unlikely Republican legislators. One was State Senator Paul Thurmond, the son of Senator Strom Thurmond, arguably America’s most noted voice of our racist past; the other was Republican State Representative Jenny Horne, a direct descendant of Jefferson Davis, the President of the Confederacy. The vote in both Houses of the South Carolina Legislature was overwhelming, suggesting that racism, implanted so deeply and for so long in the American character, was at last dying. People have always had a hard time accepting the fact that racism was motivating them. This sickness seems best dealt with by denial or by perfuming it with pious words. Let me take a moment to identify its continuing presence in our national life.
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Go Down, Moses Racism: What to do?
Sea Raven
We know what to do. The Universal Declaration of Human Rights begins: “Whereas the peoples of the United Nations have in the Charter reaffirmed their faith in fundamental human rights, in the dignity and worth of the human person and in the equal rights of men and women and have determined to promote social progress and better standards of life in larger freedom.” Unitarian Universalists claim the “inherent worth and dignity of all humanity.” Christians claim the Apostle Paul’s ecstatic revelation that “You are no longer Jew or Greek, no longer slave or freeborn, no longer ‘male and female.’ Instead you all have the same status in the service of God’s anointed Jesus.” Leviticus 19:18 says, “Love your neighbor as yourself.” Jesus said, “Love your enemies.”
Ah, yes, but …
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Same As It Ever Was (Start Today) Music Video
Michael Franti
“Same As It Ever Was (Start Today)” was written to express Franti's feelings after the grand jury dismissals in the Eric Garner and Mike Brown killings by police officers.
This song is a call to action that hopes to inspires dialogue and contributes in a small way to much needed change in our country today.
“When we all see justice, then we’ll all see peace!”
WATCH HERE...
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The World We Create
Carl Krieg
When it comes to the issues of racism and violence, the question is not whether, but why. Why is it that at least some human beings treat others so horribly?
There are many answers - psychological, sociological, economic, genetic - but the final explanation, it seems to me, lies in neuroscience. As we develop, starting with the earliest stages of life, sensation arrives in our neural system and works its way to the brain, which in turn tries its best to make order out of the bombardment with which it is presented. It has certain hard wired tricks that it uses for this purpose, good illustrations of which can be seen on the documentary Brain Games, currently available on Netflix. At the most basic level, the brain assorts sensation into some kind of order, creating a perception, which it then supposes to be reality. Unfortunately, the reality created by the brain does not coincide with reality as it is “out there”.
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One Southerner’s Thoughts on the Rebel Flag
David LaMotte
Today the rebel flag will be removed from the Capitol grounds of South Carolina. The South Carolina House and Senate, by overwhelming majorities in both houses, voted to take it down this week, and Governor Haley signed the bill yesterday.
I’m a Southerner. My father’s father’s father’s father was one Thomas Jefferson Talley LaMotte, who walked home to Columbia, South Carolina after fighting for the Confederacy in Virginia and North Carolina. Except for time overseas, I’ve lived in the South my whole life, and both sides of my family are from the South. The first LaMotte in the colonies immigrated to Charleston, South Carolina. I watched too much TV as a kid to have much of a Southern accent, but I say ‘y’all’ without irony. And this fully credentialed Southern White Guy is celebrating this day.
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“Black Privilege” Button Poetry - Video
Crystal Valentine
"Black privilege is me having already memorized my nephew’s eulogy, my brother’s eulogy, my father’s eulogy, my unconceived child’s eulogy,” “Black privilege is me thinking my sister’s name is safe from that list.”
"Black privilege is a myth, is a joke, is a punchline... It's tiring, you know? For everything about my skin to be a metaphor..."
"I'll be lucky if I make it to the stand. For some people, their trials last longer than they do"
WATCH HERE...
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In The Wake of the Emanuel AME Church Murders - Sermon Video
Rev. Dr. Roger Ray - Community Christian Church
The nine deaths in the mass murder in the Mother Emanuel AME church will not automatically become redemptive suffering. Those deaths may be simply sad victims of senseless, racist, violence unless their deaths inspire transformation. It is up to us. The universe, on its own, is capricious and chaotic, entirely devoid of meaning UNLESS we bring meaning to it.
This sermon implores listeners to take action to eradicate racism and to usher in meaningful gun control legislation.
WATCH HERE...
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Buckman Coe – “Love For All Living Things” (Official Music Video)
Buckman Coe
This is a beautiful, inspirational song about sowing the seeds of love, compassion, and truth. Buckman Coe is a force of positive inspiration in his own right, using his voice to bring beauty and optimism into the world.
WATCH HERE...
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