There has been a lot of converstation in the bloggosphere about growth in UU'ism. For what it is worth, I agree with Boston Unitarian's comment:
What I do not agree with is that this should not be fixed. I believe that Unitarian Universalism needs to embrace a set of core values founded in our history, heritage, theology, and religion - not to grow for growth's sake but to remake ourselves into a healthy, relevant church for the twenty-first century. I am reposting an address I gave at Westminster Unitarian Church over Memorial Day Weekend that sets forth my case for UU's seriously embracing a set of core values. Or you might read (or re-read) Rev. Richard S. Gilbert's The Prophetic Imperative: Social Gospel in Theory and Practice. He says what I have been trying to say since I stated this blog so much better than I.
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Good morning. Thank you for asking me to speak to you today. I am sure you are wondering what I am going to talk about given that I opened this service with a statement from the United States Navy’s Core Values Charter
[i] and then we recited together the Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr.’s vision of the Beloved Community.
[ii] Please bear with me as I try to link the two together.
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In 2003, the U. S. Army War College’s Strategic Studies Institute wanted to find out what motivated American service people to put their lives on the line in combat. Researchers asked U.S. troops who had just fought in the Iraq invasion what were their motivations for continuing to fight in a battle. Not surprisingly, the foremost answer was that they fought for each other. What was surprising to some was that American troops also cited the importance of the cause for which they were fighting – and that “cause” was not finding weapons of mass destruction, not overthrowing Saddam Hussein, but bringing liberation and democracy to the people of Iraq. Fighting for ideals and values which Americans believe are their own was of great importance to these troops. Historians have found similar motivations in other wars. Civil War historian James McPherson found that Confederate troops fought “for liberty and independence from what they regarded as a tyrannical government” while Union troops fought “to preserve the nation created by the founders from dismemberment and destruction.” Freedom from tyranny and liberation of the oppressed are goals that American service people have always fought and died for.
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These findings don’t surprise me. American military service culture exposes young Soldiers, Sailors, Airmen, Marines, and Coast Guardsmen to service core values from the day they take their oaths. In my service, the Navy, Sailors embrace values of Honor, Courage, and Commitment and a creed that embodies those values and which states:
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I am a United States Sailor.
I will support and defend the Constitution of the United States of America and I will obey the orders of those appointed over me.
I represent the fighting spirit of the Navy and all who have gone before me to defend freedom and democracy around the world.
I proudly serve my country’s Navy combat team with Honor, Courage and Commitment.
I am committed to excellence and the fair treatment of all.[iv] -
Our Constitution, freedom and democracy, and fair treatment of all – these are the values we serve and fight for. These are values that were so important to some that they gave their lives to uphold them.
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Tomorrow is Memorial Day, a day on which we honor and remember our service men and women who fought and died for these values. It is appropriate that we do so but I think it is also appropriate that we ask ourselves, “What can I do to really honor this sacrifice?”
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It is my belief that we can best honor them by the practice of our faith as Unitarian Universalists.
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I want to share with you why I became a Unitarian Universalist. As a career naval officer dedicated to the practice of my service’s core values of Honor, Courage, and Commitment, I became disillusioned and disgusted with what my country has become after 9/11. I believe that our government, with our tacit consent, has practiced unjust war, denial of human rights, abrogation of civil liberties, and torture – all in the name of a war whose enemy we don’t even formally name. In so doing, I believe our government, again with our silent acceptance, has dishonored all of those who wear the uniform, serve, fight, and sometimes die for the values I spoke of. These are harsh and, perhaps, surprising words coming from a retired career officer but I feel I must say them.
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Because I feel this way and because, while on active duty, I could not speak out and still be true to my oath, I became a Unitarian Universalist as my own personal act of witness against what I believe is so fundamentally wrong in our society. In a country in which so many believe that (in theologian and journalist Chris Hedges’ words) “war is a force that gives us meaning”, Unitarian Universalists have always looked for meaning elsewhere. The Rev. James Luther Adams in 1946, calling our religion “A Faith for Free Men,” wrote, “...that the commanding, sustaining, transforming reality (of our religion) finds its rightful focus in meaningful human history, in free, cooperative effort for the common good. In other words, this reality fulfills man’s life only when men stand in right relation to each other. Man, the historical being, comes most fully to terms with this reality in the exercise of freedom that works for justice in the human community. Only what creates freedom in a community of justice is dependable...Only the society that gives every man the opportunity to share in the process whereby human potentiality is realizable, only the society that creates social forms of freedom in a community of justice (where every man is given his due), only the freedom that respects the divine image and dignity in every man are dependable.” Rev. Adams concludes, “As Lincoln put it, ‘Those who deny freedom to others deserve it not for themselves, and, under a just God, cannot long retain it.’”
[v]-
Adams is describing what the Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr. called the Beloved Community, a completely integrated society, a community of love and justice wherein brotherhood will be an actuality in all of social life.
[vi] I became a Unitarian Universalist because I believe that our core value is the Beloved Community and our mission in the world is to build it and sustain it. The freedom that arises from life in such a community is, I believe, the freedom those who serve in the armed forces fight for. You and I can honor all those who fought and died for this freedom by striving ceaselessly for realization of the Beloved Community.
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The Beloved Community may seem a lofty, unrealistic, unattainable goal. I believe, as many in our church do, that it IS attainable. This belief is fully consistent with our sixth principle to affirm and promote the goal of world community with peace, liberty, and justice for all.
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But how well have I done, have we done affirming and promoting this Beloved Community? I asked myself this question recently when experiencing a crisis of faith – wondering whether we as a church strive as we must to build this community. As Rev. Amy Freedman, my own minister, has said, “As human beings we can either obstruct the establishment of a just and loving community or participate in creating one. Our faith in the goodness of life calls us, you and me, to speak and work, live and love in order to bring more understanding and healing into this world.”
[vii] Do we choose to embrace this mission? Do we choose to embrace our core value of the Beloved Community and work steadfastly for its realization?
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In one of my final assignments for the Navy, I rediscovered the power of core values – how putting them into practice can make a difference in the world and how practicing them can sustain one in morally challenging times. I was assigned as the Commander of the Navy Element of Joint Task Force Guantanamo, the enemy combatant detention facility. My principal job was to organize, train, and equip Navy Sailors to be detainee guards. It was 2005 and Abu Ghraib was fresh in everyone’s memory. I really wondered how I would train Sailors in such a way as to prevent something like Abu Ghraib happening at Guantanamo. I realized that fundamentally what I needed to do was preach and practice the Navy’s core values of Honor, Courage, and Commitment every day. Just as in previous commands, if I did that, my Sailors would follow my example.
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Let me offer one story to illustrate this. Our Sailors went through rigorous training, conducted by Army soldiers, to be guards at GTMO. Much of this training involved simulated exercises with Army role-players acting as detainees and acting in a way that created the worst possible scenario for the guard-trainees. After each exercise, the Sailors (who were normally soaking wet (with simulated urine), covered with baby food (simulated human feces), and, in some cases, a little bit pissed off, would gather for a post-exercise critique with the Army instructors. I found this to be an excellent process. It forced the Sailors to discuss what they had done right and what they had done wrong in a non-threatening environment. Often the Sailors, to their credit, would talk candidly about their mistakes and find ways among themselves to correct them and do better.
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I always attended these post-exercise critiques but seldom interjected, preferring to let the Sailors identify their own problems and find their own solutions. I would speak up to clarify an issue or to ensure that the Sailors found solutions that were consistent with how the Navy wanted them to perform in Guantanamo. For instance, at one post-exercise critique, the Sailors were having a heated discussion with their instructors over the forced extraction from a cell of a role player who had a simulated weapon. Sailors are trained to use the minimum amount of force necessary to remove a detainee from a cell who was fighting not to be removed. Normally a forced cell extraction involved the Sailors dressing in riot gear (pads, helmets, plastic shield) and entering as a group linked like a chain. They force the detainee up against a wall, wrestle him to the floor, and secure his hands and feet. They then pick him up and remove him. Sailors are taught to apply pressure to points on the detainee’s body to cause him to stop resisting in accordance with accepted unarmed self-defense tactics. During this particular exercise, one Sailor was trying to apply pressure with his knee to a point on the role player’s body (a technique the Sailor had been taught). Unfortunately, the Sailor was doing it incorrectly and it appeared on the film record (forced cell extractions were always filmed) as if the Sailor was gratuitously “kneeing” the role player.
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The Army instructor pointed this out but the Sailors (who still had a little adrenalin in their systems) indignantly held that they were only doing what they had been taught. The instructor then pointed out that it didn’t matter what they were trying to do. The important thing was that it appeared on the film to be gratuitous hitting; something the media would most certainly make use of in a real life situation to paint a picture of abuse at Guantanamo. It was important, therefore, to be sensitive to media and public perceptions.
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At this point, I spoke up. As I started to speak, one of the Sailors told everyone, “Be quiet, the Captain has something to say.” It dawned on me at that moment that these young men and women were looking for clear guidance and I needed to be very clear in what I told them. I said that media perception and public perception were not the issue. What was important was that the Sailors were misapplying the technique they had been taught with the result that they were, in fact, unnecessarily hitting the role player and hurting him. It is simply wrong to apply any more force than is necessary to restrain a detainee in a real-life situation since to do so might cause him unnecessary harm. I then told them not to worry about media or public perceptions. Just strive to do the right thing always, simply because it is the right thing to do. They accepted this – certainly that is how they performed in Guantanamo.
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Did they really – you might ask? I know they did because, after we arrived in Guantanamo, I often conducted unannounced walk-thru’s of the camps at night – a time when not too many senior officers were around. One night, I happened to notice a group of Sailors in a formation getting ready to go into the camps to assume guard duty. They were reciting aloud that Sailor’s Creed I read to you earlier – reminding themselves of what was expected of them. Later I observed these same Sailors acting with the skill they learned in training and with the professionalism and compassion expected of United States Sailors.
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I’m not telling this story to illustrate what a great leader I am or how well my Sailors took orders. What I said was not all that profound. In fact, it was only what the Navy expected me or any other Captain to say to the Sailors in this situation. Further, the Navy expected me to ensure that the Sailors performed in this fashion just as I expected the Sailors to do so. I am, to this day, extremely proud of them but I was never surprised that they performed as they did. We all embraced the Navy’s core values of Honor, Courage, and Commitment and put them into practice. In the process, I think we made Guantanamo a slightly better place.
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Identifying with and practicing core values empower one to achieve that which may seem otherwise unobtainable. As Unitarian Universalists, we identify with our core value of the Beloved Community but how do we embrace it in such a way as to empower ourselves to work meaningfully and ceaselessly for its realization?
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I mentioned I recently experienced a crisis of faith. Frankly, I see a lot of complacency in our society now. “Don’t blame me, I didn’t vote for Bush!” is something I have heard more than once. Others say, “Barack Obama is in the White House so now things will be better – we can relax.” But even now, people are saying things like, “We need to go slow on closing Guantanamo, evaluating all the complexities,” or, “While we condemn torture, nothing is served by prosecuting those who were just following orders. We need to look forward not backward,” and, of course, the conservatives and the nativists are still on the march marginalizing the poor, condemning Mexicans for spreading swine flu, and frightening people with the threat of transferring “terrorists” to super-max prisons near their home towns. Seems like the Beloved Community is still a long way off and no one is doing much to achieve it.
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That’s unfair; lots of people are working toward it – including my minister, many social justice activists in my church and many in the larger UU communion. But, in spite of all that I asked myself, what is my church as a whole doing about it? I felt we weren’t doing enough and also felt I was alone feeling this way – maybe I belonged elsewhere. Then I happened to find the writings of the Rev. Richard S. Gilbert, a UU minister, whose book The Prophetic Imperative: Social Gospel in Theory and Practice kept me in the church by assuring me that I was not alone and that my rather ambiguously-framed concerns and critiques have been given more eloquent form and are a part of the identity of our church.
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Gilbert writes, “I contend that the Unitarian Universalist movement lives under a prophetic imperative, a religious mandate for the corporate address of the church to the systemic problems of society. I cannot prove that; I do not assert it as a divine imperative; I only feel it deep in my bones. Otherwise, we will be trapped in individualistic self-interest promoted by the dominant reactionary rhetoric and by neoconservative ideology, both political and religious.”
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He goes on to say, “My intent is to apply the term prophetic primarily to the religious community. The prophetic church is a religious community that seeks to intervene in human history for the sake of social justice. This intervention is made in the context of religious conviction, but without the supernatural confidence of the Hebrew prophets. The authority of the prophetic liberal church will instead be derived in somewhat more humanistic terms that articulate a transcendent standard for justice.
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“The imperative to be stressed is that which emerges from the disciplines of freedom. Freedom is not merely the absence of restraint, but the will and capacity to act on one’s environment. It is a freedom that implies responsibility to enrich and expand freedom in the social order. Freedom, a central value of Unitarian Universalism, is a social concept, and, if it is to be preserved, an obligation is placed on the free person. I believe we are not free to desist from struggling for freedom for self and others. Freedom, by its very nature, places an imperative claim on the free person to expand that freedom to all.”
[viii]-
Echoing Adams and King, Gilbert states that by enriching and expanding freedom in the social order we help build the Beloved Community, calling it, “...a humanistically oriented substitute for the Kingdom of God...a poetic metaphor to describe, not theological salvation in the next world, but social salvation in this one.”
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Gilbert explores the roots of the prophetic imperative in Unitarian and Universalist history and then sketches out a model for how a congregation like yours and mine can embrace it. His model moves away from the traditional stove pipe approach to church programs, with constituencies for ministry, religious education, fund raising, social justice, property management, etc. and toward a more integrated approach in which the spiritual and social action do more than coexist. They are integrated into a whole to the extent that one cannot survive without the other because each is an expression of the other. Such an integrated congregation can be a powerful force in the community for meaningful social action and systemic change.
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Gilbert’s is a model that will empower each of our congregations to embrace our core value of the Beloved Community and work more effectively for its realization. It is our religion given expression in action and it is, I believe, a blueprint for the future of our church. That idea is not original with me. For example, one of the candidates for President of the Unitarian Universalist Association, Rev. Peter Morales, has said, “True religion teaches us that we are all in this together and that everyone matters. And if we really take that to heart then we will work to end suffering and hatred and violence and oppression. If we are to create a little corner of paradise, there is no room for hatred and injustice.”
[ix]-
Unitarian and Universalist clerics have preached about freedom since the days of Channing, Parker, and Ballou. In each case, they speak not of privileges but of the obligation to work for social justice – the foundation of freedom in the Beloved Community. Gilbert speaks of that obligation and offers us a model to fulfill it. It is a model that inspires me to work for the Beloved Community – what I believe to be the core value of the Unitarian Universalist church.
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The freedom of which Channing, Parker, Ballou, Adams, King, Gilbert and others speak is the freedom the men and women we honor this weekend fought and died for. If we truly honor their sacrifice, we should fight for that freedom too.
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[i] “As in our past, we are dedicated to the Core Values of Honor, Courage, and Commitment to build the foundation of trust upon which our strength is based and victory is achieved. These principles upon which the U. S. Navy was founded continue to guide us today...We will be faithful to our Core Values of Honor, Courage, and Commitment as our abiding duty and privilege.” Found at:
http://www.tpub.com/content/advancement/12024/img/12024_43_1.jpg.
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[ii] “The end is reconciliation; the end is redemption; the end is the creation of the Beloved Community. It is this type of spirit and this type of love that can transform opposers into friends. It is this type of understanding goodwill that will transform the deep gloom of the old age into the exuberant gladness of the new age. It is this love which will bring about miracles in the hearts of men.” From: King, Rev. Martin Luther, Jr. (1957). “The Role of the Church in Facing the Nation's Chief Moral Dilemma.” Downloaded May 20th, 2009 from:
http://www.wearethebelovedcommunity.org/bcquotes.html.
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[iii] Wong, Leonard, et al (2003). Why they fight: Combat motivation in the Iraq war. Strategic Studies Institute, United States Army War College, Carlisle, Pennsylvania.
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[v] Adams, Rev. James Luther (1946). “A Faith for Free Men.” Cited it David B. Parke, The epic of Unitarianism: Original writings from the history of liberal religion. Boston: Skinner House Books, 1985, pp. 151 – 152.
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[vi] See Smith, Kenneth L. and Zepp, Ira G., Jr. (1974). Search for the beloved community: The thinking of Martin Luther King. Jr. Valley Forge, PA: Judson Press.
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[viii] Gilbert, Rev. Richard S. (2000). The prophetic imperative: Social gospel in theory and practice, 2nd edition. Boston: Skinner House Books, pp. 4-8.
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