August 2008 Archives

John McCain's choice of Alaska governor Sarah Palin seems not only unlikely, but foolish.  I don't understand his reasoning.  Does he think that Hillary voters will support a woman who is pro-life?  And a life-long member of the NRA?  And does he believe that the social conservatives he's wooing will be comfortable with a female leader--any female leader? 

There are other problems with his choice. Although squeaky clean herself and a reformer to boot, Palin is from one of the most corrupt state governments in the nation.  Alaska is the embarrassed home of the "Bridge to Nowhere," and it seems that every other political figure there is under indictment.  It is not logical or fair that she should suffer from "guilt by association," but it is inevitable that she will, to some extent.

Then there is the fact that Alaska is more than a little removed in the minds of most Americans, and is home to only 670,000 people.  It is difficult to picture Alaska bringing much in the way of votes or national support for the GOP.

But the most significant difficulty with McCain's choice of Palin is that he is 72, with significant health issues.  She is a young and vigorous change-agent, but totally inexperienced in national politics and has no foreign policy experience.  One phrase that we're going to hear a lot in this campaign is "one heartbeat away from the Presidency"--as in, "Do we really want someone that inexperienced one heartbeat away from the Presidency--especially somebody who might actually become the President?"  For this reason alone, Sarah Palin should have been taken off McCain's short list early on.

Senator Charles Shumer described McCain's choice as "a hail Mary pass."  I would have to agree.  It has desperation written all over it. 

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I keep reading that many of Hillary's followers have never gotten over her defeat in the primary.  A few are saying outright that they are going to vote for McCain.  Some of the major fundraisers who worked for Hillary refused to even show up at the Democratic National Convention now in progress in Denver.  Other delegates are leaving the Convention early, before Obama speaks on Thursday.  These Hillary supporters are complaining of slights, saying that "they don't like the way they were treated" by the Obama camp.

Are you wondering why these women are so deeply disappointed?  Why they are taking Hillary's defeat so personally?

Well, let me tell you about Josephine Ruth Woolsey Dana, a long-time Portland resident, who died last Thursday.  I didn't know Josephine, but I found her obituary instructive, in regard to Hillary's followers.  Shortly after her birth, Josephine lost her mom, and so she and her sibs were raised by their father.  Josephine showed exceptional writing talent and wanted to study journalism, but as the obituary states, "girls weren't permitted to major in journalism at Oregon State."  So she took a degree in secretarial science. 

Josephine pushed on toward her goal, though, finally joining the editorial board of the Oregonian in the 1940's, making her the first female newspaper editor in Oregon.  Later, she married the son of the editor, Marshall Dana, and then dropped out to raise her children.  She returned to work as an editorial researcher in the 1960's and for years wrote a regular column for the Oregonian.  One need only ask the simple question about this gifted woman: had Josephine been Joseph, how would her life been different?

According to a recent editorial by Susan Faludi in the NY Times (8/26), today the US ranks 22nd among developed nations in its proportion of female federal lawmakers.  Some 86% of our elected officials are male.  Women's real annual earnings have fallen for the last four years.  The 20 top occupations of women in 2007 were the same as they were in the 1950's: secretary, nurse, grade school teacher, sales clerk, maid, hairdresser, cook, etc.

This is why some women are so disappointed, so angry.  They have waited too long, worked too hard for change for long years, to be able to shift their loyalties.

Nevertheless, I would say to them it's not about you.  It's not about women's rights.  And as pleased as I am that an African American may become our next President, it's not chiefly about healing the wounds of racism.  It's about securing leadership for a country that has lost its integrity and its direction.  It's about saving this fragile planet.  It's about getting our soldiers out of Iraq.  It's about making sure that all our citizens can go to the doctor when they fall ill.  It's about creating an economy that serves the people as a whole and not just the rich.  It's about saying no to torture and yes to civil rights.  It's about taking our place as a moral leader in a world that has lost respect for us, and rightly so.

Liberals have a habit of pulling defeat out of the jaws of victory, as they say.  Why is this?   Is this why Nader blithely ran on his green ticket, taking precious votes from the Democrats and losing the race?  Is it because we are idealists and impractical, to a fault?  Politics is not the realm of the ideal--it is the realm of the possible.  Earth to Democrats everywhere, of all genders and stripes: we can't afford to lose this one.  Whoever you are, it's not about you.  Get on board.

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I've decided to answer all the personal questions--here goes!

Question: "When will you be ready to learn about Oregon's Death with Dignity law and all the checks and balances required of a terminally ill, cognitively intact individual to make decisions for themselves at the end of their life?"

Answer: This is a "when will you stop beating your wife?" question.  The questioner seems miffed because I brought up some ethical concerns about the Death with Dignity movement in my previous e-news blog (8/21).  I am quite familiar with Oregon laws in this arena.  Moreover, I have had congregants who have made the choice to take their own lives through self-deliverance, and I have supported them totally.  And I have concerns.  It is my job as a minister to raise such concerns.  Others need not agree, but this is a significant subject matter that should be discussed freely and openly.  All opinions should be aired and considered.

Question: "Which writers and theologians and philosophers are personally most inspiring to you, both now and in you past spiritual development?"

Answer: This answer could fill a book, so let me limit it to three.  The theologian would be Paul Tillich; the philospher would be John Dewey; the writer would be William Shakespeare.

Question: "Beatles or Elvis?"

Answer: Elvis is the king.

Question: "They say that every minister has one key sermon theme--name yours."

Answer: Redemption: that is, we can take whatever experience comes to us and "buy back" or redeem the good from it.

Question: "Have you (and how) ever trul felt the presence of a 'greater power' in your life?"

Answer: I do not feel what some people call the presence of God (a comforting or peaceful presence) when I pray.  I have, however, occasionally had moments when I felt that I was a part of all that exists, and that all was as it should be--a time of perfect peace and harmony.  And I have had two or three mystical experiences in which I felt so strongly led to go somewhere or to do something that I could not refuse.

Question: "What is your favorite hymn, and what meaning does it hold for you?"

Answer: "Amazing Grace": "Through many dangers, toils, and snares, I have already come; 'tis grace that brought me safe thus far, and grace will lead me home."

Question: "How has growing up in the Catholic and Southern Baptist traditions influenced you as a Unitarian Universalist minister?"

Answer: As a Catholic, I learned about beauty and sensuality in worship; I learned discipline in Catholic school; I learned that some people cared enough about their faith to give their lives in service (nuns and priests), givng up a personal, intimate life; I learned about beautiful Jesus and his message of sacrificial love. 

As a Southern Baptist, I learned to put the Word at the center of the worship service; I learned about passion and full-bodied preaching; I learned to sing the old traditional hymns; I learned about church structure and leadership, though ours differs greatly from those early patterns.  A lot about Jesus again.  I'm very high on Jesus.

From both, l learned that women couldn't be spiritual leaders.  I had to unlearn that lesson in the Unitarian Universalist church, and because I was able to do so, I will be forever grateful.

Question: "Why can't we be friends?"

Answer: We can't be friends so long as you are my congregant, for the same reason that you can't be friends with your doctor or your psychotherapist.  A friendship implies a peer relationship and an equal sharing of thoughts and feelings.  I am a professional, and my job is to be there for you as a minister.  That role prevents me from sharing as I would with a friend, for that would put an untenable burden on you as a congregant, and you would in effect lose your minister.

Question: "What's it all about, Marilyn?"

Answer: It's all about love. 

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Question: "How does a mother deal with difficulties with her grown daughters?"

Answer: All of us who have adult children know that parenthood never ends--we will always be moms and dads to our children, and we will always be concerned when they are in ill health or when their lives seem to be going awry, for any reason.  I'm not sure what kind of difficulties you are referring to, but generally parents get in trouble when we try to exercise control over our grown children.  About all we can do is to be there for them and to be sensitive to their stated needs--in other words, to be a loving presence in their lives.  We should always let them know that we care about them, and we should not withhold approval and praise, for even though they are grown, they need this kind of support from their parents and will continue to need it, whether they are 25 or 65.

Question: "How do you love someone who continues to hurt you?"

Answer: You would have to be something of a saint to love someone who is continuing to hurt you.  I'm assuming that you have some control over the relationship.  You should not allow anyone to hurt you, even if this person is a relative or close friend.  I suggest that you tell the individual how and why you are hurting, and if the behavior doesn't stop, then withdraw from the relationship.  At this point it will be much easier to practice forgiveness.  Remember, however, that forgiveness does not necessarily include reconciliation and renewed pain.

Question: "What is the best way to mend a broken heart?"

Answer: This is not my area of expertise, believe me!  Longing for love, we internalize in our very flesh the memory of belonging and connection from the last intimate relationship we experienced.  We must grieve that loss, and then, in my experience, we must find a new love, else memories of the old love will continue to haunt us.

Question: "How can our faith help with the anxiety and despair we have over the environmental crisis?"

Answer: There must have been other times in history when people thought that surely the world would end--perhaps during the Black Death of medieval times or during the World Wars of the last century.  The fact is that we do not have ultimate control.  All we can do is to face reality with courage and to do what we can to heal our earth and its people.  If we are depending upon ourselves alone, that is a frightening prospect, indeed.  But remember that we are partnered with the Holy.  That is the assurance that makes us strong and faithful in challenging times like these. 

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Question: "What is the relationship of Unitarian Universalism to Christianity?"

Answer: Unitarianism came out of the left wing of the Protestant Reformation, and therefore was a Christian faith and remained so until the 19th century in our country.  At that time new influences made their appearance: the Free Religious Movement, transcendentalism, Biblical scholarship bringing doubts to the surface, influences from Eastern faiths. In the second quarter of the twentieth century, the humanist movement greatly impacted our churches, and fellowships without ministers were started, often in college towns, often by humanist lay leaders.  Because we are a free faith, with each person responsible for his or her own theological beliefs, our institutional umbrella became larger and larger, and today includes every religious tradition, and includes as well atheists and agnostics.

Our churches are congregationally based, so each has a different flavor and theological leaning.  Virtually all our churches, however, contain congregants with a wide diversity of beliefs.  Because New England was the place where our faith first took root in the New World, most of our predominantly Christian churches are still there.

There is a notable difference between Christians, as that term is usually defined, and UU Christians.  Most Christians believe that Jesus is the true path; Unitarian Universalists tend to believe that Christianity is a path, but just one of many.  Jesus is seen as a prophet, a wise teacher, and not a god. 

Question: "What sort of commitment must I make to become a member of a Unitarian church?"

Answer: Each church is different and sets its own standards for membership.  In our church, you must be of age (at least 18), you must sign the membership book, and you must make a financial pledge that is generous within your means.  You also are agreeing that you will continue your religious deepening, in community, always being open to new truth when it might be revealed to you. 

In terms of how we are to be together in community, Our "Purposes and Principles" are instructive.  Our church is presently working on a church covenant, which will help guide our behavior as we relate to one another.

Question: "Why do people think this is a 'feel good' religion?"

Answer: Perhaps because our public relations has been so poor through the years.  People who do not know us well have heard jokes that imply we are a vague and shallow people, who "can believe anything."  Actually our faith is the most difficult of all, because we do not accept easy answers, or answers in fact that are given to us in a package; we require our members to search out their own truth and then to live out of that truth.  Not exactly what I would call a "feel good" religion.

Question: "What does it mean that UU churches are 'covenantal, not creedal'"?

Answer: We are not required to accept any particular creed or dogma.  But we are asked to relate in certain specific ways to one another and to the earth.  (See our Purposes and Principles on the web site or on the Sunday bulletin.) 

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This past Sunday I did my Q&A Sunday service, entitled "What's It All About, Alfie?" for the 12th year.  Congregants wrote questions--way more than I could possibly answer--(1) on theological issues, (2) on Unitarian Universalism, (3) on thorny problems of living, and (3) on my personal/spiritual life.  At the time I introduced the program, I said that I would try to respond to the unanswered questions on my blog--but the sheer volume is going to prevent that.  So I have decided that I will respond to four of the most compelling questions from each group.  It will be difficult for me to choose only sixteen, because the questions were of such high quality, and virtually all interested me.  But alas, time is limited, and I could lose myself for weeks in all these questions--so here goes on a few of them.  I'll do the theological questions first.

THEOLOGICAL ISSUES

Question: "Who is God?  How do you reconcile defining something that can't really be defined?"

Answer: God is only the most common name for that which we cannot name.  Many other names are used, including Beloved, Holy One, the Sacred, the Great Mystery. Sometimes when I pray I begin, "One Whose Name I Cannot Know."  We should understand that all naming is merely metaphor, because we are dealing in mystery.  We cannot know or understand the Infinite with a mind that is finite, and so we make comparisons with what we do know.  I like Tillich's phrase "the ground of our being."  Buddhists, who are non-theistic, speak of reality itself. 

No one can prove or disprove the presence of God.  One chooses to believe or not--to take Kierkegaard's "leap of faith" or not.  I choose to believe.  I believe I am accountable to something greater than myself, though I cannot define or describe or label what that is.  Nevertheless, I have staked my life on it.

Question: "How can we understand the presence of evil in this world?"

Answer: This is the thorniest theological question of all time.  The closest answer I have found is in the Book of Job, when God answers Job's agonized questions with a series of questions of His own, beginning "Where were you when I laid the foundations of the earth?"  In other words, you are not God, you cannot understand these mysteries, and since your cannot, you must simply live by faith."

Evil is horribly operative in our finite world, but I believe there is an infinite realm where it is not operative.  I speak of a spiritual dimension in which all is reconciled, a realm of perfection, or one might say, the mind of God.  Individuals sometimes have mystical moments in which we feel "all is as it should be" or "everything is perfect, just as it is."  I think in those moments we have dipped into that other world.  I think it is our true home.

Question: "What is the purpose of prayer?"

Answer: At one time in seminary I found myself in a spiritual fog, and my prayers seemed to go no higher than the ceiling.  I had heard of a wise Jesuit priest who sometimes counseled students, and so I went to see him and poured out my heart, and wept and wept.  He listened quietly.  And then he said, "Prayer is not about changing God.  Prayer is being with God."

I believe that prayer can take many different forms, but it is always the sincere outpouring of the heart.  Prayer is valuable because when you pray, any false note will become apparent, and so you will find your heart's own truth, a guide which will serve you well.  Prayer will help you focus on what is significant, will bring compassion as you pray for others.  Prayer will ground you as you go through your days, being pushed and pulled by so many competing forces. 

The scripture says, "Pray without ceasing."  In other words, we are admonished to go through our days with the understanding that we are essentially creatures of Spirit. 

Question: "How do we handle dark nights of the soul?"

Answer: We must understand that these times of disintegration and lostness come to all spiritual seekers, even the saints.  In fact, these low periods seem to be a natural and necessary part of the spiritual journey.  During these times, we cannot feel the comfort of our faith, and we seem to wonder whether there is any God or even any meaning to life itself.  It is from these times of radical doubting that the deepest faith is born.

How do we handle the times?  We accept them.  We descend into the dark and live there as long as we need to--while still carrying on our functioning in the world, though we may feel that we have become an empty shell.  We must allow the emptiness in order for the new growth to take place. 

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This morning I opened the newspaper to learn that 153 passengers have died in a fiery plane crash at the Madrid airport.  I was in that airport just three days ago, on my way to Amsterdam, and from there, flying back to Portland.  I remember remarking to my companion, "It's amazing how safe air travel is these days," and I went on to quote the latest information I had read about all the safety features now incorporated into planes, features which have been added because of our learning from past accidents. 

Spanair Flight JK5022 was troubled from the beginning.  One attempt at take-off had been aborted, and departure was delayed for an hour.  (Oregonian, 7/21)  And then shortly after take-off, the plane swerved off the end of the runway, crashed into a ravine, and burst into flames.  Many of those on board were families headed to the Canary Islands for late-August holidays.  Remarkably, 19 passengers survived, including 2 children.  Some people actually walked away from the wreckage, said Ervigio Corral, head of emergency rescue services.  But he added that he and other emergency workers faced a "grim scene of widely scattered corpses . . . ."

So I am safely home, with nothing more than jet-lag to contend with.  And memories of a lovely vacation in which absolutely nothing went wrong.  No accidents.  No illness.  Not even a mistake in the reservations or getting caught in the rain.  And I am thankful, because it might not have been so.  I might have been on the plane, or a plane, that crashed.  Any one of us might have been. 

And so I'm taking time once again this morning to remember the fragility of the flesh.  To remember that today I am here, but I am not promised tomorrow.  To know that this day, this hour, this moment, should be cherished and lived well, for we have the present, and that alone.

Further, then, I must ask myself, "What does it mean, to live well?"  Perhaps it means to live each day as if it were the last.  To live without rancor, to act with kindness, to move among others with an open heart, to speak no nonsense but only the truth, to laugh from deep within, to see beauty wherever it appears, to look upon suffering with compassion but never with pity, to walk with humility, knowing that only by grace am I living at all.  To acknowledge that one day I will be among those who have run out of time, run out of opportunity to work and play and love, and therefore to be awake, fully awake, while I live.

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The Right to Die--or the Fear of Living?

Early in July Roger Kusch helped Bettina Schardt, of Frankfurt, Germany, kill herself.  Schardt, 79, was not ill, nor was she dying--she simply didn't want to face living in a nursing home.  So rather than move there, she engaged Kusch, a German campaigner for assisted suicide, to help her die early.  She swallowed a fatal combination of chloroquine and diazepam, said "auf Wiedersehen," and died.  (NY Times, July 3, 2008)

Her suicide and Kusch's subsequent publicizing of the act set off a fierce national debate over the limits of the right to die.  In Germany suicide is not itself considered a crime, nor is helping someone commit suicide, so long as the act is not considered euthanasia.  But many Germans do not want to follow their neighboring country of Switzerland, where liberal laws have led to the commercialization of assisted suicide.  With all of the publicity attendant to the case, Kusch was, in effect, offering his services.  As one person put it, "We want to make it illegal for people here to offer 'suicide by reservation.'

We know that the Netherlands already has an open practice of euthanasia, and I wonder how many other nations will be moving in that direction.  I would not be surprised if our "Death with Dignity" act in Oregon does not spread in the U.S. and eventually travel the slippery slope to euthanasia.  I say this simply because of the economic constraints this country is experiencing now and will continue to experience ever more acutely as time goes on.

The fact is the 80 percent of the cost of an individual's medical care comes in the last year of life.  With our national budget way in deficit, with our infrastructure badly frayed, with our education system hurting, with foreign wars draining us dry, with energy costs sky-rocketing, with medical care way beyond the means of the average wage-earner--how will we be able to care for old, ailing people?  Of course old, ailing people of means will be served, as always.  But the others?  I can see that there could be counseling from medical professionals and from clergy to encourage the elderly to choose the ice floe solution, so to speak, so that resources might be spared for the young.  This choice will be seen as the ethical, the moral, thing to do.  (See the moving film "The Ballad of Narayama" for an 18^th c. cultural solution to aging.)

Perhaps, as one wealthy individual said to me upon the discussing the issue, "That would be OK--some people dying early, I mean.  Death is not a bad thing."  Well, no--especially if you have money and some choice in the matter.

Most of the individuals who chose the "death with dignity" option in Oregon since our law was passed have been single, as was Ms. Schardt.  She had never married, she had no family, and very seldom went out.  Perhaps, as the article points out, the lonely death of Ms. Schardt speaks more to the question of how Germany treats its elderly. 

Loneliness and alienation in old people is not confined to Germany, though, by any means.  Should people be "dying for lack of love alone," as the poet says?  We should consider what human values we wish to embrace as a culture and work towards supporting those values.  No one should die just because there is no one there, no one to care.   

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Well, we do have an uncle like that--Uncle Sam.  And it looks as if Uncle Sam is about to get his comeuppance.  World trade talks in Geneva collapsed recently, and the failure is being laid to the growing influence of China and India and the decreasing influence of the United States, on the world stage (NY Times, July 30).

The failure also signals the wavering credibility of the World Trade Organization, which makes and enforces international trade rules.  I was among the many protesters when the WTO came to Seattle in 2001.  The problem as I saw it then was that everyone needs to be at the table when such deals are cut--not just those wielding the most power.  Where were the representatives of the workers?  How was the environmental movement represented?  What about third-world countries with little economic power?

Unfortunately, the collapse of the talks will likely keep smaller and poorer countries from increasing their trade with more developed countries, and it could slow efforts to work out multilateral agreements on the important issue of global warming. 

The fact is that as soon as bullies can be avoided, they are no longer tolerated.  And the U.S. is fast losing its status as a superpower that can call the shots for the rest of the world.  I think Uncle Sam had better begin to learn some manners and develop some respect for others around the table, because those who misuse others will soon find themselves hungry and without friends.  "The times," as Dylan sang, "they are a-changin.'"

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