This is the affirming message Universalism has for people in today\u2019s world: one united world, one cooperating human race one enriching love, one common religious impulse.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n(Carl Seaburg, \u201cA Seed From Which Great Things Can Grow\u201d)<\/p>\n
To formulate a thesis for Universalism in the twenty-first century, I believe we must also look to the past for both inspiration and experience. \u201cToday we need the Universalist vision of a humanity undivided, and the assurance from our Universalist heritage that such a vision can be realized,\u201d to inform an inclusive vision of what might be, according to the Rev. Gordon Gibson. Though retired from parish ministry, Gordon devotes his time to keeping alive the history of the Civil Rights Movement in which he participated. With his wife Judy, he started what has become the Living Legacy Project, an annual Pilgrimage to meet the people, hear the stories, and visit the sites that changed the world in the Civil Rights Movement.<\/p>\n
In 2012, I joined 43 other travelers on a Living Legacy Pilgrimage to civil rights sites. Like the civil rights movement itself, our pilgrimage was grounded in a shared sense that we were treading on holy ground, marked with the blood of pioneers. The people were very real, even though we couldn\u2019t always see them.<\/p>\n
The first night we oriented ourselves for the experience. Our leaders were mostly Unitarian Universalists whose own context helped frame everything we did. Faith and courage were the words that recurred at almost every stop. Whether we were meeting in churches, visiting the graves of heroes and martyrs, or crossing the Edmund Pettus Bridge, we journeyed on the paths of people who walked in faith.<\/p>\n
Some of the names were well known to us: Martin Luther King, Medger Evers, Malcolm X, Rosa Parks, Fannie Lou Hamer, and James Reeb. But I came to know them, and others, in new ways \u2013 in very personal ways. We walked in their footsteps for eight days, illuminating the past in the light of the present.<\/p>\n
As Abraham Joshua Heschel told his daughter after marching in Selma with Martin Luther King: It \u201c\u2026felt like my legs were praying.\u201d For Rabbi Heschel, as for Rev. Martin Luther King, to be politically engaged was like praying. Both men knew that \u201cto be religious means you have to be politically engaged.\u201d (Susannah Heschel, Fellowship, January\/February 1998)<\/p>\n
In the 53 years since the historic civil rights march from Selma to Montgomery, Martin Luther King\u2019s dream has kept alive the possibility of what might be. He had a vision of \u201cthe beloved community\u201d that was rooted in \u201cthe American dream\u201d and in his own faith journey. His dream of a Beloved Community \u2014 the Kingdom of God on earth \u2013 resonates with our Universalist heritage.<\/p>\n
I was a child when I saw the news footage of the riots and violence against those working for civil rights. The images of children and adults being brutalized \u2013 beaten and hosed \u2013 by Bull Connor and his police force \u2013 the bombings of churches, and the total disregard for human life \u2013 simply because of skin color \u2013 affected me deeply. The injustice was unmistakable. Many of my life choices grew out of this early experience.<\/p>\n
Raised Catholic in Staten Island, New York, I was always a bit out of step with those around me. When I finally encountered Unitarian Universalism in 1975, I discovered a community of people who affirmed what I had always believed. And although the congregation did not describe itself as \u201cspiritual,\u201d the interfaith and social action efforts seemed to be working toward creating the universal \u201cbeloved community\u201d that Martin Luther King envisioned.<\/p>\n
Dr. King did not do the work of justice alone. He was a catalyst for change, a man who engendered loyalty from those who wanted to believe in the vision he professed. I have met some of those people. Through them, I heard stories about Dr. Martin Luther King and many others in action. In these turbulent times, that legacy holds lessons for us now. Lessons that draw from our Universalist heritage as well.<\/p>\n
From the beginning, Universalism has espoused and practiced an inclusive vision \u2013 the vision of an \u201cearth made fair, with all her people one,\u201d as Frater Pohl describes it. This ideal of an undivided humanity is nothing less than the beloved community Martin Luther King espoused \u2013 an ideal community that seems as distant now as it was fifty years ago.<\/p>\n
The vision of the Beloved Community is rooted in Love, the radical Universalist doctrine of Love that all would be saved from eternal damnation. As the late Frater Charles Howe put it, \u201cUniversalism insists that we are all part of the human family, worthy of salvation, respect, and love.\u201d (\u201cUniversalism for Such a Time as This\u201d edited by Charles Howe, UUA pamphlet, 1993) Without that fundamental belief, our work for justice, respect, and equality will continue to be an unfulfilled dream.<\/p>\n
In the world as we know it, \u201cthe inherent worth and dignity of every person\u201d has been Calvinized by the notion that only a select few are entitled to reap benefits as full citizens of the world. We are called to walk our talk \u2013 to feel our legs pray \u2013 to restore the original wholeness with which all are endowed. As the late Frater Janet Bowering observed, \u201cUniversalism with Love as its doctrine, and service as its prayer, offers a means to reach across the broken places in human relationships without condescension or judgment.\u201d She believed that the \u201cmeans\u201d for that could be found in the old Universalist term \u201crestitution\u201d defined as \u201cthe act of restoring to the rightful owner something that has been taken away, lost, or surrendered.\u201d (from Howe, UUA pamphlet, 1993) \u201cRestitution\u201d or in today\u2019s parlance, \u201creparations\u201d might be a critical step toward healing the racial divide.<\/p>\n
Ta-Nehisi Coates makes a compelling Case for Reparation:<\/p>\n
\u201c250 years of slavery. Ninety years of Jim Crow. Sixty years of separate but equal. Thirty-five years of racist housing policy. Until we reckon with our compounding moral debts, America will never be whole.\u201d<\/p>\n
(The Atlantic, June 2014)<\/p>\n
In every city we visited on the Living Legacy Pilgrimage, we met with local residents, many of whom had been active in the Movement. The stories from those who had witnessed the deaths of their loved ones in the quest for freedom filled me with awe and sadness. Most of these people had continued to devote their lives to working for human rights and justice. The question I kept asking was \u201cWhy?\u201d How could they keep putting their lives on the line when they already knew the pain of losing so many people they loved? Weren\u2019t they afraid? and discouraged?<\/p>\n
Yes, sometimes \u2013 but they continued to nurture hope in themselves and others with their efforts. I was \u2013 am \u2013 in awe of their ability to retain their sense of hope in the midst of such hardship and loss. Their hope was grounded in their strong faith, in God, and in what they were working toward. It\u2019s the kind of \u201cHope\u201d I preach about in order to foster it in myself.<\/p>\n
Mrs. Avery and other women in Marion, Alabama were among the people we met. They told the story of the death of Jimmie Lee Jackson, a 26 year old army veteran. Police had disrupted a peaceful nighttime rally and march. \u201cWhen a trooper began beating (his) mother and grandfather, Jimmie Lee tried to protect them\u2026\u201d He was shot twice in the stomach by an Alabama state trooper and died a week later from a massive infection. (Mark Morrison Reed, The Selma Awakening, pp 97-98) Jimmie Lee\u2019s murder spurred people to action, despite the threat of beatings and more deaths.<\/p>\n
His family took us to his grave site.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe was killed for man\u2019s freedom\u201d reads the epitaph on his head stone which is marred by holes. The holes are from bullets. His family decided to leave the bullet marks to remind themselves and others that racism and violence continue to disrupt their lives to this day.
\nAmidst the grief and anger at Jimmie Lee\u2019s death, the march to Montgomery was planned. Martin Luther King put out a call to clergy about the march from Selma to Montgomery. James Reeb was one of more than 300 Unitarian Universalist ministers to respond to the call. (Fraters Gaines, Greeley, and Woodman were among them, along with now deceased or former Fraters: Eugene Adams, David Cole, John Cummins, Harmon Gehr, Gordon McKeeman, and Rudy Nemser).<\/p>\n
With two colleagues \u2013 one of whom was on the pilgrimage with us \u2013 Reeb ate a soul food dinner at Walker\u2019s Caf\u00e9, a place that was still segregated. As the ministers headed back to their rooms, someone \u201clanded a pipe or club on James Reeb\u2019s head, knocking him to the ground.\u201d Clark Olsen, who was also struck, told us about that night, as they tried to get Reeb some help, first from a black Selma doctor, and then at University Hospital in Birmingham where he was admitted four hours after the attack. He died two days later of a skull fracture and blood clot. Clark Olsen was the last person to talk with him, holding his hand, while sitting at his bedside.<\/p>\n
Reeb\u2019s \u201cdeath so shocked the country and the U.S. Congress that President Johnson sent the Voting Rights Act to Congress within days.\u201d Dr. King declined an invitation to Washington to support the Voting Rights Act. Instead, he gave the eulogy, at Reeb\u2019s funeral. President Johnson sent yellow roses and flew Mrs. Reeb down to Selma on a government jet. (\u201cJames Reeb and the Call to Selma,\u201d UUA website) This was not standard treatment for any of the black activists who had been killed, including Jimmie Lee Jackson who had been murdered only two weeks earlier. It highlighted the inequity that prevailed among those working together in the name of civil rights for all. That white lives mattered more was certainly noted by the other activists.<\/p>\n
The site where Reeb was attacked became a sort of shrine to his memory. There is a monument and plaque dedicated to him, and his face is painted into a mural on the building next to it.<\/p>\n
Frater Gaines was ordained into the Universalist ministry two or three weeks before the merger. He recalls that his participation in the march was not met with uniform enthusiasm back home in Milford, New Hampshire. While he was away, \u201csome members were calling a church meeting to discuss (his) ministry. When all gathered, the church moderator, a six foot three retired colonel from the Air Force called the meeting to order. He then said \u2018If we Unitarians believe we have the right to think for ourselves and the freedom of conscience, then our minister does to. Meeting is adjourned.\u2019\u201d (personal email message from Chuck Gaines, January 2, 2018)<\/p>\n
In Mississippi we walked through some neighborhoods that had been the site of much of the violence. That they had been \u201crestored\u201d to the extent that they were was due only to the residents who wanted something better for their children. Despite the fact that they were still living in poverty, the residents invested themselves in the community \u2013 for the sake of the children. A cultural center started by local artists offered art classes in various mediums, as well as those in drumming and dance, all of which aimed to build self-esteem in the youth and give them an alternative to drugs and violence. The Center turned out to be a sign of hope in an otherwise distressed residential area.<\/p>\n
Since participating in the Pilgrimage, I have traveled to South Africa. The similarity in the experience of black South Africans under apartheid, and that of the people we met on the Pilgrimage sometimes conflate in my memory.<\/p>\n
When I walked in one of the \u201cold\u201d Districts in Cape Town, South Africa, I had a feeling of d\u00e9j\u00e0 vu as I recognized the same signs \u2013 a cultural center staffed by artists\/teachers and even poorer living conditions in the surrounding neighborhood. If I hadn\u2019t realized it before, it became clear that universally, the darker one\u2019s skin \u2013 the less people counted as full human beings.<\/p>\n
The post-apartheid experience in South Africa is a teachable moment for us in the United States. When Nelson Mandela negotiated the \u201cend\u201d of apartheid after his release from prison, his goal was reconciliation. He did not seek reparation for the conditions to which his constituents were subjected for almost fifty years. Many of the locals felt betrayed by Mandela who they believed had sold them out. Reconciliation was premature. Extreme poverty still exists, as do the divisions between the Afrikaans and black South Africans.<\/p>\n
Would reparations have improved relations? I suspect it would have given those subjected to apartheid the public acknowledgment and restitution for at least some of what they had endured. It might also have given them an opportunity to stake a claim in the new \u201cdemocracy\u201d and reduce feelings of resentment and betrayal.<\/p>\n
When we speak of Universalism, it is usually with words like Love, Hope, Inclusion, and Reconciliation. Sometimes I think we, too, leap to \u201creconciliation\u201d prematurely, skipping the conversation about reparations and power.<\/p>\n
Ta-Nehisi Coates cites the example of President William Howard Taft (a Unitarian) who in 1909 told the country \u201cthat \u2018intelligent\u2019 white southerners were ready to see blacks as \u2018useful members of the community.\u2019<\/p>\n
A week later Joseph Gordon, a black man, was lynched outside Greenwood, Mississippi. The high point of the lynching era has passed. But the memories of those robbed of their lives still live on in the lingering effects. Indeed, in America there is a strange and powerful belief that if you stab a black person 10 times, the bleeding stops and the healing begins the moment the assailant drops the knife. We believe white dominance to be a fact of the inert past, a delinquent debt that can be made to disappear if only we don\u2019t look.
\n(Coates, \u201cThe Case for Reparation,\u201d The Atlantic, June 2014)<\/p>\n
There is an example of a somewhat successful outcome toward reparation. In Chicago, the housing market remained essentially closed to African Americans throughout the fifties and sixties. For more than thirty years, black home \u201cbuyers\u201d were caught in a scheme to keep them from succeeding as homeowners. They were enticed to buy their houses on \u201ccontract\u201d from real estate speculators, who continued to own the mortgage on the property. The only way for them to get a home was to enter into a \u201ccontract sale\u201d in which they made monthly payments to the seller but owned nothing until they made the final payment.<\/p>\n
They could be evicted if they missed a single payment, losing everything they had paid \u2014 even if it amounted to nearly the full price of the home. The seller, meanwhile, was free to resell the building and start the cycle again. (Coates)<\/p>\n
Contract selling of massively marked-up housing drained the black community of as much as $500 million. In the view of many, it caused the inner-city poverty and social ills the city still struggles to overcome today.<\/p>\n
But in 1968, a group of African-American homeowners organized to end the practice of contract buying. The Contract Buyers League, a grassroots organization of homebuyers on the West and South sides, banded together to fight the predatory practices used to sell houses to African-Americans. The League waged a war that convulsed the city \u2014 and won it. The suit did not win them any remuneration. But it forced contract sellers to the table, where they allowed some members of the Contract Buyers League to move into regular mortgages or simply take over their houses outright. The fight helped end redlining throughout the United States. And then it was largely forgotten. (Barbara Brotman, Chicago Tribune, July 25, 2015)<\/p>\n
In the 20th century, the cause of reparations was taken up by a diverse cast that included the Confederate veteran Walter R. Vaughan, who believed that reparations would be a stimulus for the South; the black activist Callie House; black-nationalist leaders like \u201cQueen Mother\u201d Audley Moore; and the civil-rights activist James Forman. The movement coalesced in 1987 under an umbrella organization called the National Coalition of Blacks for Reparations in America (N\u2019COBRA). The NAACP endorsed reparations in 1993. Charles J. Ogletree Jr., a professor at Harvard Law School, has pursued reparations claims in court.<\/p>\n
But while the people advocating reparations have changed over time, the response from the country has remained virtually the same. \u201cThey have been taught to labor,\u201d the Chicago Tribune editorialized in 1891. \u201cThey have been taught Christian civilization, and to speak the noble English language instead of some African gibberish. The account is square with the ex slaves.\u201d<\/p>\n
Not exactly (says Ta-Nehisi Coates). Having been enslaved for 250 years, black people were not left to their own devices. They were terrorized. In the Deep South, a second slavery ruled. In the North, legislatures, mayors, civic associations, banks, and citizens all colluded to pin black people into ghettos, where they were overcrowded, overcharged, and undereducated. Businesses discriminated against them, awarding them the worst jobs and the worst wages. Police brutalized them in the streets. And the notion that black lives, black bodies, and black wealth were rightful targets remained deeply rooted in the broader society. Now we have half-stepped away from our long centuries of despoilment, promising, \u201cNever again.\u201d But still we are h
\naunted. It is as though we have run up a credit-card bill and, having pledged to charge no more, remain befuddled that the balance does not disappear. The effects of that balance, interest accruing daily, are all around us.<\/p>\n
Broach the topic of reparations today and a barrage of questions inevitably follows: Who will be paid? How much will they be paid? Who will pay? But if the practicalities, not the justice, of reparations are the true sticking point, there has for some time been the beginnings of a solution. For the past 25 years, Congressman John Conyers Jr., who represents the Detroit area, has marked every session of Congress by introducing a bill calling for a congressional study of slavery and its lingering effects as well as recommendations for \u201cappropriate remedies.\u201d<\/p>\n
(Coates, \u201cThe Case for Reparation,\u201d The Atlantic, June 2014)<\/p>\n
Progress has been made in many areas to diminish the lines that divide black from white, the haves from the have-nots. But this \u201cprogress\u201d has been at the expense of a genuine transformation of society. People were motivated to pray with their legs during the civil rights movement. Martin Luther King and others were convicted of, and for, the rightness of their actions. Their demonstrations of faith convinced lawmakers and citizens to take up the cause of equality for all people. Perhaps the one
\npositive outcome of the last presidential election is that people are once again mobilized to witness and to act for justice and human rights.<\/p>\n
As we know, legislation alone does not create genuine change. The underlying sentiments that provoked a nation to action remain in place. Racism is alive and active as evidenced by the murders of black men in Milwaukee, Dayton, Ferguson, Florence and Victorville (CA), Cleveland, Brooklyn, Bridgeton and Vineland (NJ), Tulsa, North Charleston (SC), Baltimore, and Staten Island. Recent statistics indicate that there are more black men incarcerated today than were slaves in this country. Racism is sustained by \u201ca nation of onlookers\u201d who choose to remain silent in the face of injustice.<\/p>\n
Unitarian Universalists are anything but \u201conlookers.\u201d Our work in social justice \u2013 as evidenced by our actions in the Civil Rights Movement \u2013 often puts us at the forefront of social issues of the day. Churches, such as the one I currently serve in Danbury, Connecticut, voted to offer sanctuary to an undocumented immigrant facing deportation. (This occurred on January 7th, and as we sit here, the members are readying the space to accommodate an immigrant soon.) But in this same congregation, I have had members tell me that we should dispense with the Sunday Service and all this \u201cspiritual\u201d stuff and simply do the social action.<\/p>\n
\u201cDespite all facts otherwise,\u201d some of us believe \u201cthere is a difference between a Universalist and a Unitarian.\u201d Frater Gaines suggests \u201cIt is based on epistemology. Unitarians are primarily motivated by the search for truth. Universalist are motivated by the reconciliation of love in the search for community.\u201d<\/p>\n
The divide between Unitarians and Universalists still exists \u2013 at least in most of the congregations I\u2019ve served. The Danbury congregation has been a presence in the community since 1822 when it was first founded as a Universalist Church. And yet its latest incarnation \u2013 a merger of the church with a small Unitarian Fellowship holding few resources \u2013 is identified as \u201cUnitarian\u201d more often than not. The Congregation has two members \u2013 brothers \u2013 who are seventh generation Universalists, one of whom inserts the \u201cUniversalist\u201d name and message whenever it is omitted. Our history as Universalists is at least as important as that of the Unitarians.<\/p>\n
As Unitarian Universalists we feel a strong ethical responsibility for effecting social change and reform. But for me, social action must be grounded in a larger vision than the immediate concern being addressed. If we act to combat racism and encourage racial diversity strictly as a social justice issue, we risk omitting the Universalist underpinnings of Love, compassion, inclusion, and yes, restitution.<\/p>\n
I believe there is a fundamental unity in our diversity that often gets lost in our zeal to accommodate more differences. As Mark Morrison Reed framed it in The Essential Unity of Being:<\/p>\n
\u201cToday, the basic impulse of Universalism is one which affirms all life. It proclaims that to live is to be blessed and invites us to celebrate our kinship with one another. The divisive power of fear emerges in times of social and economic turmoil \u2013 turmoil which sets race against race, nation against nations, man against woman. Despite the current collision of cultures and the drift from pluralism toward factionalism, Universalism declares the essential unity of Being\u2026 in the words of David Bumbaugh: \u2018Let us dedicate ourselves to the proposition that beneath all of our diversity, and beyond all our differences, there is a unity which makes us one, and binds us forever together in spite of time, death, and the space between the stars.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\nFrater McKeeman was ardently articulate about the purpose of Church which he believed \u201cexists to enrich our communal life, (but) it is also the critic of our limitations and pretensions.\u201d I believe that among our limitations and pretensions is a tendency to dismiss Universalism and our elders as archaic and irrelevant to today\u2019s culture. And yet, the elders continue to show up to offer encouragement and support to today\u2019s activists, many of whom are more intent on making a statement than in taking the time to learn what has \u2013 or has not \u2013 worked for previous generations. And, I believe our congregations are the poorer for that omission.<\/p>\n
Church includes the past as well as the present, and we need to distinguish between things that need to change and those that don\u2019t. Gordon pointed out that \u201cdiversity is a given: unity and oneness is a struggle.\u201d As most \u2013 if not all \u2013 of you know, Gordon critiqued the consolidation in 1961 which left us as a \u201creligion without a doctrine and a church without an ecclesiology.\u201d He agreed with Robert Bellah, who in his 1998 Ware Lecture, said that \u201cUniversalists brought to the consolidation a passion for humanity. We have a saving gospel,\u201d he said, then asked us \u201cWhat gives special character to your Christian faith? It\u2019s your universality.\u201d (Starr King President\u2019s Lecture June 27, 2004)<\/p>\n
\u201c\u2026the role of the church was the proclamation of the gospel that all had already been saved, and thus were to be hopeful and courageous because they were among the blessed. Individual Universalists were to be heralds of universal restoration.\u201d (Gordon McKeeman, \u201cOn Universalist Theology\u201d, p. 6)<\/p>\n
The Fraters have embodied the best of Universalist traditions and community, if not a diversity in its membership. Frater David Pohl hopes that the \u201cFraters tradition of hospitality and inclusivity (here) will only broaden and deepen in the future.\u201d He recalls that when he was first \u201cinvited as a guest speaker in1979 from the UUA, what struck (him) most was the warmth, good humor, and unpretentious but rigorous intellectual climate of the Fraters.<\/p>\n
Not a competitive nor combative climate as some study groups were at the time. It was a good thing when we finally welcomed women ministers to our ranks, and both Chuck Gaines and I helped bring that about, however late it was. It was good that, however belatedly, we welcome Carlton Smith \u2026 (and now Manish whose) warmth and intellect can only strengthen the body for the future. Finally, (he says) we need to have a larger vision for our ministry, rooted in our love for one another\u2026 and anchored in that Mystery in (which) all of us are one, that mystery (that) transcends understanding but grounds our dignity and worth.\u201d (personal email message from David Pohl, January 2, 2018)<\/p>\n
\u201cYou may only have a small light but let it shine.
\nUse it to bring light to the hearts of men and women.
\nGive them not hell but hope and courage.\u201d<\/em>
\n(as John Murray said.)<\/p>\nThat\u2019s what we are here to do \u2013 to convey the message of Universalism through our words and actions, giving voice to the need for service with love and compassion, seeking restitution where needed, and holding before us a vision of unity while honoring the diversity among us, as we feel our legs praying us toward the Beloved Community.<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
\u00a0 \u00a0 What They Dreamed Be Ours to Do A Meditation on Universalism & Restitution, the Path of Healing for Our Times January 29, 2018 A Paper Delivered at the Fraters of the Wayside Inn Sudbury, Massachusetts Nancy O. Arnold (The Reverend Nancy O Arnold is a Unitarian Universalist minister. She is a graduate of […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":120,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[37,846,57,843,301],"class_list":["post-18171","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-justice","tag-nancy-o-arnold","tag-race","tag-restitution","tag-universalism"],"yoast_head":"\n
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<\/a><\/p>\n