Jul 6

Jul 6 Living Room Conversations

Even as many of us are still celebrating the decision affirming marriage equality by the Supreme Court of the US (SCOTUS), let us be mindful of how we will treat the emerging new minority: social or religious conservatives.

Don’t get me wrong - I could not be for marriage equality more. I am a gay woman, UU, and have been passionately involved in the marriage equality movement for 11 years as a volunteer and then professional working on several state marriage campaigns from New York City and my home in North Carolina. This year, I’m traveling to several countries to collect the personal stories of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer (LGBTQ) people and our allies and our struggles to get equal access to marriage. Last week, I wrapped a month of interviews in Ireland after their historic yes vote in the marriage referendum. So why am I thinking about how we treat social and religious conservatives?

Jul 1

Jul 1 Mass Moral Voting Rights March July 13: This is Our Selma

Side With Love

On Monday, July 13th, in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, a federal judge will start the trial of our historical lawsuit, NC NAACP v. McCrory. We will put on our evidence to prove that the voter suppression tactics that were rammed through the North Carolina legislature in 2013 are race-based, have a disparate impact on voters of color, and were intentionally passed by Gov. Pat McCrory, then-Speaker Thom Tillis, and Senate leader Phil Berger to suppress the votes of Black, Latino, and poor voters.

We invite you to come to Winston-Salem, to attend this historic trial, and to be a part of a historic march on the first day of the trial. UUA President Rev. Peter Morales will be leading the march and speaking with us at the rally. Unitarian Universalist clergy from North Carolina have issued a call for you to join us. We will be honored by your presence. This is the most important lawsuit against voter disenfranchisement in the nation. Slate, The Nation,Think Progress, and Mother Jones called North Carolina's law the "worst in the country". Because it has a wide-reaching impact not only across our state but across the nation, North Carolina is this generation's Selma.

Jun 20

Jun 20 A Call From Charleston: Love Will Prevail

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Brothers and sisters,

I write on behalf of the Charleston congregation to thank you for the many messages of concern and support we have received, and to provide a brief perspective on the soul and state of our beloved city.

Of course, we’re reeling and will be for some time, yet poignant examples of healing and unity abound in our midst. Last night, members of our church gathered with thousands of our neighbors to grieve, pray, and sing together in a downtown arena. An interfaith core of clergy revisited ancient, holy words as source of comfort and perspective, and also as clarion call toward renewed equity, justice, and moral solidarity. Our civic leaders, particularly our popular, forty-year mayor, Joseph P. Riley, Jr., called for a revival of community cooperation and reminded us that once united, we will recover and move forward. He also addressed our national fixation with handguns and said it is surely time for more reasoned conversation and swift reform

Jun 18

Jun 18 The Ecological Wisdom of Indigenous Peoples

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The Original Nations of Great Turtle Island (typically called “the Americas”) have contributed much to the world, but are seldom publicly recognized by major educational institutions as having done so. Nor are they often recognized as models of ecological sustainability. Yet reverence and passion for thousands of years the earth and its web of life was the primary focus and way of life of all Original Nations and Peoples in North, Central, and South America, and this was a direct result of their values and worldviews.

Western thinkers tend to take the position that solutions to the ecological crisis will only be found by Western science in the future. With few exceptions they do not view the past as being instructive and certainly do not consider the traditional cultures of Original Peoples as holding meaningful answers for the world community. For Western European peoples, the knowledge systems of Original Nations and Peoples have been viewed as mere superstitious nonsense.

Jun 16

Jun 16 We’re Engaged! ...with the community

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How some visual and verbal initiatives helped us “come out with pride” as UUs in the larger world.

Eva Brinson has been a member of my church for decades. It took me years to work up the courage to talk to her. A war-time immigrant with a rich German accent, 93 years old, 4'10" and less than 93 pounds – you’d be intimidated, too! I mean, she’s been everywhere, seen, done and lived through everything; she doesn’t bother with small talk, and she doesn’t take any crap. I love that about her.

Jun 12

Jun 12 Fast with Arturo and Rosa

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From June 16-18, 2015, community members will take part in a fast in Washington, D.C.; Denver; and cities across the U.S. to demand immigration policies that respect the human dignity of us all. It’s time to let the leaders of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) know that we want families to stay together! Please join the Metro Denver Sanctuary Coalition, in partnership with the American Friends Service Committee, Church World Service, Standing on the Side of Love, and others in this nationwide fast, "Fast with Arturo and Rosa: Hold ICE Accountable." The fast will call attention for the need to stop deportations- with particular recognition for the people currently in Sanctuary- including Arturo Hernandez Garcia, who has been in sanctuary at the First Unitarian Society of Denver for over six months.

Arturo says: “I do this for my daughters and their lives here. Deporting me, separating me from my family, a father, a husband, a small business owner who has lived in this country for 16 years does not make sense. Please join us in this fast to hold immigration officials accountable and demand they implement discretion policies that can keep my family together and so many others.”

Jun 11

Jun 11 Support Voting Rights: Join Me in North Carolina on July 13

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The disappointing 2013 Supreme Court decision in Shelby v. Holder overturned key provisions of the 1965 Voting Rights Act that was passed in the aftermath of the historic Selma-to-Montgomery march. Following that 2013 ruling, voter suppression laws have proliferated across 22 states with more in the works. We must not stand by while the right to vote is taken away.

On July 13 a federal court in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, will hear arguments in N.C. NAACP v. McCrory, a case challenging that state’s recently enacted voter suppression laws. Outside the courthouse on that day, the Rev. Dr. William Barber, II, leader of the North Carolina NAACP’s Forward Together Moral Monday Movement, will lead a march and rally. Rev. Barber has invited me to share this stage with him, and I accepted without hesitation. I feel strongly that we Unitarian Universalists are called to stand with Rev. Barber in support of the right to vote.

Jun 10

Jun 10 Pride Then and Now

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Two years ago today, I was scheduled for an afternoon flight from Boston to my home in Richmond, VA. I had been at UUA headquarters for meetings all week, and I was anxious to get home. I regretted that I hadn’t scheduled a late Friday evening flight after I finished my work. But now there was nothing I could do but wait.

While I waited, I pulled out the Boston Phoenix newspaper, to see what was happening around town. Much to my delight, I discovered it was Boston Pride weekend. I could go to the Pride parade on Saturday morning and still make my flight. I love photographing parades. I love all the colors and smiles, the marching bands, and the glad-handing politicians. As a lesbian, I especially love Pride parades.

Jun 9

Jun 9 UUs Take Action at Moral Monday CT #BlackLivesMatter Rally

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Two Unitarian Universalist ministers were among 17 people arrested Monday evening at a Moral Monday CT #BlackLivesMatter rally in downtown Hartford, Connecticut. Taking its cue from North Carolina’s Moral Monday movement, Moral Monday CT was founded in January, 2015 as a means to shed light not only on police brutality of Black communities across the nation, but also on pervasive racial disparities in employment, housing, incarceration rates, and education. Moral Monday CT leaders have a long-range plan to conduct nonviolent civil disobedience in cities across Connecticut with the goal of shifting public consciousness to support positive changes in the law.

Jun 8

Jun 8 A Theology of Liberation to Inspire White Anti-Racist Organizing

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Shortly after addressing a packed room of over 400 mostly white, faith activists from around the country at the Unitarian Universalist Selma 50th Anniversary Commemoration Conference in Alabama, Opal Tometi, one of the cofounders of Black Lives Matter and someone I worked alongside fighting the "Show Me Your Papers" anti-immigrant legislation in Arizona, gave me a quick look and said, "We need to build up the anti-racist work with white people, to meet the enormous needs in these times," in between conversations she had with a dozen people waiting to talk with her.

It wasn't a new message, as I've been in conversations with hundreds of organizers of color over the past two decades who have said something similar. The difference this time was that we are living in Black Liberation movement on the move times and racist structural violence is in the headlines and national debate in a way I've never experienced, as a 41-year-old Gen Xer who came of racial consciousness with the Rodney King uprising in Los Angeles in 1992.