I Am a Professional Liar.
Yesterday, Sunday October 12th, I spoke at a worship service at the Unitarian Universalist Congregation of Marin where I am the Director of Religious Education. It was a beautiful service with music and over 40 visiting youth from the PCD Coming of Age retreat.
The following are some of the words I spoke in the sermon portion of the service. The readings and hymns were also chosen with care to frame the love and care we have toward our planet and our fellow humans, animals and species of life.
My oral presentations are better than my written ones, but upon request here it is:
Indigenous People’s Day
October 12, 2014
Unitarian Universalist Congregation of Marin
Jeffrey S. Melcher, M.Div.
Truth and lies
I am a liar. I always tell lies. And therein lies the rub.
How could I be telling the truth about my lying if I always lie? This is often
given as a logician’s example of tautological or conflicted logic. From my
perspective, looking at the ethics of humanity and communication, this is as an
example that some truths are lies, and some lies might be a truth
Breathing and Tapping
Before I get any farther I want to remind people that Breathing
is a great way to stay present, alert and relaxed. I will occasionally say the
word breathe and please just take that as an invitation. It is not a command,
it is always a choice. I also want to introduce another technique for emotional
resilience and integration. By some it is simply known as tapping. Some of us
call it EFT short for Emotional Freedom Technique. There is a lot more to it,
but one of the basic elements is to gently tap on the side of your hand like
this ... an acupressure point. I will occasionally invite you to tap during
this next bit of time we have together.
Truth and Consequences
My mother taught me to tell the truth. She also taught me to
lie. It is a parent’s duty to teach these skills to their young civilized
humans.
“Tell me what really happened with your sister.”
“Tell grandma you liked the beef tongue. Just pretend. Don’t
hurt her feelings.” (And then there was the tomato bisque too.)
White lie – what makes it white? What is a colorful lie: lots
of exaggerated details?
What kind of lie is this? The Koch Bros. funded Americans for Prosperity is spending huge amounts of money
to publicize dis-informative science to disprove climate change.
A lie of omission – Having information, a truth, and
not sharing it.
Taking in this definition, this makes the person holding the
truth and not sharing a liar.
Don’t tell John you have an ear ring.
He won’t understand.
I did not tell this friend of my Dad’s who was interested in me. In fact I
stopped talking to him all together. I choose the earring over someone who my
mother warned against even telling. Maybe he would have laughed it off, maybe
not. Either way I lost a possible mentor.
“Don’t tell your aunt that my maternal grandma’s mustache
cup got broken by the cat, it will make her sad.” Holding this secret became a wedge
between my and my aunt’s relationship. In my subconscious it might still be.
There were clearly consequences if the truth was spoken to
the wrong people. So who does the lie protect? The secret keeper or the one who
does not hear the truth? Who does it harm?
So, I have now given proof that I am a liar. I have lied. As a
DRE I have to make decisions every week about what information to share and
which to withhold due to the “age-appropriate” nature of information; it is
part of my job, condoned by parents and the RE Committee. So, I am a professional liar. Communities and
parents make decisions multiple times a day about how much to share with their
children, based on what we think will
make them better people. I am probably going to some truth telling and some
lying today as I tread through tender subject matter. I am going to rely on our
5th principle: The right of conscience
and the use of the democratic process
within our congregations and in society at large. Specifically the “right of conscious.”
As a community, we Unitarian Universalists have a history,
and often see ourselves as having a duty, of speaking the truth as we know it. Here
at UUCM we sing out our children every Sunday, (sung) “May the light of truth
surround you, go now and shine.” The Fourth
of our UUA and this congregations covenanted principles is: A free and responsible search
for truth and meaning.
We uphold truth as one of our highest goals. But we also are
taught not to hurt those around us. Thus we are taught about white lies. A lie
told to spare someone’s feelings. Who is responsible for the hurting if someone
feels bad when truth is spoken? Am I not responsible for my own reaction? I
need to have critical thought involved here. Are the words thoughtless? Are they
meant to hurt? Are they meant to help? How do we decide the standards of social
interaction around truth? Whose truth gets to be told? Does indeed history get written
by the victors?
School report
As
reported in the NY Times: ARVADA, Colo. — A new conservative school board
majority here in the Denver suburbs recently proposed a curriculum-review
committee to promote patriotism, respect for authority and free enterprise and
to guard against educational materials that “encourage or condone civil
disorder.” In response, hundreds of students, teachers and parents gave the
board their own lesson in civil disobedience.
Leighanne Grey, a senior at Arvada High School,
said that after second period, a student ran through the halls yelling, “The
protest is still on!” and she and scores of her classmates got up and left. She said that learning about history, strife and
all, had given her a clearer understanding of the country. “As we grow up, you always hear that America’s the
greatest, the land of the free and the home of the brave,” she said. “For all
the good things we’ve done, we’ve done some terrible things. It’s important to
learn about those things, or we’re doomed to repeat the past.”
Tori
Leu, a 17-year-old student who protested at Ralston Valley High School in
Arvada said, "I don't think my education should be censored. We should be
able to know what happened in our past."
Columbus Day or Indigenous People's Day?
So, back to Christopher Columbus. I want to speak my truth. 500
years of protecting Christopher Columbus’ reputation is long enough. I think we
as a community UUCM and Marin I think we owe it to ourselves and our young to
lay out plainly that Christopher Columbus was a murderous rouge who manipulated
kings and queens using religion and greed to gain fame and power for himself by
looting torturing and killing the Tiano people of the West Indies. By
kidnapping and enslaving hundreds back to Spain, he started the trans-Atlantic
slave trade, leading to the infamous slave triangle of rum-slaves-goods between
the West Indies, Africa, and the English colonies, ie the United States.
Christopher
Columbus represents to me the Empire mentality of “Go out to see the world
conquer it and take what you can.” It is a mentality still used to support current
acts of aggression by powerful nations and terrorists alike
He is NOT a good role model. He is not someone I want my
child to emulate, and he should not be lifted up with a holiday any longer.
If we want our children to be proud of our U.S. History, then
let’s make some history worth being proud of.
Indigenous
People’s Day http://ipdpowwow.org
The idea of replacing Columbus Day with Indigenous Peoples
Day was first proposed in 1977 by a delegation of Native nations to the United
Nations-sponsored International Conference on Discrimination Against Indigenous
Populations in the Americas, held in Geneva, which passed that resolution.
Berkeley replaced Columbus Day with Indigenous Peoples Day in 1992. The
inaugural year was filled with ceremonies, and each year since then the city
has celebrated with a free pow wow, organized by local Native and non-Indigenous
residents. Held in Civic Center Park, the Indigenous Peoples Day Pow Wow and
Indian Market has become an important annual event, where the local population
can interact with and learn about Native culture and the Bay Area Indian
community.
From the The Indigenous People’s Committee Mission Statement: “The
Indigenous Peoples Committee works for social justice and human rights for
Native Peoples. We promote the necessity of Indigenous wisdom for human
survival in balance with the environment. ….”
Two recent articles:
“David Bean, a member of
the Puyallup Tribal Council, told councilmembers the resolution demonstrates
that the city values tribal members' history, culture, welfare and
contributions to the community.”
“ … But there are signs of change: this year marks both
Portland schools and the
City of Seattle's decision to celebrate "Indigenous
People's Day" on the same day as Columbus Day. They join the cities of
Berkeley, Minneapolis, and other municipalities across the country who have
either replaced Columbus Day altogether or introduced an alternative Indigenous
People's Day. …”
Native American
Teachings As the Native
cultures in N. America were systematically destroyed, much was lost from Native
American wisdom and ways of living cooperatively nature. Can we learn to adapt
to knowledge before the western industrial culture-of-consumption consumes us? We
like to believe, and possibly project onto, Native Peoples have a deeper
understanding of what we Unitarian Universalist claim as our 7th principle: Respect for the interdependent web of all existence
of which we are a part. Can we as a planet afford not to embrace this?
Rhino and Blue Whales Bad news and good news: First the Bad - Recently
in the news, biologists have announced the official extinction of the West
African Black Rhino. A subspecies of Rhino. There are two more sub-species that
are probably irreversibly destined for extinction.
Now the good
– Blue Whales were nearly extinct and with international cooperation and a whaling
bans, the numbers of Blue Whales in the Pacific seem to have come up to where
they were 100 years ago. This is a fantastic success! Recovery is possible. It
took 40 years to help this indicator species make a comeback. We humans can change
our ways and the course of the planet.
This is really good to know because there
are more challenges. And we here in the U.S., in a safe and affluent community
have had the relative privilege to ignore the problem. Not so for sub Saharan
Africa, Pacific Islanders, and India. These people’s very lives are threatened by
climate change and rising seas. The Polynesian islands are already disappearing
under the rising seas.
Making a shift. The
time has been here for a while.
I am very glad these youth are here today. I want everyone to
look around at each other. It is these children’s lives that are going to be effected
in a tremendous way. Not just simple anti-nuke demonstration, or change in one
or two policies to slow down carbon emissions. A radical transformation in our
lifestyles and political will is needed to hold boards of directors accountable.
A couple of weeks ago Joel Gluck used as a call to worship this reading. I take
it as a challenge.
It’s 3:23 in the morning
and I’m awake
because my great great grandchildren
won’t let me sleep
my great great grandchildren
ask me in dreams
what did you do while the planet was
plundered?
what did you do when the earth was
unraveling?
surely you did something
when the seasons started failing?
as the mammals, reptiles, birds were
all dying?
did you fill the streets with
protest
when democracy was stolen?
what did you do
once
you
The truth about truth:
“The truth shall set you free. (But first it will make you miserable.)”
We do not get stuck for lack of information. We get stuck in
emotional stagnation and quagmire. Our Frontal cortex can process information
faster than our reptilian and mammalian brains can, unless we train them to
make bigger leaps. Not faster, but bigger. Our emotional selves can be slow to
change. Yet when we do, the shift can be several light years at a time. We can
overcome fear of heights, reach out to others and care passionately about our
world.
I would like to lift up the Patchamama Alliance which is doing this
work of bridging our emotional selves with the dire needs of change. We are
hosting one of their events here at UUCM this Saturday October18th. I encourage
all who can to attend.
Here is one of the more difficult parts of being a Unitarian
Universalist. We must find and create our own personal and collective
truth.
We must individually have a practice and training to take in
difficult truths. Integrating demands a practice, spiritual or scientific. We cannot
do this alone. In order to survive as a
culture and species for the next two generations: NO more “survival of the fittest”.
It has to be the survival of the networked.
So that these youth sitting here with us can have grandchildren. It is that
close, the consequences of our human folly.
Meditation, music, theater, small
group ministries, prayer, art, science,
Less is more – reducing our carbon
foot-print
Alternative energy technologies
Reducing our consumption of animal products, ie flesh, when our health allows
it.
Building stronger inter-generational
communities, including this one right here.
We KNOW what we need to do! We need to embrace the change,
open to emotional growth. Breathe, love deeply, cherish life, live, love and
learn.
May it be So.
Amen.
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