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Your mission should you choose to accept it is to “Wage Peace.” This is the way I propose we pay respect to the 13 killed and 30 injured at Fort Hood this week. This is how we can honor the sacrifices of all veterans.
Can we wage peace in the face of violence? The wisdom of great souls beckons us to look inside ourselves, to reach deep so that all our actions will be grounded in our core spiritual values.
Have you noticed how, in the wake of tragedy, we leap into intellectual debate? In our quickness to take matters to a theoretical realm, we often lose touch with the tenderness of human vulnerability that is explicit in such events. What we want to do is remember our care for all concerned.
Our UU congregations had recent experience and lessons in responding to violence. In July of 2008, a man walked into the Tennessee Valley UU Church in Knoxville during a children's play in a Sunday worship service and opened fire on the congregation. In Knoxville and across the nation, UU congregations responded with dignity and love. We grew as peacemakers.
We learned that it's most important is to care for the victims and those likely to be suffering after such an incident. We learned to respond to such incidents with heartfelt quiet reflection, prayer and outward expressions of good will and service.
The way that we respond when life seems to go terribly wrong sometimes with us for the rest of our days. Bitterness and resentment can harden and estrange us from our humanity. Love can heal and transform us.
Peace can not be forced upon another. It must emerge from the good will and humanity that resides in all of us. To wage peace, aspire to become a non-anxious presence when chaos and anxiety abound.
I am so grateful for traditions that honor peacemakers and point to them as teachers. I am so grateful for the training I have received, and for an identity that enables me to face chaos and trauma with some degree of peace.
To this day, when the debates about the Fort Hood massacre have begun, I realize how easy it would be for me to go off and running fueled by pain or judgment that disconnects me from my soul. My intention to wage peace means maintaining a commitment to divine order or right relationship. It means resisting the temptation to conform or react against a dominant majority, but instead to move toward higher order.
Instead I am guided by such greats as Jesus, Ghandi, MLK, Caesar Chavez and many less famous influences. I am so grateful to have a treasured lineage of teachers who were or are lovers of peace. Seeking to align myself with such great souls helps ready me for challenging situations. It has trained me to be prepared for miracles. I imagine that this is an important part of your (followers of Sai Baba) tradition.
Marching for peace with hundreds and sometimes thousands of others has given me a sense of belonging to a peace army. Memories of these historic walks, leads me to see myself as a veteran in a historic struggle. And the efforts have been personal as well as political.
I have been blessed to develop a positive attitude about crisis. I have come to expect miracles. In times of trouble and great need, I see God. I see her in the miracles of compassion, caring and extraordinary acts of kindness that arise in bleak times.
Whenever we see the best of humanity emerge from others, it's something of a miracle. You can't make the best come out from someone. Only they can do that. Only they can say yes to the love that is inside them. What we can do is remember that it is in them. What we can do is allow it to come through us.
And when we let compassion flow from us, we experience it. When we act from our love and care, we find fulfillment. Sometimes we witness and participate in healing and abundant flourishing outside ourselves. Sometimes we witness and participate in healing and flourishing inside us. Either way, there is revelation of what has been hidden from view. When we give freely or receive graciously we gain a sense of belonging, purpose and connection to something greater than us.
UU ism calls us to life and to service. It calls us to celebrate the miracle of life and the beauty of our interdependence. This challenge also blesses us and helps us know we're participating in a network of divine and human care.
UU Ministers in our region understand the importance of networks. Incidents such as this always activate our network. I was pleased to hear from Rev. Bret Lortie of FUUCSA. Rev. Lortie is a member and the only chaplain for the civil air patrol in our region. He expressed his willingness to serve if called upon. Rev. Douglas of Corpus Christi spoke of military connections in his congregation, and of recent losses. When I heard about the shooting, my thoughts went quickly to my dear colleague and mentor, Rev. Nathan Stone minister of the UU congregation in Waco. Sending him an email with the intention of support and encouragement, immediately changed my relationship to this event.
Waging peace means listening to our heart. Hearing Thursday's news left my heart heavy in expectation of the suffering that would result from this man's actions. I am grateful that we have this opportunity to be together and extend our thoughts and prayers to families of the fallen, to all families of our nation's military, to our veterans and to all who are hurting as a result of this violence.
My heart began hearting more on Friday morning when I heard that Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan is alleged to have shouted “allahu akbar” (God is great) as he was shooting. I anticipated reactions to this news and began to grieve. I recalled in the past several years, the voices of people who fear and hate Muslims, voices of those who believe Islam to be evil.
I expect there to be backlash. I pray it will be small. Children through no fault of their own, will learn what its like to be hated for being who they are. My thoughts went to a family from the NWCUUC in Houston. They are a mixed heritage family; muslim and UU. I remember meeting 13 year old Salwa last June; making a sweet connection hanging out in a pool with her and other children at a church sponsored party. When she told me here name I had trouble grasping what she said. “It's Arabic,” she said with a matter of fact calm pride. I also heard a tenderness in her voice that I imagined reflected the vulnerability in her announcement.
I cringe thinking about how some people will react to Arabic names now. I dread the thought that there might be violence in reaction to the violence of the Fort Hood shooter. Islamic people are not the only ones in likely to be used as targets of hate and violence. Any browned skin person, anyone with a name that an uneducated ear might hear as Arabic would likely receive some fallout from this act.
Remember 2004 here in SA when there four arson attacks upon stores of Arabic people. There were more incidents of arson in 2007, and a muslim person's car was vandalized with hateful messages including “move out de hood.”
But it doesn't do any good to sit and worry. It does good is to reach out in love. It is one of the challenges and delights of UU ministry that we are expected to reach out to people in times of trouble. When Rev. Stone of Waco responded to me, he informed of reaching out to the Muslims in his area, that he expected to have some of them show up at their service today. This is what UUs do. The example will teach and lead us on.
“Not our problem” is not a popular saying in UU congregations. We have a shared valuing of social responsibility. However, the expectation to face and do something about every social issue can be overwhelming. There is so much need in this world. It takes great spiritual resource to remain conscious and face the problems of this world. C'mon, it's hard enough to face the challenges of our families and jobs. How do we get the energy to create an effective response to society's problems? How can we keep a positive attitude that enables us to face social concerns as peacemakers?
Sometimes I am afraid to admit just how positive I get about facing losses, trauma, grief. I like things to go well, and then boom, here comes another large or small bit of chaos or disaster. Well, it often awakens a sense of God's immanence. It's not that I blame God for the chaos. It's that I often gain a heightened sense of clarity of purpose, and that I've come to expect miracles. It amuses me that I have always been such an anxious person. Then chaos comes and so many people get anxious, and something in me gets calm. I am blessed with faith that helps me show up. Take it from me, when it seems evil has taken the stage, you can have faith that the holy is not far away.
Of course we can't just wait for a superhero God to make it all better. Yet, if we are willing, we will be given opportunities to be of service and means to do what is needed. I'm not saying that we can make everything all better. I mean that grace offers us an opportunity to grow spiritually, and if we accept it, we witness that the best in us comes forward. Then we may find peace knowing we've done what is ours to do.
Although we can't solve the world's problems, we can assist people and contribute to the healing of the world. Ghandi said that “what you do will be insignificant, but it's very important that you do it.” Sometimes we get to see great results outside of ourselves. Always, when we acting with awareness and compassion, we get in touch our humanity.
A greater challenge for the peacemaker is to think and act to improve conditions so as to avoid creating further traumas. When incidents of violence and loss capture public attention, it is important to us to analyze and learn from what has happened.
So if it seemed like I criticized us for being intellectual, I take some of it back. Everyone, including intellectuals have something to contribute to society. It matters which analysis prevails. Reading, discussing and reflecting upon social concerns is part of our tradition's spiritual practice.
When something horrible occurs humans struggle to make sense of it. We ask “how did this happen?” Intellectuals wrestle with ideas in hopes of reaching a brilliant understanding of events that will help people. But not all debating is productive. A significantly different and less productive question is “who is to blame for this?” Blaming keeps us stuck and prevents us from learning from the past.
There are probably many factors that led to Thursday's shooting. Some will blame Islam. Some will blame and condemn all religion. Some, like myself will analyze and challenge the dominant views implicit in our nation's psychiatric system.
I would also suggest that our analysis of this tragedy, needs to include an appreciation for the costs of war. Waging peace asks us to think through and resist our reactive tendencies. Its so easy to find reasons to be afraid, easy to find reasons that we must get “them” before they get us. We don't want our allegiance to our country, to our religion, to our veterans to blind us to the fact that war has been and continues to be very costly.
If the shooter had been a white Christian, America would likely reach different conclusions. We might be more likely to realize that we are straining and abusing our population by coercing them to continue waging a war that has such futile results. To some extent the extent of the harm of our war has been kept from our view. The fact that this happened on American soil disturbs us deeply. “How can this happen here?,” we ask.
The prophet is never popular but speaks the truth. Our faith calls us to be prophetic. The truth is that we reap what we sow. I am not saying we deserve this. I am saying that it is predictable.
In Soujorners magazine blog, Arthur Waskow reflected on the Fort Hood massacre saying that it reminded him of the frag bombing in Vietnam. In the latter years of that war, he said “enlisted men began throwing fragmentation bombs at the officers who were ordering them into hopeless, senseless battle.”
I am not condoning violence. I grieve that this happened. And I understand that when we force people into situations that compromise their integrity, when we subject people to repeated disrespect, when society acts in such a way that suggests that people don't matter, we can expect violence to ensue.
War has failed. Perhaps we are approaching the day when the true cost of waging war will become evident. Perhaps we are approaching the day when the futility of war becomes evident. Ghandi taught that the end is inherent in the means. If we went to Iraq and Afganistan to build and support schools, we would be far more effective. We wouldn't be waging a war on terror. We'd be waging peace.
It is long passed time for America to change its war policy. I say this with respect for our active duty military and our veterans. I also respect that we may have differences of opinion on public policy. However, in a fully human and respectful response to this violence, I must say we need peace. We need to curb our faith in war. We need peace.
Hatred is destructive. Generalized hatred is tragic. Whether you agree with things that I have said or not, resolve to shift your heart from fear and hatred to peace and compassion. Check yourself for hate, and pray for peace. I don't care what name you use or if you believe in "a" God. Speak intimately to the Spirit of Life or your biggest idea of what is. State your desire for your heart to be healed, and for wise guidance. Regardless of your tradition or belief system, this practice will change your life. This kind of religion will turn us toward Love and help us to wage peace.
May it be so.
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Copyright © 2012 Community Unitarian Universalist Church of San Antonio. All Rights Reserved.
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