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Peace, Justice and the American Way
A Worship Service by the Reverends Mark W. Christian & Jonalu Johnstone The First Unitarian Church of Oklahoma City Sunday September 18, 2005
Ancient Reading Isaiah 58:6-9 (NRSV—Adapted) Is not this the fast that I choose:
to loose the bonds of injustice, Is it not to share your bread with the hungry,
and bring the homeless poor into your house; Then your light shall break forth like the dawn,
and your healing shall spring up quickly; Then you shall call, and (God) will answer; you shall cry for help, and (God) will say, Here I am.
Modern Reading The Idea of Democracy Abraham Lincoln (SLT 586) As labor is the common burden of our race, so the effort of some to shift their share of the burden onto the shoulders of others is the great, durable curse of the race. As I would not be a slave, so I would not be a master. This expresses my idea of democracy. Whatever differs from this, is no democracy. Our reliance is in our love for liberty; our defense is in the spirit which prizes liberty as the heritage of all people in all lands everywhere. Destroy this spirit, and we have planted the seeds of despotism at our own doors. Those who deny freedom to others deserve it not for themselves, and cannot long retain it. Why should there not be a patient confidence in the ultimate justice of the people? Is there any better or equal hope in the world? Let us have faith that right makes might, and in that faith. Let us, to the end, dare to do our duty as we understand it.
Prayer and Meditation Excerpted from Jefferson’s First Inaugural Address September 18, 2005 Thomas Jefferson, who espoused a Unitarian theology, though never joined a Unitarian church, offered these words in his First Inaugural Address. Let us hear them in a spirit of meditation and reflection: Equal and exact justice to all …, of whatever state or persuasion, religious or political; peace, commerce, and honest friendship with all nations, entangling alliances with none; the support of the State governments in all their rights...; the preservation of the General Government in its whole constitutional vigor, as the sheet anchor of our peace at home and safety abroad; a jealous care of the right of election by the people…; the supremacy of the civil over the military authority; economy in the public expense, that labor may be lightly burthened; the honest payment of our debts and sacred preservation of the public faith; encouragement of agriculture, and of commerce as its handmaid; the diffusion of information and arraignment of all abuses at the bar of the public reason; freedom of religion; freedom of the press, and freedom of person under the protection of the habeas corpus, and trial by juries impartially selected. These principles form the bright constellation which has gone before us and guided our steps through an age of revolution and reformation. The wisdom of our sages and blood of our heroes have been devoted to their attainment. They should be the creed of our political faith, the text of civic instruction, the touchstone by which to try the services of those we trust; and should we wander from them in moments of error or of alarm, let us hasten to retrace our steps and to regain the road which alone leads to peace, liberty, and safety. So May it be, AMEN
Peace, Justice and the American Way A Sermon by the Reverend Mark W. Christian Delivered to the First Unitarian Church of Oklahoma City Sunday September 18, 2005 I have come to be an expert on Oklahoma City’s native population of bumper stickers. I make up to a dozen round-trip excursions along the Broadway Extension each week. This gives me ample opportunity to observe the variations of our auto-mo-graftiti. You know, when I lived out in Jones I became an expert on birds…now I have become a connoisseur of bumper stickers? God forgive me the sins of suburbia. And, yes, I am investigating a support group for ministers who drive too much. In my role as the Jane Goodall of the Broadway Extension, I see the ongoing college football wars, bumper stickers for OU, for OSU, even an occaisional University of Texas fan. There are bumper stickers for politicians come and gone. There are as many varieties of “W” as there are sparrows, I think. I see lots of religious stickers. Then there are outlines of a comic strip character doing nearly everything imaginable. Occasionally a tandem sighting catches my eye. One day this summer I saw a sticker from the early ‘70s side by side—not on the same car just in adjacent lanes—with a newer sentiment. The old classic—“America: Love It Or Leave It.” The newer species read “Peace is Patriotic.” The auto-graffiti-ologist in me added “Peace is Patriotic” to my “Life List” and began to wonder if it was a migrant, an accidental or an invading species. This sighting gave me cause to consider patriotism, what it means to be an American and our nation’s foundations. As a religious person I am called to consider the spiritual and ethical implications of these states of beings. Part of me identifies with what can be called “John Wayne’s America.” Part of me understands, although doesn’t agree with, “America: Love It or Leave It.” It’s not that this part of me—or of our culture for that matter—advances war for the sake of war, but I feel its presence and understand it at a nascent level. While I acknowledge that at times war is necessary, and despite the fact that the old John Wayne movies show us fighting wars in the name of peace, part of me is astounded by the inherent contradiction of a war for peace. Still, even as I give my conscious, sentient, assent to “Peace is Patriotic,” I wonder how well established that species really is either in me or in our nation. How peaceful a nation are we? Really? Even on our best days? You see, peace has been used to inflict damage, too. Liberal to moderate America has real atoning to do for sins committed in the name of peace during the Vietnam War. Returning soldiers were defamed and defiled, made the scapegoat for policies and decisions that weren’t theirs to make. Mothers and fathers and grandparents saw their sons and grandsons spit upon and cursed for doing what they understood to be “serving the country they love.” With the adolescent glee of new found power, things were said, people were blamed and our nation was defamed, in ways that still haunt us. Until the abuses are acknowledged, apologies are offered and atonement attempted I believe we who advance peace as patriotic will find little future. I have had a personal hesitance to stand on the side of the road with Cindy Sheehan, or to participate in displays like the Spiritual Walk for Peace that have accompanied this war. My personal feeling is that this war is not a just war but I hesitate to join in with those who actively and vocally protest. Perhaps I give myself too easy an “out,” but I believe my hesitancy is rooted in a combination of our nation’s ambivalent relationship with peace and our sad history of abusing peace by using it as a weapon to wreak violence and unrest. Making matters worse for our nation, the sins of the Vietnam generation are being handed on to the next in a mutated form that will be harder to identify and address with the passage of time. Time, I fear, is running out for those who used peace as a way to conduct a culture war to seek atonement. This step is essential, I believe, if liberal to moderate politics is to regain its health and stature. More importantly, this atonement is needed to help our nation see live more clearly into its rhetoric that Peace is the American Way. The long and short of this is that before peace can be really experienced as patriotic we will have to understand our personal and national relationship with the causes and consequences of both war and peace and this is no easy task. This is particularly true since Vietnam, but the origin of this challenge is far, far, older. A couple of years ago, I was talking with someone who observed that the our nation really desires peace in the world. I replied, “I hope you’re right but I’m not so certain.” Today I ask: Can one be a patriot and question whether peace really is our nations prime interest? Is the myth of the US as a peace loving a nation a sacred cow that one simply can’t tip? It may be out of character for a preacher to admit but I often fear I am more cynic than idealist. It seems that a sense of American destiny and entitlement are more characteristic of our national DNA than an overarching commitment to peace. Something in the deep strands of our national character tell us that we are different, we are on a mission, if you will, from God. Rereading Thomas Paine this week, I found in “The American Crisis” his oft-stated words that indicated that national ascendancy—by peace or by war—is our destiny. These are the times that try men's souls. The summer soldier and the sunshine patriot will, in this crisis, shrink from the service of their country; but he that stands it now, deserves the love and thanks of man and woman. Tyranny, like hell, is not easily conquered; yet we have this consolation with us, that the harder the conflict, the more glorious the triumph. What we obtain too cheap, we esteem too lightly: it is dearness only that gives every thing its value. Heaven knows how to put a proper price upon its goods; and it would be strange indeed if so celestial an article as freedom should not be highly rated. It’s not just Paine. I think you see the same strand in Jefferson when he wrote of our nation’s place in the course of human events and as a guarantor of the rights bestowed by the creator. Perhaps that strand surfaced most clearly in our nation’s history as “Manifest Destiny” and the “Monroe Doctrine.” In terms of Manifest Destiny, a show produced for PBS caught a snapshot of the American Way that is insightful about our spiritual past, present and future. The people of the United States felt it was their mission to extend the "boundaries of freedom" to others by imparting their idealism and belief in democratic institutions to those who were capable of self-government. It excluded those people who were perceived as being incapable of self-government, such as Native American people and those of non-European origin. One can continue to see this motif in the American Way, I think. We have broadened the definition of those capable of self-government, of course, but this has been the driving force behind our administrations without regard to political affiliation. I think it wise to keep Manifest Destiny and our National Entitlement in plain sight when trying to understand our nation’s ethos, pathos and logos. Let me be plain. I am not speaking solely of Iraq here. I am not solely speaking of conservatives or even politicians here. Last week I read you a piece from A. Powell Davies who was minister of All Souls Unitarian in Washington D.C. in the era that spanned the end of WW II and the beginning of the Cold War. He, too manifests this same strand of our national DNA in his book “American Destiny.” Reading, as of course I must with the aid of historical perspective, I find that same sense of entitlement in my beloved Dr. Davies that I find in all the other places that the Spirit has led me today. Not by design, but by necessity, the American people are moving toward world ascendancy. It was inevitable always. It began with the Colonies, established itself in the War of Independence, grew with the growth of the Union, was reaffirmed in the outcome of the War between the States. Each successive national crisis invoked and reinforced it. Now, at length, the ordeal which shall achieve it is begun. That ordeal was the Cold War. Davies started with the notion that our nation was simply seeking security for our way of life. As the Romans asserted the Pax Romana to protect Rome so America, he predicted we would inevitably assert the Pax Americana to protect the American Way. Historians observe that in the ancient world unless you were Romana there was no Pax. Similarly it may well be that unless you are Americana there is no peace today. The problem is that through all this we have confused the real definition of peace with something that merely advances our security and seeks to protect our privilege. This raises more questions than answers for me. What is the American Way? What is the DNA of our country? What is real Peace? What are we, what should we, be willing to sacrifice for this peace? How secure are we? How secure can we be? How peaceful or secure should we be? What do the answers to these questions say about us as a people? One of the political serve and volleys of our day that addresses our national character is the assertion that our nation was created as a Christian nation. We have all heard it. My normal response to this serve is to volley back—No. Today I see a little more clearly where that idea gains traction. It is not just that the founders used the word God—it is more that they saw themselves on a mission. This is an odd spin to put on that serve, but today I think I want to respond to the assertion that this nation was created as a Christian nation by saying, “But that it were true.” It is Jesus in the Gospel of Matthew who says “Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called children of God.” Is this what they mean when they say we are a Christian nation? (Matthew 5:9)” I wonder what a Christian Nation would be like that lived by the Beatitudes of Jesus?
Blessed are you who are poor, I’m not going to assert that this really is the American Way. I am saying that if the world was a just place perhaps it would be. Actually I believe the real hope for the American Way may is to be found on the path of Justice. We often don’t like it, and do so hesitantly, but America often responds with justice once our sensibilities have been heightened. Yes, there is a strand in our DNA that presupposes our ascendancy. Yes, there is a strand that stands strongly on self-interest and entitlement. Still, I believe there is deep part of us that stands for justice and fairness and equity. We know it, and respect it—albeit begrudgingly—when we see it. In some ways, while I suspect that peace may be foreign to our DNA, we consistently respond to justice as being true to our national self once we see it. That is part of the reason that we see such an outpouring of support for those who have been displaced by Hurricane Katrina—without regard to race or age or politics or religion. It is just. It is right. It is compassionate. It is American. It is patriotic. You remember those two bumper stickers I saw on the Broadway Extension? I don’t believe that “Peace is Patriotic” and “America: Love It Or Leave It” are mutually exclusive statements. Perhaps anyone who can’t imagine “Peace is Patriotic” may not have the mature love a great nation requires of its citizens. The drivers of those two cars probably grumbled at each other’s messages—my challenge for us today is follow the Spirit to the place where those ideas can stand together. On this day, know that our instincts for justice can lead us to peace, real peace, lasting peace. I pray we keep expanding our horizon of self interest until not only every American, but every human being, every animal, every living being, our planet itself and the entire cosmos becomes inseparably dear to us. I pray we see that our DNA is inextricably intertwined with all of creation and the fate of all things are one in the Spirit of God. AMEN
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