A UU Toolkit for Beloved Community

Before I begin, I must make a disclaimer. The following content is for mature audiences only. It is not for the faint of heart or those who only want to hear polite euphemisms. It is not for the timid or for people not courageous enough to speak truth to power. I am going to talk about and ask you to join me in a discussion of the three most feared and forbidden subjects in our society: politics, race, and religion. So if anyone wants to leave now, go ahead here’s your chance. Today, we will not be comforting the afflicted but afflicting the comfortable.

Okay, no one left, so here goes.

Last Saturday, I joined nearly 3 dozen PUC members and friends in the Women’s March, some in Redondo Beach, most of us in downtown Los Angeles. We marched with 750,000 fellow Angelenos and an estimated 5 million men, women and children around the world in support of social justice and human rights.

In the nine days since the Trump administration was installed, we have the introduction of policies and actions that threaten to break up families and deny women and people of color their human and civil rights. Trump’s green light to pull out of NAFTA and build the border wall are creating enemies of our allies and neighbors around the world.

His immigration policies and cabinet appointees will increase discrimination of our lgbt community, unfairly discriminate against our Muslim brothers and sisters, and cripple our public education system. Trump’s stance on global warming will hinder anti-pollution actions by our country and other nations, increasing the likelihood of catastrophic climate change threatening the future of our entire planet.

As people of faith and people of conscience, we cannot stand idly by. And if last Saturday’s march was any indication, we will not. But somepeople may doubt that there is much we can do… after all, what can one person do, what can a small church like PUC do, what difference can a minor denomination like the Unitarian Universalist Movement with less than 1000 congregations nationwide make?

The road of resistance ahead is daunting. Many in our liberal faith community now find ourselves at odds with not only the nation’s chief executive and commander in chief of our armed forces but also for the first time in modern history, all three power branches of our federal government: Executive, Legislative and Judicial-- united in denying certain Americans the very rights and privileges that made this country great.

There’s that old saying… you can’t fight City Hall—well it’s indeed a new day when now, many fighting the White House, Capitol Hill and the Supreme Court. And ironically, now we find that cities are fighting the feds, as Trump is threatening to cut off federal funding to Sanctuary Cities like Los Angeles and San Francisco that have declared themselves unwilling to begin stopping and arresting law abiding residents who may be undocumented.

Yes, the challenges ahead are huge. But not insurmountable…if we have a strategy. And today, my friends, I want to propose a simple doable strategy—a toolkit, if you will for UUs who want to live out our faith in these times of turmoil.

My toolkit contains three to-do’s: They are

Open our mouths
Open our doors
Open our arms

Open Our Mouths-- to speak truth to power:

Talk to your family, friends, neighbors, your children about standing up for the rights of marginalized communities and historically oppressed persons. I’m talking about supporting a Muslim colleague in his efforts to bring his parents and siblings to the United States. I will defend immigrants when my neighbor badmouths “those illegals” that are trying to take jobs from “real Americans”. I’ll protest when the district attorney concludes that the police are just doing their jobs when they shoot an unarmed black youth. We can speak truth by harnessing the power of social media—share your experiences and thoughts on facebook, twitter, Instagram. Forward emails that detail stories of justice, resistance and empowerment.

To speak truth about these issues, we must first be willing to be truthful among ourselves. For example, many of us have been taught that we should be color blind—not talk about race, avoid noticing when someone is black or brown because it is impolite to point out differences, No, I say, be not color blind but color brave. Notice color, notice when people of color are treated differently than white people and don’t be afraid to call that out!

Being color brave is when you don’t allow the fellow traveler in the turban to be harassed. Being color brave is to speak out when you notice a brown or black-skinned shopper not being treated with the same respect as other customers. Being color brave is protesting on social media when the district attorney decides it’s justified when a police officer shoots an unarmed black youth.

That’s what we as individuals can do every day… but there’s even more our faith community can do as a group.

That’s my number two strategy: Open our doors.

We can open our church as sanctuary for those targeted by hate.

America’s churches were havens for runaway slaves and stations on the underground railroad during the 19th century. In the 20th century UU congregations like ours were sanctuaries for central American refugees seeking political asylum. Now in the 21st century, PUC can offer our sacred space as sanctuary to immigrant families. We can follow the example of 19 congregations in Tucson Arizona, including the UU Mountain Vista Church, that are offering a “radical welcome” to shelter refugees and unauthorized immigrants from deportation. They recently held an interfaith service where they declared themselves to be sanctuary congregations.

Here in California, the UU Justice Ministry, a non-profit organization that helps organize UU congregations for social action is offering a Path toward Sanctuary: a series of webinars starting Feb. 27. I signed up to learn how our church can become a sanctuary congregation.I invite you to join me in that effort and sign up t

On the national level, UUA President Rev. Peter Morales andUUSCPresident Thomas Andrews are inviting individual UUs and congregations to sign the Declaration of Conscience, committing to put Unitarian Universalist values into action to resist hate, fear and bigotry.The declaration is printed in your order of service and if you wish to sign it go online to uua.org. If you want PUC as a congregation to go on record supporting this declaration, sign in pen today and drop your bulletin in the offering basket. If we get a majority of members’ approval, we can sign as a congregation.

This leads me to my third suggestion: Open our arms. Open our arms in partnership—partnership with other congregations, the UUA, the UUSC, and community groups. We are not alone in our resistence. There are many individuals and groups who have been at this a long time. We have much to learn from them. We need to be willing to follow their lead. And we need to listen to their experiences, acknowledge their pain, and look upon ourselves as allies in a common cause. We should view our solidarity as a spiritual practice and social justice as our key ministry.

As UU’s, this is not only our privilege, but it is our calling. It is our prophetic imperative. I ask you to read aloud with me the UU Declaration of Conscience:

At this extraordinary time in our nation’s history, we are called to affirm our profound commitment to the fundamental principles of justice, equity and compassion, to truth and core values of American society.

In the face of looming threats to immigrants, Muslims, people of color, and the LGBTQ community and the rise of hate speech, harassment and hate crimes, we affirm our belief in the inherent worth and dignity of every person.

In opposition to any steps to undermine the right of every citizen to vote or to turn back advances in access to health care and reproductive rights, we affirm our commitment to justice and compassion in human relations.

And against actions to weaken or eliminate initiatives to address the threat of climate change – actions that would threaten not only our country but the entire planet – we affirm our unyielding commitment to protect the interdependent web of all existence.

We will oppose any and all unjust government actions to deport, register, discriminate, or despoil.

As people of conscience, we declare our commitment to translate our values into action as we stand on the side of love with the most vulnerable among us.

We welcome and invite all to join in this commitment for justice.

The time is now.

And now is also the time when I want to offer you the chance to offer your own ideas on how we can stand on the side of love in these troubled times. If you will raise your hand and stand up, say your name, I will ask the ushers to pass the microphone to you to briefly share your thought.

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Thank you for sharing. I hope you will all stay for brunch in the patio and continue this discussion. Blessed be. Shalom. Namaste.

The Path To Sanctuary Webinar

If you are interested in learning how PUC can become a sanctuary congregation to assist families who are in danger of being deported due to the new policies of the Trump administration, please sign up for the Path to Sanctuary webnair, a series beginning Feb. 27.

Please email Vivien Hao to let her know you would like to be part of the immigration leadership group at PUC. Once we learn what becoming a sanctuary congregation involves, we can decide if we want to officially sign on (this may require PUC Board of Trustees' approval).

To learn more and register, visit: