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On
Sunday, July 27th, 2008, a man walked into the sanctuary of the Tennessee
Valley Unitarian Universalist Church and opened fire. Two dedicated
Unitarian Universalists were killed: Greg McKendry, an usher, and
Linda Kraeger, a member of Westside Unitarian Universalist Church
which was worshipping with Tennessee Valley that day. Six other people
were injured. Every member of the two congregations was affected.
The shooter’s motive, in his own words, was to kill “liberalisms’ foot soldiers.”
Knoxville’s Unitarian Universalists were targeted just for being who they are.
Which is deeply tragic, because they are wonderful people who do magnificent
things.
When Tennessee Valley Unitarian Universalist Church opened in the segregated
south in 1949 they put up a sign that said, “Everyone Welcome.” When an African
American man, Jim Pearson, approached the sign and asked, “does that mean me?”
The church gathered and decided to defy segregation laws and wound up losing
their lease. So rather than sit in their pews they chose to join sit-ins at all-white
lunch counters.
More recently, two young men, a teenage couple in the Tennessee Valley youth
group, complained about being harassed for holding hands in a public park. So
the congregation hosted a “Holding Hands Rally” downtown. The youth held hands
and the community surrounded them also holding hands.
Sixty years since its opening and one year since the shooting, everyone is still
welcome at Tennessee Valley Unitarian Universalist Church.
When our Knoxville churches responded to the shooting with love. When they kept
their doors open and recommitted to their justice ministry, people of every faith
from around the world were deeply moved. Even as we were hurting, we were healing.
The leaders of the Unitarian Universalist Association were deeply inspired. It
was clear what we had to offer this world.
I stand before you almost one year later as the campaign manager of the recently
launched Standing on the Side of Love campaign. Standing on the Side of Love
is a public advocacy campaign sponsored by the Unitarian Universalist Association
promoting respect for the inherent worth and dignity of every person. We believe
that no person should face exclusion, oppression, or violence just because of
who they are. When people are demeaned or dehumanized because of their immigrant
status, gender or sexual orientation, religion, race, ethnicity, disability,
political views, or any other identity, we will be there, standing on the side
of love.
This campaign officially launched three and a half weeks ago at the Unitarian
Universalist General Assembly. The central part of that launch was Friday at
rush hour. It was when we filed out of the convention center and marched three
blocks to the Gallivan Center in the middle of downtown Salt Lake City. There
we gathered with leaders of the Catholic and Episcopal Churches and members of
the Salt Lake City community to stand on the side of love with immigrant families.
Over a thousand people gathered and we heard many inspiring words. But there
was one voice that rose above the rest. This is not a joke, but the voice belonged
to a man named Larry Love, a member of the church of Latter Day Saints.
Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) came to his door in March and said
they were looking for a woman registering cars to his home address illegally.
When his wife came to look at the picture of that woman the ICE officers said,
“We are not really here looking for this lady but we are here to arrest your
wife.” After pleading with the ICE officers, she was allowed to kiss her kids
goodbye.
Larry Love’s wife applied for political asylum years ago and was turned down
and told to leave. She did not have enough money to fly back to Guatemala so
she stayed in the U.S. living illegally. For 16 years now, she has paid taxes,
raised three citizen children and been active in her community. Now she is on
the brink of being deported.
Larry Love and his wife understand that there are consequences for her actions.
But losing her income, their health insurance, and having their family separated
seems like such severe consequences for simply crossing a border. Of those gathered
at the rally there were undoubtedly hundreds of opinions about what type of immigration
reforms this country needs, but on that day those opinions didn’t seem to matter
as we all stood on the side of love with Larry Love.
Last week, I received an email from Larry reflecting on his experience speaking
out at the Standing on the Side of Love interfaith witness. He wrote:
“Speaking at the community witness event alongside the leaders of the Unitarian
Universalist, Catholic and Episcopal Churches was an honor. I am grateful to
Unitarian Universalists and I felt your concern for all people during the conference
here in Salt Lake City. I personally don’t agree with the lesbian and gay lifestyle,
but I feel that any hate directed toward them or any other group is wrong and
not Christian or Godlike. Hate and mistreatment has no place among God’s people.
I wish success to the “Standing on the Side of Love” effort. Needless to say,
our family’s life is now uncertain. My 10 year-old cries at night, but crossing
the boundaries of religion was a wonderful help to us. Thank you again and know
that we feel your love.”
I’d like to focus on how he ends his letter.
“Crossing the boundaries of religion was a wonderful help to us. Thank you again
and know that we feel your love.”
If you ask me those are the most precious gifts we can give the world. We can
help people cross boundaries and feel the love on the other side. Larry Love
may not understand what it means to be lesbian or gay, but he now knows what
it means to be loved by an inclusive community. We may not get anything back,
but that love is a gift we have to give.
In the three weeks since Larry Love spoke out, I have been alerted to what seems
like every instance of exclusion, oppression, or violence based on someone’s
identity in this nation. There were some things that you may of heard of; such
as the mostly black and Hispanic Philadelphia Day Camp, whose neighborhood pool
was closed for budget reasons, and so they contracted with a mostly white suburban
swim club to use their pool once a week. The first day the camp came to the swim
club they received a cold and occasionally outright bigoted response. The next
day they received notice that they weren’t to come back. When first speaking
to the press, the club manager said something about the day camp changing the
complexion of the club.
In media work we often talk about the five C’s. Every news story has to have
at least one: conflict, controversy, colorful-language, cast of characters, and
contradiction. What happened in Philadelphia easily had all five C’s and so the
national media spotlight came to Montgomery County, Pennsylvania. The nation
was outraged and rightly so.
But most of the dehumanizing cases of exclusion, oppression and violence I have
been witnessing are tearing apart local communities while CNN and USA Today stay
far away. The FBI regularly reports 7,500 hate crimes each year and this year
they are on the rise. To give you a sense of what we are facing, I will share
three recent things this campaign has faced and what we have done about them.
Late in the evening on June 26th, Fort Worth Police Officers and Texas Alcoholic
Beverage Commission officers entered the Rainbow Lounge, a gay bar, for an alcoholic
beverage code inspection. What resulted was the arrest of seven patrons, one
being critically injured during the raid. This happened on the 40th anniversary
of the Stonewall.
Rev. Tony Lorenzen, Minister of Pathways Church in Fort Worth, learned of this
while at General Assembly and he called me immediately. I shared some media tips
and messaging with him and then he worked with another local minister to draft
a press release. This resulted in early coverage of the raid including a call
for an investigation coming from Unitarian Universalist churches. The gay community
in Fort Worth knew they had friends in the faith community.
Throughout the last year, rising home foreclosures and the good weather in Broward
County, Florida has caused a large spike in the homeless population. This was
followed by a tragic rise of attacks on homeless people, much of it being perpetrated
by teenagers. A State Legislator has responded by introducing hate crimes legislation
that would extend protections to the homeless.
On July 8th, we learned that there would be a community meeting that night to
discuss the hate crimes legislation. I contacted local ministers and learned
that they have been working for years with the homeless population but didn’t
know about this legislation or the meeting. One member of the local clergy, Rev.
David Fisher, was able to attend the meeting where he made connections with other
local activists. He is currently following up with the other local ministers
and they are taking their justice work to the next level.
On July 7th, in Houston, two female firefighters, one African American, showed
up to work and found sexist and racist slurs spray-painted on their lockers.
I contacted Rev. and he immediately wrote on his blog hosted by the Houston Chronicle
saying:
Imagine going to work and finding that someone had written racist and sexually
explicit words on your office door. You know that only other employees have access
to that area. What's
more, a culture of trust, mutual support, and loyalty among your co-workers are
critical to your and their safety and security. All gone in a flash... with words...
He finishes by saying: “Let our lives, our beliefs, our values, our deeds, and
our WORDS reflect the spirit of knowledge over ignorance, trust over fear, and
love over hate. Let us get to the business of building the beloved community.
Standing on the side of love, Rev. Matt”
The PR firm we are working with alerted Houston’s KTRH radio station about the
blog post and Rev. Matt Tittle was interviewed on the radio the next morning.
For many people in Houston, the first they heard of this incident they also knew
there were people of faith offering a better vision for how we can live together.
The standing on the side of love campaign has just begun and it is changing everyday.
We still haven’t launched our full website, we haven’t finalized talking points
or developed many resources for congregations. My boss, Rev. Meg Riley, currently
talks about the campaign as a highway under construction that we are still trying
to get traffic through.
But at this early stage one thing has crystallized in my mind. Standing on the
side of love is needed most on the local level. In south Florida the homeless
population needs that love, in southern Arizona Mexican immigrants need allies,
in Cincinnati, Ohio it is the Muslim population who need people to stand with
them.
This is the first congregation I have spoken at since the standing on the side
of love campaign was launched and I realized late yesterday that the most important
thing I could leave you with is a question.
How can you stand on the side of love in your community?
I’d like to close by sharing a moment of grace and vision that came to me.
Rev. William Sinkford officially launched the standing on the side of love campaign
with his remarks during the opening plenary of general assembly. In the weeks
leading up to that moment I had been working 12 hour days, six days a week. So
the next day I took a break.
I left the Salt Lake City Convention Center and drove up into the mountains.
I parked and walked down a trail following a stream. The trail ended at a waterfall.
I didn’t approach the waterfall, but I climbed out onto a rock in the middle
of the stream. I looked up at the snowcapped mountains high in the sky. They
looked so separate, so unique. But then I realized that the snow on those mountains
was melting and combining into the stream. I saw the rushing water from those
separate slopes flowing together rolling over everything in its path. The water
enveloped, moved, or changed everything it touched. I couldn’t help but think
of the love that is at the center of this campaign.
As I drove out of the mountains the road followed that stream down through the
canyon and I discovered that just as the stream leaves the mountains it enters
a water treatment plant.
This caught me by surprise. But then I realized that this water, this love, was
being distributed to all the people of Salt Lake City and it was sustaining their
lives.
May it be so. Amen.
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