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By Rev. John T. Crestwell
2nd Annual JPD Anti-racism Conference
Main Line UU Church, Devon, PA
October 21, 2006
"Change does not come on the whims of inevitability but from the
tireless effort of
committed individuals."
What do these words, spoken by the late Rev Dr. Martin Luther King,
really mean to us?
They say, in substance, that we cannot honestly expect to have
anything unless we
commit ourselves to the hard task of getting that which we want! It
is always easy to say,
"Let's do this or that" But it is much more difficult to be about
the business of doing
instead of talking.
How bad do we want to transform our congregations so they can be
ready for all
those who are seeking our life-affirming message? How urgent do we
feel the time is,
realizing that we cannot continue to do things as they have been
done-realizing that we
should be, even more, a church that is a beacon of light-a
lighthouse shining in the
vast sea of darkness, to bring those who know our voice to us? How
bad do you want Unitarian Universalism to become a more mainstream
faith-for this great religion to have a larger voice?
More questions come to mind: "How far are you willing to go?" How
many buttons are you willing to push? Are you willing to be,
perhaps, the only voice "crying in the
wilderness" in your church saying that anti-racism training is a
requirement for all
church leaders? Are you willing to be that voice that people get
tired of hearing? Are
you willing to be that voice that says, "We must change some of the
ways we do worship for this 21st century, if our church is to be
effective in this community?" Are you willing to do that? Because
change does not come on the whims of inevitability!
We say we want a religion that respects the worth and dignity of
all; a religion that
believes in justice, equity and compassion for all. We can have this
religion, but we will
not get there-we will not see this day be manifest until we come to
see that change will
not just happen over time from some natural evolutionary process. It
will happen when we make it happen!
I'm not just talking. I'm a witness to what a group of committed
people can do. Six years
ago I came to this religion seeing it as the one for me. As you may
be able to tell I am
born again UU. Amen! My family and I began going to a little church
in Camp Springs, MD, Davies Memorial. We fell in love with the
people. I became very good friends with the minister Rev. Don
Cameron and we began dreaming of a church that was multiracial with
a co-ministry team-one black, one white minister. Our church sat in
a community that was majority African American, and yet we were only
8% diverse. I said, "If we can't attract UU-minded people of color
here, we 'aint never 'gonna find 'em!" Don and I dreamed big, hoping
our church could find more African American members. We planned, we
got the JPD ,Richard Speck), UUA (Tracey Robinson-Harris, Tom Chulak,
and my very good friend Paula Cole Jones), and others, and we all
got involved in making our dream reality. Then the congregation,
with all of this support, bought into the plan. But we had some
struggles. The stress of this plan took its toll on Rev. Don who had
a heart attack and later quadruple bypass surgery, and we didn't
have enough money to do everything we wanted to do (although I am
thankful to the JPD and UUA for giving us about $90,000).
With all of this good energy and purpose, we looked up and our
church had transformed. I can say to you, today, that Davies Church
nears being 40% diverse and we lost only a handful of folks. We were
at 100 members in 2001 and we now have 154 and growing! Our
religious education program is majority people of color. We grew by
26 new members last year and are at over 30 new members this year.
But top all that off with the great sacrifice, from my friend Rev.
Don, who realized that Davies could not afford two ministers and
that it was best that he step aside. After 14 years he said, "John,
I've taken them as far as I can take them. Now it's your turn." How
many ministers would do that? He gave up his job for me and to help
the ministry of Davies Church continue in a healthy capacity.
Sometimes to gain you have to give up Sometimes to go forward you
have to leave
something behind. Davies is moving forward, and so is Rev. Don, by
the way, who is now senior minister of the 600 member (200 kids) UU
Church of Providence, Rhode Island.
[Roaring applause]
So you see, I know what I'm talking about this morning! It is
possible to transform our
congregations---IF WE WANT TO!
Now, the big question is, why change? We are comfortable looking at
people who look like us, who smell like us, who talk like us. Why
change? The simple answer is that it is the right thing to do. I am
personally convicted-held captive-by our principles and
they hold me accountable and they say to me, just as Paula Cole
Jones says to me, "We've got to talk about race and class and
injustice until it has no power." My friends, we must work to live
up to these very fine principles we wrote or toss them aside.
I don't know about you this morning, but I believe that I can make a
difference. I
believe that YOU can make a difference! I don't know if you've heard
of the book the
"Hundredth Monkey." It was written by Ken Keyes, Jr. sometime ago,
and it discussed how we can stop nuclear proliferation and war in
general. The book focuses on a monkey population in the middle of
the Pacific Ocean. Some scientists wanted to study how these monkeys
would utilize a sweet potato, which was food that was totally new to
these animals. They tossed them out to the monkeys. Some of them
immediately began kicking the sweet potatoes. Some rolled them in
the sand on this island. Some ate them but they were gritty because
of the sand. But after looking at hundreds of monkeys, one of them,
a female monkey (I'm not surprised), took her sweet potato to the
Pacific Ocean, and washed hers, which helped some of the skin fall
off, making it a pleasurable snack.
Soon, in the days to come, all of the monkeys on the island, when
they were given sweet potatoes, would automatically wash them first
then consume the food. The scientists noted this and went to another
nearby island which was not connected to this first island. They
found another monkey population who had not seen a sweet potato. But
to the scientists' amazement, when they tested these monkeys, nearly
all of the monkeys on this island automatically-I mean
immediately--began washing and eating their sweet potatoes. The
scientists could not believe what they were seeing. It was as if at
some point the consciousness of a few monkeys became the
consciousness of all the monkeys-as if there were some kind of
metaphysical connection these wild animals shared with each other.
The author of the book the "Hundredth Monkey" concluded that perhaps
in human relations, the thinking of the few can indeed become the
thinking of the many, and that YOU MIGHT BE THAT ONE PERSON, THAT
CAN SPARK THE CHANGE YOU WISH TO SEE. YOU COULD BE THE 100TH MONKEY!
Anybody want a banana? ?
I don't mind being the 100th monkey! How about you? It's time for
the gentle, angry people to stand up. It's time for the
justice-seeking people to stand up! Yes, you've got to step from the
crowd and wash your sweet potato, metaphorically speaking. That
means you follow this path of transformation and reconciliation to
the end and trust me on this, you're going to look up, and next
thing you know everybody's going to be washing their potatoes and
then you, by focusing on yourself, doing what is right and just, you
will have, in no small way, changed the world!
I don't know about you this morning but I want to make a difference!
I just want to "help
somebody as I pass along. I just want to cheer somebody with a word
or song. I want to show somebody they're traveling wrong so my
living will not be in vain. I want to do my duty as a servant of
humanity ought. And bring a message of truth to a world once
wrought. And spread love's message like the sages taught, so that my
leaving will not be in vain!"
"Change does not come on the whims of inevitability but from the
tireless effort of
committed individuals."
Amen.
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