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DON’T
BE SHY!
by John Crestwell
July 14, 2002
INTRO:
I am thankful for the opportunity to share with you today. A special thanks
to Dr. Bell, Den, and of course my beautiful wife, Sharon. Now, I hope
I won’t keep you for no more than 2 hours. Just kidding… Just
kidding. In all seriousness, give me a few minutes to share with you from
the topic: Don’t Be Shy! Don’t Be Shy! I’ll
get to that in a second…
Friends, I’m excited today, excited to be a Unitarian Universalist!
Some of you may or may not know, I am working on becoming a UU parish
minister. I have a few courses to take and a few other things—but
I look forward to learning more about our great heritage.
I am also excited about finding my place in the universe. I have struggled
for some time seeking to find a place where I could be myself; been seeking
a place where, as John Spong says, I didn’t have to leave my brain
at the door!”
I have gone through a sort of metamorphosis mentally, going from a fundamentalist
toward a liberal free-thinker. And for me, this change has been an extraordinary
ride that I am still enjoying very much.
For a time, I was an outspoken, Bible quoting Christian Theologian. Then
during and after seminary, after learning a few things and struggling
to reconcile what I was learning, which seemed to me to be primitive and
forced religious concepts on God, nature and reality, I became, for a
short time, a shy, reserved contemplative guy. The difference was I questioned
everything I heard but I didn’t articulate my concerns. At that time,
life became an experience of cause and effect and many things for me were
subjective and relative. Life became a random journey. Those in seminary
I shared with told me, “John, this line of thinking is sending you
down the wrong road.”
In recent days, I have become an outspoken philosophical talkin’,
rational speaking, lover of humanity. I am a new man, having found my
place in the universe! I did not think such a place existed! I am so glad
it does here at Davies.
Now, I know many of you have taken a similar ride in attempting to discover
THE SELF, the highest form of actualization for me… And you know,
this is a life-long process of discovery, and at times, it is difficult
when you change or become something others don’t understand. And
sometimes you have to deal with the “drama” from those close
to you who don’t know what in the “heck” you’re becoming
or what you have to deal with when you are “outside the box.”
You hear negative comment after comment and there is something in you
that makes you want to look certain folk straight in the eye and say,
quoting the Gospel of Thomas, “How does such wealth come to dwell
in such vast poverty?” But you realize that is arrogant and you simply
say, “Friend, you just don’t understand what I feel and believe
and what I have seen and experienced.” But you never tell them really
what you believe do you? You shy away from the confrontation because the
battle seems to be too difficult to bare. Those looking you in the eye
seem to be so far from where you are that you say to yourself, “It’s
not worth it.” BUT IT IS!
You know, there comes a time when you have to stand up and decide who
you are going to be. You know that deep inside you have to be true to
yourself because that is where your peace exists. And being true to yourself
is being expressive about what you believe! There is a larger reason to
do this as well, and I will get to that.
I have been doing some standing recently, but not without persecution.
As I have moved to become an advocate, a promoter of our faith, I have
heard and seen certain negative subtleties that really get next to me!
I’m trying to deal with these things the best I can but I can’t
help but being a bit agitated.
My mother said, not to me, but to my wife, “UU IS A CULT.” You’ve
heard that one haven’t you? We are the most rational of all faiths
and we are a cult? Go figure that one out. Then my sister-in-law says,
“Unitarians? That’s the Moonies, right?” You have heard
that one two? I know this is not new stuff, just new for me. My former
Pastor of the Methodist Church I was reared in has apparently heard I
have joined a UU church. Sharon and I used to get his weekly e-letter
but all of a sudden we have been dropped from the list. Now, I do believe
I kept my membership there. But I guess since my money is not there…well,
I’m not going there today.
Then, my biggest supporter, a man who taught me a lot about ministry,
my Father-in-law, a longtime Methodist preacher, District Superintendent,
a liberal free-thinker who helped me get started—now all of a sudden
all of our religious conversations are about why Jesus is the Savior and
the only way. And this is from a man who wrote his seminary thesis on
the non-existence of Moses. But because Sharon and I have gone crazy,
lost our minds by joining the Unitarian Church—all of a sudden, he
has become VERY fundamental. I guess you can tell it bothers me a bit.
He even said to me, “John, you have made a choice about what you
want to believe, but what about the kids, they have to be given the opportunity
to choose too.” My kids are with him now and I was not asked but
told that for a week they will be in Vacation Bible School. I don’t
have a problem with that, but I do have a problem with the “American
Way” which seems to not give us a true opportunity to choose, but
rather, we naturally are given specific, dogmatic ideas without our choosing
and life is not experienced but dictated.
We simply follow the conveyer-belt of life, that says one size fits all,
and if you are a part of Judeo Christianity in America, you are excepted
product, you fit, and if not—you are rejected product.
I watched some men bundle cigars and out of a bundle of 50 there was always
one, two or three, that was not facing the same direction as the other
cigars. An aficionado told me,
“..those are the ones that were rejected. And I said, “What
do you do with them?” And he said, “We either grind them up
and use them for something cheap, or we throw them away.”
This is the mindset. Either you are in or you’re out, orthodox or
unorthodox, treasure or trash, hot or cold. Lukewarm is not good. I like
my baths lukewarm . Not to hot and not too cold.
This is the mindset that needs to change! And I know it’s an uphill
battle in working to create this change. It is this ideology that moved
me away from Protestantism toward Unitarian Universalism.
So today I am feeling pressure from many sides, as I know many of you
are; the fight between traditionalism and personal truth. Choosing your
own way, as opposed to the way being chosen for you.
But this is why I chose this faith, because this is a faith that historically
likes to fight. You don’t mine challenging traditionalism. You don’t
mine speaking truth to power. Yet it seems, from what I see, in my own
experience, we have shied away from the fight. We have become very introspective
and internal—and maybe we’ve always been this way, I don’t
know. We’ve become passive and contemplative. We have lost sight
of the revolutionary spirit. Why do I say that?
Put simply, because the masses do not know about us. When you are mistaken
for the Unification Church that is a problem. When you are told, “UU’s
don’t believe in anything.” That is a problem. When you hear
on TV just this week that the founding fathers were ALL Christian, and
people don’t know that WE WERE THERE and have been throughout history,
carving out many major parts of legislature in America. That is a problem.
And I will say that this has happened because we allowed it to happen.
We are so intelligent, so actualized, that we have decided not to rock
the boat. We just want to do our thing and we hope others don’t ask
us about our religion, our system of beliefs. We have become intellectually
shy and passive.
Now, I cannot say, “God commands!” You’re too smart for
that. But I can say, very strongly and very definitively, “HUMANITY
NEEDS YOU NOW! HUMANKIND NEEDS THE UU FAITH TO BE HEARD RIGHT NOW. WE
NEED TO BOLDLY GO WHERE WE HAVE NOT GONE IN A WHILE OR BEFORE! And where
is that? You may ask?
We have to move our thoughts from our head to our hearts. I’m not
asking you to become a rational fanatic. That is just as bad as an irrational
fanatic. I am saying that when others are talking dogmatic nonsense, you
need to give an antithetical word to help balance out the dialogue. Whether
it’s your neighbor, friend, brother or mother. Be there to give your
point of view.
Then when people say, “UU’s don’t believe anything.”
You be there to say, “No, we believe many things, etc. etc, etc.
Or you could be nasty and say, “well, perhaps sir you believe anything,
and that’s your problem.” Don’t do that .
Now, let me add this… To be a voice for positive change, we all have
to learn more about our Association, its goals and plans. This will help
us when others ask about our Faith. Then, we can articulate what we are
all about, clearly. I spend a lot of time on the UU website to stay in
the know of what’s happening. I encourage you to do the same.
Don’t be shy about expressing your faith. Be confident that, for
you, you have found your space, your place in existence. ‘Cause that
is exactly what I have found and I’ve got to talk about it—boldly
but humbly. I’ve got to tell somebody about the place I go to think
freely, the place I go where I can disagree and not be condemned, the
place where I go to fellowship without pomp and circumstance, the place
I go to meditate, pray, or just do nothing at all; the place where I can
preach and play the piano too . I’m at home here, and I’m going
to let others know where I have found my peace.
As, I move toward concluding, we are living in troubling times. And we
know what we hear, read and see is not always the true and full picture.
There is clearly and agenda in our world that wants to keep society separate
and unequal. I like what A. Powell Davies said, “The whole world
is hypnotized.” We believe that there is only one way to exist and
if you do not believe in the “WAY” the “Idea”, then
you need to be excused—put in your place. This is creating such hatred
and violence. We so desperately need in our world an antithesis to the
present systems, philosophies and principles applied, so that a more lukewarm,
inclusive synthesis might manifest.
America, with its one-sided right-wing ideology, thinks it can solve the
world’s problems; many of which we have created. You know, when a
country’s budget is more than 90% military oriented, that country
is dangerously unbalanced. How can we be a true example in the world when
we haven’t taken care of home? There is still excessive poverty and
mis-education right here! We are BIG hypocrites to the world! End poverty
and mis-education in your own country first! America, be true to the ideals
you created. The words attributed to Jesus come to mind, “Take the
log out of your eye before you take the speck out of your brothers’.”
So the world needs to be transformed, but how can the hypnotic spell of
the “us against them” mentality be broken?
I don’t believe the world will be changed through some massive movement.
Not any more. The rogue forces in this nation will not tolerate another
type of civil movement. The movement for liberty, justice and freedom
for all, that has already begun in my book, is a very subtle, steady,
& quiet movement. And it involves you and me. It involves raising
the level of consciousness in America and indeed the world.
And we, the UU’s, play a major role, I believe. It may even be a
staring role! Our still small voice in the world can move mountains. When
we share our open-minded ideas on existence, nature and reality, we might
change a friend who has hateful one-sided ideology. A kind, humble, rational
voice will somehow soothe the testosterone driven minds that are running
this world and destroying nature. Powerful yet gentle voices will save
this planet from its sure destruction, as people continue to conquer people
AND nature. And this will happen sooner rather than later, if we don’t
change course fast.
Humble, loving voices will change this place; a voice like Chief Seattle,
who tried to show colonialists the interrelatedness of all things. He
tried to show them that what we do directly and indirectly affects all.
As I close, hear his words. Close your eyes, if you like, and listen deeply.
Feel deep inside of you, why the world now needs to hear the un-shy voice
of the Unitarian Universalist…
Quote can be found in “The Power of Myth”—Joseph
Campbell, pg. 43-44
The world needs to hear our voice! Don’t be shy. LET IT BE SO!
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