What’s In The Daily News?
Mel Harkrader-Pine
Unitarian Universalist Church of Loudoun
December 1, 2002
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Words as we light the chalice, from a poem by Buddhist monk Thich Nhat Hanh:
Please call me by my true names,
So I can hear all my cries and laughter at once,
So I can see that my joy and pain are one.
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When I became chair of the Worship Committee, I started collecting sermons by ministers whom I respect and some newspaper columns about current issues so that I would have material on hand if we ever had a last-minute cancellation. I also think it’s good to have a little flexibility in the schedule to stop and look from time to time at what’s in the news.
So about two weeks ago when a family emergency came up for today’s scheduled speaker, I went looking in my files and thinking about the themes in today’s news. The line “What’s In The Daily News?” popped into my mind – from the introduction to the “Guys and Dolls” title song that we sang a few minutes ago.
What’s in the daily news? I’ll tell you what’s in the daily news. Story about a man bought his wife a small ruby With what otherwise would have been his union dues. That’s what’s in the daily news.
There’s a lot that can be said about the sexism of that song from 1950 and the stereotypical images it contains, but I’ll tell you, I wish that were still what’s in the daily news. Because what seems to dominate the daily news today is cruelty and mass violence, much of it committed in the name of religion.
Two weeks ago, when I was trying to nail down a topic, the people of Kaduna, Nigeria, helped me out. The Miss World pageant was scheduled to be held there, in an area of northern Nigeria that’s populated by both Christians and Muslims. The Muslims protested the pageant as immoral, a Christian newspaper editor wrote flippantly that if Mohammed were alive he’d probably marry one of the contestants, and despite two apologies the result was around 200 dead and more than 1,000 injured.
That’s what’s in the daily news.
In Indonesia, the accused mastermind of the Bali bombing reportedly said during his confession that it was a “holy bomb” that ripped apart the disco and killed another 200 or so people.
That’s what’s in the daily news.
In Israel, after Na’el Abu Hilayel strapped himself with dynamite and blew up an Israeli bus filled with schoolchildren, his father, Azmi, was quoted as saying: “I thanked God when I heard that my son had died in an operation for the sake of God and the homeland.”
That’s what’s in the daily news.
Meanwhile, I saw a Jewish woman interviewed on “60 Minutes” saying that she continues to live in one of the occupied territories – an area Israel has no right to under international law and an area where Jewish settlement understandably provokes Palestinian anger – because God gave the Jews that land and she feels that she belongs there.
That’s what’s in the daily news.
Many of you know that I have had something of a Buddhist practice, so I need to point out that violence has been committed in the name of the Buddha, too. The most recent example is the misnamed Democratic Karen Buddhist Army, which has been an instrument of persecution wielded against the Karen refugees in Thailand by the military government of Myanmar, formerly called Burma.
And of course in our country, the crusade against terrorism is taking on something of the fervor of a holy war. I don’t mean here to condemn the general idea of taking action against terrorism. Other sermons can be written about that. But the war rhetoric we’re hearing from the White House is sounding religious, even though I’m not sure what name to give the religion. After all, God is on our side.
Last April, as religious violence was flaring in Israel and even the Church of the Nativity was under siege, the Rev. Charles Blustein Ortman preached a sermon about it at the Unitarian Church of Montclair, New Jersey. I’m going to read a section of his sermon:
I know that the living tradition we share draws on many sources. And I know that we often bend over backwards in an effort to be accommodating to a wide range of religious beliefs. But what I’m here today to tell you is that we need to take very seriously the idea that there are indeed limitations to our tolerance. The sources section of our Principles and Purposes say that we draw upon... “direct experience of that transcending mystery and wonder, affirmed in all cultures, which moves us to a renewal of the spirit and openness to the forces that create and uphold life.” This is synonymous with a reverence for life.
We do ourselves and the world a great disservice when we fail to decry religions that uphold false gods in a practice that diminishes, cheapens or denigrates life.
I’ve got to tell you that I’m angry. Everyday, as I read the stories in the paper and listen to the reports on public radio, I get more angry. And I’m mad at religion - not true religion - but false religion, static religion, religion which has the audacity to claim a divine right to inflict murder, pain and mayhem; religion which has the audacity to claim divinely sanctioned land and water rights; religion which has the audacity to claim a divinely fashioned superior footing on the ground of human being.
I detest the God of Abraham, when that god is used to exonerate theft and revenge and self-justified bloodletting. I deplore Muhammad’s Allah, when that deity is used to exploit terrorism, deceit and hypocritical moral claims of righteousness. In Christianity, even though he is not intricately connected to the current battles raging on the West Bank, I abhor the Jesus that is used to disparage women, gays and lesbians, and the many ethnicities it has through the centuries. And not totally unrelated to the saga of today, I should list the god of the U.S. dollar, when that “divine” character is employed to seize and control and to squander the world’s resources under the guise of manifest destiny or divine election. I’m not America bashing. I love this country and our many efforts to better the world. But our arrogance too often blinds us to our own addictions of over-consumption, and to the impositions those addictions place upon the world. And we fool ourselves, I think, when we fail to recognize the religious zeal in our efforts to pursue the almighty dollar.
So many of the world’s problems are based in religion - based in the shortcomings of religion really - based in false gods. It’s said that we are made in the image of God but I think it is quite the other way around. The world over, gods are raised in the image of humankind. Too often they are created and institutionalized in order to protect and defend human shortcomings. That’s what we are seeing around the world today.
Charlie found life-affirming religion the answer, and here’s how he ended his sermon:
We live in a world that is disintegrating as a result of warring gods that stand for limitation of the human spirit. But some beliefs are expansive and lead the way into wider and deeper sympathies. Some beliefs do unveil the bonds that bind each to all. Some beliefs do encourage us to take our place in the Universal One. Some beliefs inspire us to act for justice. Some beliefs widen our vision and renew our strength.
Let our gods, let our beliefs be filled then, with a reverence for life and let us go out and share those beliefs with all who might hear the call. Tomorrow depends upon it.
But before we get too comfortable with our own Unitarian Universalism as the cure for the world’s ills, I’d like us to reflect for a moment on our own tendency to demonize religious fundamentalists, political conservatives, and occasionally other heretical groups. I’ve never heard of any UU suicide bombers, but I’ve personally witnessed some UU lynchings, in the figurative sense, of course.
I believe that to be a truly effective force against violence, we need to do some more work on that “inherent worth and dignity” thing. I’m talking here about the inherent worth and dignity of Dick Cheney and John Ashcroft and Jerry Falwell and Pat Robertson, for example. I’m talking about the groan or the snicker we often share when some of those names are mentioned.
There’s a term – silent orthodoxies – that has been used in Unitarian Universalism lately to describe these little winks and nods that we share. These silent orthodoxies tend to make us a private club, and they not only exclude others but often demonize them as well. I don’t mean here to lay a guilt trip on us, but as we condemn the fanaticism of others, it’s a good opportunity to look at ourselves as well – to see where we might be more compassionate to those whom we disagree with.
My Buddhist teacher, Thich Nhat Hanh, founded the Order of Interbeing in 1964 during the Vietnam War. “Interbeing” is a key concept in his teachings. He says that he doesn’t like the verb “to be,” because nothing can simple be. Nothing can exist on its own. We can’t have this without that, we can’t have day without night, we can’t have peace without war. So he invented the verb “to interbe,” and “interbeing” is the word he chose to name his order.
Thich Nhat Hanh would encourage us to see that the suicide bomber is not just the other but in fact is a part of us. He would encourage us to listen compassionately to the voices of anger and fanaticism. He would ask us to be nonjudgmental toward the perpetrators of the violence. I don’t think there’s a way for us to refrain from making judgments about the awful acts that these religious zealots commit – and I’d include here awful acts of intolerance as well as awful acts of violence – but Nhat Hanh would encourage us to turn off the judgmental voice in our heads as we listen to what these people are trying to tell us.
For the chalice lighting, I read a short passage from Nhat Hanh’s poem, Please Call Me By My True Names. He wrote that poem in 1978, in despair over a 12-year-old Vietnamese girl on a refugee boat who threw herself into the ocean after being raped by a pirate. In his poem, Nhat Hanh sees himself as the pirate, with a heart “not yet capable of seeing and loving,” as well as the girl.
This isn’t easy stuff.
I hope I haven’t lost you on my little trip that bounced around a bit – from anger over violence by religious fanatics to an attempt to see traces of fanaticism in ourselves and a plea to be compassionate toward Dick Cheney and Jerry Falwell as well as Osama Bin Laden.
So I’d like to end with some fairly simple – or at least straightforward – points. These come from the 14 precepts, or “mindfulness trainings,” of the Order of Interbeing. I’d like to read you the first three in reverse order.
The third mindfulness training is Freedom of Thought: “Aware of the suffering brought about when we impose our views on others, we are committed not to force others, even our children, by any means whatsoever, such as authority, threat, money, propaganda or indoctrination to adopt our views. We will respect the right of others to be different and to choose what to believe and how to decide. We will, however, help others renounce fanaticism and narrowness through compassionate dialogue.”
The second mindfulness training is Nonattachment to Views: “Aware of the suffering created by attachment to views and wrong perceptions, we are determined to avoid being narrow-minded and bound to present views. We shall learn and practice nonattachment from views in order to be open to others’ insights and experiences. We are aware that the knowledge we presently possess is not changeless, absolute truth. Truth is found in life, and we will observe life within and around us in every moment, ready to learn throughout our lives.”
And the mindfulness training that Thich Nhat Hanh placed first among all 14 is Openness: “Aware of the suffering created by fanaticism and intolerance, we are determined not to be idolatrous about or bound to any doctrine, theory or ideology, even Buddhist ones. Buddhist teachings are guiding means to help us learn to look deeply and to develop our understanding and compassion. They are not doctrines to fight, kill, or die for.”
These concepts are not unique to Buddhism, but they’re summed up well in these three precepts: If we respect the right of others to be different, if we remain open to new truths, and if we recognize that no doctrine is more valuable than life, we just may be able to contribute to a less fanatic, less violent world.
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Closing words, paraphrasing New York Times columnist Thomas Friedman:
I can’t believe that God would bless the killing of anyone’s kids.
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