RAISING WALLS & BREAKING DOWN BARRIERS

UU Church of Lexington Biloxi Team 2008

It's not difficult to understand why people go down to the Gulf Coast to volunteer. Three years after Katrina, many folks are waiting to have their homes rebuilt and their lives restored. There is work to be done and a system in place that makes working and helping possible. Folks from Lexington, Kentucky have been going, alone and in groups, since the week after the storm. It's possible to drive to New Orleans or Biloxi in one day, and to work for a week or a long weekend and make a difference. It's a no-brainer! The organization that our church works through has hosted more than 1, 600 volunteers just this fall. Religious organizations, civic groups, and schools send teams of volunteers and find a warm welcome. People like to be useful. Most people enjoy doing something that helps others. And people like to be a part of something bigger than themselves. Thank God people still go.

But here's a question: why do people go back?

Doug Roederer, the man who coordinates what appears to be evolving as the Unitarian Universalist Church of Lexington's annual Christmas Biloxi trip, has been back dozens of times. He's helped restore houses and built entire homes from the ground up. Yesterday, out first day on the job this year, a volunteer asked me: what do you think drives him?

After all, we could work closer to home. There are plenty of folks who need homes in Kentucky. But there's something about Biloxi that makes me convince people ages fifteen to sixty to leave their homes and families on Christmas Day and head south to sleep in cramped quarters and pound nails or carry boards. It's about so much more than the work. After all, we could probably contribute the funds we raise to travel and rent accomodations for the week, and skilled laborers could be hired to do the job better in half the time, if all that mattered was the product.

It's the process.

Driving South, we see that the Gulf Coast is miles, not worlds away. Meeting the family whose home we will build, hearing their stories, we understand why they want to stay in the neighborhoods their people have lived in for generations. On the job site, we can't help but compare the gleaming casinos a few blocks away, rebuilt within months, to the tattered and still vacant shells of homes begging for attention around us. Nowhere is a more stark and visual symbol of the ineffectiveness and inhumanity of our government and our institutions apparent than in East Biloxi. Why, one cannot help asking, are these people dependent upon volunteers to build their homes more than three years after the storm? Why are billions of dollars available for war and bailouts, when private foundations and donors must restore neighborhoods and dwellings devestated through an act of Nature? Hard questions, inadequate answers.

But then, there's the joy. Neighbors come by with food. Local folks stop to admire the progress. A pile of lumber becomes a home. Since our group invites some of Lexington's exchange students, people from Africa, Europe, and Asia meet one another and form the deep connections only possible through shared work. Love grows and barriers tumble as walls go up.

Humans need that kind of love. We need, as our Wendell Berry says, real work to do and we need real connections. We need the process as much or even more than the recipients need the product. That's why we go back, and why we will go back, for as long as we can.

The Whole Truth, Nothing But....

Everybody: Stop and think.

What is happening? If we slow down enough to absorb the implications of the vicious, race-tinged attacks upon the Obama campaign, attacks that increase as we near the final days of this campaign, we people of faith can not but reach a similar conclusion: this is wrong!

Therefore, I am convinced that if we do not unite to denounce and descry all use, no matter how veiled and costumed, of racial bias as a tool or strategy in this election, we too are wrong. We are a part of the problem.

It occurs to me that the reason the so-called liberal media have been endeavoring to reveal instances of hate-based speech at rallies and even more smear-laced telephone campaigns is that they are playing the role of the ones who uphold whatever is left of moral and ethical standards in this land. Somehow it seems that should be our job.

Looking over the blogs written by colleagues recently, I see some addressing these deeply troubling issues, but many more (my own included!) dealing with things like online games, seasonal changes, personal issues, pets, and sports. I point no fingers, except at myself! I merely ask those whose eloquence and/or loquaciousness impel them to write to consider my proposal, below.

Clergy people ought to be at very least far more likely than the average citizen to be honest. It is our job! If nothing else, we are called to filter the muddy waters of contemporary life, removing the pollutants and distilling the clear essence. We are called to package that essence and to deliver it to as wide an audience as we can without regard for our own safety or security.

Are we doing so? I know there are glaring cases in which I have not been doing so. And, I know that there are those among us who do so tirelessly and fearlessly. This is a call to all of my fellow clergy everywhere, no matter your affiliation, to join me in emulating our courageous sisters and brothers who have been unafraid to stand up and speak out since this nonsense and deception began (at least since 9/11/01 but undoubtedly far longer) and use whatever skills and talents and platforms we have access to to reveal the horrifying underbelly of racism that threatens to derail this campaign.

Here's my initial offering:

* I have just received a report from a member of my congregation that, under cover of darkness, a paper was left upon his doorstep in Lexington, Kentucky, showing two pictures of Obama wearing Kenyan attire, with the words "America will bow down to Islam" emblazoned across the picture.

* I was told by a service provider who is a Republican and a conservative Christian of the following incidents:

One woman whispered to her that Obama is a Muslim terrorist.

Another said this : The Klan hasn't done their job. But they will.

All of these incidents happened in Lexington, Kentucky. This is not even a contested state! Obama is barely even campaigning here! There must be far more and far worse examples in other places.

What have you or the members of your congregation heard and seen that echo these ugly sentiments? We need a place to report and gather all of these incidents and comments, a national repository of truth-telling. Let's hope that people still believe that clergy are more likely to be honest. At least, let's hope that if we have a wide, interfaith coalition of clergy invested in revealing the truth, it will be credible.

I know that I will work with my organization, The Interfaith Alliance of the Bluegrass, and with our Human Relations Commission, to endeavor to do so locally, but I am also dreaming of a way that we could share these incidents and reports across this nation, as leaders of faith communities, bound to be truthful and vigilant?

Several years ago, I went to a Flea Market in my home state of New Jersey. There, I bought some apples and cider from a woman who ran a produce stall. It was about $4 worth. I handed her a $20 bill and she gave me change for a five. Interestingly she had not laid my twenty on the register as most cashiers are required to do. When I accosted her, she loudly protested and accused me of lying. I didn't want to lose my fifteen dollars, and my righteous indignation was triggered. I don't lie! I told her. I'm a minister! To this she replied, still loud and accusatory: "Ha! They are the worst kind!" I gave up. She kept my $15, but left me thinking.

We clergy ought to be the "worst kind" to people like her, and people who are using deception and sleight-of-hand to try and steal this election. Even when those people try and turn the indignation and accusations upon those of us who bring truth to the table, we can not walk away. What is at stake is far more important than even this election. It is the moral fiber and the integrity of our nation, of the people we labor to serve, to save, and to stand beside.

If we can figure out a way to bring our offerings of truth together, to stand together via electronic means or otherwise, our outcry will be heard. If we don't..... what does that say about us?

Luckiest Person in the world (me)

No, I didn't win the lottery.

But I had a full weekend, ministry-wise. Finally, I am in my bed, in my PJs, with my BFF Ms. Laptop. When I close my eyes, a mad swirl of images blows through. Some I want to hang on to; others trouble and distress me:

I see the smile on a Bride's face as she recites her vow and a tear runs down her groom's face. I feel the soft skin of a three week old baby, his tiny heft cradled in my arms. I see the bright colors of a dressing gown worn by a member who has been diagnosed with and is bravely fighting pancreatic cancer. I haven't seen her, and she's lost fifty pounds. A beautiful, stylish woman, she is shrunken into the African print gown. I hear the jumble of childish voices as a big group of toddlers gather for cake at our new emerging congregation. I see smiles. I feel hugs and handshakes. I wipe away the tear of a woman far from her homeland.

I feel so inadequate. Who am I that people turn to me with these rare and precious moments? How did I deserve the smiles, the hugs, the words of encouragement and hope?

I will never know, but I do know I am blessed! Good Night! Sleep Well.