January 14, 2007 Unitarian Universalist Church of Berkeley
Good Morning. I am humbled and honored to speak with you today in celebration of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s birthday. If Unitarian Universalists canonized saints, he would be one of ours. His faith in the spirit and of social justice work here on earth now, inextricably intertwined, brought hope to those suffering and fear to those who opposed the movement he represented. His vision of cross-racial freedom was based on the Christian message of brother and sisterhood in the eyes of God. As he began to increasingly voice and act on cross-racial class issues some increased their respect for him, while others increased their fear. The fear in some people was enough to finally commit murder. He was assassinated on April 4, 1968 in Memphis, assisting a cross-racial garbage worker’s strike. If he was still living he would be 77 years old tomorrow.
This morning we honor the Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s spiritual journey uniting all brothers and sisters.
I want to share some of the UU connections with Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Dr. King had a close relationship with the Unitarian Universalists of his day. He had much support from the new association. [I am going to use the acronym UUA for the Unitarian Universalist Association, because we have such a long name.] When the historic 1965 march on Selma began, Dr. King contacted the recently formed UUA asking for support. Over 200 Unitarian Universalist ministers and lay leaders joined the march. Rev. James Reeb and UU lay leader Viola Gregg Liuzzo were among those that went to Selma. James Reeb and Viola Gregg Liuzzo, white supporters, were mortally injured in Selma, beaten by a group of whites.
A year later, Dr. King addressed the 1966 Unitarian Universalist Association General Assembly as Ware lecturer. The most distinctive lecture of the annual event.
In his address, Dr. King began by expressing his gratitude for the strong relationship and support the UUA of congregations gave the racial equality movement. He speaks of his warm regards and that he is sure he is speaking among friends.
He makes a statement curiously similar to the UUA principle affirming the interdependent web of life. Dr. King said, “All life is interrelated, and somehow we are tied together. For some strange reason I can never be what I ought to be until you are what you ought to be, and you can never be what you ought to be until I am what I ought to be.” (King, Martin Luther, Jr., Don’t Sleep through the Revolution, Ware Lecture, 1966 p.4)
Dr. King calls for Freedom. His calls for freedom are not hidden like the hopeful spirituals of the slaves. His call was open and fierce. He called for Freedom from otherness, estrangement and separation; Freedom from institutionalized oppression and violence; Freedom from the unnatural separation of humanity. (King, Ware Lecture, 1966)
Dr. King calls for the formation of “the International Association for the Advancement of Creative Maladjustment.” where, “Men and women as maladjusted as the prophet Amos, who amidst the injustices of his day, cried out in words that echo across the centuries — ‘Let justice roll down like waters and righteousness like a mighty stream.”(King, Ware Lecture, 15.)
We have things to celebrate along the journey.
We still have a long way to go, but the journey of a thousand miles has been started. “Step by step the longest march, can be won, can be won.” We do have things to celebrate along the journey.
There are signs of change. On the national level, Rev. Bill Sinkford, the Unitarian Universalist Association’s first African American President, helped welcome Deval L Patrick into his Massachusetts Governorship. Deval L Patrick is the first African American Governor in the United States. “Glory, glory, hallelujah — how sweet the sound.”
At the UUA: a new anti-racism program is in development called Building the World We Dream About. It is a welcoming congregation curriculum that focuses on ways to affirm and include persons who identify as people of color and/or Latina/Latino and Hispanic and ministries that support families of color and multiracial families.
AND another UUA program in development: Anti-Racism for People of Color. It focuses on providing anti-racism and anti-oppression programming that incorporates the perspectives, experiences, and concerns of Unitarian Universalists of color.
But the journey is long and we have a ways to go. “How many roads must a man walk down…”
This week, in honor of Dr. King, UUA President Rev. Bill Sinkford
posted a poignant letter. Here are a few quotes:
“It feels to me that Unitarian Universalists have been stuck
around the issue of race for far too long…
[The Reverend Martin Luther King Jr.] had recognized the truth that race and class in this country are inextricably intertwined. If our work for racial justice does not engage with the realities of class it is doomed to fail. Likewise, if we try to reconcile class inequities without acknowledging race, those efforts are equally doomed….
… Anything short of real truth telling is a search for cheap reconciliation. We all have truths to discover and to tell. The claim of innocence cannot be an option for any of us, because ignorance of the truth does not alter its legacy.”1
He asks, “What truth needs to be told?”
Here, now, I, Jeffrey Melcher, will speak to you some of my truth. A segment of my life journey that had me “eyeing one another across a great divide”2 and challenges my cultural training of otherness.
I want to speak to you, a community with a social justice commitment, about my journey of self discovery, of noticing the patterns of “othering” within myself that are part of white racist conditioning: disconnection, fierce independence and shame.
This journey has led me into more clearly seeing the interconnected web, uniting all brothers and sisters, and brothers who are sisters and sisters who are brothers.
I was raised with liberal values around race, yet they are in need of revision. I was raised with the color blindness version of antiracism prevalent in the 60’s and 70’s. I got a chance to update my race thought when a friend invited into an anti-racism program called “Untraining White Liberal Racism.” My experience of race in my biracial marriage finally led to me “make the time” to participate in the “Untraining” program.
Now in my second six-month session of the “Untraining,” I find the experience to be a very sensible approach to antiracism for liberal white people. Its core belief that every person has an “inherent human basic decency” fits extremely well with my theology. And within this frame it challenges the core of my ego-self constructed by the white racist training provided by the dominant culture. The “Untraining” provides tools to see the system of oppression and gives me a chance to reflect on my place in the system. The beauty of the model is that it is based on compassion not guilt. Compassion for myself and those I interact with while challenging the system of racism. Both internal and external. Individual and systemic.
From a place of compassion I can look at my own racialized experiences. From a place of centeredness, I can more fully experience the world and see all our brothers and sisters in their beauty and their pain. From a place of basic human decency, I can develop skills to address oppression in our culture. It is from this place that I experience the liberating effect of reflecting on white culture and am invigorated in all my social justice work.
A white person doing anti-racism work is doing civil disobedience of the dominant social order. A year ago I could not have spoken on the intersection of race and class in a sermon.A year ago I would have been too afraid to say the wrong thing. Now I know that I will make mistakes, but have courage and a spiritual discipline to move into conversations anyway. I was blind to the depth of institutional racism, but now I am beginning to see.People ask me, “Where do we get our racial conditioning?”
Here is an analogy given in the “Untraining” where racial conditioning is compared to SMOG:
We get it from parents, family, schools, media, fairy tales, Jungian psychology… It’s everywhere like the SMOG. And this is true for all people no matter what their ethnicity. Yes, whites are trained to be white. It is culturally embedded. The truth is, there is a great diversity of ethnicity in the white population that has been washed out. The beauty of Unitarian Universalism is that this diversity is theologically welcomed here.
The point of culturally embedded whiteness is brought out by Unitarian Universalist Theologian Thandeka in her book Learning to Be White. The culture of racism was designed and promoted by the ruling class of this early country. White racial training is implanted at a very early age with dear cost to the child. Racial division is class warfare. Racism is a subset of classism. Anti-racism and economic justice are inexorably entwined.
To bring the matter all back to the present day, I ask: What can we do right now to further racial justice? What is one cross-racial, economic justice issue that our supporting can benefit nearly everyone in California? Health insurance costs.
It sounds mundane. Yet health care costs are not only outrageous, the current system puts the uninsured in an underclass where an accident or illness may go untreated or put them in debt for the rest of their life.
Alternately, let us support the California Universal Health Care bill - California One Care SB840 - will reduce insurance payments for all who are currently paying premiums. California One Care will cover the uninsured who now have to go to the emergency room at state expense.
There is a race-class component in who can afford health care these days. It has become an economic crisis for millions of California families. California One Care is supported by the Unitarian Universalist Legislative Ministry of CA.
Now I have an invitation for you all. I want you to come to a movie with me. The film, Amazing Grace, opens in two weeks. The movie focuses on the historic struggle to end the English slave trade led by William Wilberforce as he maneuvers his way through Parliament in 18th century. The movie also follows the story of Englishman John Newton, author of the lyrics to “Amazing Grace”. Newton, a former slave trader turned minister, endeavored to end slavery in the empire. Keep in mind this history when we sing it in few minutes. The movie Amazing Grace is part of a movement to end modern day slavery. If you are interested in going with a group to see this film, e-mail me at internminister@uucb.org.
♦