A Panentheist Response to Charlottesville

The last 8 months have been full of change, strong feelings and many words. Our Nation and world have seen changes of power, and decisions which trouble us.

On July 4th we marked the celebration of the beginning of a brand new country... doing an experiment of a union of states practicing democracy. Many of us have complicated feelings about this holiday and our republic right now. Our own UU religious movement has engaged conversations about white-supremacy, able-ism, and accountability that challenge us and sometimes scare us. Responses and reactions have ranged from tearing down to building up.

Last weekend we witnessed, and many of us counter-protested, an alt-right, white-supremacist rally that included violence and tragic injury and death. I want to lift up the good work being done in the Norse, Asatru, Kindred communities to fight the white supremacy being perpetrated by folks claiming your same religious heritage. Like the many loving and good-hearted Christians who have to fight to separate from the Christianity of Fred Phelps, it is a frustrating but important task to claim the work of love in the face of hate. In many ways your work can help lead other Deities-relating and Earth-centered folks on our quest to create a better world.

These changes and transitions on the global, national, and local level can be unsettling. Each of us seeking more love in the world, working against fascism and intolerance, or doing our best to listen to the song of our hearts and to move forward in love don't do it perfectly. It is often a process of what I call 'failing forward.'

Tibetan Monk prostrate, photo copyright Guido Dingemans

Perhaps it feels like we are being failed or that we are failing. Perhaps we worry that we are doing it wrong or we have been wronged. Perhaps the intolerant language and alt-right terrorism that we see on social media and on the news causes us to worry that our non-mainstream spiritual paths will be attacked with persecution and marginalization.

Fear has been an underlying theme - fear about safety, about health, about values.

In a context of fear it is harder to make room for mistakes (or as a friend of mine calls it "humanity.") I know I feel it. I question what I do and worry how it will impact others. That's turning the fear on myself. Other times I'm impatient and doubt the motives of others. That's turning the fear on others.

Yet, I must take action in service of love, in service of the divine which I see in the eyes of every person and indeed all of the earth. My work, as a relatively privileged White woman is to speak with my family and friends who voted for Trump or are uneasy about taking down Confederate statues. My work, as a spiritual director is to support those who are out in the public square putting bodies and words between hate and the vulnerable. My work, as a person, is to stay connected to the divine love within so that I am not derailed by fear or anger. My spiritual practice helps me turn my fear over to the universe instead.

Breath with me?

In this time, in this place, I call upon the ground of being, the spirit that breathes through us, the voice that speaks within us, to hold us all and remind us that we are love, yes, even now, in this place, in this time, we are loved. May you feel the wings of mercy wrap around you as you call upon what and who you hold holy:

Oh, great lover of the world, who comes to us as mercy. We honor you, we honor you, we honor you, we call on your name.  

Breath it in.

Let us forgive ourselves for the ways we have failed and return to our source.

We are grateful for this community of love which gives us the strength to carry our love out into the hurting world where we do the work to build the world we dream of.

Oh great lover of the world who comes to us as community, we honor you, we honor you, we honor you, we call on your name.

Amen, blessed be.

May you feel that embrace of the holy and be able to breath it in, when you most need it. And then go out into the world to serve divine love in the way you are called to serve.

In faith,

Amy
------------------
Learn more about the work Norse communities are doing to combat white-supremacy at http://www.religioustolerance.org/asatru.htm.
You can support Norse, Heathen, Kindred and related communities doing the work of anti-racism by connecting with the work at https://www.facebook.com/HeathensUnited/ and especially support Declaration 127 at http://declaration127.com/.