In Knoxville We Spoke Up in Solidarity!

Pastor Martin Niemöller, a contemporary of Adolf Hitler wasn't a saint in his younger days, I hear, but he repented of his omissions and commissions later in life.  He is probably most remembered for the following lines that we have all heard at least once:

First of all, all three parking lots associated with the church were full.  Finally we pulled along side a curb and rushed to get into the church in time for the church's second service that Sunday.

Although now there was no carpeting down within the sacristy of the church, everything within seemed much the same as it was when I last attended the church a year ago.  Only this time, members were packed as tight as sardines in a can.  My son and I had to sit in some chairs on the right side of the church assembly.

Pastor Chris Buice chose to speak about needing one another and others who reach out in times of tragedy.  He noted that folks had offered yoga, counseling, prayers, meditation, food, deep cranial massage, chanting, reikke, even sound therapy since that awful day when a gunman walked into the church, shot and killed two, while injuring many more in late July.  According to note later found in the gunman's car, he had come to get some liberals who were responsible for a perceived Democratic leadership that was leading the country into perdition.  Besides, he couldn't find a job, and evidently it was their faults for electing Democrats.

One thing Rev. Buice stressed was a lesson he learned on that day.  Even liberals need to learn to accept help.  He noted that Unitarians and liberals in general would tend to substitute for the song Amazing Grace somethng like Amazing Responsibilities.

"We have learned that it is good to receive help as well as give it," he said.

His sermon spoke a truth that most of us in the activist community have too often ignored. 

There is so much to do, and so little time to do it.  The world needs us.  We don't have time to pamper ourselves.  There's work to be done, and tomorrow it will be too late.

Do you find yourself telling yourself all of this at times?  Maybe it's time we activists...often liberals...started taking care of one another occasionally.

Too many fellow activists have fallen by the wayside over the years because they became victims of "burn out."  Not only did we lose them, but we lost their passion.

One of my children participated in a week-long training and demonstration around mountain top removal a few months ago.  Much of it turned out well, and the participants made their presence known in front of the power brokers. 

But after the demonstration, there was no time to reflect, to wind down.  What if there were people around before and after the demonstration to give massages, to offer a yoga session, or lead a drumming circle?

We liberals....and activists of all stripes....take ourselves too seriously.  And we turn novices off quickly.  Too often, we are all work and no play.  We give, give and give and hate to take.  We forget that justice is about give and take....otherwise it is mercy only.
We fight for justice, and seldom for mercy!

I learned much at this Unitarian Church in conservative East Tennessee this past Sunday.

Although a policeman watched outside the church, inside I saw scrapbook after scrapbook filled with letters from other churches throughout the country, and perhaps the globe.  I saw happy people, upbeat people, but I also saw a counseling team.  I read of support groups that have been formed.  I saw a community that has learned to receive help after decades of giving themselves.

And even better, I saw people who had returned to their church home after years away.  I saw new members and current members.  Together, the new and the old, they poured water from their own bottles into one big bowl, signaling the merging of their lives into church and service to one another.  They were disproving Niemöller's reminder noted above.

In Knoxville when they came to get the liberals, we spoke up, we joined together in solidarity.  We came to give aid to the struggling, the wounded.  They accepted our aid, and we saw the Love of God, whoever or whatever God is, living in the Tennessee Valley Unitarian Universalist Church.  Now that is church!  That is courage!

Rachael Bliss, after working for 10 years in creative services and community affairs at a local broadcasting station, moved into the nonprofit world with her first job with the Southern Poverty Law Center in Montgomery, AL. From there she advocated for the hungry, children and the environment as an organizer and director. Articles by Rachael Bliss at MWC News http://mwcnews.net/RachaelBliss

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