TVUUC We are a Gentle Angry People

"We are a gentle angry people and we are singing, singing for our lives."

I never thought we would really be singing for our lives. That song was sung yesterday when the Tennessee Valley Unitarian Universalists met in the afternoon after a David Adkisson shoot 8 people, killing 2, during our church service, in our sanctuary, on Sunday July 28. (I was not present. I was taking my son to summer camp near Asheville because his father had an oil leak in his car.)

How many friends, acquaintances and strangers have I told, "I love my church. Come visit us. You would be welcome." And they would. All are welcome. We welcome strangers. There have been times I have been challenged in myself to indeed welcome strangers who are stranger than most, but I did, and we do. We do not ask them to become any different. Only to believe our principles, or at least to live within the outward action of those principles while among us.

One day not long after I had been attending with my former partner, a woman of few words, she said "I like that church; I can sleep there." And sometimes she did. It is not a measure of boredom, but a measure of safety. She is a woman who is guarded at nearly all times. Like most people of ambiguous gender she has been a target so long, that the feeling of inclusion and safety in a public place is totally unique. But we enjoyed it there, in our sanctuary.

A sanctuary now blood stained. In that sanctuary I have stood with our choir singing the some of the most beautiful music in world, my voice huge, my tears streaming down in joy. I have had the privilege of preaching my radical poetry from the pulpit to standing ovation from my community. I have cried for lost brothers and sisters. I have sat at peace in arms of my lesbian partner. I have found friends and comfort there. I have been heard. It is my home. It has been violated. Evil walks among us.

Greg McKennedy stepped up into the line of fire, protected others, and died, a hero, a martyr. The madman was taken down by the brave men of our church. He will stand justice.

I believe that we are called upon, not to prepare ourselves for the heavenly kingdom, but to build it here and now, out of the stones of neighbors, within the structures of our lives. We are called upon to make heaven here, in moments, in flashes, in the sanctuaries of our bodies, our homes, our communities. We must roll the hard bits of ourselves in prayer, like the making of pearls. We must use prayer, that iridescent energy, to spins tiny spheres of heaven, pearls of that other world. Then we string these delicate moments together on the hard cord of our days, knot them down with purpose and discipline. We will string together our tiny pearls of heaven to build a net and gather in the lonely, who are all of us, as fishers of men. And this great pearly net will be our gateway to walk so gingerly into heaven.

Evil walks among us. And out of that we will still build the kingdom; for nothing, nothing can withstand the power of love.

"We are gentle angry people and we are singing, singing for our lives."

Unitarian Universalist Principles:

WE BELIEVE in the freedom of religious expression. All individuals should be encouraged to develop their own personal theologies, and to present openly their religious opinions without fear of censure or reprisal.
WE BELIEVE in the tolerance of religious ideas. All religions, in every age and culture, possess not only intrinsic merit, but also potential value for those who have learned the art of listening.
WE BELIEVE in the authority of reason and conscience. The ultimate arbiter in religion is not a church, nor a document, nor an official, but the personal choice and decision of the individual.
WE BELIEVE in the never-ending search for Truth. If the mind and heart are truly free and open, the revelations that appear to the human spirit are infinitely numerous, eternally fruitful, and wondrously exciting.
WE BELIEVE in the unity of experience. There is no fundamental conflict between faith and knowledge, religion and the world, the sacred and the secular, since they all have their source in the same reality.
WE BELIEVE in the worth and dignity of each human being. All people on earth have an equal claim to life, liberty, and justice-and no idea, ideal, or philosophy is superior to a single human life.
WE BELIEVE in the ethical application of religion. Good works are the natural product of a good faith, the evidence of an inner grace that finds completion in social and community involvement.