Rain
Danny
CLF member, incarcerated in CA
Drops of water fall
Onto sidewalks and raincoats
Gloomy clouds stretch on
Shifting winds and sunshine say,
“This will not be forever.”
“There once was a child”
Sarai Rose
CLF member, incarcerated in NC
There once was a child who found herself standin’
at the edge of time, life she thought—could be so cold and cruel;
but then there were brief moments when it could be so sublime.
One day, standing in the midst of silence, alone, with nothing but her own thoughts; back to her youthful and nice dreams and wishes,
far out upon life’s dark horizon she sat sifting through yesterday’s painful, cold gray ashes.
Soon she found herself quickly slipping and sliding along life’s bloody ledge, and in her worn and tattered heart, she made a silent pledge.
No matter what she vowed; the coming moments or days might bring, there’d be no surrender, with her all—she’d stand and fight.
She knew deep within, that this journey and all that might come along its long and winding roads, the sorrow and pain, smiles and laughter, like a rose growing among the thorns, this was her own tempering plight.
She had her moments of doubt and pain,
grueling moments, some so bleak, she thought herself on the edge of time’s continuum, only a heartbeat away from going insane.
The days passin’ ever so rapidly, so chaotic, life becoming nothing more than a blur, darkness creeping in until she finds herself slipping into an emotional manhole; empty shadows black as night.
Often she has found herself sitting in the heart of despair, cold and numb, quite dead inside,
from the hungry ghost there is nowhere to hide, while she realizes that in her demise, there’d be no one to truly care.
Within her bleeding and nice heart, there are many scars, wounds left by those who sought to use and abuse without remorse—the weak and naive, demons descended from the fallen stars.
She knows not what tomorrow might bring, nor if she’ll yet witness another precious sunrise, and thus within her heart she begins her silent goodbyes.
The weight of the world rests upon her shoulders; feeling as if she were a daughter of Atlas, yet surrender she’ll never do, she finds her courage to cling to an inner and mysterious faith.
She holds tightly to the voices of her ancestors; that should she endure until the end, very trial and battle, that come the ‘morrow—
She’d be freed of her deep sorrow.
For the sun’s wondrous and golden rays, shall pull her from the depths of hell’s dark and suffocating manhole, freeing her from yesterday’s haunting wraith.
As heaven’s glorious and miraculous light filters into her heart, washing her clean, and re-newing from the depths of her grieving soul. She’s refilled with a love so unconditional, a love far beyond human comprehension, a love she knows will never depart.
Through the windows of her soul has the Divine poured forth a cup of his own pure love, and within this infant’s curious and seeking eyes— burns true hope and assurance given from above.
Our Theological Mandate for Liberation
Christina delivered the following sermon during a worship service titled “Liberation, Incarceration, and Our Faith,” at General Assembly 2023, the annual gathering of the Unitarian Universalist Association. Her words express the UU theological mandate to work for liberation, particularly the liberation of all people through the abolition of the prison system.
The Rev Dr King: “I have almost reached the regrettable conclusion that the Negro’s great stumbling block in his stride toward freedom is not the White Citizen’s Councilor or the Ku Klux Klanner, but the white moderate, who is more devoted to ‘order’ than to justice; who prefers a negative peace which is the absence of tension to a positive peace which is the presence of justice; who constantly says: ‘I agree with you in the goal you seek, but I cannot agree with your methods of direct action;’ who paternalistically believes he can set the timetable for another man’s freedom; who lives by a mythical concept of time and who constantly advises the Negro to wait for a ‘more convenient season.’”
This quote played over and over in my mind as I visited the Peace and Justice Museum and Memorial in Montgomery Alabama. It was my 5th time experiencing the Museum but only my second since becoming the Co-Lead Minister for the Prison Ministry team at the CLF. And I was trying to work out why it was on loop in my brain. It was a very different kind of “ear worm.” And I think I’ve figured it out.
We are on the daily, bombarded with news too terrible to really react to: guns are the #1 cause of death for children in the US, the climate crisis, attacks on reproductive justice, anti-trans legislation, and the general unraveling of our political systems.
And in that overwhelm, it is easy to say that abolition (yes, it is still that same old abolition of slavery we’re talking about, just dressed differently today) must wait. We’ll figure out what to do about cops and prisons later. But beloveds, I tell you true, the millions who are enslaved and caged in our prisons ask “when? When is this so-called more convenient season?”
So I say this, what we put off today will be even more difficult tomorrow. Evil relies on the principle that a body at rest stays at rest. It overwhelms us until we feel unempowered and ineffective. It relies on our certainty that there will be a “more convenient season” tomorrow, next week, next month, next election cycle, next and next and next.
But we can no longer afford to put off for tomorrow that which must be done today. To be true, we couldn’t afford it yesterday either. Our children literally march in the streets begging us for abolition, in the form of gun control. Our scientists beg for abolition, in the form of climate justice. Our Black and Indigenous peoples demand abolition, in the form of reparations. And our incarcerated siblings demand the abolition of slavery, in the form of prison and police resources transformed into community care resources.
My colleague the Rev. Julian Soto writes, “You are here to put out the ravenous flames of the world. Enough is enough.” In their words I hear that liberation is everyone’s responsibility: it is ours, it is yours. We can try to avoid the discomfort of that or we can face it, knowing we do it in solidarity with the communities whose lived experiences are the keys to making abolition a reality.
These are the tenets of our Unitarian Universalist theological foundation: we are all worthy of universal love and we are all responsible for creating heaven on earth. Beloveds now is the moment, now is the time, now is the season of our Unitarian Universalist mandate for liberation. Now is the inconvenient season of liberation.
So say we all and amen.
276:Meet the Learning Fellows
Podcast: Download (Duration: 54:43 — 75.1MB)
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This week we chatted with the CLF Learning Fellows about CLF.
The VUU streams live every Thursday at 11 am ET. We talk about social justice, Unitarian Universalism, religion, spirituality, and whatever else is topical and interesting!
Hosts: Meg Riley, Michael Tino, Aisha Hauser, and Christina Rivera; production support provided by Antonia Bell-Delgado.
The VUU is brought to you by the Church of the Larger Fellowship.
247 – Progressive Faith Beyond Optimism
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This week on The VUU
This week on The VUU, we chatted with Rev. Nancy McDonald Ladd about her new book, After the Good News: Progressive Faith Beyond Optimism. More information about the book can be found here: https://www.uuabookstore.org/cw_contributorinfo.aspx?ContribID=138878&Name=Nancy+McDonald+Ladd
The VUU is hosted by Meg Riley, Michael Tino, Aisha Hauser and Christina Rivera, with production support provided by Rev Jessica Star Rockers and Margalie Belizaire. The VUU streams live on Thursdays at 11 am ET.
Note: This audio has been slightly edited for a better listening experience. View the live original recording on Facebook.
Freedom to Do as We Will
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Rev. Dana McLean Greely, second from right in civil rights demonstration, in Selma, Alabama, 1965
We each have a measure of freedom
To do as we will. Read more →
199: Toxic Masculinity with Rus Funk
Podcast: Download (Duration: 48:06 — 44.0MB)
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Join our hosts as they chat with Rus Funk about toxic masculinity. Rus is an author, activist and community organizer who specializes in working with organizations and communities to promote healthy masculinities; equity, diversity and justice; and violence prevention.
Rus Funk is involved with North American MenEngage. Boys and Men for Gender Equality. Check out the website. http://namen.menengage.org/
The VUU is hosted by Meg Riley, Michael Tino, and Aisha Hauser, with production support provided by Jessica Star Rockers. The VUU streams live on Thursdays at 11 am ET.
Note: This audio has been slightly edited for a better listening experience. View the live original recording on YouTube.
Making Justice Now
Usually we honor someone from our history who serves as a role model on this page, but there are plenty of UU justice-makers who are living and working right now.
Take, for instance, Lena K. Gardner, who is the Membership and Fundraising Director for our own Church of the Larger Fellowship. Lena is a leader with the Black Lives Matter movement in Minneapolis, Minnesota. She organizes and speaks out and brings people together to protest racist ways that the police have treated Black people in their community and other places around the country.
Justice-Makers Lena K Gardner and Pastor Danny Givens, Jr, CLF prison chaplain
Working with many other people—many of them young adults or even teenagers, they have protested police killing unarmed Black people and demanded that city officials change policies to hold police accountable.
Always using peaceful strategies, they have held protests in America’s biggest shopping mall and on the highway and in front of a police station.
Some people have objected to the Black Lives Matter slogan, saying that all lives matter. But Lena and many others are pushing people to understand the many ways in which Black people are treated as if their lives don’t matter. They are working for a world where everyone finds fairness.
Wishing for Something New
Many people make resolutions for the New Year of things that they plan to do differently. And many people break those resolutions before the week is out because they didn’t really want to make those changes to begin with. So it helps to start with a resolution that you DO want, not that you think you SHOULD want.
What is one thing that you really, really hope is part of your year to come? Write it down and put it in a jacket pocket. Now you have the year to figure out how to make your wish come true.
Nurturing Your Creative Soul Through Writing
Beginning in November and December, I am pleased to offer free sample sessions of the upcoming class, Whispering Winds: Writing to Explore Your Inner Wisdom (registration now open).
I hope you will consider joining us for a sample session on November 15, November 18, December 13, or December 16 (reserve your spot!). Read more →
