CONSCIENCE OF A LIBERAL

August 20, 2006

St. John’s Unitarian Universalist Church, Cincinnati, OH

Frank Carpenter, D.Min.

 

READING:

Sharing the Oceanic Feeling

by James Carroll

http://www.commondreams.org/views06/0814-21.htm

 

SERMON:

There are only a few more Sundays before the church year begins on Sept. 10th. Over the past Sundays you have had the opportunity to hear a number of speakers and a couple more to come.

 

How have you felt about them, what they said?  When you disagreed, what did you think of them as persons, did you respect them even though they disagreed, or were weird?

 

During the regular church year we also have heard a number of different speakers. There have been some Christian evangelicals speak from this pulpit.  During the Pride Service this past June, a Christian evangelical minister spoke.  Also, I recall an African American Evangelical Christian speaking, witnessing very briefly as part of his expression of appreciation for his organization receiving one of our Outreach Groups.

 

What was your gut response if you have heard a Christian evangelical speak from this pulpit?

 

If you are gay, how do you feel about a straight person talking about gay issues?  Or if straight, hearing stories of what it is like coming out of the closet? As a gay person, how do you feel when a straight person responds to your coming out story by saying she understands?

 

If you have attended Twelve Step meetings you may have heard of their concept of identifying with the speaker rather than comparing yourself with them.  If the speaker at an Over Eaters Anonymous meeting pigs out on marshmallows, and you pig out on Triscuts, do you say, that’s not my problem; do you compare yourself with them?  Or do you identify with them and say, “I eat like that!”

 

If you have a problem with alcohol and go to Alcoholics Anonymous meetings, and you hear the speaker say, “I drank beer, not wine,” do you say, “not my problem because I drank wine?”  or do you identify with taking one drink after another, beer, wine, scotch?  If the speaker says “I was homeless, living under a bridge because of my addiction,” do you say, well, I never lived under a bridge, or do you identify with them and are grateful and know there but for the grace of god go you?

 

Whether you are listening to a new speaker at St. John’s, or attending a Twelve Step meeting, whatever, we are frequently meeting new people, renewing relationships with friends.  Do you identify with them, or compare yourself and think you’re better off or worse?

 

It’s a problem.

 

This ability to identify with others, having compassion, a sense of empathy may to some extent be a character trait.  One of my books this summer was John Dean’s CONSERVATIVES WITHOUT A CONSCIENCE.  I saw him speak about it on C-Span, the Daily Show and a few others places.  He talks briefly about Barry Goldwater – apparently Dean roomed with Goldwater’s son in college –  as they wondered what was happening to American conservatism in the past several decades.  After Goldwater died, Dean continued their research. 

 

Dean’s talking about the research on the Authoritarian Personality was what caught my attention.  Following World War II, a number of social scientists were interested in why some people followed leaders such as Hitler, Mussolini and Stalin.   They came up with a description of what they called ‘the authoritarian personality,’ an insecure person who aggressively followed a leader with blind obedience. Authoritarian aggression is fueled by fear and encouraged by remarkable self-righteousness. (54)

 

Dean caught my attention as he said the research had continued and studies had been done on the personality characteristics of these leaders.  What kind of characters had blind followers?  Barry Goldwater summarized it before Dean did his research.  Goldwater called them ‘thugs.’ People without a moral sense.

 

In the academic literature, these leaders who are followed by authoritarian personalities are called ‘social dominators.’  “Social dominators.” Some of the characteristics of Social dominators are typically men -- women not being worthy of recognition -- dominating, opposing equality, desirous of personal power, and amoral. (Page 68)  John Dean describes social dominators:

 

Dominators are prepared to “proceed with relatively little moral restraint,” for they agree with statements like “there really is no such thing as ‘right’ and ’wrong’; it all boils down to what you can get away with,” and “basically, people are objects to be quietly and coolly manipulated for your own benefit.” They disagree with statements like “do unto others as you would have them do unto you, and never do anything unfair to someone else;” and “since so many members of minority groups end up in our jails, we should take strong steps to make sure prejudice plays no role in their treatment by the legal system.”  (Page 58)

 

Clearly social dominators are unwilling or incapable of identifying with other human beings.  Their life strategy is to compare themselves with others.  As Senator Voinovich once described one social dominator, ‘he sucks up and kicks down.’ One of the few religious leaders that Dean selects to describe as a social dominator is Pat Robertson of the Christian Coalition, who has called for the assassination of a number of heads of state and defends dictators such as Charles Taylor of Liberia.

 

One of the hallmarks of ‘social dominators,’ according to Dean, is their “belief in inequality.” (Page 57) As your minister, I would point out to you then that Unitarian Universalism is not a religion for those who reject equality, for ‘social dominators.’  Our Principles and Purposes, as you can find them in the front of the gray hymnal, is a human rights document.  It is founded in the inherent worth and dignity of each and every human being. Our commitment to human equality is specifically expressed in the second principle.  I think it is worth noting in this day in age that human rights is a different kind of value system then we see so much in this day and age in the daily news.  The ethic of human rights is universal; it applies to all human beings.  So much of the violence in our world today is based not universal claims, but in ethnic and religious claims: ‘we are from the west, so we are right and you from the east are wrong.’ Turn on the news: Shia, Sunni, Israeli, Tamil, all too frequently claims are based in ethnicity, religion or other forms of identity politics.  We, holding to universal human rights, do not agree with this view, which makes so much of inequalities among people.

 

 

Equality is not an abstraction; it is something you can practice.  Indeed equality is an old spiritual practice.  In my quote form John Dean, he remarks that social dominators, “disagree with statements like “do unto others as you would have them do unto you,” Social dominators reject the Golden Rule, and they cannot abide it.  Do not do to others what you would not done to you.  It’s simple to say, but so are to practice in our daily lives.  The golden Rule, the day to day practice of the Golden Rule, these form the core of the conscience of a liberal.

 

All major religions have some form of the Golden Rule, this practice of equality.  One story that comes to my mind is about Rabbi Hillel.  Hillel was a contemporary of St. Paul, perhaps St. Paul studied with him.  Hillel is one of the founders of the synagogue movement in Judaism after the destruction of the temple in Jerusalem.  A man once came to Hillel and said, ‘If you can tell me the entire meaning of the Torah while standing on one foot, I will convert to Judaism.”  Standing on one foot, Hillel said, “Do unto others as you would have them do unto you.”

 

I found one website that gives the different formulations of the Golden Rule for a wide variety of faiths.  For us it says, Unitarian: "We affirm and promote respect for the interdependent of all existence of which we are a part." Not the one I would have chosen, but okay.

 

Wicca: "An it harm no one, do what thou wilt" (i.e. do what ever you will, as long as it harms nobody, including yourself). One's will is to be carefully thought out in advance of action. This is called the Wiccan Rede

 

For Islam it gives, Islam: "None of you [truly] believes until he wishes for his brother what he wishes for himself." Number 13 of Imam "Al-Nawawi's Forty Hadiths." http://www.religioustolerance.org/reciproc.htm

 

In the New Testament we can find several formations.  At one point Jesus calls on his disciples to love their neighbors as themselves.  One of my favorite parables, the Good Samaritan, is a story about following the Golden Rule in our daily lives. What does that mean?

 

This past Tuesday afternoon I was downtown.  I had parked on Central Parkway, and was crossing on Vine walking south.  Halfway across Central, on the median strip, a man approached me.  About fifty, he did not look as he lived above the poverty level.  He stopped and asked me for three dollars.  He had a flat tire, he said, and needed 3.50 to repair it.

 

Now, I’ve had a bit of experience with pan-handlers, so I was skeptical.  My immediate thought is, if this were me and I had a flat tire, I’d like some help.  But I’m skeptical.  Well, I thought, he doesn’t know who I am so he wont come asking me again – the problem with pan-handlers.  I only had a five and a one in my wallet, so I gave him the one.  If it were me, I’d want you to help me. I identified with him in his need, took him on good faith and helped some.  The Golden Rule can be practiced daily, walking downtown, in a shopping mall.

 

In her new book, the Great Transformation, Karen Armstrong writes about the changes in religion in the thousand years before the Common Era, the Axial Age she calls it. Cultures over many areas of the planet saw increasing violence among groups and empires.  Out of this mix, all the great faiths developed a similar approach.  Karen Armstrong tells us that nothing expresses the sprit of this change, this Axial transformation as does the Golden Rule.  The Golden Rule was the central insight of the Great Transformation.

 

The Golden Rule is not just about our connection to others.  It is also about our connection to ourselves.  Another great development of the Axial Age, the Great Transformation is the discovery of inwardness. Inwardness begins with, Armstrong tells us with what she calls Kenosis, emptying. What is emptying?  It is, to use James Carroll’s phrase from earlier this morning, about that ‘oceanic feeling.’  It is by letting go our all our cares and woes, by accepting that as St Teresa said, all is passing.  Then indeed we come in touch with ourselves, and strangely enough, with others.  That is what the Golden Rule promises.

 

The different statements of the Golden Rule ask us to judge our own actions by asking ourselves to reflect on how we would like to be treated in the way we are considering treating another. Consider whether you would do something to another human being and whether you would want it done to you.  You have to think about it.  What about murder.  Murder is in part appalling, in part because, would you want to live with a murderer?  If you killed someone, deliberately, by accident, even in war, you have to live with yourself.  Do you want to live with a murderer?  That’s what the Golden Rule asks you.

 

Do you want to live with at thief?

 

Do you want to live with a liar?

 

Do you want to live with the office gossip?

 

The early Greek thinker Socrates put it most radically, “It is better to be at odds with the whole world than, being one, to be at odds with myself.”

 

The Golden Rule requires us to have some self-awareness, some idea of our feelings and behaviors.  And it is not surprising that, as John Dean writes, social dominators “lead people who are uninclined to think for themselves.”  A lack of self-awareness is the source of much pain and suffering in our world.

 

 Practice the Golden Rule, practice identifying with others on a daily basis.  It is a spiritual path.

 

Jesus’ parable of the Good Samaritan is an illustration of the Golden Rule.  My favorite version of the story comes from the television show, WEST WING.  It was told by Leo, Jedediah Bartlett’s Chief of Staff, the character played by John Spenser.

 

A man has fallen down a man-hole.  He yells for help.  ‘Help, help, get me out of here.’  A lawyer comes along and drops down his card.  “Call me, we’ll sue the city.”  A doctor comes along, drops down a prescription. “It’ll lower your anxiety,” he claims.

 

Then some guy comes along and jumps down the man hole with him.  “What are you doing?’ the first guy screams;  “Now two of us are down here!”  “It’s okay,” comes the response.  “I’ve been down here before and I know the way out.”

 

Whether or not you’ve ever been stuck down a man-hole, most of us know that when you’re in a tight spot, the first thing to do is stop digging.  You know what to do, and I guess I do. I should stop digging, too.

 

Let me just say, practice equality on a daily basis. Equality is the core of the conscience of a liberal.  As we have seen, the Golden Rule is a spiritual path. Practicing it we deepen our connection to ourselves as we identify with others.