The situation facing trans and gender non-conforming people in the United States right now is really bleak. And I really want to have an earnest plea that people stop framing this as a minority issue and reframe this as a universal attack on self-determination. Every one of us should be able to determine our own gender… So we need you to show up in this moment, not just out of an ethics of allyship. That doesn’t feel like enough for me, but out of an insistence and your own dignity, your own capacity to transform, your own love of self.
– Alok Vaid-Menon
Our Universalist spiritual forbearers had a vision of divine love that was so prophetic, so radical, and so inclusive that it challenged every human construct of exclusivity. They believed that in the ultimate end, even if not realized in life, all souls would be reconciled and saved by the overwhelming compassion, mercy, and love that shines at the heart of existence. That belief meant that people should likewise progress towards such a universal embrace to truly affirm the inherent dignity of every person.
This month’s theme of Living Love Through the Path of Inclusion connects with the revolutionary theology of our spiritual ancestors and our contemporary living of a liberal faith with Love at the center. While some misguided souls are attacking our society’s commitments to diversity, equity, and inclusion–fundamental tenets upon which this country was founded—it is now more important than ever that we side with our UU Values and those who are being actively excluded by some members of our society. This includes transgender and gender non-conforming people, queer people, refugees and immigrants, disabled people, BIPOC people, poor people, and others among us who are being targeted.
This isn’t a time to be timid but to be out loud and proud of who we are as Unitarian Universalists and of our radical and ever growing embrace of diversity in all of its beauty and splendor!
Soul Matters provides the following list of questions to guide our theme-based reflections this month in our small groups and other meetings of the community:
- When were you first “saved” by someone who widened a circle to let you in? If you could talk to them today, what would they say to them?
- If you could go back and change a moment of being excluded or excluding someone else, what would it be?
- Has an experience of being excluded permanently left a mark on you?
- Have you ever invited and included something or someone in your life that unexpectedly altered then trajectory of it, something or someone that broke you out of a stifling rut, challenged you to finally face something you were avoiding, or forced you to grow in a way that you wouldn’t have on your own? If so, what did the experience teach you about courage, risk, luck or grace?
- Do you belong to a community or relationship that demands a version of you that no longer is true? Or requires you to remove parts of yourself to belong?
- What aspect of your personality do you need to do a better job of embracing and welcoming in? Your judgmental self? Your lazy self? Your vulnerable self? Your bitter self? Your easily frightened self? Your quick-to-anger self? Your jealous self? Your petty self? Your selfish self?
- What aspect of your life partner, child or close friend do you need to do a better job of embracing and welcoming in?
- What excluded and painful memory of yours wants to be welcomed back in and better understood?
- Have you or the communities you are a part of invited diverse people into your “house” but not allowed them to “rearrange your furniture”?
- Is it possible the community that has welcomed you with open arms has also burdened you with an unhealthy or unfair understanding of “us and them”?
- What if Black History Month is not just a call to remember but also a form of reparations? If so, what might Black History Month be asking of you to include in your awareness and action this month?
- How is the pain and struggle of those less fortunate than you included in your life?
- Have your efforts to exclude risk from your life gone too far?
- Please reach out if you are in need of pastoral support and spiritual companionship from our trained Pastoral Care Team in these difficult days. Know that you are not alone and we have congregational members who are trained to provide a confidential ministry of loving presence to you if you are in need. Please email pastoralcare@uusm.org or call the church office to request support.
We would love to hear from you! If you have a new joy, sorrow, or milestone to share with the community in our Thursday announcements and from the pulpit on a Sunday morning, please email joysandsorrows@uusm.org or call the church office to share the news.
Yours in the loving-kindness of ministry,
Jeremiah
Rev. Jeremiah Lal Shahbaz Kalendae
Developmental Minister