First Meditation On Forgiveness (Of Our Spiritual Strivings pt.2)

I have been a Universalist all of my life. I was a Universalist before I knew the word “universalism” existed. I think it’s important to point this out because this post is about forgiveness.

I am also a brooder. It’s important to point that out too. So I’ll start with the most recent thing I’ve been brooding over first.

On Tuesday, Megan Kelly asked why a white person going around in blackface was racist. Ah, blackface. Welcome back into the national conversation again, old friend.

Yesterday morning, Kelly apologized for her comments. (no, I did not watch)

Apology not accepted. At least, not by me.

Two weeks ago tomorrow, UUA Board Secretary Christina Rivera and her child were sent a nasty, violent letter while they were here in Boston for meetings. Far as I know, the person who didn’t have enough courage of their convictions to sign their name to their vitriol hasn’t apologized or asked for forgiveness.

And, I hope that Christina and her family don’t forgive this person.

Some things are not forgivable.

Too often, wronged people are pushed to forgive things said or done quickly. Before they’ve even had time to process what has happened. [think about how quick the families of the Charleston 9 were asked if they forgave Dylann Roof] And yet, the person who does the wrong is seldom asked if they have repented. Because pushing for people to forgive regardless of whether or not the person who committed the wrong has repented is the very definition of cheap grace.

And I haven’t even gotten into the power dynamics of forgiveness. That will happen in another post.

Part of the reason I am a Universalist is that I believe in the power of forgiveness. But forgiveness takes time. And it takes repentance. They go hand-in-hand.

There is more I want to say, but it’s scrambled in my head, so I’ll end here for now.

 

Trauma and Change

Some of you may remember that before Black Panther consumed my life, I was doing research on the concept of continuing trauma.

Science has shown us that trauma changes the genetic makeup of people. Let’s apply this to the UUA and its antecedents.

We have a moderately documented history of causing trauma to those people of color who have the audacity to strive for leadership at any level. This trauma is generational and continuing.

So…if trauma changes the genetic makeup of people, how does trauma change the UUA?

And how does the change differ if the previous traumas go unacknowledged?

 

Of Our Spiritual Strivings

I’ve been re-reading UUA President Rev. Susan Frederick-Gray’s letter which was published on her Facebook page Saturday night. (Actually I’ve read it a few times, because I read a paragraph and stop then read the next paragraph and stop)  I’m still trying to wrap my head around the whole situation. But it got me thinking about something that happened a couple of weeks ago.

At the end of the first day of the Commission on Institutional Change convening, we were asked to think about what kind of Unitarian Universalism we wanted. I still stand by my original answer (those who were there hopefully remember what I said), but I feel the need to expand it some. And, in order to do that, I need to quote Du Bois.

The first essay in Souls of Black Folk is titled “Of Our Spiritual Strivings” and begins with:

BETWEEN me and the other world there is ever an unasked question: unasked by some through feelings of delicacy; by others through the difficulty of rightly framing it. All, nevertheless, flutter round it. They approach me in a half-hesitant sort of way, eye me curiously or compassionately, and then, instead of saying directly, How does it feel to be a problem? they say, I know an excellent colored man in my town; or, I fought at Mechanicsville; or, Do not these Southern outrages make your blood boil? At these I smile, or am interested, or reduce the boiling to a simmer, as the occasion may require. To the real question, How does it feel to be a problem? I answer seldom a word.

So…to expand on my answer at the convening…I want a Unitarian Universalism that doesn’t see people of color as a problem. Because that is what the person who wrote the hate-filled letter sees us as.

What would it mean for Unitarian Universalism for people of color to be able to bring their full selves into this?

What would it mean for Unitarian Universalism to actually lean into a liberatory theology?

Unitarian Universalists have a choice to make. Choose wisely.