A sermon by the Rev. Daniel Schatz, delivered at BuxMont Unitarian Universalist Fellowship, September 19, 2004

Sermon:  Voting Is Not Enough

Patriotism is not only a legitimate sentiment, but a duty... We cannot more efficiently labor for the good of all... than by pledging heart, brain, and hands to the services of keeping our country true to its mission, obedient to its idea...

The world waits to see the quality and energy of our patriotism.  The book of our country's history... is handed to us, that we may inscribe there the records of its glory, or its shame.

- Thomas Starr King

We, the member congregations of the Unitarian Universalist Association, covenant to affirm and promote:

The inherent worth and dignity of every person;

Justice, equity and compassion in human relations; Acceptance of one another and encouragement to spiritual growth in our congregations;

A free and responsible search for truth and meaning;

The right of conscience and the use of the democratic process within our congregations and in society at large;

The goal of world community with peace, liberty, and justice for all;

Respect for the interdependent web of all existence of which we are a part.

 - Unitarian Universalist Statement of Principles

      The rabbis could not agree.  The point of law may seem trivial to us – it was all about whether a pottery stove could be unclean if it were cut into tiles – but to the rabbis it was important, and, if the Talmud is to be trusted, Rabbi Eliezer was being a blockhead about it.

       He wouldn’t admit that he was wrong.  And he kept arguing the point.

      Finally he said, “If the law is according to my views, let this carob tree prove it.”  The three other rabbis were stunned to see the tree uprooted and moved a hundreds yards, but they recovered their composure and said, a little shakily, “We do not determine law from a carob tree.”

      So Rabbi Eliezer said, “If the law is as I see it, let the stream of water prove it,” and the stream immediately changed directions.  But the other rabbis, a little steadier this time, said, “We do not determine law from a stream of water.” 

      Again Rabbi Eliezer spoke, saying, “If the law agrees with my views, let the walls of the academy prove it,” and the walls of the academy buckled, about to fall.  The other rabbis glared at the walls, and Rabbi Joshua said firmly, “If scholars argue a point of law, what business is it of yours?”  The walls didn’t fall, but out of respect for Rabbi Eliezer, they didn’t straighten up again either.

      Finally Rabbi Eliezer couldn’t stand it any more.  He shouted, “If I am right, let them prove it from Heaven!”  And a heavenly voice said, “What do you have against Rabbi Eliezer?  The law is as he says in this and all other instances!”

      The other rabbis looked at each other for a moment, and then one of them looked up and said to God, “What, two against three?  In the Torah you said that the majority rule.”

      No amount of bluster, no matter how persuasive it may seem, is more important than the will of a thoughtful and responsible majority.

      The election is coming.  It’s coming soon – in just six weeks.  The Pennsylvania deadline for voter registration is in just two weeks – October 4 – and if you are not yet registered I urge you to fill out a voter registration card after services today.  As has often been pointed out by members of both parties, this election may well be the most important in many of our lifetimes.  Register and vote, and get other people to register and vote.  It’s too important to let this slide.

      But voting is not enough.  Unitarian Universalists are committed to the democratic process, and as I look around at the country today, I have to admit that the democratic process is in a sorry state.  Our voting levels are embarrassing.  The level of public discourse often surpasses embarrassing and is downright shameful. 

      I admit that I have a biased view of these things, because I was raised in a political family, rooted in an earlier era.  My grandmother was a staffer in the offices of several senators and one vice-president. 

      My grandfather was a White House reporter for the associated press.  I like to think that in their heyday, we held to a better standard of democracy.  They certainly thought that –in her last days my grandmother used to yell herself hoarse watching the political coverage on the evening news.

      But only my bias comes from family background.  My care comes from my religion.  “We, the member congregations of the Unitarian Universalist Association, covenant to affirm and promote the right of conscience and the use of the democratic process in our congregations and in society at large.”

      This is more than a random statement with which most UUs happen to agree – it is essential to our way of being religious and our way of being human.  Without a healthy and functional democracy, all of our other principles – human dignity, justice, the search for truth – become all but lost.  How can any society recognize human worth and dignity if that society does not give the individual a meaningful voice in the government?  How can we search for truth and meaning, if leaders of all political stripes and much of the media have become caught up in a frenzy of marketing at the expense of honesty?

      The Unitarian Universalist theologian James Luther Adams wrote that “the faith of the [religious] liberal must express itself in societal forms, in the forms of education, in economic and social organization, in political organization.  Without these, freedom and justice in community are impossible.”  He also spoke of our moral obligation to direct our efforts “toward the establishment of a just and loving community.”  “A faith that is not the sister of justice,” he wrote, “is bound to bring... grief.”

      There is nothing we can do for justice that is more important than working to make our democracy healthy.  Our Unitarian Universalist faith is lived in the very fabric of that democracy, and if we fail to act to protect it, we have belittled ourselves.

      This is a religious duty for us.

      Rev. Thomas Starr King understood that.  When he spoke of holding our country true to its mission and ideals, he wasn’t tossing those words around lightly.  The issues then were even more serious than those we face today, important though today’s issues are.  The Civil War was brewing.  Indeed, it was Starr King’s leadership that helped save California for the union.  He didn’t do it with blind assurances or vicious attacks – he didn’t call on voices from Heaven to speak on his behalf.  Instead he used reason.  He talked about real patriotism, true patriotism –a difficult, critical patriotism – “It is of the very essence of patriotism,” he said, “to be earnest and truthful, to scorn the flatterer's tongue, and strive to keep its native land in harmony with the laws of national thrift and power. It will tell a land of its faults, as a friend will counsel a companion.”

      Starr King knew how to hold a nation accountable to its own ideals, and he knew how to begin forming the kind of just and loving community he believed in so firmly in his Unitarian Universalist soul. 

      As we enter the election of 2004 – in this country fraught with bitter divisive vitriol, I believe it behooves us to listen to prophets like Thomas Starr King and James Luther Adams, and begin to turn our patriotism and our religious fervor to the establishment of that just and loving community.

      We won’t do it by shouting at each other, no matter how much the campaigns do.  We need to let go of hatred, even as we hold on to passion.  We need to let go of bitterness, even as we hold on to what we believe.  We need to let go of insults and jeers, even as we hold on to our commitments and integrity.

      The issues today are far too serious to be subsumed by the vile hostility that characterizes much of our politics.  It is frightening to see television ads, both Republican and Democratic, that distort both issues and facts, often relying on half-truths and innuendo to “sell” a candidate.  If such commercials advertised a product, distortion on that scale would be considered a gross violation of consumer protections.

      But it is neither advertisements nor mean-spirited campaigning that has me worried so much about the fundamental soundness of our democracy.  These things have long, if shameful histories.  The United States has survived fist fights on the floor of Congress.  We have survived red baiting and we have survived bitter debates.  We have not survived these things easily, and a lot of good people were hurt, but we have survived.  We have survived and can continue to survive and grow up as a nation – so long as we value truth.

      This is one of the deeper ways Unitarian Universalists are called to support the democratic process.  Because truth and questioning (along with a mostly healthy mistrust of authority)are central to our way of being it is our particular task to hold the players in democracy –the candidates, the Political Action Funds, the media and ourselves accountable to truth.

      I have been devastated and angry with media organizations who have sacrificed journalism in the name of entertainment.  Too often the press seems more interested in amusement than actuality, more obsessed with conflict than reality, and so they repeat all but the most blatant of lies as if the story were merely about a difference of opinion.  Last month many of us from all political backgrounds were disgusted to see the dirty campaign tricks of groups like the so-called Swift Boat Veterans for Truth.  Now we see counter-ads from the other side that rely just as much on innuendo.  The tragedy of it is that they could never had had such an impact, were it not for the credulity of the media and the unwillingness of ordinary citizens to hold the media accountable.

      As we, the people, are subjected to coverage of controversies that are entirely of the media’s own creation, it is time we begin to ask hard questions.  In what way does this serve democracy?  In what way does it serve truth?  Why should we trust your newscast and subscribe to your newspaper if you do not report the news responsibly?

      If we Unitarian Universalists take seriously our commitment to the democratic process, to the duty of patriotism, to the establishment of a just and loving community, and to basic truth, then it is up to us to begin asking these questions aloud, to write to the news providers, to cancel subscriptions to newspapers that do not respect truth and inquiry, to find ways, both traditional and more creative, to bring truth and decency back into our political conversations.

      As we hold the press to the standard of truth, we should also hold our candidates and ourselves to no less a standard.  Passionate as we may feel about the issues and the candidates, we cannot allow ourselves to degenerate into the kind of unsupported claim, demonizing and half-truth we deplore. 

      I like to say that in a really healthy democracy, when we all serve truth, we will find that at last we are able to talk to one another – Democrats with Republicans with Independents – as sisters and brothers.  (That is, we may fight like cats sometimes, but we respect one another.)

      I know that it isn’t easy, especially when we’re angry about certain policies or candidates.  But if we believe in serious debate and in honest discussion then we need to listen to the opinions of those with whom we disagree.  If we believe in compassion, then when speak, we must speak with civility.  If we believe in the right of conscience, then we should not assume that everyone we like or respect or go to fellowship with agrees with us or will see things the way we do.  This is the only way we can begin to establish the kind of just, loving democracy that is so central to our way of being religious.

      We can begin right here, in this fellowship.  Here we often talk about social issues, though our fellowship and its committees and groups will not – legally cannot – support or attack specific candidates.  We do not ask anyone to hide their political affiliation, but we do ask that when we talk informally together about political issues and candidates, we do so with the kind of respect and compassion that is missing in so much of our public conversation today.  There is too much hate and mean-spiritedness already in our country; this fellowship is a place of love and healing and togetherness in diversity.  Here is where we begin to heal our democracy.

      There is much to do, more than registering people and more than voting.  These are not enough.  It is incumbent upon us –especially those who, like many of us, have been privileged, to make sure democracy is both accessible and accessed.  We need to vote, and we need to help others vote.  We need to offer rides, and if necessary browbeat the apathetic into taking their rightful place as stewards of democracy.  As one of our speakers at General Assembly this year said, “Yes, I know I’m preaching to the choir and what I’m saying to the choir is ‘Get off your butts and sing!’”

      We have to sing.  We have to because there are too many people out there who believe that they have no voice.

      This summer in Philadelphia, I was briefly part of a conversation with a young man – he couldn’t have been much older than twenty-two.  He was angry about a lot of things, and at one point he said, “It all just makes you want to go blow up city hall.”  He didn’t mean it; we all knew he didn’t.  But he was mad.  So I said, “What you could do is make sure to vote and campaign and organize for what you believe in.”  He looked sad for a moment, and said, “I just don’t think I can make any difference.”

      He had so much anger and so much passion, but his faith in the democracy of our country had sunk so low that he didn’t believe in his own ability to have an impact.  He had accepted one of the greatest lies of our times – that if you don’t have money, or access, or celebrity, or if your skin isn’t white, or if you are the wrong sexual orientation, or if you live in state that is red or blue instead of, what pink? – if all you have is passion and a little time, even a very little time, it isn’t enough.  You will never make a difference, and your voice will never be heard above the roar of discord.  He had accepted this as his fate, and too many of us have accepted it with him.

      Too many of us have become complacent as democracy stands in jeopardy, as the politics of issues takes a backseat to the politics of image – and of personal attack.  Both parties are guilty in this, but we who have become complacent must also take responsibility.  We must stand up and take responsibility and demand that the ideals of democracy – ideals of truth and compassion and dignity and questioning, and for heaven’s sake at least participation – that these ideals once again become part of the living fabric of our country.  Too often they are just words.  Too many of us have forgotten.

      Too many of us have forgotten that it doesn’t take very much to make a difference.  A vote is a beginning.  Making sure everyone you know, no matter what state they live in, is registered is a good next step.  Making sure your kids in college and their friends have absentee ballots makes a difference.  Offering people rides to the polls makes a difference, and so does asking for a ride if you need one.  Let me say this clearly:  If you need a ride to the polls on election day, ask me and I will make sure that I or someone else will give you that ride.  It doesn’t matter what candidates you plan to vote for or how you’ve voted in the past – our democracy needs everybody’s voice, and too many of us – Republicans and Democrats and Independents – have forgotten that we have a voice that can make a difference.

      If we have a little more time – even a very little – we can do more.  We can work for the things we believe in, and in the appropriate places, we can work for the candidates we believe in.  This year I have donated time and money in support of the things I believe in –  I hope that whatever your political views, you will take the issues seriously enough to take some action to make a difference.  I hope that whatever your political views, you take democracy seriously enough to demand truth and accountability from candidates, journalists, organizations and yourself.

      A healthy democracy is a powerful thing.  If we make it past the bluster – the half-truths and the bitterness – if we make it past all the shouting, then there is very little that can withstand it.

      When Rabbi Eliezer called on the tree to support his arguments, the tree moved, but the other rabbis would not accept the movement of a tree.  When he called on the stream, it changed directions, but this made no difference to the other rabbis.  The walls of the academy could not prove his point, and a even a voice from Heaven failed to sway the other Rabbis.  “But God,” they said, “in the Torah you said that the majority rule.”

      And God laughed, saying, “My children have won over me.”

May the love which overcomes all differences,

which heals all wounds,

which puts to flight all fears,

which reconciles all who are separated,

be in us and among us

now and always.

- Frederick Gillis