Hateful Administrations: We've seen them before, we'll survive them again

The text of my homily for the Nov. 6 Post-Election Prayer Service at Sunshine Cathedral:

Pastoral Response to the Election
Bishop Durrell Watkins, D.Min.
11-6-24

I am not a party loyalist, nor am I always enthusiastic about the leadership of my default party. But I am always troubled by people being demonized, whether they are immigrants or transgender persons or drag artists or women who want to own their own bodies.
And when vulnerable populations are targeted, I tend to speak up and stand up and sometimes even act out.

From pensioners to Queer families to transgender members of society to immigrants to climate scientists to civil rights activists – folk are afraid right now, for themselves and for their loved ones.
There is no reason to dismiss their fears. We can hope that the worst of what they fear will not happen, we can assure ourselves that we will stand together and support one another come what may, but anxiety today is to be expected.

But you know what? I’ve been afraid before. When our government wouldn’t say the word AIDS, and hesitated with funding research for it, and when I lived during a time of sodomy laws and my every act of intimacy was a crime…I was not infrequently scared. 

In high school, obviously gay but not out – not even really to myself, every day was miserable. The battle for marriage equality gave me plenty of agita. The last three elections weren’t good at all for my hypertension. 

But I was born in the era of civil rights struggle and I was a child during the sexual revolution and the peace movement and Stonewall and women’s liberation and I’ve been alive for the passing of and the dismantling of Roe v. Wade. 

This isn’t my first time to be faced with uncertain times and to hear almost hourly threatening rhetoric. But I’m still here, and so are you. I’m a product of Queer Nation and ACT UP. I’ve battled with family, church and state my whole life. I battled hatred and fear and discrimination in the midst of a viral holocaust.
So one thing I know about scary times is that we are equal to them. 

We feel fear, and we do what needs to be done anyway.
We feel fear, and help one another find a bit of bravery.
We feel fear and we let it fuel creativity and resilience and determination.
And we love one another through the scary times. 

No referendum, no court ruling, no abusive use of scripture, no family rejection, no negative ad campaign, no election of anyone to any office…nothing can diminish the power of our love and nothing can keep us from sharing it with one another. 

We have dealt with bullies our whole lives.
Sometimes we hid, sometimes we ran, sometimes we fought, sometimes we won, but we survived, and we will survive.
Greater is the love within us than the hatred that’s in the world. 

So, if you’re worried about your civil rights, your safety, the way other vulnerable populations might be treated, I can’t tell you that you don’t have good reason for that. But I can tell you that we’re in it together, and together, our voice is magnified, our courage is amplified, our resilience is fortifide, and our creativity is glorified. 

We’ll love each other through this and every challenge, as we always have. It’s one of many things we’re super good at. Today is sad, but the badassery of our love is intact. Amen.

Protect democracy

 When voter turnout is low, disproportionately organized & capitalized movements win even when their views are not in the majority or when their agenda is destructive. Democracy is fragile & must be protected, & that's done by every eligible voter casting a vote, for every office, in every election.

Vote.org

The Strange Mixture of Anxiety and Hope

I’m worried. I’m worried about Christian Nationalism, which is really white nationalism, it has nothing to do with jesus.

 

I’m worried about rights being rolled back. The right to support gay and trans kids, the right to talk about LGBTQ families in public spaces, a woman’s right to bodily autonomy, the right to vote,

 

the right to learn history as it occurred even if some of it is ugly, the right to hold even the most powerful accountable for their abuse of power…

 

I’m worried for those who have known discrimination and who are being told they will know more of it if certain agendas are enforced.

 

I’m worried, but not hopeless. Because for now, we can vote. We still have a say in how our future will unfold.

 

Democracy is from the Greek, Demokratia meaning “power of the people.” If we don’t use our power, it will be taken from us, and then democracy gives way to something far removed from Jesus’ dream of a divine kin-dom.  

 

Instead of leaving our fears unchallenged, let’s take Jesus’ advice and seek God’s kin-dom, that realm of peace and justice-love where the last are first and the first are last, where even a widow’s mite is meaningful,

 

where hunger isn’t allowed, where the elderly are safe and children are encouraged and people are never demonized for their love and where the sacred value of all people is recognized.

 

The kin-dom of God is in our hands. We can reject Christian empire and embrace instead God’s kin-dom, the non-kingdom, the anti-empire.

 

I’m asking people of faith to dare to dream Jesus’ dream of God’s universal family making sure that no one is oppressed, forgotten, or left out, and then let that dream inform your participation in our democracy, which if we are as Christian as we claim to be, will look more like Jesus’ dream, and less like empire.

 

May the divine kin-dom come and the divine will be done. Amen.

Time to Give a Damn

The GOP abandoned democracy (& compassion & human kindness) for the hope of an extremist theocracy,

While the complacent sat out election after election,

And when things get difficult a significant numbers of my fellow libs resort to self sabotage (like demanding that someone who has produced record results in 3.5 years stand down bc he's not a debate ninja & be replaced by someone who would have a couple of months to mount a defense against a well funded autocracy machine that has spent 40 years perfecting their demonic agenda...

Folks better start voting and acting like they know that the worst of human ugliness is powerfully on the move.

GOP...abandon never popularly elected, twice impeached, 34x felon, racist, pathological liar Mango Mussolini.

Cult of Apathy...stop it. SCOTUS is lost for at least a generation, Roe is gutted, Voting Rights act is gutted, Affirmative Action is gutted, and presidents now have just been given dictatorial powers ... while we still have some rights (& ps they're toast if Project 2025 is enacted), plz start pretending to give a shit. We've lost more than a free nation ever should. Don't hand what's left to those who are working tirelessly for a theocratic oligarchy.

Liberals...we're good at saying what's wrong & how it should be, and then at strategy time fucking it all up to guarantee we'll always have things to complain about. Support Biden, his team, his record, his organization, and if he drops dead during his acceptance speech there will be a competent and experienced administration ready to move forward that very minute.

Let's see...far right, sit it outs, liberals...yeah, got us all. Now do better. Our lives & liberties (as many as still exist) are literally on the line. (dw)

The Christian Fundamentalists' Lie About the President's Faith

To the Right Wingers who are using the Orlando tragedy to say Pres. Obama is a secret Muslim and a Terrorist organization sympathizer (and who seem to believe that one equals the other), I am frankly exhausted with your willful ignorance and chosen hatefulness. If you have emerged from your cave ever in the last few years you know perfectly well that...
1. The President was a member of Trinity United Church of Christ in Chicago
2. The President, while in office, has visited (and even "preached" at) Christian congregations.
3. The Obamas, having the entire District of Columbia and surrounding suburbs to choose from, chose to send their daughters to a Quaker school.
4. His Christian bona fides not withstanding, we have freedom of religion in this country; so, if he were Muslim it would be completely okay. "Christian" is not a requirement for POTUS.
5. The overwhelming majority of Muslim Americans are peace-loving patriots who are as impacted and devastated by terrorism as anyone else.
6. It was Obama who eliminated Bin Laden (HELLO???!!!!).
7. It is our current president who has authorized on-going military strikes against terrorist groups in the Middle East.

So, please, for the sake of all things decent and sane, STOP using "Muslim" as an insult or as a word meant to stir fear, STOP intentionally lying about the president's faith (and if he ever decides to convert to Islam, just congratulate him and move on with your sad little lives), and STOP trying to connect him to terrorism when he has combatted it more effectively than any president to date (we can take issue with drone strikes and undeclared wars that don't have congressional approval, but we can't say he's not taking a fight to the terrorists ferfucksake!).

Just stop lying. Just stop hating. And while you're at it, stop pretending to be outraged that 103 people who come from a community that you have demonized and dehumanized and damned and insulted and vilified and rejected were hurt or killed. You've gleefully threatened them with hell since day one; now that 103 of them have gone through it, don't pretend that you are suddenly filled with compassion for them (and if you really are, then do the healing thing and offer an apology for the hate speech you've supported that leads to such violence).

That's all.