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.
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For Sunshine Cathedral and spiritual communities that refuse to put conditions and limits on divine love,
Welcoming Grace - HEAR OUR PRAYER
For an informed, compassionate, and responsible electorate,
Spirit of Cooperation - HEAR OUR PRAYER
For those who have died from homophobic or transphobic violence, and those who mourn, and those who fear they could be next,
Spirit of Indomitable Hope - HEAR OUR PRAYER
For those whose governments and religious traditions condemn them, sometimes to literal death, and who experience hell on earth as well as threats of perdition beyond,
Spirit of Compassion - HEAR OUR PRAYER
For those who died from AIDS, and those who live with HIV but dare not take their health for granted,
Spirit of Life - HEAR OUR PRAYER
For those who know the joy of LGBTQ+ pride, and for those whose hearts cry out, “maybe next year,”
God of the Eternal Now - HEAR OUR PRAYER.
Queer Saints in heaven and earth, pray for us, pray with us.
AMEN.
--Litany prayed at Sunshine Cathedral on June 30, 2024
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.
I hope ppl vote for women's rights. I hope ppl vote for LGBTQ+ rights. I hope ppl vote for environmental protection. I hope ppl vote for the feeding of hungry children. I hope ppl vote for Medicare & social security. I hope ppl vote against autocracy & totalitarianism. I hope ppl vote against felonious candidates. I hope ppl VOTE.
I posted these thoughts on Facebook on July 4 this year:
As we end this day of celebrating freedom & independence, I remember & bless the ratification of the 13th Amendment, the 19th Amendment, the voting rights act, the Stonewall Uprising, & Obergefell. I also mourn the dismantling of the voting rights act, the crippling of Roe v. Wade, misapplication of the 2nd amendment, & recent attempts to ignore the establishment clause. I'm not feeling very apple pie & Yankee Doodle. I am daring to hope that the ugliness, bigotry, violence, & autocratic tendencies represented by red cap wearing insurrectionists will be washed away by voters who will not allow a return to the 1950s. I cling tenaciously to hope while I try to believe our country is better than it seems to be. "I thank whatever gods may be for my unconquerable soul" (Henley). May the nation's soul be also unconquerable, or at least may the phoenix of progressive values rise from the ashes of hatred and fear. (dw)
Is New Thought Compatible with Social Activism?
by Rev. Dr. Durrell Watkins (Divine Science Federation)
Nineteenth century Metaphysical practitioners began as healers who would “treat” people affordably (and provide income for women who weren’t offered a lot of professional opportunities at the time). New Thought offered “universal healthcare” from the start! In those days, medicine wasn’t nearly as advanced as it is now, and treatment through mental prayer often proved as effective or more so (and less dangerous) than the medicine of the day. Safe, affordable healthcare available to all, often offered by women…that is a New Thought legacy.
New Thought pioneers were models for women’s rights. Some women in early New Thought worked for women’s voting rights.
A leading figure of the Mental Science movement was Helen Wilmans. The co-founder of Silent Unity and the Unity School of Christianity was Myrtle Fillmore. The Founders of Divine Science were women, first Malinda Cramer and secondarily, the Brooks sisters.
The “Teacher of teachers” (who instructed many New Thought pioneers) was Emma Curtis Hopkins. The founder of the Home of Truth was Annie Rix Militz. Tehilla Lichtenstein was a co-founder of Jewish Science and she ran the movement when her husband died, making her the first Jewish woman to have her own pulpit (though she was a lay leader and not an ordained rabbi). The founder of the Universal Foundation for Better Living was Johnnie Colemon (and every president in UFBL’s history so far as been a woman).
Consider this: the United Methodist church had its first woman bishop in 1980. The Worldwide Anglican Communion got its first woman bishop in 1989 (first woman priest in 1944). The first woman to lead a mainline denomination occurred in 2005 (Disciples of Christ). Amee Semple McPherson founded a Pentecostal church (Foursquare Gospel) in 1923; BUT…
Christian Science (a metaphysical movement founded by Mary Baker Eddy in 1875), ECH’s seminary in Chicago (1886), Home of Truth (1887), Divine Science (1888), and Unity (1889), were all started (Unity co-founded) in the 1800s by women.
Today, there are prominent New Thought leaders who find that our belief in Oneness (God is the Source and Substance of all life so we are all part of God and connected to all that is) will cause us to care for those who are being treated unfairly. New Thought, then, has become a voice of social justice (as it was when New Thought feminists were working for universal suffrage). New Thought historian Mitch Horowitz tells us that Wallace Wattles (a major influence in self-help circles and is featured in The Secret) was a socialist.
Some have understood New Thought to be only a personal philosophy meant to help retailers improve their sales, athletes compete more effectively, entertainers succeed in their artistic endeavors, and the average person experience better health and financial security. And certainly, New Thought principles are empowering and encouraging as we apply them in our lives. Nevertheless, Love is one of our powerful principles, and Love (which includes empathy, compassion, kindness) doesn’t sit back with apathy or indifference when our fellow godlings are experiencing challenge or despair.
So, yes we pray, visualize, and encourage, but we also lend a hand, and we support organized efforts to relieve suffering in the world. As our Religious Science friends have said, we must “treat and move our feet.”
Mystic Christian healer, Agnes Sanford, who borrowed many New Thought ideas and techniques, compared spiritual principles to gardening. She said one plants a peach tree, but until it yields peaches, one goes to the market. She used that specifically as an example for healing, suggesting that one prays for healing, but if the demonstration tarries, that’s what the doctor is for.
I would add the principle holds for any condition…pray for it, and then receiving help from “human means” may prove to be the answer to the prayer. If God is All, however our Good comes to us in godly. And sometimes, our speech and action is what brings about the miracles in life.
Some have suggested that progressive social policies or even supporting charities other than the local worship center are incompatible with New Thought teachings, but that isn’t my view. New Thought is and always has been diverse, and it isn’t limited by liberal or conservative ideologies. New Thought really is for everyone.
Can New Thoughters be social activists? I believe so; I mean, I can’t be the only one (and I’m not).
