I Hope You Will Vote

 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.

Thoughts on Independence Day

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)

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)

Is New Thought Compatible with Social Activism?

 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).

Communion Thoughts

A Durrell Discourse

Communion Thoughts (my own, that is):

Transubstantiation = At the Eucharist, the bread and wine are miraculously transformed into Jesus himself.

Consubstantiation = The spirit of Jesus is present with and in the elements of Holy Communion.

Memorial Feast = The Lord’s Supper is a reminder of Jesus’ ministry and death (also remembering that the Last Supper was a Passover meal).

Divine Oneness = Ritualistically sharing bread and cup together to remind us of our unity (union) with (comm) with all people, all life, and with the Source of life.

Over the last 50+ years, I have held (at different times) EACH of those sacramental views. NONE of them, in my opinion and experience, necessitates excluding anyone from the Table for their beliefs, political views, marital status, or sexual orientation.

Whether, for you, the Bread is divine, or the bread is just bread, there is nothing about the Bread that should be weaponized to control, hurt, shame or exclude others. 

Your sacramental theology is your own, and you are entitled to it, but if you are using it to hurt, shame, control, or denigrate others, you are missing the point of it (regardless of what you believe “It” is) being a symbol (or affirmation) of grace. 

Jesus said, “Whenever you do this, remember me” - 

pro-choicers, LGBTQ+ folk, divorced people, non-baptized folk,  - everyone, just as they are, can follow that simple directive. Remember the loving, compassionate, justice-seeking Jesus, who fed people spiritually and physically, no questions asked. 

—Rev. Dr. Durrell Watkins

Senior Minister, Sunshine Cathedral 

#OpenTable #StopWeaponizingFaith

Remembering Mother Emanuel

God of many names,

We recall the events of 6 years ago at Mother Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church in Charleston, South Carolina.

During a time of bible study and prayer, eight parishioners and the pastor were slain by one they welcomed.

People who gathered to seek and serve the God of their understanding were viciously murdered in the place they held sacred.

We know, YHWH Shammah, God who was and is there, that the first voice to cry out in horror, pain, and sorrow, must have been yours.

We know, El Roi, God who sees, that you witness our violence, racism, injustices, and our failure to demand, defend, and demonstrate “liberty and justice for all.”

We know, YHWH Rapha, God who heals, that there is much pain that leads to and results from on-going violence in our world.

YHWH Shalom, you are our peace.

Give us the grace to repent of our violence and to become blessed peace-makers.

Give us hope that justice will yet “roll out like waters.”

Give us the will and show us the way to “do justice, love mercy, and live humbly.”

Give us the courage to resist racism in our society and in our hearts, and to do the work of anti-racism. 

Help us be better. 

Help us do better.

Help us rise to the level of love, compassion, and justice that you desire, El Elyon, God Most High.

On this sad anniversary, we remember, and we bless the Mother Emanuel community of faith. 

Amen.

 

--Rev. Dr. Durrell Watkins

Senior Minister

Sunshine Cathedral

 

GOD’S MIRACLE, NOT GOD’S MISTAKE

GOD’S MIRACLE, NOT GOD’S MISTAKE

A Durrell Discourse

For years now at Sunshine Cathedral, we have said (repeatedly, often, from pulpit and in print, in lessons and in liturgy), “You are God’s miracle and not God’s mistake.”

After years of using this phrase as a sacred mantra at Sunshine Cathedral, I recently am noticing it popping up on social media. At first, I felt a bit proprietary, as if no other person might have ever thought to string those words together in that order. But then I remembered Ecclesiastes’ wise counsel, “there is nothing new under the sun.” I might have heard it or something similar years before I thought the phrase a product of my own genius. And whether it was me, Zig Ziglar, Mary Baker Eddy or Krishna himself who coined the phrase, what matters is that it is true. I now want everyone saying it, and acting as if the phrase fell from heaven (as perhaps it did).

In my theology, God is really all there is. One Source, One Power, One Presence, One Substance...God is all and in all. That doesn’t mean that we always remember our divinity or that our every act or word is godly, but when we get caught in our dramas and fictions, that doesn’t change the reality that our essence is divine, and what is really Real is what we call God, and what is real about us must be part of God. So, we aren’t mistakes, we are God expressing.

The message of the Incarnation, for me, isn’t that God became human once, but that God expresses in, through, and as all that is, including you and me. Jesus, then, is my reminder that when we are most human, we express divine love.

If I’m part of God, then I am a miracle. If God is love and I am part of God, then my love is God’s love in action. I am, you are, we are God’s miracle and not God’s mistake: That isn’t a slogan to own, but a truth to share. If you see Sunshine folk posting it, feel free to share. It’s a message that needs to be universally embraced.

No matter where you heard it first, I hope you hear it now - you are God’s miracle and not God’s mistake. I especially want my Queer siblings to embrace this truth. We are the Rainbow people of a Rainbow God. Our lives and our love are miracles, never a mistake. Spread the word!

(Rev. Dr. Durrell Watkins, Senior Minister, Sunshine Cathedral)