The Center of a Liberal Faith Movement

Posted by Rev. David on January 28, 2012

What it means to be a Unitarian Universalist has been on my heart this last week.  Not surprisingly, considering that many UU’s are currently thinking about similar things in reaction to the recent white paper from Rev. Peter Morales titled “Congregations and Beyond”.  I know there is a lot behind that paper that is not seen on the surface… internal UUA politics between the President and the Board; the latent energy around the UUA disaffiliation of groups a few years ago; reaction to the ascendance of some of the Congregational Polity Purists in UUA issues; many of the inherent tensions between a Carver Style Policy Governance, and something more designed for a religious faith, such as a Hotchkiss style Governance and Ministry system.

I also know that my own pre-conceptions are wrapped up in this.  I despise Carver Style Policy Governance.  I think it is a travesty when it is applied in any kind of religious setting.  I think it is antithetical to the purposes of a religious faith.  As every congregation I have ever served has heard me say, the purpose of religious faith is not efficiency, it is spiritual growth.  I am, however, a fan of the work that Dan Hotchkiss has done, to adapt the best parts of Carver to match the purposes and needs of religious life.  I also have expectations that the President of the UUA be a prophet and a visionary, not an administrator.  I also have long thought that if we make Congregational Polity Purity the center of what it means to be a Unitarian Universalist, then we deserve to be the declining religion we are thought to be.

There is a tension that is inherent in “Organized Religion”, and that is a tension between “organized” and “religion”.  I often begin my work with a board around Governance transition with a reading from the first page of Dan Hotchkiss’ book Governance and Ministry.  He says it better than I ever could.

“Religion transforms people; no one touches holy ground and stays the same. Religious leaders stir the pot by pointing to the contrast between life as it is and life as it should be, and urging us to close the gap. Religious insights provide the handhold that people need to criticize injustice, rise above self-interest, and take risks to achieve healing in a wounded world. Religion at its best is no friend to the status quo.

Organization, on the other hand, conserves. Institutions capture, schematize, and codify persistent patterns of activity. People sometimes say “Institutions are conservative,” and smile as if they had said something clever. But conservation is what institutions do. A well-ordered congregation lays down schedules, puts policies on paper, places people in positions, and generally brings order out of chaos. Organizations can be flexible, creative, and iconoclastic, but only by resisting some of their most basic instincts.

No wonder “organized religion” is so difficult! Congregations create sanctuaries where people can nurture and inspire each other – with results no one can predict. The stability of a religious institution is a necessary precondition to the instability religious transformation brings. The need to balance both sides of this paradox – the transforming power of religion and the stabilizing power of organization – makes leading congregations a unique challenge.”

The question that has been on my heart is whether the “Organized” can ever fully encircle the “Religion” without ending that which makes it religious?  I wonder if in trying to define what it means to be a Unitarian Universalist through the means of our congregational life, if we have been trying to exert control over that which is ultimately uncontrollable?

The art of religious governance is not creating a perfectly controlled institution.  The art of religious governance and organization is knowing how to bring just enough order into  the beautiful complexity of religious faith so that we can walk in religious life together… and not so much order as to stifle the creativity of and complexity of the human religious spirit.

In congregational life we do define who is a member of a particular church.  That is a necessary and good aspect of religious organization for a congregation.  But membership in a particular congregation does not and should not be what defines an individual’s religious identity.  What is true at the micro level does not necessarily translate to the macro level.  When we move to trying to link membership in a congregation to a person’s religious identity, then we have gone too far toward organization, and are stifling the human religious impulse.

Now, here’s where I think I part with Rev. Morales… I’m not yet sold that the current Unitarian Universalist Association can be the center for a wider Unitarian Universalist Movement.  I have not seen in the UUA the necessary ability at the art of balancing the paradox between the creative impulse of religion and the organization of institutionalism.  I wonder if the best we can hope for from the UUA is a recognition that they do not own the brand of Unitarian Universalism, that the movement of Unitarian Universalism is larger than our congregations… and then have the UUA focus on the strength and well-being of our congregations.

I wonder if perhaps we need another center for the wider movement…

Yours in Faith,

Rev. David

 

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Our Responsibility to those Beyond Our Walls

Posted by Rev. David on January 20, 2012

Break not that circle of enabling love,

Where people grow, forgiven and forgiving,

Break not that circle, make it wider still,

Till it includes, embraces all the living.

–Hymn 323, Singing the Living Tradition

Recently, the conversation has begun again about what makes a Unitarian Universalist.  Are you only a Unitarian Universalist if you are a member of one of our congregations, or can you be a member of a larger religious movement that includes but extends beyond the walls of our bricks and mortar congregations?

This conversation has begun again in part because of a position paper that has been put forth by the Rev. Peter Morales, the current UUA President, titled “Congregations and Beyond”.  In this paper Rev. Morales makes several arguments, such as how an expanded understanding of UU identity and connection would be beneficial to congregations, in that it would “lower the walls between our congregations and the larger world”.  The case is also made in the article that some of the largest gatherings of people who identify as UU’s occur outside of the congregational environment.  The article also implies, though I do not believe it directly says, that for many the traditional structure of a congregation is a barrier to their commitment to Unitarian Universalism as a religious movement.

I was somewhat disappointed in this article.  Not because I do not agree with its intent… I certainly do.  I have long said that to be a Unitarian Universalist should mean identifying with the movement, the values, and the principles of our faith… not congregational membership.  I love and serve a UU congregation, and understand myself primarily as a Parish Minister… and I also serve as a military chaplain, and have regularly had to tell soldiers that the only way they can really be UU’s is if they join a church.  I believe that strong churches are essential to the success of our movement… but the churches should serve the movement, not the other way around.  Church strength is a means to an end, not an end in itself.

I agree with Rev. Morales on the idea that we should open up UU identity to many different ways of connection and relationship.  I would love to see a formal structure of UU identity and membership arise out of the UU Youth and Young Adult Con movement.  I would love to see a UU lay and ordained monastic order come into being.  Perhaps several such monastic orders, each arising out of several UU centered spiritual practices and commitments.  I would love to see a way for Social Justice Advocates and Activists to engage with UU Identity.  I would love to see actual congregational identity and membership for the UU Churches on Second Life, and other such virtual ways of connection.

And so, so much more.

I was disappointed in Rev. Morales’ article because I believe he did not highlight any good reason why we should reach out to include the hundreds of thousands of people who identify as UU’s but are not members of our congregations.  Much less, I saw no argument at all for why we should be concerned for the millions out there who are not even aware that Unitarian Universalism exists.  He seemed to hint that there was an “opportunity” for growth, almost as if there were untapped resources that we were choosing not to engage.

Now, I know what I’m going to say will not come as a surprise to Rev. Morales.  I’ve heard him say similar things.  I know that what I’m going to say is already in his heart.  I’m not ashamed to say that, knowing he felt as I do on this is why I supported him for President in the first place.  And yet, his argument in this article was reminiscent of all too many conversations I have had with lay-leaders in congregations across 9 states who have told me that they were interested in “growth” to “meet a budget” or “be able to hire a minister”, or “build a building”, or for some other practical, if often nebulous, expectation that growth is something we are supposed to do.

Our world is desperately in need of the saving message of Unitarian Universalism.  We are living in a society where people often are torn up inside because they have no understanding of their personal worth as a human being.  Religious traditions abound around us that tell people that without divine intervention, they are worth only eternal damnation.  Religious warfare and demonization continues unabated across the world.  We have a culture and a politics built on denigrating others to try and raise one’s own sense of worth.  We have built an economic system that is destroying lives, cultures, and the earth, because it is based on greed… and greed is anathema to understanding the interdependence of all things.  We are killing each other because we cannot see our own worth is inextricably linked to the worth of another.  Fiscal value has surpassed human value as our touchstone.

Friends of Faith, and dear President Rev. Peter Morales, I beg of you.  It is time we stopped being ashamed of who we are, and started sharing our Radical Gospel, our Good News of Interdependence and Inherent Worth with the world.  It is time we move away from the circles that are closing us in, and open up our religious movement so that we can transform and engage with as many lives as we possibly can, in any way that we can.  It is time we stop preaching to our own choirs, and to train, empower, and send our choirs out to sing the message of love, inclusion, and hope to the rest of the world.

Let us open up membership and identity as a Unitarian Universalist to any and all who can connect with us.  Let us join with them not how we are used to, or how we are comfortable joining with others, but however the hundreds of thousands out there need us to join with them.  Let us accept that they will transform who we are, as our radical faith calls us to accept such transforming power and grace.  Let us find any way we can to bring people to the point where they can say, in their hearts and with their voices, “I am a Unitarian Universalist”… and to know what that means.

But let us do this for the right reason… not because of what we might expect to gain, but because of what we have to give to this wounded, broken, hurting world.  What we have to give is our saving, transforming, and healing message…

To paraphrase Rev. Dr. Lisa Presley, let us “Get off the franchise” of Unitarian Universalism, and share our faith with the world… because the world desperately needs us.

Yours in faith,

Rev. David

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War, Young Kids, and a Professional Military

Posted by Rev. David on January 16, 2012

Last week, a video surfaced on the internet that shows several young U.S. Marines urinating on the bodies of dead Taliban insurgents in Afghanistan.  Immediately, there were calls for an investigation.  World leaders talked of their disgust.  U.S. Military leaders promised that they would get to the bottom of the story, and would punish those involved.  A Republican Presidential candidate and many pundits on the right of the American political spectrum asked what the big deal was, and even wanted to celebrate these young Marines for their spirit.

And, the drumbeat began for the incident to be blamed on those young Marines seen in the video.  It was an aberration… another case of just a few bad apples in the United States Military.  Just like the incident with the Abu Ghraib photos, right?

There is a lesson I learned when I became a Sergeant in the United States Army.  I had a soldier who was a bit of a screw-up.  One morning I was in my First Sergeant’s office getting yelled at for something my soldier had done over the weekend, and I made the mistake of saying “Top, Specialist So and So is just a bad soldier.”

The First Sergeant gave me a look that could have shattered steel, and said “there’s no such thing as a bad soldier, Sergeant Pyle… there are only bad leaders.  Either accept that, or give me back your Sergeant’s stripes.”

Those young Marines desecrating the corpses of the enemy, and then putting the video of that desecration on the internet was a failure of military leadership.  It was a failure of military leadership to instill in those Marines the necessary and required ethics, morality, and professionalism that we must have as an operating military in today’s world, strategic paradigm, and combat environment.  It was a failure of leadership to not recognize the potential for such behavior in these Marines, and train it out of them.  It was a failure of leadership in that said Marines were obviously not properly supervised.  It was a failure of military leadership that said Marines violated operational security, even after having committed the desecration, by posting the video on a public server.  It was a failure of military leadership that the bodies of a fallen enemy were not being properly searched, marked, tagged, and recovered.

What we saw in that video was the end result of a long series of failures of military leadership.  Though those Marines are indeed responsible for their action, that responsibility is proportional to the failure of said military leadership… and the greater proportion of that responsibility must always go to the Non-Commissioned and Commissioned Officers lawfully appointed over those young Marines.

And, the responsibility does not stop there, for our military is not a force unto itself.  We as a nation are responsible for the actions of our military.  We are responsible for how professional it is, how ethical and moral it behaves.  We, the politicians we elect, and the civilian authorities they appoint are responsible for the actions of even a young 19 year old kid in Afghanistan, peeing on a dead Taliban insurgent on Youtube.

And, as my First Sergeant told me once, those civilian authorities need to either accept that, or give back their stripes.

The military knows we have a problem with Professionalism.  Ten years of fighting several wars without the necessary resources and support to do it right have led to many compromises.  Too many compromises.  We have worn our soldiers into the ground with repeated deployments.  Recruiting standards were lowered to levels that never would have been accepted before.  The focus on the mission we had to accomplish led to corners being cut that should not have been cut.  The reliance on military contractors (mercenaries) for many tasks has shifted the meaning of what it means to be a soldier.  Regular regimes of inspections and preparations were set aside to meet the ever increasing operational tempo of multiple wars.

The military leadership, seeing this problem, has begun to address the standards of professionalism in the military.  As always, the training begins at higher levels, and must filter through the ranks.  This is the way it has always worked… you train the trainer, who trains the trainer, who trains the trainer, who trains the troops.  But this time, we have an additional problem we have not had before.  Two really.

First, we are operating in smaller military elements than we ever have before.  In WWII we fought as companies, or several hundred soldiers with maybe 8-10 officers and dozens of sergents.  Each of those officers had training in ethics, professionalism, and moral decision making, and led from that base and center.  They were in place to both teach and moderate the behavior of the young kids we put in uniform and give weapons to.  In that there were several officers in each company, they also held each other to the proper military standards of ethics and professionalism.

In Vietnam, the basic unit size engaged in combat operations was smaller, now a platoon of 50 or so soldiers, with one, maybe two officers and maybe five sergeants.  With this shrinkage of officers and non-coms at the point of the spear, we saw a marked decrease in the professionalism and moral decision making of those combat forces.

Skip ahead to today.  We now operate often in squad or team level combat elements.  The person called upon to exercise good moral judgment in the moment is likely not a college grad officer with training in ethics, morality, and professionalism.  It is more likely a 20 year old kid from either an inner city of a rural farming community, who has been exposed to the abyss of war without the proper mental and spiritual preparation to face such hell and chaos.

Frankly, I’m surprised, and even somewhat gratified, that all those young Marines were doing was peeing on those deal Taliban insurgents.  And that all they did was post the video on Youtube… and that is our second problem.  There is nothing the military does will not eventually end up on Youtube, it seems.

Yours in Faith,

Rev. David

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Sermon: Let it Be a Dance!

Posted by Rev. David on January 15, 2012

This sermon was presented at the UU Church of Ventura, on January 15th, 2011. 

As a child growing up in Hawaii, I danced the hula. 

This was not an abnormal thing, growing up in Hawaii.  In fact, my first encounter with the hula was in a class at school, where in third grade we were all expected to dance the hula.  Boys and girls together, we made our own skirts out of palm fronds, and we studied the different hand gestures… not just how to do them, but what each of them meant.  I learned to waive my hands to be the ocean, or to hold my hands like this to mean a house, or to show the mountain like this.

See, I’m still pretty good at it, right?  I even have a Hawaiian name…

Then, as a class we would all line up, wearing our leis and our palm fronds, and we would dance a story.  Our parents all came to watch, and much to my chagrin during my teenage years, to take pictures.  In all the pictures of me dancing the hula though, there are two things that stand out.  First, it is easy to find me, as the only blond haired blue eyed boy…  and second, I have a look of complete and total seriousness over my face.  I tried to show the photos of me dancing the hula on our screens this morning, but they are just too old and grainy to put up on this large a screen.  I will have some of them on my personal website if someone wants to see them.

Thinking back, I remember thinking that if I was going to dance the hula, I was going to be the best darn hula dancer that there ever was!

Now, fast forward with me some 25 years… to when I was no longer a very serious young hula dancer, but was now a very serious seminary student.  I had begun attending a Zen Temple in Oak Park, Illinois, and had begun studying with the Zen Teacher at that temple.  I knew that there was much about Zen that connected with my own developing theology and spiritual practice, and I was there to continue that development.  I was focused on becoming the very best UU Minister I could possibly be.

That’s what seminary is for, or so I’d been told.

Now, Joshin’s partner, both in life and in their ministry together, was a wonderful woman named June.  June was not only a Zen Priest, but she was also a hula master.  Several nights a week at the Zen Temple June taught hula to her students.  On one particular night, I had arrived early for the evening meditation session, and June was working with a beginning group of students of the hula.  She asked me if I’d encountered the hula when I lived in Hawaii, and I told her that as a child, I had danced the hula.

That was when the fateful thing happened… June invited me to join with the class…

Luckily I had been sitting down at the time, because I think my heart stopped for a minute.  Me?  Dance the Hula?  But but but but… I can’t!  I’m a very serious seminary student who is here to very seriously study Zen as a part of my very serious process of becoming a UU minister…  I can’t dance the hula!

Besides, I’m a guy, right?  It was okay for me to dance the hula when I was a kid, but now I’m a guy… and guy’s don’t dance the hula, do they?

All of this and more went through my head…  And even at the time I knew it was all complete balderdash.  Hula is an ancient embodied spiritual tradition, with roots that go back as far, if not farther than Zen… and certainly farther than Unitarian Universalism.  It is the physical expression of the history of a people that I had grown up with, at least until I was ten.  No matter what the Kodak photo opportunity might show, hula is practiced by both men and women.  There would be nothing more honorable than for me to renew my study of the hula.

And yet, my butt was so firmly rooted in that chair it would have taken explosives to get me out of it.  The whole idea of dancing the hula, even in a private class, scared the bejeesus out of me.

Why?

Our theme for the month of January will be letting go, and if there is a subset to the theme it will be letting go of the things that are getting in our way.  I’ve spent quite a bit of time reflecting on what it was that got in my way that night at the Empty Sound Zen Temple, what kept me from again dancing the hula.  Why the idea of stepping up and dancing was so frightening to me.

Dance is an amazing thing.  I actually have done quite a bit of different kinds of dancing in my life.  For several years in college I made a bit of a study of medieval court dancing, if you can believe it.  As part of a re-enactment society, I danced processionals and courting dances at least a couple of weekends a month… those medieval dances are where modern country music line dancing came from.  When I was single, I tried the swing dancing circuit for awhile, but I tell you that is harder than it looks.  And so is Salsa dancing, which was a requirement to be an American Soldier serving in Latin America in the 90’s.

And yet, nothing could have gotten my rear end out of that seat, when the opportunity came as an adult for me to dance the hula again.

At the beginning of this service, we watched the video that a young man named Matt Harding and his fiancée created.  Matt had the courage to share his wonderful, personal little dance with the world.  The video we showed was not the first one he had made.  The original video is very shaky and grainy, and it does not have any of the thousands of other people joining him in dancing.

No, it is just Matt Harding, standing in front of some of the most amazing scenes on our planet, sharing his little dance with the world.

I’ve watched that video over and over… as well as the later, more refined videos like the one we watched today.  Those videos always make me smile.  If I’m having a bad day, watching Matt Harding dance is one sure way to make my day brighter.  I especially like the scene in India where he changes his dance, in order to match the movements with the Bollywood dancers he is with…

But I’m fascinated by those videos not just because they make me smile, but because I know in my heart that I would not have had the courage to do what Matt Harding did.  I would not have had the courage to create my own little dance, my own little physical expression of my soul, and then filmed me doing that dance in locations across the world and put it on the internet for all to see.

If I have a little dance of my own… and I’m not admitting that I do… I’m not even certain I would let my wife see it… much less the rest of the world.

Click here to read the rest of the sermon

 

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Kickoff

Posted by Rev. David on January 2, 2012

I love politics.  I love politics the way other people love football.  I watch 24 hour news channels in political seasons the way other people watch ESPN.  The minor of my Bachelor’s degree is in Political Science (Major in History), and I would describe my knowledge of practical politics by saying that I have just enough knowledge to be dangerous.  I have enough theoretical background to “Monday Morning Quarterback” campaign decisions.  I am fascinated less by what the polls say, and more by what strategy and tactics each campaign uses.  In my life, I have been registered as a Republican, as a Libertarian, as an Independent, and now as a Democrat.  My own political development has followed my spiritual and social development.

Tomorrow is the Iowa Caucus, and I am all but giddy.  Up to now, we have been watching the pre-game show.  We’ve seen some players take to the practice field, and then get cut from the team.  We’ve had an amazing competition this year for the first string.  We’ve had a lot of fans and pundits, unhappy with the team roster, looking at the minor leagues for any players they might be able to bring up.

As of tomorrow, the pre-game is over.  It’s Kickoff time.  We actually get to begin seeing plays run on the field.

It’s not just the Republicans that I’m interested in tomorrow.  In the Iowa Caucus’ you are able to vote “uncommitted”.  The Democrats are also having a caucus tomorrow, and President Barack Obama will be the only candidate… but voters have the opportunity to vote “uncommitted”.  In a public way, Democratic activists who are unhappy with how centrist President Obama has governed will have the opportunity to express that dissatisfaction.  This is important, because much of the chance the Obama campaign has for re-election will depend on whether or not those activists will come out to be his “ground game” in the general election (also known as the second half).

You have the players that get all the media attention, and those who have the technical talent and skill at the game.  Sometimes you have someone who has both the skill and the media… and they are almost unstoppable.  You have some players who are wild cards… who might run as third parties and change the dynamics of the game.

The metaphor can go too far.  While both games have rules, in football the referees have a lot more power than in politics.  While both games have boosters who are sometimes unethical, the money in football has nothing on the money in politics.  And, while both have multiple levels and leagues, unlike football, the stakes are actually the highest the more local in politics… and an individual can have the most effect politically at the local level… even in national campaigns.

Now yes, politics are far more serious than football.  Politics affects the future of our nation, and U.S. politics often has a major effect on the future of the world.

My point is that I’m excited.  I love politics.  So, it’s kickoff time.   About time too… the pre-game show this year has been a lot like reality television.

Yours in faith,

Rev. David

 

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Without Change, Something Sleeps Inside Us… Ministry in the Transitions

Posted by Rev. David on December 27, 2011

My life has been one of change.  Change both within and without.  That reality affects my preaching, it affects how I build relationships, it affects how I look at the universe.  As I have been reflecting on this past year, I have been struck by how much change was within it… and how that change has felt normal to me.  In truth, it begs the question… what would I do with a year that did not have as much change?

It is a question I’ve been asking a lot recently, as Sandy and I consider staying in Southern California for the foreseeable future.

I grew up moving around a lot.  My father was in the military, and for years his work consisted of short term assignments around the world.  I went to three different kindergartens.  Three years was the longest I had ever lived anywhere until I was 14 years old.  At 18 I joined the military, and from that point on never lived anywhere more than 2 years straight.  Not until I was in my early 30’s in Galveston, Texas.  I’ve lived in 13 different states, and in 6 different countries.  That does not count up all the times I’ve moved within a state…

This year involved another such move… a long one.  This year, Sandy and I moved from Central Michigan to Southern California, to follow my career and to serve our UU Church in Ventura, CA.  I won’t say we loved Michigan, but we certainly liked it a lot when it was not covered in snow.  The congregation I served there was great, and Sandy loved the town of Midland.

And yet, after a year, I was beginning to get restless.  When time came to move on, I was ready.  More than ready.

I’ve been giving a lot of thought as to why this is… why I seem to not only thrive on but crave change.  I’ve come to the conclusion that it is not just about change of location, although that has been one of the primary ways I’ve experienced it.  It is about change of circumstances.  It has been about a constant desire for the new… for “A Universe of Surprises” as Frank Herbert put it.

A while ago, I was talking about this with Sandy, my wife… because if there is anyone most affected by this tendency of mine to seek change it is certainly her.  In her way of quiet wisdom that I adore, she said that this motive toward change in me has to do with the fact that I don’t sit still well.  Now, she did not mean physically still… I did learn to do that through Zen… she meant my spirit.  At my core, I’m restless.

That conversation has led me to some realizations about my ministry, why I’m so drawn to congregations in some kind of transition.  In Midland, Michigan the congregation was in the obvious transition of Interim Ministry, but was also in some of the final transitional phases of moving from being a family model congregation to being a pastoral model congregation.  Here in Ventura, we are moving from being a strong and very successful pastoral model congregation into being a program church.

And I love it.  Both the environment and the work of that transition feeds my spirit and soul.  I love to envision the new, and to be surprised by how it develops.  I love the work of teaching and transforming understandings.  I love watching a system shift.  I even love the inevitable crises, conflicts, and turmoil that always comes with transition and transformation.

A few weeks ago, I was speaking with a friend and mentor in ministry, a retired minister about his ministerial career.  He said, looking back on all the congregations he had served, he realized that his ministry had always been about congregational healing.  He realized that each congregation he had served had been wounded in one way or another, and that his work with them had been to heal the wounds, and then move on.  To let them move forward whole, but with another minister.

He said how much he wished he’d realized this about his ministry early on.

I am “early on” in my ministry… and am wondering if perhaps I’ve been given the gift of seeing the essence of my call.  Perhaps my restless spirit and deep desire for a Universe of Surprises could lead me to a ministry within the transitions…

Yours in Faith,

Rev. David

 

 

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A Call of Christmas Peace

Posted by Rev. David on December 24, 2011

It was Christmas, so I called home. That may not sound like much, but after the day I had just had, it was everything in the world to me.

I had woken up that morning in my bunkbed made of plywood and 2×4′s, in a bombed out hotel room in Sarajevo, Bosnia. There was no running water, and we only had electricity for lights at night… but I was used to all that. I had been there three months, and that little room I shared with 5 other guys had become homey, if not exactly home.

After putting on my U.S. Army uniform and having breakfast in the British Army chowhall that was in the lobby of the building, I and my cup of English Breakfast Tea began our Christmas… just another day as a NATO Peacekeeper. I never went outside in the morning without that hot tea… it was as important to crossing the streets covered in feet of snow as my boots. Besides, British Army Coffee is horrible.

As I was just getting ready to make the turn into the secure compound of cargo containers turned into offices, I felt something hard hit me in the side of the head. Reacting as a soldier, I quickly dove for cover behind a berm on the side of the road, and a good thing to. The next weapon that came my way would have hit me square in the chest had I not hit the ground.

I raised myself above the berm and returned fire… and my snowball hit the dastardly British soldier who had gotten me with a sneak attack! Snowballs were flying all around, as perhaps a hundred British, American, Czech, Russian, and French soldiers spent their Christmas morning in the largest, and best tactically trained snowball fight in history.

After many snowballs sent and received, I finally made it into my office, I was ready for a quiet day. My job as an intelligence analyst was to keep track of the military forces of Serbia, Croatia, and of the three sides that had been at war in Bosnia. I also watched the political events in and around the country, and helped develop information to catch individuals who were wanted for or charged with War Crimes related to the Bosnian Genocide.

It was a good job, and sometimes a hard job. I was looking forward to a Christmas day of sitting in my office, going through the motions, watching a movie, and maybe, just maybe, using some of that multi-million dollar communications equipment to place a slightly questionable call home that evening. After all, what could happen, Christmas is a day of peace… and I was a peacekeeper.

But as I sat at my computer screens, things began to seem not so peaceful at all. There was a contested piece of land, one that both the Bosnian Serbs and the Bosnian Croats had claimed. It was a near worthless peninsula, but people have died over near worthless pieces of land countless times. We began to realize that the Serbs and the Croats… both Christian peoples… were seeing if, while NATO was distracted by the holiday, they could occupy that small strip of land.

If that happened, the war might kick off again… on Christmas Day… the day of peace.

It was a tense twelve hours, as military units began moving from their bases, converging on that small piece of land. We quickly put some peacekeepers on the ground on that peninsula, ground that was freezing cold and covered with snow. My team did amazing work, as we prepared the information that our commanders needed to move the chess board pieces into the right places.

In the end, after one of the hardest and most frightening days of my military career, the Bosnian Serb and Croat military units went home to their families, having decided that NATO was not so distracted after all, and that taking that little piece of land was just too expensive.

It was two o’clock in the morning, no longer even Christmas, when a friend handed me my Christmas day beer. I was tired, exhausted, my nerves were shot… and I was just a little disappointed in humanity. To use this day of peace, this one day of the year when we celebrate the life and teachings of a man dedicated to peace, to use this day for military operations that might re-launch a horrific war disheartened me.

Tired in more ways than one, I crawled into the back of one of our multi-million dollar satellite communications trucks. I knew it would be empty, everyone was at one of the holiday parties or was asleep. I picked up the receiver and fiddled dials till I was connected with someone else working Christmas Day… At CIA Headquarters in Langley Virginia.

“Could you connect me to an outside line”? I asked, a little hopefully.

Whoever it was must have been feeling some of the Christmas Spirit, because they laughed and offered to dial for me. As the line clicked over to the number I gave him, he said, “Merry Christmas, Soldier.”

The phone was answered by my Aunt Theresa, in Knoxville Tennessee, at my family’s annual Christmas gathering. You see, it was still Christmas there. After a warm and hearty greeting and a few minutes of conversation with my Aunt, the phone was passed to my mother, then my sisters, then my grandfather, then other aunts, cousins, uncles and assorted relations. Each conversation was the same “Where are You? Where is That? When are you coming home? How much snow is there?”, then “David, we miss you, and you come home safe”.

I had just seen a war almost begin on Christmas Day. I was living in the middle of a country torn by religious warfare. I had begun to lose faith in humanity… That phone call, home to my family on Christmas Day, was the most important phone call of my life. And every Christmas, whether I am home or away, my Aunts and Cousins call me and remind me of the Christmas when I called home from the war.

What could be more important than a call of, a call for Christmas Peace.

This Homily was preached as a part of the 2007 Christmas Eve Service at the Unitarian Church of Evanston, IL.  It was presented again in the 11PM Christmas Eve Service in 2011 at the Unitarian Universalist Church of Ventura, CA

Yours in Faith,

David

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Captain Travis Patriquin and the Awakening of Iraq

Posted by Rev. David on December 6, 2011

This is a repost of an Article I put on Celestial Lands every year on December 6th.  It was 5 years ago today that my friend Travis was killed in the Anbar province of Iraq. This year, the book on his life was published (see below) I wear his memory bracelet through November and December. Rest in Peace, Trav.
On December 6th, 2006, a friend, military partner, former roommate, and man I owe my life to was killed by an improvised explosive device in Ramadi, Iraq. His name was Travis Patriquin, and he and I served in the 7th Special Forces Group as enlisted and support soldiers (he as intelligence-communications, I as an intelligence collector-analyst). Travis and I deployed to Latin America several times together, we were awarded medals together, we spent months in each other’s company. We even shared a barracks room for over a year, before I made Sergeant.

I left the unit, and eventually left the Army. Travis stayed in, because serving as a soldier was his calling in life. He later became an officer, an infantryman, and a Civil Affairs officer. Some in the U.S. Military credit our “winning” strategy in Iraq (known as the Awakening) to an idea that originated with Travis… the idea to shift how we as a military force relate to the people of Iraq, and to the militia forces in Iraq. That is the theme of an upcoming biography about his life, written by William Doyle titled “A Soldier’s Dream”.

Some credit a slideshow that Travis put together detailing his ideas for how to bring peace to Iraq as the beginning of the “Awakening” movement. So much so that police stations in Iraq have been named after him. More credit goes to Travis’ team, with their incredible language skills (something he was just discovering about himself when we were roommates) and the way they met with local tribal leaders and began building relationships and trust with them.

As the years went by, Travis and I lost contact. We did trade an email from time to time, and I last saw him in 1999 as he was driving through East Tennessee. But I had spoken of him often enough that when my wife saw on the news one night that he had been killed, she recognized the name and came to get me. I had just received notification of my commission as a 2nd Lieutenant and an Army Chaplain Candidate, but I had not yet taken the oath. Coming together as they did, Travis’ death and my commissioning will be forever linked for me.

There are many stories of the time that Travis and I spent together that I would love to share, but many of them are from operations which still have security classifications attached to them. There are two very personal stories I would like to share however.

One night, the SOT-A teams that Travis and I served on were conducting a radio-communications exercise on some military camp in the middle of no-where western North Carolina. It was late at night, and each of us was alone on different hilltops doing regular radio checks with one another. It was boring. I remember I was trying to read a sci-fi novel under a camouflage blanket with a flashlight when I heard Travis’ voice come over the radio…

“God? God this is Travis over… Do you read?”

Now remember, we were 19 years old. I remember tracking my friend’s thoughts as if they were my own. Travis had probably been up late, looking at the stars, and thinking the kinds of deep thoughts that were his way. Looking at the heavens, he had gotten to thinking about God, and thinking how wonderful it would be if he could just pick up is radio and place a call. And then he got to wondering if maybe no one had ever tried. Maybe God was just waiting on someone to place a radio-check with him.

So, Travis decided to try… typical Travis… never one to shy away from an idea because it seemed “obviously wrong” or “silly” until he’d tried it.

Now, in typical David (as in smart-ass) fashion, I had no choice but to respond… I picked up my radio, and in a deep voice said…

“TRAVIS, THIS IS GOD… GO AHEAD”

I heard a somewhat tremulous and disbelieving voice come back over the airwaves…

“God, this is Travis… uhhh… wait one… break”

It was at that point that our Sergeant First Class’ voice came over the radio…

“Would You Two *&$#heads quit &$#@ing around on the comms, Now!”

When we came off those hills the following morning, Travis walked up to me and hit me, in the shoulder, hard. I mean, it bruised even… Travis was never afraid to tell me when I was being an idiot… and that leads me to the second story I want to tell.

Due to a lot of reasons, I was promoted to Sergeant early, perhaps even a little sooner than I should have been. I was young, and I was very proud of myself. That pride was moving toward egotism. We had another soldier in our small unit named Chris. Chris had been in the Army far longer than I, had been senior to me for the entire time I had served with him… and I was promoted to Sergeant before he was. Chris had a family to support, he was a Desert Storm veteran, and he was an excellent soldier… I was just in a job that typically got promoted faster, and I had been in the right place at the right time a few times. And so, I was now a Sergeant and Chris was still a Corporal.

Travis, now also junior to me, had the courage to take me aside and help me to see my promotion from Chris’ viewpoint. He helped me to see how hurt Chris felt, and how my pride at my new stripes was building up a resentment that would eventually come between the friendship Chris and I had. Travis challenged me to find a way to keep that from happening, to be the Sergeant, and still honor Chris’ years of experience, his excellent skills and leadership, and to acknowledge the complexity of why I was now senior.

In essence, Travis, though my junior in seniority, taught me in that moment about three lessons in leadership. The example of that moment shaped who I became as a Sergeant, and indeed as a person in the years that came.

There are many other things I owe Travis Patriquin for… as I said, I would not be here today were it not for him. Those stories cannot yet be told… but I am so pleased that William Doyle is telling as much of the life story of this amazing man as can be told. If Travis’ daughters ever read this, please know that your father meant the world to me… and that I am so sorry he was not able to see you grow up. I wish the world had given him that time with you, for all that he gave to the world.

Yours in faith,

David
Formerly…
Sergeant David Pyle
MID, 2BN, 7SFG(A)
Ft. Bragg, NC

Now,
Chaplain (1LT) David Pyle
USAR Chaplain

Always,
A Friend of Travis Patriquin
Rest in peace, Trav…


Captain Travis Patriquin Was A Real American Hero – Click here for more home videos

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UU Military Chaplains and the Cross

Posted by Rev. David on December 5, 2011

Unitarian Universalists are almost always surprised when they see me wearing the Christian Cross on my Army Chaplain uniform.  Perhaps they should not be, given the Christian ancestry of our two founding denominations, but they are.  Reactions have ranged from mild curiosity to outrage to some deep pastoral need.  On several occasions, those reactions have led me to do some significant pastoral care for congregants and others once I had taken the uniform off.

Recently, I’ve been reading the articles on NPR, Huffington Post, as well as on some conservative Christian websites and blogs, about the effort to endorse the U.S. Military’s first Atheist Chaplain… and it has had me re-thinking my support for UU Military Chaplains continuing to wear the Cross, and not the Chalice.  I have not changed my mind yet… but I’m torn.

There are a few things I need to say first.  Foremost among them is that I am speaking only for myself.  There remains significant support for wearing the Cross among the UU Ministers currently serving as Military Chaplains.  I would even count myself among those UU Ministers serving as Military Chaplains in supporting our wearing of the cross… and yet my support is not as strong as it once was.  Second is that such a decision would not be up to me… it would be between the U.S. Military and the UU Military Chaplain Endorser  (the Director of Ministries and Faith Development at the UUA).  Third, this is an area where our congregations have only limited say, as most military chaplain ministry is non-congregational, and military chaplains are directly responsible to the UUA, through the Military Chaplain Endorser.  And lastly, UU Military Chaplains are gathering with UUA Staff for a retreat this January… and I would be surprised if this is not on the agenda for discussion.

The basic arguments for UU’s continuing to wear the cross when they serve as military chaplains are in three parts.  The first is that wearing the cross, we are included in the largest faith group in the Chaplaincy… protestant Christianity.  Though we are by far the most liberal part of that spectrum, we remain on the spectrum, and therefore other protestant denominations have to make room for us.  This room is psychological, spiritual, and practical.  Psychologically, we remind our colleagues that Christianity is broader than any single interpretation, and that many have been inspired by the teachings of Jesus in different ways than they themselves.  Spiritually, it often means we are not as easily dismissed.  I have had many conversations with conservative Christians about my faith because I was wearing the cross and not another symbol.  It has also meant that I’ve been able to connect with and serve soldiers in their faith, without them having to overly worry about mine.  Practically, it has meant that opportunities given to other protestant Christian Chaplains should (theoretically) be offered to us as well.

Sadly, that last part has not been my experience.  There have been more than a few times that I have been discussing something with a senior military chaplain… in one case a possible assignment, only to have their position on it change when they find out I’m a Unitarian Universalist.  Usually it is not as blatant as that time, but it is often there.  Now, there have been just as many times though were a senior chaplain has offered an opportunity to me in part because I was a Unitarian Universalist, so I think in the end it has worked out about even.  My being a UU has been both a help and a hindrance in my time as a chaplain, depending often on the perception of our liberal faith tradition.

The second part of the argument for UU’s wearing the cross is that our faith tradition does arise from Christianity.  Both of our parent denominations, the American Unitarian Association and the Universalist Church of America began as Christian denominations.  Approximately 15 percent of current Unitarian Universalists identify as liberal Christians, myself among them.  Many of our current military chaplains also identify as Christians, but not all.  All of our current military chaplains have had to decide they were comfortable wearing the cross, not something all UU ministers could do.

Yet, our liberal faith tradition has grown to be more than Christianity.  Our faith tradition is bound together less by specific beliefs, and more by how one’s beliefs call you to relate to yourself, to each other, to your communities, to the world, and to the divine.  I often say that my beliefs rest between Christianity and Buddhism, but my religious practice is Unitarian Universalism. How I relate to the world, how I find religious meaning, how I encounter myself and others… that is all Unitarian Universalism.  People of many different beliefs can choose to relate to the world with the same kind of religious practice… To me, that is the core of our liberal faith.

I wonder if there are UU Ministers who would consider wearing the uniform of a military chaplain if it included a Chalice, and not a Cross?  As I listen to NPR discussing the need for Chaplains for the growing population of Humanists, Atheists, Deists, and “Spiritual but not Religious”ists in the U.S. Military, I wonder if the cross is what is preventing Unitarian Universalist Ministers from being able to fill that role?

The third part of the argument for having UU Military Chaplains wear the Cross rather than the Chalice is that the symbol of the Cross is well recognized as meaning “Chaplain”, while the Chalice would not be recognized as such.  The Chalice is simply not well known enough to play this vital role of identifying to soldiers, often in times of stress and duress, that the chaplain is with them.  So much of the role of the Chaplain is symbolic, and the cross is the symbol that is known.

Now, I’m aware there is a “Chicken and Egg” argument to be made here… how will the Chalice become known as meaning “Chaplain” if we are not wearing it?  It is a valid point.  I’ve long thought that at some point the UU Military Chaplains would have to transition to the Chalice… the question was one of timing.

Leaving that argument aside, there is another one of import… and that being the growth in the other three symbols.  There are now four symbols for military chaplains:  the cross, the tablets, the crescent, and the dharma wheel.  As there have been increasing numbers of Muslim, Jewish, and Buddhist Chaplains, the military has begun to be aware of different symbols as meaning “Chaplain”.

So, I don’t know.  Perhaps this is more of an issue for me than some of our UU Ministers serving on Active Duty, in that as a Reservist I spend most of my time in a congregation where the symbol is the Chalice, and not the Cross.  I will also admit that, in my personal Christianity, the crucifixion is not as important to me as the teachings and ministry of Christ… and so if I have a personal symbol for my Christianity it is the Fish of Love, not the Cross.

I just see this call for Chaplains to serve those who are Humanist, Atheist, Deist, Agnostic, and Spiritual but not Religious… and am wondering if this long running tension between the wearing of the Cross or the wearing of the Chalice is what is getting in our way of being those chaplains.

Yours in faith,

Rev. David

I am going to limit discussion on this article to Unitarian Universalists, as this is primarily an internal question of faith and practice.  I understand that some non-UU’s have some strong feelings on this issue, and I invite you to email me if you wish to share those.  I will only approve comments to this article from Unitarian Universalists. 

 

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The Real Meaning of the Thanksgiving Story

Posted by Rev. David on November 24, 2011

On this day, Thanksgiving Day, I think we are remembering the wrong message.   I think our society has taken the wrong meaning from the mythologized story of starving pilgrims, a coming hard winter, and Native Americans who shared.  We give thanks to God, or to some sense of the Universe taking care of us for the blessings we have, even amidst adversity… and yet I’m pretty sure that is not the real meaning in this story…  whether the story is true or not.

Perhaps it is my Native American ancestry that helps me to see this (although my Cherokee ancestors were safely in the Appalachian Mountains, and by this point had likely not encountered any Europeans.)  Perhaps it is that, as a child, I listened to the Thanksgiving story with a bit of unease, knowing what the coming years in the relationship between the settlers and the native peoples of this land would bring.  I know I have always thought that the main actors in this myth are the Native Americans… and yet they are treated almost as a footnote.

This holiday should not be about giving thanks, but about compassion.  It was the compassion of the Native Peoples that saved the pilgrims, not God.  Now, you could say that God sent the Native Americans of the Wampanoag tribe, but I wonder if many who propose this would really accept that the Christian God sent such a “heathen” people.  However, saying that God sent the Native Americans is just another way to minimize them.

What happened in this story is that a people saw other people in distress, and felt compassion for them.  They felt that compassion even though these other people were strange, with different and even threatening ways.  These Native Peoples could have let the pilgrims starve, but chose not to, out of compassion for their fellow human beings.  They transcended separations of race, of class, of culture and of religion in order to show compassion.

Is there a more profound message for our times?  It is always good to count up our blessings, and to remind ourselves that there are others less fortunate than ourselves, though it is questionable to do so with a feast and football.  I do believe that it is important that we spend time at Thanksgiving with our families, from whom we have become more and more estranged in our mobile society.

And… what about the message of compassion?  What about finding a way to see the humanity that crosses all of the boundaries that we create… boundaries of race, of class, of culture, and of religion?  If this holiday loses that meaning, if it becomes a reflection only on how we are blessed, then the example of these native peoples are just as lost on us as it was on the descendents of the settlers.

Thanksgiving is not just a day to give thanks, but to celebrate the example of a people who were able to see beyond such boundaries to share with other human beings who were in need… and to mourn that the descendents of those same people in need were unwilling to transcend those boundaries in the years that followed… leading to the genocide that occurred on our own soil with the decimation and re-location of so many Native Peoples.

Let us count our blessings… but not for our own satisfaction, but to allow us to learn the kind of compassion shown by the Wampanoag tribe… the compassion that crosses the boundaries that separate us from one another.

Yours in faith,

Rev. David

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