A Salute to Chaplain Dale Goetz, KIA

Posted by David on September 2, 2010

It has happened many times, where a fellow UU or a ministerial colleague takes me aside and asks me if this military chaplaincy “thing” is really something I want to do. When I explore it with them, where their anxiety is coming from, it almost always centers around their concern for my safety. Sometimes it is because they are a friend… other times it is because they have hopes for me in the future… other times it is a combination of a lot of reasons. But they are anxious about my serving, and often don’t know what to do with that.

So, I try to ease their anxiety. I tell them that though I will not have a weapon, I will be with a lot of soldiers who will be working to keep me safe. I tell them about having a Chaplain Assistant, who is kinda like a high-speed church administrator… with an M-4 rifle. I tell them about all my years of military training, and of how I have a pretty good idea how to protect myself on the battlefield. I tell them that I will not be at the very front lines… but most likely I will be with the command team or the medical aid station.

And, I tell them that with all the combat over the last several years, no chaplain has been killed in action since 1970.

Sadly, and with a great sense of loss, I can no longer use that to allay their fears. On Monday, August 30th, 2010, Chaplain Captain Dale Goetz was killed in action by an improvised bomb in Afghanistan. He was one of five soldiers killed in that attack. He was a Baptist Minister from South Dakota. By all reports he was an excellent Chaplain, and loved his calling. I never met him. My heart goes out to his family and friends.

I have said before that ministry is dangerous. If there is not some danger in ministry, then perhaps it is not ministry. When Jesus challenged the hypocrisy of the Jewish leaders of his time, that was dangerous ministry. When the Buddha confronted a serial killer, that was dangerous ministry. Some ministry is physically dangerous, and some is spiritually and psychologically dangerous. Asking people to trust you and allow you into their lives is dangerous. We prepare for it, we train for it, and we look for ways to mitigate it… but ministry is dangerous.

I salute Chaplain Goetz for his faith, for his calling, for his ministry, and for his sacrifice. No matter what one might think about this war or that, this man of God was there for the troops, and he and his family have paid the ultimate cost for that commitment. My heart, for one, is with them.

Yours in faith,

Rev. David

Category Categories: Military, Ministry  |  Tag Tags: , , , , , , ,  |  Comments 5 comments

Leaving Chicago

Posted by David on August 29, 2010

As we left Chicago on Friday for the last time as “Chicagoans”, I saw the tension in my wife’s shoulders begin to drain away, tension that has been there for four years. From the smile on her face, I’m pretty sure she felt that tension draining away herself. It was enough to make up for our (as usual) car-sick cat.

Now that we are in Midland Michigan, there are a few things about living in Chicago that have become clearer, in their difference. While I plan to write reflections in the coming two weeks on the end of my Clinical Pastoral Education Residency, on settling in to an Interim Minister position, and on beginning my role as a Military Chaplain (among other topics)… I thought I would first reflect on what it is like to not be in Chicago anymore.

When we visited Midland back at the beginning of July, my wife asked me what that huge glowey thing in the sky was. The moon just looks so dim and small from Chicago, surrounded by all those city lights. As we drove through cornfields, it looked about three times the size we were used to, and it was so bright.

Just yesterday here in Midland, I parked on a residential street, and found myself spending about a minute looking around for the sign that would tell me if I had the right permit to park there or not… that one will take a little time to let go of.

This morning, I took a shower where I did not really need soap… the water pressure would “pressure wash” any dirt and grime off me. The soap was merely an afterthought. Living in a third story walkup Chicago railroad apartment, I had forgotten what water pressure was like.

It took me less than 10 minutes to get to work, on the opposite side of the city of Midland from where I live. I lived on the opposite side of Chicago from where I worked for most of the last four years, and the fastest I ever made it was 45 minutes, usually it was more than twice that. I’m now imagining what all I might be able to do with an extra 3-4 hours each day…

There are “big box stores” here other than Target. I’m kinda not so happy with Target at the moment, and so if we were still in Chicago, I would be trying to live out of my local ACE hardware store… again. Amazingly, we can even avoid the Wal-Mart (whom I’m also not happy with) and have found a place called Mejier. If you know some bad things about Mejier, please do not tell me till we are fully moved in.

The air just smells better here than Chicago, and that’s all I’m going to say on that.

Last night, before we went to bed, my wife noted the absence of fire, ambulance, and police sirens, as well as the distinct lack of the sounds of the helicopter for the University of Chicago Hospital, which used to fly right over our apartment. It was just quiet. That will take some getting used to.

At first, everything just seemed to cost less here. That is true, prices are lower in general, but not nearly as dramatically as we had at first thought. It took us awhile to figure it out… No Chicago sales tax.

Now, there are some things we will miss about living in Chicago, and especially in Hyde Park. First off, from the assessment I have done of bumper stickers and casual overheard conversations, I may well be the most liberal person in Midland Michigan. Well, among the most liberal, and the others attend the UU Fellowship I am serving. In Hyde Park, amid all the rallies and lectures and meetings of liberal organizations it was easy to be lost among them. Due to my military status, I might have even been a “conservative” in Hyde Park.

The lack of diversity in this part of the country is also apparent, although less in Midland than in other places. Dow Chemical has brought a lot of people to Midland, of many different racial and ethnic backgrounds. Yet, coming from living on the South Side of Chicago, it will take me awhile to adjust to being racially identifiable as part of the majority again, even though Hyde Park itself is very racially and culturally diverse. Now, both Hyde Park and Midland are at the middle to upper end of the class scale… so I will keep driving around in my beat up old Honda.

I should say something about missing all the culture, the events, the night-life of Chicago… but I can’t, because Sandy and I never really participated in any of that. I would rather have a good cheap gyros than a fancy expensive dinner. I would rather watch children playing a soccer game at the park than go to a fancy downtown play. I would rather sit at home with my wife reading a book than hang out at a Chicago nightclub… so I don’t expect we will miss much. In fact, we’re probably more likely to go to things like the Folk Music Festival here in Midland this weekend than we ever were to go to a concert series in Millennium Park.

So, Chicago… Farewell, Adieu, and thanks for the Master’s of Divinity Degree…

Yours in faith,

Rev. David

Category Categories: Humor, Turnings, UUFOM  |  Tag Tags: , , , , , ,  |  Comments 1 comment

Commonalities in Liberal Faith

Posted by David on August 22, 2010

This summer I had the privledge to preach a four part summer sermon series at the Unitarian Church of Evanston, IL, that has explored what some of the ties between us as Unitarian Universalists may be.  I specifically sought to name some things that are rarely said, and to make some claims that may not be fully justified. 

Below are the Blurb-descriptions that went out to the congregation, and links to where the sermons are in the Celestial Lands Journal.  I look forward to hearing from you, as this is an “exploratory” sermon series.  Who knows, this may be the beginning of a book… 

Summer Sermon Series: Four Commonalities in Liberal Faith

In our creedless faith, are there theological commonalities that bind us across belief and practice? What ideas about faith and the nature of religion rest between the different concepts of God and humanity, origin and tradition that come from the many different paths that brought us to this congregation of liberal faith? While they may not apply to us all, we will explore four possible points of commonality in liberal faith through the lens of modern Unitarian Universalism and some Unitarian and Universalist theologians. While not an exhaustive list, perhaps these four points can begin our seeing the many threads that bind our diversity.

July 18th “Method, Message, and Meaning-Making”

Listen to Audio

What Angus McLean said about Liberal Faith Religious Education may apply to Liberal Faith as a whole… how we come to our beliefs may be more important to what binds persons of Liberal Faith than what those beliefs are. How we seek meaning, how we relate reason and faith, how we choose our sources of inspiration all are a part of our “method”. Perhaps some of our commonality is found through the Method of Liberal Faith.

July 25th “Scripture of an Ever Changing Revelation”

Listen to Audio

What constitutes “scripture” among the adherents of liberal faith varies widely, and is often quite individualized. This can be quite surprising to those from other faith traditions. Perhaps our common center in what we find of religious inspiration lies not in the texts themselves, but in the way the “Living Scriptures” of our own lives relate to the that which inspires us. As such, we live a faith where our individual canons are never sealed.

Aug 8th “Equality Even in Our Endings”

Listen to Audio

The answer to the question “What happens after we die” will vary widely among those of Liberal Faith. Some of us believe in reincarnation, or in a form of heavenly existence, or that we become nothing at all. Many of us accept that we do not know what happens, if anything. But one belief about the ending of our earthly existence seems to be held in common among many of us… that whatever happens, it will happen to us all equally.

Aug 22nd “Living With the Prophetic Voice”

James Luther Adams called Liberal Faith a “Prophethood of all Believers”, taking Martin Luther’s “Priesthood of All Believers” one step further. Many outside of Liberal Faith question the purpose of Liberal Faith. Beyond our own growth as human beings, beyond the necessity of human community, perhaps we find our common purpose in learning to live the role of the prophet, in the world, in our communities, in our daily lives, and within ourselves.

Yours in Faith,

Rev. David

Category Categories: Prophetic Voice, Sermons, UU Movement, liberal faith, theology  |  Tag Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,  |  Comments 1 comment

Meetings and Meeting

Posted by David on August 6, 2010

For the past week I have been with the congregation I am serving as an Interim Minister, the Unitarian Universalist Fellowship of Midland Michigan. In fact, this is my inaugural article for Celestial Lands written in the ministerial study of the Fellowship. They are a congregation easy to love, in a community that has a definite need for a liberal voice… both of the congregation and of a public minister of liberal faith.

Well established UU Fellowship with a long history of ministry… conservative community… churches on just about every street corner… in a town where even I, straight white military chaplain, get to be the flaming liberal… Hip Hip Horray! David version of Heaven.

This week, I have been facilitating small group (cottage) meetings with members of the congregation, where they can ask me whatever they want about who I am, my understanding and practice of ministry, and what I am bringing with me to this year I will spend among the congregation. I am asking those who attend these small groups (and the large potluck tonight) a few other questions… What brought you to join the Fellowship? What is your passion, your bliss, as Joseph Campbell would say? What hopes and dreams are you carrying with you?

The responses have been amazing, they have warmed my heart, and they have been a wonderful way for me to meet them and for the congregation to get to know me.

Amid all of this “meeting”, there have also been “meetings”. I have had meetings with the stewardship chair, the chair of the search committee, the board, the worship committee, the church Secretary and Sexton, and many, many others. All of these meetings had a purpose, many had an agenda, and most had some project, goals, or timeline that we were centering around.

What has struck me among these two different tasks, meeting and meetings, is that perhaps all of our meetings should also be about meeting. We sometimes get so focused on the stated purpose of our meetings, of getting the budget draft done, or approving the building use policy, or planning for the stewardship campaign, that we forget that in each of these meetings, we are also supposed to be meeting. We are supposed to be encountering each other as fully authentic human beings, not just in the social life of the congregation, but in all that we do as members of a liberal faith tradition.

While this should probably be true for all of humanity, it should especially be apparent to us of liberal faith. We understand that none of us are static human beings, that we are all constantly in flux.  I am a different person today than I was when I arrived in Midland on Sunday, for the experiences of this week and meeting these people. Each day we are, as Rev. Rob Hardies and others have said “born again, and again, and again…”

We of liberal faith are called to remember that, though the business of all of our “meetings” are essential and must be done… perhaps the more fundamental task of our religious community is found in the “meeting”.

Yours in faith,

Rev. David

Category Categories: Ministry, UU Movement, UUFOM, liberal faith  |  Tag Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,  |  Comments 6 comments

Customized Military ID Tags

Posted by David on July 7, 2010

I was reading through the stories on Military.com this evening, and came across a story on the young soldier, now facing a court martial, who leaked classified information to Wikileaks.com. The story made me sad in so many ways… sad that this young man felt he had to do this, sad that he felt so isolated, sad that he broke his oath, sad that the video he leaked happened. I know others are angry at this young soldier, and still others believe him to be some kind of hero… to me, the whole story just seems sad.

Something in the story, however, reminded me of something that I have considered writing about before, and never remembered to do so. The story comments that this soldier had “customized” military ID tags (dogtags) that read “Humanist”. Now, that makes me sad that I never got to meet him, never had the opportunity to serve as his chaplain. I find it a little hinky that the story had to lead with the fact that this soldier who did such a stupid thing was a “humanist”… but that is beside the point I want to write about.

You see, I too have “customized” military ID tags. My tags say “Unitarian Univ.” “Customized” means that I went to a civilian military supply store, and with my own money purchased military ID tags that said Unitarian Univ. (all the room there was).  Another colleague told me this he has two tags, one says Unitarian and the other says Universalist.

So, why did I have to do this? Because the issue military ID tags that I received at the U.S. Army Chaplain School came back reading “Other”.

Yes, at the chaplain school, the military bureaucracy declared my religious faith to be “other”.

Now, it was a bit of a shock to me. I have found out that “other” Unitarian Universalists who attended the Chaplain School also were issued ID tags that read “other”. One of them and I joked that we are going to form the “First United Church of Other”… just so we can be comfortable wearing those ID tags. I never put on the ID tags that declared my faith to be “other”… I just went off-post and had a new set made.

I still have them though… they are with the rest of my military gear, as a reminder.

So, to all of those Soldiers, Sailors, Airmen, Marines, and Guardians who have to go off-post/base to have a set of “customized” ID tags made that reflect your religious faith… know you are not alone. There are even a few Chaplains among you.

Yours in Faith,

Rev. David

Category Categories: Interfaith, Military, Ministry, Religious Freedom  |  Tag Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,  |  Comments 7 comments

God is the River

Posted by David on July 2, 2010

I almost never just post a video, but I was inspired this moring by my friend James doing so on his blog, Monkey Mind.  I have been a fan of Peter Mayer since long before his recent performance at GA, and while I love the song that James highlighted (Holy Now), and while I had never thought of it as a Zen song… it is not my favorite. 

It is a different Peter Mayer song that comes so close to being a holder for my theology, for what it has felt like to move from a Southern Baptist to a Unitarian Universalist, that it still brings me to tears, even after listening to it hundreds of times. 

So, for me, God is indeed the river…  and faith is living without hanging onto any more rocks than you have to…  and then only for awhile. 

Thank you for the inspiration to share my connection with this song, James. 

Yours in faith,

Rev. David

Category Categories: General Assembly, God, theology  |  Tag Tags: , , , , , , ,  |  Comments 1 comment

Bridging Day becomes Car Repair Day becomes Baby Day: General Assembly 2010 Day 3

Posted by David on June 26, 2010

Some days just do not go as planned, even when you plan meticulously. In my case, I am trying to encounter this year’s General Assembly of the Unitarian Universalist Association of Congregations with as little planning as possible. If you have only a minimal plan, and the plan goes awry, then you are already in a space to think and move creatively.

This day at GA began with a Plenary session, where the major agenda item was the consideration of the Creating Peace Congregational Study Action Issue / Statement of Conscience(CSAI). I have been inhabiting this issue for over three years, first as an interested military member and seminary student, then as a preacher invited specifically to preach in congregations studying this CSAI on issues of war and peace, and then as a member of the CSAI Core Team, doing research that led to the original draft of the Statement of Conscience.

I sat in (but did not actively participate) in the mini-assembly on this issue on Thursday Morning. I wanted to allow other voices to be heard, as I had been involved in so much of this project already. I had every intention to keep my silence in the debate, until an amendment came up that would have removed the “confession” section of the Statement, where we acknowledge that, as a faith, we have not always been our best selves around the issues of peace and war. I spoke against that amendment, focusing on the importance to the soldiers I hope to introduce the statement to that we admit our own failings and struggles, as they may be wrestling with some of their own. I was pleased to see that language of confession remain in the document.

The Statement of Conscience overwhelmingly passed, a relief after the original version was referred back last year. I was honored to play a small role in its development, and learned a great deal through the process… and it will be awhile before I get involved in a Statement of Conscience process again. I’ll need a break…

I then had the privilege to have lunch with the outgoing minister of the congregation where I am now the incoming interim minister. It was a wonderful conversation with a wonderful woman and minister, and that is all I’m going to say about that.

There is a wonderful dynamic that happens for newly fellowshipped ministers in the UUA. On Thursday night, you have the wonderful, joyous event of the Service of the Living Tradition, where you receive preliminary fellowship and are formally accepted as ministers by the association. Wonderful, joyous moment. The following afternoon, you meet with the representatives of the Association and the Ministerial Fellowship Committee, and they tell you about the long and somewhat involved process of making it from Preliminary Fellowship to Final Fellowship… It is a wonderful moment of humility inspiring scheduling, and I want to commend whoever came up with that timing so many moons ago. Priceless!

When I got back from taking a colleague to the airport in the early afternoon, my car quit working. Entire electrical system, no juice. After checking every fuse in the car (and missing the CLF Worship Service, unfortunately) I finally thought to check the battery… and wouldn’t you know it. I was rescued by a fellow UU and military veteran named Vince who took me to an auto parts place for a new battery… and that worked. Now we will see if it was just the battery, or something else (please don’t be the alternator!)

I made it a little late to the Baby Shower for a ministerial colleague, and it was a wonderful time of fellowship, of meeting, and of re-meeting. Many of those attending I had met before, but at a time when I would not remember much at all (because it was my MFC interview). They were very gracious as I re-met them. Oh, and my friend is having a Baby!

The baby shower made me miss the Meadville Lombard Alumni Dinner, and that is okay, others went and told me about it… including the new video that has a picture of me in it. Yes, before anyone else asks, they had my permission. It’s all okay. I would have been at the Dinner, but they happen every year, and my friend’s first baby shower happens only once. I did try to get to the Alumni dinner Lalitha, I really did… I swear. Cross my heart. Pinky promise. Please don’t hurt me…

I ended my evening sitting in the lobby of one of the hotels, reminiscing with a group of members of my internship congregation, and then taking the long route to the car (now working) by stopping to talk to colleagues and friends. One of my colleagues, known as the Earthbound Spirit in the UU Blogging World, said something to me that is still making me cry. You touched my heart ES, and I will remember what you said, when I have to make decisions about the levels of risk I am willing to run as a military chaplain. I swear. Cross my heart. Pinky promise. Please don’t hurt me if it happens anyway…

So, I don’t have a lot to report on the overall GA of Day three… because it was a really personalized day for me. I will say that it was a day of relationship, of building new ones, of celebrating others, and of having colleagues and friends move into our well seated relationships to say things to me that needed saying. That kind of relationship is more what Unitarian Universalism is, to my mind, than anything else we may do at General Assembly.

Yours in Faith,

Rev. David

Category Categories: General Assembly, Prophetic Voice, Turnings, UU Movement  |  Tag Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,  |  Comments 1 comment