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Archive for the ‘Public Life’ Category

Haiti Cherie

Posted in Music, Public Life, Spirit, tagged , , , , on January 12, 2013| Leave a Comment »

Three years ago a powerful earthquake in Haiti devastated an already suffering nation.  The world sent aid, but not nearly enough, and Haiti has largely receded from the consciousness of the world.

Shortly after the earthquake, I helped to plan and lead an interfaith service at the BuxMont Unitarian Universalist Fellowship, in Warrington, Pennsylvania, where I serve as minister.  Hindus, Christians, Jews, Unitarian Universalists and others gathered, raised awareness, prayed together, and most importantly raised funds to help Doctors Without Borders in their Haitian relief work.

We also sang together.  Haiti Cherie is one Haiti’s best known and best loved songs, and tells a different side of the story from the one we usually hear – this is not the Haiti of grinding poverty, oppression and violence, but of beauty, courage and community.  This is the Haiti of an African people who overthrew their European slaveholders a full sixty years before the American Civil War.  This is the Haiti of joyfulness and music.

It’s an easy trap to fall into – we imagine that the lives of people living in a place like Haiti are entirely defined by suffering – and somehow that lessens the impact of the current calamity.  But real people’s lives are seldom like that, and it’s important to remember that we, who would give our help, do so because we are privileged and we are able, but not because we are better or because our lives and nations are somehow set above others.  The Haitian people recognizes the ills their country has faced, and the far worse problems brought by the earthquake, but they are also proud of their country, and with good reason.  We would do well to learn from them.

I learned Haiti Cherie for the service, doing the best I could with the Creole, using an English translation from a  recording by Harry Belafonte, and adding a fourth verse (“you are never lost to sorrow”) written in the wake of the earthquake’s destruction.  When we came back to the first verse, I lined it out for the people gathered, and four congregations sang it well and loudly.

This recording was done rather hastily that week – I had a bit of a cold, so I won’t pretend it’s the best recording I ever made, but it may be one of the most heartfelt.  The link should take you to the song.  Enjoy it, and if you can spare a little, donate again to earthquake relief.

Dan Schatz sings Haiti Cherie

(NOTE:  Pleased ignore any video ads below – they have nothing to do with the post or this blog.  The link above will take you to the song.)

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(annoying ad below)

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What If? On the Anniversary of Tucson

Posted in Music, Public Life, tagged , , , , , on January 8, 2013| 1 Comment »

Today is the second anniversary of the mass shooting in Tucson, Arizona, in which six people lost their lives and Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords was shot in the head.  In the intervening years we have seen similar shootings at an Oakland, California college, a Sikh temple in Wisconsin, a movie theater in Aurora, Colorado, and, most horrifically, a Newtown, Connecticut elementary school.  Sadly, the actual list is far too long for me to recount – the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence lists over 70 mass shootings since Tucson, and that only tells a small part of the story.  Every day in the United States, gunfire kills 87 people – 8 of them children, 5 of those murder.  That’s over 100 Newtowns every year, and most of us don’t even notice it.

After the Newtown shooting last month several gun control opponents cited a mass stabbing in  China, correctly pointing out that no amount of gun control could not prevent violence or keep someone whose heart is bent on mayhem from committing it.  In doing so, they made the case for gun control far more effectively than I could have, because of the 22 children stabbed in that assault, not one died.

Guns do not cause violence, it is true – but they make it far more deadly and dangerous.  Suicides attempted with guns do not allow for second thoughts.  Violence committed with guns – especially with automatic and semi-automatic weapons – kills.  Too often it kills the innocent.  I understand the desire for freedom, for protection, for recreation.  I understand that the overwhelming majority of gun owners are decent, law abiding people.  But 2000 dead children every year is too high a price to pay.

It is also true that gun bans will not by themselves immediately fix the problem.  Our laws have been so lax, for so long, that the guns are readily available for those who would obtain them illegally.  Buy back programs help, but it will take a long time to solve the problem we have created for ourselves.  In the meantime, licensing can help, waiting periods and background checks can help, keeping the most dangerous guns limited to sporting facilities can help, and education can help.

Tom Paxton often writes what he calls “short shelf life songs” – songs in response to world events that he doesn’t expect to be relevant once the news cycle has shifted.  Two years ago he wrote “What If, No Matter” in response to the shooting in Tucson.  Sadly, the song remains all too relevant.

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A Prayer for Our Nation after Sandy Hook

Posted in Public Life, Spirit, tagged , , , , , , , on December 16, 2012| 1 Comment »

God of many names and no name,
Hashem, Allah, Adonai, El, Mother,
Brahman, Sacred Mystery,

In this season of darkness we cry out for the light of hope.

We are in deep mourning.
Over the past two days we have struggled to understand
what brokenness of mind could allow a human soul
to walk into a school and murder twenty children and six teachers.
There are no words for our despair;
we are devastated;
we are angry;
we are afraid.

O God of many names,
help us to find the strength to endure our grief,
and help our nation find the right way forward
as we face what we do not wish to acknowledge
about ourselves and our culture.

May we turn from violence,
seeking the way of light and of peace,
not only among the nations,
but also among people,
and in our inner cities,
and in our suburbs,
and in our families,
and in our schools.

In the conversations ahead, may we speak with one another openly
and from the deep place of spirit.

May we find the courage to make our voices heard
when we have something that needs to be said,
and to speak firmly the truth of our hearts.

And in the midst of our mourning may we find hope,
remembering that no act of violence, however terrible, can define us,
or take away the goodness of which humanity is capable.

God of many names and no name,
Let us lift our spirits to the light,
our hearts to the call,
and our bodies to the task
of hope and healing.

So may it be.
Amen.

 

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Veterans Day

Posted in Music, Public Life, tagged , , , , on November 11, 2012| 1 Comment »

It’s Veterans Day.

This afternoon I had conversations with veterans from three generations of war.  A World War II veteran talked with me about the pain so many veterans experienced after Vietnam, when they came home to be treated like criminals – as if the soldiers who fought the war were the ones who caused it.  “I notice that there’s been a change since Vietnam,” he said.  “People seem to treat veterans better today.”  I said I hoped that pacifists like myself had learned to honor the soldiers, even as we worked against the war.  As another veteran put it to me today, it is important “to honor the difference between the war and the warrior.” Most soldiers, sailors, airmen and airwomen pray for nothing more than peace.

Still, too often in the United States we still fail our veterans – not out of cruelty, but out of neglect.  We ignore the real health problems that are the aftereffects of war.  We fail to provide adequate mental health care, and employment support.  We ignore their families too often.  Somehow we can’t seem to bring ourselves to sacrifice for the people who have sacrificed for us.

I don’t think it’s that people don’t care – but somehow we have been sold on the idea that wars are things that take place in distant lands, conducted by remote control.  We tend to forget they are fought by people who must suffer the effects of what they have seen and been asked to do.

Peter LaFarge wrote “The Ballad of Ira Hayes” about a World War II hero, a native American who died drunk and all but forgotten, during the Vietnam era – and nobody performed it better than Townes Van Zandt.

During the 1980s, I got to see Arlo Guthrie perform this song, not long after it had been written.  I think it’s time to bring it back.

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Responsible Theology

Posted in Public Life, Spirit, tagged , , , on October 24, 2012| 6 Comments »

Recent comments by Indiana Senate candidate Richard Mourdock that pregnancy resulting from rape is “something that God intended to happen” once again has me thinking about starting The Society for Responsible Theology.

I’m not arguing with his position on abortion, although I disagree with it whole heartedly, and would gladly argue it at other times.  What concerns me here is Mr. Mourdock’s reason for his position – the idea that God intended the pregnancy to happen.  This strikes me as a very strong statement about the nature of God, and a theology that is at best brutal and at worst shallow, inconsistent and arrogant.

There are many kinds of theology in the world, and a diversity of religious beliefs – some liberal, some more conservative – that I have great respect for.  There are responsible theologies in every religious tradition.  These theologies are internally consistent, recognize and respond to the reality of human suffering, and accept human limitations.  Most importantly, they do not presume to know the mind of God.

In other words, we cannot know what is supposed to happen.  Even if we believe in a personal God who is involved in human affairs, we cannot know what God intends.  The only exception is a theology which presumes that all things which happen are part of a Divine Plan.  I call such a theology brutal because it affirms a God who is ultimately responsible for all of the evil and suffering in the world.  If all things are part of God’s plan, then that includes not only the pregnancy but the rape itself.  It is impossible to say with both certainty and integrity that the pregnancy was something God wanted to happen, but not the rape.

This is exactly what Mr. Mourdock argued in the hours following the Indiana debate.  “Are you trying to suggest somehow that God preordained rape?  No I don’t think that,” he said.  That puts Richard Mourdock in the position of deciding what it is that God intends and what it is God doesn’t intend, and that is highly irresponsible.  No human individual should be in the position of deciding what it is that God does and doesn’t want.

There are many pathways of the spirit.  Some of them, like my own, are Humanistic and liberal; others are conservative.  Some are theistic; others are not.  Most fall entirely outside the Western tradition.  But within almost every faith, there are strains of theology which deal substantively with the deep questions of life, and others which simply prop up the believer’s own opinions and biases.  The responsible theologian approaches deep questions with deep humility.

To be fair, Richard Mourdock is not a theologian, nor does he pretend to be one.  Perhaps that is the most persuasive argument yet that matters of public policy should be determined by better criteria than “what God intends.”

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