on keeping faith

[bronze_ribbons]

Still working on my sermons for later today. In the meantime, here's a quote from the Rev. Bill Sinkford (president of the Unitarian Universalist Association; emphasis mine):

This country's growing pluralism is a blessing - one that the founders of this country could never have imagined but for which they prepared fertile ground by writing their egalitarian ideals into our foundational documents. What we should be doing in this country is continuing to expand the circle of those we include in the promises made in our Constitution. And I believe that despite the backlash we see every time the circle is widened, it never really shrinks back to where it was before.

And a quote from Rabbi Sir Jonathan Sacks, chief rabbi of Great Britain:

To make a difference, you don't have to change the world all at once. You save the world one act at a time.

Comments

[ellid.livejournal.com]

I love Bill Sinkford. He's a great leader. And very, very, very tall - I was at the Service of the Living Tradition a few years ago and was stunned by how he had to bend over to extend the right hand of friendship to several very short women....

[mechaieh.livejournal.com]

I've met him a couple of times, both here in Nashville and at GA (and I think he was at Arlington Street when I visited there as well, but I wasn't taking notes). He and Courter are both excellent at their jobs.

[kirbyfest.livejournal.com]

And I believe that despite the backlash we see every time the circle is widened, it never really shrinks back to where it was before.

I believe this. So strongly. Sometimes it's the only thing that gives me a bit of hope.

[mechaieh.livejournal.com]

Yes. My "one sermon" seems to be evolving from "life is complicated, dammit" to "there's no point in not trying, dammit" ... *rueful grin*

Plus, even in this current climate, things seem to me to be markedly better than they were when I was a kid. Ignorant and hurtful as people still can be, they are at least thinking twice and/or on the defensive on comments and attitudes that wouldn't even have been challenged in the 1970s and 1980s.