One More Step | Reverend Ricky Hoyt

new blog location

2010-03-09T12:58:00.000-08:00

I've now moved my blog to a personal website: RevRicky.com. Click on "blog" from the menu on the welcome page. You will be able to comment on blog posts, subscribe with an RSS feed, and search posts for key words.

I took it as a Lenten exercise this year to learn a new website creation software, and to reconstruct my personal website. I'm using the iWeb software from Apple. I've now got the site up and running. I'll be posting sermons and prayers on my website as well as blog entries.

Come visit.

February music

2010-03-03T12:11:00.000-08:00

I made a new year’s resolution this year to write a new piece of music every month. Before I became a minister I worked in Human Resources with AIDS Project Los Angeles. And before that I was a composer. I was part of a composer’s writing/performing group called Lo Cal Composers Ensemble. We put on concerts of our own music several times a year in venues all around Los Angeles. I worked at a bookstore, too, to pay the bills. My undergraduate degree is in music composition from Cal Arts.

But I hadn’t been doing much composing in recent years and I realized that writing music was still an important part of my identity. So I made a resolution to make time for composing this year.

My January music was for solo piano. For February I had planned to write a piano/cello duet. But then I got inspired to write a song for tenor and piano. The text was written by a schizophrenic man who attends my Los Angeles church and sings in our choir. He had written a description of what’s going on in his world. It was so strange, and sad, and beautiful. Full of paranoia, but also tender. I set it to music.

If I can figure out how to post an mp3 here I’ll share it with you.

what's beautiful?

2010-02-26T10:52:00.001-08:00

If you search for "Beauty" in Google Images, what do you get?

Page after page of beautiful women.

On the 4th search page there's a sunset. On the 5th search page there's a polar bear. Other than that the only image that says "beauty" is beautiful women.

No beautiful trees. No beautiful mountains. No beautiful lakes or tropical islands. No beautiful images of the moon. No beautiful architecture. No beautiful paintings. No beautiful animals except that one polar bear. No beautiful babies or children. And no beautiful men.

new website

2010-02-23T16:25:00.000-08:00

I've just posted a major overhaul of my RevRicky.com website. check it out.

Back in September I bought a new Apple computer. The operating system that came with the new computer would no longer support the old DreamWeaver software that I had been using to update my RevRicky.com website. So the website had been frozen as it was just before I bought the new computer. Then, over the last several days, I finally had some time to learn the iWeb software that came with the new computer and re-create the site.

On the new website you can read all the sermons I've written since last summer, as well as all the prayers I wrote for worship during that time. There's also a calendar of where and what I'll be preaching from now through the end of the church year. I'll be adding more stuff to the website as I get to it over the next several weeks.

For now I'll continue to use this Google site for my blog, but I'll no longer be posting sermons and homilies here, nor will I be posting my prayers on the affiliated UUSCV Prayer and Meditation group blog. Eventually I'll probably move this blog on to the RevRicky.com site as well.

If I Were a Real UU...

2010-02-18T00:01:00.000-08:00

A homily for Lent.

Delivered, Ash Wednesday, 2010
Valley Vespers, Unitarian Universalist Church of the Verdugo Hills

Christmas Day. Thanksgiving. Fourth of July. I don’t know if Ash Wednesday is anybody’s favorite holiday.

There's no bunnies painting colored eggs. There's no groundhog looking for his shadow. There’s no Ash Wednesday equivalent of Santa Claus; that’s for sure. Perhaps the Lenten Santa Claus would come down your chimney and then deliberately track fireplace ashes across your living room carpet in the shape of a cross.

There is no Lenten wreath on the door or Lenten lights on the roof. I don’t think they sell strings of grey holiday lights. There are no presents. There’s no special food. In fact, you’re supposed to give up special foods. It’s the holiday where it’s better to give up than recieve. It’s the anti-holiday: the holiday where you can re-use the Christmas cards you got two months ago by crossing out the word “Joy” and sending them back to your friends marked postage due.

Mardi Gras gives us parades and dancing and drinking. Then, against the drunken fun of Fat Tuesday, Lent stretches out like a 40-day hangover. Except, instead of guilt for one night’s drinking we’re get guilt for all our sins. Instead of a headache that merely feels like death, we supposed to spend 40 days contemplating actual death. Instead of a half-hearted oath to never drink again, that’s forgotten by Saturday, we’re supposed to give up some joy that makes life fun from now all the way until Easter.

Lent’s no party. Spiritually Lent can seem like a worthless downer. Why bother? Unitarian Universalists focus on the gifts of the spiritual life: the abundance, not the privations; the ecstatic, not the miserable. Our faith encourages us to enumerate our capabilities and inherent worth and dignity, not our sins and failures.

But there is something important to Lent. Though not my favorite holiday, I have come over the last few years, to respect and value the Lenten season as an important stage of a yearly spiritual cycle. Even without the fun of presents and decorations and a big holiday meal, even with a focus on mortality and where we’ve fallen short. Even with the sobriety and seriousness, and maybe even with a reminder of death smeared across the forehead on Ash Wednesday, the season of Lent is not a worthless downer, but a valuable spiritual step forward and upward.

Here is what Lent offers the spiritually serious.

For 40-days, each year, a season to observe who you really are as a human being, and remember who you are really called to be. 40-days to do some sober self-reflection. A chance to ask, Where am I on my spiritual trip? How am I doing on my task of growing a soul? If the Unitarian Universalist spiritual path asks us to achieve salvation for ourselves by being the perfected people that we can be, how are we doing? 40 days to remind yourself that you are after all a mortal being and that your time on earth is limited. 40 days to notice what you’ve really done, so far, with this one life you’ve been given. 40 days to be honest about your short-comings, while you’ve still got a chance to work on them.

You might find it helpful to give up something for Lent. That’s a helpful way to remind you to keep pushing forward on the self-reflection work that the season is supposed to be about. I prefer, instead, most years, to add something for Lent, to take up some spiritual practice, like journaling, or reading, or exercise, or meditation; or to learn some new skill that will help move me toward becoming that person that I want to be.

The bottom line Lenten question, for every Unitarian Universalist, is, “What would a real Unitarian Universalist look like, and do I look like that guy?” What would my life look like if I really lived by the principles that I proclaim each Sunday? What would my relationships look like if they were founded on justice and compassion? How diligently am I searching for truth and meaning? How am I participating in the democratic process in my congregation and society at large? How would I spend my days if I more completely contributed my life to the goal that is the goal of my faith: a world community with peace, liberty, and justice for all?

40 days isn’t actually a very long time to create a vision of what a real UU life would look like for me, and honestly assessing the life I’ve created so far, and notice the difference between my current life, and the life I feel my faith calls my to lead. And then to put together an action plan with some concrete steps for change, and maybe learn a new skill, that will get me from here to there.

40 days from today, not counting Sundays, we’ll arrive at Easter, the holiday of new life. Easter comes with a miracle of re-birth, of a re-awakening to a new reality, of a new chance at life after we thought the old life was finished for us. If we do nothing between now and then, then the Easter miracle is the kind of empty fiction rational UUs often accuse if of being. It’s just magic, and superstition, and might be temporarily uplifting without being really transforming.

But if we take the 40 days of Lent between now and then seriously, if we do our work, if we commit to our practice, if we name the changes we want to make and we do what we need to do to make the changes really possible, then our Easter can be earned. We can have an Easter we deserve. We can celebrate a new life at Easter that isn’t just a myth and a miracle, but is the lived truth and the new reality of who we are.

Hilton Long Beach Boycott

2010-02-17T23:45:00.000-08:00

A picture from the picket line on Saturday, February 13, part of the Young Adult Urban Ministry weekend.

The ironic thing is that this is the hotel the PSWD has contracted with to host our 2011 District Assembly. Obviously few of us (none of us) would be willing to cross the picket line. But breaking our contract would incur a substantial financial penalty that the District can ill afford. It will be interesting to see how this plays out over the next few months, and how we can continue to support the hotel workers in their action.

photo courtesy Frederick Martin

Young adult urban ministry weekend

2010-02-17T15:15:00.000-08:00

I'm still glowing from a really exciting weekend spent with 22 young adult unitarian universalists at First Unitarian Church, Los Angeles. Jointly sponsored as a program of the UULMCA and the Pacific Southwest District, and hosted at the urban Los Angeles church, we put together an experience of what our faith can look like in an urban setting and with a commitment to a vision of a church placed in service to the larger community, rather than only focused on serving the church members.

Here's what we did:

Friday night we gathered at the church for dinner and worship. Then we had a conversation with PSWD District Executive, Ken Brown, who was involved with First Church 20 years ago, and helped form an intentional urban ministry program at First Church as a way of healing after the Rodney King Riots. Some of the urban ministry programs started at that time still exist, and that program became the foundation for a new, outward-focused vision for the church. We spent Friday night at a local hotel.

Saturday morning started with breakfast at the church and the opportunity to observe our food distribution program in action. Every Saturday from 8 to 10 AM volunteers hand out about 650 bags of groceries. When the distribution ended we had a chance for questions and answers with Rochelle McAdam, the church member who has been spearheading this program for years.

Then we had a presentation from Michael Mata, an urban ministry specialist, currently working with World Vision, who has created a tool called "exegeting the city" as a way of quickly identifying the needs, and potential ministry areas, of an urban neighborhood. Then with the tool in our heads he led us on a walk around the neighborhood to practice our observational skills.

We ended the walk with lunch at the Francis Avenue Garden, the neighborhood garden started by the church a dozen years ago and now a jointly owned and operated community resources. While we ate lunch we listened to a presentation from a volunteer with CLUE (Clergy and Laity United for Economic Justice) who told us about their current work in support of hotel workers who are being prevented from unionizing and are being paid a less than livable wage. CLUE is specifically targeting the Hilton Long Beach hotel. BOYCOTT THIS HOTEL. So after we got the background we all piled into vans and drove down to Long Beach to take part in a demonstration with the workers in front of the hotel. We picketed and chanted for about an hour, and then spoke to some of the workers and heard about their experience and their frustration with management who won't talk with them.

We drove back to the church for dinner, for a talk about young adult programs with Lindi Ramsden, the Executive Director of UULMCA, and then a Karaoke party, donated by a young adult friend of the church. Then one more night at the hotel.

Sunday morning we had a wrap-up session and then a really incredible worship with both Tera Little (from the PSWD) and I preaching, the entire congregation of Santa Clarita joining the First Church congregation, a combined choir, and then a potluck lunch.

I was consistently impressed with the participation of the young adults. They were present, generous, thoughtful, engaged, reflective, passionate. I felt honored to be with them. Hopeful about the future of this faith. And hopeful about the direction that our ministry might take us in the coming generation.

email from an Islamic reader

2010-02-15T13:24:00.000-08:00

An Islamic reader posted a long comment on a recent post with a lot of theological questions (rhetorical questions). Rather than respond in the comments to that post where it wasn't really relevant I thought I'd post his comment here along with my responses. You will notice that the commenter assumes I have more orthodox Christian beliefs than I actually do.

Hi friend, peace...

Your blog very interesting.
But I have some questions for you:

First, why were you believe that Jesus is your God? Would you have evidence that Jesus is God? Or that is only your faith? What do you mean about “Jesus is God”? Does this mean have not same with mean “God of the Universe”? Or that is only mean “man as God”, like ancient Egypt peoples call Pharaoh as God?

I don't believe that Jesus is God. I believe, as do Unitarians generally, that Jesus was a human being, essentially like all other human beings. Jesus is special to me in that he seems to have lived a life more aligned with Divine principles than most of us, but the same kind of access to Divine principles is equally available to all of us, which I think was the heart of Jesus' message. He provides instruction on how to live in a manner pleasing to God, and an example of what that kind of life might look like. And, of course, Jesus is not by any means the only person to have lived this kind of life.

Second, what do you response? If you know that the “God” which attribute on Jesus is created by Constantine (the Roman Emperor at 325 AC) and the leaders of Christians in Nicea Counsel on 325 AC (After Christ). In this councel, Constantine made huge changes in the faith, like “Jesus is Son of God”, and “Jesus is God”. The Emperor Constantine took “Jesus Conception” from Apollo, the son of the Greek God (Zeus). At the counsel of Nicea in 325 AC, the New Testament Cannon was changed. The writings of the New Testament were changed to be the books used by the church since Jesus they call God (Jesus is Son of God, Jesus is God).

The commenter is correct that the orthodox Christian faith was not received all at once, directly from God, or the lips of Jesus. Most of the beliefs now held as orthodox (including which books Christians call sacred) were worked out over the course of centuries by hundreds of human beings discussing and deciding among themselves. And, of course, they brought to this discussion not only their own opinions, but their various cultural histories (including stories they knew from Greek and Roman mythology and other mid-Eastern cultures, including Judaism). And the final positions taken were also influenced by the Roman government under Constantine, including the idea that it was important for the Christian believers to be unified around a single set of beliefs in the first place. Although for convenience we often point to the Council of Nicea as the occasion when these decisions were made, they were actually debated and decided over a series of many church councils stretching for centuries.

Third, how about this informations? Nowhere in the Bible is the day of worship changed from Saturday to Sunday. This change was not made by the Almighty, but by the Roman Church. Christianity was corrupted by Paganism. The pure Deism of the first Christians was changed, by the Church of Rome, into the incomprehensible dogma of the trinity. There are many similarities between the pagan god of Christ and the Christian version of Jesus. For example, Greek mythology tells of Christ bring born to the virgin Isis on December 25.

The Jewish Sabbath is undoubtedly Saturday. Shabbat means Saturday. The early Christians, who considered themselves Jews worshipped on Saturday. When Christianity became the established church of the Roman Empire they switched the sabbath celebration to Sunday so that it would coincide with the day of the week already held holy under the Roman religion: Sunday, the day of the Sun god. So should Christians (and Unitarians) switch their sabbath to Saturday? Only if you believe that God actually commands us to worship on one special day of the week. I don't believe it matters in the least. The seven day week is a human convention, not God's ordination. That Saturday was chosen as the Sabbath was a human convention, not God's ordinance. Obviously Christianity was influenced (I don't say "corrupted") by pagan beliefs. Christianity was obviously influenced by Jewish beliefs. Jewish beliefs were obviously influenced by the beliefs of the people they lived with. Religion is a cultural human construction. There is no "pure" religion from God. Every religion begins with human persons responding to the Divine Spirit, and receiving that spirit through the goggles of their culture, prejudices they are mostly unaware of. We should not, now, enshrine those conventions and prejudices as divine revelation.

Fourth, how about this information? God is Allah, the One and Only. Allah is God, on whom all depend. Allah begets not, and nor begotten; and none is like Allah (The Holy Qur’an 112:1-4).

Islam is also a religion that begins with a human person (Muhammed in this case) responding to an experience of the Divine Spirit, and interpreting that experience through the goggles of his particular culture. Allah is as good a name as any for God.

Thanks for you answer.
I hope we can be friend, although we have different perspective.
If you willing visit my blog, and read my article at http://sosiologidakwah.blogspot.com
And... if you love books, don’t forget to read The Holy Qur'an please...

I have read the Koran. And I'm glad I did. I don't regard it as any more holy than other books.

Love Doesn't Take Sides

2010-02-15T12:46:00.000-08:00

My homily for "Standing on the Side of Love" worship service, Valentine's Day, 2010

Of course I’m standing on the side of love. I’m not a hater. I love everybody.

It’s the other people that are the haters. And boy do I hate them.

I mean I love them, because I’m a lover. But I just can’t understand how those other people take political positions that are so filled with hate? How can anyone not want gay and lesbian couples who have been together for 20 years or more to get married? What a bunch of haters! I hate them.

I mean I love them, because I’m a lover. But how can anyone support a health care system that gives billions of dollars in profits to insurance companies that don’t provide actual medical services, and meanwhile deny upward of 30 million people the protection of basic health care? What a bunch of haters! I hate them.

I mean I love them, because I’m a lover. But how can anyone not be grateful for the benefits that immigrants bring to our communities and to our culture and to our economy? Why would anyone want to make it more difficult for hard-working people to enter our country and do the jobs that need to be done? How can anyone think it’s justice to split up families between two countries or harass good people who are peacefully living in our neighborhoods? What a bunch of haters!

Here on the side of love we don’t have to stand with the climate change deniers, and the gun-toters, and the folks who would take away a women’s right to choose, and the folks who would imprison gays and lesbians just for being who they are. On the side of love we don’t have to stand with those haters who think prisons and war and tax cuts are the solution to every social problem. Boy do I hate them.

I’m glad I’m standing with you all on the love side. It’s all so pretty and nice and comfortable on this side. It’s all Sees candy and roses and bunnies on the love side of every political issue. This is the side of baby chicks. This is the side of Ghandi and Martin Luther King.

The other side is the side of Dick Cheney. That’s the side of Darth Vader, after he turned evil. It’s so ugly and cold and depressing on the other side. They don’t call it the Dark Side for nothing. It gives me the chills to even think about it. Here we don’t have to stand with torturers. Here we don’t have to stand with bigots. Here we don’t hate anybody except the people that hate us – and they started it!

Keep them far away from me. I’m standing on the side of love. Everybody here agrees with me, and we’re friendly, and there are free hugs, and I never get challenged in my opinions. And it feels so good to be so right all the time. I’m standing on the side of Jesus. I know they say Jesus is on their side, but they’re clearly wrong. I’ve got God on my side. And I know that they say God is on their side, too, but they must be wrong because I’m a Universalist and I know that God is love. And I know that God is standing on the side of love.

And as a Universalist I know that God loves everybody and brings everybody to salvation, universally, no one left out. I know that God doesn’t separate out one group of people from another group of people and push some people to one side and keep them apart. I know that God wants us all together, and whether we like it or not eventually we’re all going to have to figure out a way for everyone to stand together because in the eyes of God there is no outside. There is only one people and only one place and only one side: the inside.

Wait a sec.

I’m suddenly remembering that passage from the Sermon on the Mount where Jesus tells us to love our enemies. Jesus tells us that we ought to be like the Divine Spirit that moves over all the earth, you know the passage? “God causes the sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous” (Matt. 5:45). That’s the kind of people we are called to be. That’s what love means.

So how can we stand on the side of love? There is no other side to love. If you’re standing on the side, keeping yourself apart, and disengaged, and feeling all self-righteous and superior, than that isn’t love. And if you really are standing in love then look around because you’re not off to the side, you’re being pressed in to the middle from every side.

I don’t mean standing in love requires taking the middle position of every political issue. But standing in love requires being in the middle of the political process. You can hold your opinion. You can be sure you’re right. You can even be sure the other side is wrong. You can be stubborn and unyielding and committed to justice, and I hope you are. But you can’t be disengaged from the other side. You can’t be dismissive of the other side. You can’t be right all by yourself. You can’t be effective if the only people you ever talk to already agree with you. You can’t tell yourself that the people on the other side should just shut up and go away, one, because they won’t, and two, because what kind of love is it that says to anybody, “Shut up and go away?”

Love means including all. Love means embracing all. Love means everybody together. Love means nobody left out. Love means no separation. In the words of the anthem Scott Roewe wrote for us and the choir just sang, “Love Lives Everywhere.” If you’re going to tell me that love lives just on this side of the issue and not that side, than I don’t think you know what love means. If you’re going to tell me that love is concerned with these people but love has nothing to do with those people, than I don’t think you know what love means. If you think you can be loving while ignoring or despising or screaming at people who disagree with you than you don’t know what love means. Or let’s say you’re more polite and you don’t actually scream at the people who disagree with you but still in your heart you hate them, and you tell your friends that those people are idiots, and if the only motivation you can imagine for someone to take the position they take on an issue is that they must be evil, selfish, hateful, bigots, well I’m sorry, sisters and brothers, you ain’t standing on the side of love.

But the real point is that you’re not standing on the side of love if you’re standing on the side. Love is in the middle. Love is in the thick of it. Love is mixing it up. Love is reaching out and touching and inviting in and opening up. Love is listening and hearing and seeking to understand. Love is forgiving, and looking behind the fear, both theirs and our own: the fear that keep us apart. Love is creating safe places where everyone is welcome. Love is humbly asking, “What don’t I know?” not arrogantly boasting, “I know it all.” Love is community, not self-sufficiency. Love isn’t independent. Love isn’t dependent either. Love is the interdependent web of all creation (including Dick Cheney) of which we are not standing on the side, but of which we are all a part.

Love means, first of all, not labeling the people on the other side of an issue as haters. No one thinks they’re a hater. No one of any church or political party is holding a rally today standing proudly under a banner that says, “Standing on the Side of Hate.”

Love is not chocolate and bunnies. Really being a lover is hard work. Love means engaging with the people we really don’t want to engage with. Love means opening up a dialogue with people who we’re pretty sure have nothing to say we want to hear. Love means trying to understand people who we just can’t understand. Love means staying in there even when things get hot and hurtful and mean, without getting hot and hurtful and mean yourself.

Can we really be that strong in our love? Can we be that brave? Can we be that generous? Could we really be the ones who get off the side and move into the middle of love? Can we imagine getting out of our comfortable churches, with all the people who think just like we do, and talking to some people who are pretty sure that they’re the ones standing on the love side? Are we serious about solving the issues of the world in a way that brings everybody along, or would we rather pretend we can just leave some folks behind? And listen, you Universalists, if you think the other side is just going to fade away and you’ll never have to deal with them, well just wait. They’re all going the same place you’re going. We’ll see them there when both sides disappear into that loving circle where every point is the center, that irresistible embrace of divine love. That heaven of love where there are no sides.

Happiness Isn’t Everything

2010-01-31T22:49:00.000-08:00

A Sermon by Rev. Ricky Hoyt
Delivered January 31, 2010
First Unitarian Church, Los Angeles, Los Angeles, CA

NEWSLETTER BLURB
Why do recent studies tell us that people are happier in Louisiana than in California? Maybe “happiness” isn’t the only reason that people want to live in Los Angeles.

In last month’s issue of the journal Science, two researchers, Andrew Oswald and Stephen Wu, published a study that ranked all 50 states in terms of happiness.

Now, if you’re like me, you probably would have assumed that California was somewhere near the top of the list, if not the very top. After all, we all have chosen to live here. So there must be some happiness factor that puts this state at the top of our happiness list. And presumably those factors that make this a happy state for us, would also make it happy for other people.

I’ve lived in California my whole life. Actually I’ve lived in the Greater Los Angeles area my whole life. I’m certainly happy here.

I love the weather in Los Angeles. It gets hot in the summer but not as hot as Arizona. And it’s a “dry heat” as they say. We never have to suffer through that miserable humidity that the South and East and midWest have to deal with.

We don’t have hurricanes in the summer. And in the winter, of course, it’s gorgeous here. A little light rain. A few nights when the temperature might get down to the 40s. And that’s it. We don’t have blizzards. We don’t have ice-storms. We don’t have to shovel the sidewalk, or scrape ice off our cars.

I love the diversity of Los Angeles, one of the most racially and ethnically diverse cities on the planet. I love the opportunity to sample food and art and music from around the world, just by taking a long walk in my own neighborhood. I love that there’s a gay men’s chorus in Los Angeles. I love the sound of foreign languages. I love the signboards in Korean or Armenian that I can’t read. And I love seeing people who don’t look like me everywhere I go.

Yes, we have earthquakes. But we truly don’t have them very often. And the damage is usually pretty isolated.

People think of Los Angeles as being smoggy. But I remember the smog being a whole lot worse in the 1960s and 1970s. Now when I think of somg I think of the progress we’ve made on cleaning up our air.

People complain about the traffic. And the traffic is terrible. But it’s possible to avoid the traffic if you plan carefully.

I love the culture in Los Angeles, a world-class symphony, art museums, theater that’s probably second only to New York in the nation. We have Griffith Park, and we have the beach, and we have mountains within a short drive for ski-ing in the winter, and we have the Joshua Tree and Death Valley, and Palm Springs, and on and on.

There’s no place on earth I would rather live than Los Angeles. And the rest of California is equally gorgeous with most of the same advantages, from San Diego to San Francisco. The Sierras and Yosemite, and the northern coast, and the agricultural bread basket of the nation in the Central Valley.

So I would think that California would be near the top of a happiness ranking of the 50 states. Which state could possibly be higher than us: freezing cold North Dakota? Rust belt Ohio or Kentucky? Poverty-stricken West Virginia? Backward Alabama? Conservative, angry, sprawling Texas? Isolated Wyoming?

Well in the happiness ranking, all of those states I just mentioned are ranked as happier than California. In fact, out of 50 states and the District of Columbia only 5 states are ranked less happy than California. We’re number 46 out of 51. 46!

The least happy state is New York, which I would have ranked nearly as high as California for many of the same reasons that I like California, theater and museums and music, a diverse population, great public transportation, beautiful architecture and so on and so on. Are people really happier in every other state of the Union than they are in New York? And if they are happier everywhere else why do more people live in New York City than in any other city in America? And for that matter, if California is so bad why is Los Angeles the second most populated city and California the most populated State?

So what state is the happiest according to the study? You will never guess. I’m sure even people that live there wouldn’t imagine that anybody would consider their state the happiest in America.

Louisiana. Louisiana!

To be fair, the data for this study was collected in the years prior to Hurricane Katrina. So there’s been a lot of above-average misery in that state recently. But even without considering the Hurricane, and outside of New Orleans, which I admit does seem like a fun place to visit, would you really think Louisiana is the happiest state in the country? Louisiana hasn’t got a single mountain for ski-ing. It hasn’t got Yosemite, or San Francisco. It’s hasn’t got world class theater or museums. It’s not known for it’s colleges, or for its weather. It’s not a resort destination. It’s not a center for science or education. I’m sure the state has its charms: jazz, I suppose. But there are a heck of a lot more people who have voted with their feet by choosing to live in number 46 ranked California than in number 1 Lousiaina.

So after reading the list, and getting over the insult of seeing California placed so near the bottom of the list, my first reaction had to be that something was wrong. There must be some mistake in the way they measure happiness, because clearly people can’t be more happy in States like Idaho and Arkansas than they are in California.

Well here’s the interesting thing about the study. The two researchers weren’t actually particularly interested in discovering which state is the happiest in America. That’s just an interesting outcome of their researcher. Their real question was whether people’s expressed opinions about how happy they are when you ask them to rate their happiness on a scale of 1 – 10, actually matches up with any objective data about the actual conditions of their lives.

The problem that researchers had always had is that they they couldn’t be sure that if a person told you they were happy, whether they really were happy, or whether that person even really knew what happiness was, or whether one person’s happiness was the same as another person’s happiness. Happiness is a subjective feeling. That means happiness is felt on the inside. A happy feeling isn’t available for anybody outside the happy person to look at or measure or study.

But these researchers put together two different sets of data that had been collected over the years. One was a subjective study where the researchers had gone around, to 1.3 million people it turns out, in all 50 states, and simply asked them how happy they are.

And another set of researchers had, for several years, collected data of various kinds of factors that most people think affect our quality of life, factors, like sunny days versus cloudy days, and air quality, and traffic, and the crime rate, and how long it takes an average person to commute to work, and the number of public parks, and the tax rate, and how many students there are per teacher in the public schools, and how much it costs to buy housing and groceries, and so on.

And what these new researchers found, in their study published last month in the journal of science, is that there is a very strong correlation between the kinds of objective factors that everyone agrees should be related to happiness, and people’s self-reported levels of happiness.

It’s kind of a small point actually, but very crucial for social scientists. The conclusion is, that if people tell you they feel happy, you can trust that they really are happy. People who live in places where all of the objective measurements of happiness are good: low crime, and low taxes, and clean air, and sunny days, and short commutes and so on, will also tell you that they feel happy.

People in California are less happy than people in almost any other state in the United States, because, well, we’ve got terrible traffic, and we’ve got long commute times, and we pay high taxes, and it’s expensive to live here, and the air quality is better than it was but still pretty bad, and our public schools are overcrowded and so on and so on.

Which still leaves me with two questions.

One, given all of that, why do I feel so happy? Why would I still rather live in Los Angeles than Louisiana?

And secondly. If California is such a terrible place to live why do 37 million people want to live here, more than any other state? More than 1 in 10 Americans live in California, when, it turns out, they’d be happier almost anywhere else.

I’ve got two answers.

The first answer is one given by the researchers themselves, who were also surprised that highly-populated states like California and New York ranked so low on the list. They pointed out that California enjoys a lot of happiness-producing features that make people want to move here, but then, because so many people do move here, the huge population creates a lot of unhappy effects. People move here because of the weather and the beaches and the mountains, but then all the people create smog and traffic and expensive housing. In the long run a slightly less beautiful place, that also has fewer people in it, makes for happier living.

My second answer, though, goes beyond the scope of the study. If you tell me that I would be happier living in Louisiana than I would in Los Angeles, my response is first of all not to believe you. But then if you whip out this study from the Journal of Science and prove to me that not only would I be happier in Louisiana than Los Angeles but I actually would be a lot happier in Louisiana than Los Angeles, and happier in almost any state of the union than I would be in California, then my response has got to be: happiness isn’t everything.

With the copy of Science waved under my nose, I suppose I have to admit that by both objective and subjective measurements people are happier most everywhere in the country than they are in Los Angeles. But I’m still not leaving. So there must be some other reason than happiness that keeps me here.

And that reason that I stay here might also be the reason that so many other people stay here and that makes Los Angeles and New York the most populated cities in the country, and California and New York the number one and number three most populated states in the country despite being 46 and dead last in happiness ranking.

It must be that happiness isn’t everything. Happiness is important. And happiness may even be the most important thing. But happiness isn’t the only important thing. People want to feel happy, but people also want to feel challenged, which doesn’t make you feel happy, but may create a more satisfying and meaningful life in the long run. People want to feel productive, like they’ve made a difference and made things better, which means they want to live in a place that needs to be better. People want to feel needed. If it’s too easy and nice and happy already, than there’s nothing to do or to add. People want to feel stirred up and inspired and provoked. Happy feelings are never going to get us out of the house and into the street, but passion, and discrimination and anger over injustice are going to get us motivated. It doesn’t feel happy, exactly, to struggle for an important cause but it feels good. People like to compete, which means there needs to be something to compete against, and the real risk that we might lose now and then. People like the feeling of overcoming obstacles, which means you need obstacles to overcome. We want to feel comfortable, but most people understand that it’s interesting and kind of fun to feel uncomfortable now and then, to feel a little discomfort, and adventure and risk. People like to see new things, and have new experiences, which always means stepping outside of the comfortable and familiar.

People choose to live in Los Angeles and New York City, because it’s kind of tough to live here. It’s a struggle, sometimes, and that feels good. It isn’t always pretty. It isn’t always pleasant. Sometimes it’s miserable. Sometimes it’s infuriating. And then sometimes the sun comes out after a couple of days of rain, or you stumble upon a new Ethiopian restaurant, or a 50 seat theater puts on a great new play in your neighborhood, or the freeway is clear when you expected it to be jammed, and suddenly you feel not just happy, but that kind of joy that comes from happiness that has been earned by a period of suffering for it. Happiness that isn’t just handed to you but is earned happiness and deeply satisfying because of it.

I think, for instance, of this church. I think of the struggle that so many of you have had in this church for so many years. I’m not going say you weren’t happy, because I suspect mostly you were. But I know it hasn’t been easy. By any objective measure, this hasn’t been a place conducive to happy-church going for quite a long time. A researcher would have come in here and they would have measured the deficit budget, and the small size of the membership, and the turn-over in ministers. And they would have counted the broken windows, and the broken tiles on the roof. And they would have sat through a lifeless worship service or two, and counted the number of empty rooms upstairs, and counted the number of evenings during the week when the building was dark. And by any objective standard of church-happiness, I’m sorry to say, the church would have been ranked down in the California and New York range.

There’s a lot of churches in the Los Angeles area, that are objectively happier than this one. There’s a lot of Louisiana churches out there, which you could easily have chosen to go to instead of this one. You probably passed a few “happy” churches on you way to church here this morning. But you didn’t stop at those. You came here. And I believe you came here for the same reason that people come to California from every state of the union. You came here because here you presence can make a difference. At this church there is something that you can do. Here you are truly needed. Here we need your work and your energy and your passion and your vision.

Here there is challenge. There is uncertainty. There’s a risk of failure. And there’s also something crucially important at stake. There’s the long history of the church and all those people who poured their lives into this place now wondering what we’re going to do with their legacy, and whether we’ll be able to pass the church on to a new generation. And there’s the larger faith of Unitarian Universalism in America wondering whether it’s really possible in our movement to have successful, urban, multicultural, multilingual congregations. And there’s a neighborhood around us searching for a center for their community and in desperate need of a safe place to gather for education and fellowship and activism and fun.

And when you put together that challenge and risk of failure with the high stakes of something important to be accomplished, then you create excitement. You create adventure. You create inspiring purpose. You create what they call in religious communities, “mission.”

Our church is called to serve. And the institutions and people who are called to serve don’t go where happiness is, they go where challenge is. They go to Haiti and build houses. They go to Africa and care for people with AIDS patients. They feed the hungry, they free the oppressed, they teach, they organize, they heal, they love.

It is the challenge of this church that calls us to be here. Happiness is our responsibility to create. But there is much more satisfaction available to us here in the good, hard work of taking the rough clay and unrealized promises of this great church, and building it into the fulfillment of our vision, than there is in worshiping in a comfortable cathedral already constructed before we arrive.

We are the designers of the dream. We are the architects of joy. We are the builders of beauty. We are the creators of this church. And on the day when the church we have made starts to look like the church of our vision we will feel a feeling much greater than mere happiness.

I look forward to that day.

Insomnia

2009-12-16T13:32:00.000-08:00

I couldn't sleep last night so I lay there trying to come up with the longest word I could think of where all the letters come in alphabetical order. I came up with "almost". Can you think of a better one?

at last a pic of my new car

2009-12-10T16:44:00.000-08:00

Here you go

wet car

2009-12-07T17:18:00.000-08:00

It's raining today in Los Angeles. And I needed to drive up to Santa Clarita for a church meeting. I was worried about taking my new car in the rain because it's a soft-top convertible, and I'm still feeling over protective. But we have a friend visiting who needed to use our bigger car to do some shopping so I didn't have a choice.

I needn't have worried. Not only was the soft top perfectly fine. But it turns out my car has a feature I didn't even know it had: windshield wipers that sense the amount of water on the windshield and automatically adjust their speed. What a smart car!

Here are some other features on my new car that my eleven-year-old car didn't have and which I know consider to be absolutely indispensable, of course:

heated seats
automatic headlights
a mute button on the radio.
an outside temperature gauge
low tire pressure warning light
rear defroster that turns itself off after a minute.
In dash 6 CD changer.

And let's not forget the automatic convertible top that I can even put up and down while driving.

Oh, and it gets 43 miles per gallon on the highway.

new library

2009-12-01T17:26:00.000-08:00

Silver Lake has a new library: a branch of the Los Angeles Public Library. It's super close to our home - just the other side of the lake. And a gorgeous mid-century modern style building, modeled after the architectural style SIlver Lake is famous for.

I grew up going to libraries but had lately switched over to buying books, mostly because there was no nice, convenient facility. But I am ready to switch back to being a book-borrower, and as I'd watch the library slowly go up over the last couple of years I grew increasingly impatient to get started.

FInally they had the grand opening with the public officials, and then an open house day for the neighborhood. My parents happened to be in town for Thanksgiving, and being library supporters themselves we all went over to check it out. It's a gorgeous building. A good-sized community room. A small collection but it's plugged in to the entire Los Angeles Library system so everything is accessible. And the collection in the stacks is neighborhood appropriate (I noticed an extensive array of BGLT books).

I also like the modern touches. Self check out. Automatic book return (you place them on a conveyer belt and a machine process them back into the library). I put a book on hold and they notified my by email when it came in a few days later. Besides the books there are cds and DVD to borrow as well.

My car is cuter than yours

2009-12-01T17:20:00.001-08:00

I first saw these little two seater "Smart" cars in Amsterdam and have wanted one ever since. They are adorable first of all. And they make perfect sense for urban driving. It took several years before they started selling in the US, about two years ago. I held on to my old Mazda Protege because it was paid for and running well. And I had made a vow several years ago that my next new car would be a plug-in electric.

I broke the vow. The Mazda started needing some major repairs this year: new struts, a new catalytic converter. As I got closer to needing to get it smog checked and paying for next year's registration I began to take a closer look at how worn out the car was looking. I bought it in 1999 and had put 138,000 miles on it. Plus a friend of mine bought a Smart car and seeing his made me fall in love with it again. He raved about it.

Peleg liked the idea. So on Saturday when we were out for the day we stopped by the dealership. We liked a black and white convertible. (I had hoped for a yellow one but they discontinued that color last year). The service was friendly. The price was right. It all felt good so we went for it. I came back the next day in my Mazda so they could take it as a trade-in, and I drove my new car home that evening.

Rest in Peace

2009-10-29T18:34:00.001-07:00

My Homily from Wednesday evening's "Valley Vesper" service on the theme of rest.

I just got back from a week’s vacation. Peleg and I took a cruise down the West Coast of Mexico. 7 days of sun, and pool and catching up on reading, and sleeping in, and somebody else to make all our meals and keep the room tidy. Talk about rest and relxation. I suppose I could call my entire trip research for this homily and write it off my taxes as a business expense.

Well not exactly rest and relaxation. Not entirely. I’m not sure how much it was in the news here, but off the west coast of mexico we ran into a little weather event called Hurricane Rick.

When we left San Pedro a week ago Sunday, Hurricane Rick was a category 4 storm moving north up the coast of Mexico while we were headed south. By the time our boat and the storm met somewhere between Puerto Vallarta and Mazatlan, Hurricane Rick had a become a category 5 hurricane. That means winds greater than 155 miles per hour, and waves breaking well over 20 feet.

The cruise line dealt with the storm by skipping our stop in Cabo on Tuesday and firing up all 5 diseal engines to get us as quickly as possible all the way down to Puerto Vallarta. That allowed us, on Tuesday to position our boat hugging the main coast of Mexico while the storm passed us further west, out to sea. So although the storm was bad, we missed the worst part of it.

What we had on Tuesday was a day of heavy rain. And then we had a Tuesday night of even heavier rain, plus wildly rocky seas. The motion wasn’t just up and down but also side to side and back and forth. Kind of like a mild earthquake, but an earthquake that lasted all night long, and lots of crashing and creaking as the boat battled the waves. On Wednesday we pulled into Puerto Vallarta and had a gorgeous sunny day. And beside the one stormy day and night the only real consequence is that we had to skip going to Mazatlan, who had closed their port due to the storm, and spend an extra day in Puerto Vallarta. Boo hoo, right?

The gift of a extreme weather event like that is that it gives clear evidence of the power of nature, a non=human power that we so often do our best to deny or ignore, or compensate for. Last Tuesday night with the rain pounding against the cabin window and the sea rising and falling, and the huge boat rocked back and forth like a bath tub toy, there was no denying that while we were safe, we humans were very small, and the world is very large.

We humans are very powerful, so my theology firmly believes and my faith devoutly teaches. But we are not completely powerful. There are things we cannot do by and for ourselves. And we are not the only power in the world. There are other forces working hard and not always with our goals in mind. Sometimes there comes up in our lives waves that push us around, that we are not able to push back. Sometimes in our lives category 5 winds blow that can’t blow us right over. I know it’s true in your life, and it’s true in my life as well. Sometimes I’m just a small and frightened Reverend Ricky, standing against a fearsome Hurricane Rick.

Usually it’s good spiritual health to name on our power, affirm our power and to maximize our power to make change in the world. It takes our action to heal, to fight, to speak up, to protect, to comfort, to demand, to imagine, and to persuade. But sometimes, faced with a situation where we lack the ability to change the circumstances around us, it’s good spiritual health to name the limits of our power, and instead of striving in vain to assert ourselves, it’s good spiritual health to learn to submit.
What could I do against a category 5 hurricane? I didn’t curse the storm on Tuesday night. I didn’t stand at the bow of the cruise ship and yell. I went to bed. I didn’t tell myself how miserable I was and how our vacation was ruined. I told myself how interesting it was to have this experience and this story to tell. I didn’t scare myself with worries of what might happen. I went to bed, and as I went to sleep I told myself if the ship did get in danger surely they’d be an alarm that would wake me up, and someone with more power in the situation than me would tell me how to get off the boat and safely into a life boat.

I couldn’t change the world, last Tuesday. So I enjoyed what the world offered me. I couldn’t dominate, so I submitted. I couldn’t take meaningful action. So I choose the path of rest.

In the doxology in response to the offering we sang, “with resolve our purpose sing, for years of justice yet to be, when we a better world shall see.” But how do we get that better world? How do we get to those hopefully countless years of justice?

In Taoism we learn the principle of Wu-Wei, translated as inaction, or better “Actionless action.” It’s the principle of getting out of the way and letting the world take care of itself, with trust that because human beings are an element of the natural world nature tends to work on its own for the best. It’s the principle of not interfering in processes that are working themselves out, you’ll only make it worse. It’s not fussing around. Leave it alone. Don’t pick at it. Remove yourself from situations where your attendance adds nothing or only further aggravates a difficult situation.

Imagine trying to drink from a glass of water filled with swirling sand. You could painstakenly try to remove the sand from the water., and good luck with that. Or you could just let the glass stand by itself for a little while and the sand will naturally sink to the bottom of the glass.

So we get to that better world and those years of justice through a combination of doing, and not doing. Of adding what we can to the progress toward our ideals. And also from keeping faith that there are other sources of power out there doing what they can do, that don’t need our help. Sometimes we can add a lot. Sometimes we can be very helpful. And sometimes the best help we can be is to do very little, to withdraw, to wait, to watch. To say a little prayer. To go to bed.

As we approach this holiday with all its demands for doing, and buying, and arranging, and planning, and fretting, and compromising, and attending and hosting; (talk about a category 5 storm!) remember that more doing is not always the best path, for you personally, or for the goal you’re trying to accomplish. As we face in our churches troubling situations of a minister suddenly resigning, or hiring a new RE Director, or debate over how to spend money, or brainstorming ideas about how to raise money, or worries that a program will die if we don’t volunteer to take over as the chair, remember that sometimes you need to do, and sometimes you need to don’t.

Sometimes you need to engage, and sometimes you need to say a blessing and withdraw. Sometimes you church needs you, and sometimes we really don’t. Sometimes you need to get yourself up and go, and sometimes we really need you to stay put. Sometimes there’s that one late night meeting you really need to attend. And sometimes the best thing for you and for the church is to make yourself a cup of hot chocolate and go to bed.

I wish there was a clear rule for knowing the difference between the time to act and the time to refrain from acting. There is no rule. Discerning which is called for is the essence of spirituality. Just know that in every situation there are two options. You can act, when acting is useful. And you can rest, when inaction is the better course. So rest when you should. Rest well. And Rest in Peace.

The Fun Theory

2009-10-29T13:27:00.000-07:00

Love This:

The Fun Theory

Encourage people to do easy, good-for-them and good-for-the-world things (like taking the stairs, recycling, not littering) by making the activity fun.

Apparently good health and a clean sustainable environment isn't enough incentive. What does this imply for our churches? We preach about "bigger-than-you" values like justice, and equality, and saving the planet. We also preach about making choices that benefit in the long term like "seventh generation" thinking. Apparently what really gets people to change behavior is immediate, personal reward. No surprise there, but is there a way we can make use of that human selfishness and short-sightedness to still accomplish our goals?

federal hate crimes legislation passes

2009-10-29T10:32:00.000-07:00

The Federal government has now added sexual orientation, gender identity, and disability to the categories of persons covered by hate crimes penalties. I have mixed feelings.

Hate crimes laws add additional penalties to crimes based on the motivation of the act. If I beat you up because I want to steal your wallet I get one sentence. If I beat you up because you're black or (now) gay, I get an additional sentence on top of the punishment for stealing. The motivation doesn't make the act more violent. The victim doesn't suffer any additional physical hurt. If the attacker is screaming "nigger" or "queer" during the act it may cause some additional mental suffering, but it is not, if fact, illegal, to yell "nigger" or "queer" (unless it's perceived as an actual threat to do violence). So the only act that hate crimes legislation actually punishes is not an act at all, but a thought: the mental state of the attacker, the contents of their mind.

The ability to think what I want to think is an essential freedom, even more important than the ability to say what I'm thinking (protected by the first amendment). So I cannot, and do not support the whole concept of hate crime laws.

However, hate crime laws have been around for decades, and there is zero chance, at least at present, that they will go away. So the practical question is: do I support adding sexual orientation, transgender and disability to the list?" Reluctantly I answer, "Yes." If there is a list of people who are subject to acts of violence merely because of belonging to a group, GLBT folks and disabled folks should be on the list. Hate crimes legislation is a means of recognizing that gay bashing occurs and that our government notices and objects. That's the only legitimate purpose I can see for hate crime laws.

But there are still two problems. Firstly, I don't like being added to a list of victims. If the Federal government really wanted to name GLBT oppression and move to end it I would rather they stop oppressing me - allow me to serve openly in the military, recognize my marriage - rather than permanently enshrining me as a person who needs special protection.

My final objection (another abstract objection that has zero chance of changing in the real world) has to do with the way we have learned to incrementally advance civil rights by creating lists. My legal protections and rights should not be contingent on whether my group has amassed the political power to get our name on a list. Governmental protections and rights should be based on general principles that apply to all people. Creating lists open up the perception that some group is getting "special rights" when all that's being done is affirming the same rights already existing be applied equally to all persons. It's always wrong to discriminate no matter what criteria you're using, except for the criteria directly relevant to the situation. We shouldn't have to wait for an ENDA (Employment Non-Discrimination Act) to tell us that there's no legitimate reason to fire an otherwise competent employee just because they're gay. And there's no need to have hate crimes legislation to recognize that violent crimes, regardless of the motivation, are unacceptable and will be punished.

flu by any other name would leave me beat

2009-10-01T10:55:00.000-07:00

It's been a bad couple of weeks for my physical health. First we had the local fires filling the air with smoke and ash. For a couple of days there at the end of August it was really thick. Public health officials encouraged folks to stay indoors with the air conditioning on. Then the fires mostly ended and/or moved east, but the Santa Ana wind pattern kicked in bringing hot dry winds from the east instead of the cooler moist air we get off the ocean. The change in winds meant breathing in a whole spectrum of desert pollens we hadn't had to deal with in several months. I got what I thought was an allergic reaction: itchy eyes and sinus congestion.

Well that may have been true, but over last weekend I moved on to something other than allergies. Whether it's a cold, or flu, and which flu, only a lab could tell me. But I do know my "allergies" got worse over Friday and Saturday and Sunday. I did a wedding Saturday evening and felt pretty well, but on Sunday after preaching in the morning followed by two back to back meetings in the afternoon, I came home completely exhausted and collapsed into a deep sleep at about 9 PM. Monday I did some housework in the morning and then drove off for a three-day minister's gathering, our annual fall retreat and UUMA Chapter meeting. I lasted through the afternoon "check-in" and then retired to my hotel room for a bath and some over the counter medication and a long sleep

Tuesday I got myself out of bed for some scheduled events I needed to participate in at the minister's meeting then came back to the hotel and slept and watched TV all afternoon and night. The sinus congestion started to ease but I was feeling feverish and weak and achey so it looked like I had the flu. Wednesday morning I felt a little better. I attended the last of the minister's meeting and then drove home, and then spent all that afternoon and evening in bed at home.

Today I'm definitely through the worst, and grateful that I have a day where the only work I need to do is some writing.

language for a proposed CA Constitutional amendment

2009-09-24T14:34:00.001-07:00

I really wish they would have waited, but here's the language submitted to the California Attorney General by Love, Honor, Cherish, (and a coalition of other groups) seeking to over turn Proposition 8 on the 2010 November ballot.

This amendment would amend an existing section of the California Constitution. Existing language proposed to be deleted is printed in italics type. Language proposed to be added is printed in bold type.

Section 1. To protect religious freedom, no court shall interpret this measure to require any priest, minister, pastor, rabbi, or other person authorized to perform marriages by any religious denomination, church, or other non-profit religious institution to perform any marriage in violation of his or her religious beliefs. The refusal to perform a marriage under this provision shall not be the basis for lawsuit or liability, and shall not affect the tax-exempt status of any religious denomination, church or other religious institution.
Section 2. To provide for fairness in the government’s issuance of marriage licenses, Section 7.5 of Article I of the California Constitution is hereby amended to read as follows: Sec. 7.5. Only marriage between a man and a woman is valid or recognized in California. Marriage is between only two persons and shall not be restricted on the basis of race, color, creed, ancestry, national origin, sex, gender, sexual orientation, or religion.

Whether the proposition actually gets on the ballot in November next year depends on the ability to gather the required signatures. The group has plans to start signature gathering in November. They appear to have sufficient financial resources to succeed with that step.

Of course I'll vote for the proposition if it appears on the ballot, but I won't sign a petition to place it there. I don't have the energy, or the time, or the money, to contribute to a political campaign on this issue next year. And like me, I don't think many of the folks who worked on the No on 8 campaign last year are eager to do it again. Marriage equality is important but it's not the only issue competing for my dollars and time. Nor do I think our chances of being successful are much improved from last year. It's more difficult to ask people to change existing law (our task now) than it is to affirm an existing law (our task last year - which we lost). The people who voted Yes on 8 haven't changed their minds since a year ago, and the midst of a political campaign where they receive conflicting sound byte messages is not a great place to persuade them to change their minds. Furthermore, every time people are asked to confirm their opposition to marriage equality (by casting a vote or responding to a poll) it gets that much harder to get them to change their minds in the future.

And finally there's that ballot language itself. Section 1 is obviously designed to counter the argument that conservative churches will be forced to marry same-sex couples. But that argument was never valid in the first place. Does raising the issue, even to deny it, not also give the argument validity? Was this language sufficiently focused-group to make sure it isn't counter-productive? And section 2 is a land mine waiting to explode. Does "persons" include children? If it only means adults why doesn't it say so? Does "sexual orientation" protect pedophiles? Does not discriminating against "ancestry" mean that the State can't forbid a brother and sister to marry?

Please don't let this get on the ballot.

public transportation commuter

2009-09-22T09:39:00.000-07:00

I rode the bus to work today. I walked down the hill from my house to West Silver Lake Drive. waited 25 minutes at the bus stop. Then paid $1.25 and rode the bus for less than 15 minutes to the corner of Wilshire and Vermont. I bought a small coffee and a chocolate croissant at the Coffee Bean and Tea Leaf, and then walked down Vermont three blocks to the church.

Later this morning I'm going to walk back up to the same intersection and board the Red Line subway for a trip downtown to join a healthcare rally. Then I'll subway back to the church, work a little more, then take the bus back home.

Except for the long wait at the bus stop the commute was easy. It did make a trip that takes less than 20 minutes in my car last nearly an hour. But that inconvenience would be ameliorated if I had a better notion of the bus schedules. The real problem with the bus though is that I hardly ever have a day when I only need to go to work and then back home. I almost always have to be in several places around town during the course of the day. Or I have an evening meeting and I don't really want to be waiting for the bus at 9:30 at night.

But it did feel good to do it today. And I'll do it again as often as I can.

Maine ballot language

2009-09-17T16:39:00.001-07:00

I just saw the actual ballot language that voters in Maine will see in their voting booths on November 3. Consider your response carefully:

"Do you want to reject the new law that lets same-sex couples marry and allows individuals and religious groups to refuse to perform these marriages?"

"Hmm... If I want to allow my priest to refuse same-sex marriages, then I should approve the law by voting to reject the ballot measure which would... wait, what?"

iLove my iPhone

2009-09-11T13:49:00.001-07:00

I love the way it syncs with my laptop computer address book and calendar. I love the built-in GPS. Three times already (I got it about 6 weeks ago) I've been in the car with an address but no directions and the phone gave me a turn by turn route. I love my NY Times app. I can sit in a restaurant and catch up on the latest news as I eat my lunch without having to buy a paper. I love the voicemail menu that allows me to go directly to the message I want to hear, and fast forward or go back in the message - like to recheck a phone number. I love the voice control command. And so on and on and on. Genius.

But I've had a problem with the phone itself. I could barely hear anyone calling even with the volume turned all the way up. If I used the earbuds, OK, but not possible to use the phone with the thing pressed against my ear. I thought about taking it back to the store but hadn't gotten around to it. Then a friend suggested it might be a problem with the clear plastic screen I had bought to protect the phone. The screen has a cut out for the speaker but my friend suggested that even if the plastic was covering the speaker a tiny bit it might be causing the problem. That sounded plausible but on the other hand I'd been really careful putting the screen on in the first place and it didn't look misaligned.

Finally yesterday I got around to peeling the screen off and taking a look. Surprise surprise. the little piece of plastic that is supposed to be cut out wasn't actually cut out. It was still attached to the screen, and perfectly covering the speaker. I popped the plastic piece out, put the screen back in place - now with an actual hole over the screen - and now it works perfectly.

a moral obligation to care for the sick.

2009-09-10T12:48:00.000-07:00

In my previous post on the healthcare debate I was reacting not to any proposed policy but rather the tone and tactics of the discussion. (How I wish it actually were a discussion.) I was very pleased in Obama's speech last night that he addressed that issue as well as specific policies. He named the lies for what they were. He accurately characterized some of the arguments as designed to kill reform to score a political "win" rather than seeking to improve a bill or offer alternative ideas. And he reiterated his conviction that it is still possible to have a reasonable discussion that doesn't descend into acrimony and name calling. (During the speech he was named-called on the House floor, "You lie!" so I'm less optimistic about this point but I hope it's true.)

But what about the policy itself?

Universal health care.
We have a moral obligation to care for the sick. This is not a situation where people must take personal responsibility or suffer the consequences. Few of us are willing to simply let the sick among us suffer because of lack of money or because of a bad decision they made some time earlier. Healthcare is a community responsibility. We have already adopted this principle through our policy of allowing the indigent to use emergency rooms. The reform movement only wants to build on this principle in a way that is more efficient and less expensive.

Portable, secure, healthcare
Healthcare should not be dependent on life circumstances that are transitory. Employment is transitory; no one should lose healthcare because they lose a job, or change jobs. Good health is transitory; no one should lose healthcare because they get sick. Place of residence is transitory; no one should lose healthcare because they move from one city to another or from one state to another. Family situations are transitory; no one should lose healthcare because they get divorced, or their spouse dies. Age is transitory; no one should lose healthcare because they age-out of a covered age bracket. All of this simply points back to the first principle: healthcare should be universal. We have a moral obligation to care for the sick. Anyone who is a citizen of the United States should be guaranteed healthcare by the US government.

Private insurance is incompatible with universal healthcare
The benefit of health insurance is that by buying into the system when I'm healthy, if I get sick I know I will receive the care I need regardless of my ability to pay. But if health care without regard to ability to pay is required by law (and moral obligation) than the insurance company no longer adds any benefit. Private insurance companies can only add an expensive drain on a universal health care system, adding costs of redundant staff and paperwork and advertising and so on. A single-payer system could provide the same administrative function much more efficiently and inexpensively.

rationed healthcare
Not to avoid the elephant in the room, healthcare is not an infinite resource. There are limited numbers of hospital beds, doctors, MRI machines, transplantable organs, and so on in every area of healthcare. A universal healthcare policy must have some means of guaranteeing a basic amount of coverage to all persons before it agrees to fund higher levels of care for some few people. People seeking care beyond the basic level would then have the option of paying out of pocket or entering into something like the current private healthcare insurance system.

If I'd only twitter'd

2009-09-10T10:52:00.000-07:00

My cleaning lady showed up at the house this morning and told me she had seen a great crowd of cyclists in Griffith Park this morning. She wondered if I had been among them and had looked for me, but of course I wasn't there. She said there had been traffic control officers and everything was quite orderly but a lot of people.

I was curious because I hadn't been aware of any big cycling event planned for today.

Later in my car I heard on the news that Lance Armstrong had decided on a whim to twitter the fact that he was going to go for a ride this morning and invited anybody who wanted to come along to meet him at the LA Zoo. Damn! And the thing is, Lance Armstrong is the only person I actually follow on Twitter, only I had come home from a late church meeting last night, had a snack and went to bed without checking my feed.

People apparently drove for hours to get a chance to meet him. I would only have had to hop on my bike - the LA zoo is 10 minutes from my house and I pass it regularly on my standard park ride. And so many people turned up that even for a spontaneous event they had to call in crowd control forces. Amazing.

Healthcare debate

2009-09-08T16:56:00.000-07:00

The Healthcare debate has left me very disappointed in the American people. What a colossal show of ignorance and incivility we've suffered through for the last month. Is it no longer possible to have a civil political discussion? Can we no longer disagree respectfully? Is there no chance of engaging in discourse with the intention of listening and learning rather than shouting down and storming off?

The glee with which the right shut down town hall meetings rather than presenting alternative ideas, the ease with which ideas were dismissed with pejorative words (socialism, facism, Nazi) rather than engaged and dealt with on their merits, the circus-like atmosphere of hijacking meetings with death threats and public displays of weapons, all horrified and shocked me. Even if the nonsense was amplified by the media (which it surely was) even a small amount of that kind of nuttiness deflated a lot of my faith in democracy.

My faith tells me that humans beings have inherent worth and dignity. I believe that, while also admitting that people are not always going to act out of that essential quality. But I also know that if we are going to succeed in the great transformation of society into the realm of peace, love, and justice, that I seek, that it is going to require the cooperation and co-creation of all of us (or at least most of us - we can carry a few with us who refuse to do their share, but these are big goals that require a lot of workers). When I see people who not only don't want to work toward the same goals I seek, but don't even seem interested in the idea of working together with anyone on anything, who seem gleefully happy merely at sowing confusion and mistrust and anger, then I despair as to how we would ever achieve transformational goals.

Los Angeles back to normal

2009-09-08T16:46:00.000-07:00

We have had a miserable couple of weeks in Los Angeles. The huge fire in the Angeles forest is still only about 60% contained, but the fire has moved east, away from populated areas, and the wind is now blowing the smoke further east rather than into the city. Temperatures have dropped by more than 10 degrees. It's actually beautiful today.

When the fires were burning I could see flame from my bedroom window. The fires I could see were about 10 miles away on the sides of the hills above La Crescenta and La Canada. The first night of the fires the flames were near the top of the ridge but on the other side, rather than flames I could only see the orange glow of the flames reflected on the under side of the clouds. But by the next day the fires had come over the ridge and were moving down the hills. My house was in no actual danger, and although I could see that some houses were threatened that was not much danger for anyone in the area I could see. But still it was disturbing to see the flames burning all night. And then especially disconcerting as they continued night after night with the fire for several days getting steadily larger.

On top of that there was very little wind so the smoke settled into the LA Basin and just stayed put. The air was thick. It smelled. News reports told people to limit activity and stay inside. Even with minimal exposure I could feel myself getting sick: respiritory symptoms like a cold or allerigies, fatigue, and a headache. And being warned away from exercise also meant suffering through the usual symptoms I experience when I'm disconnected from my gym days and cycling: more fatigue, depression, and decreased spiritual health.

It's great to be back to normal

Al Franken is rapidly becoming the coolest Senator

2009-09-08T16:43:00.000-07:00

Evidence:

Here:

and Here:

starbucks

2009-09-08T16:41:00.000-07:00

why is it always so frakin cold in every Starbucks? Are they trying to sell more hot coffee? Or are they trying to make the folks on laptops (like me) so uncomfortable that we give up our seats?

California Marriage equality: 2010 or 2012 is not the question

2009-07-30T14:05:00.000-07:00

I'm back in Los Angeles today after two days in Sacramento meeting with Unitarian Universalist leaders in the marriage equality movement. We're forming a steering committee to work with the Unitarian Universalist Legislative Ministry on this topic.

On Tuesday we met with Samuel Chu, the interim executive director of California Faith for Equality, and with Harry Knox, who heads the faith-based program for the Human Rights Campaign. On Wednesday, just the Unitarian Universalist leaders met to create an action plan for our congregations. It was very clear from our conversation very early on that the question of whether marriage equality activists should place a constitutional amendment on the California ballot to restore marriage equality in 2010, or 2012 is the wrong question. In practical terms the answer is clear: we're not ready. But 2010 or 2012 isn't really the question.

2010 or 2012 focuses entirely on the ballot, which is only a piece of the necessary work. The larger goal is not 51% of the electorate relunctantly granting us marriage, the goal is a cultural shift that sees gay and lesbian persons as full respected citizens of the state. That goal is not achieved legislatively. It's achieved through public education and advocacy, through relationship building, and through normalizing gay and lesbian lives through visibility and time.

The other false frame of the 2010 or 2012 question is the implication that unless we act now we are agreeing to submit to injustice. But public education and advocacy and relationship building and living our lives openly and proudly is justice work. It's not waiting; it's working. And it's not submitting; it's persuading folks who have already voted against once not to confirm their vote but to change their minds and hearts.

That's the work we need to do in our churches and communities, not raising money for signature gathering and ads, and phone-banking. Rather than leaping unprepared into a political campaign as a reaction to our hurt and anger, let's time the political campaign to the point in the movement when we've already won the issue before the campaign even begins.

California marriage equality can't wait.

2009-07-23T16:38:00.001-07:00

I've been reading reports from a number of political analysts this week discussing whether marriage equality proponents in California should put the question back to voters in 2010, or wait until 2012. All of them agree that we should wait. I've been reading in preparation for a meeting I've been asked to attend with political strategists next week, and then a follow-up meeting with my own faith leaders to plan a coordinated action plan for our churches.

Because the proposition this time around would be "our" proposition, we can set the timing - we don't have to react to a proposition presented by the other side. Waiting allows us to raise more money, to educate the electorate, to finely craft our message, to build the organizational structure we need for the campaign, and, (every analyst mentions it) to allow more older voters to die and be replaced by younger, "what's the big deal?" voters.

In fact, that last issue may be the only real argument for waiting, because waiting also gives the other side more time to raise money, and craft their message and build their organization, and so on; it's not like we're going to catch them by surprise.

But if our real strength is in generational turnover, rather than education or organization or what have you, then there's also not much reason to wait. Older voters will continue to die off whether we fight and lose in 2010, or don't fight at all. So we haven't hurt our chances in 2012, and we might win.

And in my position as a faith leader, not a political operative, the question is clear. Justice deferred is justice denied. Californians are dying every day never having had the benefit of having their relationship recognized by the state they live in and pay taxes in. Gay kids are spending their formative years with the message that they are second class citizens. GLBT persons are being violently attacked by folks encouraged in their hate by a government that doesn't see us as real people. A political campaign, even a losing one, serves to illustrate that injustice and the real damage done to real human lives. It's not my role as a person of faith or an activist to say, "wait until later."

GLBT folks as full respected citizens

2009-07-21T14:49:00.001-07:00

The Matthew Shepherd Act continues to work it's way through Congress as an amendment to a Department of Defense Bill. The bill has now been stripped of the fighter plane funding that Obama has said he would veto. But the bill still faces opposition from Republicans and a challenge from the ACLU which seeks broader free speech protection than in the current Senate version of the bill.

Hate Crimes legislation seems to have two goals. The first is to make sure that all people are protected by current criminal laws, regardless of their sexual orientation. Great idea, but we don't need Hate Crimes legislation to do that. We simply need to enforce existing laws equally. What's required for that is a cultural change that you can't mandate by law: society viewing GLBT persons as full respected citizens.

The second goal is to punish crimes more severely when they are motivated by animus to an entire group of people. That sounds like thought crimes to me, and I don't buy the argument that all GLBT persons are victims whenever one of us is gay-bashed. In any case, increasing the punishment of a single criminal doesn't serve the underlying goal of increasing respect for GLBT persons. In fact the greater time in jail would likely have the opposite effect. Once again the underlying goal, impossible to mandate by law, is a cultural change viewing GLBT persons as full respected citizens.

If the goal is affirming the full and respected citizen status of GLBT persons, Hate Crimes legislation is not only ineffective but hypocritical while DADT and DOMA are still on the books. The most effective way to enact the required cultural change of viewing GLBT folks as full respected citizens would be to start treating us as such under Federal law. Allow us to marry. Allow us to serve in the armed forces. Allow the public to see their GLBT neighbors as full citizens, with the Federal government modeling that attitude not undercutting it.

Sunday in Santa Paula

2009-07-21T14:19:00.000-07:00

My church in Santa Clarita got kicked out of our usual worship space on Sunday. The Senior Center where we rent space is doing some remodeling which required knocking down the east wall of the room we use for worship. So we decided to join one of our neighboring churches for worship and Santa Paula, about 40 miles to the west was able to accomodate us. My sermon is here.

The Santa Paula conregation was very gracious. And their building was a treat for us. Dedicated in 1892 as a Universalist church the building is in a Gothic Romanesque style and boasts impressive stained glass windows.

I spoke to one of the church members about the layout of the church. The worship room is square with the entrance in one corner and the pulpit at the other corner with the center aisle running diagonally across the space. I told the church member I had seen that layout once before in a Methodist church in Mogadore, Ohio where my parents were born, and he told me that he had heard that the architecture was based on something called the "Akron Plan." So that made sense, Mogadore being an Akron suburb.

But I did a little research and it turns out the Akron Plan has nothing to do with the diagonal aisle. Instead, The Akron plan refers to a style of church architecture, first used by the Methodist Episcopal Church in Akron Ohio, where a large central room opens by means of sliding doors on to several smaller classrooms. This allows the Sunday School superintendent to monitor all the classes from a central location and to gather all the students together in the large room for school functions. The Santa Paula church has the one large worship room and two smaller spaces to the sides, one room now used as part of the worship space, the other separated behind a large sliding door they use for their coffee hour.

concert in the evening

2009-07-21T14:00:00.000-07:00

Saturday night Peleg and I went downtown with a friend of ours and his young daughter to catch a free concert on California Plaza as part of a summer series called Grand Performances (on Grand Avenue in LA). The show was a Cuban singer named Albita. Great show. And I liked the music. But the songs did start to sound all the same to me eventually. If I spoke Spanish I would probably have discerned more variety. Or maybe not.

The summer free concert in the park series is such a staple of American culture. I remember walking with my parents up to the community college in Santa Monica to sit in their amphitheater and listen to music and have a picnic. It was great to do that again.

We ate burritos we bought at the Grand Central Market. And I sipped Jack Daniels from a plastic cup.

wedding in the afternoon

2009-07-21T13:47:00.001-07:00

Saturday afternoon I officiated at the wedding of a young couple from my neighborhood. The wedding was held on the grounds of Greystone Mansion, in Beverly Hills. This is a beautiful old building that used to be owned by the Doheny family, a family with oil money.

There's a connection between the Doheny mansion and my own house in a circuitous way. Old man Doheny's business partner had a daughter named Daisy, who married an old silent film actor named Antonio Moreno. Moreno had been a successful leading man in silent films but was reduced to bit player status after talkies came in because his Spanish accent was too thick. So he married Daisy and then used her money to buy property in the Silver Lake area of Los Angeles - then called Ivanhoe. He built a mansion for himself and Daisy on the top of the highest hill and then built several houses in the area, including mine, on Moreno Drive.

The wedding was beautiful. And a lovely location. But very hot, we're having a heat wave in Los Angeles. It was pretty to look out at the congregation and see dozens of pink and green parasols passed out by the wedding coordinator to protect the guests from the sun.

garden in the morning

2009-07-21T13:18:00.000-07:00

First Unitarian Church Garden Celebration from Ricky Hoyt on Vimeo.

Saturday Peleg and I spent the morning at a little street fair on Francis Avenue, the street behind First Church, LA. The occasion was to celebrate a neighborhood garden that the church had helped start 13 years ago. One year ago the City of Los Angeles used money from a proposition approved by voters to create pocket parks in the city, to purchase the land that the church had been renting from the owners for $1 a year. The city then turned management of the garden over to an organization called the Neighborhood Land Trust. Saturday's street fair was a celebration of the first anniversary of the new arrangement.

The garden is a gem. Although the whole program was in place long before I arrived as the minister I'm really proud to have our church involved. It's exactly the kind of church and neighborhood partnership that I'm hoping we will have more of.

Here is the text of the speech I gave as an invocation at the street fair.

Francis Avenue Garden Speech
July 19, 2009

Good morning. My name is Ricky Hoyt. I am the minister of the big church around the corner on 8th Street, the First Unitarian Church of Los Angeles. I am proud that it was members of my church, working with this community, who were able to get this garden started several years ago. And I am very pleased to see that the garden has lasted all these years, and the garden has thrived, and today the garden looks better than it ever has with the generosity of the City of Los Angeles, and the management of the Neighborhood Land Trust, and the partnership of all of you who come to the garden, and work for the garden and love the garden.

I am proud to know that my church has been a partner with this neighborhood in making this garden happen. I am proud to know that my church continues to be involved in this garden as a partner with all of you. I want you to know that my church wants to continue to be a partner with you in other ways as well. We will look for other projects that we can do together. And I want you to think of the First Unitarian Church on eighth street as a place that belongs to you, where you can come for your events, where you can come to find tutoring for your children, where you can come just to rest and to pray. I hope that you will visit us soon.

I’m proud that our church could help get this garden started because my faith tells me that in the midst of our lives we need places like this. In the midst of our city we need places like this. In the midst of a crowded neighborhood where there are so many people but it’s so hard to know our neighbors, we need places like this.

We need places where we can come together with our neighbors. We need places where we can sit in the cool of the evening. Where we can enjoy the sounds of children playing in safety. Where we can smell the earth and growing things. Where we can listen to the soft conversation of our friends.

We need places that are open to the sun and the sky and the rain. We need places that remind ourselves that our food doesn’t come from the store but it comes from the earth. We need places that remind us that there is dirt under our feet, not just concrete. We need places that remind us that we share the earth with other animals, like the chickens who enjoy our garden as much as we do. We need public places where we meet people who aren’t like ourselves: people from different cultures; people who were born in different countries; people who speak different languages; and where we learn more about what it really means to be human in all that ways that people live.

It is from places like this that a true neighborhood is born: a neighborhood where we can work together to achieve big goals; a neighborhood where we can know each other and surround ourselves with friends instead of strangers; a neighborhood where we help each other, giving what we have, and receiving what we need. It is from places like this that we go on together to create more beauty and more joy and more health.

With one place like this we then begin to look around us and see more opportunities to create another gathering place, and another; to plant a tree, or a whole street of trees; to clear space along the street to plant flowers or to set up a bench; to re-paint a building; and fix the broken windows; to pick up the trash when it accumulates; to paint a mural.
Inspired by the joy we feel in this one place that good feeling then starts to spread to other parts of our lives. We are happier in our homes. We are happier in our jobs. We do better in school. We smile at the strangers that we pass on the sidewalk. We find it easier to hold out our hands to help a friend in need.

Today we should be proud both of what we have already accomplished with this garden, and also eager to let this garden be only the beginning of a movement that will eventually transform this whole neighborhood into a kind of garden: neighborhood garden where instead of growing tomatoes we grow friendships; a neighborhood garden when instead of growing beautiful flowers we grow beautiful people; a neighborhood garden where today we have planted the seeds here in this one place, and years from now, when the seeds have grown into full maturity, we will have the rich harvest of joyful lives.

Thank you all, for being here today. Have a wonderful morning. Make a new friend today. And God bless.

Cycling, broken wrist, where I have heard this before?

2009-07-17T10:37:00.000-07:00

I couldn't help but cringe in sympathetic agony at this picture of Levi Leipheimer with a broken wrist, the same right wrist that I broke in a cycling accident a little more than a year ago.

Leipheimer had been fourth overall in the Tour de France until he fell just short of the finish line in the 13th Stage. Poor guy. He's one of the cyclists I've been watching as he's long been a teammate of Lance Armstrong's. Leipheimer has won the local Tour de California three time. I'll be curious to see how he recovers. My own wrist is probably as healthy as it's going to get but I have not regained the complete range of motion I had prior to the accident.

Lance Armstrong remains in third. I'm wearing his LiveSTRONG band on my left wrist. I think I'll switch it to my right wrist and see if it helps the healing.

Conflicted about Hate Crimes

2009-07-17T09:51:00.000-07:00

It's hard not to be excited about the passage of Federal Hate Crimes legislation - or should I say the passage of an amendment to a Department of Defense bill that also funds F-22 fighters and that Obama has said he will veto, even though he supports the Hate Crimes legislation (talk about conflicted). I'm certainly pleased at the Federal expression of respect and concern for GLBT persons (we don't get a lot of that at the Federal level - and even this one had to be hidden inside an entirely different bill). And I appreciate the clear statement that GLBT persons have the right to live unmolested lives free from violent attacks.

But there also is the problem with Hate Crimes legislation: the violent acts that are subject to Hate Crimes are already criminal acts. Hate Crime circumstances add further punishment only because of the particular motivation of the criminal: additional punishment not for what they did but for why they did it. That moves into the realm of punishing thoughts, which is a disturbing idea to me.

It certainly bothers me to have a car-full of thugs yell "faggot" at me on the sidewalk as they drive by in their car. But that's their freedom of speech, which I support even when repugnant speech. It may even frighten me if the same incident happens late at night as I'm walking away from a gay bar. But still the speech shouldn't be a crime unless there's some evidence of an actual threat of violence. And if the guys do get out of the car and attack me with baseball bats I want them arrested and tried and punished for the attack not for the words they're yelling or what they're thinking but not saying. I can't imagine that I would be any more hurt or frightened if they were yelling "faggot" than if they were yelling "Unitarian" or "Dodger-fan" or saying nothing at all. So why punish them more severely for one word than for other words or no words?

The argument I've heard to support Hate Crimes legislation, is that because the attack is directed at a class of persons (all faggots) rather than a particular person, that the crime is different from an attack motivated by robbery or choosing a victim at random. All GLBT persons are victims of a hate crime, not just the person being beaten, and therefore the punishment needs to be harsher.

But the argument that when a gay bashing occurs across town I'm somehow a victim while I'm sitting comfortably at home, makes no sense. The attacker is targeting that gay person, not all gay persons (although any gay person could have been the victim). A robber is targeting that person's wallet, not all people with wallets (although anyone would do). A psycho bent on random violence is targeting that random person, not all people (although it might have been anyone).

The Hate Crimes designation affords special protection but it also comes with the implication that GLBT persons are special victims and it is time for our community to reject that roll not to further embrace it.

headache

2009-07-16T14:06:00.000-07:00

Yesterday I had a miserable headache. I had spent the day on the computer. A long day at the First Church office working through a variety of meetings and issues. Lunch at my desk. Not really any dinner. Then a class in the evening. The headache came on while I was in the class and lingered as a came home. I went straight to bed and fell right asleep at 10:30 but at 1:19 I was awoken by a barking dog and realized that the headache hadn't gone away and now I couldn't fall asleep again.

I got up and took two Advils. That's usually enough for me but after lying down and trying to get comfortable the pain still hadn't gone away a half hour later. I got up again, really tired but unable to sleep, and took two more pills. I felt pressure behind my right eye, and stiffness in my neck also on the right side. The light from the digital clock beside the bed was painful for me to look at so I covered it up with a magazine. It felt a little better if i stood and tried stretching my hands over my head, and rolling my head from side to side. Finally I got back in bed and tried to lay as still as possible. And sometime around 2:30 I fell asleep again.

And woke up this morning feeling fine.

sales tax hike

2009-07-02T09:45:00.000-07:00

The sales tax in Los Angeles County is now 9.75%. It went up a half a cent yesterday due to a voter approved measure to support local transportation projects. I voted for it. I'm happy to pay it. Well, not happy, but you know.

9.75% is higher than San Diego (8.75), or San Francisco (9.5), or Santa Barbara (8.75). Alameda County (East Bay) has the same rate as Los Angeles County.

Local cities can add their own taxes on top of the county rate. Several small poorer communities in LA County to the south and east of the city have rates of 10.25% (Inglewood, El Monte, Pico Rivera).

Santa Monica and Beverly Hills to the west are both at the county rate, 9.75.

planting today

2009-07-02T09:18:00.000-07:00

Peleg and I wanted a fountain in our front yard and some friends who had recently bought a house had a fountain in their yard that they didn't want. So they gave it to us, and I set it up. It took some doing as it's very heavy, and I had to figure out how the pump works and how to connect it. Eventually I got it going and it worked fine and looked good.

But it was never really satisfactory for more than a day or two. It required regular maintenance to clear out leaves and so own, and adding new water periodically, and now and then even with the fountain running I would find mosquito larvae in the big bowl at the bottom and have to drain the whole thing.

So earlier this week I decided on a new plan. Yesterday I removed all of the upper portion of the fountain (three bowls that pour into each other) and took out the frame they're attached to and the pump, leaving just the big lower bowl. Today I'm going to buy some dirt and turn it into a planter.

Self-appointed justice monitors of the world

2009-06-30T18:12:00.000-07:00

I didn't write a sermon this last Sunday. Instead I preached on some notes I had made about my experience during the previous week at GA. I spoke about our new President, the Standing on the Side of Love campaign, and the vote not to move forward with a revision of our Principles and Purposes. And of course I talked about Multiculturalism.

One of the points I made was the sense that although Unitarian Universalism is 90% white (and has been consistently despite decades of seeking to be more diverse) our whiteness is a product not of racism but of over-attachment to a particular culture, a culture that has taken over the center of our faith and pushed aside the broader principles of Unitarianism (one God working in partnership with creation) and Universalism (divine love for all that makes a universal community out of all existence).

In my talk I described that culture in several ways as I encountered it at GA.

We're complainers, suspicious of power, always thinking each one of us has a better way individually and unwilling to accede authority unquestioningly.

We're tentative with each other about spiritual language and action but deeply needful of spiritual solace and somehow we know that this is the place to seek it and keep trying, even if we don’t know how to do it.

We're in our heads instead of our bodies. You can tell a UU by looking because we’re not body conscious, thin, (maybe because we eat vegetarian) but not sexy; ill-fitting clothes, tee-shirts with slogans, women don’t wear dresses or make-up, men don’t wear coats or ties except for the occasional ironic bow tie. Natural fibers and earth tones. Lots of buttons on vests and hats. Aging naturally. No hair color. Messy hair (men and women). No jewelry (except chalice jewelry). Not ostentatious.

And we're self-appointed justice monitors of the world – and so small and spread so thin that we’re barely effective.

As an example of that last point I used the list of 6 Actions of Immediate Witness, all six being proposed and approved by the delegates, all six being important causes. But is this really our job? Why these six and not 60 others we could have mentioned? Does the vote really accomplish anything other than a momentary ego-satisfaction of proving how caring and aware we think we are?

Here are the six issues we approved:

AIW-1 Advocate Pending Legislation Toward Clean/Verified Elections in the U.S.,
AIW-2 U.S. Ratification of the Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty,
AIW-3 In Support of America’s Red Rock Wilderness Act,
AIW-4 Support Bolivian UUs Struggling for Justice and Human Rights,
AIW-5 U.S.-Sponsored Torture: A Call for a Commission of Inquiry,
AIW-6 Oppose Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity-based Violence in Iraq.

wrestling with multiculturalism

2009-06-30T13:27:00.000-07:00

I met with my spiritual director yesterday and realized that I was still carrying a lot of feelings around the challenges of multiculturalism, challenges for me personally and for our faith.

I blogged last week about my disappointment in the presenter chosen for the minister's continuing education program. I mentioned in my blog her really appalling use of psuedo-science to support what was in any case a pretty basic point. As I spoke about the incident again yesterday with my spiritual director I became clear that I was offended by that anti-intellectualism as I would be offended if a presenter had made blatantly bigoted remarks. It was insulting to me as an educated person, and as part of a faith which historically is associated with high intelligence and the best science and still requires an advanced degree from our clergy, to listen to those remarks unchallenged. Both of my congregation's book clubs are reading presently, The Invention of Air, a biography of Joseph Priestly by Stephen Johnson. I wonder what the Unitarian discoverer of Oxygen would have thought of that day's example of his faith.

My Spiritual Director encouraged me to consider other forms of intelligence, bodily and emotional and so on. And I'm there. What I'm hoping for is multi-culturalism not only a "thinking" faith. But a truly multi-cultural faith requires that reason and logic be lifted up equally with mysticism and activism and ritual and expressions of pastoral care, not abused.

I then was able to contrast that day's presentation with the Conference at Berry Street. Rev. Paul Rasor's essay was the essence of head-space Unitarianism, and also unfulfilling to me. It came across as unfinished, as though he had gotten wrapped up in the interesting work he was doing on statistics but wasn't able to connect that to the real work of our congregations. In fact he announced at the outset of his talk that we should attend the GA workshops if we wanted practical solutions; he was going to focus on theology. And then Rev. McNatt offered a response which was both respectful and appreciative of the work Rev. Rasor had done, but also was able to connect the numbers to the heart-space of how our churches' lack of racial diversity affects people in the pews. Rev. McNatt also offered the very helpful insight that what we're dealing with is a cultural problem rather than a racial problem per se.

Of the two I found Rev. McNatt's talk more satisfying, but having them both together really made the point. We need good thinking and good feeling. And we can speak from either side without doing dis-service to the other.

first zucchini of the year

2009-06-30T13:20:00.000-07:00

Peleg and I ate the first fruits of our home garden last night. I came home from GA to find that two little zucchini that I had noticed before I had left had grown in a week into nice healthy size. I picked them both and Peleg cut one up and sauted it with onions and garlic and fresh basil (also from the garden). Yummy.

Still waiting on the tomatoes, but there's lots of green fruit, so they're coming.

Peter didn't need my vote

2009-06-27T19:37:00.000-07:00

I'm happy to note that Peter Morales has been elected UUA President. He won by 580 votes, rather than losing by one as I had feared (because I was unable to cast my vote). Congratulations to Rev. Morales.

two tee shirts

2009-06-27T16:34:00.000-07:00

At the baseball game in Salt Lake City a man who was sitting in the first row, right on the field in my section wore a white tee shirt with the message:

1 - 20 - 13
Hope for a Change

It took me a minute to figure out what that meant. Then when I did I was shocked. I suppose I shouldn't be, but that's not the kind of sentiment I run across in my neighborhood, or church. I doubt I'd see that tee shirt at Dodger Stadium either.

Then today, at the airport in Salt Lake I saw a man with a black tee shirt on the front of which were spelled out the letters, each letter in it's own separately colored block:

N I
X
O N

Amazing to me that anyone would want to positively associate themselves with that name going so far as to wear a tee shirt like he was a rock star, especially after what's been recently revealed on the tapes.

Unless of course he meant this Nixon.

Mission Accomplished

2009-06-27T07:05:00.001-07:00

I had a short list of things I wanted to accomplish while at GA. Going home this morning I'm happy to say that I checked them off.

I wanted to find out whether the UUA was going to publish a Spanish Language Hymnal Supplement and when it would be available. I'd been hearing rumors this was in the works but hadn't been able to find any definitive information online. I'm going home not only with the information that Las Voces del Camino will be published in two week, but I've already pre-ordered 40 copies for my Los Angeles church with a 10% discount and free shipping.

I wanted to check out a copy of the new Welcome book and see if it was appropriate to replace the Pocket Guide that my Santa Clarita church has been giving out as a present to new members. i picked up two free copies of the book when I checked in for Ministry Days and read the book last night. It's an OK book, but more appropriate for a returning visitor who is considering membership, than for someone who has already joined. I'm going to recommend that we pass out copies to people when they attend our "New to UU" classes.

I also wanted to research children's RE curricula for the Santa Clarita congregation. I didn't actually look at very much of this. The bookstore only had OWL and a few others available to look at. But I did hear an inspiring lecture about children's spirituality and I have a better idea of what I'd like to teach out kids. And I'm aware that we have curricula available on just about any subject you could possibly want so I feel prepared.

Of course, other than those practical goals, the larger purpose of GA is the informal conversations, the meeting up with seldom-seen colleagues, and the inspiration that comes from immersing yourself in a UU world for a few days.

Oh, and I bought a tee shirt.

Effective Leadership Teams

2009-06-26T19:39:00.000-07:00

Just got back from what turns out to be my last workshop event at GA. Rev. Ken Brown, the District Executive of my District, the PSWD, led a low-key workshop on 10 keys to effective leadership teams. About 30 people attended. It was actually a very nice session. We were small enough to chat intimately, which fits well with Ken Brown's personal style. The 10 points he went over were simple to understand, but I could also see how profoundly they would affect a group if fully implemented. The workshop participants asked questions as Ken went through the list and their questions were uniformly relevant and helpful to the room. Several people also shared personal stories and experiences that offered real examples and increased understanding.

Brown had his 10 keys listed on a handout. Unfortunately I didn't get a copy of that so I can't list them all here. But he mentioned the need for congregational leaders to be engaged in their own spiritual practice, to have a clearly defined mission and vision for the organization, to communicate effectively, to address conflict, to focus on results and not just process, to take risks, to have fun. Good stuff.

One reason I wanted to be sure and attend the workshop is that members of my congregation will be attending a leadership school Ken Brown is leading in the fall and I want to make sure I'm on the same page as what they'll be learning. We are.

No Vote for Me

2009-06-26T19:25:00.000-07:00

I'm a Peter Morales supporter in the election for the next President of the Unitarian Universalist Association. But I won't be voting for him. I won't be voting for his opponent, Laurel Hallman, either.

It turns out that on-site voting will only be allowed between noon and 5 PM, tomorrow, Saturday. I'm taking a plane home tomorrow because I need to be at my congregation to preach on Sunday. My plane is at 10:20 AM, travel arrangements I made months ago.

I could have voted absentee, many people have, but it's too late for that now, absentee ballots had to be in the mail weeks ago. And, of course, I never thought about absentee voting because I knew I was going to be here. I didn't discover until I got here that voting would only be allowed during a specific window. I imagined that there would simply be a ballot box set up somewhere where I could drop my ballot at any time.

What frustrates me is that I don't understand why I can't just hand in my ballot before I leave. It's not like there's a particular discussion on an issue involved that I need to be present for. Why can't someone just collect my ballot ahead of time and then process it with the others on Saturday? But I've talked to everyone I can here and the answer is always no. I don't mind rules, but rues with no rational basis anger me. So I give up. I just hope Peter Morales doesn't lose by one vote.

UU University; Multicultural Track

2009-06-26T16:46:00.000-07:00

Yesterday afternoon for 5 hours, and again this morning for an additional 4 hours, all of the GA attendees were divided into 5 "tracks" for intensive education on a particular subject. I choose the Multicultural track. We then spent the entire program time in one group engaged with one set of presenters. I like the idea of focused education, but the format also requires that the program be excellent because there's no option to bail out and attend a different workshop.

Unfortunately I did not think the program I attended was excellent. There were many good things. And the material was worthwhile. But my criticism was that the material was too basic, and also presented at too slow a pace. I was bored. It would have helped if the presenters had recognized that in a group that large there would have been some people to whom this was brand new and others who were well-experienced and maybe divided us into sub-categories who could work at different levels.

The Thursday afternoon session began with a worship service that included multi-cultural elements. Nicely done by the San Jose ministry team. Then the presentation was turned over to an outside consulting group out of Boston called Visions, Inc. Here is where I really felt bogged down. We spent way too long going over basic definitions and guidelines for discussion (try on opposing points of view, see if this can be a both/and situation rather than either/or). These were basic concepts that I suspect were not new to most people in the room. Instead of giving us a quick reminder and moving forward we went through every point in detail, and then broke into small groups to discuss them further. It took forever, and after 3 hours, when I left at a break, I still felt we hadn't gotten to anything substantive.

This morning's program was much better. The full group split into three subgroups and each experienced a panel program on one of three related issues. I attended the panel on sacred conversations around multi-culturalism, mostly due to the high quality of the panel presenters (Bill Sinkford, Gretchen Woods, Sean Parker Dennisen, Sharon Welch, and a young woman named Alice who I didn't know). The panel was co-facilitated by Leslie Takahashi Morris and a young woman named India (I didn't catch her last name). The panel responded to questions from the facilitator with stories from their own experience that illustrated issues we face in our churches around multicultural concerns and attempts to address them.

I realized as I listened that one of the problems I have around this issue is that I keep approaching it in a framework of problem/solution. It's both my culture (white, male) and my personality, to try to quickly discern the problem and then fix it. This isn't that kind of situation, which is why we've been working on it in UU circles for 20 years and are still in the midst of it. It's about a continual process of cross-cultural sharing and personal growth, leading only to deeper growth. It frustrates that there is no end point where we can announce the work finished and move on, but that's the reality I need to accept.

A second frustration I have with this work is that it doesn't match my bias of independent powerful individuals learning the necessary skills and then helping others to do the same. In my experience (again my cultural bias) I'm used to seeing what needs to be done, gathering the skills required, and then addressing the problem and leading other people through the same process. But in this case it isn't possible for any one person to master the situation. My own biases are too deep and too culturally re-inforced for me to overcome. And other people's experiences are too diverse for me to completely understand. This isn't a situation where I, or anyone else, can become enlightened and then move out of the problem. We're always in it. Which means both this isn't a problem that can be solved, only eased incrementally, and also that even to work on the problem requires constantly reaching out to others in community and relying on their skills and insight rather than working on it by myself. That requires me to move out of my own comfort zone, but that's also movement in the direction of more healthy spirituality, so it's a challenge I'm eager to take on.

Sophia Fahs Lecture: Rabbi Sandy Sasso

2009-06-26T16:19:00.000-07:00

Yesterday morning I attended an excellent lecture given by Rabbi Sandy Sasso. Rabbi Sasso was invited by the Liberal Religious Educators Association (LREDA) to give the annual Sophia Fahs lecture, in honor of an early 20th century children's religious educator important to the Unitarian Universalist faith.

Rabbi Sasso is the author of numerous children's books designed to help children engage with their spiritual lives. She is also an excellent speaker particularly in her ability to use stories (both folk tales and real life experiences) to illustrate and expand her points.

The talk was philosophical rather than practical. She said that the two most common reasons adults in our churches shy away from engaging spiritually with children is: a) we think spirituality requires abstract thinking beyond the ability of children, and b) we're afraid that children are going to ask us questions that we don't know the answer to. Sasso pointed out the contradiction in those two fears, and that, therefore, each one actually solves the other. As Fahs herself maintained, Children have spiritual experiences that we need to help them bring out, rather than pushing religious education into them. What they don't have is the capacity for theological reflection. So children have spiritual questions but they aren't looking for theological answers. What they want from teachers is the chance to describe their experiences and what they want in return is not answers but stories of our own spiritual experiences and feelings.

I thought this was an incredibly freeing analysis that would allay the fears of volunteer RE teachers in the classroom. Children want to know what the adult in front of them feels and believes and to hear their story. And instead of limiting our RE curriculum to the black and white kinds of facts that we think children can understand (like memorizing the principles or biographies of famous UUs), we can give them the unique gift of a place where they can bring their questions and feelings about issues that aren't addressed in school work, spiritual issues of loss, and justice and meaning and morality (why did grandpa die? Why are some people wealthy and others poor? How do I know what to do?).

GA break

2009-06-25T08:33:00.000-07:00

The first rule of GA is that you cannot attend everything. Not only are there about 20 workshops available in every slot, but even trying to attend one event in every slot throughout the day would not only be exhausting to the point of physical ill health, but also counter-productive in that your brain and heart would be overwhelmed and you'd end up coming away with actually less than if you had simply concentrated on a few crucial areas.

I skipped the opening plenary session and worship. I'm sure it was lovely. Instead I had drinks and appetizers with three friends, and then two of them and I took a walk around downtown Salt Lake City. We ended up at the library, which is an amazing building. On the grounds they were setting for a huge art festival this weekend, so that was fun. We also enjoyed looking at the Romanesque architecture of the City-County building, which is next door to the library.

The weather is hot. This being just past the solstice the sun is up late. I got back to the hotel room and watched a little CNN (Iran, Gov. Sanford) and went to bed a little after 10.

Conference at Berry Street

2009-06-25T08:07:00.000-07:00

Rev. Dr. Paul Rasor spoke. He began by pointing out the irony of a belonging to a faith that sees itself as the most expansive in the world both theologically (universalism) and socially (worth and dignity of every person, world community with peace, liberty and justice for all) but is actually so provincial in our small, homogenous congregations. The tile of his essay was Ironic Provincialism.

He used demographic statistics to point out that our congregations have remained at about 90% white for the last ten years, besides there having been intense effort to help our congregations become more racially diverse. And that the diversity we do enjoy in our congregations is often among our children, which doesn't mean we just need to wait until they grow up, because, in fact, they aren't likely to stay in a congregation where they feel out of place.

Rev. Rasor did not suggest solutions to the problem. He said he was a theologian and urged us to attend GA workshops for practical help. Theologically he made the excellent point that the real power of Universalist theology is not that we all individually move toward the same salvation, but that Universalist salvation is undertstood corporately, not individually. It isn't about each of us achieving our own salvation, but that salvation is something that happens to the whole community together. So it isn't about me getting mine and then waiting for you to show up. Universalist salvation depends on all of us striving for it together.

The response from Rosemary Bray McNatt, minister of the Fourth Universalist Society in New York, was possibly even better than Rev. Rasor's lecture itself. A black woman, she gave a personal example of how our mono-cultural white congregations have affected her family (her teenaged son loves our faith but asked his mother if she would be upset if he found another church when he grew up so he wouldn't feel so alone). And she reminded us that our problem is not the false perception of a racist love for whiteness among UUs, but our love for our culture of NPR, and PBS, and certain kinds of music (not rap) and environmentalism, and so on.

Of course the solution is not to give up the culture that we love but to become multi-cultural. Not to change but to add. To see that just as we've recognized the false dichotomy of theology (the presumption that a congregation has to be either humanist or theist but not both) there is also a false dichotomy in seeing that culture must be one or the other. Rev. McNatt gave me at least a hopeful picture of a way forward.

As usual, the Conference at Berry Street promises to be the high point of General Assembly.

Collegial Conversation

2009-06-25T07:46:00.000-07:00

For the mid-day program the ministers broke into small groups for informal discussion about a variety of topics and professional situations we're concerned about. I joined the group discussing our denomination's (and our professional association's) continued work around creating an Anti-Racist, Anti-Oppressive, Multicultural institution.

This is a huge topic within the UUA, and has been for at least 17 years when the GA delegates passed a resolution urging the Association to find ways to move in this direction. The issue came up again later in the afternoon during the Berry Street lecture. Multiculturalism is also one of the tracks offered during the UU University portion of the GA. I'll be attending that track later this afternoon and tomorrow morning.

I haven't previously been much involved in this issue. I haven't organized trainings in my congregations or done any work personally except for an occasional workshop as part of a Chapter Retreat, or some other broader context. My reluctance has not been that I don't see the seriousness of the issue, or the value of creating the kind of diverse institution that we vision. My reluctance has been that the issue was initially presented as a issue of white racism, which I do not see as a problem in our congregations, and which is a guilt trip I would not want as a minister to lay on my congregation. Later the issue was better presented as white privilege, which I understand, but at this point the issue becomes so broad and systemic to our culture that I find it misplaced to make it an issue at the forefront of our congregations. It becomes one of many systemic social justice problems, and not necessarily the uppermost one in congregations which are in any case dealing with a lot more work than just social justice issues. So I've preached occasionally on the issue and included it as a factor in other issues that we need to address, but I've not made it a guiding focus of my ministry.

However, I am now feeling called to be more involved in this work. I'm now the minister of an urban-centered congregation which already is significantly diverse and multicultural, so there's a practical reason to do this work, rather than just idealism. And I'm already seeing real evidence of both the benefits and the challenges of creating this kind of community. I have a lot to learn in this area. I'm looking forward to the journey.

UUMA Business Meeting

2009-06-25T07:31:00.000-07:00

The Unitarian Universalist Ministers Association passed two important initiatives designed to make our professional ministers group more effective and accountable.

The most far-reaching, and the more controversial of the two, was a change in our dues structure that significantly increases dues for all members, while also making the structure more equitable by replacing a flat rate dues for all ministers with a structure based on percent of salary. Higher paid ministers will now pay more each year than lower paid ministers. The extra money raised will go to fund a new paid position in the UUMA - an Executive Director, and also to change the way the Association offers continuing education.

Previously the UUMA was managed by a volunteer President and Board. The only paid staff was an administrator. They all did exceptional work but the scope of the Association was severely limited by relying sole on volunteer time and expertise. A convincing argument for many of the ministers was an analogy to the difference that occurs in our congregations when a lay-led fellowship hires a professional minister. Most of the body supported the idea. The negative comments and questions during the discussion were mostly about the process of creating the new idea, and the details of the dues structure, rather than the substantive issue of the need for professional staff.

The change in Continuing Education is also a move toward professionalism. Currently continuing education is focused on the one day at the beginning of the GA week called "Ministry Days." (This weeks continuing education presenter was Sonia Sanchez who I blogged about previously). The new plan will be to offer multi-day courses in retreat like settings at different times and places throughout the year. I'm looking forward to it.

The other important issue for the ministers is an on-going process of revising our ethics code. Yesterday we gave final approval to a change in our covenant and then we approved preliminary language for three other sections of the code which will then go back to our district Chapters for continued discussion and revision.

UUA President Bill Sinkford says Goodbye to the UUMA

2009-06-24T08:02:00.000-07:00

Ministry Days closed yesterday with the traditional address from the President of the Association, Bill Sinkford. Sinkford's second and final term as President is ending with the General Assembly so this was our last chance to speak with him. Bill Sinkford is well beloved from the ministry. Among many other things we were encouraged by and supportive of his urge to the movement to return to a "language of reverence" in our faith.

Here are some talking points from his speech and questions afterward.

Bill spoke about a new marketing campaign for the association called, "Standing on the Side of Love." This is a values based marketing plan that leads with our faith principles. Bill told us the initiative for this campaign grew out of the shootings in Knoxville last year when the congregation there powerfully affirmed in the wake of the violence that they would not retreat from the liberal positions and support of gays and lesbians that had enflamed the shooter but that represented the core of our faith.

Bill spoke about Unitarian Universalist congregations in Africa. He made a trip there last year. He responded to a question about homophobia in Africa by saying that this needs to be a point of dialogue between American and African churches. But he pointed out that the UU congregation in Uganda is the only church in the entire country that is gay and lesbian affirming.

In response to the future of the movement, asked by a young minister (she identified herself as "Gen X") Bill Sinkford responded that he couldn't imagine the future, that the movement was in young people's hands, and that he wouldn't be surprised if Unitarian Universalism becomes something he isn't entirely comfortable with. Good for him. (And good for us if we are able to continue to change radically).

He described a study he has been doing on the cost of theological education and although his study was incomplete his conclusion is likely to be that our movement needs to invest much more in theological education than we have resources available. He said he would be handing on his work in this area to the next President.

It was a good opportunity to speak to a President who has served our movement well.

Las Voces del Camino

2009-06-24T07:49:00.000-07:00

I'm very excited to learn that the UUA will be publishing a Spanish-language hymnal supplement in two weeks. They are taking pre-orders here at GA (and offering a 10% discount and free shipping). The hymn book will look like a companion to Singing the Journey, the blue hymnal supplement that was published in 2005. Las voces del Camino will be the same size and shape, containthe same number of songs (75 plus 3 readings), and sell for the same price ($18).

I attended a workshop during ministry days to introduce the new hymnal. We sang through several selections from the book. It looks to be an excellent collection, theologically diverse, contemporary in style, songs already well known and often used in Spanish speaking congregations. About half of the songs are translations from songs in Singing the Living Tradition, the others are new to UUs.

This is a desperately needed resource in my Los Angeles congregation, and in our movement as a whole I believe. Sofia Betancourt, Director of the UUA Office of Racial and ethnic Concerns put it perfectly at the beginning of the workshop when she said that it's time to get past educating ourselves about diversity and start doing it.

Colony Collapse Disorder

2009-06-23T22:32:00.000-07:00

A big group of UU ministers attended tonight's baseball game between the Salt Lake City Bees and the Fresno Grizzlies. The bees lost after a terrible night, 8 to 1. But the weather was perfect, the view of the mountains gorgeous, and the seats cheap and right on the field at first base.

I had a great hot dog and a good beer, and a lot of fun.

One down note to the evening, a guy sitting right above the Bees dugout, about four rows below where the ministers were seated got hit in the face with a foul ball. He had been talking to his young son, with his face turned away from the batter and then turned just at the last moment to take the hit on the left side of his face. He was attended to by several folks from the ball park, and eventually walked away holding a bloody towel up to his face. His wife and 4 kids left shortly after. On the way out a man in the row before me asked her how her husband was doing and she said he was going to be fine.

I hate to be a spoil sport, but...

2009-06-23T09:34:00.000-07:00

This morning's Ministry Days presenter was a waste of time. Dr. Sonia Sanchez is billed as a "motivational" speaker. Perhaps she was meant to be inspirational. I was unmoved, mostly, except during the times I was intellectually insulted.

To lift up the good things first. She is a very nice woman. She is strong and caring. A huge heart. A huge passion for justice and compassion for the oppressed. She seems to have personally made a difference in many people's lives as a teacher and as a social justice activist. I salute her.

But I didn't need to hear a lecture about the supposed ability of water crystals to respond to positive and negative thought. This is psuedoscience that undercut, rather than supported her point about the importance of the words we speak to each other. Nor was her argument supported by reference to homeopathic medicine: the supposed ability of water to "remember" the "essence" of substances infused in it and then removed.

I looked around the room at my colleagues, everyone of whom is required to have at least a Masters Degree and couldn't believe we were passively listening to this nonsense. Is it not possible to have a speaker who can appeal to our hearts without insulting our brains?

We missed an opportunity this morning, a precious opportunity to speak to the gathered ministry of our faith. What message could we have heard this morning? A presentation on the dire situation of our churches today? Words about the crucial role of our faith in the culture? Practical tools for our ministry? A lecture that lifts up the important connection between good thinking and healthy spirituality? Instead we had a lecture that perpetuated the quackery of new age spirituality and that further pulled down the already abused position of science in America. This is the kind of foolishness that drives people away from religion. I grieved for our ministry that at the close of this lecture my colleagues stood and applauded.

This was not a morning that moved our faith forward. It pulled us back and pulled us down. Not motivational. Not inspirational. Not a proud morning for Unitarian Universalism.

GA - Salt Lake City

2009-06-22T12:01:00.001-07:00

I'm on my way to the UUA General Assembly this morning. This year we meet in Salt Lake City. The ministers gather for a few days of programming before the General Assembly itself begins on Wednesday. I'll also be coming home a day early so that I can preach back in Santa Clarita next Sunday.

the strangest juxtaposition in my cd case

2009-06-22T11:58:00.000-07:00

Olivier Messiaen next to Liza Minnelli

Hypocrisy in Government

2009-06-18T15:57:00.001-07:00

Not that hypocrisy in government should surprise anybody. But really.

Schwarzenegger says he'll veto a legislature-passed California budget because it includes tax hikes on tabacco and alcohol, but he goes forward with stealing money city governments earn from a gasoline tax. What a jerk.

The Republican "No Taxes Ever" pledge is not a principled political decision. It's not good government. It's certainly not responsible government. It's a pander meant to win votes by avoiding making the tough decisions required and building the compromises and consensus that would actual solve the budget problems.

Dame Edna

2009-06-18T12:13:00.000-07:00

Went to the Ahmanson theater last night to see Barry Humphries in his character, Dame Edna. It's a one man/woman show. Dame Edna on stage with a pianist. She glorifies herself and makes fun of the audience. Then invites a few audience members to come on stage with her and she hosts a little cat show. She sings a few songs, throws gladiolas at the audience, and that's it. It was fun. We laughed all night.

it was interesting to compare Humpries' performance with the Drag Queens that I'm more used to seeing. Humphries is a man in a dress in pure British Music Hall fashion (Humphries is Australian). He's not a female impersonator. Behind the cat's eye glasses there's no hint of glamour or illusion. He sings but with more gusto than musicality. The tropes were the same as in a drag show: "I'm fabulous, you're not" "I can get away with outrageous behavior because I've already made myself ridiculous." But Barry is straight. He mentions his wife and four children in his program bio. He acknowledges his gay fans and there isn't a homophobic bone in his body, but he doesn't speak to the gays particularly. His targets are the bland tastes and small dreams of regular people. His jokes are class-driven, not sex or gender driven. Dame Edna's status comes from her wealth and position, where a Drag Queen's power comes from a display of talent (whether pretend or real) and an "above-it-all" outsiders biting humor.

The audience was only slightly more gay than a normal night at the theater and the people that seemed to be having the best time were the middle-aged straight couples and the "ladies-night-out" groups of straight women.

Rain, Los Angeles, June... wait, June?

2009-06-04T12:00:00.000-07:00

In Los Angeles we're used to a weather condition called June Gloom. Despite the depressing name most of us are glad for it. Summers here can be pretty hot and the sun unrelenting in July, August, and September. That's fire season, which we've come to dread. But just after things start to get sunny in May the weather pattern changes and we got one more month of cloud cover and fog from the Pacific - what they call "on shore flow" before the winds change and we start to get hot air blowing in from the eastern deserts ("Santa Ana conditions"). June Gloom feels like an extra, late-arriving, gift of Spring. The lawns stay green. The AC stays off. Summer can wait.

Yesterday the gloom actually turned into rain. That was an unexpected pleasure. And they say we might get more rain today or tomorrow. Let it come. It's actually normal to get about one day in June each year with rain above a tenth of an inch. But especially in a year when statewide precipitation has been only 80% of normal, and below normal now for the third year in a row, it's nice to get a little wet.

marriage equality not news

2009-06-04T11:44:00.000-07:00

The Los Angeles Times ran a short article in today's paper about New Hampshire governor John Lynch signing a marriage equality bill for that state. Front page news? No. The article ran on page 14.

Six states and counting: (New York? New Jersey? anyone?).

One is tempted to yawn at this point except for the fact that millions of American couples are denied the basic protections afforded by civil marriage, and denied the opportunity to claim their place as full-fledged, contributing and accountable members of our society. And even the legally married couples in the six states that presently recognize same-sex marriage, and the 18,000 married couples in California, are denied the more important benefits, protections and responsibilities of federally-recognized marriage.

I'm glad that our culture has evolved to the point where same-sex marriage in New Hampshire is so boring that it can be reported in a short article on page 14, but until the laws change to reflect the culture's growing acceptance - in 44 states and nationwide, we can't go to sleep on this subject yet.

Prop 8 Ruling

2009-05-27T16:53:00.000-07:00

I returned from a short vacation on Tuesday very happy to know that my husband and I were still married. It would have been pretty horrible to have the State of California forcibly divorce 18,000 couples. Thank God we were spared that.

Of course I was disappointed with the other half of the Supreme Court ruling, that upheld Proposition 8, enacted by the California voters last November. Disappointed, but not surprised, as that was certainly the way the wind seemed to be blowing since the day of oral arguments back in March. And disappointed but not angry, and not called to public protest. In fact, I think the Supreme Court made the correct legal decision.

The problem in California is our ridiculously easy to amend constitution. But the proponents worked within that system as they are entitled to do. The court ruling is not anti-marriage, or anti-gay; it's simply an affirmation that the Prop 8 proponents followed the rules fair and square. We don't need the court to win this one for us. We can follow the same rules and win our own victory at the ballot box. In the meantime our Domestic Partnership laws are still available to any same-sex couple looking for legal protection and recognition, providing exactly the same statewide legal benefits as marriage. With 18,000 married same-sex couples it will be difficult for the anti-marriage folks to convince voters that we present an actual detriment to the culture (as opposed to the imagined threat they campaigned on last year). And lastly, it's important for those of us who are tired of hearing the right complain about "activist judges" to support the court when they make a principled, legal decision, even if personally we disagree. It's not the court's job to change our culture; that's our job.

California Propositions, all or nothing

2009-05-14T22:56:00.000-07:00

California has another special election coming up on Tuesday. This time we're asked to vote on a set of questions, labeled 1A through 1F. That they're all number "1" is an effort to make us think of them as a single question, although they cover a variety of issues. So although a voter might be inclined to support some and not others the State is hoping we'll vote yes on even the ones we don't like because they're presented as a package. The problem with that strategy is that it also encourages us to reject the whole package if we don't like some of it, which is what is happening.

They tried the same strategy, to similar negative effect, in another way as well. Within the propositions themselves the voter encounters a mix of budget solutions which equally attract and disgust persons of all political philosophy. The state hoped to win support of Democrats and Republican voters by marrying, say, a tax hike with a program cut, or a borrowing plan with a spending cap. Here again, though, in attempting to please everyone they've pleased no one. It's a very strange situation to hear fiscal conservatives and liberal Dems equally condemning the same propositions with one complaining "it's a secret tax hike" while the other complains "it cuts programs for our most vulnerable citizens."

The ballot measures will fail. California will be forced to deal with a 21 billion dollar deficit. It won't be pretty. But perhaps the crisis will force Schwarzenegger and the legislature to deal with the real issue: a budget process that for decades has been completely hamstrung by propositions mandating that certain programs be funded regardless of other budget realities, that certain taxes only go for particular pet programs regardless of shifting needs in the State, and worst of all that any new taxes or the annual budget itself must be approved by two thirds of the legislature giving perpetual veto power to the minority party.

California needs to let our government govern. But in order to do that the government needs to call a constitutional convention and undo all the knots we've tied them up in. That would be the positive outcome of the impossible place we've come to. Wish us luck.

Sabrina lives

2009-05-14T16:39:00.000-07:00

My dog turned 14 last month. Still relatively healthy. Then last Friday she got up in the morning, jumped down form the chair where she sleeps at night and crashed on the floor. Her back legs had given way. "Oh no," I thought. My older dog had died just past his 15 year birthday with much the same problem.

But Sabrina's case was not quite so bad. She could stand, with effort, and even stumble forward a few steps before collapsing again. Peleg and I took her to the vet that afternoon. He prescribed a drug called MetaCam that Peleg and I had already had recommended to us by a friend when we told him of our dog's situation, and we had researched on the web. The vet gave Sabrina a shot of that while we were at the office and then we carried her home with a 30 day supply.

We set Sabrina up with a new bed on the bottom floor of the house so she wouldn't have to climb stairs or jump into a chair. She seemed confused and upset that day. Wouldn't eat. The next day we gave her the medicine and she ate a little when we supplemented her regular food with some chicken broth. And then slowly by slowly over the last week she's made nearly a full recovery. I carried her up the front steps to the street a couple of days ago and let her walk a little. Then yesterday we went for a longer walk and she went up and down the steps by herself. This morning as I was taking a shower in the upstairs bathroom she suddenly appeared at the door having climbed the stairs on her own. By the time I got out of the shower she had jumped into the chair where she used to sleep and was looking at me like nothing had happened.

SPF 100

2009-05-14T16:17:00.000-07:00

Neutrogena now offers an SPF 100, sun block. What does that mean? The SPF number doesn't measure percentage of protection. An SPF of 30 already screens nearly 97% of the sun's UVB rays.

The SPF number is a multiplying factor that calculates the increased amount of time you can endure sun exposure without burning. If it normally takes you 15 minutes to burn, an SPF of 15 would protect you for 15 times that amount, or 3 hours and 45 minutes. Of course with sweating and rubbing, and maybe swimming you'd want to reapply anyway.

So an SPF of 85 (another common product) would mean a person who burns in 15 minutes without sun block, could theoretically stay in the sun for 85 times that long, or 21 hours and 15 minutes. If you put on the sunblock before dawn you would be protected until well after midnight. An SPF of 100 actually gives you protection for 25 hours, more than a full day. Even if you live above the arctic circle and never go indoors you don't need that much SPF.

prayer for the day

2009-05-07T15:00:00.000-07:00

National Day of Prayer, 2009

God of our imaginings and far beyond our imaginations,
God of our thoughts but beyond our comprehension, beyond our theologies, beyond our religions,
God of our hearts but who loves your people more greatly and loves your creation more broadly than we can love even ourselves.
God of our hopes who gives us all things but asks us to participate in creating the divine Kingdom on Earth.

We gather today, troubled, fearful, angry, resistant, impatient, and weak.

We pray for ourselves
For good work
For strong families
For healthy bodies
For food to eat and safe places to live

We pray for our neighbors
for those who have lost their jobs in this depressed economy
and for those employers forced to make difficult decisions
for those who have lost their homes in this recent wildfire
and for the firefighters working to prevent more homes being lost
for those who have lost their lives in the ongoing wars in Iraq and Afghanistan
and for those whose lives have been disrupted by the wars.

We pray for our nation’s leaders:
That they might have wisdom, greater than our confusion
That they might have courage, greater than our fears
That they might have compassion, greater than our intolerance
That they might have flexibility, greater than our partisanship

We pray for our world
That people may live in peace, with justice and liberty for all,
That we find a way to share the earth with all living things
That we heal what we have already injured and cause no further damage

God, we offer ourselves, our communities, our nations, and our world as partners in your divine plan.

Take our minds and mold them to your ideals

Take our hearts and overfill them with your love

Take our bodies and bend them to your work.

In gratitude for this day’s blessings, and all the blessings of our lives, we re-affirm the vows of our faith to bind ourselves more closely to your holy will for our own sakes, and for the salvation of all.

Amen

for more prayers visit the Unitarian Universalists of Santa Clarita Valley prayer blog

national day of prayer 2009

2009-05-07T09:36:00.001-07:00

The Santa Clarita Interfaith Council hosts an event at the door of City Hall this afternoon. I'll be there. There is a lot to pray about.

marry in maine

2009-05-06T19:56:00.000-07:00

it's exciting news. what once seemed unimaginable seems now commonplace. The story that Maine has now approved marriage for same sex couples isn't even being reported on the news radio station I listen to in my car. Later today the New Hampshire legislature sent a marriage equality bill to their governor. The states are now moving twice in one day.

One quibble. Every news report keeps counting Maine as the 5th State to grant marriage equality. As a happily and still legally married gay man in California I feel a little ignored. Technically California was the second state to grant marriage equality, after Massachusetts, then Connecticut, Iowa, Vermont, and now Maine. New Hampshire might be next. But if by chance the California Supreme Court does overturn Proposition 8 (we're still awaiting the decision, due by early June) will the media count California as seventh (after New Hampshire) or second (after Massachusetts)?

Easter season 2009

2009-04-24T16:26:00.000-07:00

Despite the theological difficulties Easter poses to Unitarian Universalists, (and to liberal Christians, generally) it still remains my favorite holiday. One part of the holiday I especially appreciate, and which often goes un-remarked, is that Easter is not just a day, but a season in the Christian calendar. The season of Easter extends from Easter Sunday all the way to Pentecost, 50 days later (“pente” means 50 in Greek). That’s May 31 this year.

We have a full 7 weeks to celebrate the miracle of life emerging from seeming death. When times are tough, as they are for many of us these days, I’m grateful for the spiritual assurance that the future is always open, spring follows winter, good times grow out of bad times just as bright flowers grow out of the dark earth.

Whether the stock market and real estate prices have hit their bottom yet remains to be seen. But undoubtedly they will at some point fall as low as they are going to go and begin to turn around. But the deeper and even more refreshing lesson of Easter is that the new life we will eventually enjoy isn’t just a remaking of the past (with all its unregulated, greedy and speculative flaws) but an entirely new life: a chance not just to re-build, but to build anew. New creation takes more than just a day, and more than just 50 days, but with vision and perseverance we can have the world we seek.

king out, reagan in

2009-04-16T08:07:00.000-07:00

A California delegation has decided to remove the statue of Unitarian Minister, Thomas Starr King, from congress and replace it with a statue of Ronald Reagan: California Governor, and 40th President of the United States. I find the action disgraceful. LA Times reports here.

As a gay man in my twenties during Reagan's presidency, and as an employee of AIDS Project Los Angeles during the end of his presidency, I remember with disgust Reagan's non-response to the AIDS epidemic. At a time when swift action and funding and compassionate words from our nation's leader could have saved countless lives and made a significant change in the direction of the disaster, President Reagan did nothing. Under the thrall of the then nascent religious right the so-called "Great Communicator," Reagan, said nothing about AIDS, while letting his Communications Director, Pat Buchanan preach to the nation that AIDS was "nature's revenge on gay men." Reagan kept his silence about AIDS until 1987 as his second term was coming to a close. Shameful.

Reagan's policies of low taxes, high debt, and deregulation provided the basis for the current economic crisis now destroying our country.

On the other hand, Thomas Starr King, is known as the man who "saved the union" for his efforts during the civil war to keep California as a free state. Starr King also used his position as Unitarian minister in San Francisco and esteemed orator throughout the state to fund raise for the United States Sanitary Commission, the organization that provided medical services to the US army. Through his efforts, California donated one-quarter of the commission's total funding.

Every state is allowed to display two statues in Congress. California's other statue is Junipero Serra, the creator of the early network of missions. Reagan hardly needs the honor. The DC airport is named for him. There's a freeway in the north part of Los Angeles named for him, among countless others memorials.

The Starr King statue will be returned to California. Hopefully it will be displayed with honor.

check this out

2009-04-14T16:06:00.001-07:00

The Los Angeles Times reports that the Santa Monica Public library has organized an event to check out a person. They've arranged with several people from various interesting backgrounds to be available for half hour conversations with library patrons. Do you want to talk to a mormon, or a police detective, or a Jewish lesbian mom? Reserve your half hour appointment and use the person just the way you would a research book.

Love this idea. I've always said that the cornerstone of the Unitarian Universalist faith is personal experience. We cherish the diversity in our congregations (and wish we were more diverse) because of the opportunity it creates to get to know what it's like to be a person who isn't like ourselves and thus we have a larger "scripture" available to study than just our own lives.

my office

2009-04-11T22:35:00.000-07:00

Here's a picture of my office.
View Larger Map

I'm in the window on the second floor at the upper right behind the tree.

maundy thursday

2009-04-10T12:18:00.000-07:00

I attended a Maundy Thursday service last night at the Episcopal Church in Santa Clarita. The vicar of the church, Rev. Lynn Jay, whom I know from the interfaith council, sat in on a Sunday service at my church a few weeks ago, and because I don't often have Sundays free I took the opportunity of a mid-week evening service to repay my respects.

For Maundy Thursday the ritual includes foot washing. After reading the passage from John 13, where Jesus washes the disciple's feet, three of the Priest's came down off the chancel and sitting on little blue children's chairs and with large basins of water and plastic pitchers and clean white towels, washed the feet of the congregation. I removed my shoes in my pew when it was my turn to join the line. First I placed my feet in the basin and then the priest, Dick Bellis, who I also know from the interfaith council, washed my feet, and then dried them one by one, and then I returned to my seat. I had expected that we would wash each other's feet, that I would wash the person behind me and so on, but that wasn't the case. The ritual was sweet, and beautiful. I felt honored. Dick said "God bless you." when he finished, and I felt it.

Later in the service there was communion. I participated. I took the host from Dick, and the cup from a woman priest who I didn't know. The woman at the rail next to me held the host in her hand until the second priest came with the cup and then the priest took the host and dipped it in the cup and then placed it in the woman's mouth. I simply ate the host as soon as it was given to me, and then sipped from the cup when it was offered.

And then began a most remarkable and moving ritual of stripping the altar, or really all of the church of all its decorations. Still another priest read responsively with the congregation Psalm 22, the Psalm that includes Jesus' question from the cross, "My God, My God, Why have you forsaken me?" And while we read the Priests and service leaders dismantled the church around us. First they extinguished all the candles. Then the removed their own outer vestments, and then every cloth and every banner. They removed the etchings on the walls that marked the stations of the cross. The carried the Bibles and hymnals out of the sanctuary. Then the unplugged the microphones and so on. At one point someone brought out a basin of water and a cloth to Rev. Jay and she washed the now bare altar table, and then the basin and cloth were also taken out of the sanctuary.

Finally we finished our reading in the now bare church and then the organist touched a key on her instrument that filled the sanctuary with the sound of thunder. Someone else flicked the lights on and off to make lighting effects. And then the Priests toppled all the furniture on the chancel, ending with the altar itself overturned. And then with no more words or dismissal the service was over and feeling broken and destitute, and "forsaken" the congregation crept out of the sanctuary. No coffee hour, no greetings and hugs. I didn't feel it was appropriate to wait and say goodbye to Rev. Jay, although I will thank her later. So I got in my car, and drove home under the full moon of Holy Week.

Vermont says yes to marriage equality

2009-04-07T09:09:00.000-07:00

Yes. Yes. Yes. By a vote of 100 to 49. The house votes to approve a bill to override Governor Jim Douglas' veto. The Vermont Senate voted earlier this morning 23-5.

The California legislature passed marriage euality bills twice - in 2005 and 2007 - but did not hae the necessary votes to override Governor Schwarzenegger's vetoes. Now Vermont has become the first state to take the legislative process all the way to marriage equality.

This is an extremely significant step. The anti-marriage equality defenses are rapidly falling. No it isn't just west and east coast liberals - it's Iowa, too. No it isn't just "activist judges" - it's state legislatures, too, elected by vote of the people.

This is very exciting news.

Mesa, Arizona; Salt Lake City, Utah

2009-04-04T14:17:00.001-07:00

Yesterday I sent in my registration for both our District Assembly in Mesa Arizona (April 29 - May 2) and our General Assembly in Salt Lake City (June 22 - 27). In each case I'll be arriving early for some minister meetings and leaving before the final Sunday so I can get back home and lead Sunday worship.

Both the District Assembly and the national UUA General Assembly are great opportunities to recognize oneself as part of a larger faith. There's a lot of great skill building opportunities for laity. As a minister I appreciate the opportunity to meet with colleagues whom I seldom see.

I encourage you to attend. And if you see me please say hello.

the inevitability of same sex marriage

2009-04-04T13:09:00.000-07:00

Nate Silver of fivethrityeight.com has a great post about the changing attitudes of Americans - gradually, and inevitably shifting toward approval of same sex marriage. His conclusion is that by 2012 nearly half of the states would approve of same sex marriage by popular vote, and by 2016 only a handful of states in the deep south would still reject same-sex marriage with Mississippi, the last, finally coming around in 2024. Wow.

Although popular opinion is the final goal it's important to note that in none of these states is a popular vote likely to be the first step en route to marriage equality. The first step is either a State Supreme Court decision that forces the issue, or legislative action. The three states which currently enjoy marriage equality (Massachusetts, Connecticut, and Iowa) got there because the court forced them to. In California we enjoyed one summer of court-mandated marriage equality and then lost it because of our too-easy to amend constitution.

California also came close to legislative-achieved marriage equality, passing bills in both 2005 and 2007 only to have them vetoed by Governor Schwarzenegger. Vermont is this week in the same place although they might very likely be able to override Governor Douglas' promised veto. Again, though, note that Vermont's first move toward marriage equality was a court decision (Baker v. Vermont, December, 1999) that resulted in their creation of civil unions.

Although people don't like to be forced to accept same-sex marriage by court decision, court decisions are strategically useful in that they give people the chance to experience a society in which same-sex couples are allowed to marry and to see that there are no negative consequences. Some people can see the justice issue in the abstract. But for many people only the concrete example of actually married gay and lesbian couples will prove to them they have nothing to fear.

Without the court decisions in Massachusetts, California, Connecticut, and Iowa we would have zero United States real-life examples of marriage equality and the gradual timeline of acceptance predicted by Nate Silver would be pushed much further back.

everything's negotiable

2009-04-03T15:06:00.000-07:00

I received a medical bill a few days ago. the bill was for 1400 dollars. I called them up and said I couldn't afford that. The billing lady said they would take 900 as payment in full if I put it on a credit card. Done.

marriage equality through courts and legislatures

2009-04-03T14:00:00.000-07:00

Iowa today joins Massachusetts, Connecticut, and (formerly) California, as a state where marriage equality has been achieved through court action. While that's exciting news, and I'll take the victory however it comes, we are still waiting for a state to achieve marriage equality through legislative action or popular vote.

Vermont is currently close. Both houses of their legislature have passed marriage equality bills and once the separate versions are brought into line the bill will go the governor's desk. However, Vermont Gov. Jim Douglas has already promised to veto the bill.

At this point in the Vermont story we've been there before: in California. The California legislature has twice passed bills that would open marriage in California to same-sex couples (2005 and 2007). And on both occasions our Governor vetoed the bills. In California we were nowhere close to the number of votes required to overturn the veto and no attempt was made. In Vermont the vote will be close but has a good chance of winning.

That would make Vermont the first state to achieve marriage equality through legislative process. What about popular vote?

Back again to California. There is still an enormous amount of will power in California to add our state to the growing number that offer marriage to same-sex couples. With our state constitution now amended to include discriminatory language there is nothing the legislature or court can do. (I'm assuming that the California State Supreme Court will uphold Proposition 8). But our constitution is easily amended by a 50% popular vote. The same process which gave us Proposition 8 allows Californians to create marriage equality by popular vote. I'll even guess the date: 2012, and I doubt that any other state will beat us to that mark.

will the Iowa decision effect the pending California decision?

2009-04-03T13:38:00.001-07:00

No. Iowa will have no effect on the California decision because it's a totally different legal question. The ruling Iowa made today is the same one that California made a year ago - and for the same legal reasons - the state's constitutional guarantee of equal protection under the law. You might contend that Iowa was influenced by California, (although the California decision is not referenced in the Iowa ruling) but not the other way.

The current case in California does not concern marriage itself. Instead it's the separate question of whether Propostion 8 was a "revision" of the constitution (in which case it would be thrown out for not following the correct legal path for adoption) or was it merely an "amendment" (in which case it would stand). When the California court releases it's decision (by June) it will not re-examine the merits of same-sex marriage per se. It will only examine the question of distinguishing constitutional revisions from amendments.

On the other hand, on the other side of the country, it is very likely that the Iowa decision will effect the Vermont state legislature's action of overturning the promised veto from Governor Douglas of their own marriage equality law. Although the Iowa decision has no legal standing in Vermont, the success in Iowa will undoubtedly create momentum on the marriage equality side that might have the effect of pushing a few waffling legislators into the pro-marriage camp. We only need a few additional votes to overturn the veto so there's a good chance that Vermont might be the first state to achieve marriage equality through legislative process rather than Judicial mandate.

Prayer Blog

2009-04-01T20:26:00.000-07:00

In February my Santa Clarita church added a new element to our liturgy: a spoken prayer at the end of our prayer and meditation time. This section of the service now consists of a guided meditation that leads us into silence, then a ritual of worshippers dropping stones in a bowl on the altar table to represent their personal joys and sorrows and how those personal events are collected in the life of our congregation and our shared faith. if anyone has a joy or sorrow they would like shared with the congregation they can write that out on cards we provide and hand it to me as they come to the altar. Then I read the cards out loud and then invite everyone to pray with me as I read a prayer I've written for the day.

I've also invited church members to write prayers using their own preferred language and some weeks I'll step aside and let one of them lead the prayer. Then we close with a hymn and move on to the sermon and the rest of the service.

I've started posting my prayers on a separate blog. I'll be adding one or two a month as I write them.

front yard garden

2009-04-01T18:31:00.000-07:00

I was happy to finally get my garden set up on Tuesday. Peleg and I had talked about turing our small front yard into a vegetable garden. At first the idea had been to dig up the grass and plant directly into the ground. but that would have been hard work and would have left the garden vulnerable to our dog walking through it. Then we decided to build some raised beds. That was probably a good idea but not being very handy with that sort of thing, and because it required some advance planning and a trip to the hardware store I kept never getting around to it.

Finally I had an idea that I could make use of a bunch of large pots that I have around the house. Some of them were given to me by a former church member when she moved out of the area, others were left at the house by the former owner when they moved out.

I scrounged up 11 pots of a suitable size. I bought 4 big bags of soil in the morning and filled up the pots. That afternoon Peleg and I went to the nursery together and bought, 5 tomato plants, 2 bell peppers, a cucumber, an eggplant, a bush beans, basil and dill and strawberries. I don't know if we'll get enough vegetables to make back the $75 we spent on soil and plants, but it will taste good, and be healthy, and there's an irreplaceable satisfaction that comes from eating food you've grown yourself.

Pit Stop

2009-04-01T18:26:00.001-07:00

On Saturday members of my congregation provided support for 178 cyclists riding 100 miles - a "century." The cyclists were training for the upcoming AIDS/LifeCycle ride in June where they will ride from San Francisco to Los Angeles over the course of a week, raising money for HIV/AIDS services provided by the San Francisco AIDS Foundation and the Los Angeles Gay and Lesbian Center.

The ride begins in Santa Clarita, where we have our church, goes 50 miles west to the beach in Ventura, and then comes back 50 miles. We staffed the pit stop in Santa Paula, about 35 miles out, catching the riders on the way out in the late morning, and on the way back in the early afternoon.

Me with Antonio Ragatz, the owner of the bike shop where we set up the pit stop

actual quote

2009-03-30T22:47:00.000-07:00

a woman comes up to me after on worship on Sunday and says, "You're a very good public speaker. Do you do it for a living?"

Admittedly I was guest preacher at a church other than my own. But the number of times I was referred to in the order of service as Rev. Ricky Hoyt or spoken about as a visiting minister might have given her a clue.

more people dead or alive?

2009-03-30T22:46:00.000-07:00

Peleg and I went to see the comic Louis C K on Friday. He started his routine with an extended bit about the special status of being a living human being and how for every one of us the far more normal status of existence is "dead." We'll be alive for maybe 100 years at the most and we'll be in the "dead" category basically forever.

One of his observations was that most of the people who have ever existed are now dead - and I wondered whether that was true. It seems like I've heard that with 6 and half billion people now alive that there are more people living now than have ever lived before. So I googled it.

I was wrong. Most estimates say that there have been something more than 100 billion human beings ever in existence - and only about 6 and a half billion of them are currently alive. One reference pointed out that about half of human beings have lived in the 2000 years since Anno Domini. (The 50 billion born before Christ are doomed, of course). Here is the reference.

more about the word "marriage"

2009-03-20T16:54:00.000-07:00

Robin Edgar makes some great arguments in a comment to an earlier post (see "what's in a name?" below) about whether gays and lesbians are following a failed strategy in insisting on having our relationships labeled as "marriage." Some marriage opponents have said they would be happy to grant us legal recognition and rights under a different name (although more and more this seems to not be true when the opportunity to establish civil union laws actually comes up). Edgar even brings up the UU buzzword issue of cultural misappropriation as an argument to say that the culture has for centuries defined marriage one way and that same-sex couples do not now have the cultural authority to use the word to mean something other than a male husband united with a female wife.

It's an interesting argument but I respectfully disagree.

I face a parallel situation very often in my ministry when I use the word God. As a theist the real existence of God is very important to my spirituality and I speak about God often in my sermons and elsewhere. But when I use the word God I don't mean an omnipotent, omniscient, eternal, supernatural or manipulative old man in the sky. That's the traditional definition of the word God, but that's not how I use the word. I have, on occasion, been accused of being disingenuous. I'm told if that's not what I mean than I should use a different word.

But I reject that position. The word "god" is simply a pointing word that allows me to refer to the thing I want to talk about. The nature of God (whether God is properly characterized by all those things I listed above) is a theology. Although one theology has long been dominant and "traditional," theologians have always felt able to disagree with that theology in whole or part and still use the word God. There are limits to how far you can stretch the word, but the word God comfortably contains quite a number of diverse theologies.

I feel the same is true for the word "marriage." The essential aspect of a marriage is the commitments of two persons to bind their lives together in mutual support. I see a societal aspect of marriage that makes committed couples an asset to the state; a familial aspect of marriage that brings families together and creates strong foundations for future families, and a religious aspect of marriage that puts the couple at the service of the god of love. All of those essential aspects of marriage exist independently of the incidental aspect of the sex of the two persons.

God is still the right word even as we debate the theology that describes God. Marriage is also the right word even as same-sex marriage advocates point out that what had once seemed essential to the definition is actually unjust and unnecessary. Marriage without the restriction of opposite-sex partners is still marriage, just as a process theology God without omnipotence is still God.

a little wrist bone, please

2009-03-20T16:47:00.000-07:00

After two months of being released by my orthopedist to go back to light exercise I went back for a new x-ray to see what's happening with my wrist bone. Everything healed up except for a dime-sized botch on the inside of the radial bone. The doctor and I, and a second doctor we consulted with, decided that as long as the wrist wasn't causing me any pain (it isn't) to leave it alone surgically and see if the bone will eventually grow back.

And the good news is that it has - or is - there's still a long way to go before I could say it's completely healed. But looking at the x-ray from this week side by side with the x-ray from a week ago it's clear that new bone material is starting to spread across the gap.

I have been going to the gym. I started lifting 10 pound weights with the wrist, then 15, today I did 20 pounds. The wrist certainly feels stronger. And it's good for me in every other way to get back to my exercise routine. So I was very glad to hear that progress was being made and that I could continue with the program I've been on.

the fat lady sings

2009-03-11T17:32:00.000-07:00

I've had to resign from the Gay Men's Chorus. Now that I'm working with the Los Angeles Unitarian church as well as my previous gig with the Santa Clarita church I just don't have the extra time available for the chorus. I could still make the Monday evening rehearsals but giving up the weekends for the shows, plus the extra practice I would need to do on my own to work out difficult passages and (especially) memorize a concert's worth of music just wasn't possible any more.

I had a great three years with the chorus and I will cherish the memories. I got to sing at Disney Hall. I got to play a sailor onstage in a Wagner chorus. I got to pose as a sexy Batman for a calendar fundraiser. I got to travel to Miami and attend a week-long gay and lesbian chorus conference.

I will miss the regular connection to music in my life. My plan is to try and put more energy into my composing and satisfy my music gene that way.

what's in a name?

2009-03-10T16:29:00.000-07:00

Is the debate about marriage equality really just a debate about a word?

Shakespeare gives us an example of marriage being thwarted by a word rather than substance. Juliet thinks that the only problem with Romeo is that he's a Montague and she imagines that all objections to their marriage would disappear if he simply had another name. "What's in a name?" she asks, "that which we call a rose by any other name would smell as sweet."

Juliet is right about roses but wrong about Romeo. The problem with Romeo isn't what he's called, but what he is. He'd still a Montague even if he changed his name to Smith or Jones. And if he hadn't been born into the Montague clan, meaning that he didn't have the genes that he has, or be raised as he was, where he was, with the parents and other cultural influences that he recieved, then he wouldn't be the Romeo that she loves. The substance of things and the names of things are not always as sepearable as Juliet wishes.

To say that same-sex couples should stop fighting for marriage and accept some other word that carries the same benefits makes several mistakes:

First, no other word carries the same benefits. The word marriage includes a set of intangible cultural meanings that do not transfer to another name. To be married is to partake of a centuries old cultural institution respected as the cornerstone of society that sustains families and orders our sexual lives. No legislation can give Domestic Partnerships or Civil Unions that status.

Second, accepting a different name grants that marriage is an important word to one side of the argument, but implies that the word is not important to the other side of the argument. That's the position of marriage equality foes, and they're wrong. Marriage equality foes think same-sex couples disagree with them about the importance and sanctity of marriage. But we agree with them, which is why we're fighting for marriage and not something else. Marriage is important. Marriage needs to be protected and strengthened. Same-sex couples aren't fighting against marriage, we're fighting for marriage. it's the Civil Union and Domestic Partnership laws that threaten marriage by creating a weaker alternative instead of demanding the full legal and cultural weight of real marriage.

Some people who reject marriage for same-sex couples say they would support domestic partnerships or civil unions. A Field poll of California voters released today found that given three options 45% are in favor of marriage equality, 34% support domestic partnerships for same-sex couples but not marriage, and 19% favor no legal recognition of any kind for same-sex couples. That's good news, but support for Domestic Partnerships has grown precisely because gays and lesbians have been asking for marriage and folks now see Domestic Partnerships as the compromise, moderate position, where it used to be seen as radical.

And Domestic Partnership still is radical in some places. Recent events in Utah show that support for Domestic Partnerships as a compromise on marriage is not as strong as it seems. Following Proposition 8 the LDS church published a statement saying it was opposed to marriage for same-sex couples but not against gay and lesbian rights in general. Their statement listed several rights they would support including hospitalization and medical care, fair housing and employment rights. Taking them at their word the group Equality Utah introduced legislation called the Common Ground Initiative covering exactly those issues. And the LDS church failed to support the initiative, which has now failed in the Utah legislature.

A solution that proposes giving up the word marriage in exchange for legal recognition imagines that a compromise is possible on this issue where compromise is not possible. Just as in Brown vs. Board of Education where the U.S.Supreme Court realized that segregated schools was a failed compromise that had satisfied the bigots but failed to provide equal education to children, giving up the word marriage might satisfy the bigots (although apparently not in Utah) but would not actually provide equal rights and responsibilities to same-sex couples and would weaken an already imperiled important cultural institution.

What's in a name? In this case, a lot.

my poor dog (she's better now)

2009-03-10T14:19:00.001-07:00

I took my dog, Sabrina, to the vet yesterday. She had to get her rabies shot but she's also been displaying some abnormal behavior that made us think she might need some medical attention. How to put this delicately... she's been obsessively licking her rear end.

The licking was noisy, as well as being unladylike. She would wake us up at night. Peleg and I's response when we caught her doing it was to tell her, "No!" in a loud voice, and if she was within arm's distance to physically move her head away. Because she's going deaf we would sometimes have to yell quite loudly several times before she would hear us. She'd been at it for about a month. She has a history of developing obsessions about various things and we figured that if we could just break the habit she'd stop the behavior. She had no other symptoms of a medical problem as far as we could tell. Finally I took her to the groomer thinking a good cleaning back there would help. The groomer suggested we take her to the vet.

The vet discovered a serious but quite routine dog problem: her anal glands were swollen with fluid and needed to be expressed. Especially with older dogs (she's 14) the fluid in the glands can become thick and clog the opening. With rubber gloves and several tissues the vet was able to drain the glands. Sabrina had been trying to open the glands herself by licking but hadn't been successful. If the problem had continued the glands might have ruptured which would have required surgery to repair.

So for a month our dog had been suffering and our only response had been to yell at her. Because she couldn't communicate we had mis-labeled her behavior as a mental problem. We had worried more about how her licking was annoying us rather than as a signal that she needed our help.

The suffering of others does impede on our own comfort. We can't be bothered. We're just trying to keep our own lives together and someone, something, suffering near us can at first seem like one more thing we have to handle. It's easy to say, "handle it yourself," or "just stop complaining." The truth, though, was that by not helping Sabrina her suffering and ours continued, and would have gotten significantly worse if we had waited much longer. When I finally did get her to the vet the problem was solved in just a few minutes. Sabrina left the vet's office noticeably more at ease and has been fine ever since. Accepting the fact that the lives of other creatures are partly our responsibility often the easiest course of action is to get involved sooner rather than later.

rally in the rain

2009-03-09T18:50:00.000-07:00

Wednesday evening I attended the Los Angeles Eve of Justice rally in downtown Los Angeles.

I rode the subway down to Union Station and then walked over to Olvera Street, the site of the rally. A light rain came down off and on the whole time. I had my umbrella and joined everyone else in putting them up when the rain would come and then folding them closed again when the rain would stop.

For some reason I wasn't in the mood for a rally. I didn't feel I needed to be there. I waited until Mayor Villaraigosa spoke and then I came home again.

It's good to have the support of politicians like the mayor. It's great to hear the sentiment from so many that the tide has turned on marriage equality and we will prevail someday. I believe it's true.

I came home and my husband made us steaks, then we watched TV together on the couch and went to bed. A married couple.

marriage equality day

2009-03-09T18:39:00.001-07:00

Thursday was the day the California Supreme Court heard oral arguments in the cases seeking to overturn Proposition 8, and the opposing case seeking to uphold the proposition and also to nullify the same-sex marriages (including mine) that had occurred over the summer.

In the morning I attended a press conference sponsored by California Faith for Equality. Clergy of several different faiths gathered to show our religious support of marriage equality. I didn't speak but I stood behind the speakers with 30 or so other clergy to make a good backdrop for the news cameras.

Looking out at the gathered press I recognized one of the reporters from the local NBC news as I guy who's marriage I had performed several years ago. At the end of the press conference I said hello and asked how his marriage was. He said he and his wife had divorced less than two years after the wedding. I said I was sorry. And then we talked about marriage, his marriage, my marriage. And then he asked if he could interview me.

He asked about my feelings as one of the 18,000 same sex couples who have our marriage on the line with the current court cases. It feels strange that a court might decide whether my marriage will continue or end. Nobody should be involved in that decision except my husband and I. And if the marriages are upheld, but Proposition 8 is also upheld and no more marriages are allowed then I'll be in the strange situation of enjoying a marriage that other people don't have access to, which is actually exactly the situation that heterosexual couples have been in for years and which is the basis of the injustice that we're fighting against.

back on bike

2009-03-09T18:31:00.000-07:00

Saturday, after 9 months and maybe 20 days, I finally rode my bicycle again - the first time since I had broken my wrist on May 17.

The doctor had given me the go ahead back in January, but then I had been sick for a few weeks, and then it rained off and on for several weeks, and I was busy with other things. Earlier this week I had finally taken my bike in to the shop to replace the seat that I had ruined in the accident, and to by myself a new helmet. So finally on Saturday all the necessary positives converged: the bike was ready to go, I was healthy, I finished my sermon earlier that morning, the day was sunny and dry (and had been dry for a few days so it was unlikely that I'd have to ride over slippery wet patches) so with some trepidation I suited up and went for a ride.

It was beautiful, and easy, and fun. I had been a little scared to get started but once on the bike I realized I would be fine. I did a short ten-mile ride along the bike bath next to the LA river, so it was safe and flat. The only challenging parts at all were riding from my house down to the river and then back to the house from the river. My wrist did start to get tired and sore by the time I was finished so I was glad I wasn't going any further than 10 miles, but it will get stronger quickly now that I'm working it.

black cat bar

2009-02-11T22:04:00.000-08:00

Tonight, on the 42nd anniversary of the protest, I attend a commemorative event at the site of the Black Cat bar in Silver Lake. Now operated as Le Bar Cito, and still a gay bar, in 1967 this was the site of a massive protest against the Los Angeles Police Department and its treatment of gays and lesbians.

On New Year's Eve, 1966 going into 1967, the Black Cat bar hosted a New Year's eve party. The LAPD sent undercover cops into the bar, and at midnight when the men celebrated the New Year by kissing each other the cops arrested 14 men for "Lewd Conduct." A semi-riot followed with men beaten and fleeing to a neighboring bar ("New Faces" now the site of Circus of Books). But a month and a half later, on February 11, 1967, 600 gay men and lesbians and their supporters staged a protest in the street in front of the bar.

On November 8, 2008, just 4 days after the election that saw the passage of Proposition 8, the Black Cat was designated Los Angeles Historical Cultural Monument #939. Tonight, on the anniversary of the protest about 200 men and women crowded into the bar for a little program celebrating our history. Rodney Scott, of Christopher Street West (the organization the puts on the annual gay pride parade) mc'd the evening. He introduced Troy Perry, the MCC founder, and Neil Thomas, the current Senior Pastor of MCC-LA. Wes Jo, the SIlver Lake resident who shepherded the process of having the bar designated an historical cutural monument spoke briefly and thanked his husband. LA City Council President, Eric Garcetti spoke. Several folks were honored including Lillian Faderman and Stuart Timmons who wrote the book, Gay LA, which is where I first heard of this story. Mr. Timmons couldn't attended as he suffered a stroke a y ear ago and is still recovering.

I was pleased and impressed at the turn out and at the mix of folks present. Leathermen, suits and ties, a couple of Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence, a good percentage of lesbians, neighborhood folks. I had never been in the bar before. It's a nice space. Now it attracts a mostly Latino crowd and features drag queen shows. After the presentation a man came out dressed as Shirley Bassey in a feather boa and lip sync'ed to "This is My Life."

sign the marriage resolution

2009-02-09T12:02:00.000-08:00

I'm not the type to sign online petitions. I don't add my name to open letters, at least not very often. I don't forward "this important message" to all of my friends. I seldom call the governor's office and punch numbers on the automated phone system to register my support or outrage about some crucial issue. I've almost never written a letter to my congressman, except in those cases where someone at the social justice table at church has made it ridiculously easy for me.

Spiritually I just don't want to get that worked up. I have a limited amount of passion resources and I don't want to squander them by keeping myself anxious about everything day after day, week after week. Spiritually I'd rather take a walk outside, enjoy the sunshine, or the rain. I'd rather think about theology than legislation. I'd rather read the newspaper than the latest emotional plea from a non-profit, social justice, advocacy group in my inbox. The truth is I'd rather take a nap then go stand on a street corner with a sign. I'd rather stay at home, sitting on the couch, watching Grey's Anatomy with my husband.

So I understand people's reluctance to get involved in the marriage equality movement. It happens to be an issue close to my heart (see the above reference to sitting on the couch with my husband) but I hardly expect the same issue has risen to the top of every person's social justice agenda. But I've also learned something concerning this issue that makes for very effective social justice action and that fits very well with my reluctance to add my name to lists and forward petitions and contact my elected officials.

I'm absolutely convinced that the greatest contribution I have made to the marriage equality movement is that I have been openly gay, openly partnered, and openly in support of this issue. I've shown people who know me: my family, friends, people at the church, even sometimes people I barely know at Starbucks and the gym and the barbershop, that I'm a person who knows about this issue and cares about this issue in a personal way because it's actually about my life not some abstract principle. I have also, on this issue, taken more deliberative and pointed actions in support of marriage equality. But more effective than any of that I've simply lived my life as a married gay man (sitting on the couch watching Grey's Anatomy and so on) and whenever it was natural and appropriate I wouldn't be shy about letting people know about me and see that side of my life.

It's a lot easier to be against "gay marriage" than it is to know me and be against "Ricky's marriage." It's hard to match any of the rhetorical arguments against marriage equality with the actual experience of knowing me and my husband and who we are and how we live our lives. So I don't sign online petitions but I do have a website for my ministry where you wouldn't have to search too long to discover I'm a married gay man, and I'm happy to perform marriage ceremonies for same-sex couples. I don't sign open letters or forward emails to all my friends, but I am who I am on my facebook page and when I send an email to my friends and it mentions my husband they know who that is and why our marriage is important and worth protecting. I don't call the Governor very often but I call my folks every week and I ask about their marriage and they ask about mine.

I hope a lot of people are spending this week writing and calling and speaking out and marching or sitting and forwarding and adding their names and so on. God bless you. If you're the type here's a link to an online resolution that the Freedom to Marry folks are encouraging everyone to sign and email to their friends. Do it. I did. It wasn't too hard and I didn't have to get too worked up about it.

But also consider outing yourself as a marriage equality supporter and using all the regular places that you call and write and stand and speak out to announce your position on this issue. Don't shove it down anybody's throat but find a way to bring it up. "You know I actually know a gay couple who got married last summer." "I can't for the life of me imagine how anyone could object to my friend's marriage." "My church married a lesbian couple last month and it was beautiful." Update your face book status to say, "... is celebrating Freedom to Marry week." Write a blog post about the lesbian couple who lived down the street from you when you were a kid. Get a new bumper sticker supporting marriage equality and stick it over that John Kerry bumper sticker that won't come off.

Then go watch Grey's Anatomy.

dog on the balcony

2009-02-04T15:06:00.000-08:00

yesterday morning I sat in my office working on my computer, reading blogs and online newspapers, checking my email, also playing solitaire and looking at You Tube videos. My office is on the second floor of our house and there's a set of french doors that open on to a balcony over-looking the front yard of our house. The whole time I was at my desk my dog sat outside on the balcony, flopped on a pillow, enjoying the southern california weather. Instead of sleeping she was quite alert. Her head was up, looking around, her ears twitched at different sounds from neighbors and the street. And especially she kept her nose up and I could see her catching smells that I couldn't sense.

It occurred to me that she and I were doing the same thing, I with my computer, her with her physical senses. To keep me entertained and informed it took advnaced technology and an internet connection that gave me access to the entire world. She needed only her body and a balcony opening on to her own front yard.

Understanding and appreciating the greater consciousness available to me and the gifts the capacity for complex thought give to me, I also looked with jealousy at how simple and self-contained my dog's world could be. It made my long for a monastic kind of life. How nice to be content with a world the size of a front yard and a single pillow in the sun.

minister in charge

2009-02-04T14:53:00.000-08:00

Last night I went to see my brother-in-law sing at a local club. After the show we went backstage to the green room to give him our congratulations. While we were there a young man from another band that was performing that night, and that nobody in my group knew, had some kind of loss of consciousness episode. We heard a loud bang as he suddenly dropped to the floor. His girlfriend immediately shouted for help and said he had "passed out" but that he hadn't been drinking. She attended to him with another friend while the rest of us stood around wondering what to do.

It seemed to most of us, myself included that we should call 911. But instead, for several minutes we deferred to the girlfriend. I felt a conflict of who was responsible in this situation. As a minister, people often look to me for decisive action in these sort of situations. My friends know I'm a minister, but no one else in the room did. And the girlfriend in this case had more knowledge than the rest of us (she later indicated he had some sort of neurological problem), as well as more responsibility for dealing with the consequences if she called 911 unnecessarily, or didn't call 911 and it turned out she should have. So for several minutes we let her attempt to care for him, including involving the club management, but waited for her OK before we made the 911 call.

Eventually we did call 911. And then the management asked us to clear the room and we ended up leaving the club before the paramedics showed up, so I don't know what finally happened.

Are we all equally responsible for each other? Or are some people (minister's, friends) more responsible than others, and how then do we rank the gradations of responsibility so people actually get the care they need?