Atema Eclai

Bill Schulz

James Lawson

4038 Human Rights and Human Spirituality: Are They Indivisible?

Moderator:

Atema Eclai, Unitarian Universalist Service Committee (UUSC) Program Director

Presenters:

Rev. William Schulz (President of Amnesty International) and Rev. James Lawson

Sponsor: UU Service Committee

Prepared for UUA.org by: Mike McNaughton, Reporter; Margy Levine Young, Editor

"What is the connection between the struggle for justice in Africa and in my home country? If we are still asking this question, there must be something wrong with our faith," said the Rev. James Lawson.

"As I understand the Hebrew and Christian Bible," he continued, "there is unity. Moses and Jesus agree – insist – that the fundamental rule of life is: love your neighbor as yourself. These words are empty without the use of the hands, feet, and heart to support the words in every way possible. Yet by their actions, many people demonstrate they have never read the words of Jesus.

"You cannot pretend that what you know about yourself is different from what others know about themselves. Our nation erred in the slaughter of Native Americans, in slavery, and in the oppression of women, and all three of these issues have led to spiritual schizophrenia."

The audience of 800 was very still as Lawson asked. "Can our government, military, CIA, and FBI stop torture in Guantanamo Bay when we have permitted such torture for centuries within the U.S.A.? What do you think imprisonment in this country is all about? And lynching? What do you think the deaths in our prisons are about? In many ways we allow ourselves to treat the residents of our own society in the same ways as some of our folk have exported overseas. Iraq is not the critical issue in this country.

"We must fight for economic justice. Many people struggle for a living wage. Gandhi said of millions of people: God cannot appear to them except in the form of bread. There should be no disconnect between spirituality and the daily endeavor to provide social justice.

"Let us dwell on what it is we must do. We must move from theory to action, from speaking to doing."

This impassioned speech by the Rev. James Lawson was backed by equally strong words from the Rev. William Schulz. "The greatest danger," he told us, "is we will succumb to earnestness and stop loving the world. What is the point of saving the world if we don't love it? I try to stay in touch with life's blessings; grace is the religious word to describe such favors. But grace can be thwarted. People need to be freed from mind-numbing pain in order to savor grace. Otherwise, grace is just a fancy word for luck."

Deuteronomy 10:19 tells us: "Love the stranger, for you were strangers in Egypt." The underlying lesson is: those who have no pain can nevertheless imagine what it is like to suffer. We can make a leap into the hearts of strangers and find familiar hearts.

"At present, there is a struggle for the soul of this country, a struggle between those with parched vision and those with a generous heart. There is no correlation between wisdom and power," says Schulz.

And when Schulz stands up to power, he is strengthened by the knowledge that UUs are with him. "So give no quarter," he exhorted us. "Fear no shadows, and make the mountains tremble!"

Questions from the audience focused on the practical details." How do we go from the terrible situation into which our country has been plunged? What steps can we take to extricate our country?"

Schulz urged us to build coalitions with other religions, both on the local and national levels. "We are not without resources," he assured us.

Lawson urged us to work non-violently on the local scene. "There is no possibility of a top-down change," he told us. "Our future lies in dealing with our own issues here in the U.S. Our land must have a spiritual and moral revolution like that in the 1960s to stop the forces that have come to a head. The Civil Rights movement was an indication of the power of the people. We need people to get hold of a local issue and wrestle with it."

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