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Rev. Chris Jimmerson
July 11, 2021
First UU Church of Austin
4700 Grover Ave., Austin, TX 78756
www.austinuu.org
This is a rebroadcast of a sermon from January 27, 2019.
How do we ground our social justice work, our struggles against racism, oppression, and the destruction of our environment? Where do we find reliance and even joy? We will examine a theology that grounds this work in our collective interdependence or, as Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. put it, “We are tied together in a single garment of destiny, caught in an inescapable network of mutuality… This is the inter-related structure of reality.”
“If you have come here to help me, you are wasting your time. but if you have come because your liberation is bound up with mine, then let us work together.”
Aboriginal Activists Group, Queensland, 1970s
Call to Worship
Rev. Chris Jimmerson
I reach for my fullest potential in a world that pits my full potential against yours.
Together, we can all better reach for our full potential.
I am taught to fear difference.
By embracing our differences, we learn, grow and may be transformed.
The privileges I have been given, the power to oppress, leaves me trapped within those same systems of oppression.
Collectively, we can change those systems and liberate us all.
Racism, sexism, classism, radical capitalism, gender and sexuality biases, religious bigotries; these conspire together to bind us all into silos of spiritual emptiness.
Together, we can burst through these silos of disconnection and journey together toward wholeness and holiness.
Come, let us enter into this journey together.
Together, we celebrate our collective vision of Beloved Community. Together, we build that vision.
Reading
A NETWORK OF MUTUALITY
by Martin Luther King Jr.
We are caught in an inescapable network of mutuality, tied in a single garment of destiny.
Injustice anywhere is a threat justice everywhere.
There are some things in our social system to which all of us ought be maladjusted.
Hatred and bitterness can never cure the disease of fear, only love can do that.
We must evolve for all human conflict a method which rejects revenge, aggression, and retaliation…
The foundation of such a method is love.
Before it is too late, we must narrow the gaping chasm between our proclamations of peace and our lowly deeds which precipitate and perpetuate war.
One day we must come to see that peace is not merely a distant goal that we seek but a means by which we arrive at that goal.
We must pursue peaceful ends through peaceful means.
We shall hew out of the mouton of despair, a stone of hope.
Sermon Handout
COSTS OF OPPRESSION TO PEOPLE FROM PRIVILEGED GROUPS
Psychological Costs: Loss of Mental Health and Authentic Sense of Self.
- Socialized into limited roles and patterns of behavior
- Denial of emotions and empathy
- Limited self-knowledge and distorted view of self
- Discrepancy between others’ perceptions and internal reality
- Pain and fears (of doing and saying wrong thing, of retaliation from oppressed groups, of revealing self for fear of judgment, of different people and experiences)
- Diminished mental health (distorted view of self and reality, denial, projection)
Social Costs: Loss and Diminishment of Relationships
- Isolation from people who are different
- Barriers to deeper, more authentic relationships
- Disconnection, distance and ostracism within own group/family if act differently
Moral and Spiritual Costs: Loss of Moral and Spiritual Integrity
- Guilt and shame
- Moral ambivalence (doing right thing vs. social pressures and realities)
- Spiritual emptiness or pain
Intellectual Costs: Loss of Developing Full Range of Knowledge
- Distorted and limited view of other people’s culture and history
- Ignorance of own culture and history
Material and Physical Costs: Loss of Safety, Resources, and Quality of Life
- Social violence and unrest
- Higher costs (e.g. for good and safe schools and homes, for qualified employees)
- Waste of resources (to deal with effects of inequality)
- Loss of valuable employees, clients and customers
- Loss of knowledge to foster societal growth and well-being
- Diminished collective action for common concerns
- Negative health implications
Benefits of Social Justice for People from Privileged Groups
- Fuller, more authentic sense of self
- More authentic relationships and human connection
- Moral integrity and consistency
- Freedom from fears
- Improved work and living conditions
- Access to other cultures and wisdom
- More resources to address common concerns
- Greater opportunity for real democracy and justice
From: Diane J. Goodman, Promoting Diversity and Social Justice: Educating People from Privileged Group (Routledge, 2011). www.dianegoodman.com
Benediction
by Bell Hooks
The moment we choose to love we begin to move towards freedom, to act in ways that liberate ourselves and others. That action is the testimony of love as the practice of freedom.
Sermon
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