Worship

“The Trumpet of Conscience”

by Reverend Charles Blustein Ortman
MLK Day, January 20, 2008

READINGS:

Our first reading is a collection of short verses from the Hebrew Scripture:

From the book of Psalms:
“Blessed are they who observe justice, who do righteousness at all times!”

From the book of Proverbs:
“To do righteousness and justice is more acceptable to the Lord than sacrifice.”

From the book of Isaiah:
“Wash yourselves; make yourselves clean; remove the evil of your doings from before my eyes; cease to do evil, learn to do good; seek justice, correct oppression…

And from the book of Micah:
“What does the Lord require of you but to do justice, to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God?"

Our second reading is taken from the book, “The Trumpet of Conscience.” The Canadian Broadcasting Corporation aired the sermons in this book during November and December of 1967. You might well appreciate the similarity of the Viet Nam experience of 1967 and a host of issues in process today:

Since the spring of 1967, I first made public my opposition to my government’s policy [regarding the war in Viet Nam], many persons have questioned me about the wisdom of my decision. “Why you?” they have said. “Peace and civil rights don’t mix. Aren’t you hurting the cause of your people?” And when I hear such questions, I have been greatly saddened, for they mean that the inquirers have never really known me, my commitment, or my calling. Indeed, that question suggests that they do not know the world in which they live.

SERMON:

The great 13th Century poet of Florence and author of “The Divine Comedy,” Dante wrote, “The darkest places in hell are reserved for those who maintain their neutrality in times of moral crisis.”

Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. is an American hero. That we have an annual holiday to commemorate his life and his memory is only a small token of payment for our debt to this man who was a voice of conscience and an inspiration for us all in heeding our consciences. I personally have deep admiration and appreciation for his incredible leadership through a most difficult chapter in our history. By his call to conscience he, perhaps more than any other American in the last half of the 20th Century, encouraged and inspired this nation to avoid those darkest places in hell, of which Dante wrote. His words and his life are no less a call to our consciences today than they were then.

All too often when heroes are memorialized on a grand institutional or national level, it is done through a celebration of the person’s courage and determination, while often forgetting and even obscuring just what that courage and determination were all about. What they were about in Martin's case was the reordering of a social fabric that gave power to some at the loss of it for others; gave wealth to some at the expense of others; gave privilege to some at the cost of disparagement for others. In his day these were primarily issues of black and white. But Martin understood that they were about much more than that. They were about a culture of entrenched entitlement and consumerism that deftly protected and sheltered the haves from the have nots.

One of the joys for me in having a Martin Luther King holiday each year is the opportunity and responsibility it gives me to spend time reading Dr. King's writings. Besides being in awe and inspired by this great man's vision and his articulation of it, it's so interesting to see how his writing evolved over the years. He was quite prolific as well as prophetic, and so his development as both a writer and a visionary can be seen as they unfolded over the far too few years of his life. His writing style and ability became more gracious and flowing over the years, just as did his ability to see, to recognize, and to name the dynamics within the broad array of the social fabric with all its many disenfranchised strands. And more, it's something to observe the evolution of his vision of nonviolence as the path to the beloved community, as he envisioned it transforming and transcending oppression.

So for the Martin Luther King Day service this year, I read the collection of sermons published as the book, "The Trumpet of Conscience." Given the issues of this day – as our nation continues to edge our way along a path of entrenched entitlement and consumerism, with an ever sharper cutting edge defining and maintaining the dividing line between the haves and have nots – many of his words continue to blast forth as a trumpet or a call to conscience for us now.

Two of the most dominant issues that come to my mind as I hear his call are the war in Iraq and the plight of the over 12 million undocumented immigrants currently in the United States. There are many other issues to which his voice continues to call us into accountability in the nearly 40 years since his death. But for me, today, these are two that weigh heavily. So I invite you to hear some of the words Dr. King used primarily from the chapter addressing, "Conscience and the Vietnam War," barely four months before his assassination. I've chosen various passages that I think call out to us, and I invite you to hear them through the perspective of our own experience and of our own time today. You might even want to translate the name Viet Nam to indicate another location on the other side of the world. Dr. King wrote:

“It is many months now since I found myself obliged by conscience to end my silence and to take a public stand against my country’s war in Vietnam. The considerations which led me to that painful decision have not disappeared; indeed, they have been magnified by the course of events since then. The war itself is intensified; the impact on my country is even more destructive…

“I cannot speak about the great themes of violence and nonviolence, of social change and of hope for the future, without reflecting on the tremendous violence of Vietnam…

“In explaining my position, I have tried to make it clear that I remain perplexed—as I think everyone must be perplexed—by the complexities and ambiguities of Vietnam. I would not wish to underrate the need for a collective solution to this tragic war. I would wish neither to present North Vietnam or the National Liberation Front as paragons of virtue nor to overlook the role they can play in the successful resolution…

“Somehow this madness must cease. It must stop now. I speak as a child of God and brother to the suffering poor of Vietnam. I speak for those whose land is being laid waste, whose homes are being destroyed, whose culture is being subverted. I speak for the poor of America, who are paying the double price of smashed hopes at home and death and corruption in Vietnam. I speak as a citizen of the world, for the world as it stands aghast at the path we have taken. I speak as an American to the leaders of my own nation. The great initiative in this war is ours. The initiative to stop it must be ours…

“In the spring of 1967, I made public the steps I consider necessary for this to happen. I should add now only that while many Americans have supported the proposals, the government has so far not recognized one of them. These are the times for real choices and not false ones. We are at the moment when our lives must be placed on the line if our nation is to survive its own folly. Every [person] of humane convictions must decide on the protest that best suits [their] convictions, but we must all protest…

“… McCarthyism left a legacy of social paralysis. Fear persisted through succeeding years, and social reform remained inhibited and defensive. A blanket of conformity and intimidation conditioned young and old to exalt mediocrity and convention. Criticism of the social order was still imbued with implications of treason. The war in Korea was unpopular, but it was never subject to the searching criticisms and mass demonstrations that currently characterize opposition to the war in Vietnam…

“Alienation is not confined to our young people, but it is rampant among them. Yet alienation should be foreign to the young. Growth requires connection and trust. Alienation is a form of living death. It is the acid of despair that dissolves society…

“Here is the true meaning and value of compassion and nonviolence, when they help us to see the enemy's point of view, to hear his questions, to know his assessment of ourselves. For from his view we may indeed see the basic weaknesses of our own condition, and if we are mature, we may learn and grow and profit from the wisdom of the brothers who are called the opposition…”

There are so many issues that Dr. King's words might apply to today: the life expectancy of African-American children, women or men; poverty; education; drugs; the criminal justice system. These are just a few of the things, the frameworks of which demand the restructuring of our society. Not discounting them, but by extension and recognizing their relationship, I turn to issues of the war and of undocumented immigration. Dr. King said, “I cannot speak about the great themes of violence and nonviolence, of social change and of hope for the future, without reflecting on the tremendous violence of [the war]…

It has been particularly disturbing over the past few weeks to observe how the issue of the economy has replaced the war in Iraq as the number one question being addressed by the candidates of both political parties as they run for the presidency.

Never mind that, especially among the privileged among us, the economy is about life style while war is always about death.
Never mind that to a significant extent it is the war itself that has undermined the economy.
Never mind that the rationale for going to war in the first place was based on incorrect and likely manufactured misinformation.
Never mind that the death toll of Americans is at nearly 4,000 and that well over 150,000 Iraqis have died.
Never mind that this ill-conceived bloodbath, fought in our names, has squandered the culture, an entire generation and the wealth of the Iraqi people.
Never mind that this ill-conceived bloodbath, fought in our names, has squandered the potential, the hope, and even the budget of this once great nation.
Never mind that corporations such as Halliburton, Blackwater and others have engorged their coffers through this shameful debacle of American values.
Never mind that once again it is disproportionately and primarily the poor, especially marginalized persons of color and ethnicity, who carry the rifles as well as the greatest burdens and risks for this war.
Never mind the squandering of untold resources that could have been used to lift this nation's poor, creating a general welfare for the entire country, the likes of which this world has never witnessed.

If we never mind any of these, my friends, we will have successfully failed to heed the spiritual accountability that Dr. King's words call us to today. If we never mind any of these, we will have successfully muted the trumpet of our own conscience, the trumpet that blows within each of us, calling us to be responsible in and for this world we are creating. If we never mind any of these, the world will indeed stand aghast at the path we have taken. Just as Dr. King said, “The great initiative in this war is ours. The initiative to stop it must be ours.”

It has been similarly disturbing to observe that, as the number one election campaign issue has placed the economy over the war, it has also reduced issues of undocumented immigrants to the position of number three in prominence. This I suppose is both a blessing and curse.

It is perhaps a blessing because most of the attention to immigration has also been misguided, racist, ill-conceived and a further erosion of the values which have previously made this nation great. It is perhaps a curse because the reduced attention serves to further obscure the very human stories that tell of the lives of these over 12 million persons who have come to this country that it might fulfill its promise of greatness for them and for their families, and for us all.

It could well be considered an unforeseen circumstance if one or two, if 100 to 200, or perhaps even if 100,000 to 200,000 individuals slipped across the border and into the mosaic of the American social, cultural and literal landscape. But by no realistic stretch of any imagination can it be considered an accident that over 12 million – 12 million individuals! – who are undocumented immigrants, just happen to be here. They are here because they are widely seen as valuable to the economy and the progress of this country.

A couple of months ago I spoke about what those 12 million folks are doing here. In summary, they are here to live. And to a very, very great extent they are working, paying taxes and following the laws (except for immigration laws). At the same time, they have no voice in the government and they are not receiving the bulk of benefits that are guaranteed to the rest of the American people.

In effect, they are underwriting the benefits that the rest of us enjoy. In effect, to a very large extent, they are victims of a kind of neo-slavery that extracts their services while extorting their silence and excluding them from the bounty which is this country's richness. What might Dr. King say about this? Let me paraphrase what he did say: “Somehow this madness must cease. It must stop now. I speak as a child of God and brother to the suffering poor of [the world].” There are no easy answers to these questions. Indeed Dr. King said, “In explaining my position, I have tried to make it clear that I remain perplexed—as I think everyone must be perplexed—by the complexities and ambiguities…"

The point is, we must name as wrong those things that are wrong. And then we must find ways, whatever ways we can to dismantle the wrongness in order to reweave the fabric of our culture to include all the strands, all the people who are here working in and for this country.

We have a great opportunity here at UU Montclair this afternoon at 12:30 in the Peierls Room to learn more about these issues facing undocumented immigrants and what we as a congregation might do in response to the issues. Juan Carlos Ruiz and two families from the New Sanctuary Movement will be here to try to help us – try to help us – to find a way of answering the trumpet of our consciences. I want you to hear what I'm saying – they will be here to help us. I have to hope that we can at least be present to hear what they have to say.

I dare say the state of our souls will never rest on whether or not we avail ourselves of any single opportunity. But I would think it does rest on whether or not we heed the call of our conscience by availing ourselves to respond religiously and responsibly to any of the many opportunity in order to right situations that have made of us wrongful recipients of the property or the labor of others. That is what the war in Iraq is about, and that is what all the fuss over undocumented immigration is about as well.

Tomorrow is a celebration of what Dr. King stood for. And more, it is a commemoration of his lifetime of dedication to growing the beloved community. The Martin Luther King holiday asks us to do much more than to acknowledge the truth of his struggle. It calls us to commit ourselves to continuing that struggle and to taking on racism, oppression, and the scourge of warfare wherever we might find them.

For indeed, the darkest places in the whole of the universe are reserved for those who maintain neutrality in times of moral crisis. Dr. King said, "Every [person] of humane convictions must decide on the protest that best suits [their] convictions, but we must all protest…"