SERMONS 

Faith in Democracy

When I was a teenager in a small high school in West Kentucky about 75 miles North of Nashville, I entered a speech contest in which the title was “I Speak for Democracy.” I was only sixteen and hadn’t lived long enough to appreciate the Democratic form of government under which I lived. I won the contest and learned a new word. I clearly remember looking up the difficult word, ‘totalitarianism.’ I’d heard about Hitler and the Axis of countries that America fought in World War II, but that wasn’t something I fully comprehended.

I’d often heard my parents say, “the government is me; everyone’s business is no one’s business, but the government’s business is my business.” But even those words didn’t take on real meaning until much later in my life.

After completing a degree in political science I began to understand how to compare our form of government with that of other countries. I realized that Democracy is an experiment that hasn’t proved it will last. The jury is still out. This young country of ours continues to experience growing pains. It’s true our country was founded with flowery, promise-filled words. . . . . words such as, “all men are created equal,” yet from the beginning non-property owning white males, blacks, and women were not recognized at the ballot box. Slowly we’ve gotten past those barriers to the ballot. The populists of the 19th and 20th Centuries have won many battles to have included in the great dream - - civil rights, women’s rights, trade unions, an eight-hour work day, the minimum wage, some semblance of conserving our natural resources and protecting our water and air, and Medicaid and Social Security.

However, just this past week we were reminded that fundamental equal rights are denied a considerable portion of our society. As you know, the Supreme Court ruled on the right of privacy to engage in consensual sexual acts between members of the same gender. Immediately there was an outcry for and against the rights of marriage between same sex couples. These couples still lack the same benefits afforded married heterosexual couples.

I well remember a young gay couple that lived in Wichita, Kansas where I practiced law for several years. One of the young men was dying with AIDS and the healthy partner wanted to consult with the care-givers of the young man who was dying. Yet, the medical community was legally required to consult with the blood relatives of the young man, or a spouse. There was no legally recognized spouse, so they were forced to get medical directives from his parents. However, his parents had disowned him when they were informed he was gay.

I was often asked to counsel same-sex couples that were desperate for advice on how to write legal documents to protect them in similar situations as well as medical insurance for a domestic partner and how to effect a division of property when a partnership was ending. Sadly, many times I had to inform them the law had no protection for them because they were not considered the spouse or next of kin to one another.

We don’t yet know if the Democratic experiment called the United States of America is truly ‘one nation, indivisible – by the people, of the people and for the people,’ or if in fact, it is simply a hollow promise manipulated by the wealthy and powerful to sustain their own way of life at the expense of others.

Some of us are concerned that the majority of the American public appears to be a slumbering giant. Many Americans have buried their heads in the sand to avoid the facts with which we are daily bombarded. Facts about the U.S. Government’s disavowal of the Kyoto treaty to protect the environment – you remember -- that treaty that was carefully drawn by representatives from many nations. We do not want to be told over and over that the fuel efficiency of our cars is at a 22 year low – in fact you have been told to be good consumers to help our economy and not worry about the consequences.

We don’t want to hear any more about how our schools are failing our young people and teacher salaries are among the lowest in the nation and that 87% of adult Tennesseans do not have a college degree. We do not want to hear that Tennessee ranks 43rd in the Nation for problems facing our children and that 18% of Tennessee children live in poverty.

We do not want to know that 2.7 million Tennesseans are not voting, even in Presidential elections!

We don’t want one more newspaper article or T.V. commentator telling us that 45 million Americans are without health insurance. Unless it is our spouse, or partner, daughter or son we don’t want to know that unemployment is higher than it has been in eight years. We are horrified that Congress suggests that Social Security should be privatized but we cannot believe they will do it, so we just try not to think about it.

We do not want to read the clamor about something called the Patriot Act and how it's gutting our Civil Rights. We especially don’t want to think about the fact that our Attorney General now has the blessing of Congress to tell our Librarian she must give him a list of the books we have checked out and that she can’t tell us the Government asked for the information.

We know the Patriot Act passed through Congress with an overwhelming majority of votes after the September 11th tragedy and many have said we must give up some freedoms to assure our homeland's security. However, we should remember the words of Benjamin Franklin, "Those who give up liberty for the sake of security deserve neither liberty nor security."

Some of us still believe in Democracy. Some of us have not withdrawn from the community. We still have faith in that promise that we can have a government of the people, by the people and for the people.

I don’t have to tell this audience about participating in the community. When comparing percentages of total membership, UUs are always more represented than other religious groups in community activities. That is why I’ve chosen you to share the news that there is now an organization in Davidson County called Faith in Democracy, a/k/a “FinD 18” that is working to try to wake up the sleeping giant and give hope to our neighbors that indeed they can make a difference in their community, state and nation.

FinD 18 was formed by 13 people who met last December at the Penuel Ridge Retreat Center in Cheatham County. Martin Sir, a local attorney who is a member of the Board at Penuel Retreat, convened the meeting. The thirteen of us spent the better part of a day talking about our dreams for our community, state and nation. We agreed that we still have faith in Democracy. We agreed that the way to enlist others to help build a stronger community is for each of us to reach out to 18 people who are not now registered to vote and ask them what are their concerns, in hopes of engaging them in building a better community.

We want to help build a ‘beloved community’ on the pattern used by the ancient Greeks who used the term ‘polis’ to describe a community. They understood that the entire populace is needed to form the beloved community where people are supported in an atmosphere of mutual trust and aid to one another. This communal fabric is the foundation of what we call politics.

FinD 18’s members realized that we no longer have politically active citizens because we are quickly losing the polis to which such citizens belong. We hope to remedy that by going to the community, one household at a time and asking what are their concerns. We hope to help them understand the urgency of seriously approaching their duties as a citizen. Voting is a beginning. Participation in the community is the desired goal. We believe when citizens know that their concerns are heard, they will respond. We have been meeting in East Nashville at the Hobson United Methodist Church where Sonnye Dixon is the pastor. Reverend Dixon is the Davidson County President of NAACP and also serves as Vice President of FinD 18. Members have divided into the 35 Metro Council Districts of Davidson County and some from other surrounding counties. We are recruiting district captains who are planning the strategy to go door to door in their districts to register people to vote and find ways to engage them in dialogue.

We are a group as varied as any Unitarian Universalist congregation – from all walks of life and all religious faiths. The news about our organization has spread by word of mouth, mostly via the Internet and we have had a tremendous response.

FinD 18 reminds me of the consciousness raising group I attended in the early 70s. The so-called "second wave feminists" didn’t go out and burn our bras as the first act to change society. We met in homes and talked about our need for community and intellectual stimulation because many of us were at home all day rearing young children. Later, we did take action to effect change.

FinD 18’s members know that Democracy is not a spectator sport! If you saw me drive in the parking lot today, you may have noticed that bumper sticker on my car. We are happy to know that groups like ours are springing up all over America. The largest we've heard of is the group called "Campaign for America's Future" which held the "Take Back America" conference in Washington last month. I caught a few minutes of it on C SPAN and read on the Internet, Bill Moyers speech given there in accepting an award. His speech was entitled, "This is your Story: The Progressive Story of America. Pass It On." Moyers gave a wonderful account of the populist movement that arose after the excesses of President McKinley's administration which lasted from 1897 to 1901. He explained that McKinley and his advisors believed that it was government's power to confer privilege on insiders; on the rich who were democracy's equivalent of the royal favorites of monarchist days. Moyers explained that the Populists knew it was the government that granted millions of acres of public land to the railroad builders. It was the government that gave the manufacturers of farm machinery a monopoly of the domestic market by a protective tariff, and the government that contracted the national currency and sparked a deflationary cycle that crushed debtors and fattened the wallets of creditors. And those who made the great fortunes used them to buy the legislative and judicial favors that kept them on top. So the Populists recognized one great principle: the job of preserving equality of opportunity and democracy demanded the end of any unholy alliance between government and wealth."

Moyers said: "Democracy doesn't work without citizen activism and participation, starting at the community. Trickle down politics doesn't work much better than trickle down economics."

In the 70s I remember a little bumper sticker that read, “Bloom where you are planted.” Most of us are ‘planted’ in Middle Tennessee and there are many ways in which we can demonstrate our Faith in Democracy. If we want a government that is responsive to the needs of all the people – not just tax breaks for the wealthiest, we must participate in our Democracy. If you are interested in joining FinD 18, you can pick up one of our brochures at the back of the sanctuary.

I still have faith in Democracy!