Tag Archives: Equality

No Kings

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Three inflatable frog people standing in front of a building at an anti-ICE demonstration in Portland, OR. Text: Exodus 8:2-6 "But if you refuse to let them go, I will plague your whole country with frogs... The frogs shall come up on you and on your people and on all your officials."

In the midst of cruelty and oppression, where does hope emerge? For me, it was seeing the protesters in Portland, Oregon dress in inflatable frog costumes, exposing the lie that Portland was a war zone, or that protesters were violent. In the face of armed and masked ICE agents, people responded with this creative and playful spontaneity. First there was one frog, and then it expanded to many frogs, and other silly costumed beings. Then someone else remembered this quote from Exodus about the plague of frogs. Perfect.

October 18th is NO KINGS day, and thousands of peaceful protests are planned for across the country. I can’t go out to one, but I can voice my support here. Support for democracy, support for the beautiful diversity that can make our communities full and alive, support for immigrants, support for trans siblings, and all queer people, support for disabled people and black people and indigenous people, Asian and Latino/a/x people. We need to keep expressing our vision of a multi-cultural country bound together by equality, justice, and full participation.

May the frogs multiply and spread the good word. Keep hope alive!

Green frog sitting in pond water, nearby there is a bee on a rock, and black tadpoles swimming around, and maple seeds floating.
Three frogs sitting on slate rocks
three more frogs on rocks and in water

First Harvest & Human Rights

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chives, in orange colander, scissors on cutting board, cut up chives and plastic labeled bag for cut chives

Today I harvested chives! The first harvest of the 2025 season. I cut them up in small pieces with a scissors and then freezed to use anytime. Today I also want to speak up for human rights! Continuing from the first seven articles of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights in my last post, I want to write out the next articles here. Over 75 years in existence, I weep that so many of these rights are not upheld in our world today.

Article 8: Everyone has the right to an effective remedy by the competent national tribunals for acts violating the fundamental rights granted him by the constitution or by law. [Note: I am using the original language, the pronouns of which, at that time, while “masculine”, were understood to refer to every person.]

Article 9: No one shall be subjected to arbitrary arrest, detention, or exile.

Article 10: Everyone is entitled in full equality to a fair and public hearing by an independent and impartial tribunal, in the determination of his rights and obligations and of any criminal charge against him.

Article 11: (1) Everyone charged with a penal offense has the right to be presumed innocent until proven guilty according to the law in a public trial at which he has had all the guarantees necessary for his defense. (2) No one shall be held guilty of any penal offense on account of any act or omission which did not constitute a penal offense, under national or international law, at the time when it was committed. Nor shall a heavier penalty be imposed than the one that was applicable at the time the penal offense was committed.

I can’t help but think of the 238 Venezuelan men detained and transported to the prison in El Salvador, with no trials, no hearings, and definitely not presumed innocent until proven guilty. I don’t usually do lengthy blog posts, but today I want to say their names. They are human beings with human rights.

The names of Venezuelans deported to El Salvador per CBS News. [Plus there is Kilmar Abrego Garcia, a Salvadoran living in the U.S. for 14 years, who was sent “by error.”]

Agelviz Sanguino, Widmer Josneyder

Aguilar Rodriguez, Nolberto Rafael

Aguilera Aguero, Gustavo Adolfo

Albornoz-Quintero, Henrry

Alvarado Borges, Neri

Angulo-Aparicio, Jinder

Aray-Cardona, Jose

Arregoces Rincon, Jose

Azuaje Perez, Nixon Jose

Barreto Villegas, Rolando

Bastidas Venegas, Jose

Basulto-Salinas, Marcos

Batista-Arias, Elvis

Belloso Fuenmayor, Alirio

Benavides Rivas, Yornel Santiago

Blanco-Bonilla, Andry

Blanco-Marin, Angel

Bolivar Cruz, Angel

Bracho Gomez, Victor

Brazon-Lezama, Javiar

Briceno-Gonzalez, Jose

Briceno-Gonzalez, Jean

Bustamante-Dominguez, Robert

Cabrera-Rico, David

Canizalez Arteaga, Carlos

Caraballo Tiapa, Franco

Cardenas-Silva, Johan

Carmona Bastista, Yorbi

Carmona Hernandez, Jose

Cedeno Contreras, Bruce Embelgert

Cedeno-Gil, Andrys

Chacin Gomez, Jhon

Chirinos Romero, Wild

Chivico Medina, Carlos

Colina Arguelles, Rosme

Colina Caseres, Miguel

Colina-Suarez, Alejandro

Colmenares Solorzano, Leonardo Jose

Colmenarez Abreu, Aldo

Contreras-Gonzalez, Yordano

Cornejo Pulgar, Frizgeralth De Jesus

Corrales-Moreno, Emilio

Davila Fernanadez, Luis

Delgado Pina, Aldrin

Depablos Requena, Jheison

Diaz-Lugo, Kleiver

Duarte Rodriguez, Richard

Duran Perez, Joseph Gregory

Echavez-Paz, Leonel

Elista-Jimenez, Robert

Escalona Carrizo, Yender

Escalona Sevilla, Angelo

Escobar Blanco, Pedro

Escobar Falcon, Yolfran

Fernandez Sanchez, Julio Rafael

Fernandez, Yohan

Fernandez-Subero, Mikael

Flores Jimenez, Wilken Rafael

Flores Rodriguez, Jose

Flores-Lopez, Jose

Fonseca Daboin, Cristhofer

Fuenmayor-Crespo, Roneil

Garcia Casique, Francisco

Garcia Prado, Leonardo

Giron Maurera, Richard

Gonzalez Troconis, Julio

Gonzalez Frailan, Jose Leon

Gonzalez Fuenmayor, Angel Jesus

Gonzalez Pineda, Oscar

Gonzalez-Rodriguez, Charlie

Graterol-Farias, Winder

Gualdron Gualdron, Luis

Gualtero Quiroz, Deibin

Guerrero Padron, Keivy

Guevara Munoz, Wilvenson

Guiterrez-Sierra, Wilker

Gutierrez Flores, Merwil

Hernandez Carache, Yeison

Hernandez Carache, Darwin Gerardo

Hernandez Herrera, Edwuar Jose

Hernandez-Hernandez, Jhonnael

Hernandez Gonzalez, Manuel

Hernandez Hernandez, Angel

Hernandez Juarez, Yorby

Hernandez Romero, Andry

Hueck Escobar, Jesus

Hung Mendoza, Jordan

Hurtado Quevedo, Eddie Adolfo

Indriago-Alvarez, Donovan

Izaguirre-Granado, Randy

Jaimes-Rincon, Yeison

Jerez-Hernandez, Yohendry

Justo Garcia, Jose

Laya-Freites, Jefferson

Leal-Bautista, Keiber

Leal-Estrada, Kervin

Lemus Cagua, Diego

Lizcano-Basto, Josue

Lopez Bolivar, Jose

Lopez Lizano, Maikol

Lopez-Rodriguez, Geomar

Lozada Sanchez, Wuilliam

Lozano-Camargo, Daniel

Lugo Zavala, Johendry

Lugo-Acosta, Yermain

Machado Martinez, Onaiker

Machado-Rodriguez, Jose

Manrique, Edson

Manzo Lovera, Lainerke

Marcano Silva, Luis

Marea-Medina, Ronald

Marin Zambrano, Jhonervi Josue

Marquez Pena, Jose

Marrufo Hernandez, Uriel David

Martinez Vargas, Kerbin

Martinez Vegas, Rafael

Martinez-Borrego, Tito

Martinez-Gonzalez, Yohangel

Mata Fornerino, Wilfredo Jose

Mata-Ribeiro, Yoswaldo

Mathie Zavala, Hotsman Ricardo

Medina-Martinez, Alexis

Melendez Rojas, Edwin

Mendez Boyer, Alex

Mendez Mejias, Angel

Mendez-Gomez, Luis

Mendoz Nunez, Carlos

Mendoza Ortiz, Maikol Solier

Mendoza Pina, Jean Claude

Mendoza Ramirez, Jonathan

Mogollon Herrera, Henry

Molina-Acevedo, Roger

Montero Espinoza, Ervinson

Montilla-Rivas, Jose

Mora-Balzan, Jose

Morales-Rolon, Andres

Moreno-Camacho, Cristopher

Moreno-Ramirez, Maikel

Morillo-Pina, Luis

Moron Cabrera, Yuber

Munoz Pinto, Luis

Navas Vizcaya, Ali

Navas-Diaz, Obed

Nieto Contreras, Kevin

Nunez-Falcon, Luis

Olivera Rojas, Maikel

Orta-Campos, Junior

Ortega Garcia, Felix

Otero Valestrines, Luis

Palacios-Rebolledo, Leoner

Palencia-Benavides, Brayan

Parra Urbina, Eduard

Paz-Gonzalez, Daniel

Pena Mendez, Jose Antonio

Penaloza Chirinos, Ysqueibel Yonaiquer

Perez Perez, Cristian

Perez-Llovera, Juan

Perfecto La Rosa, Moises

Perozo-Colina, Carlos

Perozo-Palencia, Andy

Petit Findlay, Andersson Steven

Petterson Torres, Christean

Pineda Lezama, Jesus

Pinto Velasquez, Cristhian

Plaza-Carmona, Jonathan

Primoschitz Gonzalez, Albert

Querales Martinez, Anderson Jose

Quintero Chacon, Edicson

Ramirez Ramirez, Jonathan Miguel

Ramos Bastidas, Jose

Ramos Ramos, Juan Jose

Reyes Barrios, Jerce Egbunik

Reyes Mota, Frengel

Reyes Ollarvides, Ronald

Reyes-Villegas, Arlinzon

Rincon Bohorquez, Omar

Rincon-Rincon, Ringo

Rios Andrade, Jesus

Rivera Gonzalez, Luis

Rivero-Coroy, Jean

Rodriguez, Edwin

Rodriguez Goyo, Alejandro

Rodriguez Lugo, Luis Gustavo

Rodriguez Parra, Alber

Rodriguez Rojas, Kenlyn

Rodriguez-Da Silva, Fernando

Rojas, Deibys

Rojas-Mendoza, Miguel

Romero Chirinos, Ildemar Jesus

Romero Rivas, Erick

Roos Ortega, Jesus

Rosal-Gelvez, Hector

Rubio-Petrola, Jose

Saavedra-Caruci, Robinson

Salazar-Cuervo, Pedro Luis

Sanchez Bigott, Yorbis

Sanchez Paredes, Idenis

Sanchez-Arteaga, Fernando

Sanchez-Bermudez, Marco

Santiago Ascanio, Ronald

Sarabia Gonzalez, Anyelo

Semeco Revilla, Darwin Xavier

Sierra Cano, Anyelo

Silva Casares, Jason Alfredo

Silva Freites, Carlos Julio

Silva-Ramirez, Aaron

Soto Manzana, Omar

Suarez-Fuentes, Joen

Suarez-Nunez, Luis

Suarez-Salas, Nery

Suarez-Trejo, Arturo

Tapia Colina, Jesus

Teran Aguilar, Carlos

Testa Leon, Orlando Jesus

Toro Noguera, Yonel

Torrealba Torrealba, Yonathan

Torres Archila, Amber

Torres Herrera, Euder Jose

Torres-Polanco, Carlos

Tortosa Guedez, Jorge

Tovar-Marcano, Cesar

Travieso Gonzalez, Kleiver

Troconis Gonzalez, Yhon Deivis

Uzcategui Vielma, Carlos

Vaamondes Barrios, Miguel

Vargas Lugo, Henry

Vazquez Morillo, Nicola

Vega Sandia, Wilmer

Vera Villamizar, Wladimir

Villa-Montano, Enson

Villafranca Rincones, Carlos Eduardo

Villegas-Frites, Ilels

Yamarte-Fernandez, Mervin

Yanez-Arangure, Luis

Zabaleta-Morillo, Keiber

Zambrano Perez, Julio

Zambrano Torrealba, Gabriel

Zarraga Rosales, Jorge

Sustenance

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Today I saw this gray goldfinch on a gray seed-head of evening primrose! Both the bird and the flower have let go of their bright yellow plumage as we enter the dark season. But still so beautiful in their subdued and subtle way. We haven’t cut down the “dead” plants because they are still such a source of sustenance and life to our little friends.

It is these small beauties that are sustaining me during these anxious days in the United States election season. It is terrifying to me that there is a close race between a mentally-unstable fascist who spreads hate wherever he goes, and a very qualified woman with whom I disagree on certain policies, but who will be president of all the people, and uphold the basic principles of democracy. My partner and I dropped off our absentee ballots last Monday, and gave Kamala Harris our votes.

It breaks my heart that some people I love seem to have been taken in by the lies of the MAGA propaganda machine. I don’t know how to ease that pain, except to pray that the fascists don’t win.

I haven’t forgotten the genocide that is being perpetrated by the Israeli government in Gaza, and expanding to Lebanon. I will continue to protest that killing in whatever ways that I can, small though they may be, every day. I have heard that some folks say they can’t vote for Harris because of her association with the Biden administration’s participation in the genocide. I don’t know what might happen under a Harris administration. But I know that the other side will be much worse, and would accelerate the destruction.

For me, voting is strategic. I have protested in some way every administration of our country–but there are better and worse administrations. For all of my adult life, I have been part of the movements to expand equality and democracy–to women, to people of color, to queer folks, to disabled people. I have protested the wars of empire and supported the raising of our awareness of the interconnected web of life, and the challenges of climate destruction. We keep pushing toward the hopes, and resisting those who would take all of that away in favor of hierarchical despotism.

In this season when the veil between the worlds of the dead and the living is thin, I think of my uncle Jim, who fought fascists in World War Two, and then grew marvelous gardens when I knew him. I think of my uncle Richard, whom I never knew because he died in that fight. May their spirits help us now. May all the spirits who cherish peace and liberation help us now.

I found God in myself and I loved Her fiercely

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I am continuing in my series of blogs about Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., in honor of the anniversary of his death, April 4th. I am exploring what his life can teach us about the experience of the Divine Mystery.

I want to acknowledge that there are many people who do the work of justice, without relating to a God of justice. Their work comes out of a belief in human dignity and connection, and God has nothing to do with it, for them. And that is really fine with me. When we have experienced the connection we share with other human beings, I believe it naturally leads to a concern about justice and equality.

But for some of us, there have been moments when we were in despair about injustice, or afraid of what our truth was revealing to us, or ready to give up, like Dr. King had been in his moment of despair. And in those moments, we also felt a divine presence, a presence of courage and hope and strength, empowering us into transformation. This God may not have intervened to take away a difficult challenge, but rather enabled us to find wholeness and self-worth in the meeting of it.

For me, the divine presence gave me the courage to leave the church of my childhood, and leap into the unknown, to find myself as a woman, as a whole and equal person. When all around me the church was saying that women had their place, and it was not in the priesthood or the leadership, when I was hearing that women were weak and vulnerable and needed men to guide and protect them, something enabled me to reject that characterization, and claim fullness. Something I barely even had a name for—but it was a sacred power nonetheless.

Photo by Rick Kimball

Photo by Rick Kimball

For me, the risk involved imagining that God might be a woman, a Goddess. That I might be created in the image of that Goddess. And even though there was nothing in the Bible that described this Goddess, yet it was still the stories of the God of justice that led me out of those old male-dominant images and into new possibilities. As Ntozake Shange put it, “I found God in myself and I loved her fiercely.”

This experience in my own life became a window to understand, at least in part, the kind of transformation the slaves had experienced. How miraculous and lonely it could be, how long the journey, and how frightening the desert. But yet, something unmistakable like a fire to guide the way. It taught me that the divine is a power beyond institutions, beyond containers, yet able to be present in our lives—especially in those moments of transformation, when “the mighty are cast down from their thrones, and the lowly are lifted up.”

I do not ask that anyone believe in the God of my own transformation. It doesn’t work like that. But I do offer it to you as an option of hope. If you are going through a hard time, if you are discouraged, if you are seeking to follow the truth of your heart, if you are sore oppressed. If you are having trouble believing in your own worth and dignity. I invite you to call on that God, and see whether there might be a presence that can help you through.

The One Who Lifts Up the Lowly

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 He has cast down the mighty from their thrones,
and has lifted up the lowly.
He has filled the hungry with good things,
and the rich he has sent away empty.
Luke 1:52-53

April 4th will be the 46th anniversary of the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.  Earlier this year, I invoked his presence to explore how the values of partnership and nonviolence were important to find an experience of wholeness.  I spoke about the concept of the Beloved Community, a goal to which we might strive in the process of reconnecting to our fellow human beings.  I want to focus for the next several days on further reflections about his life and faith, and how our connections to each other are related to our experience of the Mystery at the heart of life, that some have called God.

Four years ago, I heard Dr. Melissa Harris-Lacewell speak at the MLK Breakfast in my city. She is a professor of Political Science and African American Studies at Princeton University, and also studying at Union Theological Seminary in New York. I was struck by her comments about the amazing faith experience of black people in America—how black people “came to believe in a loving, benevolent and just God when there was so little empirical evidence to support that world view.”

After being stripped of every vestige of human dignity, forced to abandon their languages and religions, and cut off from their families, they were compelled to adopt the religion of the slave-holders. And while the masters used the Bible to justify slavery, within the stories of Moses and the prophets black people began to find a message of hope and liberation. They were inspired and encouraged to believe in their own worth and dignity. She said,

It is humbling to remember that women and men who were born into slavery, and never expected anything but slavery for their children and grandchildren, nonetheless believed that they were equal human beings worthy of the love of a benevolent and intervening God. It is a different kind of knowing, one with at least as much power as reason and evidence.

220px-Runaway_slaveThey were inspired to rebel against the masters, to escape from their bondage, and seek a path to freedom. And really, what were the slave-holders thinking? The central story of the Jewish scriptures, and also adopted into the Christian bible, is the story of Moses leading the slaves out of bondage in Egypt, on a journey toward freedom and the promised land. If you take away that story, you don’t have a story. The God of Moses, the God of the Bible, was willing to intervene to help a suffering people find a new life.

Now, I want to interject a comment here, to say that there is no way to prove that this kind of God exists. How could anyone prove that God intervenes on the side of the poor and the outsider? We can’t. In fact, historians and scholars will argue that there is no historic evidence that the exodus of slaves from Egypt ever happened. We are moving outside of the realm of reason and evidence and into the realm of mythic truths. As Harris-Lacewell says, “It is a different kind of knowing.” But we do know that the slaves in America created their own kind of exodus. They found some kind of power in the stories that strengthened their hearts and lifted up their spirits and set them free.

Quotes from Harris-Lacewell are from “Progressive Bible Study,” and “Our Jeremiah.” 

Loving Nonviolent Action Is Always a Force for Human Dignity

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When African American students sat down at the segregated lunch counters, they were asserting their own dignity by refusing to obey a law that treated them with contempt. They were holding onto the dignity of their harassers by refusing to engage in violence or harm. They were harnessing the power of love to make a change in an unjust system. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., and all of the many heroic civil rights activists, used loving nonviolent action to restore the dignity of an oppressed people, and also to restore the soul of the oppressor.  

Loving nonviolent action is always a force for human dignity. Whether the political outcome is successful or not, a change has already taken place. The night before Dr. King was killed, he said, “I’ve been to the mountaintop. It doesn’t matter what happens to me now. I’ve seen the Promised Land.” I used to think this meant that in some mysterious way he had seen the future, and he had faith that black people would eventually win their rights.

But I saw it differently after I was involved in the struggle for equal marriage for same-sex couples in Massachusetts. I believe the mountaintop is less about the future, and more about the present. When lesbian and gay people began to imagine that they might get married, they had an inner experience of equality. It didn’t happen all at once. Two members of my congregation on Cape Cod were part of the  lawsuit for equal marriage. They told me how terrifying it was, in the days leading up to the lawsuit, to ask the town clerk for a marriage license when they knew the answer would be no. It was also terrifying for many others to carry a sign in public, or to have a conversation with their legislator or their neighbor.

Wedding of Linda & Gloria Dewitt Photo 5/17/04

Wedding of Linda & Gloria
Dewitt Photo 5/17/04

But each new act in honor of love lessened their fear and strengthened their dignity. Same sex couples became aware of the burden they had been carrying, the hidden assumption that they were somehow less than the others. Once they felt a glimpse of equality, they couldn’t go back. They had put down the burden, and they were free. So even if there were opponents holding signs that said, “Homosexuals are demons,” it didn’t matter. A young lesbian woman carried another poster that said, “Your signs are mean but we love you anyway.” No matter what happens next, such love releases an inner power that is indestructible.

I think that is part of what Dr. King was talking about. It was visceral and immediate. By tapping the power of love through non-violent action, he felt first hand a new way of being in the world. He fully experienced his own dignity and the dignity of his people. After that, what else could matter? He had been to the mountaintop. As he said, “whenever men and women straighten their backs up, they are going somewhere.” He knew there was no turning back.

King quotes from “I See the Promised Land”, reprinted in A Testament of Hope, The Essential Writings and Speeches of Martin Luther King Jr.