Honoring Dr. King in diverse ways

This has been a very special MLK weekend. On Saturday, I took part in a Martin Luther King conference called "Building the Beloved Community" sponsored by the University of Laverne, Christ the Redeemer Church, and the the Parliament of the World's Religions. This event featured Dr. Mark Waldman, a neuroscientist who has written extensively about religion, based on the latest scientific research. His most recent book "How God Changes Your Brain" shows how religious practices like prayer and affirmation alter your brain functioning in positive ways. He led us in a series of exercises to teach "Compassionate Communication." I led a workshop on Compassionate Listening with my Sufi friend Noor Malika. This is the kind of practical skill building we need to cultivate in order to bring peace into our daily lives as well as into our peace activism.

On Sunday I took part in a joyful and uplifting celebration sponsored by the South Coast Interfaith Council in Long Beach. We heard a thoughtful keynote address by the Honorable Deborah Sanchez, a judge who is also a leader of the Chumash Indians. The highpoint of this celebration was the amazing music--gospel sung with gusto by both whites and blacks that rocked our bodies and fed the soul.

My weekend culminated in the MLK parade in S. Central LA. Marching with the peace community was a special blessing. It was also uplifting to see my dear Quaker friend Donna Buell bring her grandkids to this parade so they would learn to be Quaker peace activists at an early age.

I am glad I had the chance to honor his commitment to peace by handing out ICUJP flyers about the Cost of War (see http://icujp.org/). And I'm pleased to report that this message was well received by the crowds who come to honor Dr. King.

There are so many diverse ways to honor Dr. King! It also occurred to me that MLK Day is the only national holiday that has not been drained of meaning due to commercialization. George Washington birthday has become simply an excuse to go on a shopping spree, like Lincoln's birthday. Labor Day has become a time to relax with one's family, not think about the important contribution of organized labor to American life. The 4th of July is about fireworks and barbecue, not about reflecting on the birth of our nation and what it means. Thanksgiving has become a sentimental holiday, a mindless affront to Native Americans, that whitewashes what really happened between Indians and white colonialists.

Only MLK Day challenges us to think and reflect on important issues, like racism, economic justice, peace, and our spiritual lives. Thank God that Dr. King's spirit lives on, challenging as well as inspiring us!

Peace Activities Coming Up in the Los Angeles area

January could be considered interfaith peace month, with Martin Luther King Day in the midst of it, inspiring us with his example and his prophetic words:

“We have inherited a big house, a great “world house” in which we have to live together – black and white, Easterners and Westerners, Gentiles and Jews, Catholics and Protestants, Moslem and Hindu, a family unduly separated in ideas, culture, and interests who, because we can never again live without each other, must learn, somehow, in this one big world, to live with each other. This means that more and more our loyalties must become ecumenical rather than sectional. We must now give an overriding loyalty to mankind as a whole in order to preserve the best in our individual societies.”

There are so many excellent MLK events in LA it is hard to choose which one to attend. I will highlight just a few that I am personally involved with.

First, there are two MLK events coming up this weekend:

1) On Sunday, Jan 16, from 3-5 PM there is one in Long Beach, sponsored by the South Coast Interfaith Council, and featuring a Chumash Indian leader named Deborah Sanchez.

2) On Saturday, Jan 15, from 9 AM-noon there is an MLK event in Irvine, sponsored by the Parliament of the World's Religions. It includes workshops and a keynote speaker named Dr. Mark Waldeman, a neuro-scientist specializing in peaceful communication.

For details about both these events, see: http://quakeruniversalist.wordpress.com/2011/01/11/martin-luther-king-and-universalism/.

Other interfaith peace events coming up in So Cal include: a traveling art show sponsored by the AFSC (afsc.org) , a series of screenings of "War Made Easy" sponsored by ICUJP (icujp.org) , and training in nonviolent activist by Rev. Dr. James Lawson, a colleague of Dr. Martin Luther King. All of these are listed below:

Upcoming AFSC event

Saturday, February 19, 2011 - 7:00pm - Sunday, March 13, 2011 - 12:00 am. AFSC is sponsoring Windows and Mirrors, a traveling exhibit that provides an opportunity to see ourselves in depictions of the war in Afghanistan through the eyes of artists and children. See http://afsc.org/event/los-angeles-windows-and-mirrors-exhibit

2011 ICUJP "Cost of War" Program

Interfaith Communities United for Justice and Peace (icujp.org) is coordinating a season-long campaign to raise awareness of the costs, in dollars and lives, of the wars in which the United States has been so long engaged. Events in the campaign include:

Screenings of "War Made Easy: How Presidents and Pundits Keep Spinning Us to Death"

Thursday, January 20, 4 p.m.: Community Coalition: 8101 S. Vermont Avenue Los Angeles, CA 90044

Sunday, January 30, 3 p.m.: Peace Sunday. Unitarian Universalist Church, 1260 18th StreetSanta Monica, CA 90404-1206

Sunday, February 20, 3 p.m.:St. Camillus Catholic Center: 1911 Zonal Avenue Los Angeles, CA 90033-1032

Friday, February 25:Islamic Center of Hawthorne12209: 12209 Hawthorne Way Hawthorne , CA 90250

Friday, February 26: Islamic Institute of Orange County 1220 North State College BoulevardAnaheim, CA 92806-1504 (I will be a panelist at this event.)

Friday, April 1, 11 a.m.: Church Women United. Location TBA

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A Nonviolence Workshop with James Lawson

Date: Saturday, January 29, 2011

Time: 9:00 AM to Noon

Location: Holman United Methodist Church, 3320 W. Adams Blvd., L A

This is a free event. Refreshments will be provided.

Contact: Gloria Bailey: bailey2523@sbcglobal.net 323-296-5942

Distractions during meeting for worship

Quaker meeting for worship may seem simple--and it is--but it can also be hard and require discipline. In the silence of meeting for worship, every minor sound can seem disruptive if we don't discipline ourselves to see distractions as opportunities for spiritual growth, as Douglas Steere suggests in his introduction to "Quaker Spirituality":

"[Some Friends] are troubled by all kinds of distractions that intrude into the silence. Some of these distractions are physical ones: noise of all kinds in this restless world we live in, a body that they find cannot still, or the entrance into meeting of some latecomer. These can often be dealt with by lifting the noises into an inward prayer: "O God, may I enter into Your Presence with all the swift movement that is in that airplane that I hear flying overhead" or "O God, I thank you that our friend who has come late has come at all, and may he be especially blessed.

"Others may suffer from far more difficult distractions: the internal ones that come from our own mental grappling with unsettled issues, with difficult decisions, with all kinds of irrelevant thoughts that tumble in. They learn in time how to deal with these by acknowledging them as parts of their own uncollected lives that of course float up to the surface of consciousness in such a moment of freedom and that demand their attention. The Jews have a suggestive hint about dealing with mental distractions by describing them as a part of ourselves that sense a blessing is about to come and appear because they want to be sure to be hallowed by it! In either of these types of distractions, Friends learn not to try to suppress them but to acknowledge their presence and abandon themselves to being open to the inward Christ, the Guide, the Renewer, even if the distractions continue to be there without."

This past week at my Meeting, an elderly woman named Dora was having trouble with her oxygen tank and the hissing sound made it difficult to focus or to hear another Friend's message.

It was an awkward moment, and it was tempting to become annoyed. Instead, I focused on my breath, and on cultivating compassion. I thought of how my mother suffered from emphysema and how painful it was for her to breathe and how I learned to feel empathy for her during this trying period. (My mother was a smoker who refused to give up cigarettes, and I had to learn how to let go of my judgmentalism and love my mother as she was, quirks and all.) Soon loving feelings arose in my heart, and I sent them in Dora's direction. Two Friends who were next to Dora began attending to the problem by calming her down and adjusting her oxygen tanks. I felt grateful for them and for another Friend's message acknowledging her appreciation of their solicitude.

As I centered down, reflecting on what had happened, and focusing on my breathing, as I often do, I began to realize in a visceral way the importance of the breath, how crucial it is for life---we can live for a month or more without food, a week without water, but only a few minutes without oxygen--so it is with the divine Spirit that the Hindus call prana, and the Hebrews called Ruah, the sacred breath of God, our true Life. We cannot live even for a second without the Divine Spirit sustaining us.

By means of these reflections, partly cultivated, partly inspired, a "distraction" became a blessing--a way to appreciate how the Divine works in every moment and in every situation, and through every person, if only we are willing to let go of our egos and be open to what our Inward Light reveals.

Brand-New Quaker Universalist Blog

I am pleased and excited about a new blog that I have launched on behalf of the Quaker Universalist Fellowship (QUF). It will feature articles and news items about the interfaith/ecumenical movement, Quaker theology, etc. It will also contain the latest news about the Christian and Interfaith Relations Committee of Friends General Conference--the group that represents Quakers at the National and World Council of Churches. You can access this blog at quakeruniversalist.org.

As the QUF mission statement explains,

Quaker Universalist Fellowship is a gathering of Friends who work to foster understanding among people from the diverse spiritual cultures which flourish in our globalized human community. The Fellowship draws inspiration for its work from such traditional and respected statements of Quaker faith as are
represented by the following:

"Walk cheerfully over the earth answering to that of God in everyone.” – George Fox

“There is a principle which is pure, placed in the human mind, which in
different places and ages hath different names: it is, however, pure and
proceeds from God. It is deep and inward, confined to no form of religion nor excluded from any, where the heart stands in perfect sincerity.” – John Woolman

“The humble, meek, merciful, just, pious, and devout souls are everywhere of one religion, and when death takes off the mask, they will know one another though the diverse liveries they wear here make them strangers.” – William Penn

The work of the Quaker Universalist Fellowship expresses Friends’ belief that there is a spirit of universal love in every person, and that a compassion-centered life is therefore available to people of all faiths and backgrounds.

Through publications, lectures, and conferences the Quaker Universalist Fellowship seeks to encourage appreciation of the diverse paths to that spirit available in humankind’s various spiritual cultures, to overcome discord, and to foster openness and listening among people of different religious faiths. In carrying out this work we cooperate with Friends from every branch of Quakerism.

We seek, or create, opportunities for all Friends to engage in constructive dialogue among Quakers and with representatives of other spiritual traditions, in the hope that religious faith, although diverse, will become a force which unites rather than divides the human family. We seek to nurture that unity through lives of simplicity, humility, justice, mercy, and peace so that it becomes a beacon drawing together the human family in love and service to all earthly life.

– QUF Steering Committee, October 2009

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I hope you enjoy this new blog and continue visiting laquaker.blogspot.com, which will consist of my usual (or rather unusual) mix of political, spiritual and personal entries.

Santa Monica Friends Oppose Torture in our Prisons and Abroad

I am pleased that Santa Monica Friends Meeting unanimously approved the following minute opposing torture. Our Peace Committee also approved a banner calling for an end to torture in our prison system as well as abroad. Many Americans don't realize--but Laura Magnani of the American Friends Service Committee makes it clear in her well-reseached writings--that our prison system practices "cruel and unusual punishment" compared to most other nations. Even the California Supreme Court recognized that the California prisons are in violation of the Constitution because of the overcrowding and other inhumane conditions. I wish that the majority of Americans, particularly in the religious community, felt as Friends do about torture and our prison system. I am grateful to the National Religious Campaign Against Torture for lifting up this issue. Let's make ending torture a priority in 2011!

Santa Monica Friends stand firmly opposed to torture and support the work of the National Religious Campaign Against Torture (http://www.nrcat.org/) as well as of Quakers Initiative to End Torture (http://www.quit-torture-now.org/). We call on our elected officials, and especially the President of the United States, to bring to justice those who have authorized torture in violation of US and international law. We also want the United States government to stop preventing the victims of US-sponsored torture from seeking redress and just compensation in US courts. Finally, we support the Optional Protocol to the Convention Against Torture (OPCAT), which can help prevent torture and abuse by requiring a ratifying country to establish National Preventative Mechanisms (NPMs) to monitor the treatment of prisoners. In addition to the NPMs, OPCAT allows for international oversight of places of confinement to ensure that torture and other abuses are not occurring.

As Quakers, we feel that torture is a moral and religious issue. We believe that there is "that of God" in every human being and therefore everyone deserves to be treated with respect and dignity. Torture does incalculable and long-lasting damage to both the torturer and the torture victim. Torture erodes our nation's moral fibre, diminishes our moral standing in the world, incites retaliation, and puts at risk the lives of Americans abroad and at home.

Bombing a church is no way to usher in a New Year

Since I have started a new blog dealing with interfaith matters at quakeruniversalist.org, I had envisioned this blog as focusing primarily on the personal, the spiritual, and the Quakerly.

But the recent bombing of a Coptic church in Egypt, which killed 21 worshippers, was something I couldn't ignore. I felt it required a timely, thoughtful and heart-felt response from those of us committed to promoting universal religious values, interfaith understanding and peace. To help put this tragedy into perspective, I have written this response which I am circulating among interfaith organizations.

The most recent church bombing in Egypt is part of a deplorable pattern of attacks against Christians that have been taking place in predominantly Muslim countries.[1] In the fall, a church in Baghdad was bombed in Iraq killing 46 worshippers. [2] Acts of violence against churches have occurred in Pakistan, Malaysia and elsewhere. There is no doubt that attacks against Christians are on the rise.

People of all faiths deplore such violence perpetrated in the name of religion. Quranic teachings on war forbid the killing of civilians, especially children, and the destruction of houses of worship.[3] Muslims along with Christians have protested these heinous acts that violate the core of our Abrahamic religious tradition. Let us join in solidarity with Christians and Muslims in the Middle East and elsewhere who are working together to foster understanding and end violence. [4]

As members of the interfaith peace community, let us take to heart and support this statement by the Christian Muslim Forum, a British interfaith organization:

As the Presidents of the Christian Muslim Forum we condemn the attack on the Syriac Catholic Church in Baghdad on 31 October which resulted in the deaths of at least 46 worshippers, including priests. We strongly emphasise that any attack on Christians or any innocent people is not condoned by Islam, the Qur’an or the example of the Prophet Muhammad. In fact, Islamic teaching safeguards the rights and security both of the innocent and of places of worship. The terrorists who committed these murders do not act or speak for Islam and should not be seen as representing Islam in any way. We also condemn the threats of suicide bombing by ‘The Islamic State of Iraq’ (an al-Qaeda affiliate) against the Coptic Orthodox Church in Egypt.

We also support the faithful presence of the ancient Christian churches in Muslim countries in the Middle East. These indigenous Christian communities predate the arrival of Islam in Iraq, Egypt and other countries and they have lived and worshipped alongside Muslims for nearly 1400 years. This faithful coexistence is the shared and valuable legacy of all Christians and Muslims and we strongly support their continuing presence.

We acknowledge that the good values of religion can become lost, or hijacked, at times of war, suffering, inequality and oppression and that it is the role and responsibility of religious leaders, people of faith and all people of good will to emphasise what is best in all our different traditions and world-views in order to build peace. This is the task and commitment that we have taken on through our leading roles in the Christian Muslim Forum and in other areas of our professional and religious responsibilities.

We therefore:

1. Urge all people of faith and goodwill to see beyond hate, hostility, extremism and terrorism and not judge any religion, especially in this case Islam, by the violent and destructive acts of those who claim allegiance to a religion but deny it through their actions.

2. Draw attention to the resources Christianity and Islam have in their traditions, scriptures and wise, courageous and gentle leadership to bring peace rather than war.

3. Ask all who associate religions with hatred, bloodshed and war to look deeper into their all-pervading messages of peace with God, neighbour and the stranger.

4. Commend all genuine peace-building and inter-religious initiatives as antidotes to extremism, violence and terrorism and pray that the example of friendship and peaceful living together is seen as more ultimately more powerful than acts of hatred.
5 .Ask the governments of Muslim countries to make every effort to protect their Christian communities where they are threatened by terrorists and extremists

6. Ask our own Government to recognise the legitimate case for asylum of Christians fleeing oppression, persecution, death threats and terrorism in Middle Eastern and other countries

The Christian Muslim Forum is currently planning an event, with Muslim and Christian partners, bringing together Christians and Muslims from the West, Iraq and other Middle Eastern countries to explore joint action to support minority Christian communities and their peaceful Muslim neighbours in Iraq and elsewhere.’

Let us support such efforts at reconciliation and also acknowledge that some of the actions taken by the US government have aroused anger and caused a backlash against Christians in the Middle East. This has been documented in an article by Stephen Zunes, a Quaker professor who chairs the Middle East studies program at the University of San Francisco [5]. We need to insist that our government refrain from actions, such as war, occupation, and torture, that cause a backlash against Christians in Muslim countries.

It is sometimes alleged that Muslims do not express outrage or sorrow at terrorist attacks. To dispel this myth, I suggest reading this article in The American Muslim: http://theamericanmuslim.org/tam.php/features/articles/muslim_voices_against_extremism_and_terrorism_2/
It should also be noted that organizations such as CAIR, MPAC, and even Hamas have denounced the bombing of churches in Egypt and elsewhere.

In conclusion, it was gratifying to receive the following response from the Islamic Shura Council of Southern California very soon after the attack on the Coptic church. The executive director of this Council is Shakeel Syed, who served on the executive board of the AFSC Regional office in LA. He is a dear Friend in every sense who dedicates his life to building interreligious understanding and peace. Dr. Hathout is a founder of the Muslim Public Affairs Council and an internationally recognized leader of the Muslim community.

Rahman nir Rahim - In the name of God the Most Beneficent the Most Merciful

(ANAHEIM- January 1, 2011) - The Islamic Shura Council of Southern California mourns the senseless killing of the Saints Coptic Church members in Alexandria, Egypt.

"We extend our most heartfelt condolences to the Coptic Christian community and abhor the heinous crime," said the Chairman of the Shura Council, Dr. Maher Hathout. He also asked the member Mosques to reach out to the Coptic churches in their area and offer moral support.

"We sincerely share your grief and stand in solidarity," wrote Shakeel Syed, executive director of the Shura Council, in a memo to the Bishop of the Coptic Orthodox Diocese of the Los Angeles, His Grace Bishop Serapion.

The Islamic Shura Council is an umbrella organization of Mosques and Muslim organizations serving more than half a million Muslims in Southern California. Since 1995, the Council continues to foster the spirit and culture of "working together" at all levels in one of the most diverse and largest Muslim populations in the country.
Tel: (714)

239-6473 Fax: (714) 239-6493
http://www.shuracouncil.org/
email:
info@shuracouncil.org

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[1] http://articles.latimes.com/2011/jan/01/world/la-fg-egypt-church-attack-20110102

[2] http://www.nytimes.com/2010/11/02/world/middleeast/02iraq.html?_r=1)

[3] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Islamic_military_jurisprudence

[4] http://42.blogs.warnock.me.uk/2010/11/christian-and-muslim-response-to-killings-in-iraq.html

[5] http://www.huffingtonpost.com/stephen-zunes/us-deserves-its-share-of-_b_801746.html

Dinner with Andre: "Out of Africa"

Tonight I went to a splendiferous birthday bash for Andre Van Zyl, a dear artist friend I know through the Parliament of the World's Religions. Andre was born and raised in South Africa, rebelled against his conservative Christian father by becoming a Vedantist and an artist, and now lives in Santa Monica with his charming and gracious wife Debrah. He is deeply involved in many spiritual as well as artist activities in the LA area. This poem came to me this morning as I went on my daily zikr [remembering God] walk.

Out of Africa

(for Andre)


You came out of Africa
out of deepest darkness,
out of piercing light,
out of your mind,
out of your heart
into this moment, into this place
into this circle of friends and family
into this amazing grace

circling the sun sixty times
you managed not to grow too dizzy
circling the One who is eternal
you managed to stay centered

confronting angry lions, angry elephants,
and angry critics
you still created beautiful art,
beautiful children, and a beautiful life

now we celebrate with you
not only your birth then
but also your rebirth now
in this moment always new
in this place always here
where we circle round and round
in wonder and delight
the One who made us
out of deepest darkness,
out of gracious light


André van Zyl is an award winning artist whose work appears in 30 museums internationally, and public collections. He is published in Resistance Art, South Africa. As a writer and author, an excerpt from his childhood memoir A Country Without Men, from the collection Stories From The Heart #2 - was featured as Amazon # 1 bestselling title. André’s book of poems – Notes of an Eskimo Dying of Thirst is due to be published Dec. 2010. www.vanzijlartstudio.com