Today We Weep, Tomorrow We...

Today we weep, tomorrow we... 
ORGANIZE
ACT
LOVE
STRUGGLE

As a very bright and faithful friend, Dani Forbess, wrote on Facebook, “The road forward is only as big and wide as the narrative we are able to make for it.”

What sort of narrative would you like to create?

As a religious leader I am suppose to have answers, but I have none. Instead I only have an invitation. GATHER with your PEOPLE at Grace on this Sunday, November 13th at 5:00. More Information

Why would you gather with a religious community, especially if you are non-religious, or better yet terrified of religion? Well, because first most of us are too, but second and more importantly, we all need one another. We need a safe place to begin to talk, think, and answer “What now?”

We need a place where together as community we can begin to address the following:

1. How to combat racism and hostility toward minorities.
2. How to stand in solidarity with our muslim brothers and sisters who are under attack.
3. How to combat unapologetic, open faced hatred with acts of love.
4. How to model to our girls and young women that even though vulgarity has been voted in, they still matter, and we will protect them.
5. How to assure our LGBTQ+ friends that we are not giving an inch. Equal marriage is here to stay.
6. How to live as faithful progressive people in a religious landscape dominated by evangelical hypocrites.
7. How to protect our many undocumented brothers and sisters who are our friends, our neighbors, our fellow citizens.
8. How to guard the positive strides we have made in the last eight years in slowing climate change and securing health care for everyone. 
9. How to organize in such a way that we do not lose the significant social progress that has been achieved over the past 25 years.

If you can’t come, please do all and any of the following:

1. Reach out and support in a tangible, life giving way (flowers, a warm meal, a handwritten card) those people who are the direct recipients of this new bully nation’s hate: undocumented citizens, minorities, legal-born-in-the-US hispanics, LBGTQ+, frightened women and girls, and muslims.  
2. Think about supporting nonprofits and other advocacy organizations who will have to work double time under a new administration: planned parenthood, CairMA, Greenpeace, or check out this.
3. Sign up to be a part of the #WeStandWithLove campaign. This national campaign represents thousands of interfaith progressive leaders, congregations, denominations and 39 organizational partners working together to create a more just and generous world.
4. Assure a child that you will lead, you will speak, you will organize, you will not give up on their future. And then tell them that they are safe and loved.

I leave you with this word: ARISE.

From the depths of despair, I hear The voice calling...
"Arise."
Arise and love.
Stay present and love.
Stay angry and love.
Seek peace and love.
We have seen fear control and distort good people.
I hear The voice saying,
"Do not be afraid."
Only love can trump hate.
Only love can conquer fear.
Do not be afraid
-Mary Jane Eaton.

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