Last month, three days before Christmas over a dozen of us stood in the pouring rain outside the Bridgeport Government Center to lend witness to an interfaith vigil and prayer service in support of our Muslim Brothers and Sisters along with about sixty other Jews, Christians and Buddhists. We had no scripted part, I offered no profound words, we simply attended but in the attendance we provided a resistance to the bigotry and xenophobia that is infecting our nation.
As Unitarian Universalists we have a responsibility to stand on the side of love. Standing on that side does not mean we simply deplore hatred, it means we have to resist hatred. Resistance need not threatening but it does need to be felt.
Throughout this month of January, we will be exploring and making plans to act on the the theme of resistance. Through preaching, music and our social justice ministry, I will be inviting you to consider how you might resist hatred and welcome love. Just as the light returns to us through our mid-winter, so too does hope return through the practice of love. As Martin Luther King, Jr. put it:
“Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that.”
See you in church, John