Decolonizing our Spirituality

Rev. John T. Crestwell, Jr.

SERMON NOTES

DECOLONIZING OUR SPIRITUALITY

11/21/20

POWER WITH                                      POWER OVER

Freedom with accountability                     Control with Force and Fear

Love-based                                               Fear-based

Reprogramming Narratives                      Bolster Programs of Dominance

Leadership that is heart-centered                Leadership that is ME-centered

Accountability                                            Unreliability 

Trust                                                             Deception  / Dishonesty                              

Compassion / Empathy                               Greed / Narcissism / Overly self-indulgent

Community  - All of us together                  Some of us, separately                                                     

Emotional, Cultural, Racial literacy             Ignorance / Racism

Collectivist leanings                                      Individualism unharnessed

Unity / "In this together"                              Division / Polarization

Earth-based                                                    Technology-based

Harmony with the land                                Disconnection from Source

Environmental protections                           Disconnected from "UU 7th Principle"

Restoring (Re-storying)                            Holding on to stories that subjugate and divide

Reforming (Re-forming)                           Holding on to narratives that create us vs them

Embrace Change / Adapt                              Remain rigid and unchanged                             

Inclusive Message                                       Exclusive Supremacist's Message

Multiculturalism                                          Monoculturalism

The Earth is revered                                  The earth must be conquered and tamed

Leavers   (Daniel Quinn)                         Takers (Daniel Quinn)

 RIPPLES...

Rev. John T. Crestwell, Jr.

2020 Personal Quotes

 

RESILIENCE

I want you to know something: Anybody (any-body and any body of people) who choose diversity, and radical, inclusive love in this country and world, where it is not the tradition, can expect a lot of push-back. But resilience says that you/we can bounce back; that you/we must bounce back; that you are more than just one bad conversation, or event or dreadful day. We can start over every day—every moment.

BEING A MAN

There is such thing as an ideal man!

Being a man means you are probably out of balance with the harmony of the universe.  We have some tuning to do because the song we're playing is out of tune and has been for a long time.

Being a man is a privilege in our culture and almost all cultures on the planet. Recognizing this privilege for many men is just as hard as understanding racism and racial privilege for many white folks.  This reluctance is exhausting to people of color.  But I never lose hope!

Being a man is good.  Being male or having masculine energy is a good thing.  But as in all things, there are virtues and vices--not-so-good qualities that emerge when men don't recognize that our gender has developed many bad habits that must be broken.  

As I see it, many of the problems in the world today are the result of out-of-control YANG (hard) (masculine) energy that is mostly perpetuated by corrupted boys and men and those who mimic their toxic behaviors.

For a man to rebalance and decenter yang (aggressive) energy, we must dissect what creates toxic masculinity. We start by naming it as a recognition of its dis-ease and imbalance.  We don't want to get rid of the masculine part, just the toxic part.

The solution to toxic maleness is not just changing what children play with and how they interact; or giving boys more options for toys and games.  It’s more about how we interact and manage societal constraint of boys and men and people.

This great time of transformation is asking men to share our space and learn how to really love the divine feminine energy we all have inside us.   

For men, our freedom lies outside the box where tears and fears are expressed. Outside the box is where we ask for what we need and we say I’m sorry.  We decorate, cook, and clean.  We go deeper with our lives by getting help to see the blind spots.  We feel more and listen more and lead with our hearts instead of our organs. 

I’m as much a naturalist as I am a mystic.  I am both religious and scientific.  Today we have to create a new faith that bridges science and earth-based spirituality--the present with the past.  "As above so below".  That's what I'm creating!  

BEING A BLACK MAN

I know about toxic male behavior because I’ve said many things I wished I hadn’t.  I’ve used my manliness to dominate my environment.  If I can evolve my chauvinistic tendencies then anyone can.  But being a black man brings with it even more complexity.

In my Black community in 1975, just a decade before, Black men were holding up signs declaring “I am a Man!”  Almost 50 years later we are still trying to be seen as fully human.

Where I grew up, if you did not learn the rules of male superiority you were called weak.  My teachers were broken black men in the neighborhood trying to give me their best advice.  They told us and their sons to “be tough” and “man up” and “don’t throw like a girl.” They taught us to “keep her in her place”. Those misguided brothers told us this toxic stuff because that’s what they knew.  When you know better you do better.  They thought we needed to hear this stuff survive.  They were trying to help us with really bad advice.  Advice is over-rated.  I've let go of my blame of them.  But that doesn't mean that those guys who are now middle-aged don't have a big responsibility in supporting a woman's body, soul, and spirit rights as a sentient being.  All men have to make amends and it will not be an easy path to forgiveness.  

Black and Brown men in America are a reflection of the virtues and vices within dominant culture (and visa versa).

 

HUMAN BEINGS and HUMANE BEINGS

A new humanity is being shaped right now!  These are exciting times!

What does it mean to be a healthy person?  It means you try your best to do less harm to yourself and others.  As parents, how can we do less harm in our interactions with our children?  As men, how can we do less harm in our relationships?  As women, as humans, how can we be more humane beings on this planet?  Start there.

  

I measure my life by my relationships with others.  I measure my humane being-ness by considering my impact on others.  That’s what real men/real people do.

What is a real man?  What is a real woman?  They are "humane-beings" seeking fulfilment, joy and love without consciously infringing on anyone's free-will.  

When two humane beings come together, something even more beautiful emerges.  Harmony.  When the masculine and feminine energies are working in concert, it’s like an effortless song.  You give up on being the winner in the relationship.  You let go of trying to control things.  You realize that aggression creates more aggression; and if you have a partner who can flow with you, then the 'yoke is easy and burden light.'" 

Wiki says that in science, complementarity deals with "particles and wave patterns of light that have complementary properties". Complementarity is about yin and yang balance which creates harmony and flow.  That’s the goal in good relationships--flow and coexistence.

As it is said, "like attracts like".  Opposites do not attract they detract.  When you are with someone who seems like your opposite, they're just showing you a part of you that has not emerged.  That's what's attracting you. 

When you become whole you will attract a whole being.  Most people attract the parts of others they want to master themselves.  Eventually you realize what the other has mastered is authenticity and fearlessness in the area(s) where you think you lack.

With two people they must balance their individual and collective polarities to find harmony in the relationship.  Doing it alone is easier.  However the magic is two harnessing the power of the cosmos.  Two souls create a fractal vibration and that makes three and three is how universes are made. That's why the great teacher said, "Where two or more are gathered there am I."

My closest relationship is with my wife.  I’m her husband and she keeps me grounded.  There is complementarity in our relationship. I don’t see her as “my better half”.  She’s Joni.  We are two whole people who combined to make something even more HOLY.

Joni is seen as white, and me, black.  I like to say to her, “Let’s balance the world together, baby!”  We are a physical embodiment of yin and yang energy.  A fractal pattern changing lives.  Sometimes she’s yang and I’m yin.  Sometimes the inverse is true.  Most of the time we are both yin and yang--balanced karma.  

When Adam “knew” Eve they consummated their union.  This is a metaphysical story about the monad becoming a dyad. 1 + 2 = 3.  The yin and yang consummated their marriage and gave birth to humanity.  That's the holy triangle.  1 and 1 makes 3. You could say that Source caused two atoms to became entangled and reproduce.  This is a story of how universes form.

The monad is male and female energy.  Its color is gray.  Live in the gray.  

Scripture says: "If lukewarm I shall spew you out" meaning that gray is choice less and is always judged by black/white or us versus them dualism.  Rise above the dichotomy to find peace. When your mind is stuck on one side of the pole, positive or negative, you leave the kingdom of peace and enter the world of loss and suffering which is sometimes necessary.

UNITY

All is one.  Look at the pictures from Hubble.  When you realize that all is one then you understand that the only war going on is the one INSIDE OF YOU.  As you speak peace you begin to live peace.  You begin embracing a new reality that makes your life happier, healthier and holy-er.

Look up Krishnamurti and practice his "choiceless awareness" when you need to visit heaven.

What is the circle of life?  It is the motion of the earth, planets, moons, and stars is it not?  When I’ve discussed mastering your patterns to master your life—when I’m talking about noticing things more—the plain stuff right in front of you—to be here now as many say—to be present to receive your present—the gift of the present moment, am I not talking about the rhythm and harmony in nature? 

"To the beat of the rhythm of the night--dance until the morning light."  That was a lyric from a hit song by the singing group DeBarge. Remember them?  This tune and lyrics represent unity--balancing night and light.  

Religion must evolve into spirituality and science must merge with metaphysics.  Wherever you find this you will find unity and people who do less harm.  

There is no separation between physics and metaphysics, profane and sacred.  It’s a false-dichotomy.  physics exists because of metaphysics and the profane contrasts the sacred.  Both are needed for a human experience.

When we fix our religion, we will fix our science.  When we fix our science, we will fix our religion or spirituality.  We are all entangled in a giant web of clashing/colliding realities, and our central task is to balance the polarities that divide us internally and externally.

LABOR DAY 

This is a critical time in US history and really world history. We are experiencing labor pains and it hurts. We are weary. The contractions are evident. But we are on the precipice of giving birth to something.

SPACE

What if space is creation’s garden full of planets, stars, and galaxies? A vast garden of Eden. 

We must have the courage to embrace this massive shift of new/old realities that are constantly at odds because these are the mechanics of the cosmos and Gaia.  We are IT and IT is us.  Understand this function and you "know thyself".

EARTH

Soil is the dirt--the ground. And when it’s good it’s fertile—things can grow continuously.  Like dirt, when things are fertile for us we are creative and innovative.  Soil can be overused and deplete the land.  Like depleted soil when we are worn down we begin hearing those old fear-based narratives that have not

served us well about what we can’t do or become.

COVID-19

Mother earth has told the children to go in the house. "The street lights are on. Go in the house...You can’t play outside for a while…You are grounded."  But this is not punishment.  Rather, we are being asked to get in touch with the Ground of Being. Grounded—is where you find your true essence as a sentient being. You

realize that you are not alone, abandoned or forgotten but remembered and cared for.  Reframe this moment.

We transition from isolation and the feeling of loss to innovation and recognized growth.  Society gets a little better…. In the years that followed the Spanish Flu better chemistry and biology emerged. DNA would be named by the 1940s. Arts, music, spirituality all advanced.  Isolation to innovation--end and beginning.  The end is the beginning and the beginning is the end.

Friends, your wave of emotions are natural and expected.  You should be surfing

and wiping out right now—having ups and downs. That’s okay. But don’t let the despair suck the life and love out of you. Touch the earth, take a

walk, find something that restores your eternal sunshine. 

Evolution makes our species repeat mistakes with DIS-EASE. That's what's glorious about life, right?  We get to try again and again.

INTERCONNECTEDNESS

When you get that you ARE, that I AM, then you realize  that everything that has your attention has meaning.  Life lights up, synchronicities happen continually.  When you see that everything is connected and entangled you enter the kingdom.

I choose to believe in the inherent goodness in people.  I believe that if people truly understood the ramifications of their actions—free from all the propaganda pumped into our brains daily, humans will choose love and community most of the time.  The important part is that the story we believe drives our reality.  What stories are you telling yourself?

BOTH / AND    EITHER / OR   SPIRITUALITY AND SCIENCE

If we are “just science” (only data driven and evidence-based), then we are denying the mystery of the unknown.  There is no magic, no mystery, just facts.  Solving for X is what gives us meaning.  

Spirituality is all about mystery and miracles.  We are both/and people. 

The sacred and profane, faith and reason are not mutually exclusive but work together.  Many of us must become more ambidextrous with our constructs.

If you're stuck in either/or thinking then your software is out of date.  Who keeps a computer 20 years without updates?

There is no separation between physics and metaphysics, profane and sacred.  It’s a false-dichotomy.  physics exists because of metaphysics and the profane contrasts the sacred.  Balance is needed.

PROGRESS IN THE USA

Roman Emperors positioned themselves as the center of the story.  The emperor was the savior of the world.  Rome used this ancient motif to justify its ends.  Millions were slaughtered.  This has been the prevailing story of power on earth for 2000 years.  They were the progenitors of this narrative and they extended it as far as they could east to west.  Prior to the Roman Empire’s dominance, human life was different, less global—more local.  The point is that time has ended and now we live in an  new age of globalization which is spawning spiritualization on the planet.

Just by way of “discovering" land that  was already occupied, our forebears became like their fathers and mothers inheriting their mortal sins.  Paying down the deficit in 2020 is not the real concern. That is the bloated example of the spiritual part of us that yearns to be satisfied and whole.  Paying down the karmic debt is the real story.  As we pay that down we will watch our economic problems dissipate.  

Earthlings, what new story can you tell yourself to feel better?  If we are not conquering or controlling or telling people how to believe, or whom to love what would life be like then?  

When White people (even one) sees that there is something corrupt in our systems, where the same stuff keeps happening over and over, keeping the same people down—in a cycle of purgatorial abuse—when a white person recognizes this—that’s progress. 

White people writing books about their fragility, supremacy and privilege and their books becoming best-sellers in America—that is progress. When I turn on the TV and see POC and interracial couples on so many commercials that I’m astounded—yes that may be trivial—but that is progress.  

When professional sports like NASCAR and the NFL began publishing and publicly chastising  individuals and groups who disparage the Black Lives Matter movement then I know that we are witnessing major progress on this planet. 

The National Football League is a microcosm of America.  The black players do the laboring (for a lot of money certainly)  and the white men own the team and have a lot more money.

When the number of NFL owners and quarterbacks is 50% non-white to white, we will have reached equality in our country.  That's why Colin Kaepernick is, to me, a national hero because he ignited a flame of reconciliation by demanding to be seen, heard and understood.  He kneeled with his fist raised high tying his mission to the past giving it legitimacy.  He leads the way for our country and for the NFL.  Keep watching this...  

Finally!  Professional sports owners and commissioners, are speaking up about racism and injustice in sports which has led to a worldwide conversation on skin color prejudice.  We are all witnessing the changing of the guard in many sports.  It's exciting!

When white people tell me how weird they feel now in all-white paces because they prefer more diversity…that’s progress! It's not near enough but it is progress and that should be acknowledged.