Sermon

INTRODUCTION: On March 3^rd, 1931, then president, Herbert Hoover, signed a law adopting The Star Spangled Banner as the national anthem of the United States. Its opening line provides the title for our sermon in this November series on the “High Holy Days of America: O Say: Can You See?”

Today, Sunday, November 11, is Veterans Day, which recalls the time at 11 a.m. on November 11, 1918, at 11–11–11– when an armistice went into effect between and among the nations at war in the Great War in Europe, to which America was a late entry.

Eventually, with the succession of wars besieging our nation, that long ago date became not only a memorial to the end of World War I, but also a date for us to remember those who are veterans of military service in all of our many wars, and in peace times as well.

So having provided that context for the title and the theme, let me also add this additional component: I’m sure that most of you would not be surprised to learn that in past years when I have had services honoring our veterans, there were those who because of their opposition either to the current war or to war in general, chose not to come to the service. It may even be true today.

Welcome to Unitarianism. But it also points up a fundamental issue with which many of the people of our nation are struggling at this very moment:

One the one hand, how do we communicate support for the young women and men fighting and dying in a war initiated by America…

But on the other hand, how do we communicate that we consider this war to be illegal, a huge mistake, a stain on our national honor, and a travesty for which not only the world but our grandchildren to the 6^th and 7^th generations will be paying?

n How can we express profound condolences for the millions of Iraqis who were and are victims of our invasion and occupation?

n How can we honor the 4,000 American soldiers who have died in our name, and the 40,000 soldiers who have been maimed and crippled fighting for America, and at the same time, register our fierce and unadulterated opposition to this misguided, mismanaged and mission mangled war?

n How can we oppose bribing young women and men with $25-35,000 signing bonuses to go fight and die for an unnecessary war?

Or to put it in the words of Francis Scott Key: “O Say: Can you see: Is the flag still flying?” Or rather, “O Say: Can you see: Are the values we hold dear of a democratic Republic still in place?”

More than fifty-five years ago, Dr. T.W. Adorno wrote the book, The Authoritarian Personality. It attempted to “construct an instrument that would yield an estimate of fascist receptivity at the personality level,” in other words, to identify personality types who are inclined to fascism.

I took the test. It had 30 questions with six responses possible, ranging from “Disagree Strongly” to “Agree Strongly.”

As originally envisioned, the test was a serious attempt by a German socio-psychologist to determine if it would be possible to identify any indicators of Fascist inclinations. And if so, help to avoid the tragedy that produced and supported Hitler’s Nazi Germany. Each question probed responses that might give some such orientation, which resulted in some 10 different psychosocial categorizations.

Interestingly enough, an American was offended by that whole process and proceeded to provide his own analysis of the scores. In his rankings, there were five categories, and with none of the sophistication of psychosocial delineation. His included such categories as “a whining rotter,” and “liberal airhead.” When I took his test, I was categorized as a “whining rotter.” In fact, I would predict that most of us here would fall somewhere between “whining rotter” and “liberal airhead.”

All of which is to say that when approaching the issue of freedom, there is a distinct perspective to which Americans are heirs. Our veterans served in the military so that both liberal airheads and prehistoric conservatives could live in the same space, have the same government, and vote at the same polls.

Freedom is not about conformity. To “go along to get along” is the precursor of freedom’s loss. Not to speak up because most everyone else is silent…not to protest because most everyone else seems to approve…not to care when those things we should most care about are threatened…is what Norm Chomsky calls a “brainwashing under freedom.”

As President Dwight Eisenhower said 50 years or so ago, “If all that Americans want is security they can go to prison. There, they'll have enough to eat, a bed and a roof over their heads. But if Americans want to preserve their dignity and their equality as human beings, they must not bow their necks to any dictatorial government.” Or as Unitarian Adlai Stevenson once said, “A free society is a place where it's safe to be unpopular.”

I want to read to you an article which was in the New York Times this past week:

The Veterans Affairs Department and aids groups say they are bracing for a new surge in homeless veterans in the years ahead.

Experts who work with veterans say it often takes several years after leaving service for veterans accumulating problems to push them into the streets. But some aid workers say the Iraq and Afghanistan veterans appear to be turning up sooner in homeless shelters than Vietnam veterans did.

One worker at a homeless shelter, “We’re beginning to see across the country, the first trickle of this generation of warriors in homeless shelters. But we anticipate that it’s going to be a tsunami.”

The VA’s director of homeless programs said, “Sexual abuse is a high risk factor for homelessness.” And with more women serving in combat zones, the current wars are already spawning a higher share of homeless women as well. More than 11% of the newly homeless veterans are women. They face an added risk factor, because roughly 40% of the hundreds of homeless female veterans of recent wars have said they were sexually assaulted by American soldiers while in the military.

Special traits of the current war may contribute to homelessness, including high rates of post-traumatic stress disorder, and traumatic brain injury, which can cause unstable behavior and substance-abuse. Extending the long and repeated tours of duty, can make the reintegration into families and civilian employment all the harder.

Although veterans make up 11% of the adult population, they make up 26% of the homeless on any given day. According to the V.A., almost 200,000 veterans of all ages are homeless on any given night.

That report gives increased currency to the volunteering that Jack Woods, Steve and Chris Fisher do in feeding the homeless each Wednesday at All Souls Episcopal Church in N. Ft. Myers. That was initially begun as a way to feed homeless veterans. My class at FGCU went there recently to register the homeless to vote. They were stunned at the number of homeless who showed up – some 200 or more.

But the tragedy of war which many veterans bear is not only the current tragedy which veterans are facing. Can you believe that recently, while visiting an All Faiths group at Cypress Cove, Maggie Mullins broached having seen the PBS television series that was airing that week about World War II. It was very graphic, I’m told. Maggie said there were veterans in their 80s at Cypress Cove who had served during that war. The authenticity of the television series had reignited their post-traumatic-stress-syndrome, even though the fighting of that war ceased more than a half-century ago.

Should we remember our veterans on Veterans Day, Nov. 11, 2007? Absolutely! Veterans deserve every recognition that we can give them.

But at the same time, we should in no way stop saying at every chance we can, that the people who foisted this war on us have committed a travesty American values, and the world in general. I rejoined the Wednesday afternoon peace rally at McGregor and Colonial. It was heartening to see so many of our congregation there. I would never presume to tell you how to vote, but I know one criterion that should be on everyone’s list: Getting us out of this senseless and destructive war that is robbing future generations of the America that we know and have known.

Since there’s a presidential primary election race going on, and this is a religious service, let me suggest that one of the things for which veterans served was this:

Article VI, Section 3 of the U.S. Constitution: “No religious test shall ever be required as a qualification to any office or public trust under the United States”

You may like or dislike Mitt Romney, but the veterans, who are here this morning, served in the military, so that Mitt Romney, a Mormon, could run for president. To reject Romney because he’s Mormon would be the same as rejecting Mike Huckabee because he’s Southern Baptist or Rudolph Giuliani because he’s Roman Catholic.

Again, the Constitution states: “No religious test shall ever be required as a qualification to any office or public trust under the United States.” We don’t need a lawyer or the U.S. Supreme Court to tell us what that means. And it is principles like that for which veterans served.

While on the topic of religion and religious freedoms, one other issue with which our nation is struggling at this very moment, is our hang-up with Islam. Let me give you an illustration of what I mean:

As many of you know, I was born in Oklahoma, and spent a significant share of my life in Texas and Oklahoma. Back in the Spring, the Baptist Convention of Oklahoma gave all 149 members of its state legislature copies of the Bible – part of which are the sacred scriptures of Jews and all of which are sacred for Christians. Then, recently, a state advisory commission appointed by the governor to increase understanding between Muslims and non-Muslims, gave each legislator a copy of the Qu’ran, which had a gold seal printed on the cover, and which had been paid for by private monies.

Guess what? Some 24 legislators sent theirs back. They accused the Qu’ran of supporting the killing of women and children.

And when the leader of the anti-Qu’ran group was asked why he hadn’t returned the Bible that had been given him in the Spring, he said it was the greatest gift he had ever been given! Turns out, that he has never read the Qu’ran, and he formed his opinion purely upon material from the Internet.

That is bigotry pure and simple. I always tell people at All Faiths, when you think of Islam, think of the late Haneef Ramay, one of the most informed and sophisticated of men, and also a Muslim. When you think of Islam, think of Mr. Abdul ‘haq Muhammad, the director of Quality Life Center – one of the most committed citizens of Lee County to children at risk.

So when we ask, “O Say: Can you see,” that’s one of the reasons our flag flies: religious freedom…in Oklahoma and right here in River City. It’s another one of the reasons our veterans served for which we express our appreciation on this good day, November 11, 2007.

Several years ago, the congregation at which I ministered had a retreat. While there, one of my most atheistic members had a heart attack while in the shower. I joined his wife as we traveled to the hospital.

Later when he was recuperating, I teased him by claiming that his wife had said while he was lying on the floor of the shower, he had cried out, “To Whom It May Concern: Help!”
The framers of the Constitution would appreciate that perspective. They very clearly meant for religion not to be the defining issue of politics. Our veterans served to defend a nation which embodies that constitution.

[1] A sermon on November 11, 2007, first in a three-sermon series on the “High Holy Days of America,” at the All Faiths Unitarian Congregation, meeting at the Crestwell School, 1904 Park Meadows, Ft. Myers, FL, by the Rev. Dr. Wayne Robinson, minister.