Dear Ones,

I was glad to walk with the UUFB contingent – 20 strong! – at the Martin Luther King, Jr. Day parade on Monday, Jan. 21st. It was a chilly day, but our hearts and spirits were warm. As we see so many attempts to roll back civil rights gains for people of color, for women, for LGBTQ people; it is good to remember that none of us is truly free until all of us are free.

It was also wonderful to see so many people at the service this past Sunday, hearing the words of two modern prophets – Dr. King and Dr. William J. Barber. Our second source from which our living tradition draws inspiration is “Words and deeds of prophetic people which challenge us to confront powers and structures of evil with justice, compassion, and the transforming power of love.”

Dr. King was the Ware Lecturer at the May, 1966 General Assembly of the Unitarian Universalist Association, where he presented his speech “Don’t Sleep Through the Revolution.” It was there that he encouraged all to not be satisfied or content with the progress that had been made. He said:

“…there are some things in our nation and in our world to which I’m proud to be maladjusted. … I never intend to adjust myself to segregation and discrimination. I never intend to become adjusted to religious bigotry. I never intend to adjust myself to economic conditions that will take necessities from the many to give luxuries to the few… to the madness of militarism, and to the self-defeating effects of physical violence. … Through such maladjustment we will be able to emerge from the bleak and desolate midnight of man’s inhumanity to man, into the bright and glittering daybreak of freedom and justice.”

Let us continue to be aware, awake, and discontented with those things to which Dr. King said we should be maladjusted. So may it be.

Blessings,
Rev. Lori Hlaban