Diane Jennings of The Dallas Morning News quoted Rev. Walz in two articles on the event: “The Rev. Mark Walz of the Unitarian Universalist Church of Oak Cliff said he was there both as a pastor and as the father of a Marine. ‘No one who ascribes to terrorism has the right to claim a religious motivation,’ Walz said.”

“Waltz said he is passionate about battling the tendency to ‘demonize each other as human beings.’”

You can watch a video of  Jonathan Betz reporting for WFAA (Channel 8):
http://www.wfaa.com/news/local/Dallas-religious-leaders-call-for-unity–102713909.html

Arezow Doost covered the event for CBS (Channel 11) News
http://cbs11tv.com/video/?id=57342@ktvt.dayport.com and featured Ministerial Intern Shams Cohen of First Unitarian Church of Dallas.

Standing on the side of love means acceptance. Each day we are all confronted with issues that we do not support or agree with but we must have the ability to accept others as they are and allow all their freedom to their opinion and beliefs. On a deeper side, standing on the side of love means standing up for the HARD issues. It means fighting for freedoms that this country is supposed to stand for, not freedom for some but ALL. It means loving your neighbor and accepting them without judgement. It means reaching down and lifting up someone who needs a boost. It means equal HUMAN rights. It means advocating for parental involvement, not forced parental abandement (deporting). It means advocating for gay marriage, not fighting to protect your own marriage…nothing can diminish your marriage but you. It means continuing to fight to end slavery and not leaving that to the work of Martin Luther King Jr and turning our head to our foreign neighbors. It means, unconditional love!

When my Mom quizzed me recently on my fairly new Unitarian Universalist faith, I told her about the emphasis on compassion and the inherent worth and dignity of every human being. She insisted that the Catholic Church teaches the same thing. Well maybe they do espouse the same thing because they teach, “Do unto others as you would have them do unto you.” But when it comes right down to it, I find many Catholics on the side against immigrant’ rights, against gays’ and lesbians’ rights and against women’s rights.

The meaning of “Standing on the Side of Love” is changing constantly for me—it is expanding. I am beginning to realize that no one can be left out—not even the cows, pigs and chickens. The people of Haiti deserve the same inalienable rights as we Americans. Everyone belongs to our family. There is no “other.”

It upsets me when I see emails that suggest that we as Americans deserve what we were born into and our neighbors from Mexico don’t. After I became the mother of a biracial child, I began to notice that many Caucasians feel they are better than African Americans by virtue of the color of their skin. I have never thought of myself as prejudiced, but my daughter has really opened my eyes. I know now in my heart that no one is on any higher plane than anyone else—not because of money, status, or power. We are all God’s children and he loves us all equally. He didn’t love Jesus any more than he loves me! I hope to grow to live that love more every day. I hope to grow in compassion as my heart opens more and more to all my brothers and sisters—even those who are misguided.

It’s not being perfect but allowing love to flow through your thought processes enough that it starts to make you the spiritual being you are. So much you can even love your enemy. Two choices, love or hate ( fear). Where do we stand?

Click image to embiggen

On Sunday, February 7th, several members of the UUCOC family Stood on the Side of Love by marching in a parade. Despite the cold and the rain, they brought our values and our campaign to the streets of our city.

A round of applause, please, for this good-looking crew – or should that be crewe?

Conversation: Mother and Son with Ian C. Grey and Kathy Grey

Mother: What do think of when you hear the phrase Standing on the Side of Love?

Son: Well, there’s standing for what you believe in, but some people don’t believe in standing on the side of love.

Mother: Give me an example.

Son: People who are against GLBT rights. People who are racist, or prejudiced against people on the basis of their religion or nationality. I think what it means is having compassion for your fellow man.

Mother: That Golden Rule thing?

Son: Yes, which is found in every religion. Who would Jesus discriminate against?

Mother: So, it’s a nondenominational way of asking, “What would Jesus do?”

Son: Pretty much! I don’t know how so many people have gotten away from that core value of “love your neighbor as yourself.”

Mother: So, Standing on the Side of Love means taking the compassionate route?

Son: Yes!

Mother: So, can any decision be made with that criteria in mind?

Son: Yes, all the big decisions. (Not choosing Frosted Flakes over Cheerios.) We’ve seen what can happen when tragedy strikes. Whole towns, whole nations can band together to help people. Like the relief effort in Haiti. Why does it take a tragedy of that scale for people to come together to help?

Mother: I don’t know.

Son: It shouldn’t.

The term “standing” in this context is not a static term such as standing water. It does not refer to being in an upright position or occupying a particular position or maintaining a specific point of view. For me, “standing” is an action, a verb that says to actuate, to be in effect.

According to Merriam-Webster, primary meanings of the word “love” are a strong affection for another being or benevolent concern for the good of another. Applied to the phrase, “standing on the side of love,” my understanding of “love” is closer to the ancient Greek term “agape”. Charles Peirce, a semeiotic linguist and philosopher, uses agape to mean the creative love operative in the cosmos. It is pure love, unconditional love, sometimes translated as “love of the soul.”

So when I say “I’m standing on the side of love” I mean, “I’m acting in unconditional, pure love.” Unconditional love is love without limits or restrictions. I may disagree with a point of view, a behavior or a decision, but I can continue to love.

There are those moments when I know my actions are important, so it’s easier to find my center and remember to act in love. For example, when my daughter first introduced me to my future son-in-law (who happens to be a different race from the rest of my family) it was easy to recognize, “hey, this matters” and act in love. Since we have been having this conversation at UUCOC, I sometimes remember to act in love if I am goaded by someone who ascribes to hate-mongers’ messages. When a neighbor mimicked AM talk radio saying, “Don’t send a donation to Haiti because they are cursed Voodoo worshippers,” I was able to say, “Haitians are human beings like you and me” and love the neighbor as a human being.

It becomes more challenging to act in love if I am hurt, tired, sick – probably because I’m off-balance. It is very difficult when I feel personally threatened. I struggled with whether to wear my “Standing on the Side of Love” pin to work – a conservative company and industry – because my livelihood, which helps support others, may be jeopardized. If I stay in the present, it is easier to make a good decision. So now instead of projecting what may happen, I just wear the pin

The small difficult steps of standing on the side of love are what lead to hope. One decision at a time, one person at a time, one congregation at a time, agape, unconditional love, gives us hope for peace, for acceptance.