In the year 1850 -- as a part of the compromise to try to save the Union of the United States -- the Congress of the United States passed (and President Millard Fillmore signed) the Fugitive Slave Act, a law which required the returning of slaves who had escaped to the North to their Southern slave owners. In Boston, Massachusetts, Unitarian Minister Theodore Parker and the congregation he served refused to obey this "re-enslavement" law, and (as an act of direct civil disobedience) gave sanctuary to many escaped slaves, some staying in Parker's own home. Parker became the leading voice in calling for Boston to resist the Fugitive Slave Act. In one sermon he told his parishioners, "When rulers have inverted their function and enacted wickedness into law which treads down the inalienable rights of man to such a degree as this, then I know no ruler but God, no law but natural justice. I tear the hateful statute of kidnappers to shivers; I trample it underneath my feet, I do in the name of all law; in the name of Justice and of Man, in the name of the dear God."

"It is often told [from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia] that [Parker] would be home, composing his church services, and have a gun sitting on the table and a sword by the table. When he preached, he would lay a gun on the pulpit -- just in case any slave-catchers dropped by." Theodore Parker FOUND HIS VOICE ... and RESISTED what he knew to be evil.

Dietrich Bonhoeffer was a German Lutheran minister and leading Protestant theologian who was one of the few Christian leaders in all of Germany who dared to actively oppose Hitler, the Nazi party and the murderous ideology of National Socialism. Before the war, Bonhoeffer, an ardent follower of Jesus Christ (the one known to all humanity as "The Prince of Peace") had written, "Faith can no longer mean sitting still and waiting; the Christian must rise and follow Christ." Before the war, he was a leader in the ecumenical church movement, and early in the war (because of his commitment to interfaith tolerance and dialogue), he was a vocal advocate on behalf of the Jews, and he personally helped a group of Jews escape to Switzerland. Later in the war, having decided that Hitler (and the evils of the Nazi machine) had (for the sake of humanity) to be stopped at all cost, he joined the plot (in 1942) to assassinate Hitler, by detonating a bomb under a desk during a war-planning meeting. After that bomb failed to kill Hitler, Bonhoeffer was arrested as a conspirator and was executed by hanging in a concentration camp in 1945. Dietrich Bonhoeffer FOUND HIS VOICE, and RESISTED what he knew to be evil.

As you all know from reading newspaper, government, and international human rights organizations reports about the U.S.-controlled prison at Abu Ghraib, Iraq, the U.S. military detention facility in Guantanamo, Cuba, and the secret CIA prisons our government maintains all over the world since the 9/11 attacks -- over recent years it has been the policy of our government to torture, humiliate and degrade detainees in an attempt to extract intelligence information that might prevent another attack on Americans.

In December -- responding to widespread national and international criticism and outrage about this policy -- the Congress of the United States (following the leadership of former prisoner of war and torture victim himself, Senator John McCain) voted (by an overwhelming majority) to ban all U.S. personnel from inflicting [quote] "cruel, inhuman or degrading" treatment on any prisoner held anywhere by the United States. President Bush reluctantly signed the legislation into law, and then immediately issued a "Presidential signing statement," saying that his administration would interpret the new law [and now I quote his statement directly] "in a manner consistent with the constitutional authority of the President to supervise the unitary executive branch as the Commander in Chief, and consistent with the constitutional limitations on the judicial power." This language (an editorial in The Washington Post points out) "refers to the assertion by the president's lawyers that his powers allow him, in wartime, to IGNORE statutes [like this one] passed by Congress.... The signing statement also advanced the administration's view that the McCain amendment does not provide any court review of a prisoner's claim of cruel treatment, and that all appeals by foreign prisoners before the courts should be dismissed." And then the editorial goes on to reveal that "even before the [signing] statement was issued, [Bush] administration lawyers had taken the position that the McCain amendment would not necessarily end the use of waterboarding [the technique of suffocating a prisoner with water so he thinks he is drowning] as 'cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment.'... According to the reasoning of the Justice Department, simulating drowning and other techniques [of extracting information from resistant prisoners] ... would still be permitted in certain circumstances."

Amnesty International (headed here in America for the last 12 years by former UUA President William F. Schulz) has been investigating human-rights violations, torture and ill-treatment of detainees by United States military and intelligence forces for more than a year, and recently reported that "Torture and inhumane treatment are widespread in U.S.-run detention centers in Afghanistan, Iraq, Cuba, and elsewhere despite Washington's denials. Evidence continues to emerge [the Amnesty report goes on] of widespread torture and other cruel, inhumane and degrading treatment.... Testimonies from former detainees [of the United States] indicate [that detainees were forced to lie face down on the ground, handcuffed, hooded and blindfolded, repeatedly beaten, restrained for prolonged periods in painful positions ... subjected to sleep deprivation, prolonged forced standing, and exposed to loud music and bright lights," which Amnesty concludes is a "widespread pattern of brutality and abuse." And less than a month ago, the United Nation's Committee Against Torture (after interviewing a team of U.S. diplomats who appeared before them to justify our treatment of foreign prisoners) called on the United States to close its detention facility at Guantanamo, Cuba, because of inhumane conditions there.

It is clear to me (and I assume, frankly, to any American who is paying attention and not blinded by some thoughtless, amoral, knee-jerk patriotism) that our government (under the leadership of President George W. Bush, Vice President Dick Cheney, Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld and others) has no intention (at the present time, despite the explicit provisions of the McCain Amendment), no intention of ending the torture and abuse of prisoners under our control all over the world. America is now (and for several years has been), simply and shamefully, A NATION THAT TORTURES. As a Unitarian Universalist, I believe (with many, many other people of faith across the American religious spectrum), I believe that our government's broad policy to torture prisoners and detainees for information is profoundly evil and morally unacceptable.

Our current national policy to torture detainees routinely clearly remains (in my mind) an evil government policy that must be RESISTED and REVERSED. It dehumanizes both its victims and perpetrators.... It violates our most cherished national ideals.... It cheapens the value of human life for all of us ... and I, therefore, passionately believe it is our DUTY as religious people to RESIST this heinous national policy, and do all that we can to STOP this torture and abuse that is being done in our name!

That is why I am so proud of Linda Gustitus, who pretty much single-handedly persuaded me (and many other members of this congregation) to find our voice on this moral issue, and get actively involved resisting and reversing this shameful American policy and practice. Over recent months, under the umbrella of our all-important Social Justice Council, we have held four "Religious Vigils Against Torture" (with as many as 200 protesters, and many members of this congregation participating) in front of the Naval Observatory (home of Vice President Dick Cheney, one of the key architects of our national policy to torture) ... and (with other local religious people who are resisting this evil policy) have formed an organization -- The Washington Region Religious Campaign Against Torture -- to pressure our government to end its abuse of prisoners. I quote from the WRRCAT website:

Torture violates basic human dignity that all religions hold dear. Policies and practices that permit torture and inhumane treatment are morally intolerable. WRRCAT is a local organization of men and women of faith and conscience, joined together on a nonpartisan basis, in profound opposition to torture and cruel and inhuman practices by anyone for any purpose. Our goals are to stop U.S- sponsored torture, including the practice of rendition and the use of secret prisons, and to hold the perpetrators of U.S- sponsored torture accountable.

As I mentioned during this morning's announcements, two weeks from yesterday, Saturday, June 17^th, this congregation will be hosting a one-day conference designed to mobilize religious people from all faith groups in our area to RESIST the torture now being perpetrated by our government, and bring an end to this inhumane and unwise policy. It is my hope that many members and friends of this congregation will be in attendance, volunteering to make the conference a success ... learning what they can from the expert speakers ... and pledging to get involved in the protests and political actions which will soon be taken to reverse American torture policies and practices. Again, you can get more information about how you can participate in this conference at the table set up for that purpose out on the plaza, right after this service, or right after our Annual Meeting. It matters that we as religious people FIND A VOICE ... and RESIST and REFUSE that which we know to be evil ... including, perhaps, acts of civil disobedience (like those brave acts of Theodore Parker and Dietrich Bonhoeffer).

This morning I am preaching the final installment of my year-long, 12-part, book-project sermon series on The Twelve Gates to the City (this installment, incidentally, has already been posted on our RRUC website, along with the other 11 sermons that comprise the series, so if you want to read and reflect on the whole series, that is now at your disposal). In any case, over the course of this sermon series this year, I have explored twelve "stances" (or qualities) of being human which I believe have the power to help us enter "the Holy City of our own lives," and thus become the fullest and finest persons we can be. I am passionately persuaded that RESISTANCE -- resistance to all that which we morally discern to be wrong or evil -- is one of those crucial gates to a full and responsible human life.

It is not enough, in one's religious and moral life (and I'm going to be talking here about two interconnected spiritual polarities here), it's not enough to simply to 1) AFFIRM one's positive and purposeful beliefs (beliefs like the seven principles of our Unitarian Universalist faith which we proudly print every Sunday on the back page of the order of service, where they are this morning). To be fully and faithfully religious, we must also 2) RESIST what St. Paul (nearly 2,000 years ago now) described as those "powers and principalities of darkness" that are always perniciously present in human life and society. I quote directly from Paul's Letter to the Ephesians, "For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places." Tell me if you see the world any differently, but what I believe is that in every human time and in every human community and society (most often without anyone actually intending it) there is always human error (always human ignorance, evil and wrong-doing), which diminishes or destroys human life (and its value).

Now let me be very clear about this. As frustrated, shocked and outraged as I am by many of the ways the current administration is running these United States, I nonetheless assume that George W. Bush, Dick Cheney and Donald Rumsfeld (and others in charge of our military and CIA) honestly believe that they are doing "the right thing" by ignoring the rules of the Geneva Convention as pertaining to the torture of those we have detained as "military combatants" and "terrorists." I believe this administration honestly believes that torture (in this time, and because of this precise set of international circumstances that have led to the explosion of global terrorism) is ethical, justifiable, and wise. Humanity's historical record reveals that few in power ever actually set about to do evil things.... But giving our leaders this benefit of the doubt (that they are not doing immoral and evil things intentionally), does not mean that we accept or tolerate their dehumanizing policies and practices.... WE STILL MUST RESIST WITH EVERY FIBER OF OUR MORAL BEING. All nuances and extenuating circumstances aside, it remains the obligation of all religious and moral people to actively RESIST all which threatens the value of human persons and society ... RESIST evil and error wherever we find it, most especially when it is embedded in "authoritative" national policies put in place by powerful men and women. Whenever humanity and persons are threatened, we simply must FIND A VOICE AND RESIST!

It was the 18^th-century English philosopher, Edmund Burke, who once famously (and wisely) observed, "All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is that good men [and women] do nothing." RESISTANCE (the kind of spiritual and religious resistance I am speaking of this morning) happens whenever good and caring men and women (after grappling with all the very real complexities of any situation) SPEAK UP and ACT against the evils and injustices of their times, and struggle (with others of good will) to defend human worth and dignity wherever and however it is threatened.

Now, as I have already observed this morning:

1) AFFIRMATION (simply giving voice to what you believe) and 2) RESISTANCE (standing up and saying "NO" to human acts that you know to be wrong), and are inextricably tied together (in a kind of SPIRITUAL HELIX of conversation and connection). You cannot RESIST human evil and error unless you are clear about what it is your faith AFFIRMS about human life ... and that clarity empowers and drives your RESISTANCE. Let me give (as an example) this congregation's RESISTANCE to the widespread torture policies and practices of the Bush Administration. Because of our AFFIRMATIVE Unitarian Universalist principles, we know precisely why indiscriminate torture is morally unacceptable to us. Torture is unacceptable to us (regardless of who is doing it) because in our religion we affirm "the inherent worth and dignity of every person ... and justice, equity and compassion in human relations." To be a Unitarian Universalist, therefore, means that you must RESIST anything which reduces, destroys, demeans, or abrogates the worth and dignity and compassionate treatment of any human person ... as torture obviously does. So RESISTANCE (in our religious lives), RESISTANCE flows directly out of AFFIRMATION.

But none of this (knowing precisely why our beliefs call us to speak up and act) makes religious RESISTANCE an easy thing to do! RESISTANCE can be a very difficult (even dangerous) thing to do in real life, especially when passions and the stakes run high. It is never easy (in our immediate communities and cultures) to stand up (either in private or in the public square) and confront those you believe are engaged in human wrongdoing (including "the powers and principalities" in society that assume so much authority and legitimacy for themselves) and demand that they stop.

My colleague David Schwartz recently wrote this about religious resistance:

To resist, we need both to develop critical awareness and to trust our own voice. It takes courage to speak. Speaking out is hard to do -- I don't even mean speeches before thousands, I mean it can be downright difficult in a group of three people to speak out and stand firm [on behalf of what you believe in]. It's a skill that takes practice, and [it] takes a trust in one's own power and a belief that you have something to offer and [that] you can make a difference. This faith in one's voice is slowly built in a thousand tiny ways and continually eroded in a thousand ways, and the courage comes in part from practice. And then Reverend Schwartz makes an important point about how a congregation can help. Our church community is such a community of practice. It is an environment where we can speak our minds and be taken seriously....

[And] we must keep ever vigilant against good people, with good, rational reasons trying to convince us of terrible things. Perhaps you've heard the debate recently on the merits of torture (the merits of torture?) Above all, we must attend diligently to our relationship with the divine -- the root that gives us strength for the journey and the courage to speak.... In this way may we journey together from ... silence to speech, from acceptance to action, sending down deep roots to the divine, and aligning our lives with our deepest values.

This, dear friends, is why RESISTANCE is such a crucial gate to "the Holy City" of our own lives. In this world, the way it is (with so much human error, ignorance, and evil), we cannot align: 1) our lives with 2) our deepest values unless we risk speaking up and acting when we encounter things we know to be inhumane and wrong. Although it would be more peaceable and pleasant if it were not so, again and again in our religious and moral lives we are called upon to protest, resist, refuse, and confront.

May each of us ... when necessary ... right where we live ... often in the little ways that ultimately can make such a big difference ... find the courage to speak up and act when what we value in human life (and what we know to be true and right and good) is threatened. In our day-to-day lives, may we know (deep in our bones) what we believe and why ... and find the courage to defend faithfully those truths and values that lie closest to our hearts.

AMEN.