Category Archives: Social issues

March 12, 2013 · 5:06 pm

Stand by This Faith

Here’s a short piece I shared this past weekend in honor of Women’s History Month about Olympia Brown, one of my heroes. Enjoy!

***

Stand by this faith. Work for it and sacrifice for it.
Do not demand immediate results
but rejoice that you are strong enough to work for a great true principle
without counting the costs.

Words spoken by a lifelong Universalist who loved her faith
and believed in the great message that all people are precious.
A Universalist who loved her faith so much
that she was willing to fight obstacle after obstacle
to become an ordained minister—
the first woman in the United States
to be fully ordained by a denomination, in fact.
A minister and a tireless worker for the right of women to vote
for over fifty years.
This was Olympia Brown.
She spoke these words in 1920,
just one year after women had finally won the right to vote.
She was 85 years old. Continue reading →

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Filed under Olympia Brown, Unitarian Universalism, universal salvation, Women's history

October 16, 2012 · 12:58 pm

Holy Unions: What the Bible Says about Same-Sex Relationships

Our congregation is hosting an interfaith conference this coming weekend on welcoming LGBT people into faith communities. I was honored to support the conference with this sermon debunking the supposedly anti-gay texts in the Bible and lifting up the affirming stories of same-sex relationships found in both the Hebrew and Christian scriptures.

We began with a call to worship celebrating the love between two women, Ruth and Naomi:

Our Call to Worship comes from the Hebrew Scriptures,
the beautiful passage from the Book of Ruth so often read at weddings:

Entreat me not to leave thee,
or to return from following after thee:
for whither thou goest, I will go;
and where thou lodgest, I will lodge:
thy people shall be my people, and thy God my God:
where thou diest, will I die, and there will I be buried.
(Ruth 1:16–17, KJV)

These words, so traditional, so often read at weddings—
such a beautiful declaration of love from one person to another:
what we so often forget is that these are the words of Ruth
not to her husband, but to Naomi:
Ruth who loved Naomi so much,
she wanted nothing more than to be with her forever. Continue reading →

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Filed under Christian Scriptures, Equality, Hebrew Bible, Judeo-Christian tradition, Unitarian Universalism, welcoming

April 23, 2012 · 9:58 am

Earth Day: Finding Hope in Troubled Times

Dear friends,

Happy Earth Day! Here’s the sermon I gave this weekend. I hope you will all stay hopeful and focused out there–it is not too late to make the changes we need to protect the world we know and love.

Good courage to you,

Rev. Laura

***

This Earth Day weekend,
I want to give you a message of hope
for this planet and for our own future on earth.
And I promise you we will get there,
even in these troubled times for our planet.
There is hope,
even in the darkest moments,
but to find it, we need to walk through some scary stuff first.

I don’t have to tell you, these are scary times
for everyone worried about climate change.
The weather’s getting really weird.
The land and the sea are changing right before our eyes.
In the reading we just heard,
Bill McKibben spelled out in pretty blunt terms where we are.
What he has to say is scary.
Global warming is already happening,
and we may not be able to stop it. Continue reading →

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Filed under Earth Day, Environment, Global warming, hope, Uncategorized, Unitarian Universalism

September 22, 2011 · 2:36 pm

Immortal Love: Why Universalism Still Matters

Hello from northern Virginia! I’m happily settling into my new position as associate minister at the Unitarian Universalist Congregation of Fairfax (uucf.org) & am glad to share with you my first sermon there. This topic takes on a special poignancy for me today as I mourn the execution of Troy Davis, whose guilt was so seriously in doubt that religious leaders from around the world intervened to try to save his life. To all who have lost their lives at the hands of governments worldwide–may they and their loved ones know peace.

–Rev. Laura

***

Immortal Love: Why Universalism Still Matters

Our subject today is love.
Not just any kind of love—
the biggest kind of love there is:
infinite, immortal love—
the kind of love our religious ancestors felt and believed in,
powerful love,
an active love that loves every person and everything that is,
a love that will not settle for anything less
than peace in every heart
and justice in every land.

This is the kind of love that burst the bounds
of the religious world of our ancestors many years ago.
It still has the power to transform us and our world,
if we let it. Continue reading →

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Filed under death penalty, Unitarian Universalism, universal salvation

May 23, 2011 · 4:27 pm

Unitarian Universalism, Fifty Years On

Last Sunday, the Unitarian Universalist Association turned 50! Time to reflect on where we’ve been and where we’re going. This one speaks directly to my own congregation, but I hope there’s something for all…

Peace,

Rev. Laura

***
Unitarian Universalism, 50 Years On
The Rev. Laura Horton-Ludwig, Minister
First Unitarian Universalist Church of Stockton
May 22, 2011

Happy anniversary, my dear church!
Or I should say, happy almost-anniversary.
Can you believe, this congregation will be 100 years old
in less than two years?
Unitarians came to Stockton early on.
And on March 28, 1913, we became a church:
the First Unitarian Church of Stockton.
Think of that: 100 years!
We’ve had our ups and downs,
just like any long-term relationship is going to have.
We’ve known a lot of wonderful good times,
and we’ve been around long enough
to know disappointment and heartbreak too.
That’s how it is when you dare to stick around. Continue reading →

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Filed under Congregational life, Diversity, Unitarian Universalism, universal salvation, welcoming

February 20, 2011 · 4:16 pm

Living with the Texts: Qur’anic Environmentalism

Here’s today’s sermon about Islamic environmentalism. I really wanted to get the word out about some of the many positive things Muslims are doing around the world. Enjoy!

Peace,

Rev. Laura

***

Living with the Texts: Qur’anic Environmentalism

The Rev. Laura Horton-Ludwig, Minister
First Unitarian Universalist Church of Stockton
February 20, 2011

Imagine a beautiful tropical island.
Lush green trees send their roots down
into the white sand beaches.
Wild, curvy rock formations
scoured out by the wind and the sea.
The smell of salt in the air.
The ocean waves, clear and shimmery in the sun,
lapping at the shores.
Turtles crawl up the beach to lay their eggs here.
And under the blue waves, a massive coral reef has grown
inch by inch over thousands of years.
This is a real place, Misali Island,
off the coast of Tanzania in East Africa.
People have been fishing here for generations,
sailing out in wooden boats
with sails that catch the wind and skim over the water.
The way they work looks clean and pure to our American eyes,
the wooden boats,
the beautiful sandy beaches.

But appearances can be deceiving. Continue reading →

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Filed under Environment, Islam, Unitarian Universalism

October 24, 2010 · 4:43 pm

Immortal Love: Why Universalism Still Matters

I preached this sermon on our new-member Sunday today at church. Thanks for reading & be well, all!

Peace,

Rev. Laura

***

Immortal Love: Why Universalism Still Matters

The Rev. Laura Horton-Ludwig, Minister
First Unitarian Universalist Church of Stockton
October 24, 2010

The other day I opened up our local newspaper
and read a letter to the editor that really shook me.
The person was writing in about a convicted murderer
who had been on death row for years.
This person was very angry
that this man had been allowed to live for so long.
She said she wanted him to be executed immediately.
And I really disagree with her about the death penalty,
but that wasn’t what upset me the most.
What really got me, the words that just about broke my heart:
were when she called this man, and I quote,
a “soulless inhuman monstrosity.”
Ouch.
(Valerie G. Nolan, Letter to the Editor, Stockton Record, October 9, 2010.)

I know this lady is not a bad person.
But her words are so counter to the religious values I hold dear,
I find I cannot in good conscience just let them go by.
So today I want to tell you how I respond to that letter.
And if I ever meet this lady,
I would love to tell her what I’m about to tell you. Continue reading →

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Filed under death penalty, justice system, love, Unitarian Universalism

October 17, 2010 · 2:32 pm

Living with the Texts: The Upanishads

This is part of a monthly series on engaging with world scriptures. The translations from the Upanishads are by Eknath Easwaran.

The children and I had great fun telling the story of Uddalaka and Shvetaketu with homemade play-dough, sculpting different plants and animals, and asking, is this a tree or is it clay? How about this–is this a bird or is it clay? Oh, it’s both! As Uddalaka says, “By knowing one lump of clay, dear one, we come to know all things made out of clay…. So through…spiritual wisdom, dear one, we come to know that all of life is one” (Chandogya Upanishad, VI.1.4-6).

Peace,

Rev. Laura

***

Living with the Texts: The Upanishads

The Rev. Laura Horton-Ludwig, Minister
First Unitarian Universalist Church of Stockton
October 17, 2010

I’m so glad to have this chance to share with you
some little taste of one of the most profound and important
collections of religious texts in the entire world,
the Upanishads, the great mystical wisdom texts of India.
This is the second one in a series of nine services this year
that I’m putting together so that we can engage
with different sacred texts from around the world.
I’ve chosen to do this because it seems to me
so many of us are hungry for understanding
about the religions of the world,
and not only for intellectual understanding—
I think there is a longing here to allow ourselves to be transformed
by the deep wisdom in these texts,
to sit at the feet of masters who were truly awakened spiritually,
and to be changed ourselves. Continue reading →

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Filed under Environment, Hinduism, species loss, Unitarian Universalism, Upanishads

September 13, 2010 · 11:16 am

More on immigration reform

The Unitarian Universalist Association Board of Trustees recently issued an invitation for congregational leaders to weigh in on plans for our General Assembly in Phoenix, AZ in 2012–a national UU gathering to witness on immigration and racial and economic justice. Here’s what I sent them–not without some anxiety about speaking up, but carefully considered and strongly felt.

Peace,

Rev. Laura

***

September 13, 2010

Dear members of the UUA Board,

Thanks so much for the invitation to comment on possibilities for GA 2012 in Phoenix. As the sister-in-law of a recent immigrant from South America, I have been so glad to see UUs getting involved in immigration issues.

I am sure the GA planning team will do a fantastic job creating opportunities for those of us who feel energized and excited about participating in rallies and civil disobedience actions. It’s been so inspiring hearing about our clergy and lay leaders who have been taking this path. I also hope we can find ways to engage those of us, like me, who feel strongly about what’s going on but are less comfortable wearing the T-shirts, chanting slogans, etc.

I’ve been reading Thomas Merton’s Conjectures of a Guilty Bystander and find myself powerfully struck by his words: “All party lines deform the doctrine which they claim to preserve” (New York: Image/Doubleday, 1989, p. 58). They helped me name a discomfort that has been surfacing in me as I follow the “Standing on the Side of Love” campaign. I want this country to welcome and embrace immigrants, and I am deeply alarmed by SB1070 and the ideas behind it. Yet, for us to claim we are “on the side of love,” implying others are not, feels dangerously self-righteous to me. I worry about our getting enamored of ourselves as some sort of shining army of good, battling the evil oppressors who are Not Us. Please hear me: I don’t want us to sit on our hands or stay silent about what we believe. I feel so blessed to be part of a movement with brave people willing to put themselves on the line for justice. I just hope we can practice with humility, seeking to understand the human lives of those who do not agree with us, even as we do what we need to do. I hope our GA and our continued work for justice will have room for that spirit.

Again, thank you so much for your thoughtful and courageous work. I look forward to being in Phoenix with you in 2012.

Yours in faith,

Laura Horton-Ludwig

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Filed under Immigration reform, Unitarian Universalism

August 22, 2010 · 1:54 pm

You’re Invited!

Today’s sermon is about inviting friends and family to come to church with us. This is something that I think is hard for a lot of people in my congregation, warm and welcoming as they are. As a sometimes-shy person myself, I know they’re not alone!

Peace,

Rev. Laura

***

You’re Invited!

The Rev. Laura Horton-Ludwig, Minister
First Unitarian Universalist Church of Stockton
August 22, 2010

Today I have three facts that I want to share with you.

Fact Number One:
29% of people living in the Western United States
are not connected to any religion or congregation whatsoever.
(Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life, U.S. Religious Landscape Survey, available at http://religions.pewforum.org/comparisons#.)
That fact comes to us from a national study by the Pew Forum.
If we assume Stockton is about average in this regard,
that means about 80,000 people here in Stockton alone
don’t feel connected to a religious community.
That’s Fact Number One.

Fact Number Two:
Say there’s someone you know
who doesn’t belong to a church already.
If you were to ask that person to come to a church service with you,
researchers have found there’s a 90% chance
that person will come with you, right now or sometime in the future. Continue reading →

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Filed under Diversity, inviting, Unitarian Universalism, visitors, welcoming