Reaction to Andrew Harvey

I have received three very thoughtful responses to Andrew Harvey this morning, and I would like to share them. Please feel free to comment, or send me your responses and I will publish them.

(I would like to say up front that at the 9:00 service Andrew did not get political. Had he done so, we might have been able to prevent it at 11:00. One of the hazards of a passionate speaker who "channels" his words, I guess. I have a video of the 9:00 service that I am trying to get in a format to share with you.)

First, from Mike Betot:

He is very passionate, I give him that. However, I was very disappointed overall. I left the house this morning to attend church, not a political rally. I saw no tie-in to our Spiritual Gifts Study, and he did not even speak about finding your passion until after 12:00. Normally I would never say anything and go about my business. However, as he said, we should be able to speak our minds without fear, so I do that here.

When Wendy and I began going to UCT it was comfortable, home-like, safe. Today's service was anything but. I have never left the church so tense and in need of solace and meditation. I know that I attend a church that is more liberal than I am. I have accepted that, and most everyone accepts me as I am. As it should be in a Unity church. We preach that we should see the Christ in everyone, and because of that, I stayed through the service. I knew there was a lesson there for me, and I did begin to see it. I need to be as passionate about my beliefs as he is with his. I need to pursue and tackle the things that break my heart, and have already began to pursue that. So maybe that was the purpose for me being there.

Regardless of what I learned, I disagreed with the service as a whole. I don't believe there is a place in church for political agenda, or aggrandizing. If I want a political pundant to tell me his views, I will go see one, I do not expect to find him in my church. Not when we preach all are equal. I believe we can serve good regardless of political affiliation. I can belong to the Sierra Club, the Appalachian Trail Conservancy, the World Wildlife Fund, the Audubon Society and The Republican party.

I do not believe the world needs to be torn down, and in ruin for everyone to see equality or be treated equal. If it were not for the money and the power, I would not have the church I attend, or the college degrees given to me by Universities founded on the money of industrialists. Unity itself sponsors many classes on abundance, and I attend those happily.

I don't come from money or power. I come from a blue collar family in Detroit. My family and those around me worked hard for everything they had. I have worked two jobs most of my life, I served in the military during the first Desert Storm, I have put my life on the line for everyone in this country, I have put myself through college, and Grad school. I have owned my own businesses for over a decade now, and taught college in NC for 6 years. I am proud of everything I have attained, and for everything that attainment has allowed me to do. That includes the dozens of charities I support every year. I tithe of my time, talents, and treasures as I learned to do at UCT, as I will continue to do going forward.

I know I am not alone in my thinking, I know others that feel the same way, even if they chose not to speak up.

Mamie's response to Mike's email:

Mike, thank you for your very thoughtful reply to the events of yesterday.

In the early service, Andrew did not get political as he did in the second service. I felt very uncomfortable myself with his outburst about the election. And his attempt to accommodate discomfort by saying something along the lines of those who don't agree with him feeling as passionate as he did only a little to ease my discomfort.

I think we all need to come out of our comfort zones sometimes to effect change. What Andrew brought to the table was an incredible idea: combining sacred practice with sacred activism. It sounds to me that you have always done that in your life (thank you for you military service too), but in a much quieter way than Andrew. I'm sure as you say, that others were put off by the service, in fact I saw some people walk out at 11:00 during the political portion of the talk, but I hope that more than a few people who felt that way will be open in the same way that you are. That is to say, yes, I do need to look at what breaks my heart and try to effect change in small and big ways, and I do need to feel passionate about doing it. But as you point out, passion is not always loud and lambasting! You make a beautiful case for the quiet activist, and others need to hear it.

From Vicki Nash:

[Mike,] Thank you for speaking out openly and honestly. Although I don’t agree with everything Andrew preaches, and agree that church is not the place for expressing political views, I do believe he shook things up and opened an important dialogue.

From Randy Jones:

Mike, I don’t know quite how to respond – but you know me, I’ll try. First and foremost, I like you, I respect you and we are fellow UCT members, so I don’t want to discount or dismiss what you are feeling. Maybe because I was aligned with what Andrew was saying from a spiritual perspective and had spent 8 hours in his workshop on Saturday, I didn’t have any sense that Sunday’s lesson was anything like a political rally. And, I disagree that there was no connection to spiritual gifts – I thought his entire time with us this weekend was one long call to action to use our spiritual gifts for the purposes they were given to us.

You don’t have to agree with Andrew’s politics (which were really on display only very briefly) to understand he was talking about taking the connection with Spirit we are all striving for and putting it to use here in the physical world. I will say this -- Democrats and Republicans alike should be very uncomfortable with Andrew’s message. It provides real food for thought in the Spiritual Gifts Study Groups, and hopefully we at UCT can find constructive ways to process his message as we move forward. I believe we can do that respectfully, in a safe and welcoming environment – collectively as a faith community, with Neusom’s leadership and guidance. Was Andrew over the top by drawing presidential politics into his message? I suppose he was and I am sorry to the extent that as a result some people were angered, disappointed or unnerved.

But, I wouldn’t have traded the passion he showed for Sacred Activism for some watered-down message that we might find in any mainstream church week after week. To bring it back around, I’m sure you do speak for yourself and others who were uncomfortable, angry, and/or upset with Andrew and his message. We as a church community must honor those feelings and find a way to come together to heal any wounds that may have been created. I think that kind of dialogue is not only necessary but could lead to more awareness and true community in the church.