“Respect All Persons / Accept Everyone”

I am in love with Love, that mysterious Force that flows through and connects all things in this magical universe. That's why I'm a student of world religions, and why I love exploring their wisdom with you. 

Maybe that love began when I was a boy and met Bernie Whitebear. He was the head of the United Indians of All Tribes in Seattle, and my dad was working with him. He had thick black hair that flowed over his shoulders and a powerful face carved by laughter and grief and determination. Dad said Bernie was the chief of the urban Indians, and he was a giant to me. I remember sitting next to him at a powwow when I was about 8. I felt so special. Years later when Dad died, Bernie served as a pallbearer at the funeral. I hadn't seen him for nearly 20 years. His raven black hair was now white, and turns out he only stood about this high. Bernie was a giant. Maybe I love the spiritualities and stories of indigenous people because of Bernie. 

Or maybe it began with Professor Susan Weeks who, on the first day of my first theology class at Notre Dame said, "In this class you may not call God Father unless you also call God Mother, because God is neither male nor female, and our language should reflect this reality. Otherwise we might close our eyes to infinite faces of God." That idea shocked me, and made me mad. I called Dad to complain. "Tom, Tom, Tom," he said. "Just do what you're supposed to do to get a good grade, and then forget about it." But I couldn't forget about it. I wrestled this new idea and the reasons she gave for embracing God as Mother as well as Father. Eventually her reasons convinced me. And that blew my mind wide open, which in turn led me to depths of thought and feeling and experience that I had never imagined. I've been exploring the wilderness of my soul ever since.

I'm not an expert on world religions, but I've studied a lot. So I feel sad and angry when I hear misinformation pedaled as fact in the media and the malls. For instance, as a scholar of world religions, I've come to a conclusion rooted in reason: the Prophet Muhammad would condemn ISIS and al-Qaeda. They represent a twisted interpretation of Islam that is held by a tiny percentage of Muslims worldwide. Tiny.

These terrorist organizations do not represent Islam. Think about it: the people behind the murders of Martin Luther King and other civil rights leaders, they do not represent the American people. The Catholic clergy that abused children, the bishops who allowed it to happen, and the people in the pews who remained silent about this tragedy, they do not represent the best of the Catholic faith. 

I have more reasons than most to completely reject religion. But my hunger and thirst to personally experience true Love, Beauty, Goodness, and Unity, it’s vastly more powerful than any religious hypocrisy. I refuse to let the ignorance and hatred of fallible religious people steal the spiritual path from me. 

Consider this: Dr. King was inspired by Mahatma Gandhi, a Hindu, and Gandhi's philosophy of nonviolent noncooperation was shaped by Jesus' Sermon on the Mount. Reverend King nominated Thich Nhat Hanh, a Buddhist monk, for the Nobel Peace Prize. 

Let us expel the voices of hatred and intolerance from our lives. King said hate is like a cancer. It “corrodes the personality and eats away its vital unity. Hate destroys a man's sense of values and his objectivity. It causes him to describe the beautiful as ugly and the ugly as beautiful, and to confuse the true with the false and the false with the true.”

Respect yourself enough to listen to the still small voice of the Spirit in your heart, mind, and conscience. We’ve all been hurt, and we’ve all felt the desire to lash out. But because we've known fear and anger, we can understand others who are hurting. 

The way through our anger, fear, and grief is in our banners. It's in the Christian Bible and the Muslim Qur'an and the Hindu Bhagavad Gita and the Buddhist Dhammapada …. Do to others what you want them to do to you. The Qur'an says if you kill one human being, it's as if you killed the whole world, and if you save one life, it's as if you saved the whole world. And in the Hadith, Muhammad says when a coffin passes by, whether it's a Muslim, Jew, or Christian, rise to your feet out of respect.

I beg you, do not let people who do and say despicable things in the name of Jesus or Allah turn you off from experiencing the wisdom and love that can be found along a religious path. 

Respect yourself enough to think and feel for yourself, to seek your own experiences of the Divine. Start by getting to know your own mysterious self, that gorgeous creature that each one of you is. Yeah, we all screw up. We all have our dark sides. But I know you're gorgeous because I see it in you every day. That’s why I love being at La Salle. You've got a whole universe to explore within the boundaries of you. Say yes to that adventure. If you don't really like yourself right now, then you don't know yourself well enough yet. Look again, and keep looking. 

January 22, 2016

La Salle High School

Milwaukie, Oregon

This is Mr. Mac, and I am privileged to lead our family in prayer this morning. So,

Let us remember….

While many of the great stories that begin with "Once upon a time" seem otherworldly and fantastical, at their heart they tell about characters who are much like us. One of the reasons that these stories capture our attention is that we, too, are on the hero's journey. That's why, as a storyteller, I often begin my tales with "Once upon a time…and just this morning…." No matter how ordinary each of us seems, no matter how regular or boring our daily lives sometimes feel, we, too, wrestle dragons; we, too, endure dark nights of the soul. Sometimes those dragons are as minor as a difficult physics problem or a pesky annotation assignment or an opponent on the athletic field or court. We know what it is to feel that odd mix of fear and excitement when we enter unfamiliar territory; to feel surprise and fear and anger when we meet obstacles that appear too big for us to overcome; and to feel ecstatic and powerful when we defeat the dragon in battle. Sometimes, though, the dragons seem much larger and more dangerous: the flunking of a course that you have to retake; the ending of a friendship or romance; the loss of a loved one; an injustice that we experience or witness. I've encountered each of those dragons, just as many of you have. Those terrifying and exhilarating hero's journeys often lead us into a dark night of the soul, and we're not sure how – or if – we will survive. 

In such moments of struggle, I have many times been inspired by 2 things. One, I look to nature. I see that the earth cycles through seasons of birth, growth, fruition, and death, and then it flows back into birth, just as I do in my life. I see the moon waxing and waning through its phases, cycle after cycle after cycle, just like me. I see the tides rising and falling endlessly, just like me. I am not alone. I can endure. And I am made stronger by consciously dancing through these seasons and cycles. 

I'm also strengthened by what God says to me, to us through the Prophet Isaiah:

When you pass through the waters, I will be with you;

    and through the rivers, they shall not overwhelm you;

when you walk through fire you shall not be burned,

    and the flame shall not consume you….

Because you are precious in my sight,

    and honored, and I love you….

We are not alone, my friends. We have each other. We are also accompanied by all of the heroes who have gone before us and whose stories inspire us. And we have the Spirit of Life, the Soul of Love, the Creator of all that is walking beside us and dwelling within us. We are never alone because we are loved.

St. John Baptist de La Salle….

Live, Jesus, in our hearts.

Delivered with prayer before school, February 2014

I was a 23 year-old officer in the United State Air Force when I received my vocation to be a peacemaker. Several heroes helped me say Yes to God’s call: Dorothy Day, a Catholic activist; Dietrich Bonhoeffer, a Lutheran pastor; Mahatma Gandhi, a Hindu lawyer; and Jesus of Nazareth, a Jewish carpenter.

I grew up in a patriotic home; my father was a Navy veteran. I wanted to serve my country. So I accepted an Air Force ROTC scholarship. As I studied theology and nurtured my faith in college, I began wondering if serving in the military was consistent with following in the footsteps of Jesus. When I graduated, I still believed I could bear arms for my country and be a faithful Christian. 

During my first year of active duty, I lived a mile from the Weapons Storage Facility where we stored our nuclear bombs in underground bunkers. One of my jobs was to make sure that every person who worked directly with nuclear weapons was psychologically fit for duty. I also educated people about what to do if our base was attacked by Soviet nuclear missiles. 

However, these duties increasingly conflicted with the teachings of Jesus as I now understood them. Eventually I concluded that if Jesus would not kill with an M-16 or a nuclear bomb, then I, as one of his disciples, should not do so either. I spent the next 8 months praying and reflecting to be certain of my call. When I told my parents about my decision, Dad said, “I think you're dead wrong.” Mom agreed. Even so, I submitted my official resignation. 

The Air Force spent 7 months deciding whether they believed my objection to military service was sincere. I continued performing my regular duties until the day my heart almost broke from doing work that so clearly contradicted my faith. One morning, after begging God for a sign that I was doing the right thing, I told my boss that I refused to work any longer. She ordered me to go home and reconsider, because if I refused to work, military police would throw me in jail. After sleeping for several hours, I returned to work. I wasn’t ready to say Yes to jail. 

Finally, the Pentagon granted me an honorable discharge as a conscientious objector.

In the years since, I have served my country and my planet by building houses for the poor, serving meals to homeless people, and participating in peace rallies. My passions for teaching and writing are gifts from the Spirit that help me respond to my call to give and receive love. 

Your vocations may be different from mine. Only you can know that for sure. So today, when we meet in the hallways and classrooms of La Salle, I will support you in your vocation by living mine.