To End All Wars
Reverend Janet Parsons
Gloucester UU Church
November 11, 2018
100 years ago today. Let’s just stop for a moment and think about how long ago that was. 100 years ago, the Model T was in its heyday. It was long ago, but if we were to be transported back in time, we would easily recognize our surroundings. Middle Street would have looked much the same. The minister of this church at the time, the Reverend Levi Powers, was busy organizing financing to create a museum out of the Sargent House down the street. We’d feel right at home here in our sanctuary: our stained glass windows were almost brand new.
100 years ago today marked the end of what was then called the Great War: the war to end all wars. The slaughter had been horrific: over 16 million people died during the four years of the war. Beginning in 1919, a year later, Armistice Day was remembered with parades and bell-ringing to show our desire for peace between the nations of the world.
Since our theme this month is Memory, it’s fitting to look back on this day, to a time of resolve, and remember how important it is to hope for peace. We remember the symbolism of poppies, and the message – first, to care for and honor our veterans, and second, to ensure that their sacrifices were not made in vain.
It is with sadness that we recall the aspirations of 100 years ago – the hope that never again would young men be slaughtered in such huge numbers, that millions of civilians would be caught in the midst of the fighting and killed as well. But on this day, people sought to remember why peace was so important, and to remember to work for peace. In the words of the poem we heard a few minutes ago:
“Fear not that ye have died for naught;
We’ll teach the lesson that ye wrought
In Flanders Fields.”
Even before the Armistice in 1918, even before the United States’ entry into World War I, pacifists were working hard to keep this country out of the war. Some of them were prominent Unitarians and Universalists. This was a highly controversial position, and many of them paid dearly for their efforts.
John Haynes Holmes was an important Unitarian minister in New York City. To give you a sense of his prominence, he was a founder both of the NAACP and of the American Civil Liberties Union. He argued, based on the teachings of Jesus, that war was never justifiable, not even in self-defense. Sin and evil should be met with service and goodness, not with any sort of violent action. (Paul Rasor, “Prophetic Nonviolence,” https://www.uuworld.org/articles/prophetic-nonviolence, Spring, 2008.) In a sermon preached the day before the entry of the United States into the war, Holmes declared war to be “an open and utter violation of Christianity.” His church board voted to support him. That support was quite unusual – of the 15 openly pacifist Unitarian ministers at the start of the World War, only six remained in their pulpits by the time the war ended. (Dictionary of Unitarian and Universalist Biography, http://uudb.org/articles/johnhaynesholmes.html)
The Unitarian establishment strongly support the war, and characterized pacifism as treason against the United States. Led by former U.S. President William Howard Taft, a prominent Unitarian, the American Unitarian Association voted to deny financial support to any congregations whose ministers were not in support of the war. Holmes responded by resigning from the American Unitarian Association.
There were fewer Universalist pacifists. The most prominent Universalist pacifist was the Reverend Clarence Skinner, who as a young minister helped establish the Universalist Commission on Social Service. Skinner went on to join the faculty of Crane Theological School at Tufts. There he openly shared his socialist and pacifist views, with his vision of a socialist kingdom of heaven on earth. (Dictionary of Unitarian and Universalist Biography, http://uudb.org/articles/clarencerussellskinner.html). He was widely criticized for his beliefs, but the Tufts administration supported him and allowed him to remain on the faculty.
The minister of this church at the time, Levi Powers, was associated with both Unitarian and Universalist pacifist efforts. Powers was a member of the Commission on Social Service along with Clarence Skinner. When the war began in Europe, Powers was sent to study the economic causes that had led to war, all while serving this church. (Charles Howe, The Larger Faith, (Boston: Skinner House Books, 1993) p. 92.
In addition, Powers once participated in a panel discussion after the American entry into the war with a lecture titled, “The Case of the Pacifist Minister.” (Christian Register, May 17, 1917, https://books.google.com/books?id=k_cfAQAAMAAJ&pg=PA475&lpg=PA475&dq=Rev.+Levi+Powers,+pacifist,+Gloucester,+Massachusetts&source=bl&ots=N0lwwfU2Lc&sig=OgziFReJn9I7nI2uvM6tKp_lxsY&hl=en&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwi_pevNrcHeAhXkm-AKHWZqCIYQ6AEwAHoECAgQAQ#v=onepage&q=Rev.%20Levi%20Powers%2C%20pacifist%2C%20Gloucester%2C%20Massachusetts&f=false)
There were fewer Universalist pacifists during the war era: many Universalists were closely allied with more conservative and business interests. However, another of this congregation’s ministers, the Reverend Clinton Lee Scott, was also an avowed pacifist at the time. He served churches in Vermont and in Buffalo, N.Y. during the war, and it has been reported that he almost lost his fellowship with the Universalist Church of America as a result. http://uudb.org/articles/clintonleescott.html
This congregation has been served by a number of change agents over the years: people who have lived and spoken their truths. You should be proud of your legacy!
The pacifists were vilified, called treasonous, un-American. But look at what they had hoped to prevent: the carnage in the trenches, the wanton waste of young human lives. A generation of European men practically obliterated.
And so, in the hope that this new type of devastating war could be stopped, in the hope that it could be prevented from ever happening again, November 11 was set aside as a day of peace, a day to remember what happens when war prevails, a day to work for peace.
We know how long peace persisted; barely 20 years before a new conflict arose that resulted in massive genocide and the use of nuclear weapons. And today, both in Europe and in the United States, we can see echoes of the build up toward that second World War: the polarization, the weakening of the political center, the ugly rise of nationalism once again. As time passes and fewer and fewer people still live who remember the catastrophic impact of modern warfare, one wonders if the motivation to prevent it weakens; if it becomes easier to accept it again.
What can we do? What is our role as liberal religious people?
As I mentioned earlier, most Unitarians and Universalists have never been pacifists. Most of us would likely consider ourselves proponents of the ‘just war’: that is, a war that could be justified either to stop aggression, in self-defense, or to stop the consequences of aggression, such as genocide. Unitarian Universalism has always been an engaged religious tradition: we seek to influence, to be involved, to make a difference in the world. At the same time, our principles call us to act for peace in the world. Let’s think about that:
We believe in the worth and dignity of all people. We believe in justice, equity, and compassion for all. We believe in the goal of world community with peace, liberty, and justice for all, and we believe that ultimately, we are all one in Love. This is a clear mandate for action, for creating a way of life dedicated to the peaceful existence and prosperity of everyone, everywhere.
How shall we commit to creating that way of life that nurtures and sustains a peaceful existence? There are many possibilities, from the international to the personal. We can support the efforts of the United Nations, perhaps through the UU United Nations Office. We can commit to vote for candidates promoting safety and peace, for example, those opposing gun violence. We can fight racism and misogyny. We can insist on economic fairness for our own people, and people in other countries. We can work to make our own communities safe and peaceful by creating a culture of welcome and inclusion. We can love our neighbors. We can do the same thing in our congregation: asking ourselves each time we enter this building how we are going to reach out and connect with others, and create a warm and loving community. And finally, we can dedicate ourselves to living lives of reconciliation, forgiveness, and hospitality. Without this foundation of finding peace within ourselves, none of the other building blocks in a life consecrated to creating peace will be possible.
The ancient Chinese philosopher, Lao-Zi, author of the Tao Te Ching, said this:
If there is to be peace in the world,
There must be peace in the nations.
If there is to be peace in the nations,
There must be peace in the cities.
If there is to be peace in the cities,
There must be peace between neighbors.
If there is to be peace between neighbors,
There must be peace in the home.
If there is to be peace in the home,
There must be peace in the heart.
My friends, may you have peace in your hearts, and may you carry that vision of peace wherever you go, so that together we can create a less violent world; a world where the values of non-violence are the foundation, and the default. May the memories of the war to end all wars stay with us, today and every day, that we can work toward the vision of an earth made fair, and all her people one.
May it be so,
Amen.
