Day of Decision

Okay, the California State Supreme Court has ruled in favor of Proposition 8. I knew it would happen, but I didn’t want to believe it. I wanted to be surprised for once.

But after closing my office door to kick my furniture and vent my spleen for a few minutes (until I stubbed my toe on my desk…boy they made ‘em hard in the old days…), I calmed down a bit and had a “once more into the breach” moment. Fortunately David Selberg, the Executive Director of Pacific Pride, called to invite me to a Day of Decision rally to protest the ruling.

We had already begun mobilizing within the congregation, so all I had to do was come up with something to say. In the end, about fifty folks from the Unitarian Society of Santa Barbara and our sister congregation, Live Oak, marched down to the courthouse from our church, banners flying – with LOTS of cars honking their solidarity at us.
It was a great, heartening rally, and here is what I said:

Before Proposition 8 passed we marched, rallied and phone banked to defeat it, and we proudly hung that big blue banner over there outside our church doors to announce to the world that our church will always stand on the side of equality, love and justice.

The Sunday after Proposition 8 passed we lit our Candle of Commitment for the first time, symbolizing our commitment to the basic human right for two human beings to express their love for one another through the sacred rite of marriage. That candle has burned in our sanctuary every Sunday since, and we continue to burn until every Californian has the right to marry once more.


Now that the Supreme Court has upheld Proposition 8, enshrining exclusion and discrimination into our State Constitution, we, the families of the Unitarian Society of Santa Barbara, stand ready to carry that flame out of our sanctuary and into the halls of government, the public square and into the streets!
Love lies at the very heart of our faith, and so for us, this struggle is not a legal, but a religious struggle – and we pledge to stand by you, all of you, for as long as it takes, sisters and brothers in struggle, until justice is the law of our land and love is it’s language.

It has been rightly said that the arc of history must always bend toward justice – but only as long as we keep on bending it. So let’s bend it, my friends, let’s bend it.