Reading: "Isis in Chains" – Poem by Mimzy Tackney-Moen

What if our mother was in prison,
convicted of the radical birthing
of the universe?
What if they confiscated her words
and twisted their meaning?
Words like compassion, justice, peace
bent to imply naïve, ineffectual, effeminate?
What if they bottled her rain
franchised the wind,
subdivided her valley and
leased her mountains
to the highest bidder?
What if her wisdom had no value
in the free market?
What if the dignity of each human voice
was a casualty of war?

Who would remind us
That we are all her children
the rocks and rivers, plants, and animals
the humans of all colors and shapes?
Who would bend the lines of authority,
the chain of command
into circles of community?
Who would teach us that the earth
will survive without us
but we will not survive
without the earth?

Who would feed and shelter
our brothers and sisters
when they are hungry and homeless?
Who would cradle the orphans
and sing to them the songs of peace and justice?
Who would guard the place
where each of us can speak our truth?
Who would paint the pictures, sing the songs,
write the poems that inspire us?
Who would tell our children’s children
that our mother lives on
in us, speaks through us,
loves through us?

If not us, who?
And if not now, when?

Sermon, Part 1: Threat Response – Erica Stetson

Good morning. My name is Erica Stetson and I’m a member of the Racial Justice Task Force. I want to thank you for the opportunity to speak today and say, I hope I don’t totally blow it.

The RJTF has struggled as we planned this service, because (and I don’t have to tell you this), if you care about Racial Justice, 2025 has been a very bad year. As we planned for today, we said, “we don’t want people leaving the service feeling even worse than they felt when they came in.”

During our process of planning this service, I came across this cartoon. It says, “Honey, hiding from the world is absolutely an option, but we do it by watching television, not by crouching under the bed.”

So, I am going to talk with you today about why you might have an urge to crawl under the bed and encourage you to come out. Then Holly is going to talk about what you can DO.

Now, please bear with me, because I am gonna get kinda sciencey on you. But I do understand that we are in a church, and I promise to bring it back to our congregation. I am one of those people who thinks that science and religion can peacefully co-exist.

This morning, I am going to share some of what I have learned from my mentor, Dr. Bruce Perry, who is an expert on the impact of stress and trauma on the brain.

Dr. Perry developed the Neurosequential Model and one of the core concepts is that not all stress is bad. In fact, we need moderate, predictable stress to grow, but unpredictable, overwhelming stress creates vulnerability. Unfortunately, in the current political climate, we really don’t know what is coming next, and it often feels overwhelming, like there is nothing we can do about it. This can create a sense of vulnerability and unease.

Our brains are structured so that lower parts of the brain perform functions essential to survival—heart rate, temperature modulation, etc. The mid-brain functions are related to our emotional regulation and relationships, while the most sophisticated functions of the brain—the ones that make us the most human—problem-solving, creativity, abstract thought occur primarily in the cortex.
This is an overly simplified model of course but it is useful.

It helps us understand our response to stress and perceived threat. Dr. Perry explains that the more unpredictable stress we experience, and the greater the sense of threat that we perceive, the higher we move along what he calls the arousal continuum.
The continuum goes like this:

Calm: Meditative | Alert: Thoughtful | Alarm: Threatened | Fear: Reactive

As you move up the arousal continuum, you actually lose access to your cortex. You are no longer capable of your best thinking. You’re more emotional, reactive parts of the brain take charge. When this happens, the responses can be categorized under four descriptors: Fight, Flight, Freeze or Flock.

I am going to give you an example of each of these stress responses from my own family. About 10 years ago, we were at a swim meet for my older daughter, and we got caught in the outskirts of a tornado. As the kids were swimming, we saw very dark clouds moving toward us. When the winds picked up, it was announced that the swim meet was going to pause, and we would return to races after the storm passed. The four of us went to sit in our car, as the rain started pouring down in sheets and a siren started sounding. I will never forget what I saw next, looking out the front window of my car, the wind picked up and a tree rose out of the ground, roots and all, and fell directly on top of our car. The windshield was shattered but miraculously stayed in place. The roof of the car bent inward but did not collapse.

I went into Fight response. But I couldn’t fight the tornado, so I turned to my husband, who was inexplicably on his cell phone. “What are you doing?” I yelled, “we have to get out of here!” Behind me, my younger daughter was in flight mode, trying to scramble further back in the car, and next to her my older daughter sat, quite calmly, looking out the window as if sitting in a peaceful field of flowers. She was in a dissociative response, a form of freezing. What I didn’t know at the time, was that my husband was trying to engage the Flock response. He was on his phone, because he was trying to call his parents, who had also been at the swim meet. He was trying to gather all his people together. Flocking is a way to join with others and draw strength, support and a sense of safety by being connected to those you feel safe with.

One threat, four responses: Fight, Flight, Freeze and Flock.

Long story short, the four of us all came through OK. The car did not.

I want to be clear, when you are in a state of Fear, you don’t get to choose your response. Your response will depend on the timing and nature of the threat and your own history.

BUT if you have found yourself recently, hanging out in the lower end of Alarm, with this kind of uneasy feeling, I’d like to encourage you to Flock. By coming together in community, by looking to others for a felt sense of safety, you can literally bring your arousal level back into the Alert State and gain access to your cortex and your best thinking.

If you have been feeling a sense of Threat much more frequently than you used to, it is my opinion that you are not delusional; you are simply a grounded American living in the reality of what we are facing today.

And in a minute, Holly is going to talk about how you can make a difference, in ways that are productive and helpful.

Science tells us (and I mean study after study) that the best way to overcome the negative impact of trauma is through relationships, and the best way to buffer the effect of overwhelming stress is through community.

So let me return to this idea of Flocking for a moment. And I will bring all this talk about the brain back to our church. In psychotherapy, there is a very central and critical concept called the Holding Environment. The idea is that, in therapy, we create a safe and loving space, analogous to being held in the arms of a loving caregiver. In this space, people will move toward greater health and wholeness. Human beings are wired up such that when we are held in love and acceptance, we will heal.

When I walk into this beautiful round room, it is as if loving arms are opening to hold me. This is my holding environment. When I come here on Sunday mornings, I am held in the love that lives in this room. The words that are spoken, the music, that is all important, but for me, the real power is in being here, with all of you. When I come here and am held in the loving embrace of this congregation, I can physically feel myself move to greater health and wellness. And so I want to express my gratitude to all of you today, even those of you I don’t know. Because there have been so many times when I have come in with a heavy heart, with worries on my mind. Worries of the world, worries for my family. And I have been held and healed by this congregation. And the amazing part is, I don’t even have to talk about it. I don’t have to share what I am thinking or label my feelings. I simply join with others, and I am healed. I hope that each of you have had that experience here, and if you have not, I hope that you continue to come, and that someday, you will feel it, too.

Amen.

Sermon, Part 2: UU’s Making a Difference – Holly Fulton

As I was working on what I am about to share with you, I realized that this is in a big way for me as well as for you all. What I am saying shows how I have a need to reach out to this community in this really difficult time many of us are going through. I am assuming here we have some shared challenges to gather about, and hope we share possible solutions FOR.

At the risk of being accused of mixing spirituality and politics, I’ll just claim: we ARE mixing the two today because our hearts are slightly screaming at times these days. We come together here as UU’s that share some what many of us hold as spiritual beliefs and/or values that can easily be connected to taking action because of today’s politics. Last week Rev. Eric spoke about our covenancy for democracy and freedom. He asked this: “How do our UU values call on us to respond? Reverend Jenny Amstutz said to us a few weeks ago:

“Our Shared Value of Interdependence is a covenant that binds us together as a people of faith, no matter what our concept of god is, we all agree that we are connected. We don’t agree on what to call this energy that binds us, our interconnectedness, but we agree to place value on interdependence.”

So, given all this, I think there are many of us wondering “WHAT CAN I DO?” Some may be thinking “I can’t do much given how much I stay at home.” Or “I’m too old or weary to make much of a difference.” These times are too heavy and serious for us to “get away” with a continuous supply of that self talk. Many of you know I like to get real around tough stuff, and I am doing that today up here, so thank you for bearing with me and please always remember I am a fellow UU. I want to sense I am make some differences. To those of us in this community, as we spin in our confusion, fear, dread, and horror with what is taking place, know that you are NOT alone as you keep wondering over and over “What can I do?” And you may be using different verbs around what those actions you may choose to take are about. Is it “resisting”, are it “fighting back”? (Some say liberals are not good at “fighting back”), are we “making a difference”? I choose the third verb cause that overall feels the best to me.

This quote is from the book Where to Begin by Cleo Wade:

“There are times when we must speak, not because you are going to change the other person, but because if you don’t speak, they have changed you. Silence doesn’t change the world. It changes us. It shrinks us. It takes our stories and feelings away from us and buries them alive. Unearth what is buried within you. Free yourself in this way.”

Some do not feel that “unearthing what is buried within” is an example of “freeing oneself” given the possible wounding that has not been worked on or the fear that may be held around what could emerge. I want to verbalize that possible truth as it can be strong and frightening for some.

Here’s another quote I found from a group called “Kindness for the soul”:

“REMINDER: For anyone confused, your political views are more than opinions. They’re a reflection of your values, your empathy, and the way you see humanity.”

I am quite drawn to this quote because I know there are some who do not “want to get political” or who don’t “want to talk politics” or who just bottom line really want to avoid the topic. Some friends have said to me, “I don’t do that news anymore.” It’s understandable… as I mentioned getting what feels like insane news updates just plain hurts… but... The need is to avoid talking about and listening to stories about values and the way you & others see humanity. And we as UU’s KNOW that those three words (values, empathy and humanity) are huge topics for us as so many of us are working on those inside ourselves. No? We refer to those values every Sunday we are together.

Here is one struggle I know many share around all this – There are two values that are getting messed with at the same time as many of us try to find balance today: “The importance of being informed is huge… so is the importance of staying sane and feeling somewhat safe or balanced.” I want to be informed, and I want to feel "sane." Tough combo these days. We need to figure out how much is enough around being informed. And how are we taking CARE of ourselves in all this? And where do we get our news updates from? If you need other sources, ask people for suggestions.

As a number of us hear and deal with various voices I already mentioned that are inside us around taking action - voices that refer to “doing enough” or “being homebound” or “how much of a difference can I make” or “fear of feeling worse.” We in Racial Justice Task Force want to encourage all of you to use that “You Are Not Alone” chant – think about that video – to help you somewhat overcome those challenges and either invite others to join you, or accept an invitation to join others, because I bet we ALL think about taking some action and we do not have to do it alone. Even if you ARE homebound, I bet some would come to your home and do things with you. And there’s always virtual gatherings.

Here are some things many people are doing that can make a difference, in addition to showing up out there for protests or at hearings or reporting suspected ICE activity to the Colorado Rapid Response Network, or going to places offering immigrant services etc. etc. These actions CAN make a DIFFERENCE:

• Making phone calls to political offices or organizations.
• Writing emails or handwritten letters or post cards.
• Attending virtual meetings for training or gaining information
• Making creative things for or writing to people who are being held
• Making food to offer to those people being held.
• Buy a banned book. Read it. Lend it. Talk about it.

Some of these are from an article one of our members found titled “Stay Human: 80 Tiny Moves for Everyday Resistance in the Authoritarian Harm Complex” – Useful resource. We have a LOT of info. There are so many places and people from whom we can get information on what we can do.

Networking helps! I very recently received a letter from a man named Paul Riederer who loves to network. Paul is from FUSD, First Unitarian Society of Denver (that OTHER UU church in Denver) and he has teamed up with some members of his congregation and other UU churches like us and UU Church of Boulder and the plan is to find more people from other UU churches and coordinate around taking action to have greater impact. Here is part of his letter:

“The values we hold dear as UUs are under attack and nearly all of our social justice efforts are being radically impacted by the current administration (including reproductive freedom, immigrant justice, diversity, equity and inclusion, LGBTQ rights, family assistance, food assistance and more)… We envision hundreds of Colorado UUs promoting the same message at the same time, standing up for UU values and democracy through phone calls, emails, letters to the editor, etc. So we're inviting you and others in your congregation to join us in a “Rapid Response” network of Colorado Unitarian Universalists. We’re excited to learn from you and share resources – Let’s work together!”

I want to ask you to please please reach out to me or other members of Racial Justice Task Force if you need support or information about taking some kind of action, and maybe doing things you have never done before related to both self care and making a difference around what we are living today. Support around trying something new. Just bottom line, you must remember the degree to which “You are NOT alone” upon deciding to do something.

During the President and Executive Officers’ Report at General Assembly in June, President Betancourt said, “Beloveds, we are a people who make dreams of a better future real through concrete action. We have always found new ways to advance the values that we hold together, and I have every faith that our collective efforts can change the landscape of this hurting and beautiful world.” She added, “It will take all of us, in community, to respond to these times. Our faith, our nation, our values, and our world demand nothing less.”