Marriage equality in the US, the increase of gay affirming religious denominations, and some politicians openly pledging  to protect the rights of LGBTQ people are all wonderful advances for justice in our country, but there is more work to do. And, we can see easily enough that with these advances the political and religious extreme Right continues to work to slow and even reverse the progress that has been made.

The insults from the Right, especially those who claim to speak for “God” as they call gay people “sinners” and demean gay lives as a “lifestyle” may not pack the political punch they once did, but they are still ever present.

I completely (and publicly) reject the idea that same-gender love or attraction is in any way “sinful.” Often, the response to my not accepting a sub-human status is for anti-gay religionists to quote some bible verse at me (as if I just never ran across those verses in seminary or in my ministerial career). When belching a bible verse at me like a sorcerer’s curse doesn’t zap me straight (or at least render me contrite for being gay), bible bullies will often deliver this all too familiar spiritual sucker punch: “We’ll have to agree to disagree.”

The attempted set up in such a situation is to suggest that if same-gender loving people can’t smile when being attacked, then there must be something horribly wrong with us. I don’t think so. They’re trying to sell it, but I ain’t buying it.

I will disagree with someone who says a verse here or there from an ancient text proves that I’m pond scum, but I will not agree that our disagreement is merely two opposing but equally valid views. My sacred value is not a matter for debate; it is the one thing about which I am completely unwilling to compromise.

The fact is that a significant percentage of every population in every era of human history (and in animal populations as well) develop same-gender love and attraction, and are probably biologically predisposed to do so. This isn’t new information. The Kinsey Reports of the 40s and 50s, Dr. Evelyn Hooker’s research in the late 50s, the American Psychiatric Association in 1973, the American Psychological Association in 1975, and every major mental health organization (including the World Health Organization) in the west and many throughout the world have confirmed this.

There is nothing aberrant, disordered, immoral, wicked, or shameful about mutually beneficial and agreed upon relationships. The gender identities of those in a relationship are not what make those relationships sacred.

The simple truth is that some people are gay, it’s perfectly natural for them, and it harms no one to acknowledge that. Period.

LGBTQ people are a wonderful part of the glorious diversity of the world. Being gay is one my blessings and I give thanks for the life I share with the person I love.

Religion should never be used to make people feel ashamed of who they are, and it certainly shouldn’t be used to punish genuine, mutually shared love. Religion at its best will affirm the inherent dignity of all people. That is, at least, the religion I try to practice and the religion I wish to share.

Rev. Dr. Durrell Watkins is the author of Saved From Salvation (available at Amazon.com) and is the senior minister of Sunshine Cathedral in Fort Lauderdale.

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Most of us have probably heard of the biblical story of Joseph and his multi-colored coat. If we don’t remember the story from a religious upbringing, we almost certainly are familiar with the Tim Rice/Andrew Lloyd Weber musical Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat (based on the biblical story of Joseph, a young dreamer).

In the biblical story, Joseph is one of many siblings, but he is also the parental favorite. His father gives him a gift – a beautiful coat that features many colors. Artwork based on the story often shows the coat looking like a wearable rainbow.

Joseph’s siblings were annoyed that Joseph rated such a snazzy gift and they allowed petty jealousy to cause them to plot against Joseph. According the story, they actually sold their younger brother into slavery and told their father that he had been killed.

The rainbow coat was a sign of favor, but it also made Joseph different, even special, and for that Joseph was singled out and abused.

Joseph dealt with his adversity as best he could. In slavery, he was promoted, but then he was imprisoned. In prison, he managed to stand out, and eventually was released and even became successful in politics. In time, he was able to use his political position to help people, including the family that earlier abandoned him to a life of hardship.

The Joseph story is a wonderful allegory for Rainbow People everywhere. We in the Queer community know what it is like to be different, and special. We understand what it means to be unique, and gifted, and able to achieve great things in spite of having endured cruelty. We have had ups and downs, and sometimes, we have proven to be more gracious than those who wrote us off or who tried to erase our stories or assault our dignity.

Our same-gender love and attraction or our gender non-conformity is a special gift, a sign of being different and at the same time specially blessed; our sexual orientation or gender identity is our coat of favor which shows we are part of the rainbow diversity of life. That specialness has made us targets for some, but even with all the ups and downs of being a targeted and oppressed group, we have proven to be resilient, creative, loving, and utterly fabulous!

I love that the rainbow has become a symbol of our beautiful community. Our rainbow flag is our coat of many colors, our sign that we are special, we are blessed, we are fully embraced by the loving Presence many of us call “God.” Like Joseph, our path hasn’t always been easy, but it has made us strong, wise, and at our best, compassionate and dedicated to making a positive difference in the world.

The next time you see a rainbow flag, I hope you will think of it as a sign that you are gifted by the Universe, and that you are indeed a gift from the Universe to the world.

The prophet Ezekiel imagined God this way: “As the appearance of the bow that is in the cloud in the day of rain, so was the appearance of the brightness round about. This was the appearance of the likeness of the glory of the Lord…” (KJV). Rainbow People are made in the image of the Rainbow God. We are the world’s Sacred Rainbow People!

Rev. Dr. Durrell Watkins is the Senior Minister of Sunshine Cathedral in Fort Lauderdale (www.sunshinecathedral.org).

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These discoveries came after other discoveries had already left the faithful a little wobbly. The discovery that ours is a heliocentric rather than geocentric universe was devastating enough, and the discovery of the egg cell pretty much ended any reasonable debate about virginal conceptions; and the world going to war in 1914 and again in 1939 with atomic power being unleashed in war in the summer of 1945 made everything seem utterly uncertain, fragile, uncontrollable.

As the myth of predictability and control was shattered, fundamentalism struck back by saying that not only is Christianity the only “true” faith, but one must accept certain fundamentals in order to be a true Christian.  It was a desperate attempt to freeze time and to feel secure in a world of constant change.

Of course, the only constant in the universe is change, so to refuse to accept or even acknowledge change can’t be a healthy choice. But fundamentalism isn’t about health; it’s about feeling secure and right. Saving others from afterlife perdition not only is part of the fundamentalists’ own “fire insurance” plan, it is also part of making them feel at least a little safer in this ever changing, unpredictable world. They need others to agree that they have all the answers so that they can continue to pretend to believe that they have all the answers.

Fundamentalists then were those who insisted that there were fundamentals necessary to embrace in order to be a true Christian—aka, to be “saved” [to feel eternally safe, secure]. There were only five fundamentals, the first being the inerrancy of “their” scriptures (which robs scripture of the beauty and abstract power of its many myths, allegories, and idioms while ignoring its scientific inaccuracies, internal contradictions, and moral indiscretions). The other four fundamentals were opinions that they insisted be held about Jesus – his virgin conception, his divinely ordained execution, his physical resurrection and literal return in the future. You will notice, however, that critical thinking, new discoveries, understanding religious stories as allegories rather than literal facts, or even love itself are all glaringly absent from the list of fundamentals, which I, for one, find problematic.

Fundamentalism in any religion is about fear; and obsessive fear leads to intolerance, hatred, and the need to control. Fundamentalism is never healthy, never life-giving, never joyful, never harmonizing, and never empowering for anyone beyond its own cultic system.

Let me hasten to add that I am a religion guy. I am religious to my core. My world view is spiritual. My self-understanding is rooted in liberal faith. I have spent my life using religion to encourage people, to share hope, to cultivate peace, and to build loving, generous communities of faith. My critique of fundamentalism is not a rejection of faith, or spirituality, or even religion; it is, however, a rejection of the fear-mongering, the meanness, and the psycho-spiritual abuse to which fundamentalism’s misuse of religion inevitably leads.

Fundamentalism is just a system of fear, and the cure for fear is love. Luckily, love is something LGBT people have in abundance.

Rev. Dr. Durrell Watkins is the senior minister of Sunshine Cathedral in Fort Lauderdale. Sunshine Cathedral’s website is www.sunshinecathedral.org

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In a quarter century of ministry, there are a few questions that I’ve been asked hundreds of times. For gay Christians struggling to embrace their sexual identity, the questions are often about what Jesus would say about their sexual orientation. I’ll share three of these common questions and my responses now.

Is it a sin to be gay?

“Sin” means to miss the mark (an archery & hunting metaphor). To “be” anything is a matter of ontology (of “is-ness”). So to discover that one is something and to be honest about it can never be missing the mark. Self-discovery and expressing one’s truth with integrity is hitting the bull’s eye! Human sexuality is one of many aspects that are integrated into the wholeness of one’s being. Not only do I not believe it is a sin to be gay, I believe being gay is a blessing.

Did Jesus condemn homosexuality?

Jesus condemned precious little. One of the few things that he did condemn was the tendency of religious people to participate in condemnation! Jesus seemed to have a great deal of patience with almost everything other than self-righteous people who tried to enforce religious rules in a way to oppress or control others. There were even a few times when Jesus seemed sympathetic to same-gender love.

When did Jesus seem to be okay with gay people?

In the 8^th chapter of Matthew’s gospel (and the story is repeated in the 7^th chapter of Luke’s gospel), Jesus heals a centurion’s servant. The original hearers of that story would have assumed that the servant was the centurion’s lover. From what we know of 1^st century Roman culture, we know that such relationships were not uncommon. And for a person of such high rank to be so concerned about a servant that he would approach a faith healer of lower status in a desperate attempt to help his servant suggests an intimacy far greater than one would expect between a military officer and his “servant.” The Greek text of one of the two times the story is told in the bible even uses a word that often was used to suggest a lover. How did Jesus respond to the centurion? He praised his faith! The same-gender relationship was not condemned or even questioned.

Additionally, Jesus was friendly with a non-traditional family. Mary, Martha and Lazarus lived together and were among Jesus’ dearest friends. They claimed to be siblings, but it would have been highly unusual for three adult siblings to live together and none of them have spouses or children. If they were all single, that was an alternative arrangement that Jesus didn’t condemn. It is also possible that Mary and Martha (as closeted couples have done in every age) were a couple and simply claimed to be related to avoid suspicion. The single Lazarus living with two women brings to mind the time in college that I lived with two lesbians who were a couple (three queer people sharing a life together). I wouldn’t be surprised if Mary, Martha, and Lazarus had a similar arrangement. In any case, they weren’t a typical 1^st century patriarchal family with children; they were a non-traditional family in some sense, and they were part of Jesus’ family of choice.

I can think of other examples, but the point is that Jesus wasn’t in the condemnation business and in fact, he showed great compassion and understanding for a variety of differences.

Rev. Durrell Watkins, M.A., M.Div., D.Min.

is the Senior Minister of Sunshine Cathedral

in Fort Lauderdale.

photo: vice.com

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There are those who vehemently oppose LGBTQQI people being treated fairly in society. They promise to elect candidates who will repeal laws and rulings that afford equal protection to the Queer community, and until such legal protections are reversed, they will try to pass new laws that exempt them from honoring the current ones that protect same-gender loving and gender non-conforming citizens. These opponents of equality say that their disdain for Queer people is religious in nature and religion should guarantee them the freedom to deny freedom to those they dislike. It’s a circular argument meant to protect their privilege, but they stand by it.

Here’s the thing: When people hide behind religion to justify and enforce their prejudices, they discredit religion (not the people against whom they are using religion as a weapon). They make religion seem petty, vile, mean-spirited, intolerant, and dehumanizing. They make religion less appealing to those who might benefit from cathartic rituals, sacred stories, and a framework to share life-journeys. Religion can be wonderful, but not if it is reduced to a psychological bulldozer knocking down human dignity.

I am a person of faith, not to secure privilege in a future life, and not to condemn and demonize people I don’t like in this life. I am a person of faith because prayer is the language of expressing my heart’s deepest longings. I am a person of faith because ancient scriptures show people struggling to overcome obstacles and to make meaning of life even and especially when life seems unfair. I am a person of faith because loving, spiritual communities bring hope and healing to people in crisis, and they provide holy space to express hope and celebrate the joys of life. I am a person of faith because it is the poetry of religion that persuaded me that I am never alone in this universe, that I am somehow connected to all that is, all that has ever been, and all that ever will be. There are many reasons to be a person of faith, and none of them include verbal gay-bashing.

We are once again in a season when Queer people will be targeted, blamed, vilified, objectified, shamed, accused, and utterly disrespected. Homophobia will be not only justified in the name of religion, it will be featured as virtue and hailed as a moral value; but hatred disguised as holiness and fear presented as faith are both reprehensible acts that blaspheme the very nature of religion.

Religion at its best affirms human dignity, bears witness to the unity of all humanity, celebrates the sacred value of all people, rejoices in human potential, and blesses genuine love unconditionally. Religion, or perhaps I should say spiritual community, says as a first century Galilean prophet reportedly once said, “Come to me all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will refresh you.”

Religious language will be used a lot in the days to come to promote hatred. Please don’t fall for it. It is your choice whether or not to identify as a person of faith, but don’t accept or internalize the rhetoric of others who claim to be persons of faith who misuse the language of faith to damn or deprecate you. They may claim religious authority but they do not speak for religion in its healthiest expression. Using religion to cause pain is not the same as being faithful.

Rev. Dr. Durrell Watkins is the senior minister of Sunshine Cathedral in Fort Lauderdale

photo: abc.net

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In the Christian bible there are four gospels: Mark, Matthew, John, and Luke (their chronological order; their order in the canon is Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John).

In Mark’s gospel, we see Jesus telling a rich young man to share his wealth with the poor. In fact, generosity is what will allow him to enjoy a full relationship with God forever, or so Jesus tells him.

By being one who lifts up others, we each can be part of a divine healing process.

Matthew’s gospel shows Jesus being visited by a Canaanite woman whose daughter had problems. The bible Jesus would have known said that Canaanites should be destroyed. And a Canaanite woman comes to Jesus hoping he can help her tormented child. Jesus has inherited a prejudice against Canaanites, and can accurately quote a scripture to justify the prejudice. But the Canaanite woman doesn’t accept his rejection of her. He calls her a dog, an ethnic slur. But she challenges him to show her the same kindness he would show a dog. ?And Jesus then sees her as a human being who deserves compassion. He praises the woman’s faith and affirms hope for her daughter.

When religion or society says you are worthless, when you are in pain and no one cares because they’ve decided you deserve it–a kind word, a moment of human compassion, can make a difference. Something as simple as a moment of human kindness can lift us up.

In John’s gospel, we see Jesus encountering a Samaritan woman at a well. She’d been disrespected by every man she ever tried to love. Her religion, her ethnicity, and her circumstances made her a pariah in the eyes of many people, but not to Jesus. He affirms her as a daughter of God, sees her sacred value, sees that she hasn’t gotten the best breaks but even so, she deserves better than she’s had so far. She was down and out, but Jesus lifted her up by affirming her dignity.

Even when we’ve had difficulties in life, we deserve kindness, and a little actually goes a long way.

And Luke’s gospel shows the prodigal son hitting bottom, but being loved into wholeness, embraced unconditionally by family love. The story is an allegory for the unconditional and all-inclusive power of divine Love.

Yes, the gospels are filled with stories meant to lift up those who have been marginalized, vilified, forgotten, abused, or knocked down.

Of course, there are sacred stories and poems and narratives beyond the collection that is revered in my religious tradition, but my point is simply this: if religion has been used to knock or keep you down, you don’t have to accept that misuse of faith traditions. At their best, spiritual traditions are meant to lift us up. As a spiritual leader I passionately declare that you are, whoever you are, a person of sacred value and you deserve a life filled with hope, peace, and joy. This is the gospel truth!

Rev. Durrell Watkins, M.A., M.Div., D.Min.is the Senior Minister of Sunshine Cathedral in Fort Lauderdale, “a different kind of church.”

The post The Gospel Truth appeared first on Florida Agenda - LGBT News.

Forty-nine innocent people were shot to death in a gay bar in Orlando recently. Fifty-three others were wounded. The LBGT community all over the world, and their friends, families, and allies were emotionally scarred.

Most people responded with horror, outrage, and compassion; but a few responded with hatred and almost satisfaction that same-gender loving people had been killed. They quoted bible verses to justify their hatred. That is a terrible misuse of the bible, and a terrible betrayal of human decency.

Even those of us who love sacred texts can (and ought to) think critically about them rather than use them as an excuse to promote hatred and bigotry. For example, I am reminded of a story from the Christian scriptures (Book of Philemon):

In the mid-first century of the Common Era there was a man named Onesimus. Onesimus lived in the Roman Empire which embraced the evil system of holding slaves. People could sell themselves (or their children) into slavery to pay debts. People conquered in battle could be enslaved. One could be born into slavery. In some cases, a slave could purchase freedom, but the institution of slavery was a fact of life in ancient Rome.

Onesimus was an escaped slave. He befriended the Apostle Paul, but Paul sent him back to his former captor, Philemon. Paul writes a letter to Philemon saying, “Welcome Onesimus as you would welcome me.”  He asks Philemon to receive Onesimus “as a brother” and to treat him well. He never condemns the institution of slavery, nor does he specifically ask Philemon to grant Onesimus legal freedom.

The letter shows Paul trying to advocate for Onesimus, but not doing quite enough. Paul tries to intervene on Onesimus’ behalf, but sends him back to someone who could ignore Paul’s pleas. Paul doesn’t challenge the unjust system, nor does he help Onesimus escape the system. Disturbing.

We may never know why Paul made his decision to send Onesimus back. Maybe he thought he was saving the runaway slave’s life by trying to remove the possibility of Onesimus being prosecuted for escaping. Maybe Paul didn’t question slavery (as it was ubiquitous in his world) and thought the best he could do was make things a bit easier for one enslaved person (if indeed Philemon honored Paul’s request to not punish Onesimus). It’s a hard passage for our 21^st century minds which know without question that slavery is evil. Oppression simply cannot be justified.

What this difficult and disturbing story shows us, however, is that something being enshrined in scripture doesn’t settle a matter. By pretending that a phrase or story being in scripture makes it beyond question or analysis, people have used such passages to justify unspeakable acts of human cruelty in our history. The bible has been used to subjugate women, to marginalize same-gender loving people, to abuse children, to justify xenophobia, and yes, to enslave people. That can’t be a proper use of sacred texts.

Shame on anyone who responded to the human tragedy in Orlando by quoting ancient texts to suggest the slain were anything other than persons of sacred value!

Let us not be afraid to bring our own reasoning, our own questions, our own lived experience, our own humanness to the reading of scripture. A thing is not settled, simply because it is recorded in an ancient text. Some of us truly love scripture, but let us never use it as a weapon of oppression nor as an excuse to worship our own prejudices.

Rev. Dr. Durrell Watkins is the Senior Minister of the Sunshine Cathedral in Fort Lauderdale.

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In my lifetime, I have seen the first woman Supreme Court justice appointed (Sandra Day O’Connor), the first woman Secretary of State appointed (Madeline Albright), the first woman Attorney General appointed (Janet Reno), the first woman vice-presidential candidate of a major party (Geraldine Ferraro), the first African American president (Barak Obama), the first Jewish person to come in a fairly close second for a major party’s presidential nomination (Bernie Sanders), the first First Lady to be elected to congress (Hillary Clinton) and the first woman presidential nominee of a major party (Hillary Clinton).

In this same lifetime (months short of half a century so far), I have lived to see marriage equality, the first woman bishop in the worldwide Anglican Communion (Barbara Harris), gays accepted into most major seminaries in the US, multiple Christian and Jewish denominations ordaining same-gender loving people and blessing same-gender loving marriages.

What an amazing time to be alive! Of course, there is still a lot work to do. Homophobia, transphobia, anti-Semitism, Islamaphobia, misogyny, xenophobia, and racism are still with us and those social ills continue to plague our nation and threaten to slow our progress. There remains in our society a great deal of misinformation about bisexuality. There has been growing animosity toward transgender and gender non-conforming people. Immigrants are still scape-goated and Muslims are openly demonized. AIDS still has no cure. There is ageism and body shaming within the gay community. There is work to do to make our community, our society, our nation, our world healthier, better, kinder, and more inclusive. And yet, as we say at Sunshine Cathedral, “the future has infinite possibilities.”

We cannot ever think that everything is good enough; but, we can acknowledge and celebrate the things that are better…things that my grandparents, and for much of their lives, my parents would have never dreamed possible.

June of this year is the 35^th anniversary of the first documented cases of AIDS, and now, there are treatments that are keeping people with HIV alive. June is the month when LBGT Pride celebrations seem ubiquitous. In my adult life, I lived in states where demonstrating my love and attraction for men was actually criminal. Now, same-gender loving people have marriage equality. It is appropriate to spend June thinking of firsts and breakthroughs and progress. It is also appropriate, and necessary to acknowledge where things are not yet good enough and to recommit to working for “liberty and justice for all.” And most of all, it is appropriate and necessary to have hope that things will continue getting better and better. Look at what we’ve done in just a few decades! And we aren’t nearly done yet.

Durrell Watkins holds a Master of Divinity degree from Union Theological Seminary in NYC and a Doctor of Ministry degree from the Episcopal Divinity School. He is the senior minister of the Sunshine Cathedral in Fort Lauderdale.

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When religious conservatives go on the attack, the Queer community often responds defensively, and why not? When being pelted with vilifying insults, one naturally enough tries to quench the fiery darts coming one’s way.

Another response is to avoid the religious attackers as much as possible. We often simply ignore those who cloak their fears, hatreds, and prejudices in the language of piety, values, and religious dictates.

I can’t really find fault with either approach. When our dignity is assaulted, we have every right to challenge the unkind and unwarranted assumptions being made about us; and, if we are certain that various communities will be unkind toward us, of course we may not want to engage them. Why walk intentionally into a raging storm? But I do sometimes wonder if there isn’t another approach worth considering as well.

In addition to correcting hate speech when it is hurled at us and/or ignoring some of the hateful rhetoric that some religious types use against LBGT people, we can also simply tell our stories. When we share our perspective, it doesn’t necessarily need to be in response to negative comments made to or about us, or least, it need not be only in response to such comments. We can, to borrow from religious parlance, “bear witness” to our own sacred encounters, our own experiences of the Holy, our own deeply treasured values, our own true love, our own hopes, gifts, and dreams for the world.

Let’s be very clear: a lot of the homophobia and transphobia that people are so disturbingly comfortable voicing these days are responses to marriage equality and other civil rights gains made by the LBGT community. What might change some hearts and minds, however, is for more people to see us as we are, to get a glimpse into our hearts, to hear our lived experiences and personal stories, to discover that we are fully human, our love is life-sustaining, and our lives have sacred value.

Those who fear difference, who marginalize those they don’t understand, who can only seem to find personal validation by contrasting themselves to an “Other” have learned in many cases to feel comfortable with that pathology by claiming their fears and hatreds amount to righteous compliance with divine demands. They aren’t hateful, they insist; they are merely following divine dictates of a loving deity who somehow can’t love people who don’t fit into constructed heteronormative binary power dynamics. They can feel good about their hate as long as they can blame their hate on religion and even dare to call it love.

Such dysfunctional views of love and faith will not be defeated by arguments or apathy, but by our living out loud for the world to see that we are not a subject for debate, we are human-beings. We are not an issue; we are people. We are not a sin; we are part of the beautiful complexity and diversity of life.

The opinions, views, and angry rants of the religious far right have been heard. Now, let’s let our voices, our lives, our truth be heard – not as an argument or an apology or a defense, but as simply the affirmation of our truth by the people who know it best: ourselves.

Rev. Dr. Durrell Watkins is the senior minister of the Sunshine Cathedral, “a different kind of church.”

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In Western Christianity, we are approaching the celebration of Pentecost (May 15^th this year). Pentecost in Christianity is the 50th day after Easter Sunday, though it was borrowed and “Christianized” from an older Jewish tradition.

In the Christian observance of Pentecost, the church is imagined to have been energized by the power of God’s spirit. On the day of Pentecost, the tradition tells us, a powerful energy filled a room where a diverse group of people gathered. In their diversity, they experienced unity and they were empowered to be a force for good in the world.

I suppose that ancient narrative is on my mind just now, not only because Pentecost is at hand, but also because a force for good in the world is still needed. I don’t mean to suggest that only one religion can be a force for good, nor do I mean to imply that secular efforts to make a positive difference can’t succeed. The poetry of religion lifts up sacred moments and liminal experiences, but the truth is, whatever our religious inclinations (if indeed we have any), we still need to find unity in our diversity.

There is still a need to celebrate our various points of uniqueness while coming together to work for “liberty and justice for all.” After all, the Seal of the United States does say, “E Pluribus Unum” (“Out of many, One”); that seems like a worthy goal as much now as ever.

In a world where fear of difference continues to plague us, where fear of the “Other” still divides us, where entire groups of people are continuously dehumanized in order to protect the privilege of some and to marginalize others, a healing wind blowing through human consciousness, through societies and cultures, through communities and neighborhoods could still be put to good use.

In a world where bakers and therapists can deny service to same-gender loving people in the name of religion, where humiliating bathroom bills are callously passed, and where the flames of hysteria are fanned to persuade the masses that some nefarious “Other” is out to get us, a unifying spirit to inspire us all to be a force for justice and goodwill in the world could be very useful indeed.

My wish and prayer as Pentecost approaches is that a divine Breath (or even a profoundly human impulse) will infuse us all, so that regardless of our fondness for religious vocabularies, we may simply strive to be our best, to do our best, and to work together to create the best possible future for us all, and for those who will follow us.

Durrell Watkins is the Senior Minister of Sunshine Cathedral in Fort Lauderdale.

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