“Assessing those wild-eyed prophets”Bryan Helmus This reading is an excerpt from an article in the October 15, 2004 edition of the Des Moines Register, with the headline: “Study: Some able to detect when people are fibbing.” Randolph Schmid, with the Associated Press, wrote the article with a Washington D.C. by-line.
“The clues aren’t as obvious as Pinocchio’s nose, but there’s a small group of individuals who can detect the subtle signs that people reveal when they lie.
The vast majority of people don’t notice those flickers of falsehood, but psychology professor Maureen O’Sullivan has found a few that can find the fibbers nearly every time.
Of 13,000 people tested for the ability to detect deception, “we found 31, who we call wizards, who are usually able to tell whether the person is lying,” she said.
So who is good at detecting these various clues and sorting out the liars?
Men and women are about equal among the 31 wizards, she said, and they are scattered across the country.
Some 20 percent to 30 percent reported some sort of childhood trauma, such as alcoholism in the family, perhaps leading them to screen for emotional clues.
A similar number didn’t notice their ability until midlife and then began working on it, she said.
All of the wizards are intelligent, but their education ranges from high school diplomas to doctorates. The elite group contains a number of attorneys – people sensitive to how people use words – and hunters, who have to be aware of clues in their environment.
The thing they have in common is “they are motivated and want to get it right,” she said, they practice it, like athletes.
This reading is an excerpt from the book of Habakkuk, a Hebrew prophet, who lived about 600 years before the birth of Jesus at a time when the Babylonians dominated his people. I will read the first four verses of Habakkuk chapter two.(Habakkuk 2: 1-4)
I will stand at my watchpost, and station myself on the rampart; I will keep watch to see what he will say to me, and what he will answer concerning my complaint.
Then the Lord answered me and said: write the vision; make it plain on tablets, so that a runner may read it.
For there is still a vision for the appointed time; it speaks of the end, and does not lie. If it seems to tarry, wait for it; it will surely come, it will not delay.
Look at the proud! Their spirit is not right in them, but the righteous live by their faith.
This reading is taken from a children’s poem, “Adventures of Isabel,” written by Ogden Nash.
Isabel met an enormous bear, Isabel, Isabel, didn’t care. The bear was hungry; the bear was ravenous, The bear’s mouth was cruel and cavernous. The bear said, Isabel, glad to meet you, How do, Isabel, now I’ll eat you! Isabel, Isabel, didn’t worry; Isabel didn’t scream or scurry. She washed her hands and she straightened her hair up, Then Isabel quietly ate the bear up.
One typical understanding of a prophet is “a person who is able to predict the future.”
On this first Sunday of our new year, I would like you all to know, up front, that I claim no ability to predict the future. And I will make no predictions about 2005. If that disappoints any of you, I’m sorry. About the best I can do regarding the New Year is to wish each of you a happy and blessed 2005.
Though I’ll offer no predictions today, what I will offer is an understanding of prophets based on my reading of the Hebrew Scriptures – an understanding that is markedly different than a person who “predicts the future.” I will talk about why it is important to pay attention to our prophets and suggest a way to evaluate prophets and prophetic communities. Then, I will apply this evaluation model to three prophetic communities – the Hebrew community, Maharishi University, and our own church.
So, how do I understand prophets? If prophets do not predict the future, what do they do? Why should we pay attention when they speak?
To answer these questions, think about the wizards from the newspaper article we heard earlier. Think about those 31 people - identified out of 13,000 - who have special abilities to tell if someone is speaking the truth. Prophets are like these wizards. They have a strong ability to know if a society or a community of faith is living in tune with their highest values - or not.
Prophets know when something is just not quite right. They serve the same role, as the canaries that minors used to keep with them in their underground mines to know if there was enough oxygen to breath. If the canaries died, minors knew they needed to get out of the caves quickly. Likewise, when prophets speak, I believe, a wise community pays attention.
But it is often difficult to pay attention to our prophets. Lennon’s and McCartney’s song, the “Fool on the hill” suggests, correctly, I believe, that prophets and prophetic communities operate on the edges of societies among people who will not benefit from the status quo. They often have a “wild-eyed” look and, like Thoreau, not only “march to a different drummer,” but usually “mamba” or “bop” or “grunge” to music we don’t even recognize. Prophets unsettle us. Like the Bartok, from Micro-Cosmos, that Bruce played for us earlier, prophets unsettle us.
None of the discomfort we feel, of course, stops prophets and prophetic communities from preaching their messages in terms that call for a radical change of behavior. The typical formation in the Hebrew Scriptures of the prophetic message starts with the phrase, “Thus says the Lord . . .” or “The Spirit of the Lord fell upon fell upon me and I prophesied.”
Tell me, how do you argue with this type of proclamation?
A bit closer to home than the world of the Hebrew prophets, I recently spoke with someone who sought health care advice from a Vedic Health Care Practitioner. This person’s experience provides a good example of the bold proscriptions of a health care prophet.
“Summarizing the advice is easy,” this person told me. “With just a few words on a single sheet of paper, my practitioner basically said, ‘Change your entire life.’”
In seeking to follow the advice, this person spends hours each week shopping for special foods and other products, then spends many more hours preparing the foods and following the therapies.
Yes, prophets not only boldly proclaim their unsettling messages; they also demand a great life changing commitment in response.
More profoundly, prophets experience the inconvenience; sorrow and suffering of the people in their communities right along side them. Prophets love the people deeply. In the Christian faith, this is why Jesus is a prophet.
The prophet identifies with the people. With Habakkuk, the prophet says,
“I will stand at my watch post, and station myself on the rampart; I will keep watch to see what he will say to me, and what he will answer concerning my complaint.”
More than most, prophets believe communities can always take corrective action when the community or society is missing the mark. Within the Hebrew faith context, prophets believe that if God hears a complaint, God answers.
In our reading today, the prophet Habakkuk receives his answer.
“Then the Lord answered me and said: Write the vision; make it plain on tablets, so that a runner may read it. For there is still a vision for the appointed time, it speaks of the end, and does not lie. If it seems to tarry, wait for it; it will surely come, it will not delay.”
What does it mean, though, for a prophet to “write the vision,” to “make it plain,” and to “wait for it?”
There is a story of a meeting that included Yale University chaplain, Bill Coffin; a group of ministers with Coffin; and Hubert Humphrey, that demonstrates clearly how the prophet does this.
During the meeting, Coffin forcefully raised questions about America’s involvement in the Vietnam War. In response, Humphrey vigorously defended the administration. No matter what Humphrey said, Coffin persisted. Out of frustration, Humphrey finally asked Coffin and the other preachers at the meeting what they would do.
“What policies, what programs, what would you propose to stop this war?” Humphrey asked.
The other ministers present remained silent, but Coffin boldly said, “My job is to declare, ‘let justice flow down like water and righteousness like an ever flowing stream.’ Your job, sir, is to design the irrigation system.”
I believe Coffin spoke smack-dab in the middle of a long tradition of prophets who dared to challenge their communities when they were wrong. The prophet Habakkuk says, “Look at the proud! Their spirit is not right in them, but the righteous live by their faith.”
Living by faith is good advice, advice that Coffin followed, but “faith in what?” is the question that still needs an answer. For the Hebrew community, the answer is always, a tenacious faith in the Lord, the one who will fight for the people, provide for them, and bring justice to the nations.
In Habakkuk, this prophetic message of living by faith is stated powerfully and beautifully in the words we read together earlier.
“Though the fig tree does not blossom, and no fruit is on the vines; though the produce of the olive fails and the fields yield no food; though the flock is cut off from the fold and there is no herd in the stalls, yet I will rejoice in the Lord; I will exult in the God of my salvation.”
There’s no doubting it. Prophets speak their messages boldly and with passion and compassion. They call for conviction and a radical change of behavior. Like the wizards, prophets may be more aware than most when things are out of sync. Like the canaries in the mines, prophets often signal that something needs our immediate attention.
But, just a certainly as prophets can be right, prophets can also be dead wrong. Think of Jim Jones or of Adolph Hitler.
What’s clear, I believe, is that we need a way to evaluate our prophets and our prophetic communities – even our own church – for, almost inherently, due to the experiences of marginalization from society or a church community, any prophet or prophetic community can lead us down roads of disaster.
So how do we evaluate our prophets and prophetic communities?
The hymn we sang at the beginning of this service “Life of Ages” speaks of keeping a balance between “the prophet’s word” and “the people’s liberty.” I love the message of this hymn, for the message of this hymn demands we keep the preaching of our prophets in perspective. It requires us to keep asking questions – even when – no, especially when - we are attracted to any prophetic person or organization.
In the spirit of the hymn, I suggest we always ask three questions about any prophet or prophetic community. And I believe that developing answers to these questions will help us decide how much we will allow the message of any prophet or prophetic community to shape our lives.
(1) The first question is the “authority” question: Who or what is the source of authority the prophet or the prophetic community claims? (2) The second question is the “faith” question: “What is this prophet or prophetic community putting their faith in? What are they asking me to place my faith in?” (3) The third question is the “existential” question. You know – the questions about life and what life means. With the story of Isabel in mind, I call this question the “bear” question. Usually, it sounds something like this: “How does this prophetic community ask me to deal with the most troubling and difficult questions of my life, so that I can live and act courageously – even when, with all due respect to Isabel (who, indeed, ate the bear) - even when, the bear eats me?”
Well then, it’s time to put these three questions to work – the “authority” question, the “faith” question, and the “bear” question - to evaluate the Hebrew prophetic community. Here is how I think the prophet Habakkuk, as a member of the Hebrew faith and prophetic community, might answer the three questions I have raised.
To make this clear, I am speaking now as if I were the prophet Habakkuk.
“The source of authority in the Hebrew faith and prophetic community is the Lord. Our community places faith in the one God who provides for all of our needs, fights for us, protects us, and works among the nations to bring justice to all peoples even when it does not seem this way. Knowing that God “hears” our complaints and will take action is what relieves our anxieties and answers the most difficult questions of our lives. Because of this, we live life courageously even when “the fig tree does not blossom . . .” and can “rejoice in the Lord” and “exult in the God of our salvation.”
Now let’s use this same set of questions to evaluate another prophetic community -Maharishi University, in Fairfield, Iowa.
Several weeks ago, a friend and I visited Maharishi University, as part of an intensive, four-day, prospective student weekend. As a result of our visit, I consider this community to be both a utopian and prophetic community – one that we can learn from and, one, like any prophetic community, we must evaluate wisely.
As I tell you about this visit, I invite you to make your own assessment of this community using the “authority” question, the “faith in what?” question, and the “bear” question as your guide. Let’s start with the “authority” question.
Any of you who know me, know that I like to ask questions. Over many years, I have learned that asking pointed questions is one of the best possible ways to identify the source of authority in any community.
We can see the truth of this observation by watching children. For example, “What does a kid say to a brother when he is doing something wrong?” You parents know the answer, right? “I’m going to tell Mom.”
“What does this same kid say when he wants his sister to do something she won’t do?” Again, you know the answer, “Dad says . . .”
Well, every time I asked a challenging question at Maharishi Universty, no matter whom I asked, the person always deferred to the authority of the founder of the school, Maharishi Mahesh Yogi.
When I raised concern about the possibility of “group think” and “uniformity” at Maharishi University, Damian Lodge, Admissions Counselor, answered my question by e-mail.
I quote:
“Here’s the thing,” Damian said, “it’s nearly impossible to gain enlightenment without the guidance of an already enlightened master. So the uniformity in our community is simply everyone wanting to gain this highest level of human life and following Maharishi’s guidance toward it. The guidance of any enlightened master will be complete in it’s nature, so if you can find such a master, then there is no need to put your attention on other methods.”
Is there anybody in the room who does not have the answer to the first question about the source of authority for the Maharishi University community?
Let’s move to the next two questions – the “faith in what?” and the “bear” question.
Current president of Maharishi University of Management, Dr. Bevan Morris, points us in the right direction in understanding the “faith in what?” question at Maharishi. In a marketing brochure, he says:
“There is no other University in America like ours, where students experience their own Self – the silent, peaceful, blissful level of consciousness. This is the only experience that awakens total brain functioning. The result: Our students grow in the ability to achieve anything – not through hard work but through the softest thought – thinking from the most refined level of consciousness where thought begins, where it is the most creative, and engages the support of Nature’s intelligence to achieve the goal.” Jennie Rothenberg, Maharishi University of Management graduate, describes the education experience at her alma mater like this:
“You begin to see the same underlying patterns in everything, whether it’s the formulas of great scientists or the paintings of famous artists. Just by practicing the Transcendental Meditation program, it’s like you water the root of the tree of knowledge and every branch of it starts to blossom.”
What became clear the longer I stayed at Maharishi University is that the entire lifestyle at the school seems designed to help students experience the “silent, peaceful, blissful level of consciousness” President Morris spoke about.
Examples abound. The community grows much of it’s own food using organic and sustainable agricultural practices.
Students go to bed by 9:30 p.m. and wake up about 6:30 a.m. – to get enough rest. They take one class at a time and attend class six days a week for five hours each day. After 30 days, they start another class.
Faculty, students, and community members practice Transcendental Meditation twice a day - once before breakfast and, once again, before the evening meal in two huge golden domes.
New homes and classrooms are built following the principles of Vedic architecture. Homeowners paint their homes in pastel colors.
While there is not a Vedic uniform that students and faculty must wear, there is a dress code on the campus that encourages faculty and students to wear beige colored clothing, with the pastel versions of brighter colors sometimes used as an accent, say on a man’s tie.
To sum this up, one presenter spoke of the influence of the environment on the mind in this way.
“Violence begets violence; calm begets calm.”
My observation is that every aspect of living at Maharishi University seems designed to produce an environment of calmness that is in tune with Natural Law.
With this overview, I believe we are ready to make our assessment of the Maharishi University prophetic community. Here is how I think, someone from Maharishi University might answer the “authority,” “faith in what?” and “bear” questions I raise. See what you think.
To clarify, I am now speaking as if I were someone who is a member of the Maharishi University community.
“The source of authority in the Maharishi University prophetic community is the person and teaching of our founder, Maharishi Mahesh Yogi. We put our faith in the experience of the pure consciousness of mind through group Transcendental Meditation and in the ability of our minds to heal our bodies. We trust scientists and the scientific process to understand how our minds work and to verify what our community teaches. Our ability to act in the world comes from living harmoniously with principles of Natural Law in every aspect of life and by arranging the aspects of our environment to contribute to a focused calmness.
By now, I hope you are all wondering how you would answer the “authority,” “faith in what?” and “bear” questions for our own prophetic and faith community, First Unitarian Universalist Church, Des Moines, Iowa.
If time allowed, I would like nothing more than to end this talk right now and break into small groups so we could share our answers to these questions. If I know Unitarians at all, I would bet that before we could even address the questions, many of you would question the assumptions and methods I offer.
To that I shout a loud “Amen.” I wouldn’t have it any other way – nor would any of you let me have it any other way. But, as your speaker today, I have the responsibility to offer my response to these questions regarding our own church community.
Let’s start with a basic question: Is our community, First Unitarian Universalist Church, a prophetic community? My answer is a resounding and decisive “yes.”
I say, “yes” first and foremost from an experiential, what I “felt in my gut” level, during the time I first toyed with the idea of attending this church.
For goodness sakes, I needed five years worth of thinking and three invitations before I finally screwed up the courage just to visit. Though I have changed church homes several times in my life, somehow I knew moving to the Unitarian Universalist Church would be a bigger change than any change I had made before.
When I say “yes” our church is a prophetic community, I assume, like I do with any prophetic community, that there is a frightening and, even potentially disastrous aspect that is part of our community. I also believe that, if this element of danger were not present, our community would be a status quo community, not a prophetic community.
Truth be told, if I had known everything I now know about the prophetic nature of the Unitarian Universalist Church when I first visited two years ago, I doubt I would have attended at all.
Here’s an example: When I first attended this church, I would never have imagined that someday I would serve on a Religious Services Committee that nonchalantly discussed arranging a service led by a witch. Honestly, I must confess that I still am only able to appreciate the spiritual practice of the witches in our community from the safety of a bit of a distance. But I do celebrate the participation of witches in the life of our community and I don’t think they are quite so frightening anymore.
Here’s another example: In a report on last years General Assembly, I learned about a group that supports poly amorous relationships. To my surprise, I learned this group had a booth and a voice at General Assembly. In case you are wondering, a poly amorous relationship means that three or more people live together in a fully committed and loving relationship and – at least in Unitarian Universalist congregations - would likely attend church together.
Two years ago, if I had known of this group, I would have scurried away from the Unitarian Universalist church as fast as any church mouse could manage.
And now? Now, when I learn about such a group, I think about a bumper sticker that I have recently seen on someone’s car in our church parking lot.
The bumper sticker says,
“The most radical act any of us can do is to introduce one person to another person.”
Now, I believe this bumper sticker describes the prophet genius of the Unitarian Universalist Church beautifully. I believe that one of the most important prophetic roles our church offers is to support the process of bringing marginalized, even initially frightening individuals and groups in our society, out from the edges, and into the center of our community life.
In his book, “Wild At Heart,” John Eldridge uses the metaphors of the stallion and the gelding to argue that “wildness” and “danger” are essential to living fully as human beings. I would argue these elements are also part of any prophetic community.
Eldridge says, “A stallion is hard to tame. If you want a safer, quieter animal, there’s an easy solution: castrate him. A gelding is much more compliant. You can lead him around by the nose; he’ll do what he’s told without putting up a fuss. There’s only one problem: Geldings don’t give life. They can’t come through for you the way a stallion can. A stallion is dangerous all right, but if you want the life he offers, you have to have the danger too. They go together.”
To me, this is a radical and prophetic understanding of faith and of community. It’s wild and it’s dangerous. With this in mind, I offer my assessment of the Des Moines Unitarian Universalist Church regarding the “authority,” “faith in what?” and “bear” questions for your consideration.
To clarify, I am now speaking as a member of this church and as a person who has come to love being a part of this prophetic community of faith.
“The source of authority for First Unitarian Universalist Church is each and every individual, willingly engaged in a “free and responsible search for truth and meaning.” While each of us is welcome to place our faith in the messages of Christianity, Buddhism, earth-based spirituality, Religious Humanism, Wicca, Science, Atheism, Agnosticism, or a blend of these and/or other sources; more deeply, we all place our faith in the creative processes that happen as we share and build the life of our community. Our ability to act in the world comes from our sense that we experience and value the questions of our lives together, as a radically inclusive congregation, and from our openness to profoundly enjoying the awe and mystery of life present every moment we live.”
The question that still remains after we evaluate a prophetic community is the question of our level of involvement with that particular community.
There are several possibilities. We can oppose the community. We can keep a far distance from or ignore the community. We can keep one foot in the community and one foot out. We can actively involve ourselves in the community and help it to thrive and to grow.
Any of these possibilities can be the right answer for our relationship to any given prophetic community. Sometimes different answers are right for different times and stages in our lives.
Speaking now as one who loves this church, I invite each of us to consider our answer to the involvement question as we begin our congregational life together in 2005. Though I am no prophet, I believe profoundly, that our answers will make a difference – a big difference.
Amen
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