Mixing Politics and Religion
My grandfather
seemed wise with years
walking his rural spiritual path
in a relentlessly white
Christian dualistic church
dividing sinful nature
from sacred spirit.
He counseled:
Do not mix
religion and politics.
I wonder
how he would feel
about this mix
of sacred and profane
if he were to meet
my out lesbian activist
senior UU minister.
Clearly
we have mixed up
our religious community
within our local political culture
When we called
this gendered clergy person
we did not ask her
to leave her politics
at any sacred
ordained door.
On the contrary
we recognize
and celebrate
that she
and we
are politically empowered
and disempowered,
enlightened
and unenlightened identities
with naturally spiritual experiences,
family traditions
and theological
ecological
and un-ecological agendas.
I wonder
would my grandfather notice:
If calling an out
feminist lesbian
as our minister
mixes religion
and politics,
against his well-meant advice
So too:
Calling a straight
white male
as his first
and second
and third
and fourth
and fifth
and sixth...
pastor
was also mixing politics
and religion
and sexuality
Also against his own patriarchal
not feminist,
monotheistic
not polytheistic,
monoculturing
not polyculturally resilient
healthy loving advice
Especially for a family farmer
valuing crop
and income diversity
who started out
as an adolescent
relying on organic horsepower,
spirited stallions
and mares
capable of peak experiences
and making ponies
and fertilizing fields
with sacred regenerative practices
for exercising empowering agency
Giving birth
to future
naturally religious
politically enlightened
and unenlightened
gender role identified bodies
Yang strong
and Yintegral flowing
wu-wei admixtures of secular politics
and sacred enculturing religious
integrity
Monotheistic awe
and polytheistic wonder
and panentheistic integrity
and atheistic questioning experiences
cooperatively inclusive
Resiliently polycultural
political and sexual
dynamic communicators
within enlightened tribes
togathering
across cooperatively empowering species.
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