September 1, 2010

Dear Members and Friends,

We have been celebrating 50 years of our liberal witness in this difficult corner of Berrien County. We have survived loss and critical changes. We have lost our founders Marvin and Kate, as well as many other beloved members who contributed greatly to our growth and progress. What does this mean for the fellowship, now on the threshold of a new season? We look forward with hope and enthusiasm.

Our faith in reason is under attack as we struggle to witness to our seven principles in an alien climate. It would be a good study to look again at our roots in the Enlightenment. What does all this history mean? How do we share it with the larger community?

I have just seen a totally negative picture about our human future at the Steppenwolf Theater. It was an evening that invited pessimism and darkness. The discussion which followed was equally dark. I think the response of our faith would be that we must work harder on revealing the possibilities of a very bright future for the human family. No matter how troubled, it is still a beautiful world. In the mid-1930s, Walter Benjamin, historian, wrote the Arcades Project about a giant shopping center in Paris. He predicted that within a few years there would be no human activity except buying and selling. One of our members told me that we are already there!!

With the ubiquity of advertising on TV, radio, newspapers, internet, billboards, and sports arenas we cannot escape the allurements so powerfully put before us. You may recall that our former president, Calvin Coolidge, stated one of the saddest lies ever voiced about our country, “The business of America is business!” But democracy is about freedom and justice!! We have hopes of a world of justice and peace where all members of our human family can feast at the banquet of life. We live in hope!

            “Hope is the thing with feathers that perches in the soul--
            And sings the tunes without the words -- and never stops at all”
                                                Emily Dickinson

May the magical colors of September bless us all!

Love,