The Unitarian Universalist Congregation of Salem, Oregon

            Next Tuesday is an election day, and I hope you have already voted by mail - if not, get those ballots in.  But let’s look beyond this next election next week and think about the national elections for president and Congress coming up a year from now.    I’m certainly not going to tell you who to vote for (we don’t even know the nominees yet, anyway), or which party to support (which would endanger our tax exempt status and subvert our own principle of freedom of individual conscience). Rather, I would like to reflect on a basic principle that is foundational to our nation.  There are those who have forgotten, or misunderstood these principles, and this is an alarming development.  We are not only called to be an informed electorate, but also a wise and thoughtful electorate.  We can’t all be professional historians or political scientists, but we do need to have a basic grasp of certain ideals and principles because when we forget them – as America sometimes has during times of fear and anxiety – then we tend to go seriously astray and betray our noblest national ideals.   Furthermore, as a religious community, we need to exercise our role in protecting and preserving the conscience of our nation.

            First, a confession.  I am an unabashed patriot.  I love this country, and I do think it is special and unique – not because we are inherently superior to any other people, but because of how we got started.  Due to unique historical and geographical circumstances there was a self conscious, intentional way that we began as a nation.  We had an altogether unique opportunity to start from scratch, on our own terms, during a time of intellectual flowering when great political ideals were in the air, most especially the ideal of democracy, insuring that each citizen has a voice.   Sure, I know that we did not begin as a perfect democracy – to our eternal shame, slavery was sanctioned, women did not have the right to vote, and the poor were politically marginalized.  Then, too, the way we settled on this continent and the great suffering we caused the original inhabitants lends a tragic dimension to our story.  But the germ seed of democracy was decisively planted at the beginning of our national history, and it has grown.  It’s the core of our national identity.

            Democracy is based upon the high ideals of freedom, fairness, and equality under the law, but also upon a realistic awareness of our flawed human nature, which is to say, we’re not gods - none of us is perfect.  Give too much power and control to ANY one person, or small group of people and tyranny, injustice, oppression will inevitably ensue – maybe not right way because there can be benevolent despots for a time.  But eventually the corrupting influence of too much power will corrode right through the purest metals of high resolve.  With this realistic assessment of human nature in mind, our nation’s founders realized that the only politically palatable system is to spread the power out as broadly as possible.  In our case, in which the total democracy of some small city state is unwieldy, we have a representative democracy.   Our founders knew that when too much power is vested in any individual, or any branch of government, havoc ensues.  Thank goodness for the checks and balances among the three branches of government.  Can you imagine if, for example, there was no such check on presidential power? 

The central ideal of our nation, an ideal that transcends our government and our selfish national interest, is that the only way to handle power is to share it, democratically – it’s a wonderful thing.   As Abraham Lincoln, perhaps our greatest President put it:  “That sentiment in the Declaration of Independence which gave liberty not alone to the people of this country, but hope to the world, for all future time.”   We (Unitarian Universalists) know the sacred value of democracy.  Indeed, we are the most purely American of religious movements because democratic principles are woven into the fabric of our identity.  No one of us – minister, board chair, or anyone else here, has ultimate power and control – thank goodness.  Nor does anyone here tell you what you must believe or think.  The congregation itself is the ultimate arbiter in the most important matters.  You delegate power, with your votes, to the board, the nominating committee and minister, but ultimately, power is vested in the congregation (hence the term “congregational polity.”)    

            As a nation we have affirmed the principle that democracy is good, not only for us, but for all people everywhere – we believe that no one should have to live at the whim of some power they have not had some hand in sanctioning through the ballot.  Some nations may be dangers to the world because they are not constrained by such transcendent values – they could, potentially, pursue international domination without any qualms, but we are different.

            Or are we?   We have to ask that question today because of where we find ourselves as a nation. 

            Not so many years ago, during the so called “cold war” there was another powerful military entity in the world (albeit less powerful than our fears and our government usually led us to believe) that resulted in there being a counterweight to American military domination.  But when the Soviet Union collapsed, the Berlin Wall came down and most totalitarian communist systems imploded, we were the only really big guy left standing on the world scene.  

Most of us down in the trenches of daily American life probably didn’t give this too much thought.  But some in high places – certain political think tanks and government bureaucracies – started thinking about this new international reality and came to some very seductive and compelling conclusions. 

They thought:  (my paraphrase) “We ( America ) have more military might than anyone else in the world.  This is a good thing and presents us with a unique opportunity.  We should consolidate our gains, insure and enhance our continuing military dominance because we are a good nation, the best ever - we stand for freedom and justice.  It is good that we have all of this vast power and not some untrustworthy nations who don’t have democratic ideals.”   Thus, these political theoreticians proposed that in order for our nation to remain the pre-eminent military power, we should make it official policy to maintain what they called “full spectrum dominance” (in the air, on the land, above and under sea, in electro-magnetic spectrum and in orbital space around our planet).  And they proposed that pre-emptive, unilateral use of military force should trump any multilateral use of force (with other nations).   They called this political vision of U.S. global dominance “the Project for the New American Century.” 

At first this vision was regarded as the narrow dogma of conservative hard-liners.  Even the authors of this vision realized that this vision had little chance of becoming official government policy.  They said that making it official government policy would take a long time unless, and I quote “(there was) some catastrophic and catalyzing event – like a new Pearl Harbor .” 

How eerily prophetic was that remark - I can’t think of a better way to characterize the horrendous events of Sept. 11, 2001 – that sudden attack on our soil was certainly a day which will live in infamy for as long as we live.  The suddenness, the cruelty and barbarity of this attack shocked us all.  It was indeed like a new Pearl Harbor , it provided an opportunity for those with this vision of American military dominance to advance their cause, and they found a president who soon adopted this vision as his own. 

I remember of political cartoon in the days following 9/11 that perfectly reflected this policy.  It showed a slightly battered but essentially invulnerable, muscular image of Uncle Sam, our national icon.   He’s looking out at the world with vengeance in his eyes as he rolls up his sleeves – his unconquerable wrath will make things right again.   His very look says, “no one in the world can mess with me and get away with it.  No one.” 

After September 11, 2001, U.S. military dominance in the world became the stated foreign policy doctrine of our government – this represented the biggest shift in U.S. military thinking on half a century.  To put it in football terms, our government said that “the best defense is a good offense” and we have since gone on the offensive, purportedly in the service of national self defense.  Our government has military troops in 130 countries around the world and permanent bases in 40, and it is ever seeking even more basing rights in new places.   In the words of the eminent American sociologist Robert Bellah  our foreign policy could be stated thusly:  “ America will strike any nation or any group that it deems dangerous, whenever and however it feels necessary, and regardless of provocation or lack thereof. America invites allies to join in these ventures but reserves the right to act with or without allies. No nation will be allowed to surpass or even equal American military power, and indeed other nations are advised to limit or destroy any "weapons of mass destruction" (WMD) they may have, and that includes Russia , China , and India . Only the United States will have large reserves of WMD, apparently because only we can be trusted to use them justly.”  That’s sure to win us a lot of friends in other lands who will surely accept the view that our government can be trusted with absolute power.  (Irony intended)

The militarization of U.S. foreign policy has taken place under a great cloud of fear, which has been repeatedly stoked by those in high places.   And anyone who questioned our country’s military aggressiveness was been branded as “unpatriotic,” and far too many politicians, fearing that label, and went along with the current administration, heedless of the long term consequences.  Then, too, there has been a great deal of denial in high places.   Even as our government seeks full spectrum dominance our president has claimed that “We don’t seek an empire.  Our nation is committed to freedom for ourselves and for others.”   As one scholar has noted:  “The U.S. is an empire that dare not speak its name.  It is an empire in denial.” 

Our president unwittingly betrays the very principles he seeks to advance, for how can there be freedom around the world if one nation has overwhelming military power and can assert itself in unilateral, pre-emptive ways?  Surely, we have a painful, tragic example of where such thinking leads.  It led us into Iraq , surely one of the biggest, if not the biggest, foreign policy blunder in our nation’s history.  The heartbreaking waste of lives and the ruinous expense incurred are overwhelming to consider.  This arrogant, militaristic foreign policy has not served us well, and will not serve us in the future.  There is talk of an ongoing “war on terror” with no end in sight.  I say beware of all talk of never ending wars on anything – it’s propagandistic, Orwellian language calculated to instill fear.  

To be sure, terrorism fueled by extremist ideology is an international threat.  And there is an international organization to which we belong which calls for us to face such perils in partnership with other nations – the United Nations.  This past week, Oct. 24 was UN day, a day which celebrates the founding of this international body in San Francisco in 1945.   As a charter member our country pledged, as it states in the Preamble “to practice tolerance and live together in peace with one another as good neighbors, to unite our strength to maintain international peace and security, and to ensure, by the acceptance of principles and the institution of methods, that armed force shall not be used, save in the common interest, and to employ international machinery for the promotions of the economic and social advancement of all peoples ….”

Sad to say, when we unilaterally embarked upon the war in Iraq, supposedly a war of “pre-emption” which was based on faulty intelligence and driven by ideologues inebriated by the military might we wield, we forgot the democratic principle that too much power in too few hands has a corrupting influence, even if those who hold that power drape themselves in the Stars and Stripes.  Our unilateral use of force does not finally serve to enhance our security because the world cannot be permanently dominated in this manner.  Then, too, it breeds deep resentment – our international reputation has been badly tarnished.  People in the overwhelming majority of countries around the world now have a very negative view of our government.   In our haste to dominate and control we have lost many friends and made new enemies. 

The vision for a New American Century is morally, politically, culturally flawed.   It is an imperial, militaristic vision imposed upon our nation during a time of fear and confusion.  It is an unwitting betrayal of the very ideals upon which our nation was founded in that it affirms absolute power in the hands of one entity – our government above all the other governments of the peoples of the world, it subverts the spirit of international cooperation enshrined in the Charter of the United Nations, and as Unitarian Universalists, it contravenes the principle wherein we state that “we covenant to affirm and promote the goal of world community with peace, liberty and justice for all;” it diverts precious resources away from the pressing human needs (there is so much suffering we could end if we had the will) and funnels them down the narrow passage of greed and fear to an omnivorous military industrial complex.   

This vision of military dominance by our nation is simply unsustainable.  

So as citizens of this country, but also as citizens of this world we must ask ourselves if we believe that increased militarization by our country serves the needs of our citizens and the world.  Is this what we are really about as a nation?  Must we simply accept the vision of imposed upon us by those who look at the world through the lenses of fear?  

I would suggest that we simply remember the words of Thomas Jefferson who advised future generations of Americans:  “Should we wander from (our founding principles) in moments of error or alarm, let us hasten to retrace our steps and to regain the road which alone leads to peace, liberty, and safety.”  In the coming year we will discuss and debate such matters.  May this be a place where we do not forget the vision that will lead us along that road.