The 3-ring media circus and resulting social media fallout that is otherwise known as the Kavanaugh confirmation hearings, has generated a lot of discussion about the credibility of both sides - including whether or not Dr. Ford is a credible witness, and if Justice Kavanaugh has the professional temperament to be confirmed to the highest court in the nation, both of which are fair questions. Along with that examination of credibility and fitness, came a host of responses. The one I didn’t expect to upset me as greatly as it did was the response of my clergy association - the Unitarian Universalist Association. They basically said (I’m paraphrasing here) “Our thoughts and prayers are with Dr. Ford.”
WTF??
You see, I am a Unitarian Universalist and practicing Reform Jew (yes it works - I’m not going to explain it here) My clergy - especially the ones in the highest echelons of the administration - are known as being progressive. They are the ones that show up at immigration rallies and marches leading the protest and getting arrested “for the cause.” They have cheerfully disclosed that getting arrested is “on their clergy bucket list,” and don’t feel they have really earned their social justice stripes unless they’ve seen the inside of the local city detention center - from behind bars. It is not unusual for our denominational publication - UU World Magazine - to feature pictures of church leaders protesting and (occasionally) getting arrested. They are the ones that encourage our congregations to hang rainbow flags on the outside of our churches along with banners that say #BlackLivesMatter and #LoveWins, and organize carpools to the Women’s March in large cities like LA, Boston, and New York. Visibly protesting injustice comes as naturally to them as breathing.(1)
So I was surprised and let down when there was one (short!) Op-Ed article written by a UU administrator - and not the President - on the importance of believing Ford and why the hearings matter. It was approximately one column inch. There was no analysis of the issue, no call for action, no denouncing of the injustice and national display of entitlement and white privilege broadcast on every major network in the nation, and even some international networks. No cry for justice and the rights of women to be safe in their own homes, neighborhoods, and schools - even though the current UUA President is a woman. No stirring speeches or calls to protect the integrity of our justice system and the judicial hearing process. Just an op-ed on why it was important to believe Dr. Ford.(2)
I was similarly let down when the Pacific Southwest District (PSWD) Clergy association submitted a picture of themselves and a statement - “We Believe Survivors.” (3) Disappointing because - again - the clergy in my district is comprised of a majority of women, and the picture submitted represented that majority, taken at our beautiful camp in the mountains, far removed from gritty urban landscape where the Capitol building sits in Washington, DC. The same location where many of our clergy from all over the country rallied in support of gay marriage and the overturning of CA’s Prop 8 - which ultimately ended up in front of the Supreme Court (SCOTUS). The same Supreme Court that is the focus of the current hearings. Let me say that again. UU Clergy from all over the country came and rallied at the US Capitol and the Supreme Court during the Prop 8 SCOTUS hearing because the issue was that important.(4)
The comparative silence of the UU Leadership on the plethora of social justice issues brought to light during the Kavanaugh hearings is deafening in its absence.
Juxtaposed with that picture and statement in my Facebook feed was a picture of “the hallowed halls of Yale law school,”(5) where students and faculty - some of them professionally dressed, some of them wearing hoodies and sneakers - were staging a sit-in protesting the Kavanaugh confirmation. The caption in the picture and the accompanying story highlighted that it was both students and faculty that organized the sit in protesting the nomination.
I want to let that sink in for a moment. Yale Law Students. Sanctioned and organized by the Law School Faculty. Sitting in.
As a law school graduate, I can tell you that there are not enough hours in the law school day or even in the normal human day to adequately cover the breadth of material contained in the average law school semester. You eat, breathe, and sleep law. (Like the t-shirt says: Law School - Eat, Sleep, Breathe, Study - choose two.) There are only two things that exist when you are in law school - the classroom and the library. If you aren’t sitting in class, then your brain (and the rest of you) is in the library hunting down that dissenting opinion on a case that was mentioned as a footnote in a class argument, because rumor has it that the Prof teaching that class has a thing for writing test questions based on dissenting arguments, and if you want your study notes not to have holes in them, you’d better find that case - and the six others that the dissenting opinion references. And if you can’t find them, you hope and pray that someone else in your study group does. Law school is not for the weak.
It’s also not necessarily known for its activism - because it largely occurs behind the scenes. Yes, law students and schools will issue position statements - mostly to other legal news outlets and journals. Students compete for the honor of writing and editing for law review journals, where legal opinions on the state of the profession and current legal theories are examined and questioned. We debate whether or not justice was served when we examine SCOTUS decisions in our Constitutional Law classes, and we discuss and wrestle with the “Pay to Play” culture of our current justice system and how it hinders equal access to our courts and causes legal disenfranchising in our Professional Responsibilities courses. We will sling legal arguments about current events across the table at each other - during those those rare times when we actually sit down to eat or take a break for coffee between classes. We work for legal aid and volunteer at the legal clinics at our schools - which provide representation to those low-income and underrepresented clients we’ve discussed in our Professional Responsibility classes. Our activism is enveloped in our educational experience - because if we don’t multitask it doesn’t happen. And it rarely makes front page news...unless you count the alumni newsletter.
But we rarely skip classes. We don’t even skip classes when we’re at death’s door (even when our doctors order us to) - especially during midterms or finals. It practically takes an “Act of God” to get us to skip or cancel class, and, as everyone who has ever taken a class in Tort Law can tell you, an “Act of God” is extremely rare. Even when students skip, the profs just keep right on going. As one of my professors once said, “We only have 16 weeks to cover this material, we can’t afford to give up class time.”
So, for Yale Law Students and Faculty to skip an entire day of classes in order to sit in and protest the Kavanaugh hearings. Yep - arguably an “Act of God.” Which is why I found myself incredibly disillusioned with the response of my clergy and denominational leadership. The ones that have made protest part of their professional resume - and pride themselves on being at the forefront of social justice. The ones whose job descriptions endorse nonviolent resistance and CVs boast of interfaith justice work. Those who advertise social justice activities in their sanctuaries and endorse political activism from their pulpits. The ones whose covenant states “service is its prayer.”
If the onus is on either group to stand up and make a statement denouncing the state of affairs in Washington, it is arguably the UU clergy and leadership. There is ample evidence of them protesting injustice and championing the rights of the underrepresented and disenfranchised. They regularly call for action on issues of social justice and oppression. They have previously campaigned for fair and equal treatment for everyone - regardless of gender, sexual orientation, race, or class, even when it was the politically riskier move. They are not known for remaining silent on issues of national importance. Which is why the whisper rather than the roar is not only disappointing, but surprisingly out of character.
Because they were invisible, when the legal community was not.
Lawyers - a community that is regularly the butt of jokes about questionable ethics, sleazy dealings, and moral bankruptcy - in one of the most privileged, entitled, elite law schools in the entire country, had cancelled classes and were staging a sit in because of the refusal of the Republican party to listen to the concerns of its constituency and the moral outcry of the nation to remove Justice Kavanaugh from consideration for SCOTUS and pick a new candidate. Lawyers - who are known for having each other’s backs - broke ranks and protested their own alumnus because they considered him “unfit for duty.” An event that was newsworthy enough that it merited its own photograph and a story. The halls of Yale Law School filled with students and faculty sitting together on the floor, calling attention to their opinion that Justice Kavanaugh should not be confirmed, and through their actions saying “enough is enough.”
While my own denominational leadership issued a “thoughts and prayers” statement, and one picture of the local clergy participating in a larger protest outside the Capitol building.
WHY??
This is my question to you, UU Clergy and Leadership. WHY AREN’T YOU ADDRESSING THIS? I can guarantee you the conversation is highly relevant. It is HIGHLY LIKELY that facilitators teaching Our Whole Lives (OWL) classes going on right now are going to face questions about rape, consent, drinking, and if what Kavanaugh did was immoral (which is not under debate - the majority of everyone polled agrees that what he did wasn’t right) and questionably legal, then why is he still being considered for one of the highest positions of authority in the country? And the other question hard on its heels - the one I dread because my daughter is in District Youth Leadership - WHY aren’t my clergy out there protesting the Kavanaugh vote as vigorously as we protested the election of President Trump and his policies against women, minorities, immigrants, and undermining of our constitutional rights? What do I tell her, her friends, and the rest of our Youth that look to us for guidance? What does she tell the other youth in our denomination? We believe Dr. Ford? In this moment of national importance when we have the responsibility to step up and take a stand for moral justice in this country, the best you can come up with is “#WeBelieveSurvivors”?
Right now, your OWL facilitators are likely preparing themselves for questions about “Renate Alumni” and “Devil’s Triangle.” They are bracing for conversations about consent, ethics, leadership, rape, and all the other uncomfortable topics that teaching Sex-Ed to teenagers brings up. They are preparing to answer questions about drinking and responsibility. There is a good chance they are going to have to answer whether or not drinking to the point of being blackout drunk absolves you of responsibility for raping another person, because arguably it does (and right there you have enough material for an entire legal essay on intoxication and intent.) I know, because as an OWL facilitator, if I were teaching a class this fall, it is exactly the type of questions I’d be expecting from my class, and conferencing with the rest of my team to come up with a plan of how we would address it and what we would say when the questions were asked. And even if they don’t ask about it, figuring out how we would work it into the curriculum, because as OWL facilitators, we have a responsibility to discuss it. We have the responsibility to “put it on their radar,” and make them understand that they can still be held criminally liable for their actions even if they’re drunk or impaired - even if other, more privileged and powerful individuals are not. We have to talk about how stupid decisions can have lifelong consequences - all while elite privilege and entitlement the likes of which have never been played out in full view of the entire country the way they are right now looms large in the background and the public conscience.
I’m asking because it’s important. Your Clergy and your Religious Education Directors are going to be looking to you for answers, because their congregations are looking at them for answers. So far your response has failed to give me confidence. We’re looking to you for moral leadership and you give us #IBelieveSurvivors as a FaceBook photo frame? Where is the position statement? The call to action? The cry for justice? Why doesn’t this issue merit even a fraction of the attention given to the issue of immigration or gay marriage? What about this issue has rendered you silent on the matter?
SMH.
Here are a few statistics:
Contrasted with:
According to the research, women are entering ministry and law in equal numbers. Both groups will be deeply affected by the decision of whether or not to confirm Justice Kavanaugh to the highest court - as his decisions on the bench will impact their clients and parishioners for many years to come. There is a far greater gender gap to contend with in the legal community than in the UU Clergy community. So where were my clergy? The ones who, arguably, have a greater stake in this outcome? Going by just the numbers, the legal community has a far lower moral stake in this hearing than the religious community does. Women in the legal profession still have a representation gap which would give them a pass. It would allow them to throw up their hands and say “we really can’t do much about it,” and issue a feel-good position statement like “we believe Dr. Ford,” without jeopardizing their status in the community or spending political capital on an controversial position. It is the “safe” play. Again, it is likely that if that happened no one would have really blamed them because the legal community has been stereotyped as a morally bankrupt and compromised entity, and therefore, for us to issue a palliative statement that doesn’t say much of anything would be considered par for the course.
Because lawyers don’t put people back together. By the time people show up in our offices, they’re already broken. And we don’t specialize in putting them back together. That’s not our job. Our greatest professional fiction is that we can restore them to the state they were in before the injury occurred. But it is a fiction that haunts us. We can’t bring back the person who was murdered. We can’t give back the lost virginity. We can’t return the hours, days, months, even years that are often spent pursuing justice for the injury caused by the faulty product or the car accident. We can’t stop the nightmares caused by the assault. We confront our powerlessness and the feckless cruelty that exists in our world every day with the understanding that it is our job to pursue justice, but we are unlikely to bring about healing. That healing broken spirits doesn’t generally happen in our line of work. We just clear away the external damage so that healing can hopefully happen with other hands that are more trained and skilled at that sort of thing than ours.
Even in that, we face the ironic cruelty that the people whom we entrust to help heal us and give us back our faith, our dignity, and our self-worth are sometimes unable to find the courage and rise to the challenges that life presents. In those times, we look to them for support and leadership and find ourselves facing an empty space. We realize in that moment that we are the “adultier adult” as one meme puts it. We hear them say, “we believe you,” as we put on our professional “armor” and prepare to fight - but we don’t see them standing beside us as we draw attention to injustice and take a stand. We find ourselves standing in the middle of the arena facing the lion by ourselves.
#IBelieveSurvivors
Belief is not enough. The typical five-year-old believes in Santa Claus, the Tooth Fairy, and the right to cookies before bedtime. And then those beliefs are translated into action - he writes the letter to Santa and then lobbies you to take him to Macy’s so he can mail it (10), she puts her tooth under her pillow with the expectation that the tooth fairy will deliver (11), and as far as the cookies before bedtime...see my earlier post on the Chocolate Chip cookie and the intoxication defense. (12)
Belief into action - the entire Yale Law School put belief into action in a very public, notable way. They shut down classes and sat in; most of them professionally dressed for class, some even carrying briefcases, likely scheduled to intern at prestigious law firms later in the day. The photo brought to mind the image of Rocket Racoon from Guardians of the Galaxy when he is being insulted. His attitude is: “yeah, it’s true, so what,” until he is called “vermin” which causes him to draw his weapon and take a stand. When asked why, his answer was: “it’s offensive.” I got the feeling, from reading the article and looking at the picture of the students lining that hallway, that seeing Dr. Ford brought up in front of the Senate to face questions about her assault - prior to a full FBI investigation and after the ABA had already issued a caution against confirming Justice Kavanaugh the last time he underwent a confirmation hearing for a federal judiciary position in 2006 - was enough for them to say, “it’s offensive,” and take action. It was very clear what their feelings on the matter were.
#IBelieveSurvivors
Even now those words sound hollow in my ears when I look at the picture of Yale Law Students dressed in black, lining the hallway, with briefcases at the ready, and then at the picture of my District clergy at their mountain retreat, the peaceful, idyllic forest in the background framed by the windows of the meeting hall. The contrast is breathtaking - and not in a good way. It is the cold slap of reality, the untouched reflection of the world I live in. I am “Team Yale Law,” not “Team UU Clergy.” I do not have the luxury of watching from the cheap seats paying lip service to ethics and moral responsibility. I cannot afford to be silent when the honor of my professional community hangs in the balance. I owe it to my daughters, who watch me with critical eyes and judge my actions for better and for worse, to follow my conscience and speak my truth. Even when it’s unpleasant. Even when it’s politically expensive. Especially when it’s politically expensive - because the more expensive it is, the more courage it requires.
I Stand With Yale Law.
Notes:
1. They are a major reason that I go to rallies armed with a Sharpie marker and my friend Miriam’s (a Los Angeles defense attorney) business card tucked in my wallet. Sometimes I am the safe person on the outside who is charged with the responsibility of calling the attorney if they get arrested and “taken downtown.”
2. www.uua.org - Facebook thumbnail #IBelieveSurvivors
3. PSWD Clergy Network Photo - https://scontent-sjc3-1.xx.fbcdn.net/v/t1.0-9/42611633_2336840896330179_6131048798379573248_n.jpg?_nc_cat=102&_nc_eui2=AeHhETDIsERkhuMn5ay8zDca7LB9xFWyXgzSFbOvWKrKJs0ZnPGr1-LxERP8Eyt_JxpK-g14l8A7BUqEoT7QPx6gZyNsRJ3FWeo6xEpV9iBYEg&oh=918b1e80e53b9c52178970c03103c171&oe=5C5DC839
Incidentally - this is not on the PSWD main district page or on the main district FB page. It is on their Clergy page as a photo. There is **no official district statement** other than this photo. It isn’t even clear that it is district supported, as it is on their clergy page and the only reason I saw it is because I’m friends with one of the members of the clergy group.
4. https://www.uua.org/search?as_q=prop%208#gsc.tab=0&gsc.q=prop%208&gsc.page=1 and https://www.uuworld.org/articles/urge-overturn-proposition-8 and https://www.uuworld.org/articles/uus-cheer-prop-8-ruling - these are just the full length articles. These do not include the shorter op-ed and news highlights that are included in the above search results.
5. It’s in quotes because I remember hearing this exact phrase in a movie or TV show somewhere - sorry I can’t remember where otherwise I’d cite it for you - most likely in a Gilmore Girls episode, but again, I’m not certain.
8. https://www.americanbar.org/content/dam/aba/administrative/women/a-current-glance-at-women-in-the-law-jan-2018.authcheckdam.pdf
9. https://www.deseretnews.com/article/780203/Unitarian-women-flourish.html - this statistic was difficult to verify. I attempted to find a more current accounting of the percentage of UU female clergy, but this Deseret article was the most current one I was able to find. It didn’t cite its source for the statistic, so I was unable to verify the number it gave.
10. I’m not making this up - my local Macy’s has a giant red mailbox with the words “Letters to Santa” written on it in white, along with a letter writing station right there - just in case you forgot your letter.
11. In California, the going rate for the first tooth is somewhere between $1 and $5 depending on your neighborhood and the average first-tooth payout at the local elementary school.
