Rev. William G. Sinkford's Remarks from Service of Healing Following Knoxville, Tennessee, Tragedy
July 29, 2008
Rev. William Sinkford, president of the Unitarian Universalist Association, offered the following words during the vigil held at Second Presbyterian Church, in Knoxville, Tennessee, on Monday, July 28.
We are here tonight, I would guess almost all of us, trying to make sense out of senselessness. Because the acts of yesterday morning at Tennessee Valley are, for I will wager everyone in this room, senseless. They don’t compute, they’re not a part of our world, and so one of the responses, for at least many of us, is to try to figure them out, to try to know more about exactly what happened, to try to read the letter from the alleged shooter, so that you can try to understand his motivation. You try to understand as many of the details so that you can both celebrate the great courage that was demonstrated yesterday and weep wholeheartedly for the great sorrow that yesterday’s events caused.
But we try to figure it out, to come up with a sense for something that is fundamentally senseless. And often that striving to understand the event is our way of avoiding what’s going on for us in our spirits, in our emotional life. I’ll wager that in this room, people have gone through anger, anger that this man could have done those things in that place. I’ll wager that many, many of you have touched that deep place of pain where the tears simply came, as you thought about the losses that have been created.
I’ll bet many of you here have spent some time in confusion: What does this all mean? I know it doesn’t make any sense, but what am I supposed to feel? What am I supposed to feel when I see those images and hear those stories? What is the good person supposed to feel and do?
I’ll bet all of those emotions and many more have been present for the persons who have gathered here. And then we have the difficult question of how we respond to the person who created this havoc and this tragedy in our life. How do we respond to the person? I was asked by the reporter earlier today whether I thought the shooter would go to hell, and my response was that in my religious tradition, we would say that that person had been living in a hell here on earth, for years.
And to the extent that that person took issue with some of the stands of the Tennessee Valley Unitarian Universalist Church, and Unitarian Universalism in general…We live in a society where there are differences of opinion, and Unitarian Universalism and our congregations here have a long history of standing on the side of love, of standing up for justice and saying everyone should be welcome, and saying that we are churches that welcome all souls, not just some souls. And that’s a deep religious calling for us, and the Tennessee Valley church and the Westside church and Unitarian Universalism are not going to change living our religion that way. We simply are not. Amen! And you can say Amen to that!
And you know what? More of the people in this sanctuary here tonight, would say the same things: that we need to be willing to stand up and stand on the side of that larger love which can help us move through these difficult times, resulting from this tragedy, but [also] these difficult times for our world, right now.
And we’re not going to stop, and you can’t stop it. You can’t allow your fear or your confusion or your sorrow, or your anger—you can’t allow any of those emotions to keep you separated from what is central to your living, however you express it religiously.
This gathering here tonight is a hopeful gathering and I am very glad that I am here. Even though it’s in the midst of tragedy. Because this gathering here tonight represents our greatest hope. Because there is no capacity that we need more than the ability to come together as people of faith across the boundaries of theology and liturgy and practice that we are so often told must keep us apart. There is no capacity that is more important than for us to be able to be here tonight, together as one community. Because in the face of great tragedy, human beings, time after time, have done exactly this.
It is a simple and a profound act of presence for us to be together tonight. To know that there is anger, and sorrow, and pain, and confusion in all of us to some degree. And to say at some fundamental human level that we need to be together now. Because if we cannot be together now, we will never find a way to be together. Blessings on each and every one of you, on the churches where you attend, the synagogues, the mosques, and the places of worship where you find your spiritual nurturance. But remember the importance of this place, and this night, and the hope that is here, in the presence of tragedy.
Last updated on Wednesday, July 30, 2008.
