The following is from a by the Rev. Traceymay Kalvaitis of Dublin Community Church during the June 15 service. Reprinted with permission.
Friends, I would like to begin this morning with an acknowledgment that we are able to gather together here on Sunday mornings and worship as we choose because we live in a constitutional republic that protects our right to do so.
In our constitutional republic, our rights to not gather to worship are also equally protected. This was of paramount importance to the founders of our great nation, so many of whom remembered the tyranny of church and state united.
We are witnessing a constitutional crisis in our country, and I want to be clear, as the teacher and pastor of this community, that when the rights of some are denied, the rights of us all are at risk.
When some are arrested without probable cause, without a warrant signed by a judge, and without due process as guaranteed by the Fifth Amendment of our Constitution, it creates a constitutional crisis.
When judicial decisions are ignored, we no longer live under the rule of law.
Our future is uncertain, and I am obliged by the vows I took in my ordination to speak that difficult truth to you today.
In uncertain times, the church has an important role to assume. This community is centered in the teachings of Christ, the love of God and the love of one another. Friends, I call on us to not stand silent as the rights of fellow Americans are denied. I call on us to not stand silent as law-abiding immigrants are demonized and terrorized.
I call on us to not stand silent as people are silenced, their First Amendment rights denied. I call on us to take this moment to assess what we are witnessing and determine what our individual and collective tolerance is for the blatant disregard of the rule of law and the balance of powers enshrined in our Constitution.
As your teacher and pastor, I will not stand silent. I have learned from those who have come before me, especially members of the clergy, who have lived through crises in their own nations. Consider the following words from a Lutheran minister, Martin Neimoller; he wrote them in 1946. This is his confession following the atrocities of the holocaust, his confession on behalf of his church for not doing more to stop the Nazi regime.
“When the Nazis came for the communists, I kept quiet; I wasn’t a communist.
When they came for the trade unionists, I kept quiet; I wasn’t a trade unionist.
When they locked up the social democrats, I kept quiet; I wasn’t a social democrat.
When they locked up the Jews, I kept quiet; I wasn’t a Jew.
When they came for me, there was no one left to protest.”
I invite you, friends, to stand together for Christ’s love of all humanity, for freedom to worship or not worship as we choose, for the right to peaceful protest, for the right to speak and to disagree, and for the Constitution and the rule of law to be upheld, with “liberty and justice for all.”
So be it. Amen.