In the "Documents" section of the site, you'll find a sermon that Marie gave at the church, the very last time we were there. It was on the topic of "The Herd Mentality", an amazing sermon. It left me with many new understandings about how we organize ourselves more for comfort than for growth. I highly recommend having a look at it. In the mean time, Marie sent us a note about her own journey with the Ashland UCC. I am sharing that here:
A letter from the Reverend Marie Bat’el:
What a perfect time to talk about Jesus and what he came to teach us. Ahhh.
I want to echo something Daniel has said in his opening remarks for this website’s Community page: Why should you care what the Reverend Marie Bat’el has to say? Why should you believe anything she has to say when there are so many, NUMBERS of people, who have come to the defense of this church and their leadership. I hope you will read what I have to say and take it into your heart. Whenever we stand on the side of what is right no matter what the cost, Love is exponentially infused into the cosmos. No one of us can do this perfectly. This circumstance is looking for those who might make a decision for justice.
As a Christian minister, I follow the example of Jesus of Nazareth who many called the Christ to the best of my ability like every other well-meaning Christian. In later years as I look at the Christian story (which really started out as a Jewish story because the characters, including Jesus, were devout Jews) I see different nuances. The one thing that sticks out is that the people in power (the religious leaders) wanted Jesus to BE QUIET AND GO AWAY. As current events are evidencing, many of us are kind of tired with the BE QUIET AND GO AWAY manner of being. Jesus was bringing to light ways in which the perception of a loving, benevolent God was skewed towards a punitive God who respected some over others. He was encouraging all to lay down their image in the COMMUNITY (which included the Roman government) and stand against systemic oppression. The only thing that is kinda cool about systemic oppression, is that in some ways we can’t hold one particular individual accountable. It is a system that has been created and maintained since the beginning of time. We are born into it and it is only in our evolution that we are able to grow out of it. Part of the growing out of it, is speaking up, no matter the cost, when we see an injustice. Even an injustice that we are guilty of; otherwise known as confession, making amends, promptly admitting when we were wrong.
Now, I wasn’t a fly on the wall when all the events that L and Daniel have so carefully laid out happened. This is true. However, I attended this church and was in fact, in care with this church throughout my time in seminary. There are those of us who can spot power differentials right away. I could see that folks who invested in bringing this dying church back to life are always on the church council, the moderators, the head of building and grounds, etc. And if you happen to get on the good side of them you’re in! You get what I mean. The thing is, that is not Christ-like. We LAY DOWN our lives (in modern times; our pride and ego) for our brothers and sisters. It is pride and ego that holds on to those positions of power. But nonetheless, I had some amazingly wonderful experiences in this community. Then something happened that pissed me off…
My advisor with our regional conference told me that if I wanted to be considered for the pastorate at Ashland UCC, I would have to get on the good side of the retired Reverend Dorothy Brooks. There it was. Do you see it? WHY would I have to get on the good side of anybody other than the God that we say we are gathering in the name of, the name that is contained in the title on the sign out front! I quickly, being from the east coast and this having gotten my Boston up, responded, “First of all, I don’t even know how I got on the bad side of Dorothy Brooks but I won’t be TRYING to get on the good side of anyone.” Oooh. It still rankles me to this day. In my own defense, one of the church council members, after a sermon I gave before going to seminary, said that maybe Pastor Pam would be retiring when I graduated from seminary and I could be their pastor. I was beloved by many in this community. Dorothy Brooks never gave me the time of day. Which was fine with me. We all find our tribe.
I believe Jesus when he showed me the example of God being “no respecter of persons” (Rom. 2:11). Jesus hung out with the “other;” those that were considered unclean by the religious leaders. He drank out of the jar of the “unclean” Samaritan woman. Jesus kept speaking up to the religious leaders no matter how mad they got. And they tried to turn the people against him and gaslight him. Many of you reading this may not fully understand that a church MUST look differently than other institutions. We MUST NOT fall prey to the abuses of power that exist in all the other institutions. The Ashland UCC had such a beautiful opportunity to send the energy of love and righteousness out into the cosmos with this circumstance with L and Daniel. They failed, miserably. I watched how leaders and others in the church maligned L in front of others, newcomers who didn’t even know L and Daniel. I watched the pastor engender sympathy from the congregation, setting herself up as a victim and someone who needed to be defended and protected. I watched people, like Peter, the friend of Jesus, deny L and Daniel’s truth. I saw herd mentality right before my very eyes.
Now, coming back to systemic oppressions. Jesus said that narrow was the Way to the Kingdom of Heaven. Many don’t see the things I am talking about, that L and Daniel are talking about. Others, have a vested interested in squashing out the truth to hold on to their power, pride and ego. Some, saw the egregious happenings, spoke out to no avail and left the church. They could not support this kind of behavior. I speak out not in anger. I speak out because we are called to speak truth to power.
The Ashland UCC is holding itself up as a champion of social justice. If you have no love, none of the works you do will matter at all (1 Cor. 13:2). There was a HUGE lack of love in this situation. Fear, pride, and ego won the day in this one battle. It is not easy for me to write publicly about this for there are some who may seek to use it against me. I am laying down my proverbial life for my sister and my brother. They were wronged and they have been slandered. L has been gaslighted because she has not hidden her anger, her pain, as a result of this event. She refuses to just ‘let it go.’ It is interesting that someone who attends the church and has embarked upon a mission of uncovering the truths about child sexual abuse, suggested to L that she ‘let it go.’ As if one injustice outweighs the other and deserves attention. God is no respecter of injustices. This was her community for six years. She baked the communion bread every month. She should just ‘let it go?’
Just as we see a lack of justice in the centuries of oppression in the black community coming out sideways in the form of anger and death, L showed us in our little community what injustice gone unresolved looks like. She didn’t hide the ugly truth and try to stuff it down. She wants justice. She is crying out for justice just like so many others on this planet. This is a micro example of what the abuse of power does to a human being. Don’t put a Black Lives Matter sign out in front of your house or attend your Racial Equity Coalition meetings or your Peace Commission meetings if you can’t stand up to the abuse of power right in your own community where YOU DO have power. There are only base incremental victories to be had in the macro issues that we are dealing with in our world, but let us not fall down when given an opportunity right in our own backyard.