Davidson Loehr
7 November 2004
First Unitarian Universalist Church of Austin
4700 Grover Ave., Austin, TX 78756
512-452-6168 www.austinuu.org

:: PRAYER:
This is usually the Veterans Day service. I had planned to devote the
prayer to veterans because, as a Vietnam veteran, veterans are very dear to
me.

Today, let us pray that all who suffer may find some peace. May all
parents, relatives and friends of lost or dead children find light at the end of
their dark and fearful tunnels.

May those who terrify and endanger us and our children be brought to
justice.

And may we once again find or create that necessary but fragile web of
interrelatedness which alone can give us both safety lines and safety
nets as we go - whether bravely or timidly - into our future.
Amen.

SERMON: Living Under Fascism

You may wonder why anyone would try to use the word "fascism" in a
serious discussion of where America is today. It sounds like cheap name-calling, or melodramatic allusion to a slew of old war movies.

But I am serious. I don't mean it as name-calling at all. I mean to
persuadeyou that the style of governing into which America has slid is most
accurately described as fascism, and that the necessary  implications of this fact are rightly regarded as terrifying. That's what I am about here. And even if I don't persuade you, I hope to raise the level of your thinking about who and where we are now, to add some nuance and perhaps some useful insights.

The word comes from the Latin word "Fasces," denoting a bundle of
stickstied together. The individual sticks represented citizens, and the
bundle represented the state. The message of this metaphor was
that it was the bundle that was significant, not the individual sticks.
If it sounds un-American, it's worth knowing that the Roman Fasces appear
on the wall behind the Speaker's podium in the chamber of the US House of Representatives.

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If you wish to read more of this (it was too lengthy to  post here) please go to this link:

http://austinuu.org/sermons/2004/2004-11-07-LivingUnderFascism.html