This is a sermon I gave t my UU fellowship 3 years ago. I hope you like it!:)

I’d like to start by reminding everyone that I just can’t bring myself to say human in the context of talk to others about them because of the patriarchal aspect of the term; so I prefer the term Tarren.

Jesus and Buddha taught to love our sisters and our brothers. To respect all and to find harmony. In my opinion love is the key to peace, and prosperity for the entire tarren race. Through love we can conceive an all encompassing family of tarren kind. This can lead to two places; the first is to see all people as siblings; and the second is to learn that love can mean different things to different people. And just as you can hold two emotions in your heart for the same person, so too can you hold the same emotion in your heart for more than one person. If you truly love everyone, why would you wish to do harm to others? It is often hard to love everyone, but when you can love the inherent worth and dignity, of the fact that we are all the same species with the same potential, you have found the area where love should be primarily focused. We may not love what our children do, but we do love them. Just like we may not love what our politicians do, but it doesn’t make them less worthy of general love.

Imagine if the politicians on Capitol Hill were all friends simply with different ideas. Imagine if ever world leader saw every other world leader as a sibling. Would we really be at each other’s throats over religion and money? Perhaps this would help world leaders to realize that the best thing for the people is peace. Not forced assimilation. We don’t have to live in a dog eat dog world.

Love is the first step in tolerance for even those who we disagree with. It is especially important when we hate. You cannot hate someone if you love them. And just because we disapprove of a lifestyle of another doesn’t mean we can’t still be friends… Family...

They say the enemy of my enemy is my friend; but I say, why shouldn’t the friend of my friend be my friend? In this sense, once you’ve made it all the way around the world, all 7 billion people would be your friend.

Over the past 5 years that I have been living my proper life here in Appalacia I have met more people that I consider siblings than I ever thought possible. The odd thing is, that I have found more brothers rather than sisters. This is odd because of my distrust for, and hatred toward, the general actions of men; particularly the forces of domination and arrogance. But when I could look beyond that, I, A: found many men who did not fit that stereotype, and B: found a way to appreciate the terrenity of men. One in particular who couldn’t be here today.

I have one adopted daughter already and a son on the way. But just because they aren’t mine by blood doesn’t mean I love them any less. Just because their father is my girlfriends husband doesn’t mean I love him any less; just as my brother is my step brother, so too can her husband be my brother. Blood means nothing; Spirit is everything. And when the species is our family, we can learn to overcome our desire to hate differences and fight over them. Should not our differences be celebrated? Should not our love be shared?

Because Love is our doctrine, it gives us a leg up on understanding peace. When we adhere to love’s policy we can truly know happiness for love has the ability to block pain.