| Easter and the idea of re-birth in the form of Universalist George de Benneville, who had his own pretty much literal experience of resurrection.
George de Benneville was born in 1703, more than two hundred years ago. He grew up in England, where his father worked in the court of King William. Queen Anne was George’s godmother, and it seems that he led a pretty spoiled life. In fact, de Benneville tells in his autobiography of how he was a wild child, who pretty much thought he was better than everybody else.
But a change started to happen in George’s life when, at twelve years old, he went with a small fleet of boats from England to Africa’s Barbary Coast. He tells the story of watching, as they came to shore, as one of the Black Africans helping to dock the boats was injured badly in the leg. He was annoyed to see the man’s co-workers kiss his wound, crying and sobbing over the man. And he was still more annoyed when they cried out loudly toward the rising sun. George asked, presumably with some considerable grumpiness, what these people thought they were doing. He learned that the Moors (as the Black Africans were called) kissed the wound to express their sympathy for the man’s suffering, and they cried over him so that the salt water of their tears could clean the wound. They cried out to the sun to ask the Creator to have compassion on their hurt friend and heal him.
It seems that, like the Grinch, George de Benneville’s heart grew a few sizes that day. He realized that while he had looked down on these “heathens” who had a different skin color and religion than his, they were actually the ones acting with kindness and caring, as George’s Christian religion taught. George realized that he, in fact, was the “heathen,” the one without a true religion, not them.
George returned to his privileged life in England, but something had changed inside him. Unfortunately, he went from one extreme to another. Instead of feeling like he was better than everyone else, George now felt like he was worse. One day, coming home all sweaty from dancing at a ball, George had a vision of himself burning in hell, and came away from the vision in despair, convinced that he was damned forever. His parents called in ministers to convince him that he was really just fine, and hadn’t done anything all that bad. However, since the ministers believed that some people were, in fact, destined to go to hell, when he wasn’t easily convinced, they figured that he must be right, and just learned at a young age what his destiny was. Needless to say, this wasn’t much help to young George.
However, George had another vision. It started with his familiar sense of guilt and doom, but ended with him being redeemed, saved, by the love of God. So George, who was inclined to take these visions literally, figured that he was destined for heaven, not hell. But he also figured that if he was saved by God’s love, that everyone else was as well. He became as joyful as he had previously been miserable.
So once again his parents called in the ministers, not trusting his joy any more than his misery. And when the ministers learned that he was now convinced that all people were saved by the love of God, and that no one was going to hell, they threw him out of the church. George, however, was not to be stopped by the disapproval of his parents, the church, or anyone else. At 17 years old, George felt called to go to France to preach the good new of salvation for everyone. Although he knew that he was likely to get into trouble with the authorities, he chose to go anyway. And, no surprise, he got into trouble with the authorities for preaching something contrary to the ideas of the king. He was thrown in prison, but as soon as he got out, he went back to preaching his heretical ideas.
And so it goes for the next 18 years – preaching, hiding out, getting sent to prison, getting out again, at least once within minutes of being beheaded for his ideas. Somewhere in this time he became a doctor. Toward the end of his time in Europe he became extremely ill. He writes in his autobiography: “I felt myself die by degrees, and exactly at midnight I was separated from my body, and saw the people occupied in watching it, according to the custom of the country. I had a great desire to be freed from the sight of my body, and immediately I was drawn up as in a cloud, and beheld great wonders where I passed, impossible to be written or expressed.” And he proceeds, for the next 17 pages, to do his best to express what he can of it, including being escorted by “guardians” up to heaven. The underlying message was a confirmation and a further understanding of what he had been preaching, the good news of “the restoration of all the human species without exception,” salvation for everyone. He came back to life, as it were, and was told that 42 hours had passed, 25 of which he had actually lain in the coffin, as they were certain that he had died. He came back to life with a renewed commitment and passion for his preaching.
De Benneville thought that, if we listened to our inward spirits, we would know that “behind every appearance of diversity there is an interdependent unity of all things.” God’s love, de Benneville preached, finds its way in spite of, or even because of, outward differences. “That love must be based upon mutual respect for the differences in color, language and worship,” he said. So he continued to preach, and to live out his beliefs through his practice of medicine, until he finally died (permanently) at the age of 90. |
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Principles in Practice
The Purim story tells of how Queen Esther saves the Jewish people from the wicked Haman—a man who is an example of just how badly wrong things can go when you ignore our second UU principle, “Justice, equity and compassion in human relations.” Haman doesn’t want justice, fairness and kindness—he wants power and privilege, and he doesn’t care who he hurts to get it.
Do you ever have problems at school or in your neighborhood with people who don’t seem to think that justice, fairness and kindness are important? Often good communication, like using “I messages” can help, but sometimes people (like Haman) just don’t seem to be able to get out of bullying mode. In the Purim story Esther manages to put a stop to Haman’s bad behavior by getting the attention and support of the king—the only one who has the power to put a stop to Haman’s bad behavior. Kids can do a lot to choose justice, fairness and kindness, but sometimes when other people won’t work by those principles you need to call in someone with the power to put a stop to bad behavior. Not many of us have a king handy, but a teacher, parent (yours or a friend’s), principal or coach can fill that role. Like Esther, you might need to be creative about how to communicate the facts in a way that doesn’t sound like you’re whining, but if you can explain the situation calmly, you may find that a grown-up can help bring a little more justice and equity (if not compassion) into the situation. |
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