No. Not me. The Senate Republicans. They came out swinging today, furious at the "sham process" -- waaah? Did I miss something? They're in charge of the process. It reminds me of a not-so-hilarious political cartoon at the end of the first W Bush administration, something like "after 4 years of controlling the White House and the Congress, we're mad as hell and we're not going to take it anymore."
I admit it, I spent all day watching the Senate Judiciary Committee Kavanaugh hearing. I was spellbound by Christine Blasey Ford. I was disgusted by Brett Kavanaugh's anger and contempt for the senators, particularly the Democratic female senators.
I was actually surprised at how disgusted I was by Kavanaugh. Unlike some women, I don't have default anger at men. I was raised by an unconditionally loving, gentle father. I grew up with gentle, loving brothers. I am blessed with an incredible loving husband and father of our children. In short, I have experienced every man in my family, and almost all men in my classrooms and my workplace as wonderful people.
So default anger at men is just not a setting on my dial. And, if anything, I need to confess that I even tend to give people accused of crimes (and sexual assault is a crime in case you don't know) the benefit of the doubt. I almost became a public defender. This is how much I care about the civil liberties of people accused of crimes.
When it comes to claims about things done long ago, I sometimes feel too much empathy with possible perpetrators, because I know that I was a larger than life personality as a youth. I did a lot of outrageous things in college--none of which I would like to be discussed in public today.
So believe me when I say that I was shocked to find just how emotionally triggering I found Brett Kavanaugh's testimony to be today. I do not think he displayed the temperament of a judge, let alone a supreme court judge. He was belligerent. He was argumentative. He is not a person who I want to hold the law of the land in his hands no matter what his stands are on the issues.
As I watch Dr. Christine Blasey Ford testify before the Senate Judiciary Committee today, I am holding her and all other women who have ever struggled to come forward and tell their stories in love and compassion. She is so credible. She is so cautious. She so clearly hasn't wanted to bring this forward publicly. It is palpable.
I identify with the way she uses technical terms to describe how and why she remembers with specificity the events so long ago. I know that the more nervous I am, the more I use big words, terms of art, and retreat into my head. I, like Dr. Ford, am highly educated and have lots of technical terms to use. I don't know if this is the reason she uses these terms, I am not in her head. But I know that I am a woman who is much more comfortable staying out of emotions, and into my head.
And yet, she is very obviously human and full of feeling. She clearly hasn't distanced herself from the events the way a lot people who have been traumatized might in order to speak about it. It is also possible that her extensive therapy has helped her talk about this.
And I also know from reading, looking at social media and talking to congregants, that these events and Dr. Ford's story are bringing up lots of buried pain and hidden trauma that so many people have lived with. So I'd like to take this time to know the truth about the situation:
I know that love is all there is. Love is the only power. Love is the only purpose. Love is the only Truth of life. Love is unlimited. Love is ever present. Love is beyond time, space and material form.
And so I know that this love is showing up as me. It is choosing to live out its perfect life as me. And as I know this for me, I know this for Christine Blasey Ford, for all people who have been sexually assaulted and also for Brett Kavanaugh, for the Senators on the Senate Judiciary Committee, for the President and for the country. I know that, no matter what the appearance, each one of us is created by the power of love and operating with, by and for love.
And so I speak my word for every single person directly or indirectly involved in these events, particularly Dr. Ford and any other women who may have been assaulted by Brett Kavanaugh and any other women who have been sexually assaulted. I know that they are surrounded by Divine Love and held safely, sweetly and gently in the arms of love. Love has never left them. Love will never leave them. Love is always there.
And I speak my word for and with Brett Kavanaugh and all his supporters. I know that they too are love. And that all their actions are either expressions of love or calls for love--no exceptions.
No one here has any need for me to send them love, because they are love. So I simply recognize the power of love operating here and I call it forth.
I am grateful for the power of love. I am grateful that the love is the only power and that love is calling forth all of America and the world to a higher expression of Divine Love, one in which all children are safe and where it is safe to speak the Truth.
Knowing that my word does not come back to me void. I release it into the law of love which only says yes.
And so it is. Amen.
