First Congregational Church

New Testament Reading—Matthew 7: 1-12

In his classic work The Souls of Black Folk, the famous black scholar W.E.B. DuBois wrote of a black predicament he called “double-consciousness.”  He described it as “this sense of always looking at one’s self through the eyes of others, of measuring one’s soul by the tape of a world that looks on in amused contempt and pity.”  He further explained that double-consciousness was a sense of two-ness that comes from being both American and black, from having “two warring souls, two thoughts, two unreconciled strivings; two warring ideals in one dark body, whose dogged strength alone keeps it from being torn asunder."

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New Testament Reading: Matthew 11: 16-19

A Voice of Liberation Reading:         “A Gay Manifesto” (1969-1970)         Carl Wittman 

“San Francisco is a refugee camp for homosexuals.  We have fled here from every part of the nation, and like refugees elsewhere, we came not because it is so great here, but because it was so bad there.  By the tens of thousands, we fled small towns where to be ourselves would endanger our jobs and any hope of a decent life; we have fled from blackmailing cops, from families who disowned or ‘tolerated’ us; we have been drummed out of the armed services, thrown out of schools, fired from jobs, beaten by punks and policemen.  (more…)

New Testament Reading—Luke 4: 16-21

Over the next four weeks or so, we will be doing a series entitled “Lenses of Faith.”  In this series, we will be exposing ourselves to different perspectives and views of the world and in particular our country.  Some of these perspectives will come to us through the medium of art.  Others will come to us in writing, and still others will come to us through the spoken word.  The idea is that, regardless of whether we agree or disagree with the diverse perspectives brought before us, we will each be enriched by the process of trying to look at the world through these different lenses as we seek to improve upon our own moral and spiritual vision. (more…)