Remarks of Rev. Paul Britner

Unitarian Universalist Fellowship of Montgomery

July 21, 2007 
 

      I’m wearing a clerical collar, not to offer finger-waging judgment, but to speak out for the religious freedom guaranteed by our Constitution, because for many women, the decision whether to continue or terminate a pregnancy is a deeply, profound moral issue and a question of faith.

      When our founders enshrined religious freedom in the first amendment, they probably had no idea what a diverse and pluralistic society we would become. They probably never imagined that the United States Congress would have two Buddhists and a Moslem as members, not to mention two Unitarians. Not only are we rich in religious traditions, even our established traditions have become diverse. How can anyone say that religion itself is on one side or another knowing that Ted Kennedy and Pat Buchanan are both Catholics, that Mitt Romney and Harry Reid are both Mormons, and that George Bush and Hillary Clinton are both Methodists?

      Sometimes the biggest barrier between people and God is religion itself. When religion comes between a person and his or her God, it may be crisis of faith. But, when government comes between a person and his or faith, it’s a constitutional crisis, and each and every one of us has a stake in protecting one another from such intrusions and in keeping the government out of our houses of worship and out of our own, personal moral decision-making.

      If there is any place that reminds us of the importance of religious freedom, it is this place. We are gathered on hallowed ground, ground that has been consecrated by the blood of four young girls killed right over there in 1963: Addie May Collins, Denise McNair, Carole Robertson, and Cynthia Wesley.  We stand in the historic shadow of that church, in the same park where fire hoses and vicious dogs were used in a futile attempt to preserve a corrupted system of injustice.

      Today the cause is different, but the hate and the oppression are the same. There is a direct link between the murders of those four young girls and the bombing in 1998 at the New Women’s clinic that killed Robert Sanderson and severely wounded Emily Lyons, and that link is hate and violence. Left unchecked, our adversaries in the political process would install their own corrupted system of injustice, and it is our task, indeed the task of every citizen who treasures liberty, to remind them of the motto of this great State, “We Dare Defend Our Rights!”

      Now, I don’t know what those four young girls might think about abortion if they were here today. They might be carrying signs for the other side. But we’ll never know that because they never had what it is that we are determined to preserve: the right of choice. They never got to choose someone to love. They never got to choose a career or a home, or whether to start a family or not.  So, for Addie Mae Collins, will you fight for medically accurate information for women from their health care providers? For Denise McNair, will you fight for access to all forms of contraception? For Carole Robertson, will you fight for comprehensive sexuality education in our schools? And for Cynthia Wesley, will you fight for the right of every woman to make her own moral decisions?

      Amen!