God is not all-Powerful and neither are we
This week marks the 11th month since hurricane Helene devastated Western North Carolina, eastern Tennessee, southwestern Virginia, upcountry South Carolina, and northwestern Georgia.
As a life-long student of religion and faith, I learned a long time ago that God is not all-Powerful or Almighty. These adjectives are used by religious people to attempt to contain and restrict the flowing energies of an ever-changing universe. It’s not possible to “contain”or “restrict” flow.
The Greek philosopher Heraclitus is credited with coining the idea: the only constant is change. This is true for the physics of the universe which includes subatomic particles to the very beginnings of the cosmos.
For those who believe there is a God who is all powerful, which is often a projection of the human desire for power and domination, then it stands to reason that millions of people in this country and around the world believe that unilateral power is good and essential.
Unfortunately, this one-dimensional, static view of an all powerful God quickly morphs into an aggressive & abusive God which is the foundation of Project 2025, the blueprint for a Christian theocracy in the United States. We see similar theocratic power grabs by political leaders in Iran, Israel, India, Turkey, Hungary, Uganda and El Salvador.
Unilateral power is necessary and required in very few situations: like a burning house, raging river, automobile accident or airplane emergency. We can all think of disasters where such power is needed. It’s limited, short-lived and ends when the disaster shifts to longer-term triage management. With Hurricane Helene, all of us learned within the first 24 hours that relational power was what strengthened us to survive and thrive.
I also learned a long time ago that humans tend to project our deepest fears, deepest desires and deepest hurts onto a God which we fashion in the image of someone/something which will help or save us. This is what holy scriptures do: human stories of seeking to understand an ever-changing world.
As I learn about the individual stories and personalities of the current political leaders in the US, including the President, Vice-President, secretaries of Defense, State, Education, Health and Human Services, Homeland Security, Department of Justice, as well as several of the US Supreme Court Justices, I observe individuals who have experienced profound hurts and challenges which they have morphed into aggressive campaigns of grievance and retribution, all supported by a Christian nationalist belief that God is all powerful, allowing abuse, torture and death.
In the midst of so much misuse and abuse of political power, the only way forward is relational power which is built upon informed consent. I trust the three-dimensional non-static God, always changing, flowing Energy, which emanates the universe, including all of us.
I have no idea what will unfold in the coming days, weeks and months; Energy is always shifting and changing. God doesn’t know either.
As we’ve learned over the past 4 months of somatic enneagram work, our bodies are wise. May we keep coming back to the present moment, noticing and receiving the insights our bodies have to share, recognizing the sacredness of our inner wisdom and what the ever-flowing Energy is teaching us.
Bowing, hands clasped. August 2025
The mandate of loving our neighbor
Dear beloved ones,
This post was originally written in early May 2025.
There are multiple unfinished emails in my drafts folder. Every time I have begun an email, I sensed my priorities were elsewhere.
I have found these 100 plus days since the inauguration an opportune time, not unlike the hurricane, to make sure our own house is in order. Chris and I have finalized our estate plans, which was a heavy lift.
Wisdom mostly eludes me; so instead, I share a few reflections.
If the US presidential election were held tomorrow, I believe the current President would lose. I also think the use of the word “mandate” by this administration is misguided. Knowing the numbers and the math of the swing states, gerrymandering and the electoral college, he won the popular vote, but not by a landslide. The word mandate comes from the Latin word command; perhaps the White House might consider the mandate of loving your neighbor as yourself.
Days following the November 2024 election, it was clear to me that good and ordinary people with whom I interact on a daily basis, in our neighborhood community, at our local grocery stores, and other service industries, voted differently than I did. It remains clear to me that they didn’t necessarily vote for the absurd, aggressive, excessive and cruel actions of the current political regime.
Hurricane Helene reminded us in Western North Carolina that community starts at the front door. In those first days of no power, no cell service, no internet, no water, no road access, all we could do was check on our neighbors, charge hearing aid batteries & flashlights, keep ice packs cold, huddle to hear the latest NPR/BPR radio updates, and teach one another how to add fresh oil to the precious generators, running 24/7, until we learned to turn them off at night.
I remember where I was when I read the first sentence of M. Scott Peck’s book The Road Less Traveled: Life is difficult. I was 20 years old, on a train to Prague, Czechoslovakia,1983, still under Communist rule, where soldiers with machine guns checked our baggage, including the books we were reading.
We’ve been here before in the United States of America, when certain peoples’ freedoms have been denied, limited, threatened, and curtailed, whether by the state, nonprofits or private institutions.
Mom described the sexual harassment she experienced as one of 7 women at the Yale Medical School in the early 1950’s, and the courage to leave Yale when she was offered a position at the National Institutes of Health, Allergy and Infectious Diseases Lab. Dad’s stories of growing up in the 1930’s & 40’s Jim Crow Tennessee and Alabama, his voice choking when he recounted the separate water fountains for Black people and white people. Dad and his best friend, Jim, both attorneys, departed one weekday morning, 5:00am, in the 1970’s, traveling to Elkins, West Virginia, to be character witnesses in the courtroom for our close family friend who couldn’t afford a lawyer. Our friend was in trouble at a time when law enforcement in WV were considered the outlaws, settling scores between rival neighbors.
My Dad’s mother, the only grandparent I knew, lived a humble, simple life, poor by modern US standards, yet she was proud and smart. Due to circumstances and her generation, she held fast to narrow-minded Christian beliefs. As a teenager I rebelled against her racist and sexist views. Later, I came to recognize she had very little social or political power, and perhaps her Christian supremacist beliefs somehow gave her comfort and hope. There was a certain kind of reconciliation, or maybe third force at play, in those final years, when she seemed pleased that I was in seminary, despite not believing in women clergy.
What keeps me going these days is the courage of our ancestors to do hard things, to say hard truths, to speak up when others were silent. What also keeps me going is not looking outside ourselves for a saviour or a god who will rescue us from this current hellscape. Instead, I trust the inner authority of my essential goodness which tethers me to all sentient beings in the power of love and connection.
We gain courage from one another when we gather in community.
May it be so.
May 2025
Day Four: New US political administration:
The Perils of Reactivity
When we don’t learn or heal from past mistakes, we repeat them. This is how reactivity works.
The 17th century physicist and mathematician Isaac Newton explained: Every action causes a reaction.
The new US Trump/Vance administration is purposely, intentionally, strategically reacting to the past 8 years, not to mention the past 69 years of US history, since the US Supreme Court decision Brown vs. the Board of Education.
Their unmanaged human reactivity becomes a cycle of suffering, cruelty and pain, an endless circle of doing harm to themselves and others, over and over again.
The blueprint for this current administration, Project 2025, based on their unacknowledged, unhealed reactivity, is to create so much instability and reactivity in the American people, that we become unmoored, losing our ability to be grounded, clear-eyed, strategic and kind.
The antidote to reactivity includes: learning to pause, to breathe and to respond, which sometimes means to do nothing. To find safe, private spaces to share our anger, our fear, our grief, which will support us in managing our reactivity, so we can respond in public spaces with clarity, strength, purpose and compassion.
From the wisdom tradition of all religions, we believe there is a 3rd force required to dance with the 2 forces of action-reaction. It is the 3rd force of synthesizing/reconciling.
This is exactly what Bishop Mariann Edgar Budde did this week. She responded to the present moment. She did not react. She danced with the 3 forces of nature: action-reaction-reconciliation.
Many Christian Nationalists are reacting to Bishop Budde’s sermon with outrage, name calling, mean-spirited, ignorant words.
Let us not be 3rd force blind.
May we tend to our broken hearts and fearful thoughts, with our trusted partners, friends, counselors, therapists, clergy, to synthesize and alchemize all that is happening, so we can respond in public, with strength and purpose.
May it be so.
January 2025
Day Twenty Nine Western North Carolina:
October 2024
- As a beloved enneagram type Two, along with my siblings Seven and Nine, we have a tendency to prematurely pivot toward a positive spin, whatever the situation. I’m also observing how beloved Ones, Threes, Fives can prematurely pivot toward being efficient. I’m noticing that our beloved Fours, Sixes and Eights are more grounded in the realities of disaster and naming what is true.
- Ever since first learning the Enneagram System, I have sensed and consciously chosen to move to my Four Arrow, which has grounded me in the deeper truths of loss and sadness as well as beauty and creativity. And then the powerful move to Eight, to be direct, clear and grounded.
- The word clarity comes from the Latin meaning clear. By the 1600’s it developed into a Middle English meaning of glory, divine splendor. When my parents exposed my sisters and me at an early age to the realities of economic and racial inequities in the US, thus began an inner clarity. Looking back on my life, I made conscious decisions to be an edge-walker, between my family’s world of economic security and advantage, and the US’s systemic unjust economic and racial realities, impacting millions of Americans.
- Most of you, my colleagues, dear friends and beloved family, you too are edge-walkers. You have made difficult and life-changing decisions to live closer, nearer and in solidarity with the edges, the margins of our society. This is my hope and strength.
- For the past 26 years, my holy book has been All Saints, which tells the lives of 365 world citizens throughout the centuries who have made heart-wrenching and long-lasting decisions to live closer to what is real, true and good. Their stories give me fortitude and clarity. And each of us could write a new edition of All Saints to include the thousands of current day edge-walkers. Some of mine include Gustavo Gutiérrez, Alexei Navalny, Stacey Abrams, Katherine Stewart, Maria Ressa, Valerie Kaur, Rachel Laser, the Benedictine Sisters of Cuernavaca, the Diploma in the Art of Spiritual Direction, Grace Covenant Presbyterian Church, Asheville, the New Israel Fund, Americans United for Separation of Church & State, the Industrial Areas Foundation, the Highlander Research and Education Center, and my alma maters, Auburn Seminary and Union Theological Seminary, NYC.
Wake Up. Discern. Act.
October 15: As I reflect upon why the Israeli-Palestinian conflict has been central in my professional and personal decisions and choices, I find this quote from Bryan Stevenson to be apt:
- The New Israel Fund: October 13th Statement: https://www.nif.org/press-releases/nif-ceo-bring-them-home/
- Auburn Seminary: https://auburnseminary.org;
Sent an email yesterday, Saturday, October 14th, with the following petition to sign:
Click here to sign your name now.
I highly recommend adding your name to their email list & signing this petition.
War in Israel and Gaza, 2023:
October 13: There are myriad news outlets to receive daily & hourly updates of the horrors unfolding in Israel & Gaza. As one white American Christian who ordinarily hangs out with the left, progressive wing of American Christianity, all week my sense has been to listen, to grieve, to reach out to Jews and Palestinians with whom I have relationship.
This feels like a time to be a chaplain, to mourn, to lament, to offer comfort, solace, and care. I do not feel called or equipped in this moment to be prophetic. I cling to the strong prophetic tradition within American Christianity regarding civil and human rights.
I trust that day will come. But not today. Today is about mourning, grieving, lamenting. It’s about listening. Deep listening.
Stay awake dear siblings
This week, the week of June 27, 2022, the US Supreme Court will hand down another crucial decision on the First Amendment: Kennedy v. Bremerton. This case is about Coach Kennedy who began conducting public Christian prayers at the 50 yard line following football games at a public high school in Bremerton, Washington.
As Americans United explains: Coach Kennedy violated the religious freedom of students by pressuring them to join his public prayers at the 50 yard line after their football games.
Let’s see if a majority of the US Supreme Court justices understand the principle of separation of religion and state. The future of our secular democracy depends upon it.
The First Amendment states:
Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.
I have purposely bolded the words which pertain to the popular culture verbiage: freedom of religion. Our current crisis in the United States is that an ultra-conservative christian minority is falsely claiming religious persecution while infringing upon and seeking to take away the rights of women, LGBTQIA, immigrants, Muslims, Jews, Atheists, because they claim it’s their religious freedom to do so. It is not. They want to establish their religion as THE religion of the our country. This is unconstitutional. Read the First Amendment. Understand the First Amendment. There shall be no law establishing a religion. The US is not a christian nation. We are a secular democracy.
Overturning Roe v. Wade
Make no mistake, the US Supreme Court decision to overturn Roe v. Wade is what white christian nationalism looks like. Do the research about the Black & Brown women who are disproportionately impacted by this decision. This ruling is a building block of the long game of a reactionary religious minority wanting to establish their vision of a theocratic country. Buckle up dear ones for the long haul as our Indigenous, Black and Brown siblings have been demonstrating for centuries. The arc of the moral universe is long and always bends toward justice.
Authority & Power
Today is my 60th birthday, June 23, 2022. Today I celebrate the gifts of power and authority which have accompanied me from the earliest memories of my childhood.
The word authority comes from the Latin roots meaning originator, promoter. The correlating word, author, includes the English roots of authentic, invents and causes.
The word power comes from the Latin root to be able which many of us can recognize in the Spanish word poder.
In the US, white christian nationalism has been actively attempting to undermine & usurp power and authority to create a theocracy which enshrines a punitive hierarchical God who ordains white straight rich christian men to be the rulers, tyrants, dictators, demigods, power-worshippers of the world.
For the rest of my life I will speak out, step up and sacrifice my power and authority to be clear: I have never and will never believe, follow, teach or preach about any god who hates & punishes. And I will never support, follow or remain silent when my neighbors, congregants or fellow citizens misuse religion to restrict voting rights, criminal justice reform rights, reparation rights, land rights, women’s rights, LGBTQIA rights, immigrant rights, Jewish/Muslim/Sikh/Hindu/Secular rights, labor union rights, public education rights, regulation rights.
For me God is not an external being, power in the sky, orchestrating our lives. Instead for me God is the energy within me and all around me to know and claim my inner power and authority to do right & good which often requires sacrifice. And it is not my right to force or coerce others to believe what I believe. And it is most definitely not my right to support legislation, laws, opinions which allow one religion to restrict the rights of others based on a religious belief. That is what theocracies, autocracies, dictatorships do. Not secular democracies.
A majority of the US Supreme Court do not understand this principle. A majority of Republican US Senators and Representatives do not understand this principle. Many Republican US Governors and State Legislators do not understand this. It’s time to speak up, step up and sacrifice our desires to be liked and refute these horrendous abuses of religion in the name of white christian power and authority. May the strength & energy of good and right prevail.
Inner Work
The reality of humans not doing their inner work combined with a global pandemic, climate crisis, crumbling white supremacy culture produces a toxic mixture of people acting in childish and dangerous ways that reveal the high level of arrested development, especially in white people.
Do the inner work necessary to meet this moment and every moment. Death is coming to us all.
The question is how do we want to live? Do the inner work.
Accountability
Twelve days into 2021, we continue to grapple with the ongoing crises of COVID, economic devastation, racial injustice, and political misconduct at the highest levels of our nation’s government. As more information becomes known about last Wednesday’s insurrectionist attacks on the U.S.Capitol, I listen, read, ponder and discern. What are formative experiences in your life from which you can glean insights for our current realities?
I share with you insights I learned the hard way 28 years ago as a young pastor in my first call. The head of staff pastor, who had been my boss, colleague, mentor & friend, was found guilty of egregious sexual misconduct with multiple women in the congregation. He was married with two young children and had been abusing his clerical power within the trusted relationships of pastor-congregant. When a special investigative committee of the Presbytery conducted an extensive investigation of his behavior, including his interactions with me as an associate pastor, they concluded their investigation with more than 40 charges of sexual harassment & sexual misconduct.
As you might imagine, this was a huge shock to the congregation & church staff. Emotions ranged from disbelief, outrage, fear, to sadness and profound loss. As people navigated these emotions over the days and weeks that followed, one disturbing response emerged. Congregants approached me, other staff and one another, talking about the need for forgiveness, healing, reconciliation. Although not surprised by this reaction, I was disheartened. Nevertheless, I remained clear and firm in my new understanding and communications that this pastor needed to be held accountable for his behavior and should no longer remain a clergy person. Luckily there was a majority of people in the church & Presbytery who felt the same.
An enduring lesson for me from this trial and baptism by fire, especially in a religious setting, was the danger of rushing to forgiveness instead of staying present to the reality of accountability and consequences. I explained to congregants that although this pastor was a child of God and deserving of compassion, he was not entitled to his job and position as a pastor.
Witnessing the current reactions and responses to the violent attacks and brazen misconduct perpetrated January 6th by the US President, by US lawmakers and by thousands of US citizens, it is clear to me their actions were egregious examples of misconduct which need to be investigated and brought to justice. As someone who is against the death penalty, I do not wish ill will or violence upon their bodies; however, I do believe these perpetrators need to lose their jobs and positions of power.
A lethal legacy of white supremacy in our country is the sickness of using Christian values like forgiveness and healing to circumvent justice and accountability for White persons in power who are guilty of horrendous crimes. This white christian shortcut of absolution has only served to embolden a sense of superiority and harden the hearts of white Americans instead of the truth-telling required for real reconciliation and healing.
Patience
Today is Friday, November 6, 2020. The Word of these past 48 hours has been patience. The etymology of patience is from the Latin word for suffering. How appropriate.
American culture is not known for its patience because we are a culture obsessed with avoidance & denial of suffering. Perhaps these days of waiting are an invitation to turn patience into a practice.
What does patience look like for you? What are ways to acknowledge our individual and collective suffering, as humans and as Americans?
In the coming days, I will practice patience, when I’m driving. Maybe I’ll not get so angry when I get behind a slow driver or when a fast driver is on my tail. Or I can practice patience, wearing my mask, while waiting in line at the grocery store, post office, doctor’s office. Or I will practice more patience at home, with myself and with Chris. Remembering to breathe. Slow down. Do one thing at a time.
We never know the depths of human suffering our neighbors, colleagues, fellow citizens endure. Our patience might just be the act of kindness required for healing. May it be so.
Present Moment
Today is Election Day, November 3, 2020. It is 3pmEST in Asheville, NC. We are having glorious sunshine, in the high 50’s. A cursory look at cities across the U.S., sunshine prevails. Perhaps a sign that Mother Earth is ready to turn, in a big way!
I share the hymn: The Canticle of the Turning, based on Mary’s Magnificat:
Tuesdays are one of my sabbath days. On this historic Election Day, I am lucky to practice slowing down, reconnecting with the flow of my inner rhythms. I ate a healthy, tasty breakfast and lunch. I used my new Rad balls, while lying on the floor, to release trigger point stressors in my muscles. I trimmed the orchid plants. I am laundering towels. I’ve edited Chris’ weekly ACT column. I’ve been listening to NPR’s Here & Now, and 1A.
With gusto, I sang, cried & danced to The Canticle of the Turning.
And now I’m writing this blog post.
I am not feeling anxious. Instead, I am feeling hope-filled as historic numbers of US citizens have already voted, and are voting today. I trust and believe this unprecedented turnout of millions of Americans during a deadly pandemic exemplifies the best of human perseverance and steely determination. So, right now, in this present moment, on this beautiful fall day in the Blue Ridge mountains, I am feeling inspired, open-hearted, and ready to face what lies ahead tonight, tomorrow and in the coming days.
Grief & Rebirth
On this last day of October, the night of a blue moon, it is also the Wiccan celebration of Samhain, the Celtic New Year, which commemorates the dying God who returns to the womb of the Goddess preparing for rebirth at the Yule.
Thanks to http://www.multifaithcalendar.org
What an appropriate time to honor the souls of all who’ve died this past year, as well as the deaths of our own dreams and hopes.
Trusting the wisdom of Creation in these challenging days of human frailty and failings, what is dying within you, preparing for rebirth?
Preparing for 2020 Election
Born in Washington, DC, and raised in the Maryland suburbs, we used to say that our local news was national & international news. 58 years later, it’s hard for me to shake my fascination and addiction to national & international politics. I’m thankful for the ways the DC metropolitan area formed me as a world citizen.
Nevertheless, as we approach November 3, 2020, it’s clear to me that my power and greatest impact, along with voting, is how I act and respond in these coming days of increasing stress, uncertainty and anxious waiting.
My daily practice throughout the rest of October, November and December will be to notice when I’m “othering” those with whom I disagree, sometimes vehemently, and figure out how to speak & act without using venom and rage.
I truly believe there is always a third, fourth, fifth way forward in these polarized, fractured times. For example, as we anticipate the Senate confirmation of Judge Barrett, I sense and trust there are multiple ways forward, including state legislatures passing good, strong laws that protect a woman’s privacy regarding reproductive rights, power over her own body and her right to choose what is best for her body, her psyche and her family.
Such efforts will require time, sacrifice and much struggle. When I feel despondent, I remember Lucretia Mott, Sojourner Truth, Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Susan B. Anthony, and Frederick Douglass, none of whom were alive when the 19th amendment to the Constitution was ratified or the Voting Rights Act was passed. Yet they never relented in their struggle for justice.
Dear White siblings, be not fooled.
When the President of the U.S. and his entourage, (it’s important to learn their names and positions of power) impulsively decided to walk across the street from the White House to a House of God, their instincts reveal White Supremacy & Christian Nationalism. The videos and photos portray it pure and simple.
If any of the 5-7 White people who walked the hundred plus yards had stopped to acknowledge the humanity, the dignity, the presence of the protestors, the clergy, the media, the police, their actions would have illustrated common decency.
Instead, they were blindly focused on their goal, which was to cross the street, stand in front of a church none of them attend, hold up a Bible as if it were the Flag, (both idolatrous) and blaspheme religious institutions while disgracing the executive branch of the U.S. government.
White siblings, it’s time to stand down. To acknowledge and disrupt our practices of power hoarding & paternalism. It’s been killing Brown & Black bodies since 1619 and it’s killing us. Credit due Tema Okun and her work on white supremacy culture, changework.
Today is the last day of May 2020
The U.S. convulses from 400 years of White people not naming, facing, repairing two truths: White people stole this land from the Native peoples and White people built unjust and racist economic, political & legal systems upon the necks, backs and bodies of Black peoples, through slavery, segregation, redlining, mass incarceration and militarized police.
Genocides of Native & Black peoples. These are the dual pandemics which have infected our nation for over 4 centuries. COVID 19 lays bare what Black and Brown peoples have always known. White Supremacy is the underlying sickness which must be named. It starts with me.
Reverend Carol Hovis 