Read this week’s full issue of our email newsletter here: The Weekly Liberal Sept. 27.

In this week’s issue, Rev. Jen Crow writes:

Like many of you, I imagine, I have spent the day tuned in to the testimony of Dr. Christine Blasey Ford as she speaks to the Senate confirmation committee regarding her experiences with Judge Kavanaugh when they were high school students. I can’t seem to stop listening, even though there is so much else to do, and even though I feel deeply unsettled with every question about her character, her memory, and her integrity. My heart ached for her as she detailed the death threats, invasions of privacy and accusations she has faced since coming forward. At one point, the prosecutor who is standing in for every Republican voice on the committee suggested that Dr. Ford might be a pawn of the Democrats, set up to destroy Judge Kavanaugh. Yesterday, at a press conference, President Trump suggested that behind closed doors Democrats were laughing at how gullible the American people are in believing Dr. Ford.

Then today, I hear Dr. Ford say that her most indelible memory of the night of her attack was the laughter of her attackers. How they were having a good time while she suffered not only that night but for many nights to come. Now she can add to that memory the disrespect of her President and so far, the blanket dismissal of many of our national leaders. I am a deeply optimistic and fun-loving person, and there is nothing about this situation that calls for laughter.

The president of our Unitarian Universalist Association, the Reverend Susan Frederick-Gray, is in Washington today, bearing witness to these hearings and bringing our voices with her. I’ve been on the phone with my senators today, asking them to insist on a full investigation of the now several accusations against Judge Kavanaugh. I’ve been reaching out to friends and colleagues who have experienced sexual assault, and I’ve been thinking about all of you.

These are difficult times in our national discourse. Deeply personal and systemic experiences of trauma and oppression are being debated publicly, often without much regard for the very real people who have been harmed.

My prayer today and every day is that we as individuals and as a nation might listen more carefully to the voices of those without power, to those who live on the margins, that their humanity and worth might be centered. And I pray for each of us who has experienced sexual violence, whether as the victim or the perpetrator or as a loved one offering support, that we might all find wholeness and a way forward grounded in healing and love.

If difficult thoughts or memories, feelings or questions are coming up for you, I hope you might reach out to any of us here at church or to someone else that you trust. You don’t have to carry this burden alone.

In faith,

Rev. Jen Crow