2023 Response to Berry Street Essay: The Reverend Elizabeth Stevens

Berry Street Essay Response #1
Rev. Elizabeth Stevens

I want to begin by thanking Cecilia for her brilliant and necessary words, and the assembled conference for allowing me the honor of responding. I am Elizabeth Stevens.  I use she/her pronouns, and am a middle aged white woman with blond hair.  I am honored to serve as the minister of the Unitarian Universalist Church of the Palouse in Moscow, Idaho.  In the civil conflict that Cecilia described, my remarks are best understood as a dispatch from behind enemy lines.

At this point, the state of Idaho is essentially under the political control of fascist extremists.   When I arrived in 2012, Idaho was already a red state.  However- in the ten years I’ve been an Idahoan, I’ve watched as traditional republicans- fiscal conservatives who were willing to mind their own business on social issues- were ruthlessly primaried if they failed to toe the extremist line.  The primaries were bankrolled largely by out-of-state interests, including the Koch brothers.

Two brilliant, kind, Democratic senators- members of my congregation- both lost their bids for re-election to a guy named Dan Foreman, who’s top priority is to push through a bill that would allow prosecutors to charge people who get abortions and their doctors with first degree murder, rendering them eligible to receive the death penalty.  Mind you, Idaho already has some of the most restrictive abortion laws in the country.  In the last legislative cycle, gender affirming care for minors was criminalized, as was helping anyone under the age of 18 across state lines to access reproductive care.  A bill that would make libraries liable for so-called ‘harmful’ material passed both houses- and the vote to override a gubernatorial veto lost by a single ‘nay.’  

The extremists aren’t just going after schools that offer critical race theory.  They are trying to cut funding for anti-bullying programming, which makes a sick kind of sense, because fascist tactics look and feel a lot like bullying.

Last fall, a memo went out to University of Idaho faculty and staff letting them know that any conversation or research related to abortion or birth control could open them to legal action.  Meanwhile, health professionals are leaving the state so that they don’t get caught between the rock of the Idaho laws and the hard place of their professional ethics.   In March, Bonner General Health in Sandpoint closed its obstetrics unit because the doctors didn’t feel safe practicing.  

My little town is also home to a Dominionist cult.  They’ve done the math and believe that they can ‘take over’ in time.  They terrorized our city council over mask mandates, and they’re currently hanging flags celebrating the overturn of Roe v. Wade in a deliberate attempt to ‘counteract’ the rainbow flags flying in honor of pride. 

But in this bleak context, the congregation I serve is flourishing.  More than flourishing.  My amazing, wonderful folks continually amaze and humble me with their generosity, grace and commitment.  We just completed a big building renovation and expansion project.  My favorite part is the giant rainbow chalice stained glass window that shines out over the entire town, 24/7.  I attribute our success largely to the fact that we simply don’t have time for fake fights,.  The real ones we are in have high stakes!   We talk a lot about how we can leverage our privilege, and we understand that having a community that will support us when our values lead us to acts deemed criminal by the fascists is, itself, a privilege.  Yes, I said ‘when,’ not ‘if.’

And those cult members?  They are our neighbors, and those of us who can safely do so keep trying to build bridges.  It’s hard to hate people you know- who brought you casseroles after you had surgery or shoveled your sidewalk for you after the last snowstorm.

Guided by the nourishing words of Black women like adrienne maree brown, Tricia Hersey, Octavia Butler, and Alexis Pauline Gumbs, we’ve come to understand and embody the deep truth that rest is resistance, joy is resistance, and living well is resistance.  Moscow has an amazing local music scene, and an incredible farmer’s market.  We’re surrounded by beautiful hiking trails and scenic rivers.   Most days I say at least once that my life is sweet, and it is!   

I’m reminded of an insight I brought home from a pilgrimage to Transylvania with Cecilia- that under a fascist regime, one of the most important tactics of resistance is to keep local culture alive and thriving. The sweetness grounds us and resources us for the acts of courage that are required.

In other words, behind enemy lines, resistance can look like committing felonies, but it can also look like cutting your neighbor’s lawn, or simply living well.  It looks like balancing fierce compassion and fierce self-compassion.  It looks like choosing, in any given moment, to embrace the power of love rather than yielding to our fear.  

We UU’s of the Palouse- along with our friends in Boise, the Twin Falls, Pocatello, Coeur d’Alene, and Idaho Falls- we are keeping the faith, along with other UU’s living behind enemy lines in radicalized states.  We feel you with us, sharing your strength and courage.  

Thank you.