Collective Humanity is the Light of the World | July 27, 2025 | Karen Melander-Magoon, D. Min

On July 4^th, 2025, on our national holiday celebration of Independence, a tragic flood occurred in Camp Mystic, Texas as a result of flash floods on the Guadalupe River.  Many lives were lost where the proprietor, who also drowned in the flooding, had been asking for years that measures be taken not only to make the area safer but to have better observation and surveillance during peak flood times.

As the girls who slept by the Guadalupe River at Camp Mystic in Texas and who drowned from the quickly rising rainwaters were being remembered and mourned, I heard this said on KQED radio: “In Mystic, Texas, the light will ever shine because you girls are the light of the world”.

That reference came from Matthew 5:14-16

¹⁴ “You are the light of the world. A town built on a hill cannot be hidden. ¹⁵ Neither do people light a lamp and put it under a bowl. Instead they put it on its stand, and it gives light to everyone in the house. ¹⁶ In the same way, let your light shine before others, that they may see your good deeds.....”

The campers, some as young as 11 years old, who died unnecessarily, drowned by a river famous for its quick rise during rains, especially after a long drought---- will be remembered as long as there is a river in Texas called Guadalupe.  They will be remembered for their laughter, for their love, for their comradeship, their energy and youth and happiness and helping one another----for being the light of the world.

Several young counselors at Camp Mystic demonstrated incredible bravery and selflessness during the recent flooding, helping to save many campers. Paloma Puente, a 19-year-old counselor, guided 17 girls to safety through chest-high water. Two Mexican counselors, Silvana Garza and María Paula Zárate, focused on distracting and entertaining the younger girls in their cabin, despite their own fears, even having them write their names on their skin so they could be recognized if they disappeared----until they could be evacuated. Counselors like Annabelle Fitzenhagen helped save individual campers, like 9-year-old Tiny (Clementine) and others like her by leading them out broken windows and up a hill to wait in the mud for help, without shoes and warm clothing.

All who help, all who care, all who speak for justice and take risks to save others---- all are the light of the world.

I read that pygmy chimpanzees---I think they are called Bonobo---have shown in experiments a pattern of caring for others and not accepting inequities, even refusing rewards that are distributed unequally.  We know that both birds and mammals stay by their mates when they are ill or dying.  A whale mother carried her still born baby on her back for several months until the dead baby simply dropped off into the deep waters of the ocean and the mother had to swim on.

Evolution has led us down paths of compassion and service to others.  Perhaps that is how we survive.  Surely, that is what makes life worthwhile for all of us.  During this era of our president’s crackdown on immigrants, there have been amazing stories of heroism among those at risk for arrest in helping immigrants find housing and work and avoid ICE agents.   LA Mayor Karen Bass has patrolled the streets and sued Trump’s administration for imposing federal troops on the citizens of Los Angeles.  Trump in turn is suing Los Angeles for resisting the authority of the US government.

Similarly, thousands have taken up the challenge to oppose our administration arresting and detaining students who speak up for Palestinian rights.  Universities have long experienced challenges to their rights of free speech, including opposition to crackdowns on those sympathetic to communism during the McCarthy era.

If there are institutions particularly entrusted with the work to protect and encourage free speech and debate, that would be our colleges and universities.  They bear a special responsibility for being a “light to the world”. 

Mahmoud Khalil, a Palestinian student activist, born as a Palestinian refugee in Syria and a legal permanent resident married to a US citizen, was detained by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) during protests at Colombia University against Israel's war in Gaza. Mahmoud did not participate in the student encampments, fearing he would lose his visa, but he was a primary speaker for Palestinian rights at the student gatherings. He was taken into custody by ICE agents, held in Louisiana, and missed the birth of his first child. He was eventually released after over 1.7 million protestors around the world demanded his freedom. He has since filed a $20 million claim against the Trump administration for his treatment, alleging that his detention was unlawful and retaliatory.

Khalil became a focal point for Trump's crackdown on student protestors. He is aware that possible consequences for his actions and his lawsuit, for which any gains would help support student activists, will probably prevent his further studies at Colombia and even his receiving his Master’s Degree, for which he has already completed the necessary requirements.  He might even be deported as the case against him continues, simply for exercising his rights to free speech.

Mahmoud Khalil, and all who speak up against injustice, are lights on the hill, lights that are not hidden but shine for all of us.

For Howard Thurman, being a "light on the hill" wasn't about seeking personal glorification, but about becoming a beacon of hope and justice for the world. He spoke of an inward journey of self-discovery and spiritual growth, believing that personal transformation was necessary for meaningful social change. This emphasis on inner change aligns with his quote, "The inward journey...is a beacon of hope amid [difficult] times."

We know Howard Thurman's philosophy deeply influenced the Civil Rights Movement and leaders like Martin Luther King Jr., who often carried Thurman's book Jesus and the Disinherited with him. There we read of how Jesus taught survival for the oppressed and the importance of non-violent resistance as a path to social regeneration, uniting all races, peoples, and faiths, as exemplified in our own Church for the Fellowship of all Peoples. Thurman criticized institutional churches for often being complicit in segregation and injustice.  He felt that to be a “light on the hill”, we needed to find our core purpose, to support the oppressed and disinherited and dismantle systems of oppression.

If we are to keep our light shining for all, we must learn to live authentically and build bridges across our differences rather than walls that hide our light.

That light might be the hope that Thurman believed wasn't found in external circumstances or strategies, but in the "small poem" within each person that provides imagination, energy, and perseverance. He emphasized the importance of nurturing this inner "dream in the heart" as a source of strength and resilience, particularly in the face of despair and injustice. 

In essence, Thurman's concept of "light on the hill" was a call to live authentically and compassionately, using one's inner light to illuminate paths towards justice and reconciliation for all people, while actively working to dismantle systems of oppression and build bridges across our differences and to show compassion to all. 

A lovely story comes to mind of a bus driver.  He or she could be in any city, but I have always had a great admiration for bus drivers here in San Francisco who demand safety but are amazingly patient with the diverse people who ride the bus.  This particular story comes to me about a bus driver in New York City driving a route ending near the Hudson River.  It was an ordinary afternoon, but extremely hot, and traffic had created a number of bottle necks so everyone was moving slowly.  The bus was full of tired, over-heated people. No one got up to help vulnerable people coming aboard the crowded bus; no one offered a seat to a very pregnant woman who got on the bus.  Two men yelled at each other about an unintentional shove. Finally, the bus driver got on the intercom and spoke to the passengers:  “Folks, I know it’s been a rough day for most of you and you’re pretty frustrated.  I can’t do anything about the weather or traffic but I can do one thing.  As each one of you gets off the bus, I will reach out my open hand to you.  As you leave the bus, please drop your troubles into the palm of my hand.  Don’t take your troubles home to your families tonight; just leave them with me.  When I drive by the Hudson River later, I will open the window and throw all your troubles out into the Hudson.”  It was as if a spell had been lifted and laughter broke out. People started grinning at each other. Where they had been angry or sullen, they suddenly became friendly and animated.  And at each stop, the driver reached out his hand, palm open. As the passengers exited, they offered their hands, palm down to mime dropping something in his open palm. And the driver dropped those troubles in the Hudson River. Somehow, that tiny gesture of humanity and compassion had changed the day for all the people on that bus. 

Nick Birnbach, at one time a political officer with the United Nations, received the Light on the Hill Award for outstanding work in peacekeeping from Tufts University.  In his acceptance speech he mentioned that what had prepared him best for peacemaking was observing human behavior in his work as a bartender and the uncompromising workloads he took on later in his career in his work for peace.  He had learned the essentials of peacemaking:  1) Always do what you say you’ll do—follow through on decisions; 2) Never resort to violence to resolve a quarrel you can’t stop; 3) Be there for the long-haul; some things take time, such as investments in health care and education; 4) When situations seem impossible to correct, “ring a bell”, speak up, get in touch with people with influence or power; don’t give up.

Thabo Mbeki, South African who served as the second democratic president of South Africa from June 14 1999 to September 2008, spoke eloquent words on May 8 1996 as deputy president under the presidency of Nelson Mandela.  The occasion was the ratification of the new Constitution of South Africa.  I will share some of his words:

I am an African…I have experience of the situation in which race and colour are used to enrich some and impoverish the rest. I have seen the corruption of minds and souls in the pursuit of an ignoble effort to perpetrate a veritable crime against humanity. I have seen concrete expression of the denial of the dignity of a human being emanating from the conscious, systemic and systematic oppressive and repressive activities of other human beings.

There the victims parade with no mask to hide the brutish reality - the beggars, the prostitutes, the street children, those who seek solace in substance abuse, those who have to steal to assuage hunger, those who have to lose their sanity because to be sane is to invite pain. All this I know and know to be true because I am an African! I am born of a people who would not tolerate oppression. I am of a nation that would not allow that fear of death, torture, imprisonment, exile or persecution should result in the perpetuation of injustice.

The constitution whose adoption we celebrate constitutes and unequivocal statement that we refuse to accept that our Africanness shall be defined by our race, colour, gender or historical origins. It is a firm assertion made by ourselves that South Africa belongs to all who live in it, black and white. It gives concrete expression to the sentiment we share as Africans, and will defend to the death, that the people shall govern. It recognizes the fact that the dignity of the individual is both an objective which society must pursue, and is a goal which cannot be separated from the material well-being of that individual. It seeks to create the situation in which all our people shall be free from fear, including the fear of the oppression of one national group by another, the fear of the disempowerment of one social echelon by another, the fear of the use of state power to deny anybody their fundamental human rights and the fear of tyranny.

It aims to open the doors so that those who were disadvantaged can assume their place in society as equals with their fellow human beings without regard to colour, race, gender, age or geographic dispersal. It provides the opportunity to enable each one and all to state their views, promote them, strive for their implementation in the process of governance without fear that a contrary view will be met with repression. It creates a law-governed society which shall be inimical to arbitrary rule. It enables the resolution of conflicts by peaceful means rather than resort to force. It rejoices in the diversity of our people and creates the space for all of us voluntarily to define ourselves as one people.

 As an African, this is an achievement of which I am proud, proud without reservation and proud without any feeling of conceit.

 This thing that we have done today, in this small corner of a great continent that has contributed so decisively to the evolution of humanity says that Africa reaffirms that she is continuing her rise from the ashes. Whatever the setbacks of the moment, nothing can stop us now! Whatever the difficulties, Africa shall be at peace! However improbable it may sound to the sceptics, Africa will prosper! Whoever we may be, whatever our immediate interest, however much we carry baggage from our past, however much we have been caught by the fashion of cynicism and loss of faith in the capacity of the people, let us stand together today and say - nothing can stop us now!

These words still echo today in the minds and hearts of all oppressed people.  They are words of courage and hope for all of us that we may learn to live and work together with faith in the capacity of the people to right wrongs and not allow injustice to govern them. Together we must learn to work better with our own planet to arrest climate change that results in the drowning of children or uncontrollable forest fires and hurricanes or the degradation of our oceans. Together we must work to end war and violence of one people on another. Together we must work to assure that no one and no group is elevated above others under law or civil order. Together we must insure that no people consider themselves special with the inherent right to occupy or rule over another, but rather that democracy and justice are enjoyed by everyone equally.

Mbeti spoke to celebrate South Africa’s new Constitution.  He spoke of Africa’s both glorious and painful past when he said “Nothing can stop us now!”  Unfortunately, he was caught in a political situation and had to resign the presidency, but continued to advocate for Africa and to aspire to be a light on the hill.

We too, can aspire to be lights on the hill to help shine for all who seek a path that is open to everyone.  We are strongest when we recognize the rights of the individual and the power and energy of the collective---all of us together--- a communal, national, and global intifada of peace and justice.