Has Love Left the Earth? | May 18, 2025 | Rev. Dr. Kathryn Benton

The opening clip is from a teacher of mine, Luisah Teish. Some of you know her. Others may have seen her at Fellowship Church on the occasion of my ordination. I chose this story to emphasize the richness of the African indigenous traditions that are part of the spirituality of the diaspora as well. I also was compelled to continue the consideration of the Goddess that I began a couple of weeks ago. The story about the Goddess Oshun leaving the earth high and dry, so to speak, seems to resonate deeply with our current situation. We have disrespected this presence…that of love, compassion, sensuousness… the sweet waters of the earth are polluted and are drying up. We are no longer that which was described by Hildegard as, most royal greening verdancy. Our Life Force…viriditas…greening power, vitality and vigor is gone. Instead, she wrote…

Now in the people that were meant to be green there is no more life of any kind. There is only shriveled barrenness. The winds are burdened by the utterly awful stink of evil, selfish goings-on. Thunderstorms menace. The air belches out the filthy uncleanliness of the peoples.

This, written in the 12th century and symbolized by Teish’s teaching of Oshun, is emblematic of our current situation; both in the natural world and in our human systems. The shriveled barrenness could be seen as the drying up of love and sweet water…of love leaving the planet. Teish talks about this separation in a similar way when she says that we need to look for manifestation of this story in the world around us. Teish describes the need for an apology to the Goddess. Is that where we are today? Do we need to ask the divine presence for an apology? Maybe, but remember what Oshun also said…don’t let it happen again!

This story impresses upon us today the importance of this power…the power of the divine feminine in our time…the importance of the greening power of nature being acknowledged, respected and honored. We can do this through welcoming the love…welcoming the sweet water…welcoming the sensuousness of Oshun into our current world and becoming the hands and feet…the current manifestation of the divine here on earth.

How does this look? What does it mean we need to do? Here is one example of what we are up against. It comes from the current leader of Burkina Faso, Ibrahim Traoré speaking at a meeting of the United Nations.

This treatise on the history of colonialism, rape and pillage of the African continent, despite its apparent call to military action, is, I believe, a call for the return of Oshun…the return of love to the world. His ability to speak truth to power…big power, has become inspiring to so many and may be what is needed today to return to a sense of honesty…of sincerity. It reminds me of the words of Dr. Howard Thurman in the book, Jesus and the Disinherited…

In the presence of an overwhelming sincerity on the part of the disinherited,

the dominant themselves are caught with no defense [...]

They are thrown back upon themselves for their rating.

Thurman wrote this in the chapter entitled, Deception. He was describing ways the disinherited could defend themselves. He says that sincerity is not necessarily a mechanism of defense against the strong but that it takes away the status upon which the powerful depend…in this case Neocolonial power. If we are able to call things what they are, then this might take away its normalcy…its acceptability. Imagine if we could overcome the current threat to our sense of justice and truth, of democracy and of peace…imagine if we were able to stop what my teacher Matthew Fox calls the Anti-Christ in the persona of our current president and his fellow conspirators.

Thurman continued in the chapter entitled Hate in Jesus and the Disinherited that during World War II, there was a rise in overt expressions of prejudice…hatred could be brought out in the open. This certainly resonates with our current situation. It is now open season on racism, sexism, homophobia, etc. And let’s be clear…this is hatred. Thurman goes on to say that hatred often begins in a situation in which there are contacts without fellowship. These are contacts that are surface level…they lack warmth and genuineness. This is fellowship on your own terms…not a sympathetic contact, for, he says, I can sympathize only when I see myself in another’s place. This is the foundation upon which Fellowship Church was built. Contacts that deepened over time were seen as ways to come to myself in you and have you come to yourself in me. 

But when this doesn’t happen, this lack of sympathy…this lack of compassion for our fellows, tends to express itself in the active functioning of ill will. This is the path that hatred takes. Thurman uses an example of the child that resents his parents, because he is being unfairly treated. He says that little by little his discontent…his resentment becomes hatred walking on the earth. This hatred then becomes a source of validation for your personality…a part of who a person is…such as a republican…a Trump supporter.

Thurman stresses that Jesus rejected hatred. He said that hatred meant death to the mind, death to the spirit, death to communion with the divine. Instead, Thurman said:

Thou must not make division.

Thy mind, heart, soul and strength must ever search

To find the way by which the road

To all [people’s] need of thee must go.

This is the Highway of the Lord.

Thurman goes on to write in the chapter entitled Love about the variety of ways to deal with the hate. He says that although we may be able to experience reconciliation with others, this is often difficult. But if we must not make division, love is required. But Thurman points out that to love them does not mean to condone what they have done. He writes…

Jesus demonstrated that the only way to redeem them for the common cause

was to penetrate their thick resistance to public opinion and esteem

and lay bare the simple heart.

To lay bare the simple heart! Yes, this is it. If we are not divided…if we are in reality all God’s children. Thurman continues…

The first step toward love is a common sharing of

a sense of mutual worth and value.

For the common cause then, love is needed. And Thurman says that this has to happen in a real situation, natural, free…a situation in which the love-ethic is at play…a situation of having contact with fellowship.

The question becomes: Are we able to have these experiences anymore or has love actually left the planet? Has Oshun been banished forever or can we apologize and invite her back? Are we able to promise not to do it again?

To be clear, we have the resources…both internally and externally. We have the ability to call on the Goddess Oshun…humbly asking for her presence…her support in the work to abolish hate…to bring back love, compassion and sensuousness…to bring back the sweet water and the viriditas. With the courage, imagination and strength of love we can transform our current reality. Heed the words of Dr. Dorsey Blake…

We have the imagination to [abolish these…forces],

to create security and peace as dew in the morning.

Now is the time!