The idea for this sermon came several years ago when I prepared a reading for Letty Bergstrom’s memorial service. Her son Lee is a true Star Trek fan and I wanted something that would speak for him and to him. I quoted from the episode called “The City on the Edge of Forever” in which one person’s life or death, Edith Keeler played by Joan Collins, changed the world. In my memorial I said that while we are not privy to all the things that happen as a result of the interactions of our own lives, the potential for great change is possible with every single life and life interaction, and that Letty’s life was a life which had impacted many and had, perhaps, changed the world. We all have the potential for such a life.
After the memorial service I was a bit trepidations about the reaction from the crowd. I was so very gratified at the number of UUs who came forward and also confessed their love of Star Trek and appreciation for what I said. Some of those confessors are a part of the service this morning. This was in stark contrast to my using both Star Wars and Star Trek references in worship and memorials way back when I was a part of another faith path. Then, when I mentioned those science fiction references, I was looked at as if I had two heads and there was usually dead silence….I know that this is the time for this sermon, with a new Star Trek movie out and a new vision of hope that we seem to be experiencing in our country. To have the support of my congregation to do this, well,…it is sometimes soooo good to be a Unitarian Universalist.
A few weeks ago our minister Bruce Russell-Jayne did a sermon on the importance of myths. I’m not going to reiterate anything from his sermon except to say that myths are a part of our lives and to our quest for understanding. I will add though, that in my way of thinking, the television and movies of our time are the myths of our time. I think Joseph Campbell would agree that the paradigms we see on TV and in the movies inform us ethically and theologically every day. Joseph Campbell said “A myth is the dynamic of life. You may or may not know it, and the myth you may be respectfully worshipping on Sunday may not be the one that's really working in your heart and the one that's out there in the view of your religious instructors.” I have thought for a long time that faith communities ought to be paying more attention to the myths of today because their almost limitless exposure to the world surely has more impact than any Sunday morning church service or even religious national convention. The Star Trek phenomenon, as talked about in our readings today, has hit four plus decades of viewers and countless millions of people with a different ethos and vision for the future. It is very powerful stuff.
There were many ways to try to organize my thoughts on Star Trek. There’s a Star trek Ten Commandments. There is a quiz to see which Trek character you might be. I think Star Trek is a category in Belief.net. There are plenty of ways to look at the ethics and theology of Star Trek but I thought I would comment on some Star Trek Principles as compared to our seven UU principles. The more I wrote the more I wondered if somehow Gene Roddenberry was a UU…Does anyone know that answer?
Principle one: The Inherent Worth and Dignity of Every Person.
In a Trek world we know it is the worth and dignity of every living thing. The prime directive states there can be no interference with the internal affairs of another culture. This includes its history timeline and development. In one of the first time travel episodes called “Tomorrow is Yesterday” we find the Enterprise back in earth 1969 where it is spotted by an early astronaut. Captain John Christopher ends up aboard the Enterprise and the question is just what to do with him. It turns out that he has to be returned to his time and place because his descendent is someone who alters the future of the entire space movement. Without Christopher’s return the Enterprise will be no more. The crew figures out how to return him and themselves to the proper time and place and none is worse for the experience. Every person has worth and dignity in the Star Trek world. Some persons even are hinges for the future. As I continue to talk about our other principles you will find this value for every person of worth and dignity reflected in all of the show themes.
Principle two: Justice, equity and compassion in human relations.
Star trek looked at equity and compassion in human relations on many levels. I know that the first interracial kiss on TV was in “Plato’s Stepchildren” where alien Greek “Gods” with fantastic powers cause Kirk and Uhura to kiss. On the bridge we have a Russian, a Chinese, an African Woman, a White American-ish captain, a Scott engineer and a half Vulcan half human science officer. All are treated with respect. Gender, Race, Ethnicity all are parts of the characters but not really noticed or commented on except as a part of the person’s character or being. There is no hierarchy of race or gender or belief.
One of the reasons I so much prefer the Star Trek world, to the Star Wars world, is that in Star Trek all start out equal and are viewed as equal. When Star Wars introduced the Mitoclorines as an explanation for the level of connectivity to the force and It’s power, it put in a hierarchy based on chemistry, birth and blood. Aparantly not everyone can be a Jedi. And even if you are a Jedi your mitochlorine level impacts your successfulness and your powers. Star Trek implies that anyone can be anything and can find their best possible person.
Compassion for human relations can be seen in gender equality and sexual orientation and identity themes in Star Trek Next Generation. In one episode we find a race that is gender neutral and that tries to de-program anyone who chooses to identify as a female or a male. In that world you have to hide your proclivities of a sexual identity and an orientation if it isn’t androgynous, the planet norm. That turns your perceptions upside down and makes you think. In other episodes we see a symbiant race that changes gender when the symbiant takes on a new host. Dr. Crusher finds herself in love with the symbiant and challenged by the change from a male to a female host body. What is love anyway? How tied to our bodies is the expression of that love? And let’s think about the challenges of interspecies dating and mating. These episodes and others challenge our ideas about identity and about orientation all the while fostering justice, equity and compassion. Gender equality even came to Star Trek for me when the introduction was changed. In original Star Trek we “Boldy Go where no man has gone before” but in Next Generation we go “where on ONE has gone before”. I can’t tell you how important that small change was for me. I wait for it in each and every introduction. I’m happy to say that the new movie, while about “Original Trek” says no ONE has gone before.
Principle three: Acceptance of one another and encouragement to spiritual growth in our congregations.
When we are introduced to a religious ritual in “Amok Time” I think it is the first time a member of the crew participates in any religious ceremony. The story is about when Spock experiences the “Pon Farr”. We find Spock loosing his mind over his need to return to the planet Vulcan to mate. What was amazing to me was the way that the religion of Vulcan was portrayed… it was ancient and full of bells and costume and words and ritual with a presiding priestess no less. It was far from rational and emotionless… almost the opposite of what I thought a Vulcan ritual would be. It was sort of archaic.. In my modern protestant upbringing I had been taught that all that old stuff was not important – ritual wasn’t important – bells and whistles and trappings weren’t important. – such things were just story and myth not religion. This was probably my first exposure to the idea of a priestess… a female religious leader. I wasn’t cognizant of the importance of that realization at the time but it was a different vision for me than I had been exposed to before.
Those that accompany Spock to his ritual never make any comments that are negative. They are respectful of the traditions of the planet and the situation. We find this theme again and again in future shows as we encounter the very structured religion of the Klingons with Lieutenant Worf on Next Generation. In original Trek we are also exposed to a Native American Planet, Witchcraft, Greek Gods and in every case we find our Starfleet personnel to be respectful and non-invasive. I like to think that the Star Trek model is close to what I find when I work with the 17 faith communities that are a part of MARCC, the Metropolitan Area Religious Coalition of Cincinnati. The ideas that religion is important, and that we should respect ceremony, and live and let live, and that no faith path is better than any other, are all included in MARCC’s philosophy. In Star Trek all are faith paths are respected and all faith paths are very personal. On the rare occasions that there is a service in Star Trek that includes everyone, like a memorial service for a fallen comrade, it seems very humanist and eclectic most of the time, with elements that may personalize it towards the individual who has passed. That surely sounds like a Unitarian Universalist memorial service if ever I saw one.
Principle four: A free and responsible search for truth and meaning.
Probably the moment with the most impact on truth and meaning for me had to do with race in an episode called “Let that be your last battlefield”. In it two aliens, each half white and half black land on the bridge of the enterprise and one announces he is in pursuit of the other because he is an outlaw. The outlaw says he is avoiding persecution and slavery. The crew says – but you are both the same – the guest say absolutely not -- The question gets asked… Why the persecution?.. the answer “because he is inferior… He is black on the right side and white on the left while I am the superior black on the left side and white on the right”….. WOW prejudice summed up with infinite simplicity. In the end the two characters’s fighting each other annihilate themselves and their entire race. Before the explanation they look the same. We are confronted with a new look at racism.
On the bridge the Enterprise officers are different races and ethnicity but are all equal as members of star fleet. There is a command structure but that only relates to the ongoing work and structure of the starship. There are so many subtle messages of justice and equality. We also see many examples of laws and times where laws don’t work in the alternate universes and timelines in Trek. The thought that laws can change how a culture behaves and that there are overarching principles like the Prime Directive make Star Trek views of justice very special.
Principle five: The right of conscience and the use of the democratic process within our congregations and society at large.
The democratic process of the Federation of Planets is shown much more in the Star Trek movies which are later additions to the franchise. The idea that each planet can have a vote and be a part of the planning for the federation is important. It is very much a United Nations Model at it’s best. In Next Generation we also see the opposite of a free will society in the society of the BORG. In the Borg we find lack of individuality. We do see a hive mentality and in the hive it is one for all and all for one, but the personhood of the individual members of the Borg after they have been “Assimilated” does not exist. The Borg becomes the enemy, the Other. The very structure of the plug in personnel of the Borg is a visual reminder of its different structure.
The right of conscience for me is most expressed in Next Generation in the many shows that deal with Commander Data, the android, and his search for recognition of his sentience. In discussing Data’s rights to own himself, and in re-defining life so that he has his own choice and his own free will, we enter into many great discussions on what it is to be human and to have your own conscience or free will. I love that the show challenges the idea that one person or group can speak for or do better for another group. Hopefully we have gotten away from colonial ideas. Hopefully we have gotten away from the idea that one group or one government has a better plan for individuals than they have for themselves. Again Star Trek brings out these important questions and gives us a vision and a framework in which to discuss them.
Principle six: The goal of world community with peace liberty and justice for all.
Star Fleet had a very specific set of rules and a very specific set of hirchy. It was also true that whenever possible the members of Star Fleet fostered autonomy of the races it was in contact with. However, sometimes the show did point out the places where laws were unjust.
In the world of Trek we are told that hunger and homelessness and most illnesses are all gone. There is enough for everyone and everyone has enough. We know this to be true of earth and of the Federation since we see all working together for the common good daily. I remember back in my college days we were starry eyed and I guess I still am. I participated in CROP walks that were supposed to help feed the planet. I read then and keep reading that the world has enough resources to feed and shelter every human being on the planet. I still don’t understand why we havn’t accomplished this. I don’t understand why power and financial gain has kept basic life needs from so many of the population of the world. Many call me naive… I like to think I am a visionary, or at least that I am hopeful. When I went to the convention of “The Network of Spiritual Progressives” in 2006 they called for a global “Marshal Plan” to accomplish just this. If Star Trek can do it why can’t we have that vision? I look at the resolutions of our Unitarian Universalist General Assembly and I see the same types of vision. I hope that I can see the world in a better place before I leave it. Wouldn’t it be incredible if everyone had enough food and shelter and education and healthcare.
Principle seven: Respect for the interdependent web of existence of which we are a part.
When I was a little child I got the notion somewhere that the trees and rocks were alive and communicate with each other, and that somehow their communication was just slower or on a different level that I, as a person, could not understand. Well… the first visual of that idea I ever saw was the “horta” in the episode “The Devil in the Dark”. In this episode we find that the deaths of 50 miners on a remote planet was due to the “Horta”. The mother Horta was a silicone based rocklike creature. She defended of her eggs and her future generations and it was only after Spock mind melded with her that her situation was understood. On the screen I see a most improbable life form end up working with the miners. Even her hatching children help in the digging of tunnels to mine for the treasured dilithem crystals. This episode said to me that all life is precious and has meaning and that we may not at first recognize it’s gifts but if we learn and talk we can all work together. I also think it may have informed a part of my eventual earth-based spirituality… Every part of life is important and significant, we just need to take the time to listen and understand it.
Several plots dealt with planet wide environmental issues. Another favorite of mine from original Star Trek was the episode called “The Cloud Miners”. In it the troglodytes are supposedly an inferior race on a planet where the rulers live in the clouds. It is because of their proximity to waste gases on the surface of the planet that the surface dwelling troglodytes appear to be retarded and slow. The word Troglodyte even entered normal speech as meaning someone who was slow and uneducated and illiterate. The two species are seen eventually to be the same genetic species and they are re-educated towards a happier and more equal life as one group. The interdependent Web of life is shown and comes to be celebrated.
Through all of the episodes and movies and different generations Star Trek keeps a positive view of our future. It tells us we can work together. It tells us that humanity’s problems can be solved and that we have a future because we did or do not choose to annihilate each other. It tells us that science and working together can do anything. Thank you for listening and I’m sure we can have many good discussions on these various themes. Keep the vision going. Keep the possibilities for the future open and positive.
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