October 2008

The Heart of Atonement

BY SUSAN LAMAR, MINISTER, CHANNING MEMORIAL CHURCH, UNITARIAN UNIVERSALIST,
ELLICOTT CITY, MARYLAND

Did you follow the events that unfolded in Jena, Louisiana over the last couple of years? Somehow those events are in the forefront of my mind as I reflect on this season of the Jewish High Holy Days, of Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement.

Let me go back: In September of 2006, a few black students at Jena high school sat under a tree where only white students had previously sat. The next day, there were three nooses hanging from the tree. The school super