Pearls of Wisdom

Vol. 37 No. 18 - I AM the Witness - May 1, 1994

 

I AM the Witness

Freedom of Religion in America
Threatened by Bigotry and Fanaticism

 

Dear Friends:

As you know, for the last nine years I have been preparing and performing a play on the life of Frederick Douglass, based directly upon his autobiographies, letters and speeches. Many of you have seen this presentation in several of its formats, and your response to it and your support of it have been the main strengths that have allowed this Douglass project to materialize and go forward. I hope that I have made my gratitude to you clearly understood, because no one knows better than I do just how dependent upon others I have been in making this project happen.

I have frequently thought when performing in front of an audience that that group of people were not just watching one man on a stage but in fact were seeing in action the results of hundreds of silent minds, hearts and hands united in the background.

Most if not all of you know that a number of years ago I made the decision to leave New York and Los Angeles, where I had been living and working, in order to move to Montana and live in a community that was spiritually oriented to a life focused around the beliefs of the church I had become a member of. The name of that church is Church Universal and Triumphant.

All of you are also aware, I believe, that on February 18 of this year Bill Moyers, a man held in great respect by the media today, presented a portion of my presentation on Frederick Douglass on his program, Bill Moyers’ Journal. The response that I have received from that program has been gratifying. You may not know, however, that eleven days later, NBC broadcast a program called “Ancient Prophecies,” which included a six-minute clip on my church and its spiritual leader, Elizabeth Clare Prophet. This clip showed how one group of people in this country–the members of my church–are dealing with the dangers that are so apparent in the world today and which have been the subject of prophecies for centuries.

These dangers have included the potential for war, economic debacle and other kinds of devastation that could impact our civilization. The clip also included a brief appearance by myself, speaking in support of a person providing himself with an underground shelter and food and water that would allow him to survive in such emergencies. The twelve to fifteen seconds that I was on camera included a caption that stated my name, Fred Morsell, and that I was a “church ministerial student.”  This caption was correct because it is my hope to become, at the conclusion of a four-year course of study, an ordained minister of Church Universal and Triumphant.

Among the many people who saw this clip were several persons from the city of Gastonia, North Carolina, where I appeared last year in November performing my school version of “Presenting Mr. Frederick Douglass” for several of the schools. A contract that had been negotiated by my agent for a return appearance there in September of this year was cancelled because there was fear that my association with a “New Age” religion–thought by many uninformed persons to be a “cult”–would bring pressure on the local schoolboard, who might be accused by Christian fundamentalists and extreme right-wingers in the area of “bringing a cult member to teach the young children of Gastonia.”

The word cult is a word that connotes fear; it reminds one of a circumstance in which someone has no freedom of choice. The media tell us that a member of a “cult” has been brainwashed; a member of a “cult” is programmed to do whatever is the will of a fanatical, ego-centered, unfeeling, selfish leader who has no qualms about making his or her followers do whatever is necessary to make that leader comfortable and happy.

When we hear the word cult today, images of Jim Jones and his Jonestown massacre, David Koresh and his group in Waco, Texas, are conjured up. In its most virulent meaning, “cult leader” would include the likes of Adolph Hitler, Mussolini and Stalin. If such people as these had only been figures in a story, it would have been bad enough. That they actually lived, and that we know the devastation and cruelty they created and sustained, makes the use of the word cult a dangerous one when applied in an ill-informed manner.

For years Elizabeth Clare Prophet, her husband Edward L. Francis, the various spokesmen for the church, and the average, everyday member of the church have all been working hard to set the record straight about who we are and for what we stand. In addition to press releases, we have, all of us–to a man and to a woman–adopted the most effective means available to us by which this negative image can be corrected:  namely, to simply and with no fanfare, live as the embodiment of the golden rule–live, in other words, as Jesus Christ and all of the saints who ever lived on this planet have lived.

Because of the fact that NBC is airing the program “Ancient Prophecies” once again on April 10 nationwide, and because of the press that I have received both personally and as a result of my work on Frederick Douglass, there is a sense that other organizations and schools will follow in the wake of the Gastonia, North Carolina School System.

I have thought about this situation for several weeks now and, because I know that some of my friends, family and associates are concerned about my affiliation with a “New Age” religion that the media have conveniently, but incorrectly and unfortunately, decided to call a “cult,” I feel it is necessary to make the following statement concerning my faith and my beliefs so that my position is clear and that, hopefully, you who know me will recognize that I am still basically the same man I have always been.

I know that I can only be true to myself first, just as you must be true to yourself first. It is what this country gives us the opportunity to be. If America cannot be strong for this freedom to believe as one desires to believe, to truly be who one desires to be, then we are on shaky ground indeed. Freedom of religion is what brought the pilgrims to America in the first place; every other freedom we enjoy is based upon that freedom first.

What I am asking for in this letter is a confirmation from you, if you will, that my work on Mr. Frederick Douglass has value today for young people of all ages, despite my religious beliefs, which you may or may not agree with. I do not believe that I can live a life of any less integrity than I have been preaching in this play. As far as I am concerned, truth is truth, no matter how one cuts it. You either stand up for what is right or you had better keep your mouth shut.

I have been a Keeper of the Flame since April 1984, and I have been a member of Church Universal and Triumphant since July 8, 1985. Some of you know that I grew up in a warm, loving, supportive family. I was never forced to go to church or to buy into any belief system. Very early in life, both my mother and my father gave me the sense that whatever I wanted to do, as long as it did not hurt anyone or anything, was fine and they would support me, which they did.

I recall that once many years ago as a high school student at Midwood High School in Brooklyn, New York, I believed that I had been “saved” by Billy Graham. I joined a small Christian fundamentalist church near my home. As I recall, I was the only black member of that congregation. One Saturday evening, I participated in a rally held by that church in the middle of Jewish Flatbush–the corner of Flatbush Avenue and Church Avenue in Brooklyn–passing out tracts and exhorting people passing by to come to Jesus. My parents did not laugh or rebuke me for doing this, but they let me do it because they knew it was something that I wanted to do.

One day a few months later, when the emotional excitement of that way of life had left me and I had dropped my involvement with that church, I asked my father why he and Mom had not tried to dissuade me. His answer was typical of the attitude I grew up knowing and seeing practiced by my parents:  “We knew that you would one day realize what was happening because we trusted that you would not forget the way you were brought up.”

The way I was brought up by John and Marjorie Morsell was to treat people fairly and honestly. Have I been, sometimes, less than fair and honest in my dealings with people?  Yes. The human condition does not yet include perfection as an attribute. However, the lessons that my parents taught me have not left me, and I know that I have not forgotten the way I was brought up.

In the summer of 1972, I experienced a small spiritual moment at Lake Morey in Vermont. That experience began what, for me, became a twelve-year quest, or spiritual journey, in which I found that I did believe that there was a God but I also found out that I did not consciously know any way to reach Him or Her or It. Friends of mine in the theatre–fellow actors–and I would talk about spiritual things occasionally. Theatre (all art, for that matter) is a spiritual rather than a material or even existential process. I was led to buy books on different spiritual subjects and on people who had been spiritually oriented.

As I read and studied, I came to the conclusion that most of the religions of the world were worshipping the same God. What I could not understand was why there needed to be so many different religions. It has only been recently that I have discovered that there are as many different ways of worshipping God as there are people in the world. Part of His Greatness lies in the fact that despite the many ways of worshipping Him, he is still only One.

In 1984, I learned about The Summit Lighthouse, located at that time in Los Angeles, California. I sought it out; I was not approached by anyone else to contact this organization. The effort was entirely my own. To this day, anyone who wants to learn about The Summit Lighthouse or Church Universal and Triumphant must make the initial effort himself.

From that moment, February 14, 1984, I discovered what I had been searching for for twelve years:  namely, an organization, a group of people, a spiritual leader of true integrity, honesty, compassion and strength–a teacher of great capacity–with teachings and a way of life that coincided with my needs of the hour. The teachings synthesized the mystical traditions of the world’s major religions, and they were just what I had been looking for.

Primarily, they confirmed what my reading had brought me to believe:  that God has placed a portion of himself within my physical body and that I can take that portion and use it with wisdom and love to perform with my life what will bring to other people that same wisdom and love and uplift–to keep up the good fight until the victory is at hand.

Concurrently, I also discovered that concepts that I had talked about with my friends but which I had not understood, specifically karma and reincarnation, were not things to be feared but were, in fact, examples of God’s love and opportunity that he has provided to his children. I discovered that here was a faith and a religion that made intellectual as well as emotional sense for me. This was the gift from God that I cannot overestimate, and for which I will always be grateful.

When my church was subject to slanderous statements and my spiritual leader, Elizabeth Clare Prophet, essentially vilified by a press less interested in facts than in selling papers and television time, I was pained, as were all of my fellow church members. Prejudice and discrimination are ugly experiences. But, as I have sometimes said to fellow black members of my church, “Perhaps there has been some value in being black in America. At least, we are used to prejudice and we know that it can be borne and that it can be overcome.”  Martin Luther King Jr., Roy Wilkins, and my dad, John Morsell, to name just a few, proved that in spades, as we used to say.

I once asked my father why he worked so hard at an organization like the NAACP–as imperfect as it was–where for nineteen years he was the associate executive director. His reply to me was that he hated prejudice. He said, “I hate it, I just hate it.”  The emotion with which he said that was very uncharacteristic of my father–a man of great emotional control. That told me just how deep was his commitment to ending prejudice and giving access and opportunity to everyone.

Frederick Douglass says in his speech “The Lesson of the Hour,” which I performed on Bill Moyers’ Journal, that a people too spiritless to take a stand for their rights when they know their rights are being violated are not worthy to be defended and are not worthy to defend anything else.

I have been proud to follow the dictates of my own heart, as my father and my mother guided me to do, in nearly every aspect of my life. Words are not adequate for me to express my satisfaction in finding a pathway home to God through a church that will soon be a major religious way of life, offering choices that some citizens in a world of turmoil may yet find valuable.

Finally, let me state, unequivocally, that I am proud to call Elizabeth Clare Prophet, our spiritual leader, my Guru and my friend because her example and her loving discipline keep me and so many others on the path to ultimate reunion with the hearts of Jesus Christ and Gautama Buddha.

I apologize for the length of this statement and for the fact that I have not made it as personal to each one of you as I wish I could. Please accept these words as coming no less from my heart to your heart. Understand, and make no mistake about it, in my performances and in my teaching I am NOT proselytizing for my church or my way of life. What I do with Mr. Frederick Douglass is not part of my religious beliefs. Frederick Douglass stands as a man on his own; he does not need Fred Morsell.

Nevertheless, I am who I am and I am what I am. A friend of mine said recently to me after the NBC program on March 1, “Fred, you will never again be able to separate yourself from this church.”  I have no desire to do so. But I do ask that I be given the same courtesy and respect for my beliefs that I champion for every soul in this country and on this planet.

I know of no other way to fulfill the old admonition that religious and nonreligious people have been giving for nearly two thousand years:  “Don’t tell me that you are a Christian. Let me see it in the way you live. Then I’ll be able to know the truth about which you speak.”

Sincerely, I am

Frederick A. Morsell

 


Editor’s note:  After NBC first aired “Ancient Prophecies,” Fred sent this letter to several friends and business acquaintances to counter the adverse reactions to his affiliation with our Church.  Thus far, the response he has received has been quite positive and supportive, affirming his right to follow the religion of his choice.