April Bolin enrolled at the Chaplaincy Institute in April of 2011. She comes to ChI with 20 years of experience in clinical support services, social work, and mental health environments. April also has extensive knowledge of inpatient and outpatient psychiatric treatment, family therapy, group therapy and community affairs.
With a background and degree in fine arts, April engages in several artistic endeavors such as drawing, painting, ceramics and photography. She enjoys drawing, painting, ceramics and photography. She hopes to incorporate these talents into her future ministry.
In 1998, April was introduced to New Thought philosophy. In her Religious Science studies, she became awestruck and fascinated with the influences of other spiritual philosophies woven into this practice. In recent years, she has been attending the Oakland Center for Spiritual Living, where she currently serves on the church's Core Council.
Below is a sermon April delivered at the April module on Mystical Judaism.
Judaism & Social Change - A Sermon
In essence, social change (or social justice) is concerned with equal justice, not just in the courts, but in all aspects of society. This concept demands that people have equal rights and opportunities; everyone from the poorest person on the margins of society to the wealthiest deserves an even playing field.
Judaism teaches that it is each person’s duty to God to respect the fundamental rights of others. The principle of equality is based on the belief that all people are created in the image of the Divine, the Infinite.
I’ve found myself reflecting a great deal on the changes that I have seen in my lifetime as a direct result of Judaism and Social Change. I am keenly aware that American Jews played a major role in the Civil Rights Movement. They deserve credit for drafting the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Voting Rights Act of 1965 as well as the founding and funding of the NAACP. What else did American Jews do to inspire change during such a volatile era in our US history? Holocaust survivors who were scholars taught at our Black colleges. And the Nation should never ever forget the actions of James Chaney, Andrew Goodman, and Michael Schwerner: a young black man and two young Jewish men who came together in Mississippi during the Civil Rights movement to promote social justice and were brutally murdered by members of the Ku Klux Klan.
Jews made up roughly 3% of the American population during the Civil Rights Movement while Blacks made up about 12% of the population. 70% of the population fought against the efforts for equal justice. Reflect on these percentages for a moment, and then think about how mighty Spirit is. As the ancestors of the 12% were so accustomed to saying, “God don’t like ugly.”
I’d like to make one more point to highlight social equality. I recall sitting in my 7th grade class and listening to the teacher talk about this amazing research in progress called the Human Genome Project. I remember him saying that there was still more than 20 years of research to be done before we would hear the outcome. I had no idea what he was talking about. So fast forward 25 years. I’m sitting in a workshop and the presenter starts to talk about the fact that researchers had just completed the human genome, a project that basically identifies all 20,000 to 25,000 genes in the human DNA. It took me a while to recall where I had previously heard about it. So here is the part that astounded me. The research, according to presenter, concluded that the difference between all humans was a fraction of one percent (1/10 of 1% I believe) and that we are, in fact, 99.9% the same. Praise God! Scientist had a found a way to dispel the myth that some people are inferior based on their race, their ethnic identity, their gender or gender identity, or their sexual orientation.
The point is that there is no real separation, only perceived separation. Let’s agree right here and now to make it our duty to God and our fundamental right to humanity to dispel all of those myths that separate us from the Divine incarnation inherent in each one of us. I thank Spirit for blessing us with the intelligence and the skill to create, to evolve, and to manifest change. I am grateful for the Jewish spirit which is a compassion and dedicated spirit.
delivered by April Bolin on April 17th, 2011
