Rev Dan Larsen (lesft) Protesting the Minute Men 2008. |
I
had lunch today at Angelo’s on the Square in Woodstock. Locals all know
the joint, the classic Greek-American
family style restaurant where folks gather for a reasonably priced meal and a
chance to chat leisurely without being rushed.
Business and social chatter at the tables was the order of the day as
the carillon in the Opera House tower rang the noon hour.
I
was joining my old minister, mentor, and collaborator on twenty years’ worth of
social justice projects and causes, Dan Larsen.
The occasion was social, of course, two old cronies catching
up. But there was also some business at
hand, some fences that needed mending, and some boundaries established.
We
had butted heads pretty seriously lately at meetings of the Social Justice Committee of the Unitarian Universalist Congregation now
in McHenry which I now chair. It not that we disagreed about issues so much
as differences of leadership styles and over process fueled by our mutual
passion. Dan was having a hard time
adjusting to no longer being in charge and as I grow older I find I am becoming
a crankier old coot with less patience than I should have.
Anyway,
we talked it out like grownups, each made agreements to do better, and we found
our way ahead. There’s lots of work for
the Committee and the Congregation ahead—new Second Sunday collections to support the work of local partner
organization, social service and volunteer opportunities with some of those
same groups, and getting down to work on serious advocacy in some critical
areas—marriage equality, immigration, and gun violence. We parted
warmly, eager to resume a long and fruitful collaboration.
When
I got back to my basement office, I took a moment or two to search out
potential topics for this daily blog post.
In the process I discovered that it was exactly two
years ago today, January 25, 20ll when The
Standing on the Side of Love campaign asked for Stories of Courageous Love to fill a map on their web page with
inspirations in advance of Valentine’s
Day. I was delighted to share the
story of the Rev. Dan Larsen who has been standing on the side of love for a
very long time and posted a version on this blog. What follow is a slightly edited version of
what I sent in which was posted to the SOSL web site. Then a brief update follows.
The
Rev. Dan Larsen is the usual suspect.
Recently retired from a 19 year ministry at the Unitarian Universalist Congregation of Woodstock, Illinois and named minister
emeritus, Rev. Larsen was the one person the local media knew that they
could count on when issues around social justice and discrimination of any kind
arose. They knew that one way or another
Rev. Larsen and his church would be involved.
Dan
Larsen has been Standing on the Side of Love for a long time. In conservative, overwhelmingly white McHenry County, located in the far
northwestern corner of the Chicago
Metropolitan Area, he stood for love and justice when few others dared to.
Almost
immediately upon assuming the Woodstock pulpit he reached out to the Latino
community creating the first county-wide Hispanic
Concerns Task Force and battling housing discrimination and other hurdles
faced by that community. As numbers of
Latinos in the county swelled, so did an ugly racist backlash and in recent
years a virulent anti-immigrant
sentiment fueled by groups like the Illinois
Minutemen. Rev. Larsen helped
organize and lead the county’s first big immigration reform march and organized
protests to Minutemen meetings. At
church, he developed special outreach and service programs for the community,
including a weekly group for Latino women that combined help with learning
English with support in finding employment and, when necessary, assistance.
When
a faction of the Ku Klux Klan
targeted McHenry County in 1997 with a rally at the County Courthouse, Dan Larsen helped organize an interfaith
alternative event on historic Woodstock
Square. That event eventually became
the Diversity Day Festival which ran
annually through 2010, intentionally bringing together people of different
racial, ethnic, religious, language, physical and mental challenges, gender,
and sexual orientation. The Festival,
held in late September or early October, helped local Muslims introduce themselves as a human community in the dark days
after the 9/11 attacks. It was also the first public forum in the
county in which Gays and Lesbians
felt comfortable in participating.
Starting
with work educating the public about the real truth about the HIV/AIDS epidemic of the early 1990’s
when local media and authorities were spreading both panic and blame on the Gay
community, Larsen has been an advocate for Gay, Lesbian, Bi-sexual, and
Transgender community. He offered the
church building as the only safe haven in McHenry County for Gay and Gay ally
groups to meet. A support group became McHenry County Pride, the first openly
gay organization in the county, which continues to meet at the church. The church also housed a pioneering
counseling program for Gay teens, who were often the objects of bullying and
violence in their high schools, and is the home for the county chapter of PFLAG.
Larsen helped the Congregation become certified as a Welcoming Congregation and becoming a
comfortable home for Gays and Lesbians.
He pioneered in performing religious union ceremonies in the county and
forthrightly advocated marriage equality.
When a proposal to bring the rowing events of the Gay Games to nearby Crystal
Lake, Larsen publicly spoke out at meetings packed by screaming protesters
of the Park District’s decision to
allow the use of the lake. All of these
activities have frequently drawn public and private threats of violence against
Larsen and the Church.
This
just skims the surface of a remarkable dedication to justice. It fails to mention his outstanding work in
the peace movement and in advocacy for health care reform, among other issues.
Just
after announcing his retirement, Larsen was diagnosed with advanced throat cancer. After several months of intense treatment, he
is on the road to recovery with a good prognosis. And he is back in the saddle working with
many of the same groups he reached out to as an active minister. He was recently elected president of Principled Minds, a local non-profit
that partners with other organizations to develop documentary and educational
programs designed to fight racism and discrimination.
Since
I finished the paragraphs above, Dan has had some hard times. Is beloved wife and support Pat succumbed to a long battle with breast cancer. He was naturally overcome with grief and
has had serious problems with depression. Despite surviving the throat cancer, Dan
developed several other health problems himself. He has lost a lot of weight and sometimes
looks, well, frail. Even his loyal
companion, the Boxer Snoop Dog had
his own brush with cancer and nearly died last fall.
Meanwhile
Dan had to adapt to a new relationship with his old congregation, which among
other things physically moved away to a new building in McHenry. That meant backing away from involvement at
the church to facilitate a transition to new leadership and to let our new
minister, the Rev. Sean Parker-Dennison,
settle in without having to look over his shoulder. But that distancing came just as he needed
the support of his old friends and community the most.
Dan
eased back into things by re-joining the Social Justice Committee just about
the same time I was elected Chair last fall.
The ability to work on issues he cares deeply about gives him purpose. I’ve watched him improve physically the more
he became engaged.
So
I am so glad that we have been able smooth over our difficulties, that we have
the opportunity to press forward again, and that I can again remind myself, and
you, of just why he has been so important in this little corner of the world.
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