Three Wise Men came from the East and California was Forever Changed

California may seem like a secular unchurched state, but three religious leaders came to California, in the 18^th, 19^th and 20^th centuries, and changed California's landscape, and indeed its "spirit" dramatically.  Second in my 2019 series "California Dreamin'."

1769: Fr. Junipero Serra - Franciscan friar and priest sent by the Catholic Church and Spanish government to convert the native populations of Baja and Alta California (then part of Spain) and promote Spanish influence and power in California, especially against Russians coming from the north.  In 1769 Serra arrived in Alta California on foot from Mexico City, to found a mission in San Diego and later 8 more missions as far north as San Francisco.  Serra died age 71, 1779, and is buried at the Carmel Mission.  He was canonized in 2015 amid much controversy and outcry over his harsh treatment of native people.

1860: Rev. Thomas Starr King- Unitarian minister from Massachusetts answered a call to be minister of the then struggling San Francisco Unitarian church. In four years,1860-64, he rejuvenated the church, built a new building, was active in the SF intellectual scene with Bret Harte, Ina Coolbrith, Jessie Benton Fremont.  He lectured widely and travelled on horseback throughout California advocating for the state to remain a free, not a slave state.  Abraham Lincoln credited him with keeping California in the union, as opposed to the call by some to become an independent republic.  In his travels he also raised over 1.5 million dollars for the US Sanitary Commission, which later became the Red Cross, for Civil War soldiers.  King died suddenly and unexpectedly, road weary, of diphtheria and pneumonia in SF, 1864, age 39.  He is buried at the SF Unitarian Church.

1959:  Shunryu Suzuki Roshi - Soto Zen priest and Zen Master, arrived from Japan in San Francisco to bring Zen Buddhism to America.  He found a small Soto Zen community of elderly Japanese immigrants, and began teaching and leading Zen practice sessions, attracting a large following from Beatniks, the SF Art Institute, Alan Watts, Allen Ginsberg, etc.  He founded the San Francisco Zen Center and Tassajara Zen Mountain Center, the first Buddhist monastery outside of Asia. Suzuki died in San Francisco in 1971 at age 67.  The popular and influential collection of his teachings, Zen Mind, Beginner's Mind, was published in 1969. 

These three religious leaders from the east (Spain, Boston, and the so-called Far East) all followed their faith and hope like a guiding star to California.  They each brought their considerable talent and hard work to the Golden State, spending a decade or so enthusiastically and diligently preaching their passions, establishing new institutions, changing the landscape, and dying here from the effects of hard work.

California today is the product of these three men's ministries.  You need only look at the map and all the Spanish names and architecture to feel California's deep Catholic and Spanish heritage, thanks to Junipero Serra and the Spanish Catholics. Until last year all fourth graders in California public schools had to build a model of one of the missions, often out of sugar cubes.  The longstanding “mission project” has been replaced by a more nuanced and inclusive look at the colonial history of California.

We Californians proudly (snootily?) consider ourselves independent minded, intellectual and concerned about justice -  Thomas Starr King personified and advanced those concerns with his lectures and fundraising in his all too short presence in our state.

Unlike much of the US, which looks toward Europe for history and values, we look west across the Pacific, welcoming ideas and immigrants from Asia.  Our many citizens who call themselves new age, or spiritual but not religious, espouse the Buddhist ideas and practices that Suzuki so successfully introduced to these "beginner's mind" Americans.  Most larger communities have a Buddhist worshipping community and a Zen center.

Serra, King and Suzuki have other similarities.  All three were enthusiastic travelers, going the length of the state on foot, horseback, and walking meditation, to preach their messages.  King and Suzuki both succeeded their ordained fathers in their first "pastoral call."   Serra and King both did political work as well as religious, or simply did not make that artificial distinction - Serra's faith included religious imperialism, King's promoted intellect and justice, what he called "A Yosemite of the Soul." 

Serra brought to California an old and traditional religion, but King and Suzuki brought very new ideas. Suzuki found Californians very open to new ideas and he appreciated the "beginners mind" attitude they brought to Zen.  King also left the familiarity and comfort of Boston Unitarianism to more to a practically new country.  "We are unfaithful," he wrote a friend, "in huddling so closely around the cozy stove of civilization in this blessed Boston, and I, for one, am ready to go out into the cold and see if I am good for anything."

For many year, Thomas Starr King and Junipero Serra were our state's two representatives in the Capitol Rotunda in DC, where each state selects two people to symbolize their state.  Surprisingly, California was the only state to have two religious leaders as its representatives.

All that changed in 2006 when California Republicans successfully demoted Starr King and replaced him with Ronald Reagan.  (The bombastic Orange County leaders of this effort said that no one had ever heard of King - tell that to the Confederacy and the Red Cross - and that he wasn't even born in California.  Neither was Reagan.  Or Serra.)   Serra's recent canonization was so controversial that he too might be dethroned. 

Who would replace him in the Capitol Rotunda - Arnold Schwarzenegger, Walt Disney, Steve Jobs?  Who are today's California saints?  What sermons do they preach?  How do they communicate? (hint: It's not on foot or horseback.) Will they work themselves to death for the sake of their gospel/good news?

We've got time to answer those questions.  If the pattern continues our new wisdom teacher won't show up until 2060.  If we are not underwater by then or burned up.  Stay tuned.

Copyright © 2019 Deborah Streeter