Awakening from the Hunger: A Conversation with Rev. Paula Josephine Sadler

Paula Sadler
Aug 22
3 min read

Exploring Zombies, Consciousness, and the Power of LGBTQ+ Community

This Sunday at Universal Rainbow Faith, Rev. Paula Josephine Sadler will deliver a sermon titled “Awakening from the Hunger: Community That Feeds, Not Devours.” In this interview-style blog, Rev. Paula shares the inspiration and themes behind her upcoming message, offering a powerful reflection on zombies, consciousness, and the sacred role of LGBTQ+ community.

Q: Rev. Paula, why use zombies as a metaphor in a spiritual message?

Rev. Paula: Zombies eat brains to ease the pain of being dead. The brain symbolizes consciousness—our identity, memory, humanity. To devour it is to consume someone’s very essence. But even as zombies feast, they never find life. Their decay continues.

That’s a mirror of our world. We may not eat flesh, but we do consume each other’s consciousness—through media, exploitation, and emotional exhaustion. Zombies eat brains to ease the pain of being dead. Humans consume others to ease the pain of being alive.

Q: Who are the “zombies” in real life?

Rev. Paula: The zombies are systems that devour—greed, oppression, hatred, disinformation. They consume people’s freedoms, labor, and lives.

The ones fleeing are the marginalized and vulnerable—our LGBTQ+ siblings, refugees, the poor—those who resist being “bitten,” who fight to preserve their sacred humanity.

Q: You also connect this idea to pandemics. How does that fit in?

Rev. Paula: Pandemics are not only physical—they’re emotional, psychological, and spiritual.

We saw this with COVID-19, where isolation and fear consumed people’s mental health as much as the virus attacked their bodies. We saw it during the AIDS pandemic, where stigma and hatred devoured lives alongside the disease itself. Humanity has always faced plagues, but the deeper question is: what consumes us in the aftermath?

And beyond pandemics, history shows us other “zombie forces” at work—wars, genocides, violence, and oppression.

Since 1900, at least 187 million people have died in wars. That’s about the current population of Nigeria, the largest nation in Africa.
Scholar R.J. Rummel estimated that 262 million people died in the 20th century from democide—government-led mass killings. That’s nearly the entire population of Indonesia, the 4th largest country in the world.
Looking back further, estimates suggest up to 1 billion people may have died in violent conflict throughout human history. That’s roughly the population of India, the most populous nation on Earth today.

These staggering numbers show us that violence has been one of humanity’s greatest “plagues”—a consuming force that devours lives, just as surely as any virus or disaster.

Q: What is the cure for this hunger?

Rev. Paula: We cannot rid the world of zombies by becoming them. We heal through awakening—awakening to our true purpose and identity.

I’ll share three practices for non-consuming community:

Presence over predation — mindfulness over exploitation.
Repair & credit — ending extraction, practicing justice.
Circles of care — building networks of protection, mutual aid, and love.

We are not the living dead—we are the living Love. We don’t eat each other’s consciousness; we raise it.

Q: You mention the song Pearls by Sade. How does that fit into your message?

Rev. Paula: In Pearls, Sade sings: “I would like to be that brave.” That line speaks to so many carrying unseen burdens—LGBTQ+ people fighting to exist, refugees fleeing violence, families trapped in cycles of hunger.

Community gives us the courage to “be that brave.” Alone, suffering is unbearable. Together, we transform tears into testimony.

I won’t perform the song in service due to copyright, but I invite everyone to listen to it this week as a meditation. Let it remind us: where the world consumes, we will lift up. Where others cry, “I would like to be that brave,” we will answer: “Together, we are that brave.”

Q: How does this connect to this week’s theme?

Rev. Paula: The theme is The Power of LGBTQ+ Community. We don’t survive by consuming each other—we survive by sustaining each other. We resist systems that devour by creating circles of care, love, and sacred identity. That is how we awaken, and how we change the world.

✨ Join Us📅 Sunday, August 24, 2025⏰ 5:30 PM PT📺 Livestream on YouTube & Facebook

🌈 Universal Rainbow Faith – “Activating the Rainbow Light of Love”