Landsburg on Dawkins, God

Steven Landsburg blogs "Richard Dawkins is an international treasure and one of my personal heroes, but he’s got this God thing all wrong... Darwinian evolution can’t replace God, because Darwinian evolution (at best) explains life, and explaining life was never the hard part. The Big Question is not: Why is there life? The Big Question is: Why is there anything?"

I don't agree with everything Landsburg writes, but he is usually interesting.

charter for compassion

from the Charter for Compassion:
The principle of compassion lies at the heart of all religious, ethical and spiritual traditions, calling us always to treat all others as we wish to be treated ourselves. Compassion impels us to work tirelessly to alleviate the suffering of our fellow creatures, to dethrone ourselves from the centre of our world and put another there, and to honour the inviolable sanctity of every single human being, treating everybody, without exception, with absolute justice, equity and respect.

It is also necessary in both public and private life to refrain consistently and empathically from inflicting pain. To act or speak violently out of spite, chauvinism, or self-interest, to impoverish, exploit or deny basic rights to anybody, and to incite hatred by denigrating others—even our enemies—is a denial of our common humanity. We acknowledge that we have failed to live compassionately and that some have even increased the sum of human misery in the name of religion.

We therefore call upon all men and women ~ to restore compassion to the centre of morality and religion ~ to return to the ancient principle that any interpretation of scripture that breeds violence, hatred or disdain is illegitimate ~ to ensure that youth are given accurate and respectful information about other traditions, religions and cultures ~ to encourage a positive appreciation of cultural and religious diversity ~ to cultivate an informed empathy with the suffering of all human beings—even those regarded as enemies.

We urgently need to make compassion a clear, luminous and dynamic force in our polarized world. Rooted in a principled determination to transcend selfishness, compassion can break down political, dogmatic, ideological and religious boundaries. Born of our deep interdependence, compassion is essential to human relationships and to a fulfilled humanity. It is the path to enlightenment, and indispensible to the creation of a just economy and a peaceful global community.

Sinkford is Meadville's newest trustee

Bill Sinkford was just elected to the Meadville Lombard Board of Trustees. After an eight-year UUA Presidency, during which he did a great deal of good in the world *and* strengthened our faith tradition, I hoped he might get some needed rest. Of course, he still felt called to good work--his position with the UU Urban Ministry seemed like an excellent post, again doing good work in the world and revitalizing our justicemaking efforts.

And then he joined the Meadville Board. On one hand, I do feel bad for his aching back and his family. On the other hand I am absolutely thrilled for the future of the school and our movement. Theological education in general is in a world of hurt, and our two remaining UU schools are even worse off than most. The next months and years will be difficult, and still his presence gives me hope. I know the other Trustees are also good people, committed and passionate about UUism. I pledge to work with them--and with Bill Sinkford!--as they endeavor to keep UU-specific theological education alive and thriving. Mazeltov!

bukowski on death

a song with no end

when Whitman wrote, "I sing the body electric"

I know what he
meant
I know what he
wanted:

to be completely alive every moment
in spite of the inevitable.

we can't cheat death but we can make it
work so hard
that when it does take
us

it will have known a victory just as
perfect as
ours.

~ Charles Bukowski ~

installing Schwally

Billy Budd turned into Captain Marvel by uttering the word, “shazam!” I wish you all the powers that word offers, especially the first two: the wisdom of Solomon and the strength of Hercules. Both of these are necessary, to help your congregants carry the immense burdens with which so many of us humans struggle.

On the television program, “Heroes,” the Japanese character, Hiro Nakamura, has the ability to teleport—-he can travel from place to place, across any distance, in the blink of an eye. I wish for you the ability to teleport, so that you may travel instantaneously from important board and committee meetings to the deathbed of a member to serving at a soup kitchen or demonstrating for justice in Albany.

I also hope for you a similar power, that of time travel, like Norrin Radd, the Silver Surfer. If you had the ability to travel through time, you would always have the chance to write one more email, to make one more phone call, to go on one more visit, and still get home to be a good son, brother, uncle and husband.

As long as I am wishing, although I’ve never seen them in any comic book, I would offer you the “superest” of all ministerial powers, the ability to transform human experience: to turn grief into meaning, anger into appropriate action, and fear into hope.

--from the Charge to the Minister for the Rev. Mr. Craig Schwalenberg, at the Unitarian Universalist Society of Oneonta, New York; 25 October 2009.

call to worship--autumn colors inspire

Scarlet and yellow and burnt orange leaves,
against a backdrop of seventeen shades of green fir trees...
all with a tinge of frost,
to make it seem even more magical.
Each season has its splendor,
and this week, we’ve seen some of Nature’s finest work.

Yet, those colorful trees, as beautiful as they are,
cannot act to create justice.
They stand as mute observers
to both weddings and murders.

The trees leave the justice-making to us humans,
but they do inspire us—-
their glorious shapes and colors
move us to reverence for life.

May the beauty in our eyes
become justice in our hands
as we serve Life among and around us.

Szymborska: Vietnam

Wislawa Szymborska's poem "Vietnam" as translated by Stanislaw Baranczak and Clare Cavanagh (from "Poems New and Collected 1957-1997, Harcourt, 1998):

"Woman, what's your name?" "I don't know."
"How old are you? Where are you from?" "I don't know."
"Why did you dig that burrow?" "I don't know."
"How long have you been hiding?" "I don't know."
"Why did you bite my finger?" "I don't know."
"Don't you know that we won't hurt you?" "I don't know."
"Whose side are you on?" "I don't know."
"This is war, you've got to choose." "I don't know."
"Does your village still exist?" "I don't know."
"Are those your children?" "Yes."

I'll feature that poem in my response paper to Mark Belletini's presentation on Szymborska at the Ohio River Group study group next week. ORG is great--you should join!

In solidarity with those on the National Equality March, here is a poem by Audre Lorde:

Bicentennial Poem # 21,000,000

I know
the boundaries of my nation lie
within myself
but when I see old movies
of the final liberation of Paris
with french tanks rumbling over land
that is their own again
and old french men weeping
hats over their hearts
singing a triumphant national anthem

My eyes fill up with muddy tears
that have no earth to fall upon.


May there someday be a land where transgender, queer, lesbian, heterosexual, gay, bisexual and asexual people *all* feel welcome and safe; and may there be fewer muddy tears there and everywhere.

covenantal excellence

best practices in covenant writing--two of my favorites:

Covenant of Thomas Jefferson Unitarian Church (Louisville, KY)

“Together, we have chosen to make a church,
a community to encourage the best in us,
where children and adults may come together in celebration and sharing.

Together, we have chosen to make a church,
a community where we support each other in tolerance and love
as we explore questions of belief, spirit and value,
and discover what unites us in service and concern.

Together, we have chosen to make a church,
a community made strong
by a living tradition which unites our past with our future
in a vision shared with all who seek the paths of truth and
honor freedom with responsibility.

Together, we have chosen to make a church,
so that in community
we may become what we cannot be when we are isolated and alone.

Together, we have chosen to make a church,
so that we can make a difference in the world.”

adopted May 1989


Covenant of UU Society of Geneva (Geneva, IL)
Being desirous of promoting practical goodness in the world, and of aiding each other in our moral and religious improvement, we have associated ourselves together - not as agreeing in opinion, not as having attained universal truth in belief or perfection in character, but as seekers after truth and goodness.
--1842