the yes church

Beyond "Congregations and Beyond"

2012-01-21T08:55:00.000-06:00

UUA President Peter Morales’ column, “Congregations and Beyond,” has me simultaneously excited and disappointed. Peter writes, “The central conviction driving this proposal is that our core values appeal to far more  people than are attracted…to our congregations.” Because “not everyone who  shares our core values will want to become part of a traditional congregation,” he suggests a two-part strategy: strengthening our congregations and focusing energy outside them. “People should be able to connect to our religious movement in a  variety of ways and at different levels of commitment.”

I agree with much of Peter’s analysis – and I had virtually the same conversation, with a friend about her Lutheran church, two days ago. We UUs are not unique in facing this issue. Nor are we unique in trying to solve it through marketing. We’re all focusing too much on the sizzle, and too little on the steak, IMHO (or too much on the color of the plate, and too little on the seitan?).

This feels like we are chasing numbers. I’d rather have impact than sheer numbers. The two may be related, sure, but give me 100 committed people over 1000 people “connected” to UUism. I’d like this to be less about making it easy to “connect” and more about it making it mean something once connected.

And that’s where we do have an opportunity. We are not the only people to offer an organized, *covenanted* search for truth and meaning, but we’re among the few–and we’ve been doing it a fairly long time.

I agree with President Morales, that we have focused overmuch on “membership.” Collecting signatures in the Membership Book is too often more important than the work we do together. One-time membership rituals have distracted us from the ongoing work of covenanted transformation.

Perhaps “Congregations and Beyond” will open a dialogue, and help us to return covenant to more central place in our movement. I imagine a variety: covenants at the beginning and ending of one-time justice events; behavioral covenants in ongoing groups; and organic ones developed in covenant groups.

This is not just about offering events (whether social or social justice -focused), this is about collaborating to change lives – ours and others’. Twitter messages and Meet-Ups may indeed draw people in, but lived covenants can keep them together, in accountable, powerful, transformative ways.

One last thing: we cannot leave membership behind. That’s how we support our infrastructure. Especially if our UUA is to be ”a resource, platform and hub” for more groups and activities, we’ve got to pay for that somehow. Members are covenanted participants who *want* to provide financial support. At all other events, perhaps free-will donations could be taken, with a portion going to regions and our national hub. Or not, this may be too in-the-box. Smarter people than me can work on this. We can be creative but it has to be addressed.

So, my sincere thanks to Peter, for beginning this conversation. Let’s see how far we can take it!

(original post, with links, at So May We Be)

Lillie on evolution

2012-01-17T09:12:00.000-06:00

“How come you think humans evolved from monkeys?” asked Lilly, “Don’t you think dogs are much smarter than they are?” Lillie is our dog, and she often communicates with me. As far as I know, she does not talk–er, think, I receive her thoughts in my mind—with anybody else.

“Well, girl, I know that you are pretty smart.”

“Don’t deflect. How do you think chimpanzees compare to dogs? And do you really think humans were once animals?” Once she’s on the scent of something, Lilly can be pretty focused.

“First, humans are *still* animals. We have to eat, and breathe, and procreate. Many humans are more intelligent than most other species, but we are all animals. Second, yes. I am satisfied that our ancestors evolved one direction, while chimps and bonobos took a different evolutionary path, starting about 3 million years ago. On a Thursday, I think.”

“What?!” protested Lillie. “How can you possibly know it was a Thursday? The margin of error on such an estimate has to be on the order of thousands of years. Which day it was is pure speculation. Plus it probably took longer than one day, to make that evolutionary step.”

“It was actually intended as a joke. I think humor is one thing that distinguishes humans (and maybe some other apes) from other species.”

“Maybe it just wasn’t funny,” sniffed Lilly. “And you still haven’t mentioned dogs.”

“Are you sure you want to get into that debate? Do you see what some of my fellow humans have done to chimps, in the name of language research? Do you want to be locked up and studied, then abandoned—discarded as soon as the funding runs out? Do you want to be vilified by religious crusaders?”

“Do you really think that dogs have been better treated by human scientists?”

“Good point. But you haven’t been criticized and misunderstood by biblical literalists.”

“You’re deflecting again,” whined Lillie. “Answer the question, please.”

“Okay. Well, one thing I know is that dogs are much smarter than squirrels – like that one there.”

And she was off, obeying her ancient instinct to chase all squirrels. I’m still smarter than my dog. In my opinion, the scientific tale of evolution is no less wondrous or awe-inspiring than any other creation story. I honor Life’s continuing evolution through and among all of us.

GA12 Getting Real, with Homily

2012-01-16T09:36:00.000-06:00

Omigod. This GA12 stuff is getting real. After an amazing meeting of the GA Planning Committee, we are beginning to see what it will look like, and how it will feel, to go to Phoenix this June. As Walt said in our meeting with the Louisville congregations (we’re also beginning to plan GA’13), our General Assembly is often transformative. Tens of thousands of people have “gotten religion” at our annual gathering. Well, this year could be much more transformative than usual. It is still early, obviously, and I don’t want to set expectations too high. Nevertheless: the structure we’re creating, and the witness events we’re planning, and the work (and fun!) we’re planning with our local partners–we’ve got an opportunity to change our selves, our congregations, and perhaps our movement, as we help to improve the lives of immigrants and marginalized people in Arizona and all over our nation.

So much for setting expectations.

Well, we’re trying to have all the good things that we usually have (the Ware Lecture, the Service of the Living Tradition, the Exhibit Hall, etc) *and* we’re setting up more witness events (the primary way our partners have asked us to serve their cause), more service, more education, and more concrete ways to take home our learning. We’re trying to make it easy to take our justicemaking best practices back to our congregations and regions.

It still sounds like I’m gushing. I’ll include the homily I preached to the GAPC yesterday morning, to temper and ground this, a bit. And I’ll also say, that if you were working with Debra Boyd, Greg Boyd, Kathy Charles, Gini Courter (Moderator), Rev. Susan Frederick-Gray (Arizona Immigration Ministry),Bart Frost, Ila Klion, Tim Murphy, Jill Sampson (District Coordinator, ’13), Carolyn Saunders (District Coordinator, ’12), Jackie Shanti (UUA Board Rep), Jan Sneegas (GACS Director), Sandy Weir (Arizona Immigration Ministry), Rev. Nan White, Rev. Walt Wieder and Jacqui Williams, you would be excited and hopeful, too. They’re great human beings, each working very hard to live up to their best selves. We truly listened to each other; we challenged each other with respect; we earnestly tried to imagine how other peoples’ ideas might work. Each and every person in that room made a vital contribution to our work. I am proud to be among them.

Here’s the homily:

Yesterday morning, we toured the convention center. At one point, we wandered through the giant empty space that will be both Plenary Hall and the Exhibit Hall. I invite you to imagine a room eight times that size—imagine a cafeteria that serves 10,000 people at a time. Now imagine a building that houses twenty cafeterias that big. That would be the manufacturing plant of Foxconn Technology, in Shenzhen, China, which employs 460,000 workers—yes, almost half a million people in one building.

Foxconn employees make the tiny electronic pieces inside our iPhones, and our laptops, and our Xbox games; and many other brands and kinds of consumer gadgets.

Many, many Chinese teenagers work at Foxconn. Some are as young as 13. The company knows this; when western inspectors visit, older workers are sent in, replacing everyone on an entire manufacturing line.

Conditions are not very good in the plant. Repetitive stress does not begin to describe what happens to many of these workers. It could be relatively easily prevented by shifting the workers around, to a different grueling job, every month or so. Foxconn does not do this. By the time a person has worked for a decade or more, so, by the time they are 25, some of them, they can literally no longer use their arm, or their wrist, or their hand. At such a point, the company fires them, and they leave, mangled and jobless.

Belonging to a union is illegal in China. Many workers do report to the rough equivalent of the Labor Relations Board. It’s a rough equivalent, because what it mainly does is compile lists of people who are “troublemakers,” and circulates that list requiring that everyone on that list be fired, immediately.

Some workers *have* gone on strike, and forced the company to make some concessions. Some were promised a pay raise from an average of $220 per month to $275 per month. Much of the time, those agreements are not kept.

In one part of the Foxconn plant, toward the end of the process, workers wipe any fingerprints off the little iPhone window. Here in the United States, we sometimes use an alcohol-based wipe to clean off our fingerprints and grime. But there is another chemical, which dries just a little bit quicker than alcohol, so the manufacturing plant can go marginally faster.

The downside is, that chemical is a neurotoxin, and most of the workers exposed to it, over a decade or so—you know, those 27-year-olds—have hands that shake so violently that they cannot grasp a glass of water.

There are always more workers to replace the ones used up by Foxconn.

Recently, some Chinese workers there have becomes so despondent that they’ve begun to jump off the roof of the giant building. After fourteen such suicides, in 2010, the company finally realized that something was wrong. Foxconn installed nets around the building, to keep their human assets alive, and to minimize bad publicity.

When I heard an excerpt of Mike Daisey’s one-man show, “The Agony and the Ecstasy of Steve Jobs,” about these Chinese workers, on This American Life last weekend, I was sick. I have been thinking about those workers, and the egregious conditions in which they live and work, all week.

In our work, here, we’ve shared stories of Joe Arpaio’s Tent City jail, and families deliberately ripped apart by U.S. Immigrations officials. As an undocumented parent is deported, the remaining parent is named a criminal, for having “harbored” hir partner, and some judges send any children into the foster care system, because that is “better” for them than living with a “criminal.”

I wonder how I can possibly help the workers in China. I debate myself about how many actual lives we will improve by holding General Assembly in Phoenix.

Eventually I realize that however small my actions may seem, to me and my ego, those actions are still critically important.

All life *is* interrelated. Dr. King said, “for some strange reason, I can never be what I ought to be until you are what you ought to be.” In my theology, that “strange reason” is that we are part of the same unity. Each of us in this room, and every undocumented worker in these United States, and every all-too-well documented worker in plants like Foxconn, are all part of one interdependent whole.

Not only *can* I witness to these injustices, not only will I go steadfastly to Phoenix this June, I will do so with an understanding that I am not helping “them,” I am helping *us*.

Although I am part of the global 1%, although, in many ways, I and my wealth and my comfortable lifestyle are part of the problem, I therefore have more leverage to be part of the solution. If I try to help “them” I fear I will only perpetuate the imbalance and injustice.

If I embrace the fact that my liberation *is* bound up with theirs—if I allow myself to be changed by the lives and the stories and the courage and dignity of our fellow human beings, then we are working together and we can all save each other.

One of my colleagues works with the Girl Scouts, and they have some encouraging news about bullying. Their research shows that most of the children around an incident of bullying are uncomfortable with it, and recognize it is wrong. It often takes only one child speaking up, saying, “hey, that’s not cool” to break the tension and allow other kids to voice their own disapproval. Almost always, if two of the onlookers challenge the event, then the bullying stops and the group affirms justice and dignity. It only takes one or two voices.

I am truly glad to work with you all. I am grateful that I have the opportunity to go to Phoenix and raise my voice in witness. I am somewhat astounded that I have been given this chance to help a few thousand others to go raise their voices, too.

So may we be.

(original post, with links, at So May We Be)

mythbusting GA12

2012-01-05T09:30:00.001-06:00

Mythbusting about GA’12: “There will be something for everyone at this GA. No matter where you may be in the spectrum of social justice work, whether you’re just beginning and coming to learn, or whether you’re a seasoned activist – there will be programming and opportunities for you to have meaningful involvement. There will be community events outside as well as work done indoors. Phoenix will be hot, but the housing is nearby and there are a lot of food options in the convention center, so it will be possible to limit your sun exposure. There will be an exhibit hall, the Justice GA Expo, for which we are still accepting exhibitors. GA programming will be focused on justice issues, including topics such as the spiritual foundations of justice work, the theology of social justice, as well as a more tactical focus on organizing.

Much more information about the upcoming Justice General Assembly is available here."

A poster with the above information, and pictures and bios of John T. Crestwell, Jr. (Sunday morning worship), Maria Hinojosa (Ware Lecturer) and Karen I. Tse (Service of the Living Tradition), as well as the blurb below, can be found here (pdf).

“Steve Newcomb of the Indigenous Law Institute will speak about the Christian Doctrine of Discovery, the 500 year-old religious doctrine still used by the United States government to deny the rights of Native American Indians.”

(Note that the Episcopal Church has already renounced this Doctrine, in 2009.)

Again, download the poster here – let’s get one of these in every congregation!

(original post, with links, at So May We Be)

Christmas homily 2011

2011-12-26T07:55:00.000-06:00

How many of you did at least *some* decorating for the holidays this year? How many told stories about the ornaments and decorations, recalling when or where you got them? How many, whether decorating or not, found yourself remembering certain people, and holidays past? There are indeed billions of Christmas stories, each of them reflecting, in some way, some aspect of the birth of the baby Jesus.

Already this morning, we’ve heard the story as told through modern shopping centers and through mythic camels; through ancient shepherds, and sisters; through parents and protestors. And there are still many other stories of Christmas.

We might tell the stories of military families, attempting to celebrate Christmas over the phone, two thousand miles apart.

We might tell of those service people who’ve just returned home from Iraq, and the exuberant joy in their households.

We could also tell of the letters that some of them received, notifying them that they’ll be re-deployed, to Afghanistan, in six months. What bittersweet holidays those families are having.

We could tell the stories of millions of lonely people, who will not see or hear from any family or friends today.

If we listen, we might hear from some who have out-lived all the people who taught them their family holiday rituals.

We can listen for tales of people in prison on the holiday; and those effectively imprisoned by chronic pain or by other medical concerns.

There are stories of a child’s first Christmas, or the first one where they understand the whole “gift thing.” There are stories of the first Christmas marked without a loved one who died this past year.

Some Christmas stories are proud, with the right gift found for each person on the list; some stories feature “gifts” like keeping the heat on or putting food on the table.

Some stories have many chapters, with appendices and charts that show how life has gotten more difficult in the United States, over the last half-century. For example, in 1950, it took the median worker 44 hours per month to pay the median rent. By 1980, it took 56 hours for the median worker to earn enough to pay the median rent each month. In 2005, that figured had skyrocketed to almost 100 hours. If you feel like you are working harder, just to keep up, you are probably right.

Work is almost always part of our Christmas story–some of us need work; some are stressed, with too much of it; some of us wish for more meaningful work to do. As resourceful human beings, most of us have found at least some way to celebrate in spite of our work situation.

The story of Christmas is the story of the Spirit of Life, pulsing and growing in even the most difficult circumstances.

Some of our human cousins are singing and rejoicing even though many in our United States are specifically targeting them for oppressive legislation.

Some of us with brown skin are still celebrating even though Arizona and Alabama have passed laws making illegal many of our everyday activities.

Teachers and other union workers still rejoice even though states like Wisconsin and Michigan have stripped them of their collective bargaining rights. Union workers in Ohio went to the polls and took back their rights.

Occasional victories are part of most Christmas stories.

Many same-sex couples are celebrating their first holiday as legally-married people; others are celebrating the turning tide of history, which is slowly acknowledging the legitimacy of their love, in more and more places, worldwide.

The Christmas story is most often told in tones of triumph, and glory. And our personal Christmas stories often contain human heartache, sorrows and suffering, ancient traumas or a measure of fear, as well.

I won’t ask for a show of hands, but if I did, I predict that virtually all of us in this room would admit to *both* joy and concern, both gladness and significant sorrow existing in our hearts and minds.

That is appropriate: it is the human condition.

We are all of us like decorated Christmas trees, with glorious lights and memorable ornaments sparkling in our lives—-and a few dim places, where little light shines but needles still poke and sap oozes and sticks.

And lo! how beautiful we are, even with the needles, even with the un-decorated places, even with a missing branch or scarred trunk…

How gorgeous are we, as we glow with our inherent human worth and dignity. May we find and use the gifts of the camels: the gift “of perseverance, of continuing on the hard way, making do with what there is, living on what [we] have inside.”

Because what we have inside is the re-born light of Jesus, the reincarnated glow of the Buddha, the cyclic sparkle of the Goddess. What we have inside us is the evolving Spirit of Life, pulsing through us and shining as a beacon to others.

Whether we are able to feel it, today, or not; whether we are warmed by its glow or moved by its twinkle, we do give light to others as that ancient star once did.

May we sustain each other in the wonder of our circumstance. May we experience the truth that, from our greatest trials issue forth our greatest joys. May we lift one another with grace.

May we live out the Christmas message, that the greatest gifts *are* received in the giving.

So may we be.

(original post at So May We Be)

Descendants Ascending

2011-12-05T08:36:00.000-06:00

Heroism without guns or car chases – that is the tale of Alexander Payne’s new film, “The Descendants.” Matt King’s (George Clooney) wife is in a coma, and his family was fragmenting before her accident. King compares his family to an archipelago – “we’re all one, but we’re separate, and drifting slowly apart.” There is a *lot* of grief in this movie (I cried five times), but it is ultimately very satisfying.

King learns that his wife was having an affair from his elder daughter, Alex (played by Shailene Woodley), who is angry at her mother for that affair. Both characters have to confront their own emotions while managing the situation for the younger daughter, the rest of the extended family, and their friends. Over and over, they are forced to confront anguishing circumstances–and they generally rise to the occasion.

The film does not get preachy about the infidelity – it simply shows the many varieties of suffering that follows in its wake. Nor does the movie explore what any of the characters expect to happen after death (we viewers can discuss our opinions, afterward).

One character uses a homophobic slur, and there is a lot of profanity (in particular, the f-bomb). There is one scene where the 17-year-old Alex is drunk (and defends herself with “at least I’m off the drugs”). There is a sub-plot about some ancestral land, that King’s family must sell to developers, which did feel as deep or authentic as the rest of the film. Kaui Hart Hemmings’ novel may have done more with it; I don’t know.

There are several funny moments, and some gorgeous scenery. However, the main point of this movie is watching the characters struggle to do what they feel is right. They generally succeed, as does the film. I would not see it on a first date (!), but if you can stand the profanity, it could lead to good conversations with teenagers about infidelity, drug use, end-of-life issues, or death.

(original post, with links, at So May We Be)

tip in cash

2011-11-30T09:22:00.000-06:00

Please tip your server in cash. Even in “respectable” restaurants, the management all-too-often keeps some of that tip money. According to Wage Theft in America: Why Millions of Americans Are Not Getting Paid–and What We Can Do About It (by Kim Bobo, The New Press, revised ed. 2011), keeping tip money is *one* of the ways that unscrupulous employers steal money from their employees.

I have worked as a server. After tipping the bartender, and the busser, I totaled all of my receipts and turned in the money to the manager. I knew how much was due the restaurant, and I knew how much I’d earned in tips. If I had enough cash, I could just keep the tip money, and turn in the credit card receipts (and the excess cash). If I didn’t have much cash, I had to wait for the company to pay me the cash I had earned as tips. I was fortunate (and white, and male)–I was always paid what I had earned. Many are not paid what they earned, and have little recourse to combat their mistreatment.

By all means, pay for your meal with a credit card, if you like. But do please tip your server in cash.

Learn more at Interfaith Worker Justice; and check out their “Tip in Cash” FB page.

(original post, with links, at So May We Be)

grateful for democracy

2011-11-24T09:58:00.000-06:00

This Thanksgiving, I am grateful for democracy. In all its inefficiency, it still represents the idea that human beings are noble enough to govern themselves.

This is unlike Michigan’s Public Act Four, which grants to an appointed (read: unelected) Emergency Manager the power to “terminate 1 or more terms and conditions of an existing collective bargaining agreement…[and] make, approve, or disapprove any appropriation, contract, expenditure, or loan, the creation of any new position.” In Michigan, an Emergency Financial Manager–now shortened to Emergency Manager (EM)–can fire elected officials and hire unelected officials; and can ignore previously-passed legislation.

David Weigel writes that the Act 4 is “an admission that democracy occasionally doesn’t work.” In the city of Pontiac, one of three cities with an EM, at least some people think that “working with an emergency manager who has no limits on power is a dream…’The last bunch we elected didn’t do anything,’ says [a local businesswoman.] ‘Personally, I like city managers. They’re educated not so much in city politics as in government.’”

Weigel notes there are critics: “A government that cuts at one manager’s discretion, with no voter accountability until his plan is implemented, is ‘a power grab to disenfranchise voters,’ if you ask one of the attorneys on the other side.”

In a similar story, Oregon Governor John Kitzhaber has announced that he will no longer allow the death penalty on his watch. His opponents state, “just by [his] own personal bias [he will] completely negate a law that exists.” Except Kitzhaber will “punt the issue to the legislature and/or the state’s voters, urging them to reconsider how and whether to have capital punishment,” according to Winston Ross’ article on TheDailyBeast. However, Kitzhaber is accountable to the voters–if they disagree with his decision, they can remove him. We cannot remove Pontiac’s Emergency Manager. Or Flint’s. Or the one that may soon be appointed in Detroit.

Weigel’s article ends: “There’s this…political class saying, ‘You know, this is horrible, this is a travesty, this is the worst thing that could ever happen, they’re violating our right to vote, etc.’ But the man on the street is saying, ‘You know what? I’ve got better police service than I had six months ago. The toilet still flushes, and when I turn my shower on the water still comes on.’” I’m surprised that he didn’t mention the trains running on time.

Given a choice between a super-efficient, unaccountable government, and the messy, slow tangle that is democracy, I am eternally grateful that our ancestors chose democracy. Now, let us continue their experiment, and work hard to embody and enact democracy. Occupy!

(original post, with links, at So May We Be) Happy Thanksgiving!

FTL neutrinos reproduced

2011-11-18T10:58:00.002-06:00

OPERA researchers have reproduced their experiment that showed neutrinos traveling faster than light. The new experiment even improved on the methodology of the original, so a number of previously-skeptical scientists have come onboard, according to an online Nature article. Other researchers continue to plan their own experiments, before they will begin to believe such surprising results.

(original post, with links and a gorgeous picture, at So May We Be)

Rev. Jeremy's Invitation

2011-11-15T17:11:00.000-06:00

After Rev. Jeremy Nickel was arrested at Occupy Oakland, he blogged about it, ending with, “many people remain on the sidelines, and for this to succeed it is essential that this changes. I think one thing that has kept many people from getting involved is that they are not sure what this movement is, what it stands for, and where it is going. From my personal experience, this cannot be explained, only experienced. This movement is open source. It is freely available to any who wish to engage with it. But you must take the first step.

"I know so many of us have been disenfranchised. We believe even our right to vote for those that represent us is meaningless. Well, Occupy is the antidote to that feeling of impotence. Here is your platform. It is the General Assembly near you. Unlike most things in modern American life, it cannot be consumed from the comfort of your couch. It will not come sterilized and pre-packaged like the meat you buy in the grocery store. It is not safe, and neutered and stripped of meaning like a sound bite on TV. It is real and raw and very much still being formed and focused. And it desperately needs your voice.

"Please go to a General Assembly near you and hear and see for yourself, I promise you will be transformed by your efforts.”

On the day when Mayor Bloomberg, et al, evicted the original Occupy Wall Street group, this has particular relevance. The eviction will probably backfire on Hizzoner, as it energizes still more people. You cannot evict an idea. We are everywhere. We are the 99%

(original post, with links, at So May We Be)

anonymous d0x

2011-11-07T11:08:00.000-06:00

The group that calls itself “Anonymous” published a lot of information on Nov. 5. They published “d0x” (documents) about many rich people, including and especially how much money those people gave to which political candidates/causes. They also posted information on Walmart and the LRAD corporation (which makes the “Long-Range Acoustic Device” non-lethal crowd control “weapon”).

They began with a statement, “Good morning, people of the internet…there is something terribly wrong with this country, isn’t there? Cruelty and injustice, intolerance and oppression…How did this happen? Who’s to blame? Well certainly there are those more responsible than others, and they will be held accountable, but again truth be told, if you’re looking for the guilty, you need only look into a mirror.”

They then published home addresses, family members’ names, work places and associates, and the political contributions of Larry Summers, Carlos Slim Helu, Christy Walton, David Koch, Charles G. Koch, Michael Bloomberg, Michael T. Duke, Warren Buffett, William Donaldson, Hugh Grant, and Linda Hudson.

As I’ve written before, I do not know exactly what Anonymous is about, so I will not publish links to their d0x. They tweeted that they have d0x on 9000 other people/entities. They also uploaded a free (pirated?) version of “V for Vendetta” and tweeted the news that some of their members had just gotten engaged.

Finally, they announced #OpDeleteFB, asking everyone to delete their own Facebook accounts on December 24, in protest of the ways that Facebook uses and sells our personal information. They were careful to write, “THIS IS NOT an operation aiming at any form of defacing, hacking, included but not limited to cross site scripting, script injection, etc. Of the Facebook website. We respect Facebook’s right to host a website free from hacking attempts.”

I am also unhappy with the way FB is using our information, but I will be surprised if very many people delete their accounts. I know I will not, because I have congregants who contact me via FB.

I will continue to watch as Anonymous’ “year of change” unfolds.

(original post, with links, at So May We Be)

Against Tebowing

2011-10-31T15:17:00.000-05:00

I do not know Tim Tebow, so I don’t know if I like him as a person. I do *not* like the cultural icon he has become. And still, I believe that “tebowing,” making fun of his praying during football games, is a form of relgious intolerance.

It has been apparent to most football fans, since he graduated from the University of Florida, that Mr. Tebow lacked the skills to be a success in the National Football League. However, a fairly large number of people supported him because of his Christian beliefs–and his willingness to demonstrate those beliefs, at football games and in Super Bowl commercials. With the same fervor that some fundamentalists deny the scientific facts about evolution, some Tebow fans deny the evidence that their favorite quarterback is not talented enough for the NFL.

Some people have begun tebowing–getting down on one knee, in at least the semblance of prayer–in all kinds of places. Many of those are in solidarity; but some are definitively not. After he sacked Tebow in the game last Sunday, Detroit Lions linebacker Stephen Tulloch mocked Tebow by taking a knee himself.

I hope Tebow never circumcises another child; I hope he retires gracefully from the NFL soon–and I hope that people stop mocking his beliefs.

(original post, with links, at So May We Be)

why Occupy

2011-10-31T09:23:00.000-05:00

1. What were your intial thoughts about Occupy Wall Street and Occupy Gary?

As OWS continues to pick up momentum, I am more and more optimistic that we can make a real impact on the culture of our nation and our world. It is equally important to Occupy our local areas, like Gary, to keep the spotlight on economic inequalities at every level. If the Occupy movement can be successful at engaging the racial component of economic injustice, then we’ll be taking a huge step forward in our human evolution.

2. How would you like to see Occupy Gary, and Occupy in general grow?

Even more than the threat of violence, the 1% has used the “divide and conquer” strategy to keep poor whites and people of color from organizing together. I would most like to see us growing in understanding, as much as numbers. As core groups of people work across traditional lines of race and class, in hundreds of cities in our nation, we will undermine the the philophical foundations for the whole consumerist culture, creating space for a new conversation about creating a more just society. We need to have enough people showing up that we appear to be viable and strong, to the people driving by and the politicans across the street. Then, as more and more people see diverse groups of people demonstrating together, all over the country, those old divisions will appear less and less valid.

3. Are there specific demands and issues you’d like to see Occupy take, especially at the local level?

“Tax the 1%” is probably the most easily expressed of the many issues OWS is addressing. Most of these changes need to occur at the national level, and then ripple outward to our regions, cities and towns. It’s really more of a philosophical change, to take seriously the widening wealth gap. We need to address that at every level. I’m new to the Region, and do not know any specifics about how this might unfold in Gary or the rest of northwest Indiana.

4. What, in your view, needs to happen to bring in more people of color, especially youth?

I cannot speak for others. If it were me, I would want to see real solidarity, real appreciation for *my* lived experience, before I would risk my time and energy. We should be asking youth of color what they need–and then taking their answers to heart.

5. Would you call this a ‘movement’?
Absolutely!

--questions asked by Sam Love

(original post, with links, at So May We Be)

Hinojosa Ware Lecturer

2011-10-28T19:07:00.000-05:00

Award-winning journalist Maria Hinojosa has been named the Ware Lecturer for the 2012 General Assembly.

Her NPR bio reads:

For 25 years, Maria Hinojosa has helped tell America’s untold stories and brought to light unsung heroes in America and abroad. She is the anchor and managing editor of NPR’s Latino USA.

In April 2010, Hinojosa launched The Futuro Media Group with the mission to produce multi-platform, community-based journalism that respects and celebrates the cultural richness of the American experience. In addition, Hinojosa is the anchor of the Emmy-award winning talk show Maria Hinojosa: One-on-One from WGBH/La Plaza.

Hinojosa has reported hundreds of important stories—including the immigrant work camps in New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina, teen girl victims of sexual harassment on the job, and Emmy-award winning stories of the poor in Alabama—previously as a senior correspondent for PBS’ Now and currently as a contributing correspondent on PBS’ Need to Know.

Throughout her career Hinojosa has helped define the conversation about our times and our society with one of the most authentic voices in broadcast. As a reporter for NPR, Hinojosa told groundbreaking stories about youth and violence and immigrant communities. During her eight years as a CNN correspondent Hinojosa took viewers into communities that had never been shown on television. Her investigative journalism presses the powerful for the truth while giving voice to lives and stories that illuminate the world we live in.

Hinojosa has won top honors in American journalism including two Emmys, the Robert F. Kennedy Award for Reporting on the Disadvantaged, and the Edward R. Murrow Award from the Overseas Press Club for best documentary for her groundbreaking Child Brides: Stolen Lives. In 2009, Hinojosa was honored with an AWRT Gracie Award for Individual Achievement as Best TV Correspondent. Three times over the past decade, Hinojosa has been named one of the 100 Most Influential Latinos in the United States by Hispanic Business magazine. She has received the Ruben Salazar Communications Award from the National Council of La Raza and was inducted into the “She Made It” Hall of Fame at the Paley Center/Museum of Television and Radio in a program that honors women trail blazers in the media.

Hinojosa is author of two books including a motherhood memoir, Raising Raul: Adventures Raising Myself and My Son.

Born in Mexico City, Hinojosa was raised in Chicago. She earned a Bachelor of Arts degree from Barnard College at Columbia University in New York.

(most recently, she presented Lost in Detention)

--original post, with links, at So May We Be.

Red State bloody, pointed

2011-10-24T11:11:00.000-05:00

Director Kevin Smith name-checks “Unitarians” in his latest (last?!) movie, “Red State.” A violent fundamentalist preacher shouts that his flock must fear God, because God is *not* a loving God, not like those Unitarians believe.

This film is much darker, and much bloodier, than Mr. Smith’s earlier “Dogma.” For example, the extremist preacher includes the torture and murder of gay and “licentious” men in his “worship” services; and a surprising number of people are killed, usually in bloody ways. That said, the movie is often wickedly funny, and includes a rant about the Patriot Act and the tragically fractured state of our current U.S. politics. A large part of my recommendation hinges on the fact that I agree with this rant. Folks who disagree probably would not like the film (but probably wouldn’t be caught dead at a Kevin Smith film in the first place).

Because the film has so many surprises, I don’t want to write much about the plot. There are over-sexed boys, and a Waco-type shootout, and a great deal of profanity. Religious exttremists are skewered without much sympathy–and there is a moment where we see a simple authentic faith ritual that, for me, kept the film as anti-extremist but not anti-religion.

I would recommend the film as a feature for young adults to watch and discuss, with a caveat up front about the violence. I could imagine showing it to some teenagers, but the language and violence (and a little nudity) should be considered. Perhaps families would be more successful than a youth group.

Mr. Smith calls this a “horror” film, making yet another point about politics. It is probably more accurately described as a thriller. I will watch it again, and I look forward to discussing it with my (thriller-embracing, blood-desensitized, leftie) friends. I found the overall tone of the film to be slightly hopeful. I look forward to hearing what others think.

(original post, with links, at So May We Be)

freedom means "from debt"

2011-10-18T07:54:00.000-05:00

Ancient peoples found it necessary to forgive debts periodically, to prevent society from being torn apart.

As David Graeber writes in Debt: The First 5,000 Years:

“Mesopotamian city-states were dominated by vast Temples: gigantic, complex industrial institutions often staffed by thousands – including everyone from shepherds and barge-pullers to spinners and weavers to dancing girls and clerical administrators, [and these Temples owned many of the assets of the city-state]. …

We don’t know precisely when and how interest-bearing loans originated, since they appear to predate writing. Most likely, Temple administrators invented the idea as a way of financing the caravan trade. This trade was crucial because while the river valley of ancient Mesopotamia was extraordinarily fertile and produced huge surpluses of grain and other foodstuffs, and supported enormous numbers of livestock, which in turn supported a vast wool and leather industry, it was almost completely lacking in anything else. Stone, wood, metal, even the silver used as money, all had to be imported. From quite early times, then, Temple administrators developed the habit of advancing goods to local merchants – some of them private, others themselves Temple functionaries – who would then go off and sell it overseas. Interest was just a way for the Temples to take their share of the resulting profits.

However, once established, the principle seems to have quickly spread. Before long, we find not only commercial loans, but also consumer loans – usury in the classical sense of the term. By C2400 BC it already appears to have been common practice on the part of local officials, or wealthy merchants, to advance loans to peasants who were in financial trouble on collateral and begin to appropriate their possessions if they were unable to pay. It usually started with grain, sheep, goats, and furniture, then moved on to fields and houses, or, alternately or ultimately, family members. Servants, if any, went quickly, followed by children, wives, and in some extreme occasions, even the borrower himself. These would be reduced to debt-peons: not quite slaves, but very close to that, forced into perpetual service in the lender’s household – or, sometimes, in the Temples or Palaces themselves. In theory, of course, any of them could be redeemed whenever the borrower repaid the money, but for obvious reasons, the more a peasant’s resources were stripped away from him, the harder that became.

The effects were such that they often threatened to rip society apart. If for any reason there was a bad harvest, large proportions of the peasantry would fall into debt peonage; families would be broken up. Before long, lands lay abandoned as indebted farmers fled their homes for fear of repossession and joined semi-nomadic bands on the desert fringes of urban civilization. Faced with the potential for complete social breakdown, Sumerian and later Babylonian kings periodically announced general amnesties: ‘clean slates,’ as economic historian Michael Hudson refers to them. Such decrees would typically declare all outstanding consumer debt null and void (commercial debts were not affected), return all land to its original owners, and allow all debt-peons to return to their families. Before long, it became more or less a regular habit for kings to make such a declaration on first assuming power, and many were forced to repeat it periodically over the course of their reigns.

In Sumeria, these were called ‘declarations of freedom.’ – and it is significant that the Sumerian word amargi, the first recorded word for ‘freedom’ in any known human language, literally means ‘return to mother’ – since this is what freed debt-peons were finally allowed to do. …

Nehemiah was a Jew born in Babylon, a former cup-bearer to the Persian emperor. In 444 BC, he managed to talk the Great King into appointing him governor of his native Judaea. He also received permission to rebuild the Temple in Jerusalem that had been destroyed by Nebuchadnezzar more than two centuries earlier. In the course of rebuilding, sacred texts were recovered and restored; in a sense, this was the moment of the creation of what we now consider Judaism.

The problem was that Nehemiah quickly found himself confronted with a social crisis. All around him, impoverished peasants were unable to pay their taxes; creditors were carrying off the children of the poor. His first response was to issue a classic Babylonian- style ‘clean slate’ edict – having himself been born in Babylon, he was clearly familiar with the general principle. All non-commercial debts were to be forgiven. Maximum interest rates were set. At the same time, though, Nehemiah managed to locate, revise, and reissue much older Jewish laws, now preserved in Exodus, Deuteronomy, and Leviticus, which in certain ways went even further, by institutionalizing the principle. The most famous of these is the Law of Jubilee: a law that stipulated that all debts would be automatically cancelled ‘in the Sabbath year’ (that is, after seven years had passed), and that all who languished in bondage owing to such debts would be released.

‘Freedom,’ in the Bible, as in Mesopotamia, came to refer above all to release from the effects of debt.”

(thanks to Delancey Place for the excerpt)

(original post, with links, at So May We Be)

Lost in Detention

2011-10-15T09:10:00.000-05:00

The controversial “Secure Communitites” immigration enforcement program is losing support from law enforcement, as it fails to deliver on its promises–and creates a backlash from the immigrant communities affected. Worse, PBS’ Frontline discovers evidence of physical and sexual abuse of detainees in ICE detention facilities.

“Last year, the Obama administration set new records for detaining and deporting immigrants who were inside the country illegally. The government plans to best those numbers in 2011, removing more than 400,000 people. In partnership with American University’s Investigative Reporting Workshop, FRONTLINE correspondent Maria Hinojosa takes a penetrating look at Obama’s vastly expanded immigration net, explores the controversial Secure Communities enforcement program and goes inside the hidden world of immigration detention in Lost in Detention, airing Tuesday, Oct. 18, 2011, at 9 P.M. ET on PBS (check local listings),” according to the PBS press release.

It continues, “FRONTLINE discovers that the program has lost support among political leaders in the state and some in law enforcement. Democratic Gov. Pat Quinn and Sheriff Mark Curran, a Republican from Lake County, Ill., were both supporters of the program when ICE began operating it in the state in 2009. But they say the program has not delivered what it promised and has instead created more problems for the state, and a backlash among immigrants.

‘When I deal with the Latino community throughout Lake County,’ Curran says, ‘there is fear that’s running through these communities. They know all about Secure Communities. They know the horror stories of their uncle or their brother that committed the most ticky-tack of offenses and got incarcerated as a result and is now being deported.’”

And: “During a yearlong investigation, FRONTLINE uncovered a troubling picture of abuse inside immigration detention facilities, including more than a dozen allegations of sexual abuse at Willacy, as well as alleged cases of beatings, racism and management cover-ups. Dr. Twana Cooks-Allen, former mental health coordinator at Willacy, told Hinojosa that the detainees she saw inside were not the border-crossers who she expected. ‘They were people who had been established, who had children here, who had businesses, who had attended school.’”

(original post, with links, at So May We Be)

Coming Out Day sermon excerpt

2011-10-03T16:30:00.000-05:00

I do not mean to imply that all people who oppose same-sex marriage—or who oppose homosexuality in general—are liars or hateful. Many of them may be good people, trying to live according to their beliefs.

The ones who are not lying, not deliberately confusing and inflaming things, usually base their beliefs on one of four reasons. Many people who oppose same-sex marriage cite a biblical injunction against it as the reason for their opposition. Others say that a child needs parents of both sexes as role models, to develop in the most healthy way possible. Still others cite nature, claiming that the natural form of love and sex is one male and one female, so that should be the normative, legally acceptable form. Finally, the last common reason used by opponents of same-sex marriage is an appeal to history: if marriage has always been between one woman and one man, then it should continue to be so.

I do not think that any of these four reasons are legitimate, but are actually misunderstandings.

For example, the bible verses most commonly used to declare opposition to homosexuality are Leviticus 18:22 and Leviticus 20:13. Both of these do say something like “You shall not lie with a male as with a woman.” However, Leviticus chapter 20, verse 9 says “All who curse father or mother shall be put to death”; and other passages from Leviticus outlaw beard trimming [19:27], tattoos [19:28], the eating of pork or shellfish [11:7, 11:10], and the wearing of two fibers at once [19:19].

If everyone who used these bible verses to decry homosexuality would also want to outlaw pork and tattoos, I would at least feel they were being consistent. And we haven’t even gotten to Exodus 21:7, which begins “when a man sells his daughter as a slave…”

Virtually nobody believes in selling daughters into slavery, and few seriously want to put rebellious teenagers to death. If they are going to pick and choose which verses to take literally and which to ignore, then I submit we ignore the ones about lying with men as with women.

As for children needing two parents of opposite sex, well, I know some children who were raised by same-sex couples who are wonderful human beings; and I know quite a few who were raised by opposite-sex couples who are…not so wonderful. And we know lots of single parents who are making it work, too, so this objection simply does not hold water, either.

Besides, marriage is about more than just having or raising children. People who cannot, or who can no longer, have children, should be allowed to be married.

When people say that homosexuality is not “natural,” I refer them to any one of many articles or books that show that homosexuality has been observed in 1500 different species of animals, and well-documented in over 500. Petter Bockman states, “No species has been found in which homosexual behavior has not been shown to exist, with the exception of species that never have sex at all, such as sea urchins.”

And within the human community, homosexuality is known to occur in virtually every culture we know. Bisexual, gay, lesbian and transgender behaviors are *entirely* natural.

Which leaves us only the historical argument—which is again, easily demolished.

The ancient Greeks and Romans both had forms of socially-sanctioned, same-sex relationships. James Davidson’s recent book, “Greeks and Greek Love,” details how the Greeks formed mentoring relationships between older and younger men—yes, there was often romance and sex, *and* the Greeks were just as cautious as we are that the younger men were still “old enough,” that is, older than 18. Men in their late twenties would mentor men who were in their late teens. Most of these relationships ended after a few years, but some were long-term partnerships.

Similar mentoring relationships occurred in ancient Asia, as well.

The first recorded mention of a same-sex marriage in the west occurred in the early Roman Empire, where Cicero records it in passing, as if it were commonplace. Other historians mention numerous gay weddings, and the practice seemed entirely common until Christianity became the official religion of the empire.

During the Middle Ages, there are many accounts of same-sex partnerships. These were not called marriages, but rather “enbrotherments,” and they offered most of the benefits of today’s civil unions.

Finally, the historical argument brings us back to the Hebrew Bible, where we find not one, not two, but three accounts of same-sex relationships. (see Religious Tolerance .org)

In the book of Ruth, after their men have died in a famine, Ruth tells her mother-in-law, Naomi, [Ruth 1:16] “where you go, I will go; where you lodge, I will lodge; your people shall be my people, and your God my God.” In the King James translation, it says that Ruth *clave* to Naomi, [Ruth 1:14] using the same word that is used in the description of heterosexual marriage in Genesis: [2:24] “Therefore shall a man leave his father and his mother, and shall cleave unto his wife: and they shall be one flesh.”

The books of first and second Samuel describe a relationship between David-—who was to become King David-—and a man named Jonathan. I Samuel, chapter 18, verses 3 and 4 state, “And Jonathan made a covenant with David because he loved him as himself. Jonathan took off the robe he was wearing and gave it to David.” I must admit, many conservative theologians disagree with my interpretation, but I think it is pretty clear: Jonathan loved David as himself, and then he got naked with him.

Later, Jonathan’s father finds out, and threatens to kill David, so David has to leave. The book describes their parting: [1 Samuel 20:41 “David got up…and bowed down before Jonathan three times, with is face to the ground. Then they kissed one another and wept with one another, until David exceeded.” I will leave you to translate what that means, but I will say, it is evidently so dangerous that some modern translators deliberately mis-translate it as “they sadly shook hands.”

Finally, in the book of Daniel, Daniel has a relationship with a man named Ashpenaz, who was the chief of the court officials of Nebuchadnezzar, the King of Babylon. Chapter 1, verse 9 in the King James translation states, “Now God had brought Daniel into favor and tender love with [Ashpenaz.]” Again, some translators use “compassion” for “tender love,” but in the original Hebrew, the words are chesed and v’rachamim.“Chesed” is translated as “mercy,” and “v’rachamim” can mean either “mercy” or “physical love.” It would be silly to say that Ashpenaz showed Daniel mercy and mercy; I think it is clear that Ashpenaz showed Daniel mercy and physical love.

I think that arguments against same-sex relationships are rationalizations, which amount to little more than “I do not like this, so I want it outlawed for all people.”

The good news is, that more and more people are seeing those reasons as the rationalizations they are, and more and more states and nations are granting same-sex rights.

–from Love Leads Gaily Forward, A service celebrated at the Unitarian Universalist Congregation of Grand Traverse on 11 October 2009; by Rev. Chip Roush

(original post, with links, at So May We Be)

Rev Sean on GA12, process

2011-09-25T09:48:00.000-05:00

Rev. Sean blogs:

Since I was at the meeting where the schedule was created, I want to ask you to think about a few things as you begin to respond:

First, be gentle in your critique. This schedule is the result of a lot of good people working hard together to respond to a wide variety of needs and expectations. We made a very clear decision to privilege the needs of the local community and let THEM tell us what they need. The form the schedule takes reflects that. It’s more about the local community’s needs than our hopes and expectations.

Second, I learned at the meeting that there are not (at this point) a whole lot of ways that 3000-4000 UUs can be truly helpful to the local community. There are many ways that trying to meet OUR need to do something that we recognize as service/witness would tax the local community’s resources. We can’t just descend on them. And the amount of organization and resources that a huge service project would demand would actually be a drain on the limited resources of the very people we hope to serve. Knowing this, we’ve tried hard to find ways that we can use our presence, power, and resources to do things that are truly helpful. This GA will offer many ways to be of service, but they may not look like we may have expected.

Third, (and I’m not sure I know how to say this gently) we have A LOT to learn. The amount of education and preparation is very intentional and is also a response to the local community wanting us to truly understand not just the issues they face, but the history behind those issues. Education is perhaps THE very most powerful thing we can do to help–not only the Arizona migrants–but people back home, who also face the consequences of this history in ways both similar and dissimilar. If we can get thousands of UUs to grapple with the history/theology of the Doctrine of Discovery OR to understand the basics of coalition building and community organizing OR to feel like they can help make a difference with the privilege and power they have…well, we’d have accomplished a lot.

Fourth, there will be a lot of choices built into this GA. People will be able to choose how much service they can do, how much history they want to learn, how many practical “take it home” skills they learn, etc. The “grid” can’t reflect that very well. But what I heard among the very key people at the planning meeting was a deep desire to allow attendees as much flexibility as possible to learn, reflect, and act. All of that, of course, takes place within the constraints of time, space, and available resources.

Truly, I was amazed by the commitment, dedication, realism, and vision of the planners. This GA won’t be perfect. It probably won’t be like you imagine it. But it will be a very heartfelt effort to create something that helps create justice and truly partners with the people who need us in Arizona.

One of our partners in this work, B Loewe , Communications Director at National Day Laborer Organizing Network, started our time together with a reflection on three goals we might share for this experiment we call “Justice GA”:

1. Build power for the local communities by using our resources, privilege, and access (especially to the media) to draw attention to the struggle in Arizona and the deeper inequities and injustices it reveals.

2. Shrink disbelief among our own people and among people throughout this nation who think and say, “I just can’t believe our government would do these things” or “I didn’t know it was so bad.”

3. Enlarge compassion.

He reminded us that we are not expected to do a Justice GA perfectly, but we are committed to doing it in partnership with the people who invited us, with the people who have taken the risk to make it happen, and with each other.

Love Will Guide Us,
Sean

–to which I can only respond, so may we be!

(See Rev. Sean's original post; and my echo)

GA12 Design Statement

2011-09-21T07:51:00.000-05:00

General Assembly (GA) 2012 will be a gathering with multiple ways of engaging in justice work for people of all ages. Joining with the people of Arizona, we will worship, witness, learn and work together. We will leave General Assembly grounded in our faith, energized for justice and with resources to bring this work home to our congregations.

Witness and Service
We will partner with communities in Arizona to bring attention to the injustices and human rights abuses they face. Our service will allow all participants to witness in ways that reflect our commitment to justice, equity and compassion for all. We will also do hands-on work with our community partners. Projects will take place in a variety of settings, and include multigenerational teams and accessible venues. Whether you choose to witness for one hour, make signs for people to carry, or spend a day at a project, there will be opportunities for everyone.

Programs and Workshops
We will learn how to build stronger relationships, community partnerships, and movements for justice. We will go in-depth on important justice issues such as colonization, border issues and advocacy. We encourage teams to attend General Assembly in order to share experiences and learn how to continue this work at home.

The Work of Justice
Our business will be grounded in our faith tradition’s commitment to justice. Plenary sessions will be limited to matters essential to the governance of our Association and items that further our justice-making efforts. The exhibit hall will offer justice resources and opportunities to connect with local communities.

Spirit and Community
Filled with joy and boldness, we will sing, we will worship, and we will celebrate together. We will have spiritual support and reflection as we build a just world. Together, we will create a beloved community without borders.

–the above words were created by the GA12 Design Team, and can be found–along with other GA12-related articles–on the GA webpage.

As a member of the GA Planning Committee, I don’t want to get too personal or too far ahead of the curve, but I will publish more material as it is available. I can say that I am really, truly pleased with the way our first planning session went. I believe that everyone will find something to love about GA12 – both traditional “GA junkies” and those who want a genuinely different, justice-centered participatory experience.

(original post, with links, at So May We Be)

more dangerous than miracles

2011-09-12T10:42:00.000-05:00

Homily preached at the First Unitarian Church of Hobart, Indiana, on 11 September 2011, by the Rev. Mr. Chip Roush

READING
“On the whole, I do not find Christians, outside of the catacombs, sufficiently sensible of conditions. Does anyone have the foggiest idea what sort of power we so blithely invoke? Or, as I suspect, does no one believe a word of it? The churches are children playing on the floor with their chemistry sets, mixing up a batch of TNT to kill a Sunday morning. It is madness to wear ladies’ straw hats and velvet hats to church; we should all be wearing crash helmets. Ushers should issue life preservers and signal flares; they should lash us to our pews. For the sleeping god may wake someday and take offense, or the waking god may draw us out to where we can never return.”
–Annie Dillard, from Teaching a Stone to Talk

HOMILY
How many of you have heard of the “Jefferson Bible”? How many own a copy of that Christian New Testament, from which Thomas Jefferson cut out all the miracles, leaving only the life and ethical teachings of Jesus? How many of you think that Jefferson was making the same mistake as the contemporary fundamentalists, taking 2000-year-old Jewish *stories* as literal?

Whether you have ever used the word “miracle” in a sentence or not, how many have had some kind of experience which changed you in a significant way? Me, too. That is the part of Ms. Dillard’s piece with which I agree the most.

I disagree with several other assumptions she seems to make. That we might wake a sleeping god, or that such a deity might then take offense—both of those concepts concern me. If the word “god” is to have any meaning at all, in my life, it is roughly synonymous with the evolving spirit of Life, awake and present everywhere, always active, and always developing toward more inter-connections, and more interdependence among us co-evolving forms of existence.

Nevertheless, I think I take her meaning. She is writing against the common beliefs that god is primarily a gentle, relentlessly positive, source of comfort. That image is at the center of Longfellow’s words. As the choir just sang, “As torrents in summer, Half dried in their channels, Suddenly rise, though the Sky is still cloudless, For rain has been falling Far off at their fountains[…] So hearts that are fainting Grow full to o’erflowing, And they that behold it Marvel, and know not That God at their fountains Far off has been raining!”

We in the 21st century are quite used to water flowing, without the benefit of rain. We may take modern plumbing for granted, but evidently Longfellow was still aware of aqueducts that brought water from far away.

And while it is true, that even in the midst of grief or anger, some unexpected thing can occur to refill our hearts with joy-—and some will refer to such a thing as God’s handiwork-—well, that kind of soothing comfort is not the only phenomenon that comes to us without our expectation.

Just as the sound of waves can delight us, and the feel of cool water on our face can soothe us, even as water is necessary to sustain life, so can it also be hugely powerful. Hurricanes can bring devastation in minutes, and the steady trickle of water can quietly wear away even the strongest rock.

The Mystery, that some of us refer to as “God,” can be every bit as dangerous as it can be comforting.

But the danger is not that some angry, bearded deity will appear in the sanctuary on some random Sunday morning and smite us—-the real danger is in the ideas that get expressed here, on the *majority* of Sunday mornings and on Tuesday evenings, as the Zen group meets, and at other times…

Hard hats and life preservers will not shield us from ideas that change us, from concepts that consume us, from new understandings that compel us to live our lives differently.

That is the danger: that we will hear something in this beautiful sanctuary which will *not* comfort us nor make it okay to remain complacent, but which will require us to *be* different people.

Researcher Carol Gilligan studied how people change their opinions. She learned that people do not always change their minds, as they age, but if they do, it is virtually *always* toward including more people. We all start out selfish; and many learn to consider the needs or opinions of a few; and *some* of us learn to take into account the needs of all. Gilligan also discovered, that, unless there is some kind of brain damage, once a person has evolved to the next level, then she or he will never go back. They will always take into account the needs of a wider circle of beings.

So, one of the reasons that we all come to church is to seek healing and support; and that is good; that is one of the things we do here. And sometimes we also find challenge, and change-—and often, that change will become permanent. Some idea we encounter here may transform us, to the point that we are never the same again.

Thomas Jefferson cut all the miracle stories out of his bible, but the truly radical idea-—from the teachings of Jesus, and from virtually all other sacred texts—-the radical idea that we should treat every person as if se were holy, is just as compelling, and every bit as likely to “draw us out to where we can never return.”

So may we be!

(original post, with links, at So May We Be)

prayer for 9/11+10

2011-09-09T11:00:00.002-05:00

We note the tenth anniversary
of the attacks on the World Trade Center;
we note the significant changes—
in our country and the world—
since then;
w desire peace, and safety,
and appropriate cooperation,
among all peoples,
of all beliefs, in all nations;

we desire that this anniversary
provide an opportunity
to rededicate ourselves
to co-creating a world
in which people of many differences
can encounter one another
not in fear,
but in gladness
and recognition
that we are ultimately more alike
than we are distinct;

we desire to acknowledge boundaries,
and to cross them carefully,
with respect and authenticity—
to find,
enhance,
and celebrate
the ocean of wholeness
in which our islands of selfhood
float and fight.

So may we be.

Labor Day: Our Scrap of Time

2011-09-05T10:12:00.000-05:00

If we are a captive of our scrap of time,
we can still influence eternity
by remembering
that we are the conscience of the universe,
and acting with that understanding.

We can—and must—
seek truth,
create beauty
and embody goodness.
We can *both*
work individually, to advance and thrive,
and work collectively,
to create strength and maintain balance.

It may only be a small scrap of time
that we are given,
but if we organize,
we can do remarkable things, together.

So may we be.

(full Labor Day sermon, from which the above comes, at So May We Be)

9/11 for all ages

2011-09-01T16:57:00.000-05:00

My sister plans to explain the anniversary of the 9/11 attacks using the story of the Grinch. When talking with children (most of whom were not yet born on September 11, 2001), she wanted to be as honest as possible, without frightening them. Her insight: use the Dr. Seuss story, How The Grinch Stole Christmas. She’ll ask them if they know who the Grinch is, and ask them about what he stole from the Whos in Whoville (gifts, decorations, musical instruments, food), then ask what the Whos did. Rather than crying, or crumpling in defeat, the Whos gathered in a circle and sang. The spirit of the holiday was not in the gifts, it was in their hearts. Then she’ll draw the parallel: some angry people attacked the World Trade Center, expecting the citizens of the US to crumple in defeat–but we gathered in solidarity and helped each other, expressing the spirit in our hearts. Her church will light candles in memoriam, and the children will be invited to “light” electric tea lights.

It is not a perfect parallel. The US *did* gather in solidarity for a while, but many then turned their rage on innocent Muslim-Americans. And we did start a war on an uninvolved nation… Nevertheless, for young children, this does seem like a decent way of talking about a tragic event, and the positive ways that some of us responded to it.

Thanks, Kathy.

(original post, with links, at So May We Be)

a whisper of the help

2011-08-16T09:52:00.000-05:00

“The Help” is a heartwarming tale of one woman’s journey overcoming 1960′s southern sexism. Eugenia “Skeeter” Phelan (played by Emma Stone) convinces her mother and her town that finding a job can be as fulfilling as finding a man. Tate Taylor’s film–presumably like Kathryn Stockett‘s book, which I have not read–also includes a large sub-plot about black maids serving white families. That is where it gets into trouble: the movie pretends to be about racial justice, but it really isn’t. Its tagline is “Change begins with a whisper,” and it barely whispers about race. Oh, we see the black maids (played exceedingly well by Viola Davis and Octavia Spencer) get mistreated by their employers, and we do feel some of their pain, but the main emotional arc of the movie is Skeeter’s emerging feminism.

Because it has been advertised as a movie about racial justice, and because we still have hopes for movies that will help us engage the complex issues of race in the USA, some reviewers have criticized the movie for not doing enough.

The Association of Black Women Historians wrote (pdf), “The Help distorts, ignores and trivializes the experiences of black domestic workers. We are specifically concerned about the representations of black life and the lack of attention given to sexual harassment and civil rights activism.” Valerie Boyd, writing at ArtsCriticATL, quotes Attorney Genernal Eric Holder as she names this a “feel-good movie for a cowardly nation” (cowardly on matters of race). Boyd writes, “Skeeter never questions the system itself. She is no civil rights pioneer; she just wants to write a good book.” By the end of the film, Skeeter appears to have an *inkling* of how dangerous it was for the maids she interviewed, but she appears to be little changed by that knowledge. Similarly, the movie audience will have a slightly deeper understanding of 1960s race relations, but will likely be unchanged.

Seeing the maids and their plight on the big screen, even in this partial, sanitized version, is better than not seeing them at all. If this is the next small step along the path to full enlightenment, I guess I won’t fault the director or the author too much. I also applaud the critics for pointing out how much further we have to go.

The Help is well-made and well-acted; although it does not really engage the deepest issues, it does tell a compelling story. It does not have whiz-bang special effects, or grand scenic vistas, so you don’t *need* to see it on the big screen. However, if enough of us watch it at the theaters, maybe more filmmakers will be interested in presenting (yet deeper?!) tales of race and class. Like virtually all mainstream movies, it supports the status quo—in particular, it promulgates the Great American myth that we can always overcome any circumstance, if we just show enough pluck and gumption.

The movie is definitely worth seeing (and talking about, afterwards). If you want to explore the real lives of black domestic servants, here is a list compiled by the ABWH:

Fiction:

Like one of the Family: Conversations from A Domestic’s Life, by Alice Childress
The Book of the Night Women by Marlon James
Blanche on the Lam by Barbara Neeley
The Street by Ann Petry
A Million Nightingales by Susan Straight

Non-Fiction:

Out of the House of Bondage: The Transformation of the Plantation Household by Thavolia Glymph
To ‘Joy My Freedom: Southern Black Women’s Lives and Labors by Tera Hunter
Labor of Love Labor of Sorrow: Black Women, Work, and the Family, from Slavery to the Present by Jacqueline Jones
Living In, Living Out: African American Domestics and the Great Migration by Elizabeth Clark-Lewis
Coming of Age in Mississippi by Anne Moody

(full post, with links, at So May We Be)

Laureate Levine

2011-08-13T09:28:00.000-05:00

In celebration of Philip Levine becoming the new U.S. Poet Laureate, here is the first poem from his National Book Award -winning collection, What Work Is:

“Fear and Fame”

Half an hour to dress, wide rubber hip boots,
gauntlets to the elbow, a plastic helmet
like a knight’s but with a little glass window
that kept steaming over, and a respirator
to save my smoke-stained lungs. I would descend
step by slow step into the dim world
of the pickling tank and there prepare
the new solutions from the great carboys
of acids lowered to me on ropes – all from a recipe
I shared with nobody and learned from Frank O’Mera
before he went off to the bars on Vernor Highway
to drink himself to death. A gallon of hydrochloric
steaming from the wide glass mouth, a dash
of pale nitric to bubble up, sulphuric to calm,
metals for sweeteners, cleansers for salts,
until I knew the burning stew was done.
Then to climb back, step by stately step, the adventurer
returned to the ordinary blinking lights
of the swingshift at Feinberg and Breslin’s
First-Rate Plumbing and Plating with a message
from the kingdom of fire. Oddly enough
no one welcomed me back, and I’d stand
fully armored as the downpour of cold water
rained down on me and the smoking traces puddled
at my feet like so much milk and melting snow.
Then to disrobe down to my work pants and shirt,
my black street shoes and white cotton socks,
to reassume my nickname, strap on my Bulova,
screw back my wedding ring, and with tap water
gargle away the bitterness as best I could.
For fifteen minutes o more I’d sit quietly
off to the side of the world as the women
polished the tubes and fixtures to a burnished purity
hung like Christmas ornaments on the racks
pulled steadily toward the tanks I’d cooked.
Ahead lay the second cigarette, held in a shaking hand,
as I took into myself the sickening heat to quell heat,
a lunch of two Genoa salami sandwiches and Swiss cheese
on heavy peasant bread baked by my Aunt Tsipie,
and a third cigarette to kill the taste of the others.
Then to arise and dress again in the costume
of my trade for the second time that night, stiffened
by the knowledge that to descend and rise up
from the other world merely once in eight hours is half
what it takes to be known among women and men.

(full post, with links, at So May We Be)

Cowboys, Aliens, Pelagians

2011-08-01T07:34:00.000-05:00

Cowboys & Aliens is a decent summer movie, but it loses half a letter grade for bad theology. Director Jon Favreau has a great cast and a serviceable script; the cinematography is lovely and the soundtrack is pretty good. Native Americans are predictably typecast (menacing at first, then loud and chaotic, then generally noble and taciturn; after the dramatic climax, we don’t see them again). The special effects are pretty good; Favreau and his producers know what it takes to create a summer blockbuster-type film. I loved his Iron Man, but that set the bar for me. With its great cast and bold concept, C&A did not quite live up to its potential.

And that theology: at one point in the film, the town’s clergyman says something like, “First, you have to earn God’s presence; then you have to notice it; then you have to act on it.” I agree with the second and third step, but recoil in disagreement and dismay at that first idea. IMHO, the Spirit of Life is present in every being. We may ignore, deny, or even actively work against it, but there is sacred potential everywhere. We don’t have to “earn” it; it renews in us with every pulse of our heart.

So: I give Cowboys & Aliens a “B-” because its popcorn thrills ultimately fall short of its promise, and I subtract another half-letter-grade for bad theology. C+. It’s worth seeing on the big screen, but do have a conversation afterwards: we do not have to *earn* God’s presence.

(apologies to Pelagius–while he did say that we humans *could* work toward goodness by ourselves, even he did not say that we had to)

Full post, with links, at So May We Be.

together turn our eyes outward

2011-07-31T07:12:00.000-05:00

These table favors did far more than simply keep the children happy during the long wedding toasts: they were symbols of the flocks of chicks the bride and groom donated to Heifer, International, as part of their marriage. Evan Hartunian Girvetz and Kristin Riley Grote (now Girvetz) included in their vows:

“…To together turn our eyes outward and give back to others and the earth, I take you to be my partner in all stages of life, for better or worse, richer or poorer, in sickness and in health. In Africa, at home and all over the globe…”

Working with such clear-eyed, passionate young people is one of the things I love about my job. Congratulations and best wishes, Kristin and Evan. May you live out your vows with grace and steady commitment, and may you bring joy to each other and many more of our human cousins. Blessed be!

(full post, with links and cute chick, at So May We Be)

SUUSI 11

2011-07-26T08:52:00.000-05:00

Jason Thomas‘ cartoon just about says it all. This was my fourth SUUSI (Southeast UU Summer Institute), and it was easily my best yet. Old friends, new friends, remarkable crafts, achingly beautiful music, fireworks, delicious home-brewed beers (Uncle Flip and Devon made some fine beverages, but my personal fave was Rachel’s ginger peach) and a pounding dance floor all combined into a life-changing event. I shared meals and played games with children, talked deep into the night with friends and colleagues, and got to share the stage with Kiya Heartwood (singing Meg’s All Will Be Well!).

As Louisa wrote, “Mother of God, that was a stellar week!”

Please check out Brother Sun, Kiya, Wendy, David, and all the other SUUSI musicians – and start planning *now* for SUUSI 2012, July 15-21. Look To This Day!

(full post, with links, at So May We Be)

anonymous and its plan

2011-07-11T13:12:00.000-05:00

Calling themselves “Anonymous,” a group of activists and hactivists have a plan to challenge and change the status quo. Their website promises “One year. Three phases. A world of change.”

I absolutely agree that our world could use some change, and in my youth, I would have been more excited by, and more committed to, such a movement. These days, I know too many people who depend upon our system, to be whole-heartedly in favor of demolishing it. In their introductory video, Anonymous asserts that their plans are non-violent. They may mean that, but bringing down a system of government (and probably most multi-national corporations) will undoubtedly lead to confusion and disruption which will then lead to violence. I have not read all their materials yet; they have not rolled out the second two phases of their plan. Their first phase is to encourage people, all over the world, to educate themselves. That goal I totally support; it is why I mention it here.

The powerful tend to gain more power; the rest of us tend to suffer more. However, we have more power than they want us to think we do (Check out Rabbi Michael Lerner’s “Surplus Powerlessness“). Anonymous and their plan may help us to regain and use our power, or they may become another mighty entity that thrives on those who are less poweful – such as those who lack internet access. Perhaps by joining Anonymous, we can help shape “The Plan.” I do not know yet, but I do hope we all educate ourselves, about our governments, about our corporations (who are *not* persons), and about Anonymous as well.

(full post, with links, at So May We Be)

smaller, better UUA Board

2011-06-17T11:12:00.000-05:00

I support our UUA Board of Trustees’ proposal to shrink the Board from 26 members to 14, and to change the way Trustees are nominated & elected. I agree that this will make the Board both *more* efficient and diverse (pdf). For more details, please see their FAQ (pdf).

My colleague, Tom Schade, wrote: “Dear Friends…I have been thinking about UUA governance for a while. Most of our frustrations with the UUA come from its ineffective governance. We all have the experience of being frustrated with our ‘denomination’, but loving the people we know who staff it, and lead it. That says the problem is in the system not the people.

We have had since merger, a continuation of the Unitarian governance mode which is Strong President who leads the Staff and Weak Board. We assume this — the election of the President is where we focus all our hopes for the future. The problem is that the President has weak control of the staff. The board has been ineffective, in part because it is large and because it is constituted as regional representatives. (Regional representatives are based on the theory that somebody has to stop the organization from doing something stupid in my geographic area. It’s negative power. It’s not based on building a leadership team.)

We have had all the frustrations of the President/staff led organization, of which I would list these as particularly important: lack of priority decision making, mission creep, deferred decision-making, lack of follow-through on decisions, procedural inertia and occasional rogue processes. Staffs keep doing what they are doing; they add new tasks and priorities without giving up any; they adopt new rhetoric but continue without change. The big change in our system, which are still working our way through is that switch to policy governance. Some think PG is just a buzzword, but it is actually a shift in power and has set off a power struggle. The Board claims the power to set the direction and the priorities for the staff. The Board claims that its democratic mandate is greater than the President and the staff to set the purposes and priorities for which our considerable resources will be put.

The fact that the UUA President is elected, and not a hired Executive Director, is a still unresolved complication to this scheme.

The Board Downsizing proposal is a part of the Board’s desire to be able to be a strong leadership Board. First of all, it strengthens their democratic mandate: one third of the Board will be elected at large every year. Secondly, it aims at a board small enough to be effective in setting direction and goals, to make real decisions about resources and ends. It imagines that the way that people will try to influence the future of the UUA is by participating in and focusing on the annual board elections. Are the candidates people who will lead the UUA in the direction we want to go? Instead of asking that question every four years at President electing time, every year it will come up.

That’s the issue: do we want to have a leadership Board that exercises positive power (make what we think are good things happen), or are we hoping for a representative board that exercises negative power (stop what we think are bad things from happening.)?

Nominations: If we were satisfied with the fact that our leadership
represents the majority culture in the UUA, then it would OK to do away with a nominating committee for Board positions. In a cultural majority dominated organization, there is a contradiction between straight democracy and the work of diversifying the leadership. If all the elections were people nominating themselves, we would probably continue as we have, and feel somehow guilty about it. What we need is a conscious leadership development process that scans the organization from the margins to the center and finds and promotes the leaders we need. The leaders we need to move into new communities and cultures are not the obvious candidates coming up through the established channels of informal leadership development. The nominating committee should be the structure of that leadership development process.

The ultimate goal of the board downsizing is to imagine a strong, unified board that is forward looking, able to imagine a broader Unitarian Universalism and able to direct the deployment of our resources toward expanding Unitarian Universalism.”

We can either continue to distrust and hobble our leaders, or we can work to find excellent people and give them the freedom (and responsibility) to advance our shared mission. I want us to be an important, powerful voice for justice and freedom–-that requires a strong governance system. Yes, we’ll need to watch and verify that this new structure does deliver the promised efficiency and diversity. As Andrew Jackson reminded us, vigilance is the price of liberty.

Please vote in support of this proposal, at GA next week.

(original text, with links *and* the FAQ reproduced as a comment instead of a PDF file, at So May We Be)

Top Ten People to NOT Serve on Your Board

2011-06-14T12:56:00.000-05:00

Top Ten People Who Should NOT Be On Your Board – and the worst and best reasons to ask someone to serve. This is slightly adapted from the classic list created by the Rev. Ms. Suzanne Meyer. NB: some of her characterizations are a bit harsh, but the core truths hold, IMHO.

1. Joe Blow-Hard. He’s the loudmouth who always has an opinion about everything. Rationale: Let him see that running a church is not as easy as he thinks. Reality: He is all talk and no action. Give the nominating committee his name only if you want the Board meetings to go on past midnight.

2. Sue Sweet. The dear soul who has been responsible for chancel flowers for the last 30 years. Rationale: Let’s put her on the Board to reward her for a job well done. Reality: If you want to reward her, get her a gift certificate. She has been doing what she loves for years–leave her alone! She will be totally ineffectual on the Board of Trustees.

3. Enya Absentia. Very active way back when her kids were young, but Enya and her husband have only been sporadically involved for the last decade. Rationale: Let’s get Enya and her husband involved again, by giving her a seat on the Board. Reality: Enya has been out of the loop for years. A lot has happened in that time. She will be the one to block change by saying, “that’s not the way we used to do things.”

4. Isaiah Newby. Very new to the church, and eager to be involved in everything. Rationale: Let’s get some new blood on the Board! Reality: Get Isaiah involved in education or fellowship groups, or justice work, if you want to keep him. Nobody joins a church because they want to serve on the Board. Let him get a few of his needs met before you show him how the sausage is really made.

5. Ima Needy. Lost her husband, her job, and her dog all within the last six months. Rationale: We want to affirm Ima, and give her a reason to live. Reality: The Board is not a support group.

6. Tara Teen. Member of the youth group. Rationale: We need to hear from our young people. Reality: While hearing from our young people is an excellent idea, Tara will like as not find the workings of the Board a giant bore. There are other, better ways to involve children and youth in the life of the congregation. If you want to affirm the young people in your church, what about buying some decent furniture for the YRUU room? Those old beat-up sofas and broken-down tables suck.

7. Byron Busy. Corporate Big Shot, who travels constantly for his business. Rationale: He will bring his expertise from the business world to the Board. Reality: He’ll miss over half the meetings.

8. Anne Agenda. Anne is *so* passionate–we could use that kind of energy on the Board! Rationale: She does have a lot of passion. Reality: She is passionate about her one single issue. If you want to hear all about homeless pussy cats, or the plight of the three-toed sloth at Board Meetings (in addition to the five minutes she takes up every Sunday morning during Joys and Concerns), then go ahead and put her on the Board.

9. Buck Saplenty. Buck has money coming out his wahzoo, but his annual pledge is remarkably low. Rationale: Once he understands why we need the money, his pledge will go up. Reality: His cheapskate ways and scarcity thinking will poison the rest of the Board.

10. Oley Hipster. Nobody told him that the 60′s are over. He’s still fighting those running dog lackeys of the establishment. Rationale: Oley has been around for a long time, and knows all the verses of “Blowin’ in the Wind.” Reality: Oley overdosed, back in the day. He is a rebel without a cause, not a good trustee. Save him for the hootenanny.

World’s Worst Reasons for nominating someone to serve on the Board of your congregation: To affirm them; to show how much we care; because they make a lot of noise; because we need new blood, old blood or young blood; because we have a hidden agenda (we want her money, hir property or his pool for a party); because they’ve been around forever; because they are brand new; because we can’t get anyone else to serve.

World’s Best Reasons for nominating someone to serve on the Board: they have shown support for the institution in the past; they are generous with their time and money; they have enough time in their lives to attend the meetings and do the work; they have a good sense of humor; they embody the values of the congregation in their personal lives; their knees do not tend to jerk much…

Bonus Wisdom:

Never nominate an active alcoholic or addict to seve as Treasurer or Canvass Chair.

If your Board meetings last past 9:30pm, your Board is doing too much micromanaging. Take a hard look at the agenda, a week prior. Put the most important items at the top of the agenda. Cull out the items that are not Board business.

If your Board is micromanaging: It probably means that they don’t want to deal with the real issue(s). Your job is to name that elephant in the middle of the table. What is the one thing they don’t want to address?

(list also available at So May We Be)

Won Park, money origamist

2011-06-12T10:20:00.000-05:00

Won Park folds dollar bills into remarkable shapes. His origami is really gorgeous – note how the penguin even has an eye.

Elsewhere on the web, you may read that Won Park lives in a garbage truck; that part of the story is untrue. The vehicle is real, but it is not his. It tickles me that his astonishing artwork is not enough of an accomplishment, but folks feel it necessary to tack on the garbage truck (actually the UNICAT EX63-HD / MAN TGA 6×6) myth.

If you like origami, do yourself a favor and check out Vanessa Gould’s film, Between the Folds. It shows ten other origamists who do virtual magic with paper. Some make their own paper, to get the resilience, strength and color just right. Others do origami as mathematical exercises.

Check out some of Won Park's work at So May We Be.

UU smart phone app?

2011-06-09T08:31:00.000-05:00

What would you want in a UU app on your smartphone? That is the question posed by our UUA. The Rev. Ms. Naomi King, one of our most tech-savvy leaders, who regularly ministers to people via Twitter and Facebook, has already blogged a number of good suggestions for a religious app. Naomi included news, podcasts, “find a church”, aids for spiritual practice, faith-development-based games, music, texts (“mobile faith libraries”), and ritual calendars, among other things. She suggested that the app be useful for all ages, and work across many platforms.

I am embarrassed that I did not come up with music in my list, but I am used to Naomi being more comprehensive and more thoughtful than I. Some other things which would be nice to have in a mobile app: links to our UUA bookstore, with a featured “book of the week” (with a discount?); a “Today in U/U/UU History” feature; and a daily chalice lighting (which Naomi regularly collects on Twitter–search on #chalicelight or #chaliceout). When Naomi posted this question on FB, the Rev. Mr. Craig Schwalenberg said that he is still waiting for a virtual chalice. I can imagine the UU app including a choice of chalices (chalii?), which you could “light” by tapping the screen, whereupon a flame would appear (and even flicker a bit).

A daily quote would be nice, sort of a mobile Wayside Pulpit. That could be a specialized subset of the Mobile Faith Library (which would also include our Principles and Purposes / Sources from the bylaws). I assume a mobile UU News feed would include the Pastoral Letters written by our UUA president, and news about our congregations–both when they do good things, and when they are affected by natural disasters, etc.

In addition to daily featured podcasts and blog posts, there should be links to “Discover UU,” the Interdependent Web, UUpdates, UU TV, and other aggregators.

I like Naomi’s idea of a ritual calendar. The congregation I served in 2009 put together a booklet called “Advent-ure Season,” with things to celebrate every day from December 6th to January 3rd. We included activities for all ages, and conversation starters, for each day. A daily thing to celebrate, and recipes or games or crafts and conversation starters would be a wonderful thing–-and could be its own app, really.

What else would you like to see in a UU app? You can answer here and/or the UUA’s original question.

(original post, with links, at So May We Be)

manly to live longer?

2011-06-08T09:39:00.000-05:00

Men die five years earlier than women, on average. This is partially biological, and mostly cultural: men die sooner because they have “poorer health care behaviors and lower use of health care,” according to author Bridget Murray-Law, quoted in Tom Matlack’s article. Matlack writes, “the way to extend male life isn’t to feminize us but build upon traditionally male attributes that turn out to promote healthier choices.” Matlack quotes Murray-Law’s article: “Men high in traits that are often considered masculine ideals—-self-reliance, responsibility, emotional maturity and an even-keeled approach—-are more prone to visit their physicians and avoid risky behaviors, findings suggest.”

Matlack turns to Will Courtenay’s Dying to be Men: Psychosocial, Environmental, and Biobehavioral Directions in Promoting the Health of Men and Boys to suggest six “masculine” approaches to better health:

1. Humanize – men too often think that health concerns are wimpy or unmanly. Let us accept that virtually all humans have concerns about their health.

2. Educate! Men are less knowledgeable about health matters. Those with less knowledge make poorer choices.

3. Reality check. Men tend to deny or minimize their symptoms. Get real.

4. Buddy System: men have fewer friends and smaller social networks than women. Courtenay says “start a poker night, or join a church.”

5. Maintenance. Many men have better maintenance plans for their car than for themselves.

6. Compete. Stereotypically competitive, men can learn to use that nature to overcome disease or to create healthier habits.

Of the five fewer years that men live, compared to women, Murray-Law quotes one researcher that, “one year is biological and the rest is cultural.” Men have been taught *not* to care about their health; we can change that.

(original post, with links, at So May We Be)

goodbye, Mr. Tressel

2011-05-31T08:20:00.000-05:00

I am deeply ambivalent about Jim Tressel’s resignation from the Head Coach position of the football program at the Ohio State University. There did seem to be a pattern of violations, including players trading memorabilia for tattoos, cars (and probably some for marijuana). Tressel seemed to be one of the good guys, earnestly trying to teach his student-athletes life lessons as well as win football games. However, when he could–and should–have been the one person that ever told the players that they were *not* entitled to the lush privileges that so many others showered upon them, he allowed them to accept cars, and undoubtedly many other favors. And then he lied about it, to the NCAA. Some may say that virtually all big-time college programs bend the rules; even if that were true, it would not make it right. Part of why there is such glee in some sports fans’ lives today–and such sorrow in many Buckeye fans–is that Tressel really did seem to be a rule-follower.

I think there are legitimate questions to be asked: whether college athletes should be paid, whether the memorabilia should be the property of the athletes, and most importantly, whether we can ethically support a sport that destroys men’s bodies, and shortens their lives (by as much as 25 years!). They are truly modern-day gladiators.

I absolutely believe that we humans can learn and teach life lessons through sport. I wish that some of those lessons were *not* that “winning is everything,” or “money talks,” or that trading your health for fame and fortune is acceptable.

Jim Tressel went 106-22 at OSU, and won a national championship in 2002. I hope his most enduring legacy will be the good things that he taught his players and fellow coaches–during and in spite of those 128 games.

(original post, with links, at So May We Be)

None of Us Are Free

2011-05-29T06:38:00.000-05:00

As long as "one of us in chains...none of us are free" sings Solomon Burke, in a video I found on Doonesbury's "Today's Video" This soulful reminder posted at So May We Be.

GRR lip dub

2011-05-27T16:08:00.000-05:00

Called a “dying city” in a list linked to by Newsweek, Grand Rapids has responded. The people of this mid-Michigan city created a record-breaking lip dub video, with all kinds of folks singing Don McLean’s “American Pie.” I am a sucker for lip dubs in general, so one featuring places I’ve been–with much of the city collaborating–makes me quite happy.

I’ve always wanted to work with a youth group, to make a lip dub in a church building. Maybe sing “Stand!” while moving around and through the church, highlighting the social justice projects of the congregation. I’d like to sponsor a contest of such lip dubs; show them all on UU TV and feature the winner at GA and on uua.org. Maybe a $1000 to the justice organization stipulated by the winning group? $500 and $250 second and third prizes? Cool publicity for all, and outreach to younger demographics? Now all we need is $1750 and a lot of buy-ins…

(original post, with links, at So May We Be)

memorial day observation

2011-05-26T07:55:00.000-05:00

A simple ritual for honoring veterans, conscientious objectors, and their families for Memorial Day:

FIRST READING
Darnell Arnoult was born in Virginia, in 1955. She is a poet and novelist, and identifies as a “cow-girl, sort of.” Like her uncle, and many others in the south, she refers to the soft drink “Coca Cola” as “Co-cola.”

In World War Two
the oldest
of my uncles
picked up
dead bodies
dead weight
some in pieces
and threw them
onto the beds
of trucks.
His work spread
far as he could see.
When he came
home he poured
salted peanuts
into a Co-Cola
and prepared
for life
with folks
who could
never know
some things
as long
as they lived.

ROLL CALL
Let us now honor those who *do* know those things—-our veterans.

If you are on active duty in the Air Force, Army, Coast Guard, Marines, Merchant Marine or Navy, please stand and remain standing.

If you are a reservist in any of those branches, or in the National Guard, please stand.

If you are a veteran of any of the armed forces, please stand.

If you serve or served alternative service as a Conscientious Objector, please stand.

If someone in your family performs or performed alternative service, please stand.

If someone in your family is on active duty, please stand.

If someone in your family is or was in the reserve or the Guard, please stand.

If somebody in your family is or was a veteran of the armed forces, please stand.

...I invite us to look around, and see how many of us have been directly affected.

TAPS
Finally, let the rest of us stand, as we are willing and able, in honor of all the veterans, women and men, who are still alive.

And may we remain standing as Bob plays “Taps” for all the veterans who have died.
{Taps}

May our gratitude for their sacrifice not diminish our resolve to create peace; and may our resolve for peace not diminish our gratitude for our veterans’ service. Please be seated.

Thanks to the Rev. Dr. Lisa Presley, who inspired this ritual.

(full post, with links, at So May We Be)

growing UU spirit

2011-05-24T07:59:00.000-05:00

UU membership may be in flux, but spirits are high, in at least some of our congregations. I have been searching for an Interim Ministry for the last couple weeks (which is why I haven’t posted much here), and all four of the congregations I engaged are right at the cusp of making significant advances. All four had clear visions of what they wanted to accomplish, and how they saw a minister helping them achieve their goals. Three of the four had big plans for improved building situations. I know the sample size is too small to be significant, but the spirit–the enthusiasm and commitment–that I have experienced over a host of conference calls has me excited for our future.

I know this chart shows some gains and some losses, including an over-all decline in UU membership, over the past decade. I am sure there are a number of reasons for such a decline, and some of those reasons may still exist. Nevertheless, if other congregations are showing the vision and the resolve that I’ve seen in these few churches, then Unitarian Universalism may be in a good place for the coming decade(s).

So may we be!

Arc of the Universe Study Guide

2011-05-11T09:16:00.000-05:00

A study guide has been published for "The Arc of the Universe is Long: Unitarian Universalists, Anti-Racism and the Journey from Calgary." The Rev. Ms. Leslie Takahashi-Morris has written a clear guide to lead discussions about the book, and about racism in general. Because I did not write it, I feel justified in praising the study guide: as much as it is possible, Leslie’s guide makes it safe to explore the complex issues and painful experiences around race and racism, especially within the context of Unitarian Universalism.

Leslie writes that this guide is about “making the space respectful and a place of deep listening. The point is not to promote a certain perspective or to ‘teach’ a body of knowledge. The point is to help people listen across difference and learn from our collective history as Unitarian Universalists.”

The study guide is here (PDF)

Original post at So May We Be.

thank you, Phil Jackson

2011-05-09T07:44:00.000-05:00

Phil Jackson retired yesterday, after taking a record eleven teams to NBA championships. His basketball statistics–as a player and as a coach–are amazing, but I respect him more for his wisdom. He once wrote, “In basketball—as in life—true joy comes from being fully present in each and every moment, not just when things are going your way. Of course, it’s no accident that things are more likely to go your way when you stop worrying about whether you’re going to win or lose and focus your attention on what’s happening right this moment.”

He also said, “Like life, basketball is messy and unpredictable. It has its way with you, no matter how hard you try to control it. The trick is to experience each moment with a clear mind and open heart. When you do that, the game–and life–will take care of itself.”

Thank you, Phil, for the beautiful basketball your teams played, and for the life lessons I learned therefrom.

(original post, with links to more Phil quotes, at So May We Be)

Mother's Day and bin Laden

2011-05-02T17:32:00.000-05:00

We call upon the ghost of Julia Ward Howe,
dead now one hundred years,
yet still alive in our imaginations and our hearts—
we call you forth in our consciousness
to echo your cry
for a Mothers’ Peace Day
to end the unnecessary bloodshed
which we humans all-too-often employ.

We call you, dear Ms. Howe,
to help us make sense of the death of Osama bin Laden.
You, the author of the Battle Hymn of the Republic,
know that self-defense and war are sometimes necessary.
Yet you, as a mother,
who lost her own mother as a child
and who lost a child herself,
know the tragic sting of death.

Mindful of the chaos and destruction
and the many, many deaths
on September 11, 2001,
and through the war-torn years since,
we honor the losses and the sacrifices
and we rejoice at this possible turning point
in the war on terrorism.

We rejoice at the possibility of peace,
but let us not rejoice at the loss of life.
Mother Julia, remind us
that every life has inherent worth,
that each person had a mother somewhere.
Help us to use this moment for self-reflection,
that we might grow and evolve.
Urge us to take this opportunity
to rededicate ourselves
to justice and compassion for all:
help us to end terrorism
by ending the injustices which fuel it.

Let us honor this Mother’s Day
as if it were your own Mothers’ Peace Day.
Let us honor mothers of all kinds,
and those who serve as mothers,
and those who would be mothers,
by creating a more just and peaceful world
for all children.

So May We Be.

Unitarian connections to royal wedding

2011-04-28T15:14:00.000-05:00

Kate Middleton has Unitarian roots. The soon-to-be Princess comes from a “long line of Unitarians,” according to a British Unitarian website. Although her parents and both sets of grandparents identify as Anglican, her family tree includes James Martineau, Unitarian theologian and hymn writer, and his sister, Harriet Martineau, journalist and champion of women’s rights.

Many in the U.S.A. decry* the interest in tomorrow’s royal wedding, when Ms. Middleton will marry Prince William. I am not here to defend the monarchy, but I do appreciate the importance of symbolism and ritual. I can see some value in all of the pomp and circumstance. On the other hand, I am not officiating their wedding–I don’t have to deal with all the intricate details and the worldwide scrutiny.

I do wish them all the best. Every wedding is an opportunity to honor the power of Love in the world, to be reminded of its work in our life, as we see it demonstrated in those getting married. May their life together be richly blessed, and their days be good and long upon the earth.

(thanks to Facebook posts by Eric Posa and Aaron White for the link to the Unitarian page, with almost-Princess Catherine’s family tree)

* For those who claim that the wedding is a waste of 80 million dollars, and are glad that the USA has no royalty or class system, Laura Flanders reminds us that “the top one percent of wealthiest Americans own 34 percent of the country’s wealth and enjoyed 80 percent of the total increase in wealth here between 1980 and 2005.” She writes, “Why not just give them palaces? At least we could keep them open for tours.”

Original post, with links, at So May We Be.

luddite luncheon

2011-04-25T07:44:00.000-05:00

We may never wait for a server to bring the check for our meal again, if E La Carte’s “Presto” device catches on. A glorified, toughened-up iPad with a credit card reader included, the Presto could sit on a restaurant table, take your order at the exact moment you are ready, and email your receipt to you. Human servers would still be used to deliver the food, and if you have a really, really complicated order (beyond a simple “dressing on the side”). The Presto could even include games to play, and convenient methods for splitting the check, according to Annie Lowrey’s article.

I love gadgets–-but I love actual human interaction more. One of my great pleasures is to be recognized by the greeters and servers at my local haunts. I feel a glow when they remember my “usual.” Somehow, it would not be the same knowing that the Presto was simply executing an SQL command to retrieve my order history from its databanks. I am glad to see pictures of my favorite servers’ families, to hear their stories, and to occasionally offer sympathy at life’s vicissitudes. I enjoy relating.

I haven’t yet mentioned the privacy issues, nor the fact that we need *more* jobs like this, not fewer.

I half-remember a quotation about the point of life is not to make it faster… I don’t want life to become more difficult, necessarily, but given a choice between “more convenient” and “more rich” I will choose richness. There will always be places for gadgets; let us hope there will also be a place for people.

(full post, with links, at So May We Be)

Meadville to remain independent, in Chicago

2011-04-21T14:00:00.000-05:00

Meadville Lombard will *not* combine with Andover Newton–it will remain an independent seminary, somewhere in Chicago. According to their press release, Meadville is in a stronger financial position than previously predicted; and they could not guarantee that a merger would result in a stronger position. Also, the two schools could not agree on a governance model, so the transition teams will not be recommending a consolidation, to the Board of either institution. Meadville’s commitment to its educational model, and its commitment to remaining a Unitarian Universalist seminary, were also cited as reasons for the decision.

I wish Andover and all the ANTS folks the best; and I am frankly thrilled that Meadville is strong enough to remain independent and in Chicago. I am still on my path to retire from parish ministry in a decade or so, then teach homiletics (or history, or any job they’ll give me) at the Meadville Theological School at Lombard College.

I honor President Lee Barker, President Carter, and all of the people who worked so hard on this difficult decision.

Original post, with links, at So May We Be.

Easter opening words

2011-04-21T07:46:00.000-05:00

All stories are true—and some of them actually happened.
The story that Jesus was resurrected,
that he was seen walking around,
and heard speaking,
after the Romans had executed him,
may not have actually happened,
but it *is* a true reflection
of our human desire for more life.

The story also reflects
our true need for transformation in other ways.
Many of us want to change our lives,
to be *different* in the world.
Many of us want to be stronger, or kinder,
or more disciplined or more daring.

Whatever transformation we seek,
Easter morning reminds us that it is possible.
For the next sixty minutes, and for the rest of our lives,
may we realize the transformation inside us.

So May We Be.

Easter equals winning?

2011-04-17T14:12:00.001-05:00

NorthRidge church thinks using Charlie Sheen’s “winning” phrase makes them relevant and hip; I think they are merely pouring old wine into new wineskins.

The nondenominational NorthRidge Church has several billboards that read “NorthRidge + Easter = ‘winning!’” One church member says, if the ad campaign ”gets people’s attention and …draws them to Christ, then they worked,” according to a local news story.

The church’s Senior Pastor, Brad Powell, goes further. He blogged, “I think it’s absolutely essential that those of us who know Christ, the only valid path to ‘winning’, share Him with people who want it so badly but have lost their way…Yes, it sounds crazy. And, some people will probably be offended…(something that happened to Jesus a lot.)”

Generally speaking, when you compare yourself to Jesus, you are probably on the wrong path. Also, when you use an addict who has admitted to assaulting his wife as a come-on to your Easter service, you might want to re-think things.

Easter is about transformation, about dying to one way of life and beginning a new path. Had Mr. Sheen experienced such a transformation, he might be a good candidate for an Easter message. Since he is still on tour, bragging about his hard-partying lifestyle, he serves as only the “before” example. And aren’t there plenty of us who know the “before” already? We need the “after.”

Quoting a phrase from pop culture does not make a church relevant. Speaking to the issues of today, helping people find meaning and purpose in the confusion of the 21st century–finding a way to live into the “after”–that makes a church relevant.

Pastor Powell probably believes that he is doing that; he blogs, “Church can and should be authentic – a place where people can genuinely get to know God and His truth, move past their failures and experience the hope and promises of God.” But the “truth” that he teaches is the same old harmful message that we humans are inherently sinful, and the only thing we can/must do is believe in Jesus–and if our life is not going right, we are not believing strongly enough. In my understanding, this is *not* “winning.”

Especially at Easter time, I want to hear a message of transformation. I need validation that modern life is difficult; I need to be challenged to risk being changed; I need a community that will seek transformation together; and I need some proof that positive change can and does occur, all around us.

When lives are actually being changed–inside and outside the church walls–then cutting-edge ad campaigns are not necessary. If we are offering real experiences of “the hope and promise of God” (however you translate that), our spiritually famished human cousins will find us. Easter is not about advertising; it is not about “winning.” Easter is about awakening to the potential within us and embodying that hope as deeply and as frequently as possible.

So may we be.

quotes for Seder meal

2011-04-16T10:01:00.002-05:00

Some quotations to ponder while eating our Passover Seder meal:

There’s the difficulty in these times: ideals, dreams, and cherished hopes rise within us, only to meet the horrible truth and be shattered. It’s really a wonder that I haven’t dropped all my ideals, because they seem so absurd and impossible to carry out. Yet I keep them, because in spite of everything I still believe that people are really good at heart. I simply can’t build up my hopes on a foundation consisting of confusion, misery and death. I see the world gradually being turned into a wilderness. I hear the ever-approaching thunder, which will destroy us, too. I can feel the suffering of millions—and yet, if I look into the heavens, I think it will come out all right, that this cruelty too will end, and that peace and tranquility will return again. In the meantime, I must uphold my ideals, for perhaps the time will come when I shall be able to carry them out. (Diary of Anne Frank, Amsterdam, 1944)

My thinking had been opened wide in Mecca. I’m for truth, no matter who tells it. I’m for justice, no matter who it is for or against. I’m a human being first and foremost, and as such I’m for whoever and whatever benefits humanity as a whole. (El-Hajj Malik el-Shabazz, “The Autobiography of Malcolm X”)

It was during those long and lonely years that my hunger for the freedom of my own people became a hunger for the freedom of all people…I knew as well as I knew anything that the oppressor must be liberated just as surely as the oppressed. A man who takes away another man’s freedom is a prisoner of hatred, he is locked behind the bars of prejudice and narrow-mindedness. I am not truly free if I am taking away someone else’s freedom, just as surely as I am not free when my freedom is taken from me. The oppressed and the oppressor alike are robbed of their humanity. (Nelson Mandela)

No matter what part of the world we come from, we are all basically the same human beings. We all seek happiness and try to avoid suffering. We have the same basic human needs and concerns. All of us human beings want freedom and the right to determine our own destiny as individuals and as peoples. That is human nature. (His Holiness the Dalai Lama, Nobel Prize Acceptance Speech, 1989)

If you have come to help me, you are wasting your time. But if you have come because your liberation is bound up with mine, then let us work together (Lila Watson & an Australian Aboriginal Group)

But the poor person does not exist as an inescapable fact of destiny. His or her existence is not politically neutral, and it is not ethically innocent. The poor are a by-product of the system in which we live and for which we are responsible. They are marginalized by our social and cultural world. They are the oppressed, exploited proletariat, robbed of the fruit of their labor and despoiled of their humanity. Hence the poverty of the poor is not a call to generous relief action, but a demand that we go and build a different social order. (Gustavo Gutiérrez, “The Power of the Poor in History”)

For me, forgiveness and compassion are always linked: how do we hold people accountable for wrongdoing and yet at the same time remain in touch with their humanity enough to believe in their capacity to be transformed? (bell hooks)

Instead of standing on the shore and proving to ourselves that the ocean cannot carry us, let us venture on its waters just to see. (Pierre Tielhard de Chardin)

blogging again!

2011-04-16T09:55:00.001-05:00

IE9 did a number on my blogging here (as with others, evidently). Thanks to advice from The Real Blogger, I updated to using the newer editor, and that has worked. Joy!

modern plagues for a modern Seder

2011-04-07T14:25:00.002-05:00

Ancient and Modern Plagues
(adapted from Rabbi Chava Bahle, Rev. Dr. Mark Belletini & Reb Seth Castleman)

Dam, the river turned to blood
the blood of devastating wars, choking the lifesprings that could nurture the world

Tzfardeyah, frogs
the extinction of many species – as many as 30,000 per year, rivaling the Great Extinctions of the past

Kinim, lice
the horror of great poverty

Arov, wild beasts
humans acting like beasts, animal passions inflamed in a hyper-sexualized world

Dever, blight
healing and health available on the basis of wealth

Sh’hin, boils
additives in our food, unnaturally fattening cows and unhealthfully fattening us

Barad, hail
soot and chemicals from factories and cars vomited into the sky, returning as acid rain & smog

Arbeh, locusts
six million foreclosures—our wealth being consumed by banks which pay NO income tax

Hosheh, night instead of day
long before the plagues, the Egyptians had trouble seeing what was going on around them—they refused to see the humanity of the slaves around them. We, too, often choose to not see. We ignore the exploitation of domestic workers. We scoop up cheap consumer goods without asking by whom they are made, in what conditions. We close our eyes to the tens of millions of people living in conditions of slavery in our world today (from Rabbis for Human Rights, North America)

Makat B’horot, death of the first-born
our children’s future hangs in the balance

Mars Curiosity

2011-04-07T06:53:00.000-05:00

NASA has unveiled its newest Mars Rover. The Curiosity is slated for launch this November. After a ten-month trip, it will search for signs of life and perform other experiments–ideally for two years. According to a CNN story, the name “Curiosity” came from a student in Kansas, Clara Ma, who won a trip to JPL and the opportunity to sign the bottom of the rover.

I am still not totally finished grieving the intrepid Phoenix, but this helps. Go Curiosity!

(original post, with picture and links)

pruning

2011-04-04T16:27:00.001-05:00

Like pruning inactive members from our rolls, should we remove disconnected congregations from our Association? In a lively conversation at our Heartland District Assembly, one of us suggested that we should rescind the charter of any congregation that has neither paid any dues nor sent any members to a District or General Assembly over the last five years. This is not intended to be a punishment, but rather a way of strengthening our Association, and encouraging real engagement between congregations (Alice Blair Wesley is not the only person who believes in lateral accountability, or the “communion of congregations”). Because it is not a punishment, it would not be an immediate event–a deadline could be set, a few years hence, and significant efforts made to reach out to (and assist) those churches, fellowships and societies who have become somewhat estranged.

Others among us were not convinced that our less-connected fellows should be removed from our Association. At least one thought that removing them from the “find a congregation near you” app would be sufficient. After all, if we haven’t had any real contact for a while, is it ethical for us to send a stranger there?

...See the rest of the post, with links, at So May We Be.

Haiti, Darfur, handbasket...still hope!

2011-03-28T09:25:00.003-05:00

Frankly, I get a little overwhelmed by such widespread misery. It is all-too-tempting to live in denial; to ignore others' distress, to distract myself from my own discomfort at living in such relative plenty while others watch their children starving. However, denial does not really solve these issues—-as with many things, awareness is central to right living.

Every person in this room knows suffering. We acknowledge that; let us meet each other with compassion. Without diminishing—-in any way—-our suffering, virtually all of our six billion human cousins are also suffering. Let us acknowledge that, with compassion and courage.

In the midst of such colossal suffering, for most of us, the world is still a beautiful place, and life is worth living. Let us open ourselves to both the beauty and the suffering around us, and together do our part for the "web of life, that's often torn and always healing."*
So may we be.

Full UUSC Justice Sunday service, including story for all ages, and links, at So May We Be.

* from "Fault Lines" by Robert R. Walsh

religion evolving, not going extinct

2011-03-24T06:29:00.002-05:00

Religion is dying out in nine countries, according to a study published recently. The BBC reports that religion may go virtually extinct in Australia, Austria, Canada, the Czech Republic, Finland, Ireland, the Netherlands, New Zealand and Switzerland. (They can’t make a prediction about the United States because the U.S. census doesn’t ask about religion, lead author Daniel Abrams told CNN.)

The authors–Abrams, Yaple and Wiener–used nonlinear dynamics and group social behavior to make their prediction. Dr Weiner notes, “In a large number of modern secular democracies, there’s been a trend that folk are identifying themselves as non-affiliated with religion; in the Netherlands the number was 40%, and the highest we saw was in the Czech Republic, where the number was 60%.”

That’s where I challenge the headline: religion is not dying out, but people are no longer affiliating with traditional religious organizations. The mysteries of life and death, and our human hunger for purpose, will not die out. Our desire to make meaning together will not go extinct. We are finding new forms of meaning-making, and some old forms may well go extinct, but organized religion will not disappear.

Full post, with links, at So May We Be.

VIVACE

2011-03-22T07:15:00.001-05:00

Water vortices can generate electricity in a sustainable, mostly-fish-friendly way. According to University of Michigan professor, Michael Bernitsas, water flowing past a cylindrical object creates vortices along the side. A vortex occurs on one side, then on the other, alternating back and forth. This can be destructive (as with oil rigs or the Tacoma Narrows Bridge). Bernitsas was working on ways to reduce or eliminate vortex-induced oscillations, when he realized that a better solution might be to *harness* the oscillations.

Bernitsas’ company, Vortex Hydro Energy, notes that VIVACE (Vortex Induced Vibrations Aquatic Clean Energy) can be produced in currents as slow as 2-4 knots. Most conventional turbines require at least four knots–and most rivers and ocean currents in the USA flow at 3 knots or less. VIVACE does not use turbines, so it is safer for fish.

(full post, with links, at So May We Be)

Halfhearted Covenant?

2011-03-21T08:37:00.002-05:00

Many congregations require too little of their members. There are no minimum pledges listed, and no consequences for missing seventeen Sunday mornings in a row. Neither the congregational bylaws nor its lived customs indicate that it takes real work to be a member of that church community.

Now, I can hear hyperventilating around the blogosphere. I am not talking about inflexible, hard and fast requirements. Obviously, accommodations are made for differing levels of physical or mental ability; and there are confidential and compassionate avenues for handling financial hardship. There are creative ways that every person can contribute *something* to the common good.

The idea is not to have absolute minimums on the amounts of time and money each donates; rather, it is to allow every person to start where she is, and challenge himself to grow into doing a little more. Members of healthy, high-commitment congregations challenge themselves and each other to set lofty goals, and to pursue those goals with integrity. And however things work out, the congregation promotes forgiveness and resilience and celebration as they mark the progress they made, and they begin setting new goals, together.

Now, I think I *do* understand why our congregations might not have such high requirements. Apart from the legendary UU anti-authoritarianism—our knee-jerk response against requirements of any kind—many of our congregations were created by people who were harmed by the inflexible doctrines and dogmas of other faith traditions. Affirming the right and responsibility of each person to follow hir own path, they deliberately did *not* make many requirements.

Furthermore, there is a pastoral issue. Most of us are busy already; we are stressed by the commitments we have already made. At least some of us are truly concerned that we could not do even one more thing. Knowing that we ourselves are over-busy, we do not set high expectations for church membership, because we do not want to further stress—or drive away!—our fellow church participants.

I get why our customs evolved, but I fear that, just like the Half-Way Covenant of centuries past, our modern Half-Hearted Covenant may also backfire. The Puritans wanted to welcome their descendants into the Kingdom of God; but some of their great-great-grandchildren gave up on God entirely. Our congregations wanted to welcome people into church on their own terms…but an awful lot of our human cousins are giving up on church entirely.

And that is a crying shame, when we know that congregations with high expectations offer some of the most effective means around for making our world a better place; and they transform the lives of the church members who live out those high expectations...

(Full sermon at So May We Be)

not Dems but democracy attacked

2011-03-14T10:50:00.001-05:00

Over the last week or so, we have seen an audacious attack on the very fabric of our society. Governors and legislators have used dirty tricks in several states to undermine the public good.

In Wisconsin, Governor Walker insisted that he was not trying to break the unions—the last voice with any power to speak for the middle and working class peoples. He insisted this was a budget issue, not a political ploy to bust the unions. He said this right up until the moment when he instead took all the financial aspects out of his bill, stripping public employees of their basic right to collective bargaining. He was attempting to *use* the financial crisis in order to accomplish his other goals; but his own actions prove that it was not about the budget. It was about power.

The Ohio government also had an eleventh-hour switch in order to pass similar legislation ripping workers’ rights away.

And the worst attack—thus far, at least—has come in our own state of Michigan. Our House and Senate have passed similar bills that undermine the very fabric of democracy. According to the compromise bill that the state Senate just passed, and which the House is expected to pass tomorrow, the Governor will have the power to declare a town, or city or school district to be in grave financial danger, and to therefore appoint an emergency financial manager to oversee that town or district.

This is where the scary part comes in: any such emergency financial manager will have the power to establish bonds without voter approval; to dismiss locally elected officials; to cancel any contracts made by a local unit of government; to overturn any local ordinances, previously passed by residents or their democratically elected leaders—even to dissolve the charter of the town or district.

This is not “government of the people, by the people, for the people.” This is oppression of the people by the appointed poerful for the self interests of other powerful people, cororations and organizations.

In our state of Michigan, it will soon no longer matter what we citizens say, on election day. If our local balance sheet does not meet certain criteria—and, by the way, Gov. Snyder’s proposed budget will make sure that many places do *not* have the resources to meet such criteria—if our local bottom line is not good enough, then somebody *will* be appointed to take over with no accountability whatsoever to the will of the people she or he is “serving.”

Please call your local representatives and tell them to vote against this monstrosity: House Bill 4214.

When the fourteen state senators returned to Wisconsin, over 100,000 people greeted them. The governors and legislators are passing some truly frightening laws, but they may have over-reached, at last. They are awakening the American people. It may be a long battle, but we the people have prevailed in the past. So may we again.

(full post, with links, at So May We Be)

Rango funny, racist

2011-03-08T10:34:00.001-06:00

“Rango” is a funny movie, but it has too many stereotypes for me to endorse wholeheartedly. I agree with Roger Ebert, who called it an “animated comedy for smart moviegoers, wonderfully made, great to look at, wickedly satirical.” Gore Verbinski’s film has visual quotes from many movies (“Star Wars,” “Apocalypse Now,” “Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas,” etc.), which were delightful for the adults in the crowd.

However, there are several troubling stereotypes. Stephen Bridenstine notes, “Wounded Bird plays a bit part as the token town Indian. He’s quiet, mystical, and knows exactly how to track in the wilderness, just like the classic Hollywood Indian…[when] Rango refers to Wounded Bird’s ‘ingenuity’ only to say ‘no pun intended’ [it] put a bad taste in my mouth.”

Furthermore, the villain in the picture, the Mayor, is almost always seen in a wheelchair. Whether this is age-ism or able-ism, I cannot tell for sure, but it bothered me. My wife notes, “at least they’re depicting the person in the chair as powerful.” I thought it just served to make the character more creepy.

The band of Mexican owls and the wise old armadillo were also pretty stereotypical, although they were mostly shown in a positive light.

The final regrettable element is the usual western culture trope of a solitary hero. Even though it takes heroism from *many* characters (including several females), when they save the town, everyone calls Rango their hero, and he accepts all the credit.

It was the #1 film last weekend; it will probably be around a while. It does at least offer an opportunity to talk about racist/ageist/ableist depictions, and why the director chose to use such characterizations. Definitely ask your children, “do you think Rango should get all the credit, when so many other characters helped him?”

(full post, with links, available at So May We Be.

refuting Hymowitz...slackers, flappers

2011-03-07T11:37:00.001-06:00

...according to Kay S. Hymowitz, maybe the females are to blame for the males’ lack of success. Her new book is titled "Manning Up: How the Rise of Women Has Turned Men Into Boys." Her descriptions of confused young men, uncertain about their roles in a feminist world, do match some of the statistics from Rosin’s article. Hymowitz seems to sympathize with this “generation dropped onto…the stage without scripts.”

I agree with some of her analysis. Our culture does lack appropriate coming-of-age rituals, and there are few truly good masculine role models. However, while I agree with some of her findings, Hymowitz is way off base when she blames the phenomenon on women. Correlation does not imply causation.

Furthermore, testosterone is built for challenge. If young men were not already opting out of competition, then they would *enjoy* competing with women. I believe that Hymowitz has it backward: young women are not pushing young men off the playing field, the men are abandoning it, and leaving it to the women to excel.

Please note: I am not saying that women can only win if men allow them to. I am saying that women and men are basically equal, and since men are essentially giving up, women are surging ahead.

So why are men giving up? My hypothesis is this: the slackers of today are like the flappers of a century ago.

Not quite 100 years ago, “flappers” were young women who experimented with their yang, masculine energy. They left behind traditional notions of “femininity” and instead, took control of their sexuality and smoked, drank and drove automobiles. Nowadays, the pendulum is swinging the other way, and young men are experimenting with their yin, feminine energy. They are abandoning outmoded understandings of masculinity, competing less and relating more...

Full sermon at So May We Be.

sex not dishonorable, but sacred

2011-03-03T08:13:00.001-06:00

Brandon Davies has been dismissed from the BYU basketball team–for having sex with his girlfriend. The Brigham Young University Honor Code includes “live a chaste and virtuous life,” according to an ESPN story. I do admire BYU for sticking by its code, even though losing a star player may hurt their chances to win the NCAA Tournament (the Cougars are ranked as high as #3 in the country, currently).

However, I wish their code did not confuse “chastity” and “virtue.” Sex between consenting adults, who are not married to other people, is *not* dishonorable. As the Religious Institute points out, sex is a life-giving and life-fulfilling gift…sexuality is “central to our humanity” and “integral to our spirituality.”

The Institute’s “Declaration on Sexual Morality, Justice and Healing” stipulates, “Our faith traditions celebrate the goodness of creation, including our bodies and our sexuality. We sin when this sacred gift is abused or exploited. However, the great promise of our traditions is love, healing and restored relationship.”

Please consider joining the “Faithful Voices on Sexuality and Religion,” whose pledge is simply “As a person of faith, I support sexual health, education and justice in faith communities and society.”

Original post, with links, at So May We Be.

work part of human dignity, not sole source

2011-02-24T10:24:00.001-06:00

“The rights of workers to join together and bargain collectively for better wages and working conditions is not just a civil right, it is a fundamental way we recognize that human beings have an inherent dignity and worth,” writes Susan Brooks Thistlethwaite, in yesterday’s Washinton Post. Thistlethwaite quotes Walter Rauschenbusch, Martin Luther King, Jr., and Pope John Paul II as including the centrality of work to our human dignity.

She writes, “What makes us not only people, but human beings with dignity and transcendent worth, is our capacity to work creatively in this world. When a society exploits our contribution to the whole, and refuses to recognize that we have a moral obligation to one another to insure decent working conditions, living wages and the means to support our families, it violates our human dignity.”

I agree, and I want to urge caution. Our human dignity is not *solely* from our work. Those who cannot work do not lose their dignity. Yes, we can and should be creative about finding work for as many as possible–whatever a person’s challenges or disabilities, there is *something* they can contribute, and thereby foster their own dignity and self-worth. Yet there will always be a few who cannot work; and they still have dignity and worth. I imagine that Thistlethwaite would agree, but the point was not made in her article. I felt it needed to be made explicit.

See the rest of the post, with links, at So May We Be.

pizza from Egypt to Wisconsin

2011-02-21T10:03:00.002-06:00

Egyptians who support the protests in Wisconsin have paid to deliver pizzas to the firefighters and teachers, et al, as have people from 11 other countries and 38 of our 50 states. You can call Ian's in Madison, to donate your own pizza, at (608) 257-9248.

More details (and some commentary from Paul Krugman) at So May We Be.

Lillie and Gov. Walker

2011-02-19T09:34:00.001-06:00

After the third time Lillie dropped her ball at my feet, I finally looked up: “I’m sorry, girl, I am too upset to play.” “What’s the matter?” she asked (Lilly is our dog, but she sometimes talks to me. Nobody else ever hears her, but I have grown used to it). I told her that I was worried about union workers. In Wisconsin, and in a dozen other states, newly elected lawmakers are attempting to roll back long-held benefits and bargaining rights. “Oh, right,” Lilly laughed, “that’s why the Wisconsin Democrats are hiding out across the state line.” I told her that does sound funny, but the whole issue was not a laughing matter. Other than government workers, we the people have not seen an increase in our real wages (adjusted for inflation) since the 1970s. If our unions get weaker, our wages and benefits will shrink even more rapidly. “Please don’t start ranting about tax cuts for the rich, and all the waste in the prison system again,” Lillie whined, “we dogs are very sensitive to human emotions, and you are hard to be around when you get this way. Why do you think I’ve been asking you to play ball?” You’re right, girl. Let’s go play. I’ve already signed a petition against Gov. Walker calling out the National Guard, at boldprogressives.org. We need some recreation, to keep up our strength for the long struggle for justice. Go fetch!

UU apostasy?

2011-02-16T13:36:00.002-06:00

Who would be a UU apostate?

An apostate is someone who renounces and leaves a religious body; while a heretic is someone who differs from the religious teachings while remaining within the body, according to Lauren Winner’s article on slate.com. Writing about Paul Haggis’ apostasy from Scientology, she notes that Scientology makes recognizing apostasy simple, because of its clear boundaries about who is inside, and who is outside, the “church.” Because apostasy requires such distinct divisions, few apostatize from mainline Christian denominations. With nothing truly unique against which to rebel, those who leave “simply…float away.” Ms. Winner continues, “It is hard to imagine a Unitarian-Universalist apostate.”

This, of course, makes me want to prove her wrong. While rejecting any temptation to use words like “apUUstate,” I do want to explore the concept.

As a noncreedal, covenantal tradition, any UU apostate would not *believe* something different than the others in a congregation. Rather she would refuse to abide by the congregational covenant. Perhaps she regularly disrupts the public worship services, or maybe he won’t stop hugging people inappropriately. A real UU apostasy would be accosting others and telling them that their beliefs were wrong—and then leaving the congregation when told to cease doing that.

UU membership is less about a particular theological identity than it is a statement about one’s theologically-grounded commitments. So UU apostasy might be reneging on one’s prior commitments. Now, the road back into covenant is well-trod; we all fail to live up to our covenants once in a while. We all (should) help each other to come back into right relationship. When a person breaks the covenant, and resists reasonable invitations and accommodations, and leaves decrying the original commitment, that would seem to qualify as a UU apostasy. I have heard of a few examples.

One example, of which I have *not* heard: if a UU member continues to insist that her right of conscience is absolute, and that she has not only the right, but the responsibility, to block the rest of the congregation’s work if it displeases her, then the congregation might ask her to leave, and declare her an apostate for not living up to their shared covenant.

..or so I think, today. Other opinions are welcome.

{rant reproduced, with links, at So May We Be}

February Peace Vespers

2011-02-12T07:30:00.003-06:00

Speaking only for myself, the more that I suffer, the more I am able to feel compassion for the suffering of others. The deeper my sorrow, the softer my heart, the next time I see a teardrop fall.

Each new *kind* of suffering I experience—-losing a job, losing a loved one, undergoing surgery, treating another harshly, and hearing my own words echo in my head—-each new type of suffering opens my soul a little wider to the many ways that my fellow human cousins are brought low by the circumstances of their lives.

And, the longer I live, and the more sorrow that I see (in my own life and in others’), the more I see compassion and human decency.

I do not pretend that this creates some kind of balance; it would be obscene to suggest that every crushing blow and grievous injustice is somehow remedied because a child pulled a thorn from a pet rabbit’s paw, or a shopper let another person go ahead in the checkout line.

…and yet…because injustice and hatred and fear and sorrow and oppression *are* so prevalent, it is refreshing to see the uncommon act of common courtesy.

I believe that we humans have a remarkable amount of tenacity and courage and plain old stubbornness.

And, for whatever reason, or from whatever source—-by a thousand names we call it, from the depths of our grief we gasp it and in the moments of our liberation, we shout it—-however it happens, sometimes, as we are walking along, the heavens break open and love comes down.

Sometimes, my heart lifts and I feel joy. Sometimes, my heart yearns and I share that joy, that strength, that peace with another who needs it.

And *that* is the miracle that we come to celebrate, tonight. If we need healing, may we find it. If we need strength, may we feel it. If we need direction, may it be made obvious which person we are meant to help, next.

So may we be.

U U UU History Notes

2011-02-06T07:45:00.003-06:00

Too-Brief Outline of Unitarian, Universalist & UU History
collected & idiosyncratically presented by Rev. Chip Roush

heresy is Greek for choice

c. 0 Jesus
<=232 Origen: bible as allegory; no hell
<= 336 Arius’ Unknown Unbegun; one Source (Jesus not coeternal w/God)
325 Council of Nicaea rules in favor of Trinitarians, Arius anathematized
<=418 Pelagius: no original sin; human agency
553 Second Council of Constantinople condemns universal salvation as heresy

[1517 Luther’s 95 Theses published]
1523 Anabaptists Menno Simons & followers move to Holland
16th c. Anabaptists: pacifist, adult baptism, separation of church & state
1539 unitarian Katherine Vogel burned in Krakow after 10 years in prison
1553 Servetus burned in Geneva – no biblical support for Trinity
discovered lung fcn, escaped Inquisition, critiqued Calvin
1557 Isabella decrees of toleration in Torda, Transylvania
...

See the whole list at So May We Be.

evolutionary cross training

2011-01-31T08:55:00.001-06:00

How many of you feel like you are economically worse off now, than you were in 2006? How many have family members or neighbors or friends who are economically worse than they were, five years ago? How many feel like you have more stress in your life now, than you did in 2006?

If you are feeling stressed, you have a lot of company. According to the most recent “Stress in America” survey, published by the American Psychological Association just a couple months ago), a majority of adults in the U.S. live with moderate or high levels of stress; and 44% of those surveyed report that their stress levels have increased over the last five years.

Stress is not just an adult phenomenon: the APA report indicates that nearly a third of children experienced stress-related health symptoms like trouble falling or staying asleep, headaches or upset stomachs in the month prior to the survey.

And in the annual UCLA survey of first-year undergraduate students, a bare majority report that they have good mental health. 51% of new students report good or above-average emotional health, which is the lowest number since they began asking the question, in 1985. This survey indicates that anxiety has replaced depression as the leading manifestation of dis-ease in students.

To paraphrase Jerry Lee Lewis, there’s a whole lotta stressin’ going on.

Read the rest of this sermon--how evolutionary cross-training can reduce our stress--at So May We Be.

science fiction

2011-01-29T10:48:00.002-06:00

Science Fiction is “the branch of literature that deals with the responses of human beings to changes in science and technology,” according to Isaac Asimov. Alvin Toffler recommended reading science fiction as the only preventive medicine for future shock.

According to a Slate.com article by Robert J. Sawyer, the job of science fiction is “not to predict the future. Rather, it’s to suggest all the possible futures—so that society can make informed decisions about where we want to go. George Orwell’s science-fiction classic Nineteen Eighty-Four wasn’t a failure because the future it predicted failed to come to pass. Rather, it was a resounding success because it helped us prevent that future.”

In celebration of the power (and necessity) of science fiction, there is a list of my favorites at So May We Be. Most of the authors are white males--please suggest other authors I should read.

resources for perinatal / reproductive loss

2011-01-27T15:48:00.002-06:00

Resources for perinatal / reproductive loss, as suggested by my dear colleagues:

Groups/websites:
Perinatal Loss Group – many great resources, including birth/death announcements, excellent “support cards” and books with readings for memorials and other rituals of healing

Compassionate Friends -website and national network for parents who have lost a child, with information on how to find local chapters

Faith Aloud has a free hotline for women experiencing either an unplanned pregnancy or a reproductive loss

March of Dimes is more for premature births and birth defects, but their website does have some useful resources

Religious Coalition for Reproductive Choice offers an excellent training in Pastoral Counseling for Reproductive Loss, designed to equip clergy of all faiths in meeting the needs of women and families who encounter infertility, abortion, stillbirth, post-adoption loss, and other experiences that could be seen as reproductive loss.

Books:

Still to be Born: A Guide for Bereaved Parents Who are Making Decisions About Their Future, by Pat Schweibert

Tear Soup a “children’s book” about grief, but great for all ages; highly recommended (also by Pat Schweibert)

Unspeakable Losses: Healing from Miscarriage, Abortion, and Other Pregnancy Loss, by Kim Kluger-Bell.

An Empty Cradle, a Full Heart: Reflections for mothers and fathers after miscarriage, stillbirth, and infant death, by Christine O’Keefe Lafser. This book of meditations is most appropriate for someone who is accustomed to receiving comfort from Hebrew & Christian scriptures.

“Remembering Well: Rituals for Celebrating Life and Mourning Death” by UU Rev. Sarah York (Jossey-Bass) has a chapter entitled “All Deaths Are Not Equal” which addresses such a grievous loss as that of an infant.

General Advice:

Validate the relationship—acknowledge the status as mother (father, grandparent, etc.). A family was created and will always exist, even if the child died too soon. Help grieve the loss of all the planned activities, events, celebrations that the person(s) had imagined and dreamed about.

Existing systems may discourage burial, memorial services—even an obituary. Helping to make sure these things occur will further support and validate the grieving family members.

Some women are interested in holding a ritual several weeks or even months after their loss. A small remembrance on what would have been the child’s first birthday can be meaningful.

I post these resources for others to use (and for myself, when I need to find them again someday). Please feel free to add other resources/advice in the comments section. Thank you to everyone who contributed to this compilation.

The post with links to the various groups and books can be found at So May We Be.

SOTU hugging game

2011-01-25T11:44:00.002-06:00

While there are already several drinking games prepared for tonight’s State of the Union address, including some creative rules (e.g., borrow a drink from your buddy if/when President Obama uses the word “debt” or drink a shot of coffee at the word “stimulus”), I am proposing a different game for myself: a SOTU hugging game. Every time Mr. Obama, or Rep. Paul Ryan, or a commentator–-or even Rep. Bachmann–-says something with which I disagree, I will try to hold her/him/them in my heart. I will try to imagine a good, life-affirming reason that one might hold the opinion expressed. I will try to find compassion for the fears and hopes that motivate such statements, and I will send an imaginary hug to the person who voiced them. Then I will give myself a hug, for doing the hard work of meeting fear with compassion.

I haven’t heard anyone suggest it, but you might also take a drink (of your favorite alcoholic or nonalcoholic beverage) each time a speaker is shown to be lying, according to the HuffPost real-time fact checker.

Links to the games, and the fact-checker, can be found at So May We Be.

Meadville building sold to UofC

2011-01-18T17:09:00.002-06:00

The University of Chicago has agreed to purchase the Main Building of Meadville Lombard, subject to approval by the university's trustees. The official announcement is here and here. The sale will close by the end of December 2011.

School officials are seeking a proper place for the Wiggin Library, and the wealth of Unitarian, Universalist and UU history and scholarship therein.

Meadville and Andover Newton are combining their schools, to create a new kind of theological education. The schools are actively seeking to welcome other faiths and other seminaries. They may include a Muslim school, and/or the Jewish seminary at Hebrew College, according to the President-Designate of the new school, the Rev. Dr. Nick Carter.

Also, I am thrilled to see that the Rev. Dr. John Tolley will be on the new faculty.

You can forward a copy of "The New U Checklist" e-newsletter to yourself or a friend here.

I am very sad to see 5701 Woodlawn go; and I am still quite hopeful about the phoenix that will rise from its place.

lamenting Giffords, Tucson, Todos

2011-01-11T17:13:00.001-06:00

My heart is broken,
my soul is sick
because of last weekend’s attack on Representative Gabrielle Giffords,
a committed public servant
whose life will never be the same.

I grieve for the death of nine-year-old Christina Green,
who may have followed Rep. Giffords,
or murdered Judge John Roll,
into working on behalf of her fellow human cousins.
I mourn for the four other people killed,
and all those wounded
(including five still in hospital).
I grieve with the families and friends
and all those who are learning to cope
in this new, tragic, situation.

My heart is torn asunder
contemplating the painful life of Jared Lee Loughner,
who struggled with mental illness
in a culture that fears and denies it,
a culture which provides scarce help for those who experience it.
I weep in sympathy
with the tens of millions of people in our country
who are mentally ill—
6% of us, 1 in 17—
and with the hardships
those with mental illness face
as they attempt to find support or even understanding

I am brought to my knees
by the death of civil discourse in our nation,
where too few public speakers
appear to respect those who differ,
or even imagine them capable of a valid point.
I weep bitter tears
because there are no longer
common endeavors
to build our nation or culture together;
I despair that every gain by one person or group
is seen as a loss to another,
and so resisted, on principle.
I am saddened
that willingness to compromise
or see another’s viewpoint
is considered a weakness;
I am angered
that authentic apologies
and taking responsibility for one’s own exaggerations or mis-statements
seems a thing of the past.

I am ashamed to live in a country
where it is trivially easy
to purchase semi-automatic weapons
and prohibitively difficult
to find real support for a mental illness.

I am outraged
as the many positive things about our nation
erode and fade
as the very concept of “good government”
is attacked and undermined
on a daily basis

I despair for our future,
if fewer qualified leaders
will choose to become judges or elected politicians
because of the hostile environment in the media
and the risks in real life.

I despair for our future
if fewer public servants
will meet with their constituents
because of the threat of violence,
and thus access to the politically powerful
becomes even more limited
to the elite and the already-connected.

I rage about our future
as fewer and fewer leaders
will challenge the outrageous statements and behaviors of others,
for fear that their picture
and their family’s address
will show up on some website “hitlist.”

I shudder and cry aloud
anticipating the inevitable results
as politicians who *thought* they could control
the violent fringe groups,
who thought a nod and a wink
and a little plausible deniability
would cover the violence they implicitly encouraged,
all come to the same end
as every similar scenario through history—
the violence spreads from the fringe
to the mainstream
until it is only halted
by more violence.

I hang my head
at the loss
of the example this nation could have set,
as a beacon to other countries, as it was 230 years ago,
but will now be one more regrettable example
of the need for eternal vigilance
against bigotry and violence.

I grieve for the Latinas, Latinos
and other Americans of Hispanic heritage
who are caught in the crosswinds of this angry storm.

I feel immense compassion
for the poor in Mexico,
and other places,
who are so impoverished
that they risk harm and even death
to try to sneak into the United States,
that they might attempt to earn a living here.

I weep for the poor people in our United States,
already struggling to make ends meet,
who feel threatened by
legal and illegal immigrants.

I sympathize
with the fear and anger
of working-class Americans
who continue to lose ground,
who have not received a raise,
in inflation-adjusted real dollars,
in over a generation,
who face rising healthcare costs
and fewer employment benefits
and who fear that they will lose what little they *do* have
as others are seated at the welcome table…

I am concerned
as the long-standing last resort
sold to white U.S. citizens
since before the states became a nation—
“well, you may have it bad,
but at least you will never have it as bad off
as those poor,
lawfully-oppressed blacks have it”
is finally, finally,
becoming less true,
to the consternation and resentment
of those who have had to believe it,
to make sense of their own difficult lives.

I rend my clothes in frustration
and grind my teeth to nubs
that our conversation about race and racism
is also polarized
and simplistic
and susceptible to knee-jerk pronouncements.
I lament that there are so few leaders
willing or able
to help us hold
deep conversations
and the hard work of engagement.

I am sorry
that we get caught up in blame and punishment
and forget that *every* one of us
can have a bad day or bad week
and end up saying or doing something tragic.
I am sorry
that we forget compassion, in our rush to judgment.

My eyes overflow with grief
for those who will yet die,
because we have not learned
the lessons of this or previous violence;
because we have not come to understand
that we must come together and work in solidarity,
or we will perish, isolated group by shunned group.

My heart aches
for all people who are marginalized in this country:
bisexuals, gays, lesbians, transgender persons,
people of color,
Muslims and so many others;
My heart bleeds for all of us--
*all* people,
of any race, creed, gender or other possible distinction,
who live in this isolating, ambiguous, violent , consumerist, hypersexualized toxic culture.

I am saddened
because this shooting in Tucson
will make it more difficult
to pull together,
to recognize our common needs and common interests;
it may make it still harder
to see ourselves in the shoes of others;
it might make it take yet longer
to feel compassion for those
whom we’ve heard demonized so frequently and thoroughly.

I lament that it makes me feel defeated, just thinking about it.

I end with the adapted words of my colleague, the Rev. Mr. José Ballester:

“O, Spirit of Life, Spirit of Love, Spirit of Peace,
come unto me,
for I am filled with anguish and despair.

[Lest we be] condemned to specters,
walking the earth
to atone for our blasphemy and our silence,
[so] warning others of our foolishness;
[Lest we] look upon our world
and see no hope
and look inside [ourselves] and feel no joy,

Show me the strength and fortitude I possess to confront injustice.
Show me the seed of hope
that I might use to grow hope in others.
Show me the faces of all who suffer,
and all who cause suffering
so I may remember
that they are all my sisters and brothers.
Show me there is still hope.”

So may we be.
(follow the link for notes and references)

Replicators replicated?

2010-12-25T08:21:00.002-06:00

Dinner is a snap, with your new 3D food “printer.” Load raw food “inks” into the syringes, download a recipe, change the settings to suit your taste, and “print” a 3D meal. According to scientists at the Cornell University Computational Synthesis Lab, their food printers will one day be as common as microwaves and blenders. They currently make decent cookies and turkey domes, but the Star Trek “replicator” (just ask the computer for any meal, and it creates it, on the spot) is one step closer to reality.

Read more, including a sushi chef that already uses a 3D food printer, at So May We Be.

nativity story 2010

2010-12-24T08:35:00.001-06:00

“Attention, shoppers! We bring you good tidings of great joy! A baby has just been born, in the bathroom at the front of the store. If you’d like to purchase a gift for this new family, our infant supplies are in aisles 17 and 18. There is a 10% discount on diapers, if you buy a case. Thank you for shopping at Wal-Mart.”

At first, I didn’t believe the announcement. In fact, I thought it a bit crass, and disrespectful. I heard others around me dismissing it, too—“blatant manipulation” one person said, while others just laughed it off.

But I couldn’t let it go. Something inside me told me it was real—and furthermore, that this child was somehow special. Once I was checked out (I did *not* buy a case of diapers), I took a detour past the bathrooms where the birth had supposedly taken place. There was a small pile of diaper boxes, and some toys and clothes and formula, on the bench outside. The store’s security guard was standing watch over the whole process, and he said I could go on in—nobody was inside except the new family. He said he’d watch my cart...

The story continues at So May We Be.

calling directions, December 2010

2010-12-18T05:24:00.001-06:00

A chill wind blasts through us;
we tremble, at its cold and at its power.
Nature has a terrible beauty:
often cruel, yet sublimely, riotously gorgeous…

The December wind blows
and we tremble, in cold and in awe.
We invite the powers of the East, the Spirit of Wind,
to join us, as we gather this morning.

The Yule Log crackles and blazes;
candles dance on menorahs and kinaras;
strings of lights festoon eaves and bushes.
We invite the powers of the South, the Spirit of Fire,
to join us this morning.

Snowflakes melt on our tongues;
icicles drip and fishers cut holes to access the living waters.
We invite the powers of the West, the Spirit of Water,
to join us, to flow with us.

December earth is like iron,
holding us, grounding us, in the still clarity of winter.
We invite the powers of the North, the Spirit of Earth,
to join us, now.

We open ourselves to these spirits and each other;
appropriately, respectfully;
with humility, integrity and real passion
we invite our better selves–
dancing sparkles of the evolving Spirit of Life–
into this sacred space of covenantal community.

So may we be.

pools of sorrow, waves of joy

2010-12-08T04:29:00.002-06:00

In honor of John Lennon's life, ended 30 years ago today, here is a recent worship service based on the life and wisdom of John and his mates, entitled Pools of Sorrow, Waves of Joy

evolving alien life on earth

2010-12-03T06:45:00.003-06:00

Arsenic-eating microbes–unlike any other lifeforms on earth–show that Life is even more tenacious and inventive than we thought. When scientists starved the GFAJ-1 microbe of phosphorus, introducing the chemically-similar arsenic, the microbe adapted itself, incorporating arsenate into its cellular structure–including its DNA.

Felisa Wolfe-Simon and fellow researchers began working on the GFAJ-1 microbe (of the Halomonadaceae family) because it thrived in the toxically-salty Mono Lake, in California. All life on earth uses the same six elements–including phosphorus. So this microbe is truly an alien lifeform. The experiment needs to be reproduced and verified, but if it holds, it shows that GFAJ-1 has “solved the challenge of being alive in a different way,” according to Wolfe-Simon, in this Wired article, “It isn’t about arsenic, and it isn’t about Mono Lake…There’s something fundamental about understanding the flexibility of life.”

Liberal religion has a long history of interpreting scientific breakthroughs, sometimes over-emphasizing or misunderstanding the actual implications. So I’ll join that bandwagon, in my post at So May We Be.

Thanksgiving weekend opening words

2010-11-24T10:29:00.000-06:00

“We sing now together our song of thanksgiving,
rejoicing in goods which the ages have wrought,
for Life that enfolds us, and helps and heals and holds us,”
goes the hymn.
Buehrer’s lyrics also express gratitude
for “community now in the making, in every far continent, region and land.”

Let us give thanks for *all* of our blessings:
the material goods
and the community of our human cousins.

For the next sixty minutes,
and for the rest of our lives,
may we be aware of the Spirit of Life,
evolving within and among us,
which inspires and connects
and, indeed, helps and heals and holds us.

So may we be.

it gets better--pixar, trevor

2010-11-23T16:06:00.001-06:00

Pixar Studios’ extraordinary “It Gets Better” video is one of the most powerful I’ve seen.

Note that it ends with a link to The Trevor Project, a resource for children and youth with questions about sexuality and gender identity. It includes “Dear Trevor“ – a non-time-sensitive resource; and a confidential, toll-free, 24-hour lifeline, 866.4.U.TREV (866.488.7386).

Voltaire opening words

2010-11-19T17:34:00.002-06:00

Today (November 21, 2010) is the 316th anniversary of the birth of Francois-Marie Arouet--better known by his penname, Voltaire.

Voltaire wrote, "We all look for happiness, but without knowing where to find it: like drunkards who look for their house, knowing dimly that they have one."

Three centuries later, we have learned at least a little more about how to find happiness, and how to create meaning and purpose together. For the next sixty minutes, and for the rest of our lives, may we open ourselves to the power of Life, evolving within and among us.
So may we be.

make them look you in the eye

2010-11-19T17:32:00.000-06:00

When choosing how to have your privacy violated (method A, nude x-ray photographs, or method B, invasive “pat-downs”) at the airport, Elusis blogs that we should opt for the pat-downs, while looking the patter-downers in the eye. She compares TSA screenings to Stanley Milgram’s experiments on obedience to authority, and notes that compliance dropped–subjects refused to administer (fake) electric shocks to other people–when they were in the same room, confronted with the humanity of those being shocked.

Elusis also reminds us that “nothing about this is new. Private citizens being arbitrarily singled out for intrusive searches and rough treatment by authority figures because of their appearance, their ‘attitude,’ or just a momentary need for an endorphin rush by a small-minded bureaucrat? Welcome to the lives of people of color, the...

See the rest at my other blog

church, state, toasterless masses

2010-11-18T09:00:00.002-06:00

President Obama's recent Executive Order dissapointed the Left, angered the Right, but most importantly, it delivers aid to the "toasterless masses."

bless all who serve

2010-11-11T06:01:00.002-06:00

I am grateful for all the men and women who have served in the US military, helping to keep my country safe and my ideals alive. I do *not* agree with everything the US military has done (or is currently doing), but I absolutely believe that a strong defense is necessary in this world.

I am also grateful for the sacrifices made by the families of the servicewomen and servicemen. Joseph Marshall III once wrote that it takes bravery to go out and hunt or fight, and it takes an equal amount of courage to stay home and work while one’s loved ones are facing danger. We have many courageous families in our nation.

Please support our veterans by providing them and their families with adequate care, for their physical and psychological health.

Please support our existing troops by sending them a copy of Bless All Who Serve: Sources of Hope, Courage, and Faith for Military Personnel and Their Families, a book of prayers and readings published by Skinner House Books, edited by the Rev. Dr. Matt Tittle.

This same article is posted, with more links, on my other blog, So May We Be.

Edmund Fitzgerald

2010-11-10T14:12:00.001-06:00

The Edmund Fitzgerald sank 35 years ago today. Twenty-nine men died in the wreck, now made famous by Gordon Lightfoot’s song. While we still do not know precisely why ”The Big Fitz” sank, we do know why many other Great Lakes shipwrecks occurred. Human captains and pilots went too fast for the weather conditions, and so appeared rapidly out of the fog; or they would simply not back down, and ram other vessels in a catastrophic game of “chicken,” according to the exhibits at the Great Lakes Shipwreck Museum. Maybe that is why we are so intrigued by the wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald–for a change, it was nature, not our own human foibles, that caused it.

more...

hieroglyphic stairway

2010-11-10T14:07:00.001-06:00

"hieroglyphic stairway" by Drew Dellinger

it's 3:23 in the morning
and I'm awake
because my great great grandchildren
won't let me sleep
my great great grandchildren
ask me in dreams
what did you do while the planet was plundered?
what did you do when the earth was unraveling?

surely you did something
when the seasons started failing?

as the mammals, reptiles, birds were all dying?
did you fill the streets with protest
when democracy was stolen?

what did you do
once
you
knew?

I'm riding home on the Colma train
I've got the voice of the milky way in my dreams

I have teams of scientists
feeding me data daily
and pleading I immediately
turn it into poetry

I want just this consciousness reached
by people in range of secret frequencies
contained in my speech

I am the desirous earth
equidistant to the underworld
and the flesh of the stars
I am everything already lost

the moment the universe turns transparent
and all the light shoots through the cosmos

I use words to instigate silence

I'm a hieroglyphic stairway
in a buried Mayan city
suddenly exposed by a hurricane

a satellite circling earth
finding dinosaur bones
in the Gobi desert
I am telescopes that see back in time

I am the precession of the equinoxes,
the magnetism of the spiraling sea

I'm riding home on the Colma train
with the voice of the milky way in my dreams

I am myths where violets blossom from blood
like dying and rising gods

I'm the boundary of time
soul encountering soul
and tongues of fire

it's 3:23 in the morning
and I can't sleep
because my great great grandchildren
ask me in dreams
what did you do while the earth was unraveling?

I want just this consciousness reached
by people in range of secret frequencies
contained in my speech

Oklahoma bans Ten Commandments?

2010-11-04T13:45:00.002-05:00

Voters in Oklahoma, trying to ban Sharia (Islamic law), may have banned the Ten Commandments as well. This is a teaching moment in two ways.

too much "sanity"?

2010-11-01T10:10:00.002-05:00

Jon Stewart, like most of us on the Left, still does not get it. The "Rally to Restore Sanity and/or Fear," which he hosted with Stephen Colbert last Saturday, was well-attended, and funny, and did find a balance with satire and sincerity. Stewart's intent, as reported by Christopher Beam, was "to show that civil discourse and cooperation are possible."

Beam quotes Stewart: "We work together to get things done every day...[Most people are not political animals—they] don't live solely as Democrats or Republicans or liberals or conservatives. Most of them [are] just a little late for something they have to do."

Appealing to our common humanity is something we liberals do frequently, and it does have some validity and power. However, we must also acknowledge our real differences. Peter Beinart writes that Stewart made the mistake of "ridiculing fear. Yes, of course, Fox and friends hype the threat from terrorists, illegal immigrants, Christmas haters etc. But one reason they do so successfully is that there are quite rational reasons, in America today, to be scared out of your wits. Many Americans think that the great recession is not a passing misfortune but the new normal—that they will never regain their old quality of life."

Many of us in the USA are not "just a little late," many of us feel deep anxiety about our socioeconomic status. Conservatives may fan these flames too often and too vigorously, but at least they acknowledge the power of those feelings.

"Liberals often act as if reason is enough to change hearts as well as minds. We act as if our faith and values are born whole from reason instead of informed and shaped by our own experiences as communal, relational, physical, sentient beings," wrote the Rev. Dr. Thandeka, in Tikkun magazine back in 2005. She continued, "anxious hearts need an immediate emotional experience of peace...[Any] liberal alternative also has to start with the anxiety level already present in the American heart."

Thandeka concludes, "We cannot ignore the anxiety-assurance strategy of the Right. While we must continue to probe and uncover the rhetoric the Right uses to raise anxiety, we cannot dismiss such anxiety with rational explanations. We, too, must speak to it. We, too, must use sacred texts. But with one difference: we won't raise anxiety to lower it. We will lower the anxiety already present in the American heart through heart-to-heart work that links immediate personal feelings of emotional and spiritual relief to public policies that actually provide Americans with structural support for a better life on earth through decent schools, jobs, and medical and other social benefits. Whether we're secular or religious, we will only speak effectively to America again when we speak from the heart."

Stewart's humor may help lower the anxiety level of some--mostly those who agree with him. But his appeal to civility underestimates the power of the feelings beneath the discord. Unless we address the real human emotions underneath the words, it will not matter how "polite" or "sane" is our conversation--it will still be ineffective.

(this post is mirrored at my new blog, here)

So May We Be

2010-11-01T09:45:00.002-05:00

I've started a new blog. So May We Be is a "more robust online presence," including a blog, a ministerial search packet, and an advertisement for my wedding business. I am excited about writing at SMWB (I have finally figured out tags, for example, which I never used here)--and I am a little uncertain about what to do here. I do not want to abandon The Yes Church; there are many posts here I cherish. It's been five years already. I have been double-posting recently, but I don't think that is sustainable. I may keep this as a more personal blog, and SMWB as my professional voice, but that seems a bit artificial. Antbody have suggestions?

pure sense of purpose

2010-10-23T06:38:00.001-05:00

Lt. G. is surprised at how much he misses some aspects of war. In his post in Doonesbury's Sandbox, Matt Gallagher writes,

"I've been out of the military for just over a year now, and I've been shocked at how much I miss (parts of) it. The camaraderie, of course, can't be replaced in the civilian world, nor can the ability to act like a boorish 16-year old with a gun. (I'll leave it to the reader's judgment whether or not the latter is a positive or a negative). But the pure sense of purpose we had in combat is what I long for the most."

You can see that Gallagher has a knack for the truth. There are parts of his post that concern me, and at least one phrase, uttered by one of Lt. G's friends, is genuinely offensive. And still, I resonate with his human need for purpose.

Gallagher closes with, "I joined the Army to lead, and lead I did. But I got out because I didn't want to manage, and manage I would." Many, many of us in this culture are managers, whether in business or in households. Management may, in fact, be quite important. But our human need for meaning is critical.

How do we in the meaning-making business offer Lt.G, and Ms. H, and Mr. J and Dr. K opportunities to co-create a real sense of purpose? Isn't this what Tom Schade was writing about, here? Doesn't a "better life for all" include a palpable sense of purpose? How are we co-creating this in our congregations?

purple up

2010-10-20T11:28:00.001-05:00

John Dickerson's objection to the phrase "man up" does not go far enough. In his article on slate.com, Dickerson complains that "man up" has become a cliche', that it has lost its orginial meaning. However, it is *precisely* that original meaning with which I disagree.

Dickerson appreciated the phrase when New Jersey Governor Chris Christie (then running for that office), said his opponent should stop hinting about Christie's weight, and just "man up and say I'm fat." Now that Palin and many others are saying "man up," Dickerson writes, "It is dreary to watch, boring to listen to, and tells us nothing about the politician or the issue he or she is talking about."

My objection is that it is based in a harmful stereotype. To insist that men be tough and strong is just as harmful as insisting that women be pretty and weak. People who go against these stereotypes are often attacked, usually by calling them names associated with homosexuality. The phrase "man up" can usually be translated as "do this, or we will consider you 'gay' which, to our impoverished minds, is a bad thing."

Particularly today, on GLAAD's Spirit Day, when people are wearing purple to support bglt youth, and to end anti-bglt bullying, we should stand up and stop saying "man up."

a UU vision

2010-10-19T06:48:00.001-05:00

Our task is to challenge coercive religious (and/or political) movements, and offer an alternative that offers *both* a more accurate map of reality and will enable a better life for all, according to the Rev. Mr. Tom Schade:

"I think that it would be useful for us to understand ourselves as a particular form of 'liberal religion', a broad movement that (1) considers all religions as culturally relative expressions of a universal human impulse and (2) has a tempered belief in human progress rather than a belief in an apocalyptic eschatology and (3) a pragmatism that evaluates religious expression on its results in daily life. There are lots of expressions of 'liberal religion' in the world, and Unitarian Universalism is a small peculiar denomination of liberal protestantism. Many of the unchurched and unaffiliated are religious liberals.

So our evangelical tasks are two: one is to contest vigorously exclusivist, apocalyptic and coercive religions, to call them out by name, persuading people that the general approaches of liberal religion are a more accurate description of reality and will enable a better life for all. And two, among religious liberals who are unaffiliated to offer Unitarian Universalist religious community as a spiritual path. Our traditions, our rituals, our agenda for ourselves match up to many people's ways."

I appreciate his definition, and the tasks he derives from that definition. May clarity help us achieve our goals.

does it get better?

2010-10-16T10:44:00.000-05:00

Is the It Gets Better project anything more than a feel-good panacea, diverting energy away from real activism for BGLT rights? Alana Smith blogs that for some (too many!), their lives will likely *not* get better. Smith also links to Zoe Melisa's ten points against the Dan Savage-inspired YouTube channel, where many different people and groups encourage bisexual, gay, lesbian and transgender youth to refrain from suicide, and soldier on, because "it gets better."

Smith decides that this "activism or encouragment" is a false choice; that we need to do both. She concludes, "The hard truth is that whether we are fighting an oppressive social system or struggling with an oppressive psychological problem, it is going to take a lot of hard work for things to get any better – but a diet of hard truths and tireless struggle must be supplemented with gentle compassion and hope. Political victories are absolutely essential, but no less necessary for our survival is something as simple as an occasional hand on our shoulder and someone saying, 'I know just how you feel.' It Gets Better found a way to collectivize this personal gesture, and without mistaking it for a political program, I’d like to say that I’m grateful for it."

So, let us contine the struggle. And in the meantime, may we draw strength from such performances as the Chicago Gay Men's Chorus' It Gets Better.
So may we be.

new "men's magazines"

2010-10-12T08:42:00.000-05:00

Relationship advice in a men's magazine? While old-school magazines like Playboy and Esquire celebrate sex *without* relationships, and encourage high-end "manly" products like cigars, whisky and $3000 shoes, newer websites are catering to the concerns of men in the 21st century.

The Good Men Project recently wrote "Many men are in crisis. Most guys I talk to quietly acknowledge that they’re struggling to 'do it all.' Sound familiar? That’s what women have faced all along: how to have a career while also being a [parent]...The most macho thing in the world is to be a loving father. To be a faithful husband. To put food on the table. Even more macho is to come clean about how hard it is to try to try to be all those things at the same time."

Not all the new men's mags are *that* touchy-feely; The Art of Manliness offers advice on how to keep a long-distance relationship alive, but it also includes tips on "basic" manly skills like tying a tie, building a fire without matches, and lists of "Men's Essential" books and movies.

Made Possible focuses on younger (under 35) men: it offers "an inside look at the Made Possible Generation: Its hopes. Its fears. And the game-changing strategies emerging for the decades ahead." These strategies run the gamut from investment advice to how to form/find a supportive men's group.

Man of the House works in the "fatherhood" niche. In addition to fashion advice, and how to buy inexpensive groceries, it also has an articles on prostate health, and how to buy musical instruments for your children.

I am grateful to Greg Beato, for teaching me about some of these sites, in his article in slate.com. However, I am a little peeved at his tone. He rightly cautions, "In feeling the pain of today's beleaguered males, these new men's mags also co-opt the dog-whistle decree that has informed women's magazines for years: You're not good enough. Try harder. With these 13 steps you can be a better person," but then he goes too far. Calling these new magazines "intolerable," he writes, "Just as there's an unwritten law that you can't show traffic jams or trips to the mechanic in car commercials, you can't show the real responsibilities of male adulthood in men's magazines."

I am as sex-positive as the next person, and I enjoy a cigar once in a while--and I *do* need advice on how to use handtools properly; I have been considering shaving like my grandpa; and I absolutely yearn for real relationship.

feminist?

2010-10-08T09:56:00.001-05:00

Who gets to call themself a feminist, and are there core beliefs which one must affirm to claim that label? Several women are debating this, in a series on Slate.com. The genesis of the article is whether Sarah Palin and other politicians should be allowed to use the term, but it moves beyond that pretty widely.

Amy Bloom writes, "Feminism, I'm pretty sure, means a commitment to equal opportunity, equal ability, and equal potential for all women. It doesn't mean (and I realize that reasonable women differ on the definition of feminism—that's why it's feminism and not algebra) that a possession of a womb brings with it a special spiritual gift, or that women are avatars of goodness, entitled to yell, 'Misogynist!' whenever it is to their advantage...
there are, apparently, honest-to-God feminists who believe that abortion is murder and even though I think that that's not true, I have to respect that...But there is no such thing as free market/anti-legislation/I've-got-mine feminism."

Nora Ephron disagrees: "You can't call yourself a feminist if you don't believe in the right to abortion."

Katha Pollitt weighs in: "In the 1970s, feminists alienated a lot of women by being too censorious about clothes, makeup, and other personal choices; these days, feminism seems to mean supporting a woman's 'choice' to do just about anything, no matter how degrading or disempowering or socially harmful or foolish. Eventually, this kind of feminism bites its own tail: If choices cannot be discussed or (horrors!) criticized, there is no way to challenge, or even examine, their social context."

Anna Holmes notes that the term "feminism" has often been "rejected by minority and working-class progressive women, whose concerns, efforts, and agitations toward gender equality have historically been ignored or dismissed by the progressive movement's overwhelmingly white, wealthy standard-bearers."

Amanda Marcotte quotes Lisa Jervis, "Real feminists support a society in which biological gender 'doesn't determine social roles or expected behavior.'"

I like Jervis' definition, because it would dovetail nicely with a form of "masculinism" that would also support a society where being born male does not require being strong, silent and self-sacrificing. There is some complexity here: being born male *does* mean that I cannot conceive, nor nourish and carry a child in my body. But widening our understanding of social roles and expected behavior seems like a good goal.

interconnected web of the sea

2010-10-05T07:46:00.002-05:00

Underwated life is much more connected than previously understood, according to a decade-long study just released. The Census of Marine Life found that ocean creatures are tightly inter-related.

According to a Yahoo News story, a tiny shrimp-like being, Ceratonotus steiningeri, "has several spikes and claws and looks intimidating — if it weren't a mere two-hundredths of an inch long. Five years ago this critter had never been seen before...Then, off the Atlantic coast of Africa as part of the census, it was found at a depth of more than three miles below the surface." More astonishing--it is also found in the central Pacific, 8,000 miles away.

Sea creatures routinely roam wide territories. One 33-pound tuna crossed the Pacific Ocean three times in 600 days. Another species of tuna migrates 3700 miles, from North America to Europe. Some whales complete a 5,000 mile excursion north and south.

Besides laterally, ocean creatures mix between the shallows and the depths. Some species travel thousands of feet up and down. Some elephant seals can dive 1.5 miles below the surface.

Finally, just as humans and other primates share as much as 95% of their DNA, most sea life shares a similar proportion of genetic material: 85-98%, according to current estimates.

via The Daily Beast

church do & do not list

2010-09-30T07:29:00.002-05:00

Strong medicine from Michael Durall:

I. Things churches should do

Once and For All, Get Serious About Your Congregation’s Purpose. Seeking beauty and truth doesn’t cut it. Church is more important than that.

Finding Capable Leaders is Worth the Time and Effort. Church leaders create a congregation in their own image, for better or worse.

Create a Growing, Healthy Church. The #1 way to accomplish this is to raise the expectations of membership. Uncommitted souls and hangers-on do not a congregation make.

Your Church May Not Be For Everyone. If potential new members don’t agree with your expectations, do not let them join the membership ranks.

Identify Unmet Needs In Your Community. You don’t have to look far to find someone who needs a helping hand.

Touch People’s Hearts and Souls. People don’t always act for rational reasons.

[Expect More.] Don’t Settle for Less. Going to church means we are not satisfied with the fern-bar quality of contemporary life.

Evangelism Could Be Fun If Your Church is Worth Talking About. Don’t want to talk about your church with others? If something truly important is going on, you would.

Develop a Sense of Urgency. When the devil hired a representative to do his work on earth, he hired the one who said, “I will tell people there is no hurry.”

Everyone’s a greeter. If first-time visitors experience loneliness, a very common occurrence, they won’t return for a repeat performance.

Ask new members to reach the 5-10 percent giving level. Why not? They may say OK. Actually, all members should be asked to do this.

Give away the Sunday offering and 5-10 percent of the operating budget to outreach beyond your own four walls. Not a single person should say your church can’t afford it.

II. Things churches should not do

Don’t allow too many laypeople in the Sunday service. Sunday morning cannot be amateur hour. The quality goes in before the invitation goes out.

Don’t sit around and wait until new people show up. Reach out to cohorts, such as single-parent families, or those recently divorced or widowed. There’s a lot of loneliness out there.

Church shouldn’t be just one more thing on the calendar. Church is not akin to a kid’s soccer game.

Don’t let the same people run the church for years on end. Even though they will try to.

Don’t perpetuate the past. Most churches appeal to those born before 1955.

Don’t try to keep malcontents happy. An unhappy person can remain unhappy for a very long time.

Don’t let uninvolved members make major decisions by forcing congregational votes. Keep membership roles current.

Don’t form unnecessary committees. The fewer, the better. The less frequently they meet is even better. Church is about reaching out, not just committee meetings.

Don’t let members hold the congregation hostage by threatening to withhold pledges. If they have become that unhappy, maybe they should look for another church. See malcontents, above.

Don’t tell people a job will be easy and doesn’t require much time or effort. Especially true of key leadership roles.

Don’t take excessive money from endowments or income-producing properties to supplement the operating budget. This creates an uninvolved, low-pledging congregation.

Don’t keep pledge records secret. The ministers, board chair, and stewardship committee members should have the pledge records. The higher the secrecy, the lower the level of giving.

Visit Michael Durall online at www.vitalcongregations.com and tenminutesorless.blogspot.com

via UU Growth Blog.

crisis, flux--practice as usual

2010-09-24T06:30:00.003-05:00

"How morally to respond to change when even our moral sources are changing – is an ancient question," blogs Mike Hogue, in his blog on Tikkun magazine's site.

Changing moral grounding has always been part of the human predicament, but the pace of that change is becoming itself a challenge: "The problem is that the increasing velocity of change in our world, and the scale and intensification of our moral problems may be out-pacing (velocity) and out-spacing (scale) and out-deepening (intensity) our existing moral visions."

He asks, "Are we up to it? Are our moral and religious traditions capable of the radical changes called for by our contemporary challenges?"

Hogue reminds us that "Religious and moral revolutions are not about tweaking things; they are not simply about adjusting principles and norms or reinterpreting symbols and rituals. They emerge through deeper change – change in the deeper infrastructure of religious consciousness and moral practice: changing the world depends on changing lives (minds, hearts and hands)."

He then writes, "Of course not all change is morally constructive, and religious communities have an ambiguous moral history. But our religious communities and institutions, for good and for ill, are the world’s most powerful transformers of cultural imagination and moral practice."

I wonder if this is still true. Perhaps television and/or the internet are more powerful--again for good and for ill.

Or perhaps those technologies are simply tools, for we humans to use. As individuals and as gathered communities, we are still doing the work of co-creating justice, in whatever context we find ourselves.

For example, a number of contemporary spiritual practitioners and philosophers are engaged in an ongoing conversation, the Beyond Awakening series of conference calls, to which over 20,000 people are listening (and downloading), as the leaders discuss how we might adapt/recreate spiritual practices to better ground ourselves as we face the needs of our present time. Perhaps this is just a different form of ecclesia.

Whatever practices we use, however we gather, I agree with Hogue that "Justice is co-created through the joining of deep neighbor-love with delight in the holy.”

There is also a nice conversation in the comments section, as Erik Walker Wikstrom summarizes Tom Driver's book, "Christ in a Changing World"--The one place we will *not* find the Christ is in the past, because Christ is change, is transformation. Hogue agrees, "The Christ need not be a singular historical person, but a character continually calling out for imitation in the present...the Christ can be understood as a model of the kenotic (self-emptying), radically other-regarding life of faith."

It does seem as though the pace--and scale, and intensity--of change is daunting. I know I am struggling to find and embody a practice that grounds me and guides me. But I *am* seeking that practice, and Hogue and the "Beyond Awakening" folks *are* searching for such practices, and we humans have always been engaged in adapting our selves to meet our contexts. Transforming ourselves and our moral practices is *critical* to the survival of our species. Just like it always has been.

Easy A review

2010-09-21T06:55:00.002-05:00

Easy A is a fun movie, with many liberal values on the surface, but it undermines its own message, IMHO. I had a great time watching it, and I would recommend it as a good starting point for conversations about teen-aged sex and morality. However, I assume that virtually all mainstream movies ultimately *support* the status quo, and "Easy A" is consistent with that belief.

Without many spoilers, the film appears to be pro-feminist, pro-gay, and pro-racial-harmony. Alas, the deeper message is to conform to conventional values--they explicitly say, "you can blend in, or you can choose to not care." Hard to "not care" when you're being beaten or oppressed every day.

Our heroine, supposedly a wiser-than-her-years young woman coming into her feminist power, making her own choices about her own sexuality, reacts with horror and disgust whenever her mother (the *sole* positive adult female role model) talks about sex. The implicit message is that "good girls do not talk about (or enjoy!) sex." (See one final comment under *spoilers* below)

I did laugh a lot during the film; there is witty banter and lip service paid to many liberal values. I would absolutely show it to a youth group, to talk about the issues raised. And I would point out how the film subtly *reinforces* the traditional values it seems to be questioning, as part of that conversation.

Further note: there is a *lot* of Christian-bashing. A conversation about that part of the film could reasonably note that the movie attacks a sort of shallow, hypocritical form of Christianity. Still, if I were having a deep conversation about the values in the film, I would want to raise this topic.

**SPOILERS**
Well, it may not be much of a spoiler--there is a happy ending, of course. How it comes about is the strongest example of how the film actually supports the status quo.
Initially, our heroine rebels against the "madonna or whore" dichotomy forced onto young girls, but she finally redeems herself by ending her rebellion, telling the truth, and reclaiming her virginity and "good" reputation.

easy to be hard

2010-09-20T07:26:00.002-05:00

Tea Partiers are driven by Status Anxiety; unless we provide an alternative status, their fear and anger will continue to escalate, until it bubbles over into real violence. The traditional markers of status in the USA--wealth and white skin--are changing. We cannot (and would not choose to) stop that evolution, but we can respond to the anxiety it causes. We can present a wider, more universal status (the inherent worth dignity of every person!) to soothe the fear and defuse the anger. Not only would this address the current crises (e.g. immigration reform and Islamophobia), it would provide a basis for a more just society going forward.

Writing at Slate.com, Jacob Weisberg calls the Tea Party "the Right's version of the 1960s New Left. It's an unorganized and unorganizable community of people coming together to assert their individualism and subvert the established order."

Weisberg says the "strongest note in its tannic brew is nostalgia [and the second] strongest emotion at Tea Parties is resentment, defined as placing blame for one's woes on those either above or below you in the social hierarchy."

His main point is that "Nostalgia, resentment, and reality-denial are all expressions of the same underlying anxiety about losing one's place in the country or of losing control of it to someone else. When you look at the surveys, the Tea Partiers are not primarily the victims of economic transformation, but rather people whose position is threatened by social change...Of no previous movement has Richard Hofstadter's depiction of populism as driven by 'status anxiety' been so apt."

I think Weisberg is slightly wrong here--I think that many Tea Partiers *are* victims of economic transformation--but that doesn't detract from his main point. There is a great deal of status anxiety. The Tea Partiers fear losing their position, as a result of both economic distress and social change. Like many humans, their fear can translate into rage.

It is easy to say "the world is changing, the world is getting more diverse, get over it." That only increases the anxiety, and makes violence more likely. If, however, we on the left demonstrate that we understand the values that the Tea Partiers feel are threatened; if we present a compelling alternative, that sincerely addresses both "liberal" and "conservative" values; if we show them that they do have inherent worth and dignity (at least in part by refraining from mocking them), then we may create an alternative status that will soothe fear and anger, thus freeing up all that energy, to be used in more productive pursuits.