Suffer the Little Children, or The Price of Milk As A Moral Issue

Hello dear readers. I just returned from grocery shopping and had this post in my head while on the way home.

I always base how I feel about the economy by one thing: the price of a gallon of milk. So I guess you can tell I'm not real thrilled about the state of the economy right now.

The cheapest I saw a gallon a milk today was $3.69. $3.69?!?!?!?!?! This is utterly ridiculous. Luckily for me, I only use milk for cooking and a gallon will last me a while. However I know this is not the case for many, if not most, Americans.

All the world's major religions call for showing compassion and remembering the least of these. Milk is one of the few universal foods and is an important part of the human diet. How does $3.69 for a gallon of milk show compassion? Is it remembering the least among us?

In all of my posts about church growth I've always talked about how me need to look at the megachurches and see what they are doing. I'm going to do it again here. Churches that grow talk about bread-and-butter issues, everyday life issues, in a way that those who don't have graduate degrees can understand. And they do it using scripture from holy books. How many UU churches are talking about the price of milk, not as an economic issue, but a moral one? Where are the UU churches that are talking about the bread-and-butter, everyday life issues that people really worry about?

In all the UU talk about social justice, where are the UU activists who are talking about the these issues? (yes I know that there is the UUs for a Just Economy) Are we working with other religious progressives who have been at the forefront with these kinds of issues?

I Believe The Children Are The Future? or, Who Do We Say That We Are pt.3

Dear Readers...I am going to say the most politically incorrect thing that can be said in UU circles, but I truly believe it.

The children are NOT the future of UUism.

The future is NOW people! Church growth does not happen because of youth programs. Church growth happens because you keep the ADULTS who bring the youth. (no ad campaign is going to work unless you have something to back it up) What are you offering them? Why do we have the same number of members now as we did 30 years ago?

Where is the Adult Religious Education curricula? Why has there not been the same effort in adult curricula that there has been in children/youth curricula?

UUs are squandering such an opportunity for real growth by not looking at the situation as it is. The growth in churches regardless of theological perspective is having adult programming that puts people in small group, intimate contact with others. Look at the megachurches (I know you don't want to, but you should). Do you see all the small groups that they have? Do you see what those groups are formed around? Do you see their educational offerings (not just about spiritual matters but on all kinds of things)?

The church is supposed to be about building relationships and spiritual/moral growth. We do ok with the kids in UUism. We just don't do it with adults. And that's the shame.

The Oddities of Education

Hello dear readers. I hope all of you had the Thanksgiving that you wanted.

On this first post of the after-Thanksgiving break, I thought I would talk about somebody else. Those of you in the Central Midwest District, and even a few of you who are outside of this district, probably know Kim Hampton. I've known her a while because of my travels in the district and think she is a really nice person to know.

For those of you who know her, Kim is getting ready to enter seminary in January. In the little updates that she sends out, she sent this great little nugget:

I've finished all the paperwork that Earlham requires except for one; the health form. You
might ask.....why the health form? It's simple, I have to show proof of my immunizations.
Now, I haven't had to show proof of immunization at all since I became an adult, and the only
time my parents remember having had to show the little card was when they registered me
for elementary school. But now that I need it, I can't find it. So now I'm running around like a
chicken with it's head cut off trying to think of all the places that might have that information. It
always seems to happen that way.......

So I thought I would make this post an open one.....what oddities of education have you, or someone you know, run into? And how did you handle it?

The Book Is Dead.......Again

I like Jeff Bezos. I loooooooooooooooooooooooooove Amazon.com. I think Kindle is a bad idea.

People have been talking about the death of the book since Gutenberg invented movable type. And while Bezos says that he doesn't think the book is dead, he's acting as if the book is dead.

Digital works for some things. Music. Movies. TV.

But not books. There is just something about holding that bound paper in your hands that does not come from e-(or digital) books. There's even some loss with having books on tape (or CD). [don't get me wrong, I enjoy books on CD when I'm traveling long distances] Reading a book is an experience. You can't dog-ear pages on a screen. You can't highlight lines that touch you.

So while I wish Jeff Bezos and Amazon well, pick on something else besides books. There are so many things that technology can improve on.......books aren't one of them.

Who Do We Say That We Are? pt.2

Because Ogre and I seem to disagree about what Jesus said, I thought I would put the scriptures here on the page. The passage is Matthew 16:13-17. (I'm using the King James Version for fun)

Mt 16:13 When Jesus came into the coasts of Caesarea Philippi, he asked his disciples, saying, Whom do men say that I the Son of man am?
Mt 16:14 And they said, Some say that thou art John the Baptist: some, Elias; and others, Jeremias, or one of the prophets.
Mt 16:15 He saith unto them, But whom say ye that I am?
Mt 16:16 And Simon Peter answered and said, Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God.
Mt 16:17 And Jesus answered and said unto him, Blessed art thou, Simon Barjona: for flesh and blood hath not revealed it unto thee, but my Father which is in heaven.

So it seems we are both right. I just think that we know the answer to the first question. We know what people, those who know about us anyway, say that we are.

My question is: Who do WE say that WE are? Part of the reason that the new UUA ad campaign is not going over well in a number of UU circles is that there is no there there. Unless we know what we are, there will never be a really effective broad based outreach/mission/planting program in the UUA.

So my question still stands: Who do we say that we are?

Just As I Am, or The Rubber Meets the Road with Congregational Polity

When I was flipping through the local paper for the umpteenth time yesterday, I really got down to reading this article that comes from the Charlotte Observer.

For those of you who know of it, Myers Park Baptist Church (in Greensboro) was essentially excommunicated from the North Carolina State Convention because they welcome gays and lesbians without trying to change them. After the vote to expel Myers Park, six churches quit in protest to what they call a violation of congregational polity.

It is my firm hope that the UU churches that are near Myers Park will stand with them and let it be known publicly that there are other religious entities that are willing to work with them in furthering the cause of welcoming GLBTs into our collective religious life.

But even more, I think that we as an Association must start speaking very loudly for the cause of congregational polity (and not just among ourselves). The Baptists are our cousins (just like the Disciples and their offspring,Quakers,Mennonites and the UCC to a lesser extent), and all of us should be very worried when a Convention of AUTONOMOUS congregations kicks out a member of that Convention because they are acting autonomous. What does this say about congregational polity? And is this a slippery slope, not just for the Baptists, but for us as well?

Who Do We Say That We Are?

Yes dear readers, for those of you who know your Bible, you will recognize the title of this post as a re-framing of Jesus' question to his disciples: Who do people say that I am?

For this post however, I am not worried about what other people think about us but rather what we think about ourselves.

As I was doing some research today, I came across this survey on the Disciples of Christ website
(http://www.surveymonkey.com/s.aspx?sm=jpybty63fj3u4jtg9drdkg_3d_3d). I am really struck by the introduction and thought it would be a good thing to ask UUs.

Here's the introduction:
Who do we say that we are? Identity is a vital concern for all parts of the church. Many long-time (Disciples) worry that we may be losing crucial characteristics of our common life. New (Disciples) want to know about the distinctive gifts of this community of faith. All of us need to have clarity about who we are in order to be faithful and effective witnesses to (Jesus Christ).

A church’s identity must be firmly rooted in scripture and yet flexible enough to adapt to changes in culture and the shifting demands of mission. Early Christians in Jerusalem had to learn what it meant to be faithful in Antioch and Rome. Our (Disciples) forebears, as they moved from the frontier to the city, had to rethink such matters as congregational autonomy and the goal of “restoring” the New Testament church. Today, we wrestle with what it means to be disciples of (our Lord) in a world that is increasingly pluralistic, globally connected, and yet so often violently divided.

Isn't that interesting? If you change the word Unitarian or Universalist for Disciples, this is something we need to wrestle with?

So here are the questions that have come to my mind:
1. What are the crucial characteristics of our common life?
2. What are the distinctive gifts of this community of faith?
3. Since the number of people in our communities of faith do not consider themselves Christian, what are we faithful and effective witnesses to/for?
4. In the same vein, what are we disciples of?

And the main question: Who do we say that we are?

The First UU Genius Award, or Why There Should Be a Boycott of the Ft. Lauderdale GA

Hello dear readers. I have decided to take a small break from posting about Independent Affiliates to post about another UUA thing that I'm interested in.....General Assembly.

Those who know me in real life know just how much I love GA. I love GA so much that I'm worried about this new "5th Principle" committee. I'll write about that in another post.

This post, however, is not about any future GAs; it is about 2008.

By sheer coincidence, my parents just returned from a cruise of the Western Caribbean. When they let me know that they were back home and to talk a little about the cruise, I asked them where the cruise started from. (I thought it was Ft. Lauderdale, but wanted to make sure)
"Ft. Lauderdale," was their reply.
"Did they check your ID?", I asked.
"We had it ready, but the lady said not to worry about it since we were with the cruise line and on one of their buses."

Once I got that confirmation, I became even more uneasy about the 2008 GA than I was before.
So I think it's time to give out the first Real Anonymous UU Genius Award to the person or persons who came up with the brilliant idea of having General Assembly at a convention center that's in the middle of a port; making race/ethnicity a bigger issue than most UUs think.

Let's examine this shall we. Having a government-issued ID is not that big a deal for most of us. The issue becomes the people who will be checking that ID. As it is in airports, so it will be at a port. I can see it now.....UU males of color(especially youth) are going to be profiled all in the name of national security and there's no protest the UUA can make because they knew this would happen going in.

I know that GA sites are chosen years in advance. However, my guess is that Ft. Lauderdale was chosen AFTER Sept. 11, 2001. If it was, why was it chosen? Or did this issue not cross the minds of whoever made this decision because, as UUism is 97% white, they would not be the target of the profiling?

So I have made my decision. I will boycott the 2008 General Assembly in Ft. Lauderdale in protest of the decision to hold it in a place that is so obviously fraught with national security issues and ignored our own commitment to anti-racism and anti-oppression. I would encourage you to do the same.

What Drives Us? or, Is There Any Passion in Unitarian Universalism???

Hello dear readers. I have decided to bring this up again because it's something I think we need to be talking about.

And I guess I should point out again this post is not about SEX. This post is about PASSION, or in other words: what drives you?

The question about the UUA(or UUism): besides same-sex marriage, does the UUA(or UUism) have any passion for anything?

It doesn't seem to be spiritual development/formation or maturation, because if it were there would be more curricula out there. It doesn't seem to be religious literacy, or the kids who go through most UU Religious Education programs wouldn't come out as religiously ignorant as they were coming in and most adults would understand that the religious world is bigger than their past or current congregation. It doesn't even seem to be REAL social justice or we would be reaching out and working with the other religious progressives out there no matter what their religious stripe. (where is the UU version of Dorothy Day and the Catholic Worker movement?)

For all their faults (and speaking as a former fundamentalist I know there are many), mega-churches have passion. They know what drives them: bringing people to Christ. What drives the typical UU church? Where is their passion? In all this talk about growth in UU circles, nobody seems to be looking at the facts; the churches that are growing, no matter what theological stripe, have PASSION. They know what they want to do and try to find ways to do it. They have a story and can articulate it. They know their mission and can articulate that as well. These churches have DREAMS (and I'm not talking about strategic plans but real dreams). They see their place in the world. Most of all, they are NOT afraid.

So.....where's the UU's/UUA's passion?

What You Bring To The Party? or Independent Affiliates pt.4

Hello dear readers. I have a correction to make, and since it fits in with the rest of this email I hope you will be able to tell what that correction is.

Anyway, dear readers, this is my 5th post about the Independent Affiliates issue and I noticed that the first 4 all talked about the IAs that were rejected. For this post I thought it would be a good idea to talk about the 5 that were deemed worthy.

Let's look at the list of the approved IAs:
-Council of UU Camps and Conferences
-DRUUMM
-Partner Church Council
-Unitarian Universalist Urban Ministry
-Universalist Convocations

With the new rules about IAs, I can see how 2 of them made it through. A third one is a possibility. The other ones I question and I thought that I would talk about one of them in particular and then open the conversation. Those who know me in real life would be surprised by the one I'm going to talk about, that's why I'm not going to talk about that one but a different one.

The new rules state that an organization applying for IA status must present:

a statement outlining how its purpose, mission and structure models interdependence through engagement with our member congregations, coordination or collaboration of effort and resources; and a statement outlining how the organization supports the transformation of institutions and our world to be aligned with those values expressed in our Principles;

Now, dear readers, using this part of the rules, can anybody explain to me how the Council of UU Camps and Conferences got IA status? How do they SERVE congregations? (as there is a difference between serving and providing a service)

So, as the title of this post asks; what do these 5 groups bring to the party of Unitarian Universalism? How do they make us better? What was it about them that made them more worthy of IA status than the ones that were rejected?

Will You Still Love Me Tomorrow? or Independent Affiliates pt.3

My last post was about passion (well written if I do say so myself) and since I asked questions about passion in a UU context, I thought in this post I would go back to the Independent Affiliate issue and tie it in.

Just to re-cap for those of you dear readers who might have forgotten, the UUA Board rejected 44 Independent Affiliates. Among those IAs that were rejected are:
-CUUPs
-HUUmanists
-UU Buddhist Fellowship
-UU Christian Fellowship
-UUs for Jewish Awareness

All of these groups share a couple of things in common. One, they are theological. Second, theses groups are passionate about what they do. Guess that comes with having a theology.

What makes a religious organization different from groups like the ACLU, John Birch Society and the like? They have a THEOLOGY and are passionate about it. And yet the Board has decided that a religious body should not have a relationship with the organizations that bring the RELIGION to the body.

Does this make any sense?