Passion

No dear readers, this post is not about SEX. This post is about PASSION, or in other words: what drives you?

And even though I have written the only political post I plan to write, I am going to ask a question about a political person and then move into a more UUA-specific question about passion.

First to the question about the political person. Is Hillary Clinton passionate about anything anymore? I thought I knew Hillary. I admire her quite a bit. But looking at her these days is like watching paint dry. There is no spark in her. What happened? In days gone by, Hillary would have been at the forefront of the S-CHIP debate (no dear readers, this is not a post about SCHIP so please no responses about it). But have you heard from her at all during this? I haven't. Which makes this all the more frustrating; Hillary used to work on women's and children's issues. These were almost like air and water to her: essential. She used to be known as having so much passion for these issues that even her critics talked about the passion she had. Where did that passion go? Can't you run for President and be passionate at the same time?

Anyway.....that's enough about Hillary.

The question about the UUA: besides same-sex marriage, does the UUA have any passion for anything? It isn't 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), megachurches 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/UUA passion?