I am becoming less and less comfortable with the overt political partisanism I see in my church (and am supposing that my church is not an outlier here).

Just one example: I found the overturning of Roe shocking and tragic. I have always whole-heartedly supported a woman’s right to choose and find this new ultra-conservative attack on woman’s autonomy scarily regressive.

However, just because I (as well as many other people in our congregation) feel this way, doesn’t mean that I want our minister to make a public statement condemning this decision (I.e. taking an explicitly partisan stand). I don’t want a minister that says: “We need to yell louder.” I don’t want a minister that essentially declares our congregation a safe space for any person who wants an abortion. I don’t want my minister to simple echo whatever the political consensus of the congregation is (or seems to be).

Why? Well, I believe that first and foremost, churches should be models of ideal communities. And ideal communities should (in my view) be open to the “other” — to people who don’t necessarily think exactly like us and yet still agree with all our principles. It is perfectly possible to be pro-life and see oneself as living according to our principles. It is perfectly possible to want stricter immigration policy and still see oneself living according to our principles. It is perfectly possible to ask questions about various controversies swirling around transgenderism and still see oneself living according to our principles.

Our minister likes to go on about how our church is a sacred space. I am an atheist, so I definitely grin and bear it. But I was quite spiritual for a long time and have a sense of what a sacred space is. To me, a sacred space is a space that stands apart from and against the world and the failings thereof. It is a space in which to be our best selves along with other people who are trying to be their best selves.

However our minister openly suggest that our sacred space needs to be a political space. She actively promotes the use of sacred language as a political weapon. In fact, the sermon we heard last week was all about wielding sacred language to make political change. Is the answer to the Right‘s politicization of conservative Christianity to go ahead and build a politically left religion? Do two wrongs make a right? I don’t think so.

I feel so despairing about politics in this country, but don’t believe the “both sides“ thing. Sure, the left has its issues, but fortunately they have not gone off the deep end in the unbridled pursuit of power for power’s sake. I would love more than anything else for us to regain political sameness and balance. I don’t know how that can happen at the moment. But I sure as hell know it’s not going to happen by having UU’s wrap themselves in a ball of anger and yell louder.

If any change is going to come, it going to take many years of concerted strategic political effort. I suppose this could happen in UU congregations (just as Black churches were instrumental in the Civil Rights movement). But I don’t see any of this happening. I just see a lot of rage, political othering and using leftish politics as a church brand-building exercise, as a form of collective identity construction.

​

So, in short, I’d like to see one of two things either:

1. Having our “sacred space,” be informed by a broad, generous interpretation of our principles and hence be de-politicized.
2. Fully commit to one issue and actually make change (which would involve analysis, having a plan, organization, etc.) and not merely yelling, whining, getting upset then trying to calm ourselves, building a collective identity as “justice seekers,” etc., etc.,

One or the other.

Im curious to know what others think about this?

I regularly attend an online-only congregation of the Christian Universalist Association, and it got me thinking. Does the UUA have anything similar?

I watch live streams of services, like from All Souls in Tulsa, but that's not quite the same!

So I was raised in a UU church, but this is the first time our minister has willingly stopped being our minister. (Our first minister was caught in a compromising situation with a married member of the church).

So our church has been making announcements for months that our minister was moving on, lots of plans for the goodbye event, when suddenly we get an email.

Basically the email says that normally the departing minister leaves the town he was living in to go minister elsewhere, but our minister isn't moving, he's decided to continue living here.

That means, according to the email, that we have to stop interacting with him, stop being his friend, because if we continue to talk to him and bring our religious problems to him, then the new minister, who ever that might be, will never feel fully welcome and feel like they're the minister of the congregation.

Our departing minister has been with us for about 20 years, so how do we as a congregation just stop being friends with him?

Is this normal for UU churches?

So I was raised in a UU church, but this is the first time our minister has willingly stopped being our minister. (Our first minister was caught in a compromising situation with a married member of the church).

So our church has been making announcements for months that our minister was moving on, lots of plans for the goodbye event, when suddenly we get an email.

Basically the email says that normally the departing minister leaves the town he was living in to go minister elsewhere, but our minister isn't moving, he's decided to continue living here.

That means, according to the email, that we have to stop interacting with him, stop being his friend, because if we continue to talk to him and bring our religious problems to him, then the new minister, who ever that might be, will never feel fully welcome and feel like they're the minister of the congregation.

Our departing minister has been with us for about 20 years, so how do we as a congregation just stop being friends with him?

Is this normal for UU churches?

Just wondering if there is an over-arching theme for the upcoming GA. I looked on the UUA website and other places on line and see lots of information about registration and logistics, but nothing about the content of the meeting itself. Is it just going to be about everything UU? Or something even slightly more specific?

In the fairly delightful movie "Paulie Go!" The main characters ask a woman on the shore of a Minnesota lake about who lives in a certain cabin. The woman says, "A couple bought it last year. They're Unitarians." "What does that mean," asks one of the main characters. His companion answers, "It means they hug too much in church."😂

Any other good movie quotes about Unitarians come to mind?

https://www.uusc.org/three-reasons-why-juneteenth-is-the-united-states-true-independence-day/

By Mike Givens on June 16, 2022

June 19, 1865, was a watershed moment for Black Americans living in the American South. That was the day Union soldiers landed in Texas to inform Black men, women, and children that slavery had been abolished two years prior by 1863’s Emancipation Proclamation, signed by then President Abraham Lincoln. These people—who’d seen generation after generation of rape, murder, abuse, torture, dehumanization, and cultural decimation—were finally free to live independently and free from the shackles of an oppressive and racist system that benefited off of their labor.

The road ahead would be long and filled with adversity as former slaves and their offspring would be subjected to water hoses, literacy tests, lynchings, segregated restrooms, miscegenation laws, mass migration, and countless protests and demands for justice. The cultural genocide encapsulated in anti-Black racism is still prevalent in the United States—and in many ways, the fight for equity isn’t over—but Juneteenth is an acknowledgement of progress and liberation and beckons us to continue the fight for freedom.

Juneteenth became a federal holiday in 2021, and though this act is a tiny step toward addressing America’s “original sin,” there are still many more steps that need to be taken for equality and equity to be truly lived and felt in the United States.

Here are three ways that Juneteenth is the true Independence Day for the United States:

July 4, 1776 Was Never About True Freedom For All

Eighty-nine years prior the liberation of Black Americans in the South, the Declaration of Independence boldly advanced a revolutionary agenda to sever the ties between the 13 colonies and Great Britain. There was just one glaring—and hypocritical—conundrum: The practice of kidnapping African people and transporting them to the colonies was still alive and well. “Freedom” only truly extended to White people living in the colonies. People living under and within the confines of slavery were not treated as people, but property.

Twelve years later, the U.S. Constitution would be amended to include the “Three-Fifths Clause,” a political concession that counted a person who was enslaved as three-fifths of a person of a free individual. This clause was not a step toward recognizing the humanity of these people, but a means for southern states to have more political representation in the nascent American government. It was a compromise rooted in political gain, not human rights.

Black Liberation and Resiliency Are Powerful Metaphors for the Struggle for Human Rights

Countless times in American history, Black people have had to fight to ensure their humanity and personhood were acknowledged and respected. From the slave rebellions in the 17th and 18th Centuries to the Civil Rights movement in the 20th Century, Black Americans have fought hard and set a strong example when it comes to advocacy, activism, bravery, and persistence. Repeatedly, Black Americans have taken situations of oppression and turned their narratives against the oppressor. Some battles have been won, others have not, but what has always remained the same is the outspoken activism that calls attention to injustice and demands the United States do better.

U.S. history is filled with people and incidents that not only show the resiliency of Black people, but the oppression they’ve faced, the injustice that’s birthed from it, and the resiliency and beauty of Black culture.

• Frederick Douglass—A 19th Century Black abolitionist and suffragist who wrote eloquently of the hideousness of slavery and the need to end it as an economic and social practice in America.
• Henrietta Lacks—She died at the age of 31 in 1951, but her “immortal” cancer cells (HeLa cells) were used by White researchers to develop a polio vaccine, test treatments for cancer and HIV, study the impacts of zero gravity in space on human cells, and train thousands of scientists across the world in cell biology. There are almost 11,000 patents that involve the use of HeLa cells and science and medicine have benefitted tremendously from their use. Lacks never provided consent for her cells to be used and her family has never been compensated for their use.
• Tuskegee Syphilis Study—Between 1932 and 1972, roughly 400 Black men with syphilis were studied by doctors with the goal of understanding the disease. None of the men were informed of their syphilis diagnosis or consented to be studied. The pretense of receiving free medical care masked the true intention of studying the infection. Around 100 men died from the disease and it was spread to several participants’ wives. More than a dozen children were born with congenital syphilis. By 1947, penicillin had emerged as an effective treatment for the disease, but the participants were denied it for the sake of continuing the study. It is one of the most egregious examples of racism in medicine in the 20th Century.
• Modern Gynecology—J. Marion Sims was an American physician who in the 1840s performed gruesome experiments on enslaved women as part of his studies of the vagina. He did not provide any anesthesia for these women and no consent was given. His experiments helped advance the field of gynecology, but at the cost of the suffering and deaths of several Black women.

• Linnentown—In the early 20th Century, Linnentown, Georgia was a bustling Black town and home to 50 families in the northern part of the state. In 1962, the University of Georgia forcibly removed all of the families through eminent domain, razed all of the homes and buildings, and proceeded to build college dorms.

  These are just five of many lesser-known stories about the abuse and oppression of Black people. Despite slavery, medical rape, forced displacement, and dehumanization, the Black community has still advocated tirelessly for progress and justice. That day in mid-June in 1865 would be the impetus for many travails, but also many triumphs.

Black Activism Makes American Democracy Work For All of Us

From the Civil Rights Movement to Black Lives Matter, the advocacy of Black Americans has continually kept progress and the fight for justice moving forward. The Civil Rights movement played an instrumental role in so many other movements for change, from women’s rights to the LGBTQ+ and anti-war movements. Even today, Black activism is responsible for a range of social justice and human rights victories, including:

​

• Reforms in the criminal legal system
• Increased scrutiny of federal and local law enforcement
• Hate crime legislation
• Efforts to stem the tide of mass incarceration
• Laws protecting certain groups from discrimination in housing, employment, public spaces, and education

As we celebrate Juneteenth, we commemorate the abolition of slavery, but also Black liberation and the many advancements Black activism has ushered around the nation. As we reflect on this day and its role in history, we understand that “freedom” never really is freedom unless each and every one of us experiences in all of our personhoods and identities.

I have recently been getting re-interested (I'm always interested!) in esoteric Buddhism and Christianity, but when I try to talk about these concepts with members of their respective religions, I sometimes am confronted with more conservative concepts (on in the worst case, outright dogma)

Like "no, that's not the way, do THIS" which is not very open...I'm more than willing to be wrong, but I want to explore faith! Which I guess why I love UU so much.

I'll admit that some of my viewpoints are far from conventional - such as how I experience God while playing video games, how I also believe that video games can be "Upaya" (skilful means, in Buddhism) but I'm also interested in how different religious and spiritual concepts work together, like "be in the world, yet not of it" and the Buddhist/Hindu views of emptiness and non-attachment. The core of all religions has always seemed to me to be the same, not different, and there is so much to learn from all the faiths.

However members of these faiths tend to only speak from their faith, which is understandable but a bit constricting. How do you all reconcile this?

I got great replies the last time I made a post like this, so I am asking again.