June 2006 Archives

I wrote about the St. Louis arch celebrating Westward expansion and the Louisiana Purchase as a "symbol of genocide."  In a comment to that same piece Fausto writes "I'm sure our own "famous UU" TJ didn't have genocide in mind when he bought Louisiana or commissioned Lewis and Clark, but the fact remains that in the way things came to pass, genocide became an integral element of the whole package."

When governor of Virginia, Thomas Jefferson stated: "If we are to wage a campaign against these Indians the end proposed should be their extermination, or their removal beyond the lakes of the Illinois River. The same world would scarcely do for them and us." When he became President he had a standing army to wage his campaign of extermination and during his administration many of the nations were eliminated on the Atlantic side of the Eastern Mountains.  His administration then waged war against the people indigenous to the "near West" beyond the Appalachians.  Then he "bought" the West from France (whose claim to the land was based on the theology of the Christians Crusades (non Christians have no rights a Christian is bound to recognize.)

Did Jefferson mean it?  His whole life reveals an Enlightenment gentleman, curious about the new science, opinionated about the project of a propertied persons' democratic republic, who was openly racist, genocidal,  grandiose, and patriarchal.  The Louisiana Purchase was intended as a way to provide opportunities to his people (White People) and "extermination" of the same final solution to the native people west of the Illinois River.  The word genocide didn't exist in his vocabulary, but his "extermination" policy was very real, very intentional, and very calculated.  The West he envisioned would include slavery.  His writings make this clear, and when the senators and representatives in congress representing the Northern states tried to restrict slavery in the West he was alarmed and spoke of dissolving the United States.

Did Jefferson mean genocide?  He didn't consider Africans and Native Americans to be fully human, so enslaving them and exterminating them did not bother his conscience.  At least he does not share any self criticism for his words or actions in his writings, or any agonizing that as a result of his policies and practices hundreds of thousands of people were burned to death, shoot to death and starved to death, and hundreds of thousands were held in degrading slavery with their families ripped from them and all the fruits of their labor taken for the enrichment of generations of white people.

Unitarian Universalists speak of our continuing work against our own institutionalized racism.  We insist that racism is not just bad attitudes held by bigots (who are of course are not Unitarian Universalists) but built into the way this nation was built on conquest, plunder, and slavery and has subsequently evolved its institutional arrangements of power.  We see an example of this in our own practice.  Jefferson is sanitized and served up as a "famous UU" by Unitarian Universalist religious educators and clergy rather than presented as a morally questionable and politically contradictory example of Unitarian origins in the Enlightenment elite.  By doing this and allowing this to be done in our name we are perpetuating racism and contributing to holocaust denial.

Here is an example of what we must do more often.

An adult UU shares with me his impressions of GA and asks me what I think about the GA.

I tell him that it is apparent to me that we still have much work to do about racism, that again this year there was insensitivity and arrogance on the part of white Unitarian Universalists toward people of color. I share that adult people of color tend to be more accustomed to this kind of behavior on the part of well meaning, but clueless white folk, but that the youth of color are outraged that Unitarian Universalist adults could come across as arrogant, imperious, culturally incompetent, and/or oblivious jerks.

He opines that the problem with racism at General Assembly has been overblown.

I assure him that the problem is real and experienced, and results in pain among people of color and youth of color that undermines their confidence in Unitarian Universalism. In that we are a faith that proclaims "deeds not creeds" that proclamation creates an expectation that we might try to walk our talk. (I know it did for me as a Unitarian youth, but I soon came to realize that the vast majority of pew sitters were not faithful Unitarians, they came for intellectual stimulation not transformation.)

He offers the observation that the youth of color at General Assembly dress like they were in a street gang. I am taken aback by his characterization of our youth's dress. I know many of the youth by name, I have know several of them since they were children. I know their parents. The parents include UU ministers, Trustees, Congregational leaders, and the youth appear to me to be dressed like middle class youth dress when they are being hip, which is not at all like street gangsters. I reply that I know the youth and I disagree with his judgment of their attire, but perhaps making the distinction between youthful attire and street gangs requires some discernment and recognition of distinctions. (I am trying to be persuasive and not come across as dismissive.) He concedes that I might be right, and shares that Black youth make him nervous.

I am reminded that five centuries ago when the Europeans first encountered the Africans and the Native Americans they concluded that these "strange" people were promiscuous because they didn't wear clothing ("save for their privies") in the summer time.

Youth and the culturally marginalized must learn to dress "right" or they won't get any respect!

Some youth and young adults of color from the DRUUM YAYA website. (If you see the gang colors please email me and help me out.)

My experience in St. Louis was a little different from most who attended.  I was in meetings from Sunday to Saturday.  I made it to the Service of the Living Tradition and saw many of colleagues I know walk across the stage.  I enjoyed the sermon.  I made to the Sunday morning service and heard Gail Geisenhainer, my friend and colleague preach a wonderful sermon. I made it to the closing ceremony, and found the reflections valuable and the music interesting.  I did the Berry Street Conference last Wednesday.  I made it into the plenary for about two hours and did not regret missing the rest.  I do regret not having had any time to go to a single workshop.  There were a number I would have loved to take in.  I do regret that the UUCF communion has been moved from Sunday afternoon.  I do regret not being able to go the Bloggers dinner, or the UUCF hymn sing, but I appreciated leading that focus group and going to the DRUUM meeting.  Can't be in two places at once, and might as well love the place I went.

I liked being in meetings,  the questions I and the other people were engaged with was vital and interesting.  The decisions I and the other people made will make a difference for the Minister's Association or for the People of Color in our Association.  Being active at GA, means that my time isn't my own.

On Sunday I went to Cahokia Mounds with several friends from DRUUM.  We called it the first DRUUM field trip.  May there be many.  Hafidha articulated it well in her post GA reflections.  It was good to get away from the Convention Center, to look at the sky and to just to take in this ancient city.  To let the museum show us its reconstruction of the Mississippian culture, to climb up the highest mound and rejoice both for our connections to the people who lived on that spot so long ago, and to our own humanity silent before interconnections we can not enumerate.

I wasn't tired Sunday evening, but I did get to sleep relatively early, and I joined a thousand coreligionists exiting the city the next morning.  I was very tired when I got home.  Too busy to blog late last week.  To tired to blog early this week.

It takes a lot of energy to do theological reflection, which is what I hope to do in July.  I have a number of topics I hope to get around to "putting on paper" or whatever it is that we do in this medium.  I pray everyday that individual Unitarian Universalists will have what Emerson called "an original revelation of the divine", and if they wish to call it God,  I say more power to them.  We are overcoming the practice of using "lowest common denominator" religious language that was once our way to being welcoming to theological diversity.  It didn't work because it meant we weren't welcoming to those who were exploring non humanist religious commitments.  But does that mean that we can use theological language from our own historical tradition without alienating many Unitarian Universalists?  I will have to think about this, it isn't simple.  It occurs to me that there is a difference between a language of reverence (the words we use in worship) and theological language (for example, the words we use to describe our common aspirations as expressed in the Association's covenant between congregations.

I think this is the first anniversary of A People So Bold! I will reflect on what I have learned in the past year soon.

Ohiyesa wrote: The First American mingled with his pride a singular humility.  Spiritual arrogance was foreign to his nature and teaching.  He never claimed that his power of articulate speech was proof of superiority over "dumb creation"; on the other hand, speech is to him a perilous gift.

He believes profoundly in silence -the sign of the perfect equilibrium.  Silence is the absolute poise or balance of body, mind, and spirit.

The man who preserves his selfhood ever calm and unshaken by the storms of existence - not a leaf, as it were,astir on the tree, not a ripple upon the surface of the shining poo - his, in the mind of the unlettered sage, is the ideal attitude and conduct of life . . .

Silence is the cornerstone of character.

Ohiyesa (1858-1939) was a Santee Sioux who was given the Christian name Charles Alexander Eastman.

Evil? Evil acts are directly experienced and directly intuited as outrageous. 

A woman is beaten and robbed by some men who follow her home 
because she won some money at a bingo game. 
An older couple is mugged in a shopping mall 
on their way out of a movie and beaten so badly 
that they lose their health, 
they can not walk and enjoy the same activity 
that they once had. 
Some fanatics highjack airplanes and crash them into a sky scraper 
to make a political point. 
A child is kidnapped and killed 
after ransom is paid, because the criminals want to cover up their crime. 
A super power bombs a civilian population 
to make a political point. 

We know evil when we see it. 

 Human beings 
whose consciences are still alive 
and not jaded too much with compromise and rationalizations 
respond to such actions with revulsion, 
and justifiable anger. 

Most people do not make abstract calculations in ethical philosophy 
when a baby is killed 
when they look at pictures of victims of Buchenwald or the Gulag, 
when they see contemplate the televised face of a mass murderer 
whose crimes are being detailed on your nightly news. 

We have a direct intuition. Evil. 
Even if we use other words.... 
more scientifically sounding words, 
words like sociopath, psychopath, peripheral damage, 
we search for a word that expresses moral outrage 

and that word is evil. 

That was an evil act. That was person is evil. 
Horrid, cruel, bullying, violating all standards of human decency. 
Evil. 

We know evil when we see it, experience it. 
 But does Evil really exist? 

And if evil exists, is it simply an Abstract Principle? 
You know Abstractions, 
like Truth, Freedom, Good and Beauty. 

Evil as abstraction? An intellectual category? 

Or is Evil a force? 
Many people have imagined that 
In fact the majority of our fellow Americans, 
United States, North and South America, 
believe that evil is a force, a intentional conscious force, 
that seeks to disorder the known universe, 
and thwart all that is good. 



When we put it that way, 
Evil as a force, 
a conscious force that has the power to destroy, 
tempt innocent souls, 
and corrupt the way ward mortal, 
then we realize that we are talking about something divine. 

Evil as the Bad God, 
Evil as the Destructive Force, 
The Dark Side of the Force for Star Wars fans. 

 The idea of that evil transcends the evil act is found in many cultures, 
and takes many forms. 

Native Americans generally assume that everything inherently 
has a good side and a bad side. 

The Chinese have similar ideas. 

Thus for Native Americans and the Chinese 
evil does not contend with the good, for they are flip sides of the same coin, 
but we choose ------ choose good over evil. 
wisdom over stupidity, prudence over waste. 
 
Yes, the people of this world have many ideas of good and evil. 
But today I am taking up one very special idea of Evil, 
Evil personified, Evil incarnate in the Devil. 
I will tell the story of Satan. 

Three religions 
Zorasterianism, Christianity and Islam have a doctrine of the Evil One. 
All the other world religions repudiate this idea. 

What about Judaism? The story of Satan originates in Hebrew Scriptures, 
but medieval and modern Judaism have rejected the idea of a Devil, 
and regard the mention of Satan in their own Bible 
as an ancient story that has nothing to do with a Devil. 

And the Jews are right. 
There is mention of an angel named Satan in the Hebrew Scriptures 
the Satan mentioned is one of God's angels, not a rival deity. 

Satan's job description is the prosecutor. 

For example, in the Book of Job, 
we read "One day the divine beings presented themselves to the Lord. 
God asks Satan where has he been, 
and he reports that he has been wandering up and down on earth, 
and God asks Satan, have you noticed by servant Job 
There is no one like him on the earth, a blameless and upright man 
who respects God and shuns evil. 

The Satan challenged God, 
this job has good reason to respect God, 
you have protected him, and his household, 
you have blessed him and he is prosperous. 

But says Satan, if you took his privileges from him, 
then Job will blaspheme you to your face. 


And God gave Satan permission to test Job. 

Not a nice angel, 
but not a Rival to God intent on Evil either. 
 In other books of the Hebrew Bible we find a similar story. Satan the accuser undermines a rebellion against the Jerusalem priests, 
Satan the accuser meets a man on the road 
with the intent to kill him for his misdeeds, 
Satan always plays the role of the prosecutor, trickster, 
making trouble for human beings but under authority of God. 

That is in the Hebrew Scriptures, 
there are writings written by Jews 
that did not make it into what we call the Old Testament, 
the Rabbi's rejected these books 
because they taught lessons the Rabbi's didn't like, 
and told stories that the Rabbi's did not want told. 

One of these rejected books is the book of Enoch, 
which details a rebellion of the heathen against God, 
which is joined by some of his angels, 
according to the stories in Enoch these angels are defeated 
and kicked out of heaven, sent to hell. 

These stories are not in the Bible, 
but they are very much a part of myth of the Apocalypse. 
that is reflected in some of the writings of the New Testament. 

The New Testament gospel of John accuses the Jews 
of being seduced by Satan, and being enemies of God. 
thus they reject Jesus, the Christ 
because he is good, 
and they are evil. 

Several weeks ago I preached a sermon contrasting the gospel of John 
to the gospel of Thomas. 
I pointed out that John is the favorite Gospel of Orthodoxy 
In this latter day narrative 
Christ is portrayed as the Living God come to earth 

The subtext of John is the root source of Christian anti semitism. 
According to John's Gospel the Jews killed Jesus, 
Mel Gibson's Passion of the Christ 
put John's attack on the Jews on the big scene. 

Gibson protests that he isn't anti Jewish 
No but the completely false story Gibson presented was a slander of Jews 
and it was based on a book written 1900 years ago. 

According to John the Jews were under the sway of Satan 
the Pharisees had made it rough on Jesus 
from the beginning of his ministry, 
had plotted to kill him, 
and finally had him executed 
because he was Good and they were Evil. 

That the Pharisees themselves were victims of the Romans 
and many of them were executed is conventionally left out of the story. 
John is a political manifesto, the Christians were declaring themselves good, 
and the Jewish religion that had rejected them evil. 



 Later the same tactic was used by the early Christians against other rival religions, 
worshippers of the ancient Greek gods, 
were labeled Satan worshippers, 
worshippers of the ancient Italian gods, were called pagans, 
and worshippers of the devil. 
and on and on it went. 

The ancient Jews told a story of human origins, 
human beings discover the tree of knowledge, 
and loss their primordial innocence, 
they are sent out into the real world of work and pain, 
and that is what made Adam and Eve human. 

 That is way Judaism still understands the story found in Genesis 2. 
it is the story of how we learned to tell the difference between good and evil, 
and that is a good thing. 

But in time, the Christians re interpreted this story. 
In the new story the Good God had created a good earth, 
but Adam and Eve listened to the serpent 
who we are now told is really Satan tempting our first parents. 
although their is nothing in the text 
to prompt such a fanciful interpretation 

Adam and Eve sin, which Christians tell us means to choose Evil, 
and are expelled from the Garden. 
They go to Hell, 
and all descendants of Adam and Eve will go to Hell 
unless they become Christians, 

Christ according to the stories, 
was crucified and was resurrected on the third day 
in the time between his death and his rising, 
he went to hell to rescue all who had died 
before he was born. 

 So, Christianity weaved a new story, 
it isn't plan old Judaism, 
it is Judaism reinterpreted with a New Deity Added. 

God is opposed in by a divinity who is immortal, 
can read your mind, and tempt your most inner thoughts, 
is the ruler of this world, as well as Hell, 
and who, these devil affirming Christians tell me, 
has most of the world's people under his thrall. 

 
Liberal Christianity which arose about the time of the American Revolution 
was a radical break with this old story of Damnation. 

when we think of these religious liberals 
who affirmed the Jewish humanity of Jesus, 
the ethic of love and community renewal, 
the importance of covenants, that is 
promise making communities like this congregation. 

and emphasized deeds not creeds 

We might forget that all of these affirmations 
were based on a rejection of Hell, 
and Satan, 
and Evil as a force transcendent of human will. 

The liberals preached that we humans made our own societies, 
shaped our own histories 
and we were responsible for the evils there in, 

and we were called to clean up our own mess, 
before we enjoyed the pleasures of a good life, 
and a just society. 

The religious liberals also asserted the unitary nature of reality. 
God was good, and reality was good said the liberals. 

Evil existed not as an independent force, 
opposed to God, 
but as a turning away from goodness, 

evil was a perversion of an essentially good thing. 

The liberal instinct underlies the American experiment. 


While the Calvinist and Catholic 
united in assuming that people needed to be supervised by their betters 
the democratic ideal assumes that people of good will, 
and with the right information can reason together 
and arrive at profitable solutions. 

That a republic based on balance of power, 
will be able to root out corruption and liars, 
and maximize commonwealth. 


Based on this world view the liberals worked hard to create public schools, 
worked long to eliminate poverty, 
worked to overcome ancient prejudices against women, 
and to overcome racism and homophobia. 

Unitarian Universalists have long rejected the notion of an Evil One, 
and divine principle opposed eternally to the Good. 

But we know that evil exists, 
there are evil acts, there are evil people, 
there are evil results. 

If we reject Evil as a force 
if we say that Evil does not exist as a Cosmic Force, 
independent of the Creative and Sustaining force of the Universe 
we are not denying that evil acts are committed. 
and that some people are devoid of human goodness. 


Just as death is part of life, 
and pain is a necessary function of feeling. 

and lovers eventually suffer the loss of the beloved, 
and sorrow punctuates all lives worth living. 

and just as when a tree is bathed in sunlight, 
it casts a shadow. 

evil is part of the same reality as the good. 
it is deformation, a corrupt and decayed form of the good, 
but not a separate spirit, 
an opposing Divinity. 

Philosophers define evil as acts in which an intelligent being 
intentionally inflicts suffering on another sentient being. 

We need to put forward that definition, 
because so much of our problem 
when we think about evil flows from lack of clarity. 
we hate evil acts and we are repulsed by evil people 
and so our definitions are formed in that fear and loathing. 

But we need clarity to over come evil. 

the mosquito who bites you isn't evil, 
it is doing what it was designed to do. 
Even the virus that makes you ill isn't evil. 
Its by products are stuff of life, 
even if they are toxins to you. 

Evil is an intentional act of cruelty. 



The medical worker often inflicts pain, 
but that pain is necessary for the healing process 
the intention is not to cause suffering. 

We could say the same for the judge, or clergy person, 
the social worker, or counselor, 
the teacher, and even the parent. 

often they must say things that do not please others. 
but if the intention is do justice, 
or create understanding, 
or set necessary boundaries 
so that a good result might occur. 

We declare their acts to righteous, and them to be leaders. 

 An act is evil when it has as its intention controlling the other, diminishing the other, 
humiliating the other, violating the other, 
to cause suffering. 




It arises from a breakdown in human community, 
it manifests itself in damaged people 
and it in turn damages others, 
abused people have often been abused. 

Evil people are people who have committed evil acts 
over and over and over again, 
until acting in an evil way becomes their nature 
until bullying, brutalizing, uncaring conduct, 
overwhelms their human goodness, 

and they are defined by their evil. 

 Do I believe in the Devil? in a divinity called Satan. 
It is an ancient story, it informs our literature and art 
the Fallen Angel, 
the Dark Prince, the Polar Opposite of God, 

But it isn't a very good story, and it limits our ability to do something about evil.

This is Friday morning, the last day of the executive committee meetings. The Unitarian Universalist Minister's Association Executive meetings with many people in suite talks on Thursday and Friday. Yesterday we met with Bill Sinkford, Lee Barker, Rebecca Parker and members of the Ministerial Fellowship Committee. We also went through a process of orienting the new members of the Exec. Today we will meet with our new committee on ethics and collegiality, the ministers on the UUA Board of Trustee's, the Committee on Ministry for Anti Racism, Anti Oppression and Multiculturalism and the representative of UUMA focus groups. Its a full day and I don't get out and see the General Assembly much.

In the late afternoon we went over to General Assembly plenary and I got to check out the exhibit hall. After the rich discussions we were having in suite talks the plenary was a little boring.

Chalice Lighter, ministrare and Yet Another Unitarian Universalist discuss the bloggers discussion last night. It was good to see everyone. And it was good to talk about blogging even after a long day of meetings and conversations.

There was a reception for Unitarian Universalists of color next door, and many good friends and colleagues were there, so I found myself enjoying being in two places at once (not literally) meeting the bloggers who as Chalice Chick reports it is easy to have affection for, after reading their writing for so long one knows their thoughts and then having a chance to catch up with people I have known in hard meetings and joyous occasions for years.

Today was the Service of Celebration of Ministry, which honors the ministers who have served for 50 years and 25 years. David Parke respresented those who were ordained in 1956 and Laurel Hallman represented those who were ordained in 1981. David was a church historian and his presentation was very much like a history lecture. I found David's sermon informative but Laurel's was much more engaging. There sermons will be avaiiable in an audio format soon.

The annual meeting of the Unitarian Universaiist Minister's Association followed immediately after the Service of Celebration. The Executive of the UUMA decided to feature a discussion of an important topic as central to the meeting, rather than reports from various exec members. In my opinion in worked, the meeting was much more interesting than the hearing from each portfolio on the exec.

I led a collegial conversation on the Special Review Commission in the afternoon. I will write more about that at another time. The afternoon was finished of by the Berry Street Conference, which was addressed by Bill Schultz, former UUA President and former Chief Exec of Amnesty International. That address was powerful and profound, but I will need to come back to it later as well.

Must run.

This afternoon I went to a workshop on Pastoring Difficult Conversations, which was on how ministers could "talk" about racism, heterosexism, and ablism with their congregations. It was a useful discussion exploring the relation of the prophetic to the pastoral. Can we separate prophetic ministry from pastoral ministry, and have effective ministry. It was a good discussion, but we could have had more focus than we did.

After the workshop Bill Sinkford spoke to the ministers and answered questions. The ministers asked probing questions, and Bill was able to answer them candidly and with informed answers.

The one question that Bill could not answer is what are we doing to keep the young people who grew up Unitarian Universalist. He answered that they hadn't studied that question. Actually many life time UUs have opinions similar to the one Christian Robinson offers in her blog.

CENTER is the committee of the Unitarian Universalist Minister's Association (UUMA) devoted to formation of ministry, the worlds stand for Continuing Education Network for Training, Enrichment and Renewal. The CENTER committee sponsors programs at tUUMA chapter meetings and retreats, several retreats, and an annual event with a major speaker and an afternoon of workshops.

This morning the theme speaker is Sharon Salzburg, who is well known Buddhist teacher and writer. She speaks of how she discovered Buddhism in "Asian Philosophy" course in her sophomore year in college, and how the next year she took a year to go to India to study meditation.

She is very engaging, she talks about faith and doubt as attitudes that facilitate the spiritual journey. What do we pay attention to? What do we focus on, how do we see our lives in perspective - with awareness. I believe her talk this morning will be available on tape.

Over the years I have often found the CENTER presentation and the Berry St. Lecture to be the high points. Perhaps it is because it comes early in the week and I am still energetic. Perhaps it because the programs are aimed at ministers and therefore are more directed at the questions that I ask. General Assembly itself have entertaining programs, programs of importance to religious liberals, but ministers have their questions that important to them, and are not so much of interest to non ministers.

This post was prepared to be released on the beginning of Minister's Days, the annual in gathering of Unitarian Universalist ministers. What could be more appropriate than to republish Jack Mendelsohn's, "Who Is A Unitarian Universalist Minster." This piece is has been repeatedly quoted, and misquoted for more than a generation, which I think is the mark of classic.

A Unitarian Universalist minister is a person never completely satisfied or satisfiable, never completely adjusted or adjustable - a person who walks in tow worlds: one of things as they are, the other of things as they ought to be-and loves them both.

Ministers are persons with pincushion souls and elastic hearts, who sit with happy and the sad in a chaotic pattern of laugh, cry, laugh, cry - and know deep down that the first time their laughter is false or their tears are make-believe, their days as real ministers are over.

Ministers are people with dreams they can never fully share, partly because they have some doubts about them, and partly because they are unable to explain adequately what it is they they think they see and understand.

A minister is a person who continually runs out of time, out of wisdom, out of courage, and out of money; a person whose tasks involve great responsibility and little power, who must learn to accept people where hey are are and go from there; a person who must never try to exercise influence that has not been earned.

The minister who is worthy knows all this and is still thankful every day of life for the privilege of being-a minister.

The future of the liberal church is almost totally dependent of two factors: great congregations (whether large or small) and effective, dedicated ministers. The strangest feature of their relationship is that they create one another.

This was my first full day here, and already I have had:

€¢ seven hours of meeting with the UUMA exec (3 and a half hours on Sunday and three hours and a half hours today.

€¢ six hours of Chapter Leadership Training

* three and a half hours of an evening Committee on Ministry for Anti Racism, Anti Oppression and Multi culturalism

* and dozen or so mini meetings with colleagues and friends that I meet as I go from one place to other

A lot of work gets done at GA. It is hardly a party for GA junkies.

Some of the work is fun, most of it is necessary, and almost all of it is important to somebody. Sometimes we meet on a topic of marginal import to ourselves that is very important to someone else. I suspect that make it a labor of love.

With that thought I will get some sleep, for tomorrow is day one.

The Gateway Arch is a St. Louis landmark. "The great Arch has been the region's international symbol since it opened in 1965 to honor President Thomas Jefferson and the Louisiana Purchase" which houses the Museum of Westward expansion.

The Native people had already been pushed West by the settlers on the East Coast when Jefferson "bought" the West from France. Now the new United States felt it had a license to take the land and bring a final solution to the indigenous population. Most of the wars the United States fought were against Indians, but we don't talk about that in school.

May a new life breathe though the worship of this house,
and a new love join the hearts of the worshippers!

May our ministry produce everlasting fruits:
and on that great day when all things shall be known,
may you, much loved and respected people,
be our "joy and crown,"
and may we, when all hearts shall be revealed,
be seen to have sought your good
with unfeigned love.

William Ellery Channing

The hotel's internet connection turns out to be more complex than the airport. There is a fee for the rooms, and only some parts of the lobby have free wireless.

It is only Sunday night, GA begins Wednesday. I am here for the UUMA exec meetings, but LREDA is here, the District Execs are here, the Ministry Couple's have meetings tomorrow, and half a dozen other groups that I haven't identified as yet. The pre GA is a good time meeting people and have some serious conversations. It doesn't seem so busy.

The Exec has been able to handle some details about the upcoming worship services and meetings that would be more difficult to handle once the meetings start. We have some difficult conversations on our agenda, I don't know if we will finish them before October.

Dear Oran,

You have inquired about the ministry.

I need not describe the perils, since you have observed the staring into space, heard the late-night calls for help, read the cranky letters, and been affected by a thousand funerals. I thank you for never complaining.

Oran, I imagine you are considering the ministry because you know my secret. Yes, I love it.
I love the church with the scent of the ages in the air, with the light filtering through colored windows, with the music and the mystery of eternity echoing off the stone walls.

I love the challenge of going deep down into the cave of the heart, of soaring above the obvious, of stretching every nerve and fiber for truth and understanding.

I love the people, as they are the source of religious inspiration, as they are the mentors of human courage, as they are the bearers of joy and forgiveness. The saints are in the pews.

Yes, I love the ministry.
But whatever you choose as a career, it will be a form of ministry, sicne you have been blessed with a sensitive spirit. In the end, we are all minisers to each other, witnessing in our won ways to the ties that bind. Every task is holy when the heart is employed.

In the meantime, For God's sake, get a haircut.

Sincerely,

Dad

None of your trusted networks is available. Would you like to log into open network TPA?

I click yes. The airport has free wireless. What has changed since I first travelled to a GA. A whole lot of things, but maybe the idea of a wireless computer laptop and a free wireless airport lobby is the most striking.

Later this week I might be impressed with how many more UUs go to GA than they did when I first went to GA. But then when I was young there seemed to be a lot of people at GA as well, as GA gets bigger, my ability to handle big GA grows as well. Sitting here waiting for boarding I am impressed with wireless airports.

This will be the first GA since 1996 that I have travelled alone. Marjorie is home, being taken care of my her nephew. His mother, Marjorie's sister arrives tonight. She will have someone with her 24/7 until I get back. A few days ago that seemed to be a necessity, but now Marjorie can get out of her bed and chair by herself. She still has to carry some medical equipment with her as she strolls about the house. But what a difference a week makes. She came home Monday night, and she had difficulty with movement. I am confident that it will all go well. Confident but I will call home to check with her and check with her care keepers. Looking at my schedule I think I will be busy, busy, busy. I don't worry unless i am alone and at rest. So I will keep moving.

This idea of blogging "GA" might work. I was skeptical. When would I ever find the time? But then it occurred to me, just write. Let the wireless internet connection thing take care of the postings.

The idea of being post christian assumes the institutionalized form that the Christian church took after being adopted as the official cult of the Roman empire can properly be considered to be Christian. My working assumption (along with the early Unitarians and the rest of the radical wing of the Reformation) is that institutionalized mainstream Christianity with its worship of domination and violence constitutes a departure from the gospel of Jesus.

Post christendom? I claim that stance enthusiastically.

I am with Tolstoy, Christianity is not a failure, it has never been tried. (Except for among dissenting intentional communities.)

I just learned that John Andrew Ross, Minister of Music Emeritus at the First Parish in Brookline, died  "after a very long illness. He was the spiritual and cultural heir of Elma Lewis and the man behind Boston's Black Nativity."  The Rev. Martha Niebanck, co-minister at the First Parish writes that she will conduct the memorial service which will be "mostly music with a drum fanfare as a prelude." (It will be at First Parish, July 23rd at 3 pm)

I met John more than twenty years ago at the Elma Lewis Center, and we drove together to a Unitarian Universalist Musician's Network meeting back about 1992.  I remember hearing his music many a Sunday morning on the Boston University radio station.  He was a Boston institution, and the city will never be the same without John.

I suppose I could get the Globe on line, but I rely on epistles from my friends, and the occasional Boston blogger, but sometimes I miss the people of Boston.  Not the ice on the streets in March, the people.

Here is John Andrew Ross as told by the Globe.

In yesterday's posting I discussed my notion of the Church as being gathered when ever two or more are joined for healing in a broken world.

What is the Unitarian Universalist congregation?  The theology of gathered congregation springs to mind, but that notion of a people committed and living a covenant does not describe most of real and existing congregations.

I have found the old Puritan distinction between Church and Parish helpful here,  the Parish constituted all the people served by a particular congregation.  While there was a Parish roll (membership list) of those who paid the Parish levees, the Parish was larger than those who supported the congregation and its ministries financially.  The Church for the Puritans was those who had had a original experience of transformation (in the deformed variation of Puritanism known as Evangelical Christianity they refer to the "saved."    The members of the church were the inner core of the Parish, and its assumed leaders.  Like all institutional arrangements in human history this Church and Parish distinction became corrupt and politicized,  and that corruption could not stand the stress of the Unitarian Controversy, let alone the Great Awakening.    But that is a longer story.

But I like the idea of the Church being those members who were spiritually motivated and committed, and there being a clear understanding that the purpose of the congregation was to minister to a much larger group.  I think that such a distinction, if creatively applied would help religiously pluralistic Unitarian Universalist congregations as they seek to clarify the meaning of covenant and mission,  as well as governance and ministry.

But there are people who do ministry free of such complications.  (They have their own complications but not the headache of political power over ministry being exercised by people of no discernible religion.)

Yes I love chaplains,  who constitute the Church of healing and witness over and over and over again in the most unlikely places with out the divisions of denominationalism.  Most of the chaplains in our military services, hospitals, prisons and other institutional settings have a denomination endorsement, but the ministry they do is without regard to sectarian divisions.

While I have felt called to congregational ministry,  and I maintain the distinction between Church and Parish,  I find the politics of the parishioners (as distinct from the spiritually motivated congregants) a test of my always very nascent sainthood.

Gertrude Edge of Columbia, South Carolina writes in response to "UU Bookstore has Christian Voices:

"We are looking for a book to use for a book discussion on Liberal Christianity. I am thinking about using "Mere Christianity" by C.S. Lewis. Any other suggesitons?"

Asking a UU minister to recommend one book is cruel,  I have lots of titles in mind.  I recommend Christian Voices in Unitarian Universalism: Contemporary Essays for example.  I especially recommend

"Meeting Jesus Again for the First Time : The Historical Jesus and the Heart of Contemporary Faith" (Marcus J. Borg) and that will be my one "liberal Christian" book.

C.S. Lewis is no liberal.  I think he is worth reading, but he is a conservative Christian.

I should note by way of disclaimer that I am a radical in my Christianity, a liberationist.  Liberal Christianity as I understand the movement teaches that Jesus is Christ as Teacher of Individual Moral Virtue.  That is what I was taught in Unitarian Sunday School.

For me fifty years later,  Jesus is Christ the Liberator.  I believe we live in a world ruled by "the powers and principalities" of domination and violence and the resurrected Jesus is embodied in the intentional communities that witness justice to the oppressed, inclusive love to all, and non violence in their collective lives and in the lives of their members.  Some of my best friends are liberal Christians, but I have found that we have different priorities.  I can preach the liberal's Jesus when I have a bunch of liberals in the congregation, but I try to talk about how Jesus pushed the limits of propriety, and challenged the way things were (and are.)  So I preach a radicalized liberal Jesus.

For a good radical Christian book I like Walter Wink's  "Transforming the Powers: Peace, Justice, and the Domination System" (Fortress Press)

As a Unitarian Universalist I have a religious humanist understanding of the Christian "revelation" and tradition.  Jesus witnessed the "God of Justice and Love."  Those who experience his good news have a revelation of the divine.  I do not need any other "nature" than this one that is itself divine.  I believe that the arc of the universe bends toward peace, justice and love between all creatures.  So with the religious humanists, I am content with one miraculous cosmos and need no super nature.  Jesus was born a man, and he died as a man.  But he rose as a Church and that Church constantly needs people to come forward to witness the gospel that he embodied.  I do not believe any "Christian denomination" institutionalizes the Church,  the Witnessing Church exists wherever two or three are gathered together "in the name of Jesus."  (Jesus means Healer in Aramaic, to gather in his name is to gather "to heal.")

Any liberal Christians want to speak for liberal Christianity?  Got any books that you think a study group should read?

Monday evening I drove Marjorie home from the hospital. She had been at Tampa General for 13 days recovering from abdominal surgery. We went in May 31 expecting one hour laser surgery and then I was going to drive her home in the early evening. She was still in surgery at midnight.

So the recovery has been and will be more protracted than expected. It is good to have her home, but she is not able to function alone. I drove to the hospital everyday, plus took over a memorial service, arranged back up preaching and ferried relatives and best friends from the airport to hospital. I fielded lots of phone calls. I have been just as busy since she came home, but without the driving.

The congregations Marjorie and I serve have been wonderful, as have our colleagues. Her recovery to health may take months, so moving plans may be put on hold.

We have decided that I will go to St. Louis and that she will stay home with her sister and a friend flying in to stay with her while I am gone. She had many projects at GA, some of which I will do for her, and some which just will need to fall by the wayside.

In way of answering the many kind questions about what is it about WordPress that is stumping me, I will chronicle my adventures.

I have installed it, and have a domain name. I was able to use a FTP software device to send up Shawn's Channing template. To modify it I will need to learn HTML and CSS, which I was planning to do, but later. I worked on the blog roll, but it reverted to default. Will do it again.

I have exported my TypePad to my computer, but the WordPress seems to stall with the import. The postings and the comments are all there, but it reads "server doesn't write directory." What I see is a text file with some formating, it doesn't look like database directory but what do I know, I haven't programmed since Cobal.

I reverted to to the Standard Template.

It hasn't reverted to default in the last 30 hours, which it did twice in the first ten hours.

I may need to postpone this work, I leave for St. Louis soon.

It is not a bad thing, but I do find it all puzzling and time that I don't have is flying.  I might have to put this off till July.

I have just spent the afternoon trying Word Press.  I am not technologically adept,  it will take some time.  I notice that the Visual QuickStart has a guide to Word Press  almost ready, I will need it. 

I want to use my own domain name, and I would like to a web site to carry my resource material.  And some of the Templates are stunning,  I just don't have a clue about how to use them yet.  Also exporting from Typepad into Word Press is proving to be a challenge.

Back then the Christian right had a notion about what God intended a family to look like. and they legislated against interracial marriages.  My family was legal in Massachusetts, but not in Texas.

"But today in history, on June 12, 1967 the Supreme Court struck down state miscegenation laws prohibiting interracial marriages as violations of the 14th amendment which guarantees equal protection under the law.  In June of 1958, Richard Loving and Mildred Jeter had married in Washington D.C. Upon return to their home state of Virginia, the couple was arrested, convicted of a felony, and sentenced to a year in jail. Their appeal led to the decision."

quote from Peace Buttons email.

Hurricane season is ten days old.  The first tropical storm of that season is blowing by Tampa.  It is early for a storm,  people are nervous for what this season might bring. 

This is our the beginning of our fifth season.  Two of the past four have brought severe and destructive hurricanes,  I have replaced my porch twice. 

But Tampa worries about the "big one" a direct hit with storm surge coming right into the neighborhoods. 

I am taking over a memorial service for Marjorie who is in the hospital,  day twelve.  Her surgery was before the hurricane season began!  It has been a busy time.

Marjorie and I are effectively vegetarian, we eat fish on occasion. Marjorie hasn't had beef or pork in thirty years. She doesn't do caffein. We don't moralize about it, it just part of our religious and ethical life style.

The hospital tray I just sent back included beef broth, jello, and iced tea. It also had some reconstituted grape juice with corn syrup sweetner. I sent it back.

I feed her Miso soup, and fruit juices brought from home. I think I will smuggle in an apple.

Vegetables and fruits are easier to digest.

Yesterday, she forgot that jello had bone tarrow in it, and it made her sick.

Our diet is not about moral witnessing, it is about how we live our life.

One of the ways our religious community has limited itself in recent decades is letting the anti christian prejudices of ex Christians become a Unitarian Universalist norm.  This has cut us off from our own liberal religious heritage, from profound Unitarians and Universalist thinkers and activists that created the defining characteristics of what we now call Unitarian Universalism.  Who are the Unitarian Universalist Christians?  Read this book and begin to understand the UU Christianity is not behind us,  rather the richness of our historic faith tradition continues to inform us today.

Christian Voices in Unitarian Universalism Contemporary Essays
Kathleen Rolenz, Editor

The bookstore says: "Fifteen personal stories from laity and clergy alike show what it means to be a Unitarian Universalist Christian today. These men and women arrive at their faith by many paths--influenced by the Bible, Jesus Christ Superstar and even the Bernstein Mass.

Here is a fresh and much-needed look at UU Christians, who, for decades, have kept the work and spirit of Christianity alive in our liberal religion. Rolenz is parish co-minister of West Shore UU Church with her husband, Wayne Arnason. Foreword by Carl Scovel. (Skinner House) 2006. 144 pp. ISBN: 1-55896-506-8

This looks like an important book.  How can our theology incorporate conquest, murder and mass exploitation by our own ruling elite?

"The American Empire and the Commonwealth of God: A Political, Economic, Religious Statement" (David Ray Griffin, John B., Jr. Cobb, Richard A. Falk, Catherine Keller)

From the publisher's statement.  "Four distinguished scholars here level a powerful critique of the rapid expansion of the emerging American empire and its oppressive and destructive political, military, and economic policies. Arguing that a global Pax Americana is internationally disastrous, the authors demonstrate how America's imperialism inevitably leads to rampant irreversible ecological devastation, expanding military force for imperialistic purposes, and a grossly inequitable distribution of goods--all leading to the diminished well-being of human communities. These four prophetic voices--three Christians, one Jew--persuasively indict the American empire as being diametrically opposed to divine values and powerful enough to threaten the purposes of God."

Harvey Cox writes:  "I am convinced that this is an enormously urgent and important book. It not only represents the best of current theology and political wisdom, and accurately interprets our present desperate situation, but it also provides the basis for an authentically religious response to the end-time Armageddon "Left Behind" insanity that seems to be capturing the popular religious imagination. It builds on the finest new biblical scholarship in viewing the scriptural setting the Reign of God against Empire, but also suggests how all the religious traditions can - and must - contribute to an unprecedented civilizational transformation. I plan to use this book in my own teaching and to commend it to everyone I know. I only wish it had appeared ten years ago."

Ministry is what a religious community does to fulfill its mission, and live its purpose. There is the ministry of prophecy and the ministry of healing in James Luther Adams words. In addition there is the ministry of spiritual and religious education, the ministry of pastoral care, the ministry of music, worship, and administration. People who do the ministry of the religious community are doing "ministry" and while doing that they are "ministers" but they are not "Ministers."

The capital "M" Ministers are people set aside and recognized and held accountable to do the ministry of the religious community. No one is a Minister who not accountable to a religious community, no matter how awakened their senses. On the other hand doing the ministry of the religious community does not make one a Minister. The religious community must designate that status.

The term clergy is a sociological term for religious functionary. Monks are clergy. The aren't necessarily ordained. Gurus are clergy. Unitarian Universalist ministers in fellowship are clergy, but that doesn't tell us anything about the theology of our religious calling.

Ordained once meant to be part of a ordered religious community, with accountability and standards. Most Protestants still refer to the order of ministry....once upon a time we did too. Making it into a graduation party without consequence is a recent deformation.

My major difference with some reflections on ministry that I read is that they start with the individual. Individuals are not self ordaining, one cannot do "ministry" outside of a relation that is accountable to religious community.

I believe we must start with the religious community. To use the language I was taught in Sunday School, the church does ministry, and it ordains and commissions ministers to do its ministry. It is a good thing when the ministers are spiritual, motivated, and alive to nature and all that, but it is essential that they are authorized.

Cultural appropriation is when the people of one culture find some activity or artifact of another culture useful and adopts that activity or artifact into their own culture. 

This may or may not be ethical.  For example, the Hopi consider their religious ceremonies to be sacred, and would prefer that others not appropriate them.  We "misappropriate"
when we take something that another people have stated is not available for appropriation,  even if we do not hear their protests.  Other Native American Nations believe that it is a good thing when European background Americans learn from Native peoples.  But they do not want to see what is borrowed misused, or distorted.

I found this quote that may guide our appropriations:

Our first task in approaching another people,
another culture is to take off our shoes,
for the place we are approaching is holy.
Else we find our ourselves treading on another's dream.
More serious still, we may forget that God was there before our arrival.

Last Wednesday, May 31, Marjorie Bowens-Wheatley had surgery at Tampa General Hospital to have her gallbladder removed. The surgery turned out to be longer and more complex than she or the doctors expected. Her recovery and healing process will therefore by more protracted and difficult than anticipated.

At this point, Marjorie is feeling better: sitting up, and walking the halls after major abdominal surgery. She expects to be going home by next week and will continue her recovery process from there.

Marjorie and Clyde are asking that those who wish to contact her do so by email
or write to her at 1103 Standing Reed Place, Wesley Chapel, Florida 33543.

Please know that while Marjorie may not be able to respond to all of the correspondence in a timely manner, during her convalescence, she deeply appreciates your caring and support during this difficult period.

In Buddhist practice how one gains ones livelihood is important, a pillar of the 8 hold path.

Right Understanding
Right Thinking
Right Speech
Right Attitude
Right Livelihood
Right Effort
Right Mindfulness
Right Concentration

Unitarian Universalists have our principles and purposes and our notion of "deeds not creeds" but we do not articulate what the acceptable and unacceptable ways of making money.  Would we excommunicate this fellow for "death of goodness" in his soul?

Philocrites makes some important comments about "conservative liberals" and that got me thinking.

One of the principles of liberalism is the removal of economic restrictions.  For liberals of the left that means restrictions imposed by corporate power, and by economic inequality.  Freedom is enabling everyone to realize their full potential, and therefore we overcome discrimination through scholarships, laws establishing equal treatment and affirmative action program.  Empowerment is organizing counter-vailing power to the oligarchy of wealth with unions and cooperatives.  We need a government committed to equity.

For the conservative removing economic restrictions means removing government regulation.  Programs constructed to aid the poor are seen as fostering "dependency."  Affirmative action is seen as stigmatizing those who benefit as not worthy.

While Dobson may be a theocrat,  I doubt if his base embraces the dictatorship of church leaders.  They accept rather the populist heresy, that is that "the people's will" should be reflected in government policy without regard to the pluralist nature of "the people."  The discussion that unfolded in the Federalist Papers that was formative in creating the U.S. Constitution needs to be revisited by liberals of the left.  Only small homogenous communities are monocultures and have a singular community interest.  The larger the community the more complex the "interests."  Governance is creating structures, policies and procedures for that multitude of conflicting interests to work together as a community.  Populism motivates a minority to think of itself as if it were the majority, as if it's prejudices were "the viewpoint of people."  It uses liberal rhetoric about democracy being the will of the people, but abandons the liberal commitment to due process.  Due process is needed to create a community from many voices.  This is expressed in the slogan of the United States: e pluribus unum (out of many, one.)

In the United States the assumed majority of populism is white, Christian, property owning, English speaking and living in patriarchial families.  Demographically that is a fiction, we are a pluralistic nation with white, Christian, propertied, English speaking male dominated hetersexuals being a minority.

The "un-liberal" right is a revolt based on a liberal heresy that the left has never challenged.  "We the people" should have read "we the peoples."

The last weeks have been the busy, as I get ready to move into an interim ministry in the Fall. 

But in the midst of the planned chaos of getting ready for the move a catastrophe.  On  Wednesday the world in which I live and move and have my being was turned upside down, and now it is a little cracked from the experience.  I am sustained by prayer, my own and many others. 

I will be back - less disoriented - there are so many things I want to write about.  But I must attend to first things first.