Category Archives: Liberal religion

Elevator speech #2

Another elevator speech from the workshop “Spreading UUism Using New Media.”

Note: video host blip.tv is defunct, so this video no longer exists.

Transcript of this elevator speech by commenter Martin:

Q: I heard you say you’re a Unitarian Universalist. What does that mean?

A: That’s a big mouthful. But it means that we are a movement of diverse people who unite around the idea of human dignity. And we figure that religious mysteries should be determined ultimately by each person. You can be humanist or theist, Christian or non-Christian. But so long as we’re committed to the dignity and worth of every person, we believe that we can be in a religious community together.

Q: Sounds like a pretty cool church. So where is your church?

A: [gives address]. We meet at 11 o’clock, and let me know when you are coming, I’ll be there to greet you.

Another view of GA

Lance, one of the other Web workers here at General Assembly, gives his impression of General Assembly, saying in part: “Too. Damn. Hot.” Read Lance’s post.

Are you blogging General Assembly? Don’t forget to tag all your posts with “uuaga08” — and if you want, give us links to your GA posts in the comments section of this post!

Elevator speech #1

During the workshop “Spreading UUism Using New Media,” we shot four short videos. I asked volunteers from the audience to come forward and give their “elevator speech,” i.e., the capsule summary of Unitarian Universalism that they would give if they were riding on an elevator with someone who wanted to know what the Unitarian Uni-whatever stuff was, anyway….

P.S. If you think you could do a better elevator speech, don’t complain in the comments — shoot a video of yourself giving your elevator speech, post it online somewhere, and then give us the link to your elevator speech in the comments.

Note: video host blip.tv is defunct, so this video no longer exists.

Spreading Unitarian Universalism Using New Media

1. Introduction

Hi, this is a workshop called “Spreading UUism Using New Media.” I’ll quickly introduce myself. I’m Dan Harper, and I’m serving as the minister of First Unitarian Church in New Bedford, Massachusetts. We’re a small church that’s trying to grow, and using new media is important part of our growth strategy. Before I became a minister, I worked in sales, and I also have a background in visual arts, and half a degree in creative writing.

Peter Bowden was also supposed to be here as my co-presenter. Peter is an independent television producer and consultant. However, last month Peter got a job working on a project for public television which is requiring him to work seven days a week, so he was unable to attend General Assembly.

What we hope to do during this workshop is tell you how your congregation can use new media — like Web sites, video, recorded music, and so on — to spread the word about what your congregation is doing, and what you stand for. Continue reading →

Leaving for General Assembly

Tomorrow I have to get up at four in the morning so I can catch my train. I’m headed off to General Assembly, the annual denominational meeting. Every year I ask myself: Why do I do this? As I get ready to leave (that means right now), I realize that I hate packing my bags, I hate the thought that I’ve forgotten something (and I always, always do forget something). Once I leave, I hate traveling long distances, I hate crowds of people, I hate staying in hotels and eating lousy restaurant food. And on top of that, I hate denominational politics. Yet every year I head off to General Assembly, like some kind of perverse swallow flying to San Juan Capistrano or whatever that place is that swallows fly to. Well, I know why I go:– I go so I can volunteer for the denominational Web staff; the Web staff is made up of fun, talented people that I enjoy spending time with, and I always learn something from them. That pretty much makes up for the miseries of traveling.

Anyway, this blog will be dominated by General Assembly for the next week….

Again this year, I will be video-blogging General Assembly, and I plan to post a short video to this blog every day. I’ll also try to micro-blog via Twitter — if Twitter posts are not visible in the sidebar, go here for my Twitter feed. I’ll be on the train for the next two days, and will post from the train via Twitter.

If you’re blogging from General Assembly, or if you’re blogging about General Assembly, don’t forget to tag your posts with “uuaga08” so it’s easy to find all General Assembly posts. And if you’re following from home, don’t hesitate to use the comments to communicate with me — if you want me to video-blog something, I’ll try to oblige!

Rise up singing at GA?…

My father and I were just talking about singing groups. His church has a monthly singing group that uses the book Rise Up Singing, and some of us from the choir at my church recently started our own monthly singing group here in New Bedford, which we’re calling Singing Out!

I asked Dad which songs his Rise Up Singing group likes to sing, and he gave me lots of good ideas for our New Bedford Rise Up Singing group. Then Dad had a question. Like me, he is going to the Unitarian Universalist General Assembly (GA), the annual denominational meeting, and he asked if anyone was going to do a Rise Up Singing session at the denominational meeting. Well, near as I can tell, there will be no such singing session at our denominational meeting — but there should be. Elsewhere, I’ve shown how Rise Up Singing could serve as a liberal religious hymnal — so why not sing from Rise Up Singing at GA?

If you’re going to GA this year, and have any interest in doing something like this, leave a note in the comments section. Maybe we can get find a time, and a space in the convention center, and do some singing at GA.

Generation gap

I’ve been interested in the generational wars that we have seen in the presidential primaries. Hillary Clinton, like George W. Bush and Bill Clinton, is a product of the 1960s; culturally she is a Baby Boomer. Barack Obama, although demographically a member of the post-war “baby boom,” is a product of the 1970s and 1980s; culturally he is a Gen-Xer. A big part of Obama’s political strategy has been to cast Clinton as the out-of-touch Baby Boomer who doesn’t understand a post-racial, post-protest, post-New-Left, postmodern world.

I will be curious to see if Obama follows the same strategy with John McCain, who is not a Baby Boomer. McCain is a product of the late 1940s and 1950s; culturally, he is a member of the generation who dressed in gray flannel suits. I’d be tempted to call McCain a member of the Older Generation. How will Obama deal with the older generation? The Baby Boomer strategy of dealing with elders involved open warfare and ad hominem attacks. But I expect Obama to deal with McCain the same way he dealt with Jeremiah Wright: dismiss him as out of touch and out-dated, and be vaguely patronizing.

I’m willing to bet that other Gen-Xers will copy this strategy in their own lives. For example, in churches I expect that Gen-Xers will start being dismissive of the Baby Boomers who run most churches these days. I expect them to look pityingly at the Boomers, but not engage in direct conflict with the Boomer power structure. I expect them to start talking about what it might mean to be a post-racial church and a post-protest church. I expect all this will drive the Boomers crazy. Indeed, some of this is happening now.

The culture of presidential politics tends to have influence in the wider culture. When Bill Clinton insisted that fellatio wasn’t really sex, I was doing a lot of youth ministry, and I was very aware that more and more kids got involved in fellatio at a younger and younger age. With George W. Bush’s tendency to authoritarianism, I see many young people willing to accept a large degree of authoritarianism in their lives. So where else might the Obama/Gen-X trend play out?…

For example, if Barack Obama wins the presidential election in November — if he even runs a close race — what might that mean for the 2009 election for a new president of the Unitarian Universalist Association (UUA)? Right now, we have two declared candidates, both of whom are Baby Boomers, and both of whom are pretty much indistinguishable. If a Gen-X candidate were to emerge in the next few months, I’d be willing to bet that s/he could easily win the UUA election. I can think of three or four possible Gen-Xers whom I would vote for. So if you happen to know a viable Gen-X candidate for UUA president, encourage him/her to make some connections at General Assembly….