Monthly Archives: October 2005

Still relevant

I’ve been reading a two hundred year old book this afternoon, and I keep finding passages that sound as fresh and reasonable and relevant today as they must have sounded back in 1805. Here’s one such passage, which still sounds relevant after all these years:

The origin of sin has, among Christians in general, been very easily accounted for; but in a way, I must confess, that never gave me any satisfaction, since I came to think for myself on subjects of this nature. A short chimerical story of the bard, Milton, has given perfect satisfaction to millions, respecting the introduction of moral evil into the moral system which we occupy….

This passage comes from one of the founding documents of Universalism, Hosea Ballou’s Treatise on Atonement. And, sadly, two hundred years after Ballou wrote this passage, the bad theology of Milton’s “Paradise Lost” remains deeply ingrained in our culture. If you’re a religious liberal in 2005, you inevitably wind up having conversations with people who are quite convinced that Milton’s account of evil is, in fact, the only and correct account — even though you know perfectly well that while Milton’s book is great literature, it is not good theology. So, religious liberals, it is worth your while to review Ballou’s scathing and hilarious review of Milton’s book at the beginning of the second chapter of the Treatise on Atonement,which concludes with Ballou saying:

So, after all our journeying to heaven after a sinning angel, and after pursuing him to hell, and from hell to earth, we have not yet answered the question, viz., What is the origin of sin? We have only shown, that the way in which this question has been generally solved, is without foundation.

I’ll be talking more on this subject in my sermon this Sunday, so come on down and find out more.

Finally caught up

It’s good to have internet access again, after not having it all weekend while I was out in the Seattle area leading a youth advisor training. When I checked email today, a friend referred me to a fascinating Web site that points out how intelligent design might just be more complex than reductionist religious liberals like me have been making it out to be. (Thanks, Nat!)

I’d never really thought about the theological implications of a great spaghetti monster before. Oh, and check out those stick-on car emblems….

Workshop

Saltwater UU Church, Des Moines, Washington

Josephine and I finished leading the workshop at 12:30 today. We had fourteen people attending the youth advisor training this weekend. Now sometimes you get people at these workshops who want to work with youth for (ahem) the wrong reasons, but at this workshop everyone had all the right motivations. We had responsible lay leaders committed to spending time with young people, because they know that young people really benefit from the support of a religious community (and studies do show that youth who have the support of a congregation are much less likely to engage in risky behaviors). You couldn’t do better than spend a weekend with responsible people who are committed to doing ministry with youth.

I did have one disappointment about this weekend’s workshop, though. Josephine promised that she would teach us all how to play a silly bonding game called “Pass the Chicken.” But we ran out of time, and never got to play. I was crushed, absolutely crushed I tell you.

Pacific Rim city

Des Moines, Washington (just south of Seattle)

The woman who checked me in to the motel last night was not a native speaker of English. The hotel, right next to the Midway Casino and Restaurant, stands on a little pocket of reservation; the woman who checked me in was a Native American.

Seattle/Tacoma ariport has electronic signs giving information in some East Asian language (Japanese?).

It’s fall, so you see the occasional tree with bright red or yellow leaves: sweet gum, red maple, sugar maple, ash. But the most common trees are dark firs, or trees that drop big brown leaves without any show.

Weather today: Clouds. Clouds and mist. Sunny and warm. Clouds. Partly sunny. Clouds.

A different aesthetic from the East Coast: –no hulks of old brick industrial buildings; –trees everywhere; –bright colored accents on houses; –balconies even on cheap apartments and condos; –plenty of trees in the trailer parks. Even the ugly buildings seem to fit the landscape. A differnt landscape from New England: the land drops dramatically in big steps and swoops down to Puget Sound, which glows silver gray under the broad cloudy sky.

It’s a world away from the south coast of Massachusetts.

Fog

I had appointments up in Boston yesterday (with a church consultant, the minister who’s preaching at my installation, our music director), and wound up driving back quite late. I ran into fog right after passing the height of land that marks the edge of the Buzzard’s Bay watershed. It got heavier the closer I got to the coast; it was heaviest here in New Bedford.

The remarkable thing about fog in the city is that although you can’t see, fog makes the night far brighter than usual, since it reflects all the city lights right back down. As I drifted off to sleep, I kept coming awake and glancing up at the skylight in our bedroom, thinking day was starting to break already.

Flight 15

On Alaska Airlines flight #15, seat 30D, Oct. 6, 2005

“This is the flight deck, giving you an update on our progress. We’re just leaving North Dakota air space, heading into Montana. We’re still holding to our original estimate of arriving at the gate about ten minutes after nine o’clock.”

A night flight, the cabin lights are off, but I’m too wide awake to doze. The light over my seat doesn’t work, so I can’t fall back on reading. The couple to my right are in and out of sleep. The woman across the aisle and just in front of me has been typing constantly on her laptop since they brought dinner around. Dinner was hot sandwiches and apple slices encased in plastic. The girl, maybe ten years old, in the middle seat right in front of me is watching “Mr. and Mrs. Smith” on a portable DVD player. Two young women across the aisle are talking, but I find I can’t eavesdrop due to the jet noise:

“It’s like I was just [drowned out]…” “…so I was thinking [drowned out]…” “…I was like[drowned out]….”

The anesthetizing effect of a good murder mystery would help the boredom. Maybe I’ll try to doze, out of boredom.

(Later)

Bits of a conversation from the woman with the midwestern accent and the man behind me:

“It’s a long flight, isn’t it?” “Yeah. Yeah, it is.” “Five and a half hours.” “You don’t think it’s that long, but it is.”

“Can I get out? –when you get a chance, it doesn’t have to be now.” This to the woman was has been typing constantly on her laptop, and she gets up to let the man in the middle seat get out. She’s not typing now, though, she’s playing a video game. “Ah, that’s important work you’re doing.” The woman with the laptop laughs, and the man continues, “I’m gonna stretch my back, it doesn’t do well in these –ahh!” as he stands up and stretches. He rocks back and forth and stands in the aisle.

I sit and stare in front of me. Too wide awake to doze again. I let my mind drift.

“We’re supposed to get in just after nine so it’s going to be,–” the woman with the laptop looks at her watch, “–another hour and twenty minutes.” This in response to the woman on her far left, sitting in the window seat. The man stretching his back is still standing in the aisle, rocking.

I let my mind drift.

Silence

Sitting at lunch, we wound up talking about monasteries. (Don’t ask me how, the conversation went every which way.) One of us had a book showing two monks playing cards, but in silence, not talking. The question came up, What is silence?…

Silence is not talking, not just absence of sound, you understand. There’s something powerful about not talking. Silence is the strongest sound. Someone lived in the wilderness for more than 35 years, rarely seeing or talking with another person. Better to live in Thoreau’s cabin, at least then you could walk the mile into town (as he did) and talk with your family and friends.

One of us turned to another and said, You wouldn’t like silence, you like to talk. We laughed, that was true of us all, we all like talking. (Even though I’d like to try silence, for a while, just to find out.)

Wiki and UU

You’re probably familiar with Wikipedia, the online encyclopedia that draws on the collective wisdom of its readers for the entries. I have found Wikipedia to be a fairly reliable source of information on technical matters. Just for fun, I decided to see if there’s an entry on Unitarian Universalism, and if so to see how accurate that entry is.

Wikipedia does have an entry on Unitarian Universalism, but it’s not particularly accurate. It veers between apologetics and an objective account of Unitarian Universalism, and never really gets anywhere at all. Here’s the first paragraph of the entry:

“Unitarian Universalism (UU or UUism) is a theologically liberal, inclusive religion formed by the merger of Unitarian and Universalist organizations in the mid 20th century. UUs generally: cherish creativity, freedom, and compassion; embrace diversity and interconnectedness; and promote personal spiritual growth and justice-making through worship, fellowship, personal experience, social action, deeds, and education. While one UU may differ from another in personal creed, the term UU is a distinct theological signifier and Unitarianism or Universalism should not be confused or interchanged with Unitarian Universalism.”

Well, maybe so, but maybe not…

The Unitarians and Universalists did not merge, they consolidated — merger would have meant the end of the earlier organizations and the creation of an entirely new organization, whereas consolidation maintained connection with insitutional roots. And while Unitarian Universalists can be characterized as theologically liberal, only an apologist would claim that we are particularly inclusive. And the list of things that begins “UUs generally” does not distinguish us from most other religious liberals such as the United Church of Christ or the Episcopalians. And to say that individual Unitarian Universalists have a “personal creed” is inaccurate at best, considering that one distinctive of Unitarian Universalism is that we tend to have religious understandings that evolve through our life times…. and one could also argue that Unitarian Universalism now de-emphasizes correct belief (orthodoxy) in favor of correct practice or correct living (orthopraxy). And the term “UU” is not a distinct theological signifier at all, but an abbreviation of the name of a denomination or religious organization… and many have argued convincingly that Unitarian Universalism offers little or nothing that is theologically distinct from other forms of religious liberalism. And “Unitarianism” is commonly confused with and interchanged with “Unitarian Universalism,” not as a point of theology but as a shorthand way of referring to the insitution or organization… and because of consolidation, I’d argue that that is a correct but incomplete useage of the terms.

You’re supposed to be able to sign on and edit any Wikipedia article, so I suppose I should do that rather than complain. But I don’t have time to edit an article that is so riddled with problems. I’d rather just go back to what I’ve always thought — Wikipedia is fairly accurate when it comes to technical issues, but I’ll look elsewhere for information on religion. However, if I were going to rewrite that first paragraph, here’s what I might say:

“Unitarian Universalism (UUism) is a theologically liberal religious movement characterized by some scholars as a “new religious movement,” and by others as a Protestant denomination. Formed by the consolidation of the Unitarian and Universalist denominations in 1961, Unitarian Universalism probably has a closer resemblance to Mainline Protestanism, although it has been rejected for membership in the National Council of Churches, a predominantly mainline group. Unitarian Universalists (UUs) tend to be extremely well-educated, politically liberal, and relatively well-to-do. The general belief structure draws from an Emersonian emphasis on individualism and direct religious experience, with an emphasis on doing good works in the world. Local congregations are relatively autonomous. The center of most congregations is the weekly worship service, which generally takes place on Sunday mornings, and most closely resembles Protestant worship services in the Reformed and free church traditions.”

(Now I’ll just sit back and wait for other Unitarian Universalists to tell me where I’m wrong.)

“Why I’m a Unitarian Universalist”

This Sunday, members and friends of our congregation will lead worship, saying why they are Unitarian Universalists. Wish I weren’t going to be out of town — I’m always fascinated to find out why people are Unitarian Universalists.

I was doing a little background research on this topic, and came across an essay by Norma Poinsett titled Why I Am a Unitarian Universalist.” I have watched Norma Poinsett from a distance for some years, and think she’s one of the most interesting and power-filled Unitarian Universalist lay leaders. I’ve been chewing over the last few lines of her essay, which I find more and more compelling the more I think about them….

Since it is the only religion I can stand:
To be present is to serve,
To serve is to be an advocate,
In being an advocate of Unitarian Universalism I find an anchor,
A life line that gets me from Sunday to Sunday
And from January to January.