Comments for Thousand Voices

Comment on Planting Seeds of Soul: The Seed of Clear Thinking by Why is the health care system constitutional? How can it be related to the constitution? | Health Care

Tue, 10 Nov 2009 02:08:01 +0000

[...] Planting Seeds of Soul: The Seed of Clear Thinking « Thousand Voices [...]

Comment on Protesting Police Harassment of Atlanta’s GBLT Community by Robin Edgar

Robin Edgar — Thu, 17 Sep 2009 14:36:14 +0000

Very well said Anthony. I may well quote some of your speech/sermon and show how it applies to police harassment and legal harassment more generally, as well as how *some* Canadian U*Us actively misuse use and abuse Canadian laws to have police, prosecutors, and judges attempt to suppress my constitutional right to engage in peaceful public protest against U*U injustices, abuses and hypocrisy.

Comment on Gathering to Bear Witness by sandrar

sandrar — Thu, 10 Sep 2009 13:55:50 +0000

Hi! I was surfing and found your blog post… nice! I love your blog. Cheers! Sandra. R.

Comment on On Repelling Fewer People: Reflections on Multiculturalism and More by Sue Spencer

Sue Spencer — Thu, 30 Jul 2009 16:47:58 +0000

Thanks for this rich conversation! Another example of the “UU superego” is the way in which some UU’s get tied up in knots about “cultural misappropriation” when attempts are made to have our worship be less “Yankee.” Sometimes such concerns are valid, of course – but I confess to having breathed a huge sigh of relief at a workshop this spring, when Paula Cole Jones encouraged us to worry less about misappropriation, and think more about how to make our services welcoming to more people.

Comment on On Repelling Fewer People: Reflections on Multiculturalism and More by Arkansawyer » “They smelled white trash, and they sneered.”

Arkansawyer » “They smelled white trash, and they sneered.” — Wed, 08 Jul 2009 18:38:09 +0000

[...] wonderful, isn’t it, to hit a piece of writing that runs right along ideas you’d just been mulling over and thinking of how to express? Not [...]

Comment on On Repelling Fewer People: Reflections on Multiculturalism and More by Diane Guernsey

Diane Guernsey — Thu, 02 Jul 2009 14:43:37 +0000

As a UU church musician, I welcome any kind of music, if it’s conducive to worship (joyfully energetic, contemplative, and everything in between). But I’m only one person, and though I try to vary the service music as much as possible with classical, pop, folk, contemporary and other offerings, I can’t cover the musical waterfront single-handed–who can? I welcome suggestions (and guest performances) from congregants and visitors alike, and I’m betting that most other UU musicians do too. So if you wish that UU services offered a certain kind of music, maybe you should ask the church musicians about it or offer to give them a sample–or even to perform it yourself! Our dynamic, interactive faith relies on individuals to take action to create change, and this holds true for our music as well.

Comment on On Repelling Fewer People: Reflections on Multiculturalism and More by Diane Guernsey

Diane Guernsey — Thu, 02 Jul 2009 14:32:07 +0000

Yes, UU is a faith with cultural norms and flaws–like any other faith, yes? One of these flaws, as Anthony David points out, is the masochistic, perfectionistic, workaholic UU superego: we’re always ready to believe that we’re not doing enough good, or that we’re not doing enough, period–we’re always ready to clobber ourselves for falling short morally and ethically. Anthony David’s comments, while trenchant, run the risk of falling into that UU trap. But we UUs, like other people, deserve of love and understanding –to hear from the “benign superego,” which most people don’t know about but which exists as surely as the punishing superego and, in my view, leads to far more human goodness, joy and inclusion than the latter. So yes, let’s acknowledge our flaws and work at correcting them, but let’s not condemn ourselves to hell, UU-style, by being angry, unloving and self-punitive as we do so.

Comment on On Repelling Fewer People: Reflections on Multiculturalism and More by Diggitt

Diggitt — Wed, 01 Jul 2009 19:50:59 +0000

Years ago, at the Arlington Street Church, someone played Gershwin’s “Back Bay Polka” — its final words are, “You never get ahead, unless you’re dead … you never get ahead in Boston!”

Complete lyrics here: http://www.smartlyrics.com/Song596682-George–Ira-Gershwin-The-Back-BayPolka-lyrics.aspx

Comment on On Repelling Fewer People: Reflections on Multiculturalism and More by Erik

Erik — Wed, 01 Jul 2009 19:29:43 +0000

As a young seminarian aspiring to serve the U*U tradition (and its members!), I greatly appreciate the honest self-reflection and long-overdue self-criticism that the aforementioned posts flesh out. I must confess that I am an unapologetically proud U*U that readily shares the Good News of liberal religion with fellow students and young professionals – in so doing, I am constantly struck by the degree to which ‘my generation’ responds favorably to the promise of a dogma-transcending-faith that locates God in the everyday. Nevertheless, I would echo Rev. Anthony David’s description of U*Uism as an “ethnic religion with cultural norms”: sermon-heavy, intellectualist, super-skeptical, relentlessly activist, pew-proper and hyper-PC. I suspect that most people would prefer to do religion (to shout, sing, cry, love, pray, etc.) rather than merely ruminate and debate about it.

Given, there are numerous congregations in our association that offer spiritually rich opportunities for growing-in-fellowship. Amen! And yet, as concerns our faith tradition, I have watched in despair as our message of hope all too frequently degenerates into moralistic nitpicking, while our rhetoric of inclusion dissolves into an inflexibility re: religious-speak and devotional practice. We must, it seems, engage in some serious re-prioritization: living in reverence for the Holy should precede adjudicating ‘acceptable’ ways of talking about the holy; working alongside (following, for once, as opposed to necessarily leading) non-U*Us on issues of social justice (replete with the inevitable awkwardness, discomfort and mutual offenses involved in such work) should precede the dream’s deferment on account of excessive educational training and anticipatory reflection; etc.

Of course, there is a certain irony to the fact that much of our criticism neatly and safely resides in the blogosphere! As such, my approach to gradually change U*U culture is simply to live the new U*Uism I want to see: despite my inevitable short-comings, I strive to focus less on belief and more on faith, less on thinking-about-God and more on being-in-God, less on empiricism and more on intuition, less on self-service and more on service for others, the list goes on.

Following a U*U service, a close friend of mine asserted: ‘I don’t think I could do that again – not because the worship offended me, but because I came out of the church the same person as when I went in.’ Our faith holds the keys to transformation – to move individuals from a place of Self-centeredness to a place of Life-centeredness. I pray that we continue to offer people hope in light of despair, love in the face of hate, so that we may join the Sri Guru Granth Sahib in proclaiming: “Just as iron is transmuted into gold by the touch of the Philosopher’s Stone, so are people transformed by joining the Sangat, the Holy Congregation’ – and stop at nothing less. Dayenu.

Comment on On Repelling Fewer People: Reflections on Multiculturalism and More by Ron

Ron — Wed, 01 Jul 2009 14:15:12 +0000

After writing the above, I immediately found an example of what we are talking about…

“I am a HUGE supporter of the Unitarian Universalist Church! I am attracted, awed, impressed and inspired by the UU’s unfailing commitment to equality and justice. I often say, I would be a member if you would just get Gospel Music! ”

Source: http://www.examiner.com/x-8061-Baltimore-Unitarian-Universalist-Examiner~y2009m6d30-Let-us-stand-together-a-Pride-Month-QA-with-Pride-in-Faith-director-Lea-Gilmore

…well, there it is. Along with a new “Spanish supplement” to our hymnals, maybe we should begin developing our own “Gospel supplement” as well?

More than this, maybe the UU Universities, with their multi-track format, have suggested something that could be applied to local congregations…even smaller ones. Small-group ministries within the congregations could employ study, worship and music resources to follow any number of spiritual/theological tracks or disciplines, with online support by online dedicated websites from groups like the UU Christian Fellowship, Buddhist Fellowship, UU’s for Jewish awareness, CUUPS, etc.

If that’s all that Lea Gilmore needs to be a committed supporter of a UU congregation, then I wonder how many others are just that close as well?