I had an interesting experience in my Educational Ministry class. The professor asked us to answer two questions...
* What is a life time or span?
* Why do I and we live it?
Think about how you would answer them... comment on it if you would like to.
This is how I answered -
* What is a life time or span?
* the amount of time that a person is breathing, ideally into the time as a grandparent
* Why do I and we live it?
* People generally live into the 70’s or 80’s initially to help care for children in their community and ensure continuation of the species. There is more than that and a lot of exceptions but biologically every species needs to ensure continuation.
I had difficulty understanding why the question was being asked. It is interesting that I couldn't even see other options.
When the teacher shared his answer it was about God. Life is a gift from God and the purpose is to share the gospel. Everyone else who answered seemed to be in line with the same thought. I told them I felt like I was in a different book and shared my answers.
It reminds me of the importance of realizing that not everyone is coming from the same perspective. People may be operating with points of view that you cannot even see. You won't find out unless you engage in deep conversations. I do wonder how a room of Unitarian Universalists would react.
Thursday, November 19, 2009
Tuesday, November 10, 2009
You Tube
I have recently been introduced to an additional value of YouTube. Sure it is fun and you can find music videos and place your own videos onto it. However it has a value beyond the fun factor. This one group - Media that matters -
This is a link to one of their videos. It is called A Girl Like Me. The video is heartbreaking. It shows the absolute reality of internalized racism. It shows the realities of necessary identities that push children into feeling their own skin is bad, and their own self is bad.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YWyI77Yh1Gg
How do we get beyond this? It is so vital that we teach our precious children the value of their very selves. No child should identify her own body as bad for any reason.
Brave words, and truly felt, but changing the reality of this country is a huge job. Thinking in that way it gets overwhelming. It's important to remember that we can change, and we are not doing it alone. A dear friend and mentor wrote a prayer for me when I was feeling overwhelmed by the work there is to do. What do you do when you feel overwhelmed?
This is a link to one of their videos. It is called A Girl Like Me. The video is heartbreaking. It shows the absolute reality of internalized racism. It shows the realities of necessary identities that push children into feeling their own skin is bad, and their own self is bad.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YWyI77Yh1Gg
How do we get beyond this? It is so vital that we teach our precious children the value of their very selves. No child should identify her own body as bad for any reason.
Brave words, and truly felt, but changing the reality of this country is a huge job. Thinking in that way it gets overwhelming. It's important to remember that we can change, and we are not doing it alone. A dear friend and mentor wrote a prayer for me when I was feeling overwhelmed by the work there is to do. What do you do when you feel overwhelmed?
Saturday, November 7, 2009
UU Confessions?
After watching the Katrina video I felt a deep sadness. People didn't have to die this way. When it happened anyway the country had this opportunity to band together and support the victims and evacuees. It didn't happen for various reasons. I felt the floor shifting under my spiritual feet as I thought about these events and considered the pain that I was witnessing.
And I felt afraid. Not because of what happened, but because of my own shifting. This justice work is so important and so necessary! I felt afraid because I could see that this class was going to be important to my future. Once you open your eyes you can't close them again and I was afraid that my eyes would be opened in ways that I wouldn't be able to act the same way again. I would have to operate differently in order to honor the Justice Work that needs done in the world. I feel a little ashamed of the fear, I shouldn't be afraid to be more Justice focused. I would want people to help. Yet it is not easy work. In my distress I emailed my minister. She gave me a UU prayer she had written that reminded me that this work is worth it. And that we are not doing it alone.
This work IS worth it. And it is essential for Unitarian Universalists to engage in making the world a more just place. So many of our principles focus on the need for justice in community. And it is not easy. Religion is not easy, it calls us to make changes, and calls us to community. That is key, it is essential for us to engage in justice work, yet we do not do this alone. Unitarian Universalism provides us with a community who speaks out with a voice. Rather than one voice raging against the wind we become a chorus singing into the storm. This is how the world changes.
And I felt afraid. Not because of what happened, but because of my own shifting. This justice work is so important and so necessary! I felt afraid because I could see that this class was going to be important to my future. Once you open your eyes you can't close them again and I was afraid that my eyes would be opened in ways that I wouldn't be able to act the same way again. I would have to operate differently in order to honor the Justice Work that needs done in the world. I feel a little ashamed of the fear, I shouldn't be afraid to be more Justice focused. I would want people to help. Yet it is not easy work. In my distress I emailed my minister. She gave me a UU prayer she had written that reminded me that this work is worth it. And that we are not doing it alone.
This work IS worth it. And it is essential for Unitarian Universalists to engage in making the world a more just place. So many of our principles focus on the need for justice in community. And it is not easy. Religion is not easy, it calls us to make changes, and calls us to community. That is key, it is essential for us to engage in justice work, yet we do not do this alone. Unitarian Universalism provides us with a community who speaks out with a voice. Rather than one voice raging against the wind we become a chorus singing into the storm. This is how the world changes.
Friday, November 6, 2009
Social Justice and Religion
In my social justice oriented class we discussed Hurricane Katrina today. This was after having watched "When Levees Break" and reading "Katrina's Hidden Race War". It was very painful. To think and be faced again and again with the devastation of the extreme flooding in the area. That would be bad enough, losing everything you have. Facing that abject terror that comes from knowing your life and the lives of those you love is in danger, and may end, has to be the most horrible of feelings.
The racism and classism that happened after this disaster was gut wrenching. In this country we feel like we have gotten so far and in some ways we have made progress but there is still so very far to go that sometimes it is destructive to think about. It was interesting to find out that even though the government was a complete failure in getting into the area quickly, and there were many racist events, the churches were there.
Churches and religion is in part about community building. In Christian churches this is about following Jesus and his commandments to love your neighbor. In Unitarian Universalist churches community is an essential part of our principles. The reverend who did our program today told us that there were incidents of GLBT folks being turned away even from the help of churches. People were turned away from hospitals when they did not have identification. When you are trying to pull your children out of the water the first thing you think about is not that you need to get your wallet.
What does it say about churches that in the time of deepest most desperate need they were the ones that stepped up? What does it say that for some folks they were also the ones who again turned them away? When we are most desperate is that the time we are most ourselves?
The racism and classism that happened after this disaster was gut wrenching. In this country we feel like we have gotten so far and in some ways we have made progress but there is still so very far to go that sometimes it is destructive to think about. It was interesting to find out that even though the government was a complete failure in getting into the area quickly, and there were many racist events, the churches were there.
Churches and religion is in part about community building. In Christian churches this is about following Jesus and his commandments to love your neighbor. In Unitarian Universalist churches community is an essential part of our principles. The reverend who did our program today told us that there were incidents of GLBT folks being turned away even from the help of churches. People were turned away from hospitals when they did not have identification. When you are trying to pull your children out of the water the first thing you think about is not that you need to get your wallet.
What does it say about churches that in the time of deepest most desperate need they were the ones that stepped up? What does it say that for some folks they were also the ones who again turned them away? When we are most desperate is that the time we are most ourselves?
Visions?
I have been thinking a lot about Julian of Norwich as I prepare to write a paper about her. She was a monastic in the 14th century who, at some point, after a life threatening illness at the age of 31 wrote her showings. She indicted that during her illness she had a series of 16 visisons. She was so ill that she was being given last rites during this time. Before she got sick Julian had prayed to recieve three wounds that would allow her to be closer with God. One of them was essentially a near death experience.
I tend to think the woman was so delirouis with fever she saw essentially hullicinated. However is this rejection of a valid spiritual experience? I wonder what the Christian students think, if there is this doubt this would have actually been a divine vision? I don't discount the possiblity of divine visions but am told when I had a high fever and the flu a few years ago I was talking to someone who wasn't there.
I can't help thinking that if the prophets were around today claming to see some of the things they saw we would have medicated them. How many shamans/teachers/prophets are we missing?Sometimes I wonder how different my experience is than my fellow students. I think things just enter my brain differently. Is that a UU thing? Is there anything that we hold so sacred that it would be hard to hear the possiblity of error or humanness?This also begs the question if there was even error at all? So what if it was fever enduced?
Even if it wasn't a vision from God or the Spirit of Life or the Universe it gave Julian a vehicle to explain her theology. Perhaps that is what is important... what Julian did with the visions not how she got them.
I tend to think the woman was so delirouis with fever she saw essentially hullicinated. However is this rejection of a valid spiritual experience? I wonder what the Christian students think, if there is this doubt this would have actually been a divine vision? I don't discount the possiblity of divine visions but am told when I had a high fever and the flu a few years ago I was talking to someone who wasn't there.
I can't help thinking that if the prophets were around today claming to see some of the things they saw we would have medicated them. How many shamans/teachers/prophets are we missing?Sometimes I wonder how different my experience is than my fellow students. I think things just enter my brain differently. Is that a UU thing? Is there anything that we hold so sacred that it would be hard to hear the possiblity of error or humanness?This also begs the question if there was even error at all? So what if it was fever enduced?
Even if it wasn't a vision from God or the Spirit of Life or the Universe it gave Julian a vehicle to explain her theology. Perhaps that is what is important... what Julian did with the visions not how she got them.
Tensions
One of the things I didn’t expect to think about (but should have) in seminary is the tension between Christianity and Unitarian Universalism. In my school there is a tension that lies beneath the surface of the school’s struggle to be inclusive. It possibly lies beneath tensions between students and asserts itself sometimes within the classes. Christianity and Unitarian Universalism have common roots, of course Islam shares these same common roots in Judiasm. However the Unitarian and Universalist branches are more recent.
Here is the tension. Are UU’s still struggling to break away? Do some of those who come to Unitarian Universalism do so only to get away from Christianity? Are we a stop on the path of those running from someone or a legitimate destination? Who gets to decide?
It seems like there are two Unitarian Universalisms. (Ever heard that joke, where ever you have 3 UU’s you have 6 differing opinions?) One is the Unitarian Universalism that people find. The other is the one they are born into. Our children, who grow up in the faith have a different experience than those of us who find UUism after having been some place else. In my experience talking to UU kids they don’t have the same kind of Christianity baggage that some of the rest of us do.
I believe that Unitarian Universalism is a path worth running to for some. So is Christianity for some. So why the tension? The ideals of both religions share a love of the neighbor. UU’s are very big on social justice. Jesus was very big on social justice. Believers in either religion do not obtain their own ideals but then who does? Like Unitarian Universalism there is actually a lot of diversity within Christianity. I think there is danger and restriction for both religions in deciding that there is something fundamentally wrong with the other one.
But these answers are easy. Every body play nice kind of answers that even kids don’t quite buy. So what are the answers? I read an article about honoring your parents by taking the best of what you learned from them. By recognizing they are human and without erasing the pain, you can honor their attempts. Maybe the answer lies somewhere in there, UUism as a child of Christianity can honor this parent equally as well as the other parents in our religion, by taking what we learned. By honoring the best that we see in each other. But maybe that’s not quite right either….
Here is the tension. Are UU’s still struggling to break away? Do some of those who come to Unitarian Universalism do so only to get away from Christianity? Are we a stop on the path of those running from someone or a legitimate destination? Who gets to decide?
It seems like there are two Unitarian Universalisms. (Ever heard that joke, where ever you have 3 UU’s you have 6 differing opinions?) One is the Unitarian Universalism that people find. The other is the one they are born into. Our children, who grow up in the faith have a different experience than those of us who find UUism after having been some place else. In my experience talking to UU kids they don’t have the same kind of Christianity baggage that some of the rest of us do.
I believe that Unitarian Universalism is a path worth running to for some. So is Christianity for some. So why the tension? The ideals of both religions share a love of the neighbor. UU’s are very big on social justice. Jesus was very big on social justice. Believers in either religion do not obtain their own ideals but then who does? Like Unitarian Universalism there is actually a lot of diversity within Christianity. I think there is danger and restriction for both religions in deciding that there is something fundamentally wrong with the other one.
But these answers are easy. Every body play nice kind of answers that even kids don’t quite buy. So what are the answers? I read an article about honoring your parents by taking the best of what you learned from them. By recognizing they are human and without erasing the pain, you can honor their attempts. Maybe the answer lies somewhere in there, UUism as a child of Christianity can honor this parent equally as well as the other parents in our religion, by taking what we learned. By honoring the best that we see in each other. But maybe that’s not quite right either….
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