Saturday, January 23, 2010

Working class people MIA - Why?

A skunk goes into church and says to the minister of radical hospitality, "Where's my pew?"

As Unitarian Universalists we have not done very well with the great unwashed, with the smelly people of our society. Why is that?

Are UUs classist? Do we only appeals to intellectual snobs?

Where are the poor and working class people in our churches?

Just asking............

10 comments:

  1. Telling people they need a bath and smell isn't a great start.

    Their reaction, as is mine, is you the hell do you think you are?

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  2. Dear Bill:

    As a psychiatric social worker who works both in mental health and substance abuse settings I have my nose in the asshole of humanity all the time. I try to be of service and I would hope that our UU churches would do the same.

    I don't know if you are being facetitious or serious. If you are serious, I don't know what lens you are reading my posts through because your conclusions appear to be, if not funny, then quite distorted.

    All the best, and you, and smelly people are welcome in my church any time,

    David Markham

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  3. :A skunk goes into church and says to the minister of radical hospitality, "Where's my *pew*?"

    Pun intended? :-)

    I must try that some time, maybe even at the Unitarian Church of Montreal. . .

    :As Unitarian Universalists we have not done very well with the great unwashed, with the smelly people of our society. Why is that?

    Interestingly enough I have expressed similar concerns in the past. You might like this modification of the UUA's 'Standing on the Side of Love' campaign banner. Believe it or not, earlier today I was actually wondering what sort of welcome Montreal homeless people would receive from the U*U "Welcoming Congregation" that calls itself the Unitarian Church of Montreal. I am not convinced that they would feel very welcome or that they would be treated with dignity.

    :Are UUs classist? Do we only appeals to intellectual snobs?

    More like pseudo*intellectual snobs these days David. . . It seems that the glory days of the Unitarian church being the comprised of the intellectual elite are long gone, assuming there was any truth to that self-congratulatory U*U rumor to begin with. I got a huge chuckle out of how dim*witted Canadian Unitarians took it as a huge compliment that Canadian religion writer Tom Harpur had described Unitarians as "a group of do-gooder, would-be intellectuals". Doh!

    :Where are the poor and working class people in our churches?

    Good question. In many cases they are nowhere to be found. Well except for all those over-worked and underpaid U*U ministers of course. . . :-)

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  4. Dear Bill:

    If your question is serious, then it deserves a serious answer.

    I am a child of God, the Living God, who is on fire with the Holy Spirit.

    As Jesus said, I have not come for peace but for division, because if you want to go to God you have part company with many people who are the minions of the devil.

    Minions of the devil often, as St. Paul says, sound like tingling bells, and cry out "Lord!, Lord!," but they will not enter the kingdom of heaven.

    When Jesus was asked how to tell the authentic from the false prophets, He said, "By their fruit you will know them." and I am looking for fruit and the pickings seem very meager.

    All the best,

    David Markham

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  5. Yes, but your also an elitist without much to be elite about. Leave Jesus, St Paul, and the rest of the crew out of it, and learn a little common sense before representing our church this way and talking about smelly people. You badly trash our image with that...

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  6. "Yes, but your also an elitist without much to be elite about."

    ROTFLMU*UO! How is David being "elitist" in this blog post remarking on the apparent classism of U*Us and apparent dearth of poor U*Us and working class U*Us Bill? Your retort is much more applicably directed at the whole U*U religious community which is quite elitest in its own special way, without having all that much to be elitist about. . . After all that's pretty much what "would be intellectuals" means doesn't it Bill?

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  7. Oh and U*Us "badly trash" aka seriously tarnish their own "public image" with their very own well-documented words and actions. No one else *really* needs to do that for U*Us. The Unitarian Church of Montreal premanently expelled me aka "excommunicated" me for the terrible crime of tarnishing its image with my peaceful public protest against the anti-religious intolerance and bigotry that I encountered in its leaders and members and other U*U injustices, abuses and hypocrisy. All I did was tell the well-documented truth about it. Ditto for the UUA and MFC. If U*Us don't want their image being badly trashed maybe they should be more careful about what they say and do.

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  8. RE: If you want to go to God...

    Easy there, big guy. Not all UUs want to go to God or to THAT God. My UU Heathen boyfriend wants to go to Odin, and ultimately to Valhall upon his death. So talk about Jesus won't be very helpful to people like him.

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  9. Actually Woden's Day is my favorite day of the week Tracie the Red. As a small 'u' unitarian if not a capital 'U' Unitarian I believe in only one Supreme Being but to be honest I don't think I made a whole lot of mention of God in my comments here and didn't talk about Jesus at all. I would be quite happy to talk to your UU heathen boyfriend about Odin aka Woden.

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