Showing posts with label Prophetic women and men. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Prophetic women and men. Show all posts

Friday, November 19, 2021

Which is worse, evil or stupidity?



Stupidity is a more dangerous enemy of the good than malice. One may protest against evil; it can be exposed and , if need be, prevented by the use of force….Against stupidity we are defenseless. Neither protests nor the use of force accomplish anything here; reason falls on deaf ears; facts that contradict one’s prejudgment simply need not be believed - in such moments the stupid person become becomes critical - and when facts are irrefutable they are just pushed aside as inconsequential, as incidental. In all this the stupid person, in contrast to the malicious one, is utterly self satisfied and, being easily irritated, becomes dangerous by going on the attack.


Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Letters and Papers from Prison (c.1944)


Unitarian Universalist ideas can be as stupid as anyone's but usually they are not evil, not malicious. This makes the stupid ideas of UUs more difficult to deal with. UUs are great at ignoring ideas but when forced to take them up they will attack and do unjust things just like anyone else. As Jesus said, "By their fruit you will know them." There is not much fruit being harvested and that is because stupidity has prevented an abundant crop.


Where are the wise and smart ideas? They emerge but are quickly ignored because they do not fit the prejudgment as Bonhoeffer states.


Monday, October 18, 2021

Is hope a super power?




One of the sources for the living tradition of Unitarian Universalism is the "words and deeds of prophetic women and men which challenge us to confront powers and structures of evil with justice, compassion, and the transforming power of love."

Krista Tippet and Bryan Stevenson are two  of these prophetic women and men.

From Krista Tippet's interview with Bryan Stevenson 

So now let’s turn briefly to the wisdom Bryan Stevenson teaches

that hope is our superpower, but the first step in developing

that is very close to home. It’s about getting proximate. And the question

to live here is where you will direct your curiosity and care.

And remember that getting yourself up closer — and that is physically, perhaps;

also, certainly, mentally, spiritually — getting yourself up closer to

new people and places, to questions and possibilities and insights you

couldn’t have seen before, that is the first part of the work. That comes

before setting an action plan. 

Consider these words of Bryan Stevenson: “You should not underestimate

the power you have to affirm the humanity and dignity of the people who

are around you. And when you do that, they will teach you

something about what you need to learn about human dignity,

but also what you can do to be a change agent.”


For more click here

Wednesday, May 12, 2021

Prophetic women and men - Martha Hennessy and the Plowshares 7




These are excerpts from The Nation, December 14/21. 2020 Free the Plowshares 7 by Maria Margonis

Ifirst met Martha Hennessy a couple of years ago ...she showed me the plastic electronic tag on her left ankle. She was out on bail, awaiting trial for her part in the Plowshares 7 symbolic disarmament action at the largest nuclear submarine base in the world, Kings Bay in Georgia, on April 4, 2018, the 50th anniversary of Martin Luther King’s assassination.

 The Plowshares 7 are Catholic pacifists and antinuclear activists, committed to Isaiah’s command to “beat swords into plowshares,” in the tradition begun by Daniel and Philip Berrigan at the General Electric facility in King of Prussia, Pa., in 1980; there have been about a hundred similar actions since. ..... In October 2019, they were convicted of four federal crimes—conspiracy, destruction of government property, depredation of a naval installation, and trespassing—for which the maximum sentence is 20 years and six months in prison.

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Martha wasn’t always a practicing Catholic; she’s struggled deeply with what she calls the US Catholic Church’s complicity with empire and its attitude to women. Her faith grew out of her opposition to war, and her experience of her grandmother Dorothy Day, the radical activist, mystic, and founder of the Catholic Worker movement. She remembers sitting on Dorothy’s lap as a small child, listening to her heartbeat and her voice, and sees that now as her first intimation of God: “It meant connectedness, and love, and warmth…knowing that I was part of this Mystical Body, where God is love and God is within each of us.”

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A courtroom, even a virtual one, is a theater where narratives clash. Judge Lisa Wood began with the necessary litany of formalities and addressed the defense’s arguments for a reduction in the recommended sentence: 18–24 months in prison and a restitution payment of $33,503.51............The judge agreed to reduce the burden of Martha’s three previous convictions–all misdemeanors for nonviolent protest—but rejected all other arguments for a “downward departure” in sentencing.

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The testimony of Martha’s four witnesses changed the atmosphere, as if someone had opened a window and let the outdoors in. 

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The judge listened carefully and, when they had finished, seemed almost reluctant to speak. She sentenced Martha to 10 months in federal prison which, though it could be dangerous for a woman of 65 in these pandemic times, is far less than was expected. It felt almost like victory.

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All six of the Plowshares 7 sentenced so far have received new prison terms, except McAlister, who was sentenced to time served. 

Editor's Note:

The second of six sources identified as  a basis for the living tradition of Unitarian Universalism is the "Words and deeds of prophetic women and men which challenge us to confront powers and structures of evil with justice, compassion, and the transforming power of love."

UU A Way Of Life periodically posts articles describing the activities of prophetic women and men. If you would like to read more such articles subscribe to the blog to receive daily notices when new articles are published.

Thursday, October 17, 2019

On October 17, 1979, 40 years ago today, Mother Teresa of Calcutta was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize


1979 - Mother Teresa of India was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize.

Here's a snippet from Wikipedia:

Mother Teresa, Blessed Teresa of Calcutta, (born August 26, 1910 – September 5, 1997) was an Albanian[2][3] Roman Catholic nun with Indian citizenship[4] who founded the Missionaries of Charity in Kolkata (Calcutta), India in 1950. For over forty five years she ministered to the poor, sick, orphaned, and dying, while guiding the Missionaries of Charity's expansion, first throughout India and then in other countries.

By the 1970s she had become internationally famed as a humanitarian and advocate for the poor and helpless, due in part to a documentary, and book, Something Beautiful for God by Malcolm Muggeridge. She won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1979 and India's highest civilian honor, the Bharat Ratna, in 1980 for her humanitarian work. Mother Teresa's Missionaries of Charity continued to expand, and at the time of her death it was operating 610 missions in 123 countries, including hospices and homes for people with HIV/AIDS, leprosy and tuberculosis, soup kitchens, children's and family counseling programs, orphanages, and schools.

Wednesday, October 16, 2019

October 16, 1916 Margaret Sanger opens the first birth control clinic103 years ago today and paves the way for women's liberation from unwanted pregnancy


On October 16, 1916 - Margaret Sanger opened the first birth control clinic in New York City, NY. For more information you can access the article about her in Wikipedia by clicking here.

A key factor in our modern society promoting the inherent worth and dignity of every person is the ability to control and take responsibility for one's own fertiity. Margaret Sanger's pioneering work, intensely criticized, has paved the way for a more just, compassionate, and equal society.

Sunday, July 7, 2019

Prophetic women and men - Robert Redfield

Prophetic women and men is a regular feature of UU A Way Of Life which appears on Sundays.



Robert Ray Redfield Jr. (born July 10, 1951) is an American virologist. He is the current Director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and the current Administrator of the Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry, having served in both positions since March 2018.

For more click here.

Sunday, June 16, 2019

Prophetic women and men is a regular feature of UU A Way Of Life ministires blog which appears on Sundays.

This is from an interview which Krista Tippett did with Richard Rohr in April of 2017 and was rebroadcast on 06/13/19



Krista Tippett:

I’m not sure any living spiritual teacher has been recommended to me by more people across the years than Fr. Richard Rohr. 

Especially striking is how many men — diverse men — have told me they had trouble connecting to religion and spiritual practice, but that this Franciscan changed their lives, deepened their spirituality, helped them grow up. 

So at long last I’m here to draw him out and it’s a conversation with expansive scope, much like his teaching and writing: on why contemplation is as magnetic to people now, including millennials, as it’s ever been; on male spirituality and the epidemic of what he calls “father hunger”; and on the work of moving into what he describes as the second half of life. The first half is necessarily about survival, “successful survival,” and preoccupations like titles and prestige and possessions with a dualistic, either/or sensibility. But all of that doesn’t take us all the way to meaning — which is not a linear matter of age and time.

For more click here.

Sunday, June 9, 2019

Prophetic women and men - Claudia Rankine

Prophetic women and men is a regular feature on UU A Way Of Life ministries blog which appears on Sundays.

On January 10, 2019, Krista Tippett published her interview with Claudia Rankine on her radio show, On Being. Here is what is written about Claudia Rankine on the On Being web site.



The poet, essayist, and playwright Claudia Rankine says every conversation about race doesn’t need to be about racism. But she says all of us — and especially white people — need to find a way to talk about it, even when it gets uncomfortable. Her bestselling book, Citizen: An American Lyric, catalogued the painful daily experiences of lived racism for people of color. Claudia models how it’s possible to bring that reality into the open — not to fight, but to draw closer. And she shows how we can do this with everyone, from our intimate friends to strangers on airplanes.

Krista Tippett, host:

Claudia Rankine says that every conversation about race doesn’t need to be about racism. She’s revelatory for me, as a white American, about pain points that are woven into the fabric of the American everyday. She models how it’s possible to bring this out into the open, not in order to fight but in order to draw closer. She shows how we can all do this hour by hour, encounter by encounter, in ordinary times and spaces.

 Claudia Rankine:

I spend a lot of time thinking about, how can I say this so that we can stay in this car together, and yet explore the things that I want to explore with you?

Ms. Tippett:

 I just think that line —

 Ms. Rankine:

How can I say this so we can stay in this car together?

 Ms. Tippett:

That should be a national motto for us.

 [laughter]

For more click here.

Sunday, June 2, 2019

Prophetic women and men - Patrisse Khan-Cullors

Prophetic women and men is a regular feature of UU A Way Of Life ministries blog which appears on Sundays.

Patrisse Cullors is a prophetic woman in our contemporary age. She has written "When They Call You A Terrorist: A Black Lives Matter Memoir."

In this memoir, Patrisse generously shares the intimacies of her life and loves, and her unyielding devotion to the cause of freedom. 

The stories she tells here with asha bandele help us to understand why her approach to organizing and movement building has captured the imaginations of so many. 

Her story emphasizes the productive intersection of personal experiences and political resistance. The pivotal story of her brother’s repeated encounters with violence-prone police officers, for example, permits us to better understand how state violence thrives at the intersection of race and disability. That Monte—Patrisse’s brother—is shot with rubber bullets and charged with terrorism as a routine police response to a manic episode reveals how readily the charge of terrorism is deployed within white supremacist institutions. 

We learn not only about the quotidian nature of state violence but also about how art and activism can transform such tragic confrontations into catalysts for greater collective consciousness and more effective resistance.

Khan-Cullors, Patrisse. When They Call You a Terrorist (pp. xi-xii). St. Martin's Press. Kindle Edition.

You can learn more by clicking here.


Sunday, May 26, 2019

Prophetic Women and Men - Ta-Nehisi Coates: Imagining a New America

Prophetic women and men is a regular feature of UU A Way Of Life ministries blog which appears on Sundays.

In an interview with Krista Tippit released on 11/16/17:



I guess the place, in terms of the book, that I most recently encountered it is the implicit idea that President Obama was prone to repeating: that the arc of history is long, but it bends towards justice. And I just — that sort of notion of destiny — I don’t know how you measure that against the very human practice of repeating brutality over and over again.
And beyond that, what about the people who — what if you don’t believe in humanity as this kind of collective, but believe that every individual life is a unit, in and of itself, and when that life is snuffed out, that arc is over, and so people who were lynched are not a part of a long-term historical process — that in their minds, that’s their life, and history ended the minute they were snuffed out? And so this kind of providential understanding makes them bricks in a road in order to give it a happy ending, in order to say it was all worth it.
But I maintain it was never worth it. It was never just. It was never right. The process is never — it’s always wrong. It’s always wrong, and I think there are a lot of things implicit in that that devalue — I would probably say not just the lives of African Americans, but the lives of people who live underneath of the boot.
For more click here.
Editor's note: Bolding has been added.

Sunday, May 5, 2019

Prophetic women and men - Megan Davern, Arivaca Arizona, leads community against anti-immigrant extremism

Prophetic women and men is a regular feature of UU A Way Of Life ministries blog which appears on Sundays.


There is increasing evidence that Trumpism, hating the other, has brought out the worst in American democracy.

There is growing evidence that hate speech and hate crimes are on the rise.

Local citizens, however,  have organized and resisted and held white supremicists and vigilante groups accountable.

One such example is Arivaca, Arizona. You can read about it in the May/June, 2019 issue of Mother Jones in an article entitled, "Not In My Backyard: How One Arizona Desert Town United To Fight Off Anti-Immigration Extremists" by Eric Reidy.

For more click here.

Editor's comment - Many of my clients are demoralized and depressed by the immoral and unethical behavior of their leaders and fellow citizens. It is not mentally healthy to see oneself as a victim.

There are many things that individuals, small groups, and communities can do to resist the immoral and unethical policies and behavior of Trumpism which is defined as the scapegoating of the other.

When bullying and scapegoating is occuring it is very important for the audience, whom the bullies are playing to, to call it out and refuse to support it.

Megan Davern, a bartender at La Gitana in Arivaca, Arizona did just that. Her witness is prophetic and should be emulated to create a world with more justice, equity, and compassion. Every person has inherent worth and dignity and deserves respect. Megan is a brave and courageous woman as are her fellow citizens who took action to limit the activities of the anti-immigrant vigilantes.

Sunday, April 28, 2019

Prophetic Women and Men - Suffragette, the film

Prophetic women and men

 

Prophetic Women and Men - Laurie Bertram Roberts. advocate for reproductive justice

From The Nation, 04/08/19,


The first thing I noticed when I walked into Laurie Bertram Roberts’s cluttered living room was the ceiling-high stack of diaper boxes lining the wall. Initially, our plan had been to meet at the new headquarters of the Mississippi Reproductive Freedom Fund (MRFF), the nonprofit that Roberts co-founded and runs.

For the article click here.

Unitarian Universalists covenant together to affirm and promote justice, equity, and compassion in human relations. Laurie Bertram Robert's work demonstrates an application of this principle. The article referenced above is worth reading. 

Sunday, April 7, 2019

Prophetic women and men - Lindy Lou Isonhood on the death penalty

Prophetic women and men is a regular feature of the UU A Way Of Life ministries blog which appears on Sundays.

On 06/24/1994 Lindy Lou Isonhood. as a member of a jury in Mississippi, voted to put a man to death. She has regretted her decision and now become a death penalty abolitionist. Her story is disturbing and inspiring.


 

Sunday, March 31, 2019

Prophetic women and men - Adam Schiff, "You might think it's okay."

Articles about prophetic women and men appear on UU A Way Of Life on Sundays.



 

Sunday, March 17, 2019

Prophetic women and men - Andrew Bacevich - Do Americans care about the immorality of American militarism?

Prophetic women and men is a regular feature of UU A Way Of Life ministries blog which appears on Sundays.

 

Sunday, March 10, 2019

Prophetic women and men - The Sunrise Movement

Prophetic women and men is a feature of the Unitarian Univeralist A Way Of Life Ministries blog which appears on Sundays.



For more on the Sunrise Movement click here.

Unitarian Universalists covenant together to affirm and promote the respect for the interdependent web of all existence of which we are a part.

Sunday, February 17, 2019

Prophetic Women and Men - Dr. Edith Fraser, Social Work Professor

Dr. Edith Fraser is a retired professor from Alabama A&M University in Huntsville, Alabama. Prior to her time there she served at Oakwood University from1985 to 2009 as the Director of Field Instruction, Chair of Social Work Department and had a dual appointment as professor in Social Work Department and Director of Faculty Development and Research. She is a native of Louisville, Kentucky and received her Bachelor of Arts from University of Louisville, her MSW from Boston University and Ph.D. from Smith College School for Social Work.

Sunday, February 10, 2019

Prophetic women and men - Ida B. Wells

Articles about prophetic women and men appear on UU A Way Of Life ministries blog on Sundays.



Ida B. Wells life and work is a good example of the affirmation and promotion of two UU principles: the inherent worth and dignity of every person, and justice, equity, and compassion in human relations.

Marianne Williamson - Next step in the evolution of democracy - Ability to see things systemically from vision not just from perception of externals

Marianne Williamson describes herself as a metaphysician. She says that her father begged her not just to look but to "really see."




Marianne is calling her fellow Americans to engage in visioning from a place of deeper shared truths. She points out that the psychopathic con people by distracting them with lies about externals rather than sharing truths in their hearts which call us to become our better selves.


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