Showing posts with label Quote of the day. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Quote of the day. Show all posts

Friday, August 27, 2021

Quote of the day - Without a vision the people will perish



Unitarian Universalism has failed to create a meta narrative around which people can collaborate and thrive. This failure is the biggest challenge facing the denomination at both the congregational and the association levels.

Editor's note: The Unitarian Universalist leadership has failed to create a vision for the denomination around which people can coalesce with united energy. It has fractured into affinity groups such as UU Buddhists, UU Christians, UU Humanists, etc. Further, it gets side tracked into social justice issues without there being an spiritual framework to support the social justice work.

Every congregation has developed its own schtick which facilitates separation and division rather than unity and a shared understanding of the essence of the faith.

Without a metanarrative which all UUs can share, the denomination will never grow and flourish. 

Friday, August 6, 2021

Quote of the day - The pernicious dynamic in Unitarian Universalism

 "Safetyism is a pernicious dynamic which is stultifying the life and grace of Unitarian Universalism especially in light of the fourth principle which is the free and responsible search for truth and meaning."


Editor's note - Safetyism refers to shutting down of free speech by claiming that the words of the speaker are harmful to the person objecting because it hurts their feelings.

Thursday, August 5, 2021

Quote of the day - Has post modernism gone to far with "microaggressions" requiring "trigger warnings"?

 "Nowadays there is a new vocabulary which has emerged stifling free speech and expression of ideas under the umbrella of "microaggressions" which require "trigger warnings" to spare people hurt feelings and the complaint of not feeling safe."

David Markham, Notes on the Gadfly Papers.

Editor's note: It is interesting how in post modern times everybody has become a victim of hurt feelings by things other people say even if the feelings are hurt unintentionally and inadvertently. Speakers, teachers, must apologize and warn people of what they are about to say because only certain things are acceptable and unacceptable. 1984 has arrived with the thought police becoming ubiquitous. UUs, who tend to be more progressive are particularly good at this game which is antithetical to their professed principle of the free and responsible search for truth and meaning.

Wednesday, August 4, 2021

Quote of the day - Tension management in UU

 "Tension management is a huge problem for UUs. One person told me she left her UU congregation because everyone was "too nice." "Nice" people are stealthily dangerous."

David Markham in Book Notes - The Gadfly Papers by Todd Eklof

Editor's note - Much of what goes on in Unitarian Universalism to manage tension is what psychologists call "relational aggression." The question is who's in and who's out and who is making those decisions? Rev. Dr. Todd Elkof was/is victimized by relational aggression perpetrated by people in the UUA and the UUMA.

Thursday, June 14, 2018

Quote the day, Camille Dungy - how our society supports the wealth of the few

In the interview of Camille Dungy in the June, 2018 issue of The Sun magazine, the interiewer Airica Parker says to Dungy,  "Speaking of glorifying the wealth of the minority, you write that in 1860 only around “5 percent of the Southern population owned even one slave, and a significantly smaller percentage owned more than twenty.”

And Dungy responds in part,  "My point is that most white people didn’t have the kind of wealth that the institution of slavery was protecting, just like most people today don’t have the kind of wealth protected by tax codes that allow a billionaire to write off a private jet but don’t allow schoolteachers to write off $250 worth of school supplies. It’s sometimes difficult to accept the fact that whole portions of our society were built up — are still built up — to support the wealth of just a few."

Editor's note: 
It is interesting how the 99% support the wealth of the 1%. What kind of a system is this that we have created here in the United States?

Is the resentment of this fact being manipulated by a billionaire President to fuel further racism and authoritarian policies to further enrich the 1% by encouraging one group of the 99% to hate another group of the 99% to distract them from realizing who the real culprits are who have rigged the system for their favor?

This rigging of the system is in violation of UUs second principle, "justice, equity, and compassion in human relations." It is also something which Jesus consistently pointed out - the unfairness of the treatment of the poor by the wealthy minority. Jesus never censured people for sexual behavior, but He constantly advocated for a juster system for the poor in society.


Wednesday, June 13, 2018

Quote of the day - Where did America's wealth come from?

"America would not be the wealthy country it is without slave labor. We would not have our power or wealth if we had not, for a very long time, depended on the unpaid labor of millions of human beings. I feel like I shouldn’t have to spell this out, but maybe I do. America was built by the labor of enslaved men, women, and children. Cotton wasn’t king just in the South. Many of the most productive cotton mills were in the North, as were the insurance companies and other industries that profited off those mills. Without a lot of unpaid labor, those profits would have been significantly less. And we are still depending on the unpaid or underpaid labor of millions of human beings — from prison workers to immigrants to foreign labor. The question of slavery is still with us. America has a legacy of harming other human beings and justifying that harm by glorifying the wealth it brings to a few. Thankfully America also has a legacy of resisting that impulse."

Camille Dungy, The Sun, June 2018, p.7

Thursday, June 7, 2018

Quote of the day - Camille Dungy

I made a decision to have a child, and it’s not a decision my husband and I would have made if we couldn’t have faith that our child — and children like her — could enjoy the freedom to achieve her full potential. Every day I work to make this world worthy of the risk I took. 
Camille Dungy, The Sun Magazine, June, 2018, p.5

Editor's note:
The U.S. census has reported that the fertility rate in 2017 in the U.S. is 1.8 which is below the 2.1 replacement rate necessary to maintain the population. 

The suicide rate is again up from previous years.

These social indicators may mean that Trumpian policies have contributed to Americans having less hope in their own lives and the future.

Can Unitarian Universalism help restore faith in our own well being?


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