Nemo demonstrates the "multiplication of courage" and its power and benefits

Racism is a live and well in Feguson, MO in direct opposition to our UU principles/values.

Police in riot gear confront a black man in Ferguson, Missouri. Photo is from a  New York Times Article published on 08/12/14. To view it click here.

Editor's note:

I am interested and curious in the response of the UU churches in the St. Louis area to this incident and the problems in Ferguson. How well integrated, if at all, are the UU churches in this part of the country?

I wonder how well our UU  principles of the inherent worth and dignity of every person; justice, equity and compassion in human relations; and acceptance of another and encouragement to spiritual growth are being applied and enacted in this area of the country? Along with the Travon Martin case in Atlanta, GA, there are symptoms of pernicious racism which still exist in pockets of our society and it is interesting that it is institutionalized in the form of police power in our communities.

Story of the day - If the preacher were the play mate of the month would more men go to church?

Alicia still hasn't found a church home but she has been looking and visited several mostly without Greg although he said he would go if she found one she liked. Like everything else she thought to herself. He wants me to take the initiative and do all the work and then he'll go along. But at least he wasn't trying to stop her and he cheered her on from the sidelines so she thought she shouldn't complain.

Alicia had grown up in a family which had religious traditions. Having been raised Catholic she had made all the sacraments, at her mother's insistence, except confirmation. That sacrament they couldn't make her do and the stuff about virgin births and resurrections and walking on water and turning water into wine had been enthralling stories when she was five and six didn't work for her any more at 14 and certainly not when she was 26.

And she was worried, because if and when she married Greg, which she thought she would eventually do, and they had children, how would they raise them? What values would they teach them? Greg was very laid back. He was 6 when his parents divorced and neither one of them were religious and Greg never went to church so he had nothing to fall back on when it came to religious upbringing. Greg is a very spiritual guy, that's what attracted her to him, but he was pretty air headed when it came to putting his thoughts and feelings about his religious beliefs into words.

Now that she had kind of given up on her Roman Catholicism she didn't really know what to do and where she belonged. She liked the Unitarian Universalist church she had visited, All Soul's, but they didn't seem to believe in much as far as she could tell, but they seemed to be nice people and didn't faun all over her and ask her questions about whether she'd been saved and loved Jesus like they had at some other churches she had been to.

The things she really like about the UUs is that they seemed very open and welcoming to everyone especially gay people. She had had a college room mate who was gay and even though Alicia was heterosexual they had become, and continue to be, good friends, and Alicia thought, this is a church I could bring Jennifer to and not feel embarrassed or wonder how she would be treated were people to find out she was lesbian.

And so, Alicia said to Greg, "Jennifer and I are going to visit All Soul's next Sunday for their service do you want to come?"

"Is this it?" Greg asked. "Is this the church you like?"

"Well, I don't know for sure, but it's the best so far, and I told Jennifer that they are very welcoming to gay people and so she said she wanted to check it out too," said Alicia.

"Are you sure, you're not bi?" said Greg laughing a little nervously.

"Come on," said Alicia, "we've been though this. You like Jennifer, right?"

"Of course," said Greg. "I guess I'm just a little jealous."

"Of my friendship with Jennifer?" said Alicia. "You could have come with me on my church visits any time and still can. Jennifer is the one who jumped on board and wanted to come, and I just asked you if you wanted to come with us. How can you be jealous of that?"

"Stupid!" said Greg. "I'm just being stupid. After my parents and everything, I have a hard time with trust because of my insecurity. You know that, right? I'm working on it. Sure I'd love to go with you, or the two of you, whatever."

"Sunday at 10:00," said Alicia. "You'll have to get up early for you on a Sunday," said Alicia with a tone of jest.

"Is the preacher a man or a woman?" asked Greg.

"I don't even know," said Alicia. "Does it make a difference?"

"Well if she was the playmate of the month look-a-like it might," said Greg laughing again. "But with my luck she'd probably be a lesbian."

Religion = multiplication of courage?

In her fifth chapter of The Green Boat entitled, “Finding Shipmates,” Mary Pipher describes the coalition she got involved in during 2010 – 2011 in Nebraska to fight against the TransCanada, XL pipeline crossing Nebraska from Alberta, Canada to Illinois and Oklahoma. Here is part of what Pipher writes, “All of us were progressives who had worked for causes all our lives. None of us seemed to vote for a candidate who won.” P. 101 I laughed to myself when I read those two sentences. I thought to myself, these are my kind of people. I would fit right in. I wondered if Mary Pipher might be a Unitarian Universalist, but alas, she calls herself the world’s worst Buddhist.

Pipher discusses the community organizing that went on and the unlikely alliances that formed such as between liberal tree-huggers and conservative ranchers. She writes, “Our coalition was allowing us to turn our individual anger, fear, and sorrow into something better and stronger. Working together, we were experiencing what Nelson Mandela called ‘the multiplication of courage.’” P. 113

Pipher’s sentences above remind me of the Beatles lyric in their song, With A Little Help From My Friends: “Oh, I get by with a little help from my friends. Mm, I get high with a little help from my friends. Mm, gonna try with a little help from my friends.”

The values, the principles of Unitarian Universalism are very counter cultural, when they are applied and brought to bear in American society. In the situation, Pipher is concerned with in the Green Boat, the concerns are climate change and ecological integrity which are directly related to UU seventh principle, “respect for the interdependent web of all existence of which we are a part”, and the second principle, “justice, equity, and compassion in human relations.” It would seem odd, at the face of them, that these principles, which everyone superficially agrees with, would place UUs at odds with people, and corporations, who want to build a possibly toxic pipeline of oil through the heart land of the United States only to allow the production of more carbon into the atmosphere from America.

It is easy for a single individual to feel defeated, demoralized, overwhelmed by a sense of impending doom, until that individual finds other like minded people to stand in solidarity with to advocate for principles and values that will significantly affect policy making and legislation that govern our communal life together in our community, state, nation, and planet.

It takes energy and courage and bravery to stand up for what is right not just profitable and expedient, and it is easier to do when one is not alone but is supported in the effort. Religion can provide this support on many levels, the cognitive, emotional, spiritual, social, and cultural. The Unitarian Universalist faith is a faith for this time in human history and provides what Mary Pipher wrote that Nelson Mandela called the “multiplication of courage.” This religion may be helpful for a progressive person of faith whose beliefs never seem to gain the popular support of the majority nor whose candidates usually win.

Mary Pipher seems to have overcome her depression, and I have too, and hopefully you will never become depressed, but if you do, remember it is temporary and you can get by with a little help from friends.

My Kind Of Church Music - With A Little Help From My Friends, the Beatles

Mrs. Flexer, first grade teacher, retires after 41 years

Published on Aug 9, 2014

Mrs. Flexer has been a teacher for 41 years, and on her final day, Kid President helped throw a surprise party for her with all of her old students. 

Editor's note:

This woman appears to be a modern day saint and based on the testimonials is a great example of someone who affirms and promotes the inherent worth and dignity of every person. Awesome!

"Just sign the book. It's all good, pal."

This idea of acceptance of one another in our congregations in the third principle of Unitarian Univeralism is a strange idea when looked at deeply because it rarely occurs if we are honest. We constantly compare ourselves to other people to determine if we are better or worse than they are and, let’s be honest, we human, especially in the United States, are very judgmental. We strive, at least us middle class folks, “to keep up with the Jones.” Our children learn this ethical imperative of competition in school where grading is the name of the game not only for students but increasingly for teachers. Pecking orders are not only informally developed, but reinforced by incentivized rewards from awards, to scholarships, to bragging rights as evidenced by bumper stickers which say, “Proud of my honor student at__________”

The American way of life is based on the competition of predatory capitalism. Cooperation and collaboration, while applauded and paid lip service to, is recognized and acknowledged because it is unusual and stands out to attract special recognition and congratulations when it occurs and is noticed because of its rarity and thus special nature. While this competitive, envious, and jealous streak is endemic in all areas of our culture, it perhaps is no more strident and pronounced than in our religions which damn each other to hell for non-belief in whatever one’s professed creed happens to be. These religious beliefs lead to wars and heinous acts of aggression and discrimination as has happened in recent times between Christians and Muslims in the United States.

One of the major and ubiquitous topics for Unitatrian Universalists adult education is “conflict resolution.” One of the major reasons for the need for this kind of skill training is the inability of UUs to accept one another comfortably without walking away which in this day and age is very easy to do and thus the low numbers in the denomination which continue to slowly decline further.

It is apparent to those who have deeply studied this topic that power struggles love a vacuum where there is no clear leader or standards. In this environment, gossip, rumor, back- biting,  and power struggles flourish. Unitarian Univeralism is a denomination with no real leadership. It’s congregations are all independently self governed supposedly based on the fifth principle of Unitarian Universalism, the belief in the democratic process. Perhaps Unitarian Universalism takes this idea of self governing democracy too far to the extreme of anarchy where anything goes and one person’s idea and opinion is as good as anyone else’s. It seems no one is courageous enough to say out loud that this assumption is false. Some ideas are better than others if the move forward is to be successful producing the outcomes and results desired. Further, someone has to take responsibility ultimately for the decision of the next step which the group then needs to support and follow even if they don’t agree or don’t want to accept it.

The failure of nerve in leadership is the greatest cause of conflict and non-acceptance. This is the most unrecognized factor in the failure of Unitarian Univeralism to flourish at the local level, the regional level, and the Association level. People will not long continue to take responsibility unless they have the authority commensurate to carry out those responsibilities, and this failure to grant authority is the biggest factor contributing to failure of congregations and the denomination.

In the third principle we cheer lead about acceptance of one another but have little practical understanding of how this works. Acceptance does not mean the abandonment of standards. Acceptance doesn’t mean the lack of accountability to mutually agreed upon, ratified, and sanctioned authority. Without this structure there is no security, predictability, reliability, a clearly designed organization, we can say “yes” to.

When I first was exploring Unitarian Universalism I had attended a UU church several times and the minister asked me if I would like to “sign the book”. I asked, “What does that involve? What do I have to do?”

He said, “Nothing, just sign the book.”

“Are there classes I have to attend? Any instruction I have to participate in so I know what I am getting into?” I naively asked.

“No,” he said smiling broadly and welcomingly. “All you have to do here is sign the book.”

“Well, okay. I guess I can just sign the book,” I said.

“Good,” he said. "We’ll do it at our next service.”

I really felt drawn to, and increasingly believed in, what I was learning about the values and history of Unitarian Universalism, but I felt like I was being played by a used car salesman. Is joining this church really this easy? They don’t require anything other than a willingness to “sign the book?” and later on I found out that they, of course, wanted my pledge to financially support the church.

I guess they just take anybody, I thought to myself. No questions asked. I started to wonder if Unitarian Univeralism is a real church. Like Groucho Marx, I wasn’t sure I wanted to be a member of a church that would so easily take a person like me without caring about what I cared about and believed in. It was harder becoming a Boy Scout and much more was required than becoming a UU.

And so, I learned early on in my experience of Unitarian Universalism that “acceptance” really doesn’t mean anything. It’s kind of like the “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy for gays in the military. Just join up. We take anybody. Don’t even bother discussing your questions and concerns because we don’t really care. They don’t make any difference. It’s all good, pal. Until, of course, it isn’t, and then the conflict arises and people don’t know what to do about it and so they need a workshop.

Rev. Galen Guengerich's sermon, "God Revised," give on January 26, 2014 at All Soul's Unitarian Church in Tulsa, OK as a guest minister

Rev. Galen Guengerich was the guest minister at All Souls Church in Tulsa Oklahoma on January 26, 2014 where he gave a 20 minutes sermon, "God Revised." Since we have and are devoting so much time to Rev. Guengerich's ideas from this book, his sermon may be of interest to you.