Gun culture in US is a problem

President Trump has called the killing in Las Vegas "pure evil" and yet the actions he calls "pure evil" are nothing but the fruition of a gun culture which he has promoted when he accepted the endorsement of the National Rifle Association and bragged about it.

St. Paul writes in his letter to the Galatians 6:7, "Do not be deceived. God cannot be mocked. A man reaps what he sows." And Americans are reaping what they have sown, aided, and abetted. Nevada has the most lax gun laws in the nation, and gun shows occur every week in Las Vegas where guns can be purchased without back ground checks. Guns, the purveyors of injury and death, are glorified and promoted.

To see this kind of gun violence is to be expected in a culture of perverted values and incentives. To demonize an individual behaving in a culture which not only condones but encourages a glorification of guns is not pure evil but a huge societal mistake.


The gun culture in the US is in violation of many of UUs principles. It glorifies violence and attack rather than compassion and peace. UUs stand on the side of love not destruction.

President Trump's values contradictory to Unitarian Universalism

"This, in turn, would provide the cover to push through aspects of the Trump agenda that require a further suspension of core democratic norms—such as his pledge to deny entry to all Muslims (not only those from selected countries), his Twitter threat to bring in “the feds” to quell street violence in Chicago, or his obvious desire to place restrictions on the press."

Klein, Naomi. No Is Not Enough: Resisting Trump's Shock Politics and Winning the World We Need (p. 6). Haymarket Books. Kindle Edition.

It seems apparent but not often enough discussed that the values of Trumpism are often at odds with the values of Unitarian Universalism. Trump's Muslim ban is antithetical to UUs first principle, the inherent worth and dignity of every person and the second principle, justice, equity, and compassion in human relations, the fourth principle of free and responsible search for truth and meaning,  and the sixth principle, the goal of world community with peace, liberty, and justice for all.

President Trump has the so called "bully pulpit" where he can teach his values to a mixed response. It is more important than ever that another vision of humanity is shared with our brothers and sisters based on our UU faith of the oneness of humanity and the inherent goodness in people. Start where you are and be kind to people today especially people who are different from yourself.

Principle 4 leads to principle 1

Seeking truth and meaning leads one to the awareness of the inherent worth and dignity of every person. How long will it take for human beings to learn this lesson?

"...you are not free to choose the curriculum, or even the form in which you learn it. You are free, however, to decide when you want to learn it. And as you accept it, it is already learned." A Course in Miracles, Manual For Teachers, 2.3:6-8

As a psychotherapist, and in examining my own life, I observe that people do the same damn things over and over again until they learn it's not working and try a different, hopefully, a better way.

Gurdjieff said the difference between winners and losers is not that they both don't suffer. Winners and losers suffer the same. The difference is that winners learn from their suffering and losers don't learn a damn thing. In other words we don't get to chose the curriculum of life only when we want to learn from it.

Socrates said an unexamined life is not worth living. How many people do you know who live examined lives? I am blessed to know some. I live one.

Carl told me that he was sitting at a stop light and noticed the other drivers sitting in cars around him. It dawned on him that they all had stories he knew nothing about. It seemed overwhelming to him for a moment and he asked me if I thought he was going crazy? On the contrary, I responded, it seemed like he was maturing. "You are breaking out of your narcissistic bubble and becoming empathic."

"You mean it's a good thing," he asked skeptically.

"Absolutely," I replied. "Your wondering and caring about your fellow human beings is an important step onto your spiritual path."

Carl seemed content and went on to talk about other things.

In A Course In Miracles this looking on our brother with love and seeing him as part of the whole of which we are also a part is what ACIM calls faith, It is written in ACIM, "To have faith is to heal. It is the sign that you have accepted the Atonement for yourself, and would therefore share it." T-19.I.9:1-2

UUs are here to share their awareness of the goodness of humanity. This faith is counter cultural. We are one of the lights in the darkness.

Here If You Need Me, the UUAWOL nonfiction book of the month for September, 2017

The UU A Way Of Life non fiction book of the month for September, 2017 has been Kate Braestrup's book, Here If You Need Me. It is a wonderful book about loss and grief and new life based on love, sharing, and ministry. Braestrup writes in Chapter 18 on page 194, "Mourning, that excruciating conspiracy of human memory and human love, demands rituals that can prolong the relationship between the living and the dead."

And it reminds me of what I have learned in my life which is that the physical body dies but the spirit continues to live on in the stories we tell about the person's values, opinions, beliefs, practices, preferences, and intentions.

In October, 2017, our nonfiction book will be Naomi Klein's book, "No Is Not Enough."

Truth and meaning is based more on what I do than what I say

The fourth principle of Unitarian Universalism is to covenant together to affirm and promote the free and responsible search for truth and meaning. If you wonder what the truth is and what it means watch what people do; watch what I do. What kind of choices do I make? What kinds of actions do I engage in?

If you are spiritually mature, you understand that you are a teacher of God by your example, the life you have created, the values you act on, the opinions, interpretations, and meanings you make and share. Actions speak louder than words and actions come from our beliefs about what it is we think we want to have happen.

The pupils of the life course we teach have been assigned to us often by circumstances that we can't account for. They come into our lives because there is something they can learn from us and us from them.

A person asked Mother Teresa, "Jesus said that the way to the kingdom is to love as I have loved and I wonder whom should I love?" Mother Teresa replied, "Love whomever Life puts in your path."

Stephen Gaskin said one time that in the end all we have to offer another human being is our own state of existence. So what condition is your condition in? We need to be attentive to our own well being if we are to be of any help to anyone else. People should follow the airplane rule and put their own oxygen mask on first, then attend to the needs of others.

Fiction book of the month, Heroes Of The Frontier

We are at the end of the month, September, 2017, when our UUAWOL fiction book of the month has been Dave Eggers, Heroes Of The Frontier. To close out the month, the quote that might be best is on page 152 when Samantha, Josie's foster sister asks her, "Do you feel like you're doing what you're supposed to be doing? That you're using your time here properly?" Josie laughed, to undercut what she'd just said, but she knew, even in her stupor, that this was the central thought that had occupied her mind for the better part of twenty years."

And it is the central thought that has occupied most thoughtful people for years. And the question for all of us is "are we using our time here properly?"

The UUAWOL fiction book of the month for October 2017 will be "My Grandmother Asked Me To Tell You She's Sorry by Fredrick Backman.

What is the "truth and meaning" we are looking for?

The fourth principle of Unitarian Universalism is the free and responsible search for truth and meaning. A possible answer to the question "what is this truth and meaning" we are looking for is Love.

At one level I think it is easy to understand that what we all are looking for is love. And yet we are confused about what love is. I was taught that there are at least 5 kinds of love: agape, charitable love; philia, brotherly love; platonic love; eros, romantic love; and storge, parental love. It seems that these distinctions, while meaningful, still hide the deeper understanding that these different kinds of love are just parts of a larger, grander, more abiding love which is the ground of our being, what some people have called the godhead. Some people, like Jesus, simply say that God is love.

A woman asked me in a pointed way one time whether I believed in God. I answered, "It depends on what God you are asking about?" She was a fundamentalist Christian whose God was very judgmental and consigning people to either heaven or hell. If this is the God she is talking about, her God, no I don't believe in it.

Some people say, "I don't believe in God," and I ask them, "What God is it that you don't believe in?"

Some people's gods are more mature than others. In considering the concept of spiritual development an indicator of the stage of spiritual development might be the kind of God the person does or doesn't believe in.

An indicator of a higher stage of spiritual development is the understanding that God is a verb not a noun. God might be thought of as "the force" which Luke Skywalker in Star Wars described.

"Becoming one with the all" gets mocked as New Age psychobabble and yet this desire of going home, joining the cosmic consciousness is a higher level stage of spiritual development.

If we considered the stages of spiritual development on a continuum from thinking of God like Santa Claus who rewards or punishes good and bad boys and girls to becoming one with the all as in each person being a drop in the ocean who is stressed by being separated from the source of its being until it can meld back into the whole from whence it came, where are you in your spiritual development?

The UUA has an interesting handout on stages of faith development based on Fowler's model which you can access by clicking here.