UU AWOL podcast, Episode 6, Stages of faith development, Milestone 1, Trust and Faith

UUAWOL postcast is also available on Itunes and other podcast distributors. Look under "Unitarian Universalism: A Way Of Life.

Prophetic voices and events - Linda Brown dies at age 75 on Sunday, 03/25/18

Linda Brown, the Kansas girl at the center of the 1954 Supreme Court ruling that struck down racial segregation in schools, has died at age 76.





For obituary from New York Times, click here.

Healing is available if we choose

Unitarian Universalists covenant together to affirm and promote justice, equity, and compassion in human relations. Perhaps they should change this principle and covenant together to affirm and promote healing.

What would make a person want to be a victim? What would make a person want to suffer? There must be something in it for the person or (s)he wouldn't choose it.

Being a victim and suffering brings sympathy and maybe compensation of some sort as witnesses are manipulated to cater to the victim's desires.

The victim and person suffering becomes the center of attention and requires that others pay homage and console. In victimhood and suffering there is a power, hidden, that places the person in a superior position over others.

Playing the victim and being long suffering, for some, can become a way of life and a very powerful way of controlling interpersonal interactions. Would the victim and suffering person be healed, (s)he would give up his/her power and no longer be able to command the special place they so desire in other people's attention.

Victimhood and suffering have a huge place on the path of the ego. They command the media and our attention to the horrors and trauma that are highlighted constantly. Victimhood and suffering demand that they occupy center stage in our lives that we may all live in fear of the awful and the terrible and feel superior that these terrible things happen, and thank goodness they happen to other people and not to me and mine.

A  bumper sticker says "Reality is when it happens to you." It reminds us to be fearful of our fragile hold on safety and well being because it can be snatched away from us in an instant.

With the dawning comes the awareness that there must be a better way. We come to realize that victimhood and suffering on the path of the ego is nonsense and a social construction that we have created. We realize that these creations have blocked our awareness of Love's presence within us and among us, and once again we have been seduced to walk down the path of the ego instead of on the path of the spirit where healing is available if we choose.

Flower communion not newcomer's cup of tea

Brockport, NY - A Brockport man who says he was attracted to Unitarian Universalism reported he changed his mind last week when it was announced that the next week's service would involve flower communion.

"What the hell is flower communion," said Barry? "What ever happened to bread and wine?!"

"Is it  these female pastors? What will they come up with next," exclaimed Barry?!

Trying to calm Barry down and keep him involved in the church, Brenda told him, "They smell nice." Barry wrinkled up his nose and deliberately blew a fart.

Brenda laughed which started Barry laughing as well.

"This is some kind of religion," said Barry.

"Better than dying on a cross, right," said Brenda?

"I have to use the rest room," said Barry who went out the front door and was never seen at that church again.

Open-mindedness, open-heartedness is a milestone in spiritual development

Unitarian Universalists covenant together to affirm and promote the acceptance of one another and encouragement to spiritual growth. This accepting and encouraging presumes an open-mindedness which presumes forgiveness.

Unlike other religious traditions, forgiveness is not often discussed in UU circles which may account for its low membership. Without forgiveness, which is a fundamental need of all humans who have walked the path of the ego, the journey on the path of the spirit cannot occur.

Human beings make mistakes. That's how we learn. When mistakes are made, they need to be recognized, acknowledged, corrected, and any harm done, repaired. With this forgiveness, Love's presence emerges into our awareness and with our open heartedness, open mindedness, we are born again.

Another milestone on the path of the spirit is open-mindedness or open-heartedness. We give up judgment. We come to understand and experience that all of God's creations deserve our Love because God created and loves them. This is part of our Universalist heritage.

Open-hearted people walk with Love on the path of the spirit. Open-minded people are in Love with everybody all the time. This takes forgiveness.

We come to understand that anyone who walks on the path of the ego needs our forgiveness "for they know not what they do."

Mistaking the path of the ego as the road to happiness is a sad choice and the traveler on the path of the spirit gently reminds them to chose again. Mistakes are merely mistakes and the growth in consciousness is inevitable as we all proceed to the At-one-ment when everybody loves everybody all the time.

Ultimately, the open-minded, open-hearted milestone is experienced when forgiveness and Love becomes our experience and who we are. We have unlearned the ways of the path of the ego and pursued the walk with Love on the path of the spirit and this turning brings us peace, and bliss, and Oneness with the All.

Prophetic voices and events - Unitarian Universalist civil rights work, Viola Liuzzo, died today, March 25, 53 years ago, in 1965

More than forty years after she was murdered, Unitarian Universalist civil rights worker Viola Liuzzo of Detroit was posthumously inducted into the Michigan Women’s Hall of Fame on October 25, 2006. 

The 39-year-old Liuzzo was killed on the night of March 25, 1965, by members of the Ku Klux Klan as she was driving another civil rights worker to Montgomery, Ala., at the conclusion of the march from Selma to Montgomery.

For more click here

Sixth Sunday of Lent - Palm Sunday - walking the talk

The sixth week of Lent begins with Palm Sunday which initiates Holy Week.

Palm Sunday is the triumphant celebration on the path of the ego wherein Jesus is acclaimed by the multitudes but it doesn't last long because within five days they will turn on Him and tell Pilate to release Barabas and execute Him.

The mob is fickle and can turn on a dime. Social status, the role of the celebrity, is an ephemeral thing which is counterfeit. It has no substance. It is for entertainment and amusement only.

The dark side of power also is a fearful thing which requires understanding, faithfulness, and Love to overcome.

Jesus set it up for people to acknowledge that He was bringing an important message to the world. The mob acclaimed and celebrated Him and then killed Him.

After He came into Jerusalem on a donkey to some applause and celebration,  He went to the temple and threw out the money changers and pissed off the religious leaders who ran the temple.

It was then that the religious leaders of the day decided Jesus had rocked the boat enough and they wanted him eliminated. His challenges to their hypocrisy and legalism was too much for them. Jesus had chosen the path of the spirit not the path of the ego and the guardians of the path of the ego saw Him as a threat to their religious ways.

When it comes to traveling the path of the spirit, religion can be an obstacle. Religion can not only block one's journey, but actually attack the traveler who would dare question religious power and control.

This final week of Lent teaches some difficult and powerful lessons, the main one of which is that the path of the ego can unleash viscous attacks when it is threatened. Jesus is faithful to His Walk With Love on the path of the spirit. He rises above the fears of the attacks on the path of the ego and prevails on the path of the spirit in the Walk With Love and we still tell this story 2,000 years later.

Later this week, on Thursday we will celebrate the Last Supper. On Good Friday, we will witness Jesus' execution. On Holy Saturday, we mourn His death and wonder what will happen next. On Easter Sunday, we will learn of the resurrection of Jesus' spirit and we are filled with hope and Love for humanity.

We are grateful to Jesus for showing us the way. He demonstrated to us that there is a better way than the path of the ego. He preached about and manifested His life on the path of the spirit. Jesus told his disciples simply that the way to the Kingdom is to "love as I have loved."

Jesus manifested the Love of which He spoke. He was in Love with Life and that Love still radiates throughout the world over 2,000 years later.