A Critical Reading Of Barbara Kingsolver's Flight Behavior from a Unitarian Universalist's perspective now available from Amazon.com

A critical reading of Barbara Kingsolver’s book, Flight Behavior, from a Unitarian Universalist’s perspective explores the topics that Fight Behavior covers: climate change, stagnating marriages, fears for the future of the children we desperately love, the role of science in society, the role of ethics in society, the dynamics of extended family life, cultural differences of region and class, infidelity, the importance of friendship, and the role of religion in our contemporary society. Whew! This is not beach book, but a critical reading of a novel of substance, depth, grace and challenge. It is not necessary to have read Flight Behavior to enjoy and profit from this book.

Intentional living may be what saves us

In chapter 6 of The Green Boat, Mary Pipher gets tough. She overcomes her pessimism and decides it is time to do something about climate change. She writes, “Implied in the term, ‘new healthy normal’ is my assumption that it is not mentally healthy to sit idly by while the human race destroys its mother ship.” P.117 And I want to holler across the pages, “You go girl!”

Pipher then goes on to describe what she calls “intentional living.” She writes, “In my book The Shelter Of Each Other, I argued that if we just let the culture happen to us we end up rushed, stressed, addicted, unhealthy, and broke. I want to advance that argument by suggesting that we be intentional with our time and money not only for ourselves and our families but for the entire planet.” Pp.120-121

Most of us do not live intentional lives, but rather lives for any number of reasons we have lost control of and then we complain of stress, fatigue, and aches and pains. Even worse, we blame other people telling ourselves that we would be happier if only x would do y and z. We give up our power and delude ourselves into thinking that our happiness depends on what other people do in which case we only become more frustrated, disillusioned, and depressed. Relief seems to be available in alcohol, drugs, promiscuity, gambling, eating, excessive exercising, excessive working, surfing the web, getting caught up in drama on the internet, texting, etc. We begin to protect ourselves by compartmentalizing our lives and rationalizing. Pipher writes:

“In Western Culture, we have a tendency to compartmentalize the ways we earn our living from what we call real life. Many decent people learn to check their integrity and values at the office door at eight a.m., then reclaim them at five p.m. How they spend their workdays doesn’t connect to how they define themselves as people. For example, kind and conscientious parents can somehow find themselves making products harmful to children.

This kind of compartmentalization of identity, at its extreme, is what the Nazis did. In The Nazi Doctors: Medical Killing and the Psychology of Genocide, R.L. Lifton interviewed Germans who had been involved in the slaughter of innocents. He concluded that many people would do anything with a relatively clear conscience as long as they could label it work. If they were obeying orders from a superior they would behave in ways they would never consider in their off-duty lives. In the early 1960s, Stanley Milgram learned this same thing in psychological studies.”  Pp. 124-125

People spit off, they disassociate one part of their lives from others, and play multiple roles which sometimes are quite conflicting and contradictory. In the 60s we had some wonderful expressions about people “having their shit together” or “not having their shit together.” When we met people who “had their shit together” we usually would get “good vibes” and when people “didn’t have their shit together” we got “bad vibes.” Pipher writes, “We could define the authentic life as one in which one’s values and behaviors are congruent. That is what the Buddhists call ‘right livelihood,’…” p.125

Intentional living requires that we slow down and don’t allow ourselves to be pressured by external circumstances any more than we have to. Pipher notes that a group at the Women’s Theological Center in Boston has a motto: “We must go slowly, there is not much time.” P.130 Pipher then tells a story about a developmentally disabled man who was a bagger at her super market who made a mistake when he was hurriedly packing an order which he then had to redo and said, “This is what happens when I get in a hurry. It always slows me down.” Pp.130-131 Pipher notes that we should slow down and “savor the world we have” instead of always wanting more, going faster, trying to get to a illusionary tomorrow when things will be better. 

Intentional living should help us achieve the sixth principle of Unitarian Universalism, a world community with peace, liberty, and justice for all. Intentional living, in the last and deepest analysis, is about Love, Unconditional Love, which, while it cannot be defined, we can become more aware of once we remove the obstacles and barriers we busily create that prevent us from the awareness of Love’s presence.

The Forest Man of Majuli Island - Respect and protection of the interdependent web in application

It has been said that the single most powerful thing one can do to combat climate change and promote peace is to plant a tree. Jadev Payeng has been doing just that since the 1970's on the once-barren sandbar on the banks of the Brahmaputra River in Assam, India. Over 40 years later, the forest he's planted is now larger than New York City's Central Park and is home to several thousand varieties of trees as well as an amazing diversity of wildlife, including rhino, elephants, and even tigers. - See more at: http://www.karmatube.org/videos.php?id=5309#sthash.6irHl142.dpuf

A film by Will McMaster.

Video from KarmaTube

God Revised, revised: The conversation continues now available on Kindle as well as in softcover paperback.

God Revised, revised: the conversation continues is now available in kindle as well as paperback editions. Check out the Kindle edition for just $3.99.



Please forward the information as you see fit. Thank you.
David Markham

Book "Critical reading of Flight Behavior by Barbara Kingsolver from a Unitarian Universalist's perspective" is now available.

There are 15 short essays in a small book of about 42 pages which are taken from the UU A Way of Life series in the month of June, 2014. PDF copies are free for the asking at davidgmarkha@gmail.com.

Paperback copies will be available next week from amazon.com for $9.95.

It is not necessary to have read Fight Behavior to still enjoy and benefit from the "Critical reading..." book. The book will be enjoyable and satisfying for individual use, and also lends itself very nicely to a book discussion group or a small ministry group or other kind of adult educational program.

Public square - "Criminal" criminal justice system

Yesterday, we began, a new feature on the UU A Way Of Life online magazine, entitled, "The Public Square," which will examine how our UU faith might apply to public events and policies in our society.

Yesterday we commented on the killing of Michael Brown by Ferguson police in Ferguson, MO. In the editor's note I commented that racism seems more entrenched in the increasing militarizing of our police in our communities and the seeming obquitous phenomenon of police brutality against people of color.

Today, 08/14/14, the Pew Research Center re-published the results of a poll it did last year that found that blacks reported that police and the criminal justice system is the most racist institution in our American society.

Blacks are much more likely than whites to say that blacks faced unfair treatment in dealing with police or in the courts, according to a 2013 Pew Research Center survey. And blacks perceived racial biases to be greater in the criminal justice system than in other institutions.
For more information click here.

Unitarian Universalism is a very white denomination historically and currently. It also ignores, for the most part, the significant injustices in what I call our "criminal" criminal justice system. If Unitarian Universalists want to get serious about working on the issues of institutionalized racism in our society the local criminal justice system would be a good place to start.

Encouragement to question is the basis of a mature spirituality

Robert Hardies writes in his essay on the third principle of Unitarian Universalism, “acceptance of one another and encouragement to spiritual growth in our congregations,” in the book, The Seven Principles In Word And Worship, “This is a true description of true spiritual growth: growing hearts and souls large and supple enough to embrace – to love – more and more our complex world. This is the spirituality of the third Principle of Unitarian Universalism.” P.43

What Robert Hardies seems to be alluding to is what James Fowler describes as the fourth stage of his six stage model of faith development. Here is how the fourth stage is defined on Wikipedia: "Individuative-Reflective" faith (usually mid-twenties to late thirties) a stage of angst and struggle. The individual takes personal responsibility for his or her beliefs and feelings. As one is able to reflect on one's own beliefs, there is an openness to a new complexity of faith, but this also increases the awareness of conflicts in one's belief. When looked at from a developmental model, the stage of faith development that Hardies and Fowler are describing might be called, using a term from Lawrence Kohlberg the psychologist who researched moral development, as “post conventional.” In other words, the person has started to question and perhaps even rebel against the faith of their fathers and mothers and move beyond the conventional beliefs and norms and practices. I suspect that most Unitarian Universalists are at, at least, this stage of faith development. The encouragement to question, often frowned upon or punished by fundamentalist religion, is the basis, paradoxically, of a mature spirituality and religious practice.

Many people come to Unitarian Universalism searching. They are disaffected from their former faith. In my case, I am what is jokingly called a “recovering Catholic.” If Unitarian Universalism were to market its faith, proselytize, this stage 4 group of people is the group to reach out to. In this day and age, they are known as the “nones”, and the folks who say they are “spiritual but not religious.”

And what do these folks who are searching need to hear if we are to encourage them in their spiritual growth? First, they need to hear that they are not bad, crazy, or disloyal to be questioning, but healthy, curious, inquisitive, courageous, and brave. Second, they need to hear that they should be true to their selves and stand up for their right to question rather than be subservient. Third, they need to seek information and ideas from other people and groups they are attracted to. Fourth, they need to maintain a connection with those whom they are questioning and come to a place where they can agree to disagree. Fifth, they need to hear that it’s normal to feel anxious, unsettled, confused, unsure, and they are not alone because they are traveling now with fellow searchers.

When I left the Catholic Church and started attending the Unitarian Universalist church I was scared. I missed the familiar ritual, the security of being with like minded people whom  I understood and entering a world unfamiliar with people I was just learning about. Some people were friendly and welcoming, and some reserved and pleasant, and some distant and skeptical about who I was and what I was doing there. Over time I came to know them. It would have been helpful to have a mentor or like in Alcoholics Anonymous a “sponsor.” This happened somewhat informally but it would have been helpful to have a more formal role for such a person like a “god father or a god mother.”

The third principle asks us to accept and encourage, but it doesn’t say how to do these things. It leaves the wide open space for creativity in applying these ideas. Acceptance implies that we know the person and encouragement seems to definitely require this knowing. When people are entering stage four they are usually feeling vulnerable and so they require the perception of hope that things are going to be okay, and this comes from someone with faith from having been there and come through it, and with the certainty that Unitarian Univeralism provides something solid, substantive, relevant, uplifting, and practical in developing the skills for living the Good Life.


"Toto I have a feeling we're not in Kansas anymore." Dorothy moves into stage four faith development.