Religioin in the public square - A March in New York City on January 5, 2020 against anti-semitism.

Book Review - The Gadfly Papers - What's wrong with Unitarian Universalism

The Gadfly Papers: Three Inconvenient Essays by One Pesky Minister by Todd Eklof is a very interesting collection of essays about what troubles Unitarian Universalism in our current times.

I found it very validating as Rev. Dr. Eklof points out several of the dysfunctional dynamics which plague the UUA and many UU churches.

In the first essay, Eklof, to put it bluntly, writes that policial correctness is killing us, and forcing us into identity politics which diminishes the importance of our shared humanity.

In the second essay, Eklof argues that it may be time for a divorce because the merger of Unitarians and Universalists has not served the NRM, New Religious Movement, well leaving its members and outsides confused about our identity, mission, and vision. In other words, Eklof writes that we have lost our way because we have not remembered our history and without a sense of our history we have no joint vision of our future. Amen! I have sat through enough incoherent and irrelevant sermons to last me for the rest of my life.

In the third and last essay, Eklot argues from a position of scholastic logic how the brouhaha over the hiring controversy back in 2017 leading to the resignation of the UUA President, Peter Morales, and several of his staff, was based not on sound human resource management policies and ethics but on identity politics and inbred conflicts of interest when a board member wanted a job as a paid staff person and cried foul when she wasn't selected for the job.

I was already on the edge when it came to my committment to Unitarian Universalism because I have felt for many years that its governance structure left a lot to be desired as well as its lack of a clear mission and vision for its organizational efforts.

I don't like Eklof's cute and self-denigrating title. His critique is substantive and it amounts to more than just being a gadfly and his being "pesky." He is a deep thinker and a skilled writer and anyone who cares about Unitarian Univeralism should give his book a serious read.

Daily Reflections, Day Forty, The peace that gradually arises.

Day Forty

The peace that gradually arises.

“A miracle is a correction introduced into false thinking by me. It acts as a catalyst, breaking up erroneous perception and reorganizing it properly. This places you under the Atonement principle, where perception is healed. Until this has occurred, knowledge of the Divine Order is impossible.” ACIM, T-1.1.37:1-4

A Course In Miracles teaches that there is wrong mindedness and right mindedness. Wrong mindedness is thinking with the world of the ego and right mindedness is thinking with the world of the Spirit.

The Atonement principle is the principle that teaches us that the separation isn’t real and that we are still at One with God if only we can remember this fact. As we remember our Oneness with God, our perception and way of thinking is healed. Until we accept the Atonement, our awareness of the Divine is impossible.

The above passage may seem very esoteric and metaphysical and it is, but it also is very simple. All we have to do is choose separation or Oneness. Separation creates the world of the ego, and awareness of Oneness is the world of the Spirit.

Salvation will come when everybody loves everybody all the time. This awareness can come to any person at any time, but, as a species, it appears that we have to wait for everyone to get to the same place at the same time.

Today, I will remind myself several times to take a deep breath, relax, clear my mind, and remember the Oneness of the Divine from which I have come and to which I will return. This thought can fill me with fear, but I will try to sit with it and experience the peace that gradually arises.

All the Daily Reflections can be accessed by clicking here.

Considerations for a spiritual life - Caring for young children 1 - 7

Chapter Five

Stages of spiritual development.

Stage one

Osho describes ten stages in the human life cycle which occur in 7 year cycles in his book, Maturity: The Responsibility of Being Oneself. The church, to facilitate human growth and development, has a different function to play during each of these stages.

In the Catholic Church, a sacramental church, the seven sacraments are provided at some of the major milestones of human development such as Baptism at birth, Marriage or Solemn Vows at the entrance to adulthood, and Last Rites at the time of impending death.

Other religions have their own traditions and customs in marking and providing ritualistic recognition and acknowledgment of major life transitions.  In this, and subsequent articles, a brief description will be provided for each 7 year cycle as well as the developmental goal, and the activities which contribute to the achievement of that goal. Maturity can be thought of as achieving the developmental goal in each stage of the life cycle.

The first seven years the child is narcissistic. Here is how Osho describes this stage:

”For the first seven years a child is self-centered, as if he is the center of the whole world. The whole family moves around him. Whatsoever are his needs, they are to be fulfilled immediately; otherwise he will go into a tantrum, anger, rage.

He lives like an emperor, a real emperor—the mother, the father, all are servants, and the whole family just exists for him. And of course he thinks the same is true for the wider world. The moon rises for him, the sun rises for him, the seasons change for him.

A child for seven years remains absolutely egoistic, self-centered. If you ask psychologists they will say a child for seven years remains masturbatory, satisfied with himself. He does not need anything, anybody. He feels complete."

Osho. Maturity: The Responsibility of Being Oneself (Osho Insights for a New Way of Living) . St. Martin's Press.p.24

The child at this age is to be spoiled. The child is to be nurtured. The child’s needs should be met in a loving, generous way. If the child’s needs are dependably responded to and met, the child will become secure. If not, the child will be anxious, avoidant, or disorganized.

Children at this age are to be protected and loved. The family and the church should be a place for play and use of creative imagination.

Signs of positive development are an attitude of trust and confidence, and ability to regulate one’s emotions and physical functions, and the willingness to try new things and interact with a sense of purpose with others and the environment.

Freud and other developmental psychologists have observed that the basic human personality is pretty well set by age 7. After than it is fine tuning.

The function of the church is to support the parents and the family in nurturing the development of the child. Providing family activities where young children are included is important. Helping children understand their feelings and the world around them is the main focus. Churches often facilitate social support for parents with baptism and dedication ceremonies.

Churches are challenged to find ways of including young children in the life of the church without being condescending, patronizing, and marginalizing. Jesus said, “Let the little children come to me” but churches often sequester them into daycare rooms and “Sunday school classrooms.” Rather than manifest patience and welcome, many older church members, having been raised with what John Bradshaw called “poisonous pedagogies” operate on the principle of “spare the rod, spoil the child.”

Children should grow up loving church, but most find it boring and off putting and as they are able to voice their own preferences, say they  don’t want to go to church.

Many churches have “youth ministers” and “Sunday school teachers” rather than family ministers. A good family minister focuses on helping parents and other church members grow spiritually in their care and concern for the children among them. While the focus is on caring for children, the more significant focus is on helping parents and other adults care for children.

Nothing will help an adult mature faster than to have a child for whose growth and developoment they are responsible for.

Daily Reflections, Day Thirty nine, Do I Want Love Or Fear?

Day Thirty nine

Do I want love or fear?

“Miracles are examples of right thinking, aligning your perceptions with truth as God created it.” ACIM.T-1.1.36:1

Right thinking is when we bring our thoughts into alignment with the world of the Spirit rather than the world of the ego. The world of the Spirit is the truth as God created it rather than the ego which is made up of illusions of our own making.

Our goal is to become aware of our own holiness which is joined with and part of the holiness of others. The miracle is nothing, in and of itself, other than a shift in our focus from the world of the ego to the world of the Spirit. This shift is always within our decision making ability.

We do not have the power over external circumstances and events, but we always have control over how we wish to respond to those circumstances and events. This power can, indeed, seem miraculous.

Today, I will remind myself several times, on what I want to focus my mind. Do I choose the Spirit and the world of Love, or the ego, and the world of illusion? I will ask myself whenever I am upset, “Do I want Love or fear?”

This reflection on the choice between Love and fear is related to the first principle of Unitarian Universalism when we covenant together to affirm and promote the inherent worth and dignity of every person.

All the Daily Reflections can be accessed here.

Editor's note:

One of the goals of UU A Way Of Life is to help people become aware of their holiness. One of the tools, activities, to achieve this goal is reflection on one's own interior spiritual life. These reflections can be fueled by many ideas and the ideas in this first year of Daily Reflections comes from A Course In Miracles.

The Daily Reflections posted here will also, when appropriate, reference various aspects of Unitarian Universalist Theology. Your help is appreciated by posting comments.

Climate change policy advocacy

From Democracy Now on 01/13/20

Nearly 150 people were arrested on Capitol Hill Friday in a climate protest led by Academy Award-winning actor and activist Jane Fonda.

Fonda has been leading weekly climate demonstrations in Washington, D.C., known as “Fire Drill Fridays,” since October. For her last and 14th protest, actors Martin Sheen and Joaquin Phoenix, indigenous anti-pipeline activist Tara Houska, journalist Naomi Klein and dozens more lined up to get arrested as they demanded a mass uprising and swift political action to thwart the climate crisis.

Fonda then marched with supporters down Pennsylvania Avenue to a Chase Bank branch where environmentalist Bill McKibben and dozens of others were occupying the space to draw attention to the bank’s ties to the fossil fuel industry. Ten, including McKibben, were arrested.

The day of action was the launch of “Stop the Money Pipeline,” a campaign to halt the flow of cash from banks, investment firms and insurance companies to the fossil fuel industry.

“Let us remember that we are not the criminals,” Naomi Klein told a crowd of protesters. “The criminals are the people who are letting this world burn for money.”

To watch 14 min video click here.

The three stages of changing climate change policies and practices

1. Educate and inform

2. Vote

3. Strike

Support Democracy Now one of the few non corporate news outlets that reports on climate news.

I make a contribution to Democracy Now regularly.

Daily Reflections, Day Thirty eight, All I Have To Give To Others Is My Own State Of Being

Another post has been added to Daily Reflections, Day Thirty eight, All I Have To Give To Others Is My Own State Of Being. To access it click here.