Monthly Archives: September 2007

Avarice and inhumanity

While researching today’s sermon, I found excerpts from a 1774 sermon by Elhanan Winchester, who was preaching Universalism in the 1770’s here in New England. This 1774 sermon was on the evils of the slave trade, and I would have expected that a Universalist preacher would emphasize the radical egalitarian aspects of Universalism, i.e., that God loves all persons equally, that all persons share in the same final destiny, and therefore allowing slavery goes against God’s intentions for humankind.

Perhaps Winchester makes that argument elsewhere in his sermon, but in the excerpt I read, he condemns slavery because it is founded on the “base and ignoble” principle of avarice. And, says Winchester, “avarice tends to harden the heart, to render the mind callous to the feelings of humanity, indisposes the soul to every virtue, and renders it prey to every vice.” Since Winchester did believe in some future punishment for sin, perhaps he is warning us that falling prey to avarice could result in punishment after death (up to fifty thousand year’s worth, in his theological system).

I’m an Ultra-Universalist myself (that is, I reject the idea of any punishment for sin after death), but I can draw a somewhat more subtle theological point from this. Any action that causes us to do evil, any action that “hardens the heart, renders the mind callous to the feelings of humanity,” makes us less human — it drives us further from God, if you prefer traditional theological language; or if you don’t like traditional theological language, it drives us away from love and loving relationships and so makes us less than human.

And if Winchester is correct, that avarice is one of the most base and ignoble of human sins — or to put it another way, that avarice quickly makes us less than human — this would imply that a free-market economic system based on self-centered interest could slip easily into avarice, which does not bode well for the morals or humanity of a people living under such an economic system.

(I’ve included more of Winchester’s words below….) Continue reading →

“Project Footstool”

A peek at some of the 146 works of fabric art hidden away in the sanctuary of First Unitarian in New Bedford. I particularly like the diversity of styles — some of the works are reflective of fabric art from that era (rough textures, subdued colors), others reflect a more traditional sensibility, and some are just outrageously bright. 3:24

(This video was scheduled to be posted last Friday, but I ran into technical glitches and had to re-shoot parts of it — now you know why the opening title says “Friday Video,” even though today is Wednesday.)

Note: video host blip.tv is defunct, so this video no longer exists.

PodCamp Boston 2

Coming up soon: PodCamp Boston 2, from 7 p.m. on Friday, October 28, through 5:00 p.m. on Sunday, October 28. According to their Web site, “PodCamp Boston 2 is the new media community UnConference that helps connect people interested in blogging, podcasting, social networks, video on the net, and new media together for three days to learn, share, and grow their new media skills.” Link to PodCamp Boston 2.

Although I’ll be tied up Saturday during the day, looks like I’ll be able to attend the rest of PodCamp. I’m going for three reasons:– (1) I love new media; (2) I’m fascinated by the UnConference phenomenon; and (3) I’m still trying to get organized to do a weekly video on this blog and maybe PodCamp will provide enough info and inspiration for me to make it happen.

If you’re planning on going, post something in the comments to this post, and maybe we can get together.

Classic church growth methodologies (that don’t work)

An earlier post on Carl George’s church growth books: Link

This past week, I was leafing through Carl George’s book Prepare Your Church for the Future. I was particularly struck by some of the things George says in the second chapter of this book, a chapter titled “Tally What You Inherited.” George claims that every church “embodies growth strategies that can be both identified and analyzed.” Then he proceeds to list sixteen different of the most common church growth methodologies. To my mind, four of these methodologies are of particular relevance to Unitarian Universalist congregations. These four existing and common growth methodologies are Sunday school, feeder and receptor patterns, next-door-to-the-right-institution syndrome, and capture by committee involvement.

Below you’ll find my brief notes on these four popular Unitarian Universalist growth strategies. Unfortunately, as I’ll detail below, these have not been effective growth strategies for us. We have also managed to screw up so-called Small Group Ministry, a growth strategy based on Carl George’s work, and I have some thoughts on that as well. But first, four classic growth methodologies that don’t serve us very well….

Continue reading →

Two trees

The last thirty days have been dry here. The dirt in our little garden beside our building is powder dry, and half of the flowers have died from thirst. When you walk around our neighborhood, you can tell which people have automatic watering systems for their lawns, because their grass is green and soft, while everyone else’s grass is golden brown and crisp.

At church today, we had our usual ingathering worship service, where everyone is invited to bring a small amount of water from their summer adventures and add it to a communal bowl. When the worship service was over, we took the bowl out beside the church, and the children of the church helped spread the water around the big old cedar tree growing there.

More water probably got on the children than got to the tree, and as soon as we were done, the children tore off to run around in circles once again. Cora and I stood there watching them, and we talked about how dry the last month or so has been. Cora said that she had heard that trees older than a hundred years are beginning to have a hard time with the lack of water. She pointed out some of the signs of lack of water on our big old cedar tree: loosened bark and cracks in the wood, which can provide access to insect pests.

Trees are having a tough time of it in general these days. Trees face a variety of invasive pests — the Eastern Hemlocks are dying from Woolly Aldegid infestations, and if the Asian Longhorn Beetle escapes its present quarantine in New York City, we’ll lose the maples, willows, horse chestnuts, and more. There’s global climate change, which some people predict will adversely impact many trees. And trees face other human-caused problems, like road salt which builds up near roads and kills trees. It makes sense to keep our trees as healthy as possible, so that they will have a better chance of surviving road salt, global climate change, and invasive insect pests.

So I said to Cora that I guessed it would be a good idea to ask our church sexton to put a hose out this week and water our big old cedar, and the oak tree, too. She said she thought that would be a good idea. We went back to watching her daughter and the other children run around under the trees, and it occurred to me that Cora had played under those same two trees back when she was a child growing up in our church.

Roremian snark, and an anecdote.

I’m reading Settling the Score: Essays on Music by Ned Rorem, the American composer. Rorem, who was brought up a Quaker, writes with equal parts snark and common sense. Amidst all the snark about musicians and composers, he comes up with some snark about religion:

Insofar as the church becomes action it dispenses with ritual. Catholics react, Quakers act. Quakers never use music and are the most social progressive of church groups. By underplaying the motionless symbol of the Trinity, Quakers emphasize the need for political movement. When they reinforce that need politically, they do so in silence.

Wow! Take that, Mother Teresa.

Then, a little later on in the same essay, Rorem offers this delightful anecdote from his childhood:

Although Quakers, our parents used to send Rosemary and me to other denominational Sunday schools from time to time. That was squelched when we came home and confectioned crucifixes. Nonetheless, on holidays our family attended Catholic or High Epsicopal services “for the pageantry.” One Christmas, arriving late at Church of the Redeemer at 56th and Blackstone, Father asked the usher: “What time did the show start?” “We don’t refer to it as a show,” was the chilly reply.

Ahh. I now have a vivid image of that usher in my imagination….

Autumn watch

We were almost home after having taken a long walk on a warm and humid afternoon.

Carol looked at her watch. “I thought it was later than it is,” she complained.

“What time is it?” I said.

“Five thirty,” she said.

I glanced up at the sun. “It should be seven thirty,” I said. “The sun is setting way too early now.”

We continued complaining about the rapidly shortening days. It still feels like summer, but it’s starting to look like autumn.

There’s a peculiar thing about racism in the United States. Racism is obviously real, and there’s plenty of research that documents its effects on individuals and groups of people. At the same time, the concept of race itself isn’t real; that is to say, race does not have a biological basis. Looking more closely at the legitimate research on racism, it seems obvious that the study of racism properly belongs in the domains of political science, sociology, perhaps psychology; but not in the domains of physiology and biology. That leads me to the unsurprising conclusion that race exists as a social phenomenon which is a result of racism;– it’s not that racism emerges from biological differences between races; instead, racism is existentially prior, and the concept of race is a social or political product or result of racism.

In theology, we could make a parallel argument. Race does not exist at the level of theological anthropology; when we ask, “Who and what are persons?” we do not find that race is an essential attribute of persons. Instead, we find that all persons are of infinite value (to use an old Universalist formulation); persons are not valued differently based on alleged racial attributes. Racism, however, clearly exists as damaged or perverted relationships between persons; racism, then, should be addressed as a problem of ethics and morals. Indeed, racism is so damaging to persons and to society that it can only be classed as an evil existent within the social order. Here the insights of the social gospelers becomes useful, as we attempt to gain an adequate understanding of “the sinfulness of the social order and its share in the sins of all individuals within it”, and further as we attempt to “redeem the permanent institutions of human society from their inherited guilt of oppression and extortion.” [Theology for the Social Gospel, Walter Rauschenbusch, p. 5.]

I find making such a theological argument to be quite useful (although obviously as it stands, it needs to be refined quite a bit). By showing racism to be a species of sin or evil, we make clear that religious persons are in some sense required to put an end to racism. From the point of view of my Universalist theology, racism is a particularly egregious evil, because of the multifarious ways in which it denies the infinite worth of each person. Not that this theological understanding gives us any practical means for putting an end to racism; but it shows anti-racism work to be a strong moral imperative.

Peace witness by phone

My father’s cousin Jack’s wife Abbie grew up a Quaker, and while she currently belongs to a Presbyterian church, she maintains her Quaker peace witness. She tells me via email that an organization called Democracy Rising is planning a nation-wide effort to contact Congressional representatives via telephone tomorrow, Thursday, September 6, to call for an end to the war in Iraq.

If you’d like to participate in the peace witness, the phone number at the Capitol Hill switchboard is 202-224-3121. If you’re not sure who represents you in Congress, you can find out here.

If you’re wondering exactly what to say when some low-level aide in your elected representative’s office answers your call, you could say: “As a voter, I want you to act now to end the war and occupation of Iraq. The Congress has the Constitutional right and a moral responsibility to use the power of the purse to withdraw all U.S. soldiers and contractors from Iraq on a responsibile and binding schedule.”

Democracy Rising offers the following background:

In September, Congress will focus on the war in Iraq. They will vote on the President’s request for continued funding of the war. At this writing, the request stands at $142 billion, but President Bush will probably ask for an additional $50 billion, for a total of more than $190 billion dollars!

Congress is not required to give President Bush any of this money, or even to bring the request to a vote. Congress can also put restrictions, firm withdrawal timelines and other conditions on any funding in order to force an end to the U.S. occupation of Iraq.

To read even more, visit the Democracy Rising Web site.