The Dr Oz group to support good health, good nutrition, and a healthy lifestyle will meet today at 1PM at the Nature Center (as far back as you can drive.)

The 350.org planning committee is meeting at the church Wednesday night at 7PM.  They need volunteers to serve refreshment and to direct traffic on the big day Oct. 10, 2010.

First church is having  an interfaith service for the victims of 9-11 on September 11th.

Next Sunday there is a program in Blacklick park on Fungi at the nature center.

Jim’s birthday is Tuesday.

Gandhi’s Truth was read by Betty.

Eventually, David came to Columbus and met CJ.  He received a degree from DeVry in Computer Science.  Ultimately this was unsatisfactory, and CJ encouraged him to attend the seminary.  Internships in Central Ohio are problematic, but moving a family around the country to attend an internship on a stipend is also problematic.  Still, the class “intro to pastoral care” introduced him to pastoral counseling which is something that, it turns out, he is especially suited for.

Nevertheless, it was the computer which provides the lively hood.  He got a job with Ohio Wesleyan which has allowed him some freedom to incorporate his ideas with the university and with counseling.  David has also been instrumental in bringing Earth Dance International to Central Ohio (see http://www.earthdance.org/).  He is, of course, also our part time minister.

Joys and Concerns;  Betty is recovering at home but does not feel up to the task of joining us today.

Announcements:  Wednesday at 7pm at the church will be a brainstorming session about how to give the public a public voice in climate change.  On October 10th, there will be a 350.org event at our church from 1 to 5PM.  Next Sunday, the humanists will be having their picnic at our church.  We are welcomed to attend.  See Sue for details.

The three cranes grove hosted a very successful Sunday service for he attendees at the Dublin Irish festival.

Joys and Concerns:  Betty is sick but she is recovering at home.  Visiting can be wearing, but cards and letters are highly encouraged.  In fact, we collectively signed a card after services today.

Rick spoke to us about Fundamentalism today.  We learned that Evangelicalism, Pentecostalism and Fundamentalism are terms that are often used as substitutes for one another.  In fact, they are three distinctly different groups.

Using an admittedly broad brush, Evangelicals is the name given to groups that concentrate on the first four books of  the Christian new testament, known as the gospels.  They believe strongly in a personal relationship with Jesus and advocate being born-again in your adult life as a re-dedication to the principals taught by Jesus in the gospels. They do not believe in pluralism, believing instead that there is only one way to salvation and that way is their way.

Pentecostalism is the name given to various religious denominations that believe in having a personal relationship with the Lord.  They are quite free-thinking in many ways, believing that the personal relationship with God can come in many ways to each individual.  They believe in the holy spirit, often a noisy holy spirit, and their worship services are known for getting quite loud.

Fundamentalism is a name given to groups that believe in incorporating traditional values of their culture into their religious beliefs.  They are found all over the world in many of the world’s religions, most notably (visibly and vocally) in the Christian, Jewish, and Islamic worlds.  For example, in all Fundamentalist traditions, the male dominance of religious and community life is made part of their religious teaching.  They are rarely interested in the same thing religious scholars of their religion are interested in, such as the nature of divinity, being more focused on maintaining their traditional community values.  In Christian fundamentalism, for example, preaching about denying members of the gay community a place in their community, and denying women reproductive rights are very important religious values even though these ideas are not solidly based in their religious texts.  (The bible’s admonition against homosexuality in Leviticus, for example, is given much less importance than the admonition against eating pork, but no one in living memory has heard a Fundamentalist christian preach about the evils of eating pork.)

As with Evangelicals, pluralism is denigrated.  Everyone must be made to conform with their ideas, because the fundamentalist groups inevitably teach that theirs is the only legitimate interpretation of religion. Members are often kept in line by shunning those who begin to think pluralisticly, that is to say, believe that other people’s interpretations of God’s plan for the world may also have validity.

This trait is particularly troublesome when Fundamentalists become involved in politics.  Through politics, the Fundamentalist has a mechanism to impose their views of proper behavior on non-members of their group.

One thing these three groups do, indeed, have in common is that they are basically anti-intellectual in that when the findings of science conflict with their religious beliefs (or assumptions), they will be convinced that the science is flawed and the religious teaching is correct.  Science is not automatically thrown out, but if a scientific finding conflicts with religious belief, then that science is discarded as flawed.

For the last 30 years, the Evangelicals have allied themselves with the Fundamentalists on many issues.  One issue that is causing a rift in that alliance is the Environmental Movement.  The Fundamentalist view is that the earth is here to be used up because it will be discarded after the rapture as unnecessary. The 1870’s calculation that the earth was only about 6,000 years old based on the volume of begetting in the bible was accepted by both groups as a satisfactory answer to the question of when the earth was created.

Following the U.S. elections in 2006, however, the environmental leaders have been addressing the Evangelicals with the argument that part of the duty of a Christian is good stewardship of what God has provided.
Regardless of validity of scientist to calculate the age of the earth, what scientists have measured about global climate change is a statement about how we have treated God’s creation.  Evangelical leader Richard Cizik, Vice president of governmental affairs for the National Association of Evangelicals,  has said that God probably will not ask of us to explain how the earth was created, but he may very well ask us to explain what we did with it.  In his opinion, polluters will have to answer to God as well as to the government.

We lit a candle for Emily’s friend’s father who had a heart attack.  Betty has created new art for us to wear in late summer.  Everyone should display theirs when you come to church on Sunday.  It is the little art card.  Your name is written on yours so you know which piece of art you are supposed to wear.

Jim spoke to us about unknown unknowns.  In epistemology (the theory of knowledge and how knowledge is aquired), the term unknown unknown refers to circumstances or outcomes that were not conceived of by an observer at a given point in time. The meaning of the term becomes more clear when it is contrasted with the known unknown, which refers to circumstances or outcomes that are known to be possible, but it is unknown whether or not they will be realized.  Jim pointed out the differences between people who read the signs but don’t comprehend them (that is, people who know that they have been warned even if they do not understand the threat) and people who don’t read the signs (that is, people who have no idea that a warning has been given and a threat is imminent.)  Knowing what you don’t know is the first step in learning.  If you don’t even know that you lack knowledge, then you are not prepared to learn.  For example, if your religion teachs with certainty that what is said in the Christian bible is without factual error, then anything that conflicts with that certainty will be forever closed and unknown you.

Where do we look for answers?  Where do we look for questions?  Each of us has a set of filters that we wear so that we don’t have to comprehend everything our senses see and hear.  What senses do we not possess, such that we dont even understand what we cannot comprehend?

Anosognosia is a condition in which a person who suffers disability seems unaware of or denies the existence of his or her disability or defect.  See: pointy-haired boss.

In the end, reality is what our senses percieve if BP allows us to know it.

Rick

Joys;  Betty is back with us and thanks all for the get well cards and phone calls.  She said it really helped motivate her to get up and overcome her illness.  Nick has received monies that will enable him to avoid student loans for this semester.  Thurman is donating money on behalf of Rachel and Darby who helped him at his apartment but wouldn’t take any payment.  There was a good turn out at the Sierra club meeting and a good discussion.  It is Barbara Humrichouse’s birthday this week.  We lit a candle for Darby and Rachel’s friend, and for Nick’s family who has fallen on hard times.

Becca read the children’s story “the Widow’s Mite”  Witnessing the donations made by the rich men, Jesus highlights how a poor widow donates only two mites, the least valuable coins available at the time. But, Jesus observes, this sum was everything she had to her name, while the other people give only a small portion of their own wealth.

John spoke to us on the Prophetic Imperative.  It means that we have an inner urge to work in the service of our vision.  The fundamentalists have spirituality that instructs them to believe that their leaders have insight in to what is righteous and they have a strong sense of purpose.  The liberal thinkers have more freedom in what we believe and that sometimes makes it difficult to get a call to action.   Liberals are often marginalized by the fundamentalists because of their combined concentrated force of action.

However liberals do have common values.  (1) We know that we are interdependent and that gives us  a place to unify.  This is the Unity in Unitarian.  We treat the land, the water, the air with respect.  There are no chosen people, we are all interdependent.

(2) We have an inherent belief in the worth and dignity of every person.  We cannot tolerate injustice to “others” because “others” are us.  We all have involvement in social justice.  Sometimes our radical tolerance and acceptance of others is denigrated by others.  We do not have a creed to recite.  How would they know you were Unitarian Universalist if the government decided to round up all the Unitarian Universalists and throw them in jail?  For us, without a creed to recite, we have to be interdependent.  That is what makes us UU.

Religion is something we choose.  What we choose is what we are.  It is a misconception that you can believe anything that you want.  You have to believe what you are compelled to believe.

Our Mission statement:  We unite to support a warm, open religious community in which freedom to develop individual beliefs is cherished.  We reach out to the larger community to fulfill our need to stimulate our continued religious growth in the belief that our actions have presence in future generations.  Ours is not a place of sameness, agreement necessarily, or a creed to which you dedicate your life.  Ours is a place to celebrate diversity, to explore together.

Our refrigerator has started using very high amounts of electricity.  A recycling grant of $50 is available to the church if we replace it with an efficient model.

PotLuck was last night.  (Come the third Saturday of every month for dinner and a movie.

We lit a candle for Betty, who is still sick, one for Marco who is moving to California and a candle for the earth.

Mark Waite came to talk to us about Sustainable Reynoldsburg.  It is a new community group started by just six residents in Reynoldsburg in 2009.  Mark said it was a pair of long words that, even taken together are not terribly grand.    Yet, they are making changes.

The planning and development of suburbs such as Reynoldsburg Ohio was based on the belief that there were no serious limits to cheap fossil fuels and other natural resources.  The planners believed that our world will take all the greenhouse gas and pollution we throw at it.   They believed that national chains are an adequate substitute for locally-owned businesses  with a stake in the community.

Sustainable Reynoldsburg sees things differently and want to nurture a sense of community and take better care of our local and global environment.  The vision for the group is to foster a way for people to connect with each other to do good things.  They are trying to create a way for local residents to connect for practical action, positive discussion, and information to help make our community and homes resilient, liveable, and healthful into the future.

The “sustainable” movement is a wide variety of local groups.  Mark has worked in other countries and he said members of communities have common circumstances the world over.  Being a citizen is

In Candide by Voltaire, the hero travels the world over looking for perfection and ends up believing that working at home, as an individual, is important work.  What does it mean to be a member of the Reynoldsburg community?  This was the question also raised by David Soliday last week.  According to Mark, it is partly to extend love to those around us and to be politically engaged to achieve wider change.  What do we do in Reynoldsburg to affect climate change?  For one thing, every time we tromp on the gas pedal we use finite resources.

Being a citizen is inextricable from being a good environmental citizen.  Being a good citizen is being a good neighbor.  Being a good neighbor involves sharing resources.

Sustainable Reynoldsburg is a very small active group of local residents who asked what can be done to help the community be resilient.  As residents of Reynoldsburg (if only by church affiliation)  “they” becomes “we.”  We meet every 3 to 4 months.  We use the group to combine energies but have not done anything to cause great publicity to come upon us.

Safe routes to schools:  Anew initiate to help students walk and bike safely to school.  Each school has a transportation plan, bike safety training, safety enforcement.  Some schools start ‘walking schoolbuses.”  We hope to leverage this beyond children to get people to ask why is the community question always framed in terms of cost instead of value.

Livingston Community garden:  We are the motivating force behind this aspect of the city initiative to revitalize the Brice Livingston neighborhood.  In taking responsibility to lay out plots when the snow was still on the ground, we find that others enthusiastically follow.

http:/groups.google.com/group/sustainable-reynoldsburg/

There is a long list of official fathers.  It is amusing to look at all the “Fathers” in the lists in wikipedia.  The Father of the Constitution is James Madision.  The first President, George Washington, gets recognition as the Father of the Country.  The third President, Jefferson, has become rather famous for more traditional fathering.  Within our own community, fathers were remembered for a variety of things.  For singing in a barbershop quartet and for working in the workshop.  Father’s were remembered for long drives in the country.  Fathers were remembered for hard work… for working a day job and for running a farm in the evening and on weekends.  For some, the most memorable thing was that he supplied the freedom and notariaty that comes with the gift of a unicycle.  Fathers were remembered for their hyjinks, for their sensibility, for their ability to worry, and for their generosity.  The most universal thing remembered was that fathers were watched when they didn’t know they were being watched, and that fathers had influence more astounding than what they ever knew about.

Jim and Sue celebrate their 40th anniversary this week.

Hands across the Sand is being observed next Saturday.  It is a movement dedicated to protecting oceans, shores, and the ocean’s environment.  See www.handsacrossthesand.com for more information.  Someone is speaking at First Church Tuesday June 29th at 7:30.  I didn’t catch the name, but someone will let me know who it is and then I’ll fix this notice.

Dont forget the Pot luck at the church July 17.  Also you can help out by volunteering to bring refreshments to the services on Sunday.

–Rick