Unitarian Universalist Congregation East

May 1 News and Notes

Today Gordon spoke to us about Thomas Jefferson (1743-1826).  Jefferson’s early writings focus on social experimentation.   What are the rights of man in relation to the rights of the King?  Do governments rule by the consent of the people or by consent of God?  Do Kings have the right to dictate that the people must worship in a specific religion?  (Hint:  Read the Declaration of Independence.  Governments stand by consent of the people.)

When Jefferson attempted to start a national university, he wanted reason informed by experience to be its guiding principle.

Jefferson considered himself a Christian but he had read Priestly’s History of the Corruption of Christianity  by Joseph Priestly.  Many of Priestley’s was a supporter of the concept of deism and comparative religion.[2] The book shocked and appalled many readers, primarily because it challenged basic Christian orthodoxies, such as the divinity of Christ and the Virgin Birth. Priestley wanted to return Christianity to its “pure” form by eliminating the “corruptions” which had accumulated over the centuries.

We had a spirited discussion of Jefferson afterward.  It being May day, the subject of the rights of Labor were introduced.  International labor issues were compared with the slavery of Jefferson’s day.  Elizabeth pointed out that the benefits we get from manufactured goods where the workers are treated so poorly is much like supporting slavery.  We benefit from a labor market that pushes people into such poor circumstances that they live under. 

Inevitably, the subject of Jefferson’s hipocracy came up.  Jefferson was a dreamer who’s life did not quite achieve the lofty dreams that he wrote on paper.  But, at least we have the benefit of Jefferson’s lofty dreaming.  No one else at the time was suggesting that all men were created equal.  We can appreciate the dreamer, and look past the part where he fell short of accomplishing his own dream.

Announcements:  Next week is the observance of Standing Women.  See standingwomen.org for an explanation.  We will stand silently in the parking lot.  Bring a bell.  June is election month for the congregation.  Nominate your neighbor, otherwise I think they are going to draft me.  Horay for all the people who helped saw up the big tree that fell over in the back of the house.

April 3 News and Notes

ikoniJim spoke to us about the power of positive thinking.  We took turns talking about positive and negative attitudes and how the attitudes affect the outcome.  Gordon believes that a positive attitude gives you energy to follow through.  However, he pointed out that a positive attitude is not the same as a positive direction.  Enthusiasm can carry you to victory even if the victory is in the wrong direction.

Do you follow your bliss, or learn to love what you have to do.

Elizabeth said if you keep up a positive attitude in the face of a probable very bad outcome, people accuse you of being in denial and not taking your position seriously.  But, if you refuse to fall into the morose, it denies the disease the destruction of who you are, even if it does destroy the body.  And, sometimes, the disease doesnt even succeed in that.

So, asked Deepa, where does reality fit in?  Where indeed?

Cathy said attitudes are important, but it is a danger to condemn people who fail to hold a positive attitude and, consequently, fail raise themselves out of bad circumstances.  It is not always easy to be a positive thinker.  Sometimes a support group is is necessary to keep up a positive attitude. 

The discussion was ended here, but I think Cathy’s point bears further discussion.  People who completely fail to keep a positive attitude are often those failing in our midst.  The way we treat them says a lot about us.  In the 1930’s and earlier,  people who were failing were allowed to go without health care and allowed to starve.   After 1945 we in America set up government programs to diminish the number of people without health care and who are starving, but we, apparently, have been borrowing the money to do that, and we have not been telling ourselves the truth about the borrowing.  (We humans are not good listeners.)   Now, we as a nation are seriously out of balance in money,  and in our promises to our retirement funds, social security, and health care.  There are many ways to solve the imbalance.  How we do it is going to fuel the political debate in the next few years. 

Philosophically… Rick…

Mar 20 News and Notes

David Soliday spoke to us today about his trip escorting college kids to Jamaica to help fix up a homeless shelter in Kingston.   He said Islanders are much more relaxed about things and its easy to settle in.  The return to busy America was culture shock.  He spent some time getting used to the culture shock of being a distinct minority race in a foreign country.  He thought painting the homeless shelter was important (it was pretty grim before they started and quite colorful and cheerful afterward) but the importance of it was magnified by the fact that people came to the country to do the work.  Staying in America and paying for the paint and labor would not have achieved the same amount of good will.  How much difference can paint make?  How much difference can good will make?

The children’s story was “One Fish Two Fish Red Fish Blue Fish” read in Jamaican Patois.

Announcements:  The Ohio Meadville Assembly and the Central Ohio Cluster is meeting next weekend and there is no one to represent our little UUCE congregation.  If you have the time, we have the driving directions.  We are looking for a volunteer.  It is mostly a Saturday event with a few niceties on Friday and a service Sunday morning.

There is a new chore list for everyone to sign up for.  We don’t want the same people to do all the work.  Share the fun.

Remember the potluck is the third Saturday.  This month’s after dinner movie was the modern remake of Homer’s Odyssey:  Oh Brother Where Art Thou.

Joys and Sorrows:  We lit a candle because the U.S. launched cruise missiles into Libya and we are lighting a candle in the hope that some sanity will come out of this.  … although all of us recognize the incongruity of hoping for sanity out of a situation that starts off with the launching of cruise missiles.  Barbara is in Westley Glen rehab center and we all wish her the best.  A card is always appreciated.  We lit a candle in hopes that the fallout from the Japanese nuclear reactors will disburse without doing harm.

Charter for Compassion

The principle of compassion lies at the heart of all religious, ethical and spiritual traditions, calling us always to treat all others as we wish to be treated ourselves. Compassion impels us to work tirelessly to alleviate the suffering of our fellow creatures, to dethrone ourselves from the centre of our world and put another there, and to honour the inviolable sanctity of every single human being, treating everybody, without exception, with absolute justice, equity and respect.

It is also necessary in both public and private life to refrain consistently and empathically from inflicting pain. To act or speak violently out of spite, chauvinism, or self-interest, to impoverish, exploit or deny basic rights to anybody, and to incite hatred by denigrating others—even our enemies—is a denial of our common humanity. We acknowledge that we have failed to live compassionately and that some have even increased the sum of human misery in the name of religion.

We therefore call upon all men and women ~ to restore compassion to the centre of morality and religion ~ to return to the ancient principle that any interpretation of scripture that breeds violence, hatred or disdain is illegitimate ~ to ensure that youth are given accurate and respectful information about other traditions, religions and cultures ~ to encourage a positive appreciation of cultural and religious diversity ~ to cultivate an informed empathy with the suffering of all human beings—even those regarded as enemies.

We urgently need to make compassion a clear, luminous and dynamic force in our polarized world. Rooted in a principled determination to transcend selfishness, compassion can break down political, dogmatic, ideological and religious boundaries. Born of our deep interdependence, compassion is essential to human relationships and to a fulfilled humanity. It is the path to enlightenment, and indispensible to the creation of a just economy and a peaceful global community.

Mar 13 News and Notes

Rick spoke to us today on Karen Armstrong and the Charter for Compassion.

Karen Armstrong is a former Roman Catholic nun who became disenchanted with the church.  She found life within the convent to be intellectually stifling, and she left.  She says she was exhausted by the whole experience, she stopped going to church, and became completely agnostic.

Upon being given the opportunity to travel to the places St Paul had been, and talking with all sorts of religious people, she realized that after all that time in the Convent, she knew nothing about the other religions of the world.  She had been taught that Judaism was just a failed precursor to Christianity.   She knew nothing at all of Islam.  She took her opportunity to become a real scholar of the world’s religious thought and began a lifelong earnest examination of the world’s religions.

She has now come to believe that every single religion supports the core value that is commonly known as the Golden Rule: In the Christian tradition, this is: “Do unto others as you would have them do unto you,” in other words “treat others in the way you would like to be treated”.  In the Jewish tradition is the story of Rabbi Hillel. When asked by a Gentile to explain the entire Torah, the rabbi gave the response, “What is hateful to you, do not do to your fellow.” in other words “Do NOT unto others what you would Not have done unto you.

The problem is that this has ceased to become the focus of religion. Something has happened in which religious believers often act in opposition to the core message of their faiths.  Armstrong’s answer to what has been happening to make people act contrary to their religion’s core belief is that the people in the modern era want their religion to tell them what to believe, but the writers of the Torah, and Jesus, and Mohamed spent their energy teaching us how to act toward one another.

When did religious emphasis stop being on how to act and shift to using the religions to tell us what to believe?  For Christians, this starts out with St Paul who took the gospels which are all about Jesus teaching us how to act toward each other, and turned the Christian religion into a set of creeds and beliefs that its congregants MUST pledge.

The Charter of Compassion is a cooperative effort to restore compassionate action to the center of religious, moral and political life. Compassion is experience of putting ourselves in the shoes of the other.  It is, after all, the heart of all religious and ethical systems. In our globalized world, everybody has become our neighbor, and the Golden Rule may be the only thing that saves us from disaster.

The idea of the Charter is to change the conversation so that compassion becomes a key word in public discourse, making it clear that any ideology that breeds hatred or contempt ~ be it religious or secular ~ has failed the test of our time. It is a call for creative action to meet the political, moral, religious, social and cultural problems of our time.  Follow this link to the Charter for Compassion or go to http://charterforcompassion.org/share/the-charter/

Announcements: Everyone has to re-enroll their Kroger card in order to continue to receive the benefits from the Kroger Foundation.  Go to www.krogercommunityrewards.com and use our organization number 80237.

Three Cranes Grove, ADF, would like to invite you to celebrate the Spring Equinox on Sunday, March 20^th at the Northern Shelter at Highbanks Metropark.  This will be mid-day ritual, with social time at 12:00 PM and our ritual at 1 PM. We will have our usual potluck following the rite, so please bring a dish to share! This rite is indoors, but the shelter is not heated. Please dress for the weather.