Paul Wilczynski's Observations

Peacebang: Clarification and Musings on Moral Authority

Once again, the Rev. Peacebang posts thoughts that sometimes make me simply want to point my domain name to hers and be done with it.

To me, the first point of breakdown -- and an absolutely astonishing one because it's so unintentionally comic -- is when someone says, for instance, "How shall we share the good news of this religion?" and a thousand people scream, "This is not a religion! Religion is BAD and I want no part of it! And what is this 'good news' thing!!? I left that behind at Bible camp!" ...

... Every religious person I've ever met wants to know this about UUs: if we're a non-theistic religious organization, whence do we derive our moral authority to make all the public statements we make and to do all the public ministry we do? Don't we understand that the rest of the religious world claims (for better or for worse, and often for worse!) that their authority comes from God? If we are not going to make the same claim, we are under sacred obligation to declare whence we derive our moral authority in such terms as other people of faith can understand them. ...

posted by Paul Wilczynski @ 4:45 PM