Paul Wilczynski's Observations

State of the Union vs Groundhog Day

Thanks to my friend Tom Shaw for the following ...

This year, both Groundhog Day and the State of the Union address fall on the same day, which Air America Radio has called "an ironic juxtaposition: one involves a meaningless ritual in which we look to a creature of little intelligence for prognostication, and the other involves a groundhog."

posted by Paul Wilczynski @ 6:22 PM 2 comments

Are we at war?

James Carroll in the Boston Globe asks a question I've been asking myself for quite a long time: Are we at war?.

... Here is the embarrassing question: Is America actually at war? We have a war president, war hawks, war planes, war correspondents, war cries, even war crimes -- but do we have war? We have war dead, but the question remains. With young US soldiers being blown up almost daily, it can seem an absurd question, an offensive one. With thousands of Iraqis killed by American firepower, it can seem a heartless question, as if the dead care whether strict definitions of ''war" are fulfilled. There can be no question that Iraq is in a state of war, and that, whatever its elements of post-Saddam sectarian conflict, the warfare is being driven from the Pentagon.

But, regarding the Iraq conflict as it involves the United States, something essential is lacking that would make it a war -- and that is an enemy. ...

posted by Paul Wilczynski @ 12:53 PM 3 comments

Kennedy Keynotes Greater Boston Martin Luther King Day Living Wage Event

Here's the UUA story about this great happening at our church recently.

posted by Paul Wilczynski @ 12:29 PM 2 comments

Be careful when quoting the Pope

According to the Times of London,

For the first time all papal documents, including encyclicals, will be governed by copyright invested in the official Vatican publishing house, the Libreria Editrice Vaticana.

The edict covers Pope Benedict XVI’s first encyclical, which is to be issued this week amid huge international interest. The edict is retroactive, covering not only the writings of the present pontiff — as Pope and as cardinal — but also those of his predecessors over the past 50 years. It therefore includes anything written by John Paul II, John Paul I, Paul VI and John XXIII. ...

... Publishers will have to negotiate a levy of between 3 per cent and 5 per cent of the cover price of any book or publication “containing the Pope’s words”. Those who infringe the copyright face legal action and a higher levy of 15 per cent....

posted by Paul Wilczynski @ 2:30 PM 0 comments

Davidson Loehr: On Pathways and more

Sr. Minister Davidson Loehr, of the First Unitarian Universalist Church in Austin, TX, writes a letter to the Unitarian Universalist Association on a few topics, starting with what has been called the Pathways fiasco.

But Loehr also comments on a different subject: mistakes he feels were made when the Unitarians and Universalists merged in 1961. Here's one that strikes me as very relevent:

But we can at least see and say what the biggest single mistake after the merger was. It was exalting the seekers rather than what was being sought. This is given away in the slogan "the religion that puts its faith in you." Real religions put their faith in a wisdom tradition that is learned by their members. Not the same as a creed, but more powerful: a worldview, a constellation of profound assumptions. I can’t imagine that anyone would suggest the Seven Banalities actually count here. They were the result of an extended poll, rather than hard questions about what should be worth believing. As such, they showed the only thing they could show: a profile of the secular beliefs and cultural biases of the kind of people who come to our churches (and like discussion groups). Exalting that is so close to a definition of narcissism and solipsism that there may not be a distinction that makes a difference. This has reduced this tiny movement to a kind of ambulance-chasing, as we – and Bill Sinkford, as our public personification – have chased after every PC bandwagon, in order to jump on them and pretend we’re relevant. This isn’t religion. It’s the insecurity and irrelevance of those without a religious center, who now hope that the discredited ideology of the political left can pull them through.

Strong words. Very strong words. He's probably not the only one who believes them.

posted by Paul Wilczynski @ 3:44 PM 2 comments

NYT Op-Ed: Wayward Christian Soldiers

Charles Marsh, a professor of religion at the University of Virginia, writes in a New York Times Op-Ed piece (free registration required) ...

In the past several years, American evangelicals, and I am one of them, have amassed greater political power than at any time in our history. But at what cost to our witness and the integrity of our message? ...

And he ends with ...

... What will it take for evangelicals in the United States to recognize our mistaken loyalty? We have increasingly isolated ourselves from the shared faith of the global Church, and there is no denying that our Faustian bargain for access and power has undermined the credibility of our moral and evangelistic witness in the world. The Hebrew prophets might call us to repentance, but repentance is a tough demand for a people utterly convinced of their righteousness.

posted by Paul Wilczynski @ 1:55 PM 2 comments

UU Blog Awards

Once again, the Unitarian Universalist Blog Awards are starting up.

Please vote for your favorite UU blog(s) in a variety of categories.

posted by Paul Wilczynski @ 10:29 AM 0 comments

Looking for a mission statement for your UU church?

If so, Doug Muder is offering one that's an elegant six words.

posted by Paul Wilczynski @ 1:52 PM 0 comments

NYT: Group Seeks I.R.S. Inquiry of Two Ohio Churches

According to the New York Times (free registration required),

A group of religious leaders has sent a complaint to the Internal Revenue Service requesting an investigation of two large churches in Ohio that they say are improperly campaigning on behalf of a conservative Republican running for governor.

In their complaint, the clergy members contend that the two Columbus-area churches, Fairfield Christian Church and the World Harvest Church, which were widely credited with getting out the Ohio vote for President Bush in 2004, have allowed their facilities to be used by Republican organizations, promoted the candidate, J. Kenneth Blackwell, among their members and otherwise violated prohibitions on political activity by tax-exempt groups. ...

posted by Paul Wilczynski @ 10:52 AM 0 comments

My dad

My father passed away on January 9, at the age of exactly 88.5. My wife and I went out to the Chicago area - where my sister and brother-in-law live and where my father lived - for the wake and funeral last week. 5 years ago around Thanksgiving, my mother died, and Dad missed her terribly although he didn't show it that much because he wasn't an expressive kinda guy. Every night, though, he kissed a handmade wooden cross that was on her coffin, and kissed her picture. Dad was a practical, realistic man - a planner. When we were visiting or on the phone, he'd always say "Don't get old!". That was the exception to the realism. In WWII, he served in the Army as an utilityman. He was proud of that, and so we asked the Army to give him a military funeral with the flag on the casket and the bugler playing a haunting "Taps". The memory of receiving the folded flag and listening to that is, I'm thinking, always gonna evoke a reaction. We never discussed deep stuff. I'm not really sure why. I do know that, more than anything else, he wanted the best for my mom, my sister, and me. He was a man of his age and generation, and as my sister said during the Mass, a man of two countries - the United States and Poland. Those who knew him are going to miss him. Lots.

posted by Paul Wilczynski @ 1:00 PM 2 comments

Slate: Do the Poor Deserve Life Support?

Slate's article starts with this:

Tirhas Habtegiris, a 27-year-old terminal cancer patient at Baylor Regional Medical Center in Plano, Texas, was removed from her ventilator last month because she couldn't pay her medical bills. The hospital gave Ms. Habtegiris' family 10 days' notice, and then, with the bills still unpaid, withdrew her life support on the 11th day. It took Ms. Habtegiris about 15 minutes to die.

Bloggers, most prominently "YucatanMan" at Daily Kos, are appalled because "economic considerations," as opposed to what the bloggers call "compassion," drove the decision to unplug Ms. Habtegiris. ..

At first glance, withdrawing life support sounds like a horrible, mercenary thing to have done. But read the article. The author says:

The back of my envelope says that a lifetime's worth of ventilator insurance costs somewhere around $75. I'm going to hazard a guess that if, on her 21st birthday, you'd asked Tirhas Habtegiris to select her own $75 present, she wouldn't have asked for ventilator insurance. She might have picked $75 worth of groceries; she might have picked a new pair of shoes; she might have picked a few CDs, but not ventilator insurance.

Which would you take, if offered? $75 in cash, or a lifetime ventilator insurance policy? Is it Baylor Regional Medical Center's responsibility to keep someone alive potentially for years at a significant cost and no reimbursement?

Tough questions. No easy answers.

posted by Paul Wilczynski @ 12:37 PM 3 comments

Progress in Afghanistan

In case you were wondering how things are going in Afghanistan these days, an article in the Boston Globe says ...

Militants broke into the home of an Afghan headmaster and beheaded him while forcing his wife and eight children to watch, the latest in a spate of attacks attributed to the Taliban that have forced many schools to close.

The insurgents claim that educating girls is against Islam and oppose government-funded schools for boys because they teach subjects besides religion.

So we went to Iraq because things were pretty much wrapped up in Afghanistan? We're doing a heck of a job in that part of the world.

posted by Paul Wilczynski @ 11:51 AM 6 comments

Problem with allowing polling places on church property

Here's a good example of why polling places shouldn't be allowed on church property.

A Dallas County man says a minister with the Northway Baptist Church prohibited the placement of signs on church property opposing Proposition 2, a referendum proposal that bars same-sex marriage in Texas [in an election in November]. The minister also reportedly ordered the man to remove his car from the church parking lot because the vehicle displayed a sign opposing the referendum.

posted by Paul Wilczynski @ 2:25 PM 1 comments

The UU-FAQ VII: Right and Wrong

Doug Muder continues his UU-FAQ series with Issue VII: Right and Wrong in which he answers these questions:

• Do UU’s have a common code, like the Ten Commandments?
• What about sex?
• Without special rules about sex, don’t things get out of hand?
• What about gays and lesbians?
• If many UU’s don’t believe in an afterlife, why do they care about ethics and morality at all?
• Do UU’s believe in the existence of evil?
• What does it mean to be good?

posted by Paul Wilczynski @ 1:02 PM 0 comments

A new way of being religious liberals

Clyde Grubbs, in a posting called Second thoughts on the theological discussion asks

What difference does "doing theology" make to Unitarian Universalism and to liberal religion in general?

And further ...

... we need theology that envisions a new way of being religious liberals. I have no interest in continuing to do theology that serves our present way of being religious liberals, and I do not experience it as a loss that such theology is in crisis.

I'd guess that the idea of Unitarian Universalists having a theology at all is foreign to many UUs; that's why we so need to have discussions about it.

posted by Paul Wilczynski @ 12:55 PM 0 comments

My New Years Resolution

Yep, just one.

About a month ago, I went to a motivational-type class for a few days. Among the many ideas the presenter through out was "Don't ever say you're going to try to do something. Say you're going to do it".

Ok. This year, I'm going to be a slightly better person than I was last year in terms of how I relate to others.

posted by Paul Wilczynski @ 1:22 PM 3 comments

What counts as theology?

Rev. Sean Parker Dennison discusses what counts as theology as part of the ongoing discussion regarding the need for more Unitarian Universalist defined theology. While you should read his whole posting, he ends with this:

Theology, for me, is both thinking about God, religion, and belief, and experiencing them. When I preach, I sometimes simply describe the places, people, situations, and moments in which I have seen the sacred break through into the mundane. To me, this is theology. It is a knowing of Divinity, of Mystery, of Good. It is, for me, something deeper than thinking about God and religion. It is the lived knowing of sacred experience. I hold that up, examine it against the wisdom of science, the measure of conscience, and the experience of others I trust. But ultimately, because I am privileged to serve in a free religious tradition, I let each person determine for themselves what is true.

posted by Paul Wilczynski @ 4:22 PM 1 comments

UU ecclesiology, soteriology, missiology, eschatology, and pneumatology

Some people are wondering why I think that we need trained people to discuss what UU theology is, can be, or should be. Steve Caldwell indirectly answers my question by using the words in the Title of this posting.

Wow. Just one more reason why I am so very unqualified to discuss this topic. (Soteriology, btw, is the study of salvation.)

posted by Paul Wilczynski @ 4:08 PM 1 comments