What has diversity come to?
Jeff Jacoby, in a Boston Globe article entitled
Sacrificing truth on the altar of diversity says that, for publishers, exhibiting diversity isn't as easy as you might think.
You're a publisher of children's textbooks, and you have a problem. Your diversity guidelines -- quotas in all but name -- require you to include pictures of disabled children in your elementary and high school texts, but it isn't easy to find handicapped children who are willing and able to pose for a photographer. Kids confined to wheelchairs often suffer from afflictions that affect their appearance, such as cerebral palsy or muscular dystrophy. How can you meet your quota of disability images if you don't have disabled models who are suitably photogenic?
And further ...
Some images are banned from textbooks because they are deemed stereotypical or offensive. For example, McGraw-Hill's guidelines specify that Asians not be portrayed wearing glasses or as intellectuals and that publishers avoid showing Mexican men in ponchos or sombreros. ``One major publisher vetoed a photo of a barefoot child in an African village," Golden writes, ``on the grounds that the lack of footwear reinforced the stereotype of poverty on that continent." Grinding poverty is in fact a daily reality for hundreds of millions of Africans. But when reality conflicts with political correctness, reality gets the boot.
Foreign Affairs: God's Country
The September/October 2006 issue of Foreign Affairs has an article entitled
God's Country. The summary of the article says:
Religion has always been a major force in U.S. politics, but the recent surge in the number and the power of evangelicals is recasting the country's political scene -- with dramatic implications for foreign policy. This should not be cause for panic: evangelicals are passionately devoted to justice and improving the world, and eager to reach out across sectarian lines.
It spends some time contrasting fundamentalist, evangelical, and liberal Protestantism, and arguably puts Unitarians in the third category. In discussing liberal Christianity, the article says
In recent years, however, liberal Christianity has been confronted with several challenges. First, liberal Protestantism tends to evanesce into secularism: members follow the "Protestant principle" right out the door of the church. As a result, liberal, mainline denominations are now shrinking -- quickly. Second, liberal Christians are often only tepidly engaged with "religious" issues and causes. Liberal Christians may be environmentalists involved with the Sierra Club or human rights activists involved with Amnesty International, but those activities take place in the secular world. Third, alienated from the Catholic hierarchy by their position on issues such as abortion and gay rights, and from Jews by their decreasing support for Israel, liberal Christians are losing their traditional role as the conveners of an interfaith community. Finally, the mainline denominations themselves are increasingly polarized over issues such as gay rights. Consumed by internal battles, they are less able to influence U.S. society as a whole.
RightWingWatch.org
People for the American Way has started a blog called
RightWingWatch.org.
RightWingWatch.org
People for the American Way has started a blog called
RightWingWatch.org.
Louis Merlin: What is Spirituality
Merlin, on his
Atlanta Unitarian blog, asks this question and gives his take on it. In summary, he says
- It's not the same as believing in the supernatural.
- It's not the same as morality.
- It's like a faculty - like any faculty, it can grow stronger with exercise or fade with neglect.
UU Religious Leaders?
I saw a reference recently to the question of what people want their religious leaders to be.
Do Unitarian Universalists have religious leaders? Do UUs consider our ministers to be leaders? I think of the minister of my congregation that way, but I'm sure there would be a lot of people with a different opinion.
My political profile
| Overall: 20% Conservative, 80% Liberal |
| Social Issues: 0% Conservative, 100% Liberal |
| Personal Responsibility: 25% Conservative, 75% Liberal |
| Fiscal Issues: 0% Conservative, 100% Liberal |
| Ethics: 0% Conservative, 100% Liberal |
| Defense and Crime: 75% Conservative, 25% Liberal |
Unitarian Universalist Readers
David Dodd has started an online group called
Unitarian Universalist Readers for those interesting in reading and recommending books.
NYT: Disowning Conservative Politics, Evangelical Pastor Rattles Flock
According to an article in the
New York Times, not all Christian evangelical pastors walk in lockstep.
Like most pastors who lead thriving evangelical megachurches, the Rev. Gregory A. Boyd was asked frequently to give his blessing — and the church’s — to conservative political candidates and causes.
The requests came from church members and visitors alike: Would he please announce a rally against gay marriage during services? Would he introduce a politician from the pulpit? Could members set up a table in the lobby promoting their anti-abortion work? Would the church distribute “voters’ guides” that all but endorsed Republican candidates? And with the country at war, please couldn’t the church hang an American flag in the sanctuary?
After refusing each time, Mr. Boyd finally became fed up, he said. Before the last presidential election, he preached six sermons called “The Cross and the Sword” in which he said the church should steer clear of politics, give up moralizing on sexual issues, stop claiming the United States as a “Christian nation” and stop glorifying American military campaigns. ...
