Thursday, November 30, 2006

Attack of the sprouts

I really like brussel sprouts, and frankly, I resent the existence of this.

Giving thanks

I was thinking about Thanksgiving this week (being way too stuffed to think about it last week). Thanksgiving is like a lot of holidays … we’ve redefined the purpose of it. It’s now pretty much a day for families and/or groups of people to get together to share a big meal. Not much “thanks” involved. And if there is thanks, it’s mostly a self-reflection on the good things if our lives. (“I’m thankful I have such a great family” … “I’m thankful that I was able to afford a new car” … “I’m thankful for the $5 off coupon I recently got” … that kind of thing.)

But how about really giving thanks? If you’re married, when was the last time you thanked your spouse for … anything? When was the last time you genuinely thanked someone?

Years ago, I was a contractor for the late Digital Equipment Corporation. They had an “atta-boy” culture which I always admired. If someone did a good job, it was expected that the person would be congratulated and thanked. The cost of doing that is practically zero, but the benefit to the recipient is much larger.

How about trying something? Find one person every day to whom you can give genuine thanks – and do it with a smile. Thank a waitress for getting your food delivered quickly. If you go to church, thank a priest or minister for giving you something to think about. If you have children, thank them for something they did, even if it was something expected (cleaning their room, for example). Find a store manager and thank him or her for not having to wait too long in line to get to a register.

My guess is that occasionally you’re going to be looked at like you’ve got 2 heads. Of course, that’s because most people hardly ever feel like anyone appreciates anything they do, and they’re not sure how to react. That’s ok … you will have made a profound change for the better in their day. It wouldn’t surprise me if some of these recipients of your thanks went home and told someone at home about what happened to them that day.

That’s how each of us can make a small change.

Thanks for reading.

Tuesday, November 28, 2006

Should atheists be allowed to marry?

About:Agnosticism/Atheism asks this question.

After all, if, as a number of Christians say, gay marriage is displeasing to God, wouldn't a marriage between atheists be similarly displeasing?

And how about a marriage between two Unitarian Universalists who, as individuals, don't subscribe to the traditional traditional religious beliefs about the existence of God?

Wednesday, November 22, 2006

Boston Globe: A King we hardly knew

A Boson Globe article on some recently-found writings of Martin Luther King includes this quote from King:
One of the great weaknesses of liberal theology is that it becomes so involved in higher criticism, in many instances that it fails to answer certain questions. . . . the weakness lies in its failure to connect the masses. Liberal theology seems to be lost in a vocabulary. Moreover, it seems too divorced from life.
My first reaction is to disagree with the last sentence; liberal theology seems very connected to life to me. And I don't think it's supposed to answer questions; it's supposed to help us find the questions ourselves and find our own way to the answers.

Saturday, November 18, 2006

A Liberal's Pledge to Disheartened Conservatives

Read this pledge written by Michael Moore, and sign it if you wish.

Diocese Attempts To Silence Gay Activist; Scraps Unitarian Congregation's Lease

According to Out In Seattle,
The Diocese of Camden, New Jersey has leased space for three years to the Unitarian Unversalist Congregation of the South Jersey Shore. Now, the congregation has been forced out of their leased space without warning because of what they believe is their commitment to truth.

"We find what Father Lavin and the Diocese of Camden have done to be completely unacceptable,"HeartStrong Executive Director Marc Adams says. "We refuse to allow them to imply that my message and the message of HeartStrong is wrong, sinful or unacceptable. They may be able to attempt to try to intimidate or silence those who subscribe to their beliefs, but they can't silence or intimidate HeartStrong."

Gay author/activist Marc Adams, was scheduled to share his personal story and speak about HeartStrong, a non profit educational organization providing outreach and support to gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgendered students from religious educational institutions on November 5, 2006.

The scheduling of that program sparked a wildfire of resistance and anti-gay Catholic positioning which ignited on November 2 and is now just beginning to burn full force. The Unitarian Universalist Congregation of the South Jersey Shore leased space from the Campus Catholic Ministry Center at Stockton College in Pomona, New Jersey, since February, 2004.

On Thursday, November 2, 2006, Father Pat Lavin of the Catholic Campus Ministry Center called Betsy Searight, church administrator for the Unitarian Universalist Congregation of the South Jersey Shore. Father Lavin reported that he had received numerous phone calls from the Knights of Columbus expressing their disapproval of Marc Adams' program. Father Lavin said he was concerned that he would be fired if the Sunday service with Marc Adams as guest speaker as publicized in a local newspaper. ...

Friday, November 17, 2006

Shall the Fundamentalists Win?

Shall the Fundamentalists Win? is an interesting sermon presented by Rev. Harry Emerson Fosdick of New York’s First Presbyterian Church.

In 1922. It cost him his post there, but Fosdick enjoyed a long career at Riverside Church, built for him by John D. Rockefeller.

A tip of the hat to Diana Butler Bass.

Wednesday, November 15, 2006

NYT: South African Parliament Approves Same-Sex Marriages

The New York Times (free registration required) reports that
Parliament [in Johannesburg] on Tuesday [11/14/2006] voted resoundingly to legalize same-sex marriages in South Africa, making the nation the first in Africa and the fifth in the world to remove legal barriers to them, according to advocates.

The nation’s highest court ruled last December that South Africa’s marriage statute violated the Constitution’s guarantee of equal rights. The court gave the government a year to alter the legal definition of marriage.

Thursday, November 09, 2006

Jim Wallis: Defeat for Religious Right and Secular Left

Jim Wallis, in his God's Politics blog says
In this election, both the Religious Right and the secular Left were defeated, and the voice of the moral center was heard. A significant number of candidates elected are social conservatives on issues of life and family, economic populists, and committed to a new direction in Iraq. This is the way forward: a grand new alliance between liberals and conservatives, Democrats and Republicans, one that can end partisan gridlock and involves working together for real solutions to pressing problems. ...
That's not the first place I've heard that a lot of the new Democrats in the House are social conservatives. Perhaps social liberals shouldn't take too much for granted right now.

Uniting Jews and Muslims in Jerusalem

Want a way to find common ground between Jews and Muslims in Jerusalem? Simple. Fight a gay parade.

Too bad that's one of the few ways to do it.

Thursday, November 02, 2006

Update to UUBlogSearch.com

Because I noticed that the UUA and UUWorld web sites sometimes tend to overwhelm the search results on UUBlogSearch.com, I've modified it to divide it into 2 separate search forms: one for blogs only, and one for the UUA and UUWorld web sites.

Wednesday, November 01, 2006

Ms Dewey

Here's one of the less useful and more fun search engines: MsDewey.com.

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