Pirates of the Unitarians
Captain's Blog
Brought to you by Rev. Jack Ditch
"Now and then we had a hope
that if we lived and were good,
God would permit us to be pirates."
--Mark Twain
Today's the anniversary of my ordination. I wrote a sermon, excerpt below...
Click Here For Full Text Of Sermon
"So now, on the fifth anniversary of my ordination, I want to get real. I'm walking away from the UU church and the trappings of institutional religion, but towards the friends and family to whom I am bound in love. That's where my successes lie, in those few close relations who come to me for confession and ethical guidance, who gather to indulge me in my parables of giant fighting robot saviors, who invite me to eat at their table, who ask me to say a few words at their special occassions, who have come to call me "The Reverend" even as they see my deepest human flaws. Because it is not my religious training or stature that bring me success with these people, but rather my ability to love them as would a brother or father. Because being good family, as far as I can tell, is isomorphic to being a good minister."
Over at his blog, Rev. Scott Wells began a discussion contrasting the heavily politicized insular culture of UU youth to the movement of young people being energized by Obama. I've been avoiding blogs and religion in general these days, needing to focus on more productive things for simple reasons of sanity and survival, but a good friend forwarded me this particular link. It prompted me to put several hours into crafting the below response--usually I would acknowledge that I had better things to be doing with my time, but this time it actually helped me connect the dots on a lot of my conflicted feelings regarding the UUs that I've been trying to ignore.
Anyway, I encourage whoever's reading this to check out Rev. Scott's thread, or talk to me here about my particular response. Peace.
-><-
Thanks to everyone for what they’ve shared here! I’ve been so burned by my local UU experience that it’s left me bitter towards most everything religious at the moment, which is unprecedented for me. I feel much more spiritually lost than I did when I joined with the UUs just out of college. Not that I regret the past five years, but most of the lessons learned have been about the good intentions that pave the road to hell.
Scott, I think you’re pretty dead-on in your observations of the resolution-happy politically heavy us-and-them environment of the UUA and its youth culture, in contrast to the actions of the self-empowered people that change the world. But I’d like to take it a bit further, because it still seems to me that the UUA was founded by the same kind of self-empowered people supporting Obama today. So what went wrong?
It seems to me the problem is that, much as resolutions are rightfully blessings at the end of the process, institutions and their authority are likewise epiphenomena of the real world-shaping efforts. The major failing of the old-school liberal mentality seems to be its belief that the institutions themselves would continue cultivating the process, and democracy would keep them on task.
But, much as you can’t help the environment *merely* by becoming head of the EPA, you can’t help religious seekers merely by winning an election in the UUA. It takes a deeper wisdom and good spirit to keep the institution and the work it represents running. And in the end, the good work chugs on through the sheer force of human good will, and it’s up to democratic institutions to keep up with that or be abandoned.
What I see happening in the UUA is that they’re stuck in a downward spiral: the folks with the real power to change the world don’t waste their time fighting petty electoral struggles for denominational affirmation. But this simply cedes more electoral power to those for whom denominational affirmation is inappropriately important, making it an even bigger waste of time.
Sure, this is a problem in any religious denomation, but usually there’s some larger common spiritual identity to help guide and sustain those communities through such all-too-human power struggles. But the UUA, with its overwhelmingly secular framework, seems to have cut to the chase in a single generation. As they say, the idea became an institution-Unitarian Universalism became the UUA-and the youth were taught how to be in good standing with the institution rather than how to carry on the idea.
One of the things I love about Obama is that he doesn’t seem to be calling us to join an institution or party, so much as he’s calling us to be our better selves as a nation. Instead of demanding pride in the current American institution, he points us toward an idea of America we can be proud of again. He doesn’t make it about passing the right rules to fix the institution, but rather about doing the good work to carry on the torch of the idea. And that’s why he gets the massive following.
I had to walk away from my local UU institutions because the politics were simply overwhelming; it’s gonna take a lot of time for me to heal enough to feel comfortable committing myself to any religious institution. But the whole experience has made me much more keenly aware of the religious ideas that are most important to me, the things that drive me to action even when I’m massively outvoted and unsupported. Obama taps into those “unitarian universalist” sentiments at the core of my being; too bad the Unitarian Universalists couldn’t.
Next Sunday, January 27th, I'll be joining two of my friends from the UU community on a visit to the Urbana-Champaign Friends Meeting, also known as the "Quakers." I've been before, and it's a very serene experience....the service pretty much consists of sitting together quietly for an hour. The space is beautiful, and the people very welcoming and friendly. Contact minister@revjack.com if you'd like to meet up with us for this trip, or just bring yourself. The service begins at 10:30am, 1904 East Main Street, Urbana, IL.
A friend of mine has had this in his random signature file for awhile. I probably shouldn't relish seeing myself quoted so much, but it's nice to see what ideas stick. Anyway, I wanted to post this here and see if anyone had any thoughts to share:
I can walk into a Christian church and evoke a plethora of symbols that help lead people to compassion. The vast majority of people might suck at loving their enemies and forgiving those who tresspass against them, but at least the words are there to plant the seed of the idea. Whereas I walk into a UU church, and their secular symbols focus entirely on "justice," rewarding the innocent and condemning the guilty.
See post title for why I haven't posted in awhile, and why I'll probably be soon changing the name and URL of this blog to be something that might work more generically with my ever-changing religious interests. I haven't decided what yet.
The Community United Church of Christ trip went well, though I failed to write a decent recap at the time, and now the details are fading. I recall quite enjoying the sermon, and spending much time in worthwhile conversation with folks during the social hour afterwards. Pastor Mike Mulberry continues to rock my world.
The December trip might technically be considered my trip to St. Margaret Mary's Roman Catholic Church with my mother on Christmas; the holiday schedule prevented Rev. Monkey from joining me to go elsewhere. I wanted to hit Hessel Park church for their Christmas party, but without a companion I could not muster the will to drag myself out of bed. The homily at St. Margaret Mary's included a criticism of the apparently atheist kids book/movie "The Golden Compass," which simply inspired me to go out and see the movie, which then inspired me to dive into the book, which I am absolutely loving.
Anyway, counting my mother, only three people have accompanied me on these trips thus far, each on a different occassion, and one of those people is now dead (not my mother!) Not that this discourages me, but it does make me reconsider my advertising policy. Rather than picking a date and hoping that someone will show up, I'm switching to a standing open offer to accompany people to the church of their choice. Once a church visit is scheduled, I'll announce it via blogs and email lists to see if anyone wants to join us.
So, email minister@revjack.com if you want to go to church with me! And stay tuned for more church visits and other activities coming your way this year!
Sunday, November 18th, 2007
- 10:15 a.m. Worship
Community United Church of Christ
805 South Sixth Street, Champaign, IL - 1:00 p.m. Open Mic Worship
Channing-Murray Foundation
1209 West Oregon, Urbana, IL
Our next Field Trip Sunday will be November 18, to the Community United Church of Christ. Pastor Mike Mulberry has been working closely with members of the Channing-Murray community as of late, as he spearheads the local New Sanctuary Movement to fight for just and humane refoms to our nation's immigration policy. I got to chat with Rev. Mike at a recent NSM house party, and I was delighted and intrigued by how deeply he ties his social justice work to his Christian ministry, and the patience and perseverence he expresses in pursuing that work. I look forward to getting to better know him and his congregation.
Please join me in visiting our peers in the fight for social justice, worshipping with them at 10:15 followed by fellowship at 11:30. For more information, please email minister@revjack.com--or just meet us at the UCC!
Following our visit, we will reconvene at the Channing-Murray at 1pm for our monthly Open Mic Worship. Yes, once again, it's a Pirate Double Feature Sunday! So join on in, see how others in our community worship and show us how you worship. Hope to see you there!
The field trip to St. Mary's this past Sunday was wonderful. Rev. Tai-Ping Monkey ditched me (something about he forgot he had to teach Sunday School--bah) but a lovely woman from Channing-Murray community accompanied me. After much enthusiasm from the C-M board, though, no board members showed...I suppose they'll need some more vigorous reminding next time around.
St. Mary's Roman Catholic Church is beautiful, with a blessedly diverse congregation. There were five languages spoken during Mass, with several prayers repeated in multiple tongues: English, Spanish, Korean, Latin (of course) and even a dialect of Mayan! The priest's vestments and altar decorations were all in the El Salvador style that should be familiar to any hippy Catholic liturgist, and their sister church in El Salvador was mentioned both in the service and on the posters all over the lobby. The church itself, though plain brick on the outside, inside had stained glass of deep rich colers that played warmly on the gold-trimmed cream walls; I do so miss that kind of beauty in a worship space.
The homily was surprisingly heavy on nuanced Catholic theology; the priest spoke of the reintroduction of the Tridintine rite for the Mass that was used before Vatican II (all in Latin), and he contrasted it with the Novus Ordo Mass that's used today, digging deep into the difference in perspective between the two. The Tridintine, he claimed, focused on the power of the priest to connect God to the individual worshipper, whereas the post-VII rite focuses on bringing the community together in God. It seemed pretty clear that the priest preferred the new rite, though he did not say that explictly.
Two of my favorite hymns were sung, both deeply meaningful to me: "Here I Am, Lord," a song I often wake singing, based on Isaiah, and "Canticle of the Sun," an almost pagan song celebrating nature, beloved and overused by both myself and my mother back in the days when I'd help her organize church services. Think God's trying to tell me something?
All in all, it was a nice return visit to Roman Catholicism for me.
The Open Mic worship afterwards was minimally attended...I get the feeling Open Mic is being used as "filler" for the weekends when most folks can't be there. I don't like it, but then, I suspect the solution to this is to do a better job getting new people there. And more vigorous reminding. Anyway, at least Tai-Ping and a few other beloved regulars showed up. I filled a quarter of the hour with my Giant Fighting Robot Jesus sermon, because Tai-Ping had never heard it, and we also heard some good poems and a few groovy songs, and a newcomer shared her story with us. So it was still a fulfilling time, even if it was hard to fill the time, and I variously mock those who missed it. Your loss.
In other news, I just resigned from my full time web application development job of six years! I'm now two full weekdays into unemployment, and it's just starting to sink in. I've got some money in the bank, so I'm taking a short sabbatical before looking for new sources of income. Still, if you know anyone who'd like to give me money, possibly in exchange for services rendered, drop me a line and let me know!
I leave in a week for a Chicagoland trip, followed by Wisconsin camping, but so long as I'm not eaten by BEARS, I'll be back at the end of the month. I'm hoping to schedule another round of open mic and field trip for early November, and what with my unemployment, you'd better believe the reminding will be vigorous. Hope y'all can make it!
Reminder: Field Trip Sunday AND Open Mic Worship this Sunday!
Check out this talk on how Love is becoming increasingly relevant to technology. Think of it as a metaphor for building church community, especially relevant to a denomination that tends to view church building as a business:
"Aggregating Caring Into Something Stable And Long-Lasting" could very well become my mission statement.
It seems maybe the editors at the Onion read UU blogs? ;-)
Chuckles abound.
I posted the paragraph below as a comment on a different blog, but it so concisely cut to the heart of my feelings regarding our recent local struggles over the target audience of our Unitarian Universalist institutions, I wanted to bring it back here. As far as my Church is concerned, there are no "outsiders":
I think we’re off the mark when we look at ANYONE and think, “outsider.” I don’t build church community so we can set ourselves apart from the people of the world, I build church community to help unite the people of the world.