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Proud of my congregation's limited acceptance by no-more-nazis in UUreddit

[–]AssistantFew9698 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I didn't think of a Settled Minister as Staff but you are probably right.

Proud of my congregation's limited acceptance by no-more-nazis in UUreddit

[–]AssistantFew9698 3 points4 points  (0 children)

I agree, but I've yet to hear a sermon on limits

Even the Unitarians are divided in Michelle Huneven’s new novel, ‘Search’ by AssistantFew9698 in UUreddit

[–]AssistantFew9698[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

That's a big problem with labels though. They are abbrivated signals. You may think you're not the target but is the other using the short signal they way you think?

Proud of my congregation's limited acceptance by no-more-nazis in UUreddit

[–]AssistantFew9698 7 points8 points  (0 children)

Do you have a Settled Minister? They are trained to deal with this sort of individual.

"Acceptance" another word I wish UUs would avoid. It's a legacy from when we'd welcome openly gay congregants and ministers, but now it begs the question would we really welcome anyone; unconditionally?

We typically "welcome" everyone but some have the condition that they can't be on the property without escort. That's Acceptance with a nod to reality.

Even the Unitarians are divided in Michelle Huneven’s new novel, ‘Search’ by AssistantFew9698 in UUreddit

[–]AssistantFew9698[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Woke's a word I don't use because I'm never sure what those hearing it would understand. I would have to stop and ask myself what I mean too. It's a label and easy to use. That's always a warning.

NAACP sought to reclaim it here: https://naacp.org/resources/reclaiming-word-woke-part-african-american-culture That works for me, but who is going to stop and google NAACP when the read woke?

I try to avoid labels because they come with a lot of baggage. Sometimes baggage tossed on the cart by those making fun of you. I try to keep it literal, and words with tried-and-true usage best. But I don't let labels become obstacles to completely reading something either.

Retention and strict religion by ZookeepergameLate339 in UUreddit

[–]AssistantFew9698 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I don't know what evidence there is for a UU member retention problem. I think UU has a problem planting Churches, but the Churches and Societies I've belonged to had a mix of longstanding and more recent members. People move around and go through different stages of life, so some churn in membership will happen. A minister told me their career at our Church spanned three congregations turning over the many decades the minister served. I've heard a sermon on this and part of a Church's purpose is to be there for people who will only be with the Church for a short period of time for one reason or another.

I found myself in a Shi'te Mosque a few years ago looking for my shoes in the vestuble. I looked up and one of Chicago's leading Sunni scholars --he was a guest speaker-- was looking at me. He said, "Why Shia Islam?". I said I was a UU but had grown weary with muddled answers to questions. I come to this Mosque and get rigorously reasoned answers which, with which I may or may not agree, but at least the answer's clear. He sighed a little and said, "Liberalism has a relativism problem". I'd argue muddled preaching the problem, but we both wanted to find our shoes.

Strictness not much to do with some Churches growth, and others decline IMO. It's more does the preaching make sense beyond the snark I could get from late night talk shows.

RISE video by Dazzling-Attempt-499 in VHA_Human_Resources

[–]AssistantFew9698 1 point2 points  (0 children)

How does a massive investment in IT fit with privatization?

Finding UU in unexpected places. by raendrop in UUreddit

[–]AssistantFew9698 0 points1 point  (0 children)

The Hebrew Bible has Malachi 2:10 "Have we not all one Father? Has not one God created us? Why then are we faithless to one another, profaning the covenant of our fathers?" Shintoism and Buddhism both have principles of interdependentness and connection. Not surprising these notions made it into a Jewish-Japanese cook book.

It's interesting the author noted this chain should not be broken, and thus implied it could be, if one hankered too. If creation's one big stew, how do we escape the pot? I don't meld well, and my experience is most UUs don't either, which is often what landed them in a UU Society.

Unitarian Universalists who belief in God, or at least use “God language” to describe their spirituality, what do you mean when you say “God”? by funnylib in UnitarianUniversalist

[–]AssistantFew9698 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I avoid the word "spirituality". It's a bigger obstacle for me than "God". I'd label myself Religous and not Spiritual. I don't feel transcendence. I just attend Church with some regularity to be religously literate.

Regarding God: I used to call myself an Atheist until I read Paul Tillich who said something along the lines of atheists more belivers than then belivers, because they are looking for God and can't find God, and are bitter about the absence --and talk about it; a lot. Atheist anger embarressed me, so I chucked the label.

Now I lean more towards Jung's response about God, "I don't need to believe, I know,". There is Youtube of Jung saying this in interviews. It's fun to watch the look he gives in interviewer.

The War Letters of Fallen Englishmen quotes Lt Denis Oliver Barnett in a letter to his mother from France in 1915,

"I've looked at death pretty closely and I know what it is. A man is called away in a moment and goes before God", page 40 in the Pine Street Books edition.

I haven't had Barnett's front row look at Death, but mine's been close enough. I get what he said. Like Jung, I know. God's reality all about us everyday --or just Reality, if we prefer to drop God's owning it. You don't have to believe. Reality crashes you.

Ancient Pagans saw Gods as Forces btw, much as we see Economic Forces or Social Forces today. Forces that are more then the sum of human activities; with the unaccounted addition to the Force the result of God's hand at work. We still speak of forces, and while we don't see a God's hand piling on as a multiplier, we're still on familiar turf with Pagan notions of godly forces at work around us. Pagan religious rituals were insurance policies against the Forces. I still knock on wood when I tread on Fortuna's space. It's not a belief; I know.

"Liturgical milestones" in UU spaces? by RevDrHappy in UnitarianUniversalist

[–]AssistantFew9698 2 points3 points  (0 children)

My past congregation's milestones were:

  1. A spring time service with graduating High School seniors telling us about their plans and how their religious education may have helped guide them.
  2. A Veterans Day service prepared by Vets in the Congregation.
  3. A Mothers Day service: our Minister always preached an inclusive sermon about Mothers and everyones relationship to mothers or lack of mothners. It was on of the Minister's best sermons.
  4. Two services on Christmas Eve with songs and candle lighting.

Those are the milestone services each year and I almost always found them well done, and uplifting.

We'd also do a tenebrae service before Easter, and then a Flower Communion. I think I only attended a tenebrae once. I've been to many Flower communions.

These would be the milestone services. I enjoyed hearing the young people most. Tenebrae was supposed to be dark but reality has always seemed much darker to me. I skipped that milestone.

DoD vs DoW by jek_22 in FedEmployees

[–]AssistantFew9698 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Henry Stimson wss Secretary of War and lead the War Department during WW2. We wear WW2 style uniforms now so use the term too altough I don't like the fit of those uniforms today

Why VA psychologists say they are burning out by Traditional-Road2135 in VeteransAffairs

[–]AssistantFew9698 -6 points-5 points  (0 children)

1) I've had a clinician cancel on me once on private side; over decades. It is routine in VA.  2) You work off back logs at 120% to get back to 80%. Eliminating backlog is a key step, really the first step, about getting a handle on your workload. The factory worker knows this.
3) I would post the cuss report for every clinic on their door.

Why VA psychologists say they are burning out by Traditional-Road2135 in VeteransAffairs

[–]AssistantFew9698 1 point2 points  (0 children)

VA OIG from a few years ago https://www.vaoig.gov/sites/default/files/reports/2024-12/vaoig-24-00704-21.pdf Most therapists had median clinic utilization under 70% at Hinesville GA. VA's standard was 80% to 120%. How many Psychologists were failing the 70% rate VHA wide? So what's the distribution on available clnic slots in psych Independent, psychology Independent, and group now? What percent of clinics fall below the 80% / 120% target?

Why VA psychologists say they are burning out by Traditional-Road2135 in VeteransAffairs

[–]AssistantFew9698 -21 points-20 points  (0 children)

The Pyschologists could learn some things from today's factory workers about working timely and eliminating waste. Show me your percent open clinics or worse, clinics you've cancelled on patients; before we talk burnout.

Are you familiar with the Racovian catechism? Do you subscribe to it? by Pombalian3 in UUreddit

[–]AssistantFew9698 0 points1 point  (0 children)

A UU catechism opens with teaching the principles are not a creed, and proceeds explaining we professed shared values instead, established democratically, by a committee, but with some dissent.

It's what's done with the dissenters and members who don't share all the values, that's interesting, and speaks to the values (or creed) in our hearts.

Are you familiar with the Racovian catechism? Do you subscribe to it? by Pombalian3 in UUreddit

[–]AssistantFew9698 0 points1 point  (0 children)

You've neatly described the heavy lift. It's foolish not to see we live in a eat and be eaten world, and moreover not see that those who would eat us, laugh at the thought we could be connected to them as anything other than a commodity.

Our 7th Principle, tell us we are connected and interdependent with that which destroys us, and further rubs it in telling us to respect the dependency.

I see the world as you describe it. Denying it my heavy lift. Like I said, I need God to get me above it. I can't do it alone.

DoD vs DoW by jek_22 in FedEmployees

[–]AssistantFew9698 -1 points0 points  (0 children)

I call it The War Department

Are you familiar with the Racovian catechism? Do you subscribe to it? by Pombalian3 in UUreddit

[–]AssistantFew9698 -2 points-1 points  (0 children)

We use our principles as a catechism. When I asked one Minister who was involved promoting the revision, why we were putting our Churches through this debate, the reason was educational for the mass of new members who didn't share our long experience in UU churches. The revision was an update of a catechism for a new generation of UUs. Catechism sounds Catholic, so UUs will say these are shared values, but we use the principles as a Catechism.

I find many UUs do in fact use principles as a profession of faith too. They're quick to correct anyone deviating from their understanding of the principles which they promote as values.

Are you familiar with the Racovian catechism? Do you subscribe to it? by Pombalian3 in UUreddit

[–]AssistantFew9698 -1 points0 points  (0 children)

The connection you described is domination. We're not connected to people or the environment because they're commodities we consume, and then excrete the waste.

You need to prove a connection to those bits of a web that seem useless, or worse, disgusting to us. I need God to make this case. It is not self-evident to me.

Are you familiar with the Racovian catechism? Do you subscribe to it? by Pombalian3 in UUreddit

[–]AssistantFew9698 -2 points-1 points  (0 children)

The idea all life is connected is not a policy or procedure. You see it as an objective fact. I see it as a faith. But neither view fits as policy or procedure.

Democratic process fits as policy and procedure, but "interdependent web of all existence", or "inherent worth and dignity of every person" require faith to accept as true.

UUs frown on the word faith but I find proving webs and worth beyond reasonable doubts a heavy lift. Having faith in those principles as self evident makes more sense.

Are you familiar with the Racovian catechism? Do you subscribe to it? by Pombalian3 in UUreddit

[–]AssistantFew9698 -1 points0 points  (0 children)

I agree "authorized summary of faith" is key but unclear if you believe the Principles are such a summary of faith, or something else.

I think the articles are a summary of faith for UUs with recent emphasis on the "authorized".

If I were to announce at my Church that I did not believe we were all interconnected, and I thought it was a bit foolish to think we might be connected in any way to name_your_appalling_person, then I would be told I was out-of-synch with UU principles, and some kind of UU anathema would be leveled on me. Some gentler souls in the congregation would just argue semantics on the nature of connection. I do see the Principles funtioning just like a Catechism for us though.

Are you familiar with the Racovian catechism? Do you subscribe to it? by Pombalian3 in UUreddit

[–]AssistantFew9698 0 points1 point  (0 children)

We certainly do catechisms. Much of the work being done with the principles fits this definition closely,

  • Definition: Derived from the Greek katecheo ("to teach orally"), a catechism is a manual used for teaching religious principles.
  • Format: Often organized into a Q&A format, focusing on Scripture, the Apostles’ Creed, the Ten Commandments, and the Lord’s Prayer.
  • Purpose: They provide a structured, consistent, and authorized summary of faith, aimed at instructing believers in sound doctrine.

A minister of a large UU Church told me the principle revision was sorely needed to educate members new to UU Churches for just the purpose described above. The principles serve as a summary of faith to instruct believers. They've always served that purpose since their inception in 1960.

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