Atlanta Unitarian

Any item that is of value in the right proportion becomes a hazard in excess. Food we need to live, but in excess it causes obesity and discomfort. Rest we need to recuperate, but in excess it can make us dull and listless. We are biological creatures, and our health and vitality depends upon balance and moderation. But we are driven by an economic system premised on the concept that more is always better. It is always better to be richer rather than poorer. It is always better to make more money. It is always to consume more things, have bigger homes and vehicles, to go more places, to have more experiences. It is better to read more, to know more, to do more, to conquer more. Not only is our economic system based on the concept that more is better, our culture is based on the concept that more is better. Even among the bohemain counter-culture, where accumulating stuff is looked down upon, people still want to travel more, to hike in more wild places, to try more unusual exp...

It's interesting how this innocuous phrase has turned saccarine because of its abuse by certain right-wing talking heads. "Great American" now sounds like it has something to do with a steadfast patriotism and jingoism that stands against criticism, no matter how soundly grounded. But America has produced a significant amount of greatness, which is easy to overlook considering our current retrograde state. The following is a brief list of some of my favorite great Americans; I'd like to hear about some of yours. Walt Whitman Whitman is one of the great scribes of the American scene in all its diversity and nobility. Whitman celebrated American vitality, creativity, and versatility. He celebrated the common man and woman and the multiple everyday people who comprise the pride of the country. Whitman elevated the glories of democracry to higher than that achieved by any previous aristocracy. Ralph Waldo Emerson Emerson was considered one of the first American intel...

I was reading through the UN Millenium Human Development Goals the other day for research at work. Human Development Report 2003, Millennium Development Goals: A compact among nations to end human poverty . As I reflect back upon this report, among the goals that I recall from the report: -Reducing child mortality -Increasing access to basic health care -Increasing access to education -Spreading democracy and democratic practices -Reducing violent conflicts around the globe -Reducing violence against women and empowering women Aren't these American values? Aren't these moral values? Wouldn't you like to see an American foreign policy that supported these goals as a primary objective? Wouldn't such a foreign policy lay the groundwork for putting an end to terrorism? I have a hard time understanding those who oppose the UN as an institution and its mission. By the way, the world is currently falling short on reaching these goals.

I went to Great Clips the other day for a haircut. I was struck by the soul-crushing corporateness of the whole experience. Every time the door opens, some disheartened employee chirps "Welcome to Great Clips." Each cutting area is designed with corporate flags, large blow-up pictures of smiling models, but no signs of the personal identity of the cutters - no photos, no news clippings, no comics. The music is on a generic, very white-sounding pop station. The employees are wearing near-uniforms, all dressed in long-sleeved black. I tried to make some conversation with my cutter. Her name was Kendra, she looked to be about 20. My haircut was complete in about 15 minutes. I wondered to myself if Kendra had worked at any other salon, and if she had, why she ended up coming here. Maybe Great Clips gave her a chance as a newly trained stylist. All I know is I keep coming back and I hardly ever seem the same stylist twice. Should I avoid Great Clips because they try to homo...

I spent the small hours of last night reading most of Ecclesiastes through sleep-encrusted eyes. If you are the kind of person who never reads the Bible as a matter of principle, you might think about making an exception for Ecclesiastes. It's a very philosophical chapter, and much less moralistic than most other parts of the Bible. The main message seems to be our helplessness to change things in the face of the vast forces that control the universe. It is strange that this message of despair, improbably cast across the void of time, gives me great comfort in my own despair. The clarity and coherence of early Ecclesiastes seems to break down into a static of jumbled ideas and messages towards the end (... or was this me going back to sleep?) In particular, Ecclesiastes seems unclear on whether wisdom is an essential virtue, or just another flavor of human folly. The following are some of my favorite passages: Vanity of vanities, all is vanity. What do people gain from all the ...

Today I was reading through some definitions of "Humanism" online, and I found them strangely hollow. Of course, there are many different kinds of humanists, including religious humanists and secular humanists. But I found it strange that within the definition of humanism there was no reference to anything spiritual. The definitions had a tilt that focused on what is this-worldly, and more specifically, things that are observable and objective. I found in the definition a strange focus on action that somewhat puzzles me. I started thinking about what spirituality is, and what it is not, and how I would define it. Spirituality is not the same as believing in the supernatural. There need not be a belief in God, or angels, or an eternal soul. But a spiritual orientation does imply the belief that there are human experiences that cannot be reduced to physical explanations. Human experiences must be interpreted as they are experienced, subjectively and holistically, in orde...

I have recent completed and strongly recommend Peter Beinart's book The Good Fight . This book is particularly useful for liberals who belief that Islamic terrorism is a serious world threat but have been alienated by the Bush administration's tactics on its "war on terror." Beinart convincing puts forth a number of related thesis, and ties them together with a strong narrative history and a thorough exploration of the relationship between complex foreign policy issues: 1) Islamic terrorism and its related ideologies represents a new kind of totalitarian threat that must be aggressively addressed through the application of American power. American power can be used for good in the world, when it is applied with appropriate humility and circumspection. 2) Liberals are most likely to win elections when their domestic vision is tied with a vision of America's role in the world 3) Liberals have a successful history of combatting totalitarian movements upon which t...

In my next couple of posts, I plan to explore the concepts of the 'liberal' and 'conservative' categories, politicially, culturally, and spiritually. In particular, I'm interested in the problem that liberal has come to mean something derogatory. I think that liberals need to own the term and need to actively define liberalism. I can't remember the last time I heard a Democrat say, "Yes, I'm a liberal. And by liberal I mean that...." I think the core feature of Liberalism is openness to new ideas. It's not surprising that some people would find this threatening. Anyone who is used to doing things a certain way, or benefits from certain existing arrangements, naturally could feel threatened by new ideas. But it's hard to think of any concept more patently American than that of openness to new ideas. In business, openness to new ideas is called innovation, and it's deeply prized. In science, openness to new ideas is called research...

I was recently talking with another new Unitarian on how we "sell" our religion to others. My original sales pitch was: “You don’t have to believe in anything in particular to join our group.” Her sales pitch was: “We take the best of every religion, with out taking the bad stuff.” Well I don’t think it takes a genius to see which sales pitch is better. Hers is both better and more accurate than mine. In fact, my sales pitch is so weak I’m shocked I would even say it aloud – that the best we have to offer is a lack of constraints, total personal freedom? Is this what we offer? Why join a group whose main offering is to leave you just the way you were before you joined? I think what I was trying to say is that we encourage people to think for themselves, and to create a theology based on their understanding of the universe. In other words, we create a community for seekers that can help provide guidance, dialogue, and rigor to the search for the great truths of existenc...

Nice post on reverence for life and the need to learn reverence for life on A People So Bold A People So Bold .

Recently one of the minister's at my church has been focusing on putting our beliefs into action. She has been arguing that faith without works is not enough. She argues that we have a moral imperative to act on our beliefs. This is a complex and multi-layered issue, but on the whole I have to say that I disagree. I see action as the flowering that spontaenously occurs out of the seed of belief. We do not need to force our hand. If we have sufficient self-understanding, when the time is ripe, we will act with conviction and with courage. I think it is part of our culture is an obsessive focus on results, and I think that faith is a curative for this unhealthy obsession. If everything is only useful for the purpose it serves, then nothing is worthwhile in itself. I think the first and deepest spiritual lesson is that life is worthwhile in itself, and that we are worthwhile in ourselves. We should act not out of an anxiety to prove ourselves worthy, but from a graceful center...

Energy Indepedence Any idiot can see the problems that having no energy policy has gotten us into. No other issue has such deep implications for our economy, our environment, and our foreign policy. We do not need drastic measures, but we *do* need a steady reduction in the use of carbon-based fuels, an increase in alternatives like renewables and nuclear power, and new investments in transit across the country. And of course higher fuel standards for vehicles across the board. Universal Health Care I don't think it's a stretch to say the majority of Americans probably support universal health care. It just makes sense, and it's the right thing to do. More individuals, and businesses, are feeling the pinch of health care costs that are rising faster than incomes. The US spends a higher percentage of its GNP on health care than possibly any other nation, yet millions are left out of the system entirely. Hospitals are overloaded and non-profit hospitals are going bust ...

In recent years we have fretted over the rise of the religious and political right. In seeking to oppose them, we have appealed to secular principles of freedom and justice. We have argued that, despite recent setbacks, these principles are enduring in their broad appeal and merely need to be defended from an attack of the moment. Stepping back, perhaps the rise of the religious and political right can be seen in a different context. Perhaps the rise of the religious right is merely a reaction to an increasingly toxic mainstream culture – a culture that is vacuous and obsessed with the gross material rewards of money, sex, and power. In this context, the rise of the right is not the source of cultural sickness in itself, but rather a symptom of the broader cultural sickness of our time. People have gravitated to the religious right because it gives them a system of meaning and understanding the world that the secular mainstream culture does not. If this is the actual battleground...

One of my most dearly held beliefs is that the soul is encumbered by the pursuit and ownership of material objects. I have long thought that having less and keeping life simple are important spiritual practices. But in fact, I do own an awful lot of things, more things than I can manage really. I live in one of the wealthiest countries in the world. From this population, I would guess that I am in the top 20% of households income-wise. It seems that, without really meaning to, I have gotten quite immersed in stuff, both physically and mentally. I think there are all sorts of reasons for this, good and bad. I think we inevitablely measure "enough" by what we see around us. Our parents were happy to have a color television; we also want a DVD player, a playstation, and an iPod. It's almost like swimming upstream to detach from the material progress we are immersed in. A second reason, one less compelling to me but surely understandable, is the relationship between ow...

Here are three prayers I could use right now: 1) A prayer for when I observe someone fail to live up to their responsibilities, either to myself or to others. That is, for when other people fail to live up to my hopes and expectations for them, be they friend or stranger. 2) A prayer for when I feel estranged from someone. When I dislike what someone does or says, I tend to categorize them as "other" - less smart, less good, in some way less than myself. I want to reinforce for myself that those who are different from me are not worse, though they may make me feel uneasy. 3) A prayer for feeling frustrated and ineffectual as work. For spinning my wheels as it were. Any suggestions?

Here's my question of the day: As a person of faith and compassion, how should I deal with the people who bore, disappoint, an ger, and frustrate me? I think there is a valid role for aversion here. It's generally a good idea to avoid people who have bad behaviors, or even just behaviors that push you to your edge, and it's a good idea to spend time with people you enjoy and admire. But there are some situations where you have to deal with people who you don't like. I wish I could say that I always look for the best in people. I wish I could say that I am good at finding commonalities - after all that *is* my faith, that what is common to humans is greater than what distinguishes us. But in practice, I'm a pretty good elitist. But I think there is spirit in this too. The deepest spiritual connections form between people who see each other as peers, who feel a mutual resonance in each other's perspectives. This type of companionship can provide depth, and...

My philosophical heritage is rationalistic and scientific. I place a great value on reason and empiricism as means of inquiry to investigate truth. I also acknowledge the great price that humankind has paid due to irrational and superstitious beliefs. At the same time, I think the role of reason in self-understanding and knowledge of the soul is greatly limited and even has the potential to be destructive. Reason is an excellent tool for understanding the physical world. Reason and empiricism have proven their success multiple times over he course of history, and we have all benefited greatly from the discoveries of science and medicine in particular. But for understanding the psyche, for understanding our internal world of meaning, reason is inadequate. Every reason-led person I have ever met distinguished between right and wrong, and cared about the events in the world far from themselves. But reason alone can never tell us right from wrong. Our desire to see right realized in ...

President Bush has said that the United States does not torture. But we do. In Guantanamo, in Abu Graib, in other prisons around the world, the evidence keeps coming forward. The facts are clear: the United States does practice torture. But why? Looking beyond President Bush's executive power grab, beyond his refusal to be bound to the international law, what we see at the core is a deeply flawed understanding of humanity and human dignity. At the core of President Bush's torture policy is the belief that those who commit terrorist acts are not fully human and not deserving of human dignity. The belief at the center of these and other religious right policies is that there are two categories of people: good people and bad people. The good people we protect, and the bad people we destroy. The good people are people like us, and the bad people are people are something else, something less than human. This is a deeply flawed understanding of both humanity and of evil. Th...

This blog was supposed to be about issues and beliefs, not personal experience. But I guess it is inevitable that the one should influence the other. Sometimes in the course of the day or the week I lose myself. In the practice of saying things I do not mean and doing things I do not think are important, I lose my integrity. Or perhaps it is more accurate to say I cover my integrity up, like a fresh wound becomes hidden behind a scab. When I say I lose my integrity, I do not mean that I manipulate others to my advantage. Quite the opposite. What I find myself doing is manipulating myself for other's convenience. I become what others need, demand, or expect, because I believe it for the time being to be necessary or expedient. And in those manipulations of myself, my integrity is lost, and eventually I myself become lost. My definition of the good life is one in which every action and word flows from the center of my being, and nothing is extraneous. To be myself completely;...

My second spiritual practice is to re-connect to my inherent gratitude. It is human nature to notice that which changes, and to ignore that which stays the same. But we are so immersed in great blessing, that we scarcely take the time to notice it. We always think of the margin, the edge, how things could get better. Rarely do we think how good things are, or simply what is right with ourselves and our lives. I think practicing gratitude, it's very easy and very gratifying. And also I think it is something that gets easier with time - it is something that is worth practicing. It's very simple. Just ask yourself, what is it in my life that I am glad for? Something will come up of its own. The key is sincerity. You cannot be grateful for something because you *should* be. Gratitude springs from the heart. Practicing gratitute means taking the time to slow down and listen to the sweet music of gratefulness in the heart. Even if it is small, even if it's just for on...

Sincerity, or self-honesty, is the life-blood of the spirit. Where sincerity flows, the spirit is refreshed and nourished. Where sincerity does not flow, the spirit must wither. The spiritual life is the one side of life where truth to yourself is paramount. In our social lives, appearances rule - we are judged and estimated by what we appear to be. In our spiritual lives, we can be nothing other than what we are. We see ourselves naked, without cover. Every person when they look inside sees a microcosm of the entire universe. Love and hate, anger and forebearance, fear and courage, and all the other kinds of struggles lie within. This muddle within turns out to be of great value. First, it connects us with every other living creature - their struggles, their paths, we identify with even if we never experience that path first hand. Second, the muddle within indicates that our true selves are hidden, that we must seek to find the hidden unity underneath. The key to sincerity, s...

At this point in my life, I have held a number of jobs and spent a considerable amount of time in school. I think I can say that without qualification, every occupation I have ever had left me physically and emotionally exhausted at the end of most days. This is not to say that there has not been excitement and inspiration. But whereas excitement and inspiration have been occasional visitors, exhaustion has been a constant companion. This leads to a number of questions- Is our culture's attitude towards work inhumanely demanding or otherwise dehumanizing? Is it something in me that makes work exhausting, something in my attitude or constitution? Is there a right occupation out there for me, that if I found it, my exhaustion would be combatted by an equally constant inspiration? In other words, is it a matter of finding the right fit for my skills and interests, that is somehow still elusive after all these years of trials and errors? Is it the human condition that work should a...

Some days when I am on my way to work, I say to myself a little prayer, it goes something like this: Thank you for this new day. Thank you for my legs which walk and eyes which see, for the ability to explore and come into contact with the wide world. Thank you for my abilities. Thank you for my understanding, which allows me to think about the world and allows me to try to plan for a better world. Thank you for my co-workers, who help me to see things in a new light. Help me to see the light that is within them, help me to forgive those who distract and annoy me. Thank you for giving me the opportunity to work on a job that challenges my abilities and that can make a difference in peoples lives. Let me try to offer something of myself as a gift to the world on this day.

Unitarian-Univeralists like to joke that they don't believe in anything, that all beliefs are equally welcome at the UU table. But there is a strong Universalist current in today's UUism, one that I think is a permanent and powerful feature. Originally Universalism was a belief about universal salvation. God's mercy is too great to allow anyone to fall into hell, and therefore all are saved. Of course this belief is still very controversial today, but for most UUs, the issue of heaven or hell is no longer relevant. In its present, secularized but nevertheless spiritual form, Univeralism speaks to our acceptance of people of all types, just as they are. This acceptance, this idea that all people are welcome into our congregation and our community, is a powerful and even transforming spiritual force. This idea, that love and acceptance will be placed before judgment and before social pressures of conformity, may be the strongest spiritual weapon in the UU arsenal. Religi...

This is the first in a series of entries where I will try to elucidate a set of guiding spiritual principles. These principles are not meant to be universal, or timeless. These are merely a set of principles I have arrived at through introspection that seem appropriate to me at this time in my life. These principles are intended as a guide to make every day meaningful, every day stand on its own. The first principle is to renew the Contemplative Spirit. What I am saying here is that we all have an inherent contemplative spirit, that allows us to look at the world with wonder and fascination. The essence of the contemplative spirit is that it is not trying to achieve anything. The contemplative spirit is like being in its purest form, with no goal outside itself. We all have it, we are given this spirit at birth and it is always available to us. But in our world it is often erased by the urgency of tasks, responsibilities, and the world of social appearance. To renew the comtemp...

Most religious traditions frown on the pursuit of pleasure. I think we can all imagine why this would be so - that the pursuit of pleasure can interfere with moral conduct. In particular, sexual pleasure and pleasures of food, 'pleasures of the flesh,' are considered dangerous temptations. Serious adherents of many religions seek deeper spiritual understanding through privation from physical pleasures. But I am prone to see pleasure as a worthwhile end in itself, one with spiritual or soulful contents. Pleasure should not be confused with obsession or gluttony. Pleasure is actually something a bit difficult to achieve. The mindless pursuit of lusts does not create pleasure. Rather, pleasure is only the result of a refined attention and a patient experience. In some sense, pleasure grasped is pleasure destroyed. The pleasurable experience of the senses is something that requires an appreciation of the present, a keen awareness. The soul of pleasure is thankfulness. Tha...

As a general rule, this blog will not seek to address current issues, but instead will look to the framework of values and understandings that underly a liberal political philosophy. However I make an exception to talk about global warming . I think the underlying value behind the global warming debate is quite simple: that we have an obligation to be stewards of the earth, not just for future generations but for all life on the planet. We have an obligation to preserve the existence and habitat of other species, whether they’re animal, plant, or other. This is a very serious and profound obligation that could be discussed in depth on its own. But to get straight to the point – we should be very reluctant to destroy what we are not capable of creating. We destroy God’s creation of manifold species at our moral and existential peril. It is conceivable that in 50 years, our time will be looked at nostalgically as the time when we could have made a difference, when we could have prev...

I believe the Unitarian Universalist faith may be stronger than many dogma-specific faiths. A dogma-specific faith is tied to a weighty theology whose images and ideas were born in other ages and other lands. A dogma-specific faith is tied to a network of abstractions and theories, dizzying in their complexity. What does it mean to believe in the Trinity? What does it mean to believe in karma? Do the complex explanations of theology bring us closer to God? On the other hand, what does it mean to have faith, when no specific creed is applied? What shape does ether take when it is not confined to any vessel? For me, faith means faith in God. But the reason I can take refuge in God is because in my mind God is a concept without shape or definition. God is akin to life-force or the infinite or the substrate of all the universe. God is the strong force, the force that binds atoms together instead of letting them spin off into space. The Unitarian Universalist faith allows the indiv...

Why "Atlanta" Unitarian? My identity is closely tied up with that of my native city. We share a lot of characteristics. We're polite but ambitious. We have a great pride and a secret shame. I feel like a lot of Atlanta's story is my story. The story of Jewish immigrants who were sent down south to avoid the crowding of New York. The story of racial division but visions of racial unity. I feel a resonance with the natural world in Atlanta too. Large sprawling yards filled with yawning oak trees, messed with leaves and vines. A laziness in the humid summer breeze. Sweat on a child's back as he runs after a ball in the street. Powerful waves of rain, sudden and unexpected. A pleasantly warm and sunny December afternoon. Much of my thought, my concern, and my identity spring from this city. So this blog, I dedicate to my hometown.

Ever since the catastrophic Bush election of 2000, the Democrats have been lost at sea. I was quite involved in the Dean 2004 campaign. There was a glimmer of hope for a minute there. Dean never had a chance to share who he was or what he stood for with the mainstream public. He has been imaged as a ferocious, out-of-control bulldog. Actually he is quite calm, reasoned, seasoned, and educated. But his main appeal was definitely his far reaching vision of what America was about, what our problems are, and how they could be addressed. I do not think any of this received more than a half minute of attention in the popular media. Which goes to show another problem, the monster that is our press today, but I'll save that for another time. Currently I receive news and propaganda from a number of left-leaning organizations, and I could not be more tired of these messages. I include the messages from Dean in his new role as head of the Democratic National Committee in my critique....

I happen to believe there is such a thing as Unitarian faith, and that this faith is powerful and enduring. I believe that the religious principals that bind Unitarians together are more important than the political ones. Both of these beliefs are quite controversal, for reasons that may be difficult to explain if you are not familiar with Unitarianism. Unitarian faith is powerful because it is based on the raw understanding of the universal and inherent connection between all human beings and beyond to humanity's connection to the natural universe. We as Unitarians really try to accept all people and find the worthy spirit within all people, and therefore we endeavor to live up to the standard of our faith that all people have inherent worth and dignity. It is a very simple principle, but a very difficult one to put into practice and revere. Unitarians do this well - we respect the inherent worth and diginity of all people well. This is the first step - the necessary condit...

I recently started a class on Emerson at UUCA . I had tried to read him before on my own unsuccessfully. The structure of the course has helped me to focus on the material better. The first reading assignment was Emerson's Divinity School Address . Already with just one reading I feel a great spiritual kinship with Emerson. It feels like he had many of the same thoughts I have had, but that he looked more deeply into those thoughts and understood them better. Emerson's main point in this essay is that religious understanding can only come first-hand, through our own interal apprehension of the universe. We cannot come to spiritual truths through teaching or dogma, because these truths must be experienced directly. Emerson makes his point in the context of trying to revive a dying Christian church, but the point is universal. Here he speaks about the need for an immediate relationship with the divine, with no outside interpretation or mediation: Let me admonish you, first ...

It struck me the other day, how can we live in such a way that we could die any time without regret? You cannot know how long your life will last. You may die tomorrow. If so, what will become of all your uncompleted goals? They will dissolve, disappear into the vortex of space and time. If we live for the goals we achieve, our entire life’s purpose can be wiped away at any instant. On the other hand, if we live a life of principle, each day has value. Each day stands on its own, a day lived well. Organizing a life around principles means that the value of life is in living it – life itself is what becomes worthwhile. Goals point outside ourselves, and often have no ultimate reference. Principles point within (or from the inside out?) to the divine spark at our core. This does not mean that you should not have goals. Only realize that goals are slippery, and goals are only attained at least in part by grace, not through the exercise of will alone. Principles, on the other ha...

Many of my athiest and humanist friends probably wonder why I would bother going to church on Sundays. Why miss a couple extra hours of sleep, or an opportunity for a leisurely Sunday brunch? To this question I respond with a set of questions: How do you remember that we are all connected to each other and to the world at large? How do you remember the unique gift of creation and the brief gift of life? How do you deal with a world in which suffering is greater than your capacity to address it? How do you keep alive your hopes for a better world? Aristotle said something like you are not what you aspire to but rather what you do on a regular basis. If you want to be something, you must practice being it regularly. Going to church, praying, worship, this is a kind of practice, practicing being a better person. It takes practice to care about the world and to avoid the dangers of solipsism. It takes practice to be fully alive, to be fully aware of the opportunities life presents...