Showing posts with label Six sources. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Six sources. Show all posts

Monday, November 21, 2022

Winston Churchill, a prophetic man, focused on behavior not beliefs.


Unitarian Universalists join together to affirm and promote justice, equity, and compassion in human relations. This is the second principle of seven.

Unitarian Universalism is not a creedal religion based on any one religious text. The living tradition of Unitarian Universalism is constantly evolving as new knowledge, values, and technology emerges. 

The thought system of Unitarian Universalism is based on many sources one of which is the words and deeds of prophetic women and men which challenge us to confront powers and structures of evil with justice, compassion, and the transforming power of love. Winston Churchill was one such person.

Michael Durall in his book, The Almost Church, says that Unitarian Universalists need to live their faith not just attend services on Sunday.. The UU faith needs to become a way of life if it is to grow.

David G. Markham, the publisher of the UU: A Way Of Life blog stated that he has named his blog after Durall's idea that Unitarian Universalism is a way of life.


 

Tuesday, February 18, 2020

Religious literacy - American ignorance - Six sources of UU living tradition.


A few years ago I was standing around the photocopier in Boston University’s Department of Religion when a visiting professor from Austria offered a passing observation about American undergraduates. They are very religious, he told me, but they know next to nothing about religion. Thanks to compulsory religious education (which in Austria begins in elementary schools), European students can name the twelve apostles and the Seven Deadly Sins, but they wouldn’t be caught dead going to church or synagogue themselves. American students are just the opposite. Here faith without understanding is the standard; here religious ignorance is bliss.

Prothero, Stephen. Religious Literacy (p. 1). HarperOne. Kindle Edition.

Stephen Prothero is his book Relgious Literacy observes how ignorant Americans are of religion. I have found this to be true especially of Christians in the U.S. and every more true of Unitarian Univeralists.

UUs state that they draw their "living tradtion" from many sources and commonly name six. If most UUs were asked what those six sources are they couldn't tell you and if they could name a few they couldn't tell you much about any of them.

That there is a clear weakness in religious literacy among UUs in general seems clear. Today, a new feature is being initiated on UU A Way Of Life which will deal with the religious literacy problem in Unitarian Univeralism and in the country. A good place to begin our study is to name the six sources of the living tradtion of Unitarian Univeralism. How many can you name?

Find the answer in the first comment.

Wednesday, November 14, 2018

How is it that the last shall be first, and the first shall be last?


While Jesus tells us that in the Kingdom, the first shall be last and the last shall be first, here on the path of the ego we don't believe it or act on it.

It is written in the Tao Te Ching that the humble is the root of the noble, the low is the foundation of the high.

The Tao Te Ching points out that too much success is not necessarily an advantage.

We Unitarian Universalists don't have to worry about too much success because we are a very small denomination. We are the yeast in the dough considered to be of little notice but we help the whole society, the whole world, rise.

Our Unitarian Univeralist covenant, based on our seven principles, and our six sources, while of little notice and small in number, is the lamp that sheds a beacon of light into our dark and weary world.


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