FYI, it was class divides, and just ego-snobbiness that began the process of the fall of Unitarianism back in the early 19th century. Remember what Emerson said then about it?
What a lovely sentiment from the Rabbi! I agree about the UU church but they are not alone. The United Church of Christ is the same. Social Justice has become the new state religion, in New England anyway.
Since I refuse to attend a church that is neutral on the evils of Trumpism and right-wing extremism, I guess you'd have me attend nowhere.
Fortunately, I'm a proud UU, proudly anti-fascist and standing up for justice. You should save your pearl-clutching for the HUNDREDS of right-wing Christian churches that preach explicitly GOP/right-wing ideology and are apparently in no danger of losing their tax-exempt status.
I highly recommend Gore Vidal's book, IMPERIAL AMERICA, it will shake your political perceptions to their core, and reveal the matrix of control that we move and operate in.
Give this some thought,
“The Overton window is the range of policies politically acceptable to the mainstream population at a given time. It is also known as the window of discourse. The term is named after Joseph P. Overton, who stated that an idea's political viability depends mainly on whether it falls within this range, rather than on politicians' individual preferences.
The Overton Window is an approach to identifying the ideas that define the spectrum of acceptability of governmental policies. Politicians can only act within the acceptable range. Shifting the Overton Window involves proponents of policies outside the window persuading the public to expand the window. Proponents of current policies, or similar ones within the window, seek to convince people that policies outside it should be deemed unacceptable.
In 1998, Noam Chomsky said:
"The smart way to keep people passive and obedient is to strictly limit the spectrum of acceptable opinion, but allow very lively debate within that spectrum—even encourage the more critical and dissident views. That gives people the sense that there's free thinking going on, while all the time the presuppositions of the system are being reinforced by the limits put on the range of the debate.”
I became a UU a few years ago and was at first very pleased seeing how I am an Enlightenment, and Age of Reason liberal. My spiritual outlooks have evolved from Calvinism to liberalism, and I rediscovered my New England Unitarian roots also.
Due to the bigotry and partisanship of the local UU congregation, who censored me for not going along with the great god DNC [blessed be their name] I have departed and have planted my feet on the old Unitarian faith, a good starting point to progress further from.
I set up a FB and other pages on the more free social media pages called THE UNITARIAN LEGACY PROJECT to promote a restoration of liberal religion, the sort that this great republic of ours was basically founded upon, a fact lost in the fog of historical ignorance today, just as what liberalism is.
I also like your article on political mis-perceptions, well thought out. All it lacked is the reality that there are not two opposing parties, but as Gore Vidal so well pointed out, one party of wealth and power with two right wings, Democrat and Republican. They are both neo-cons, one just liberal virtue signals, and unfortunately any real liberals have been sucked into it.
Today there is no liberal media, only corporate and fascist, to be honest, media, even on social media sites.
I look at my page and then others and feel very isolated, but that is fine, maybe it was my liberal upbringing, but I have always been a lot like Emerson and Thoreau, enjoying solitude, and marching to the beat of my own drummer. I like what Vidal said once, 'You have your style and don't give a damn what others think.'
Anyway, love your articles or posts, you're going in the right direction I think!
OK, I have to get back to work, two documentary films to script, and I am re-doing my ULP pages today, later.
In some ways, this is apples and oranges. Jewish community is made up mostly of people born into it. UUs don't have the same ethnic identity or shared history to comfort them. Our movement is turning leftward, but I cannot imagine the elderly Republicans I knew in UU churches thirty years ago siding with their party today.
Maybe the UU should finally start looking at its class divide.
FYI, it was class divides, and just ego-snobbiness that began the process of the fall of Unitarianism back in the early 19th century. Remember what Emerson said then about it?
What a lovely sentiment from the Rabbi! I agree about the UU church but they are not alone. The United Church of Christ is the same. Social Justice has become the new state religion, in New England anyway.
Since I refuse to attend a church that is neutral on the evils of Trumpism and right-wing extremism, I guess you'd have me attend nowhere.
Fortunately, I'm a proud UU, proudly anti-fascist and standing up for justice. You should save your pearl-clutching for the HUNDREDS of right-wing Christian churches that preach explicitly GOP/right-wing ideology and are apparently in no danger of losing their tax-exempt status.
I highly recommend Gore Vidal's book, IMPERIAL AMERICA, it will shake your political perceptions to their core, and reveal the matrix of control that we move and operate in.
Give this some thought,
“The Overton window is the range of policies politically acceptable to the mainstream population at a given time. It is also known as the window of discourse. The term is named after Joseph P. Overton, who stated that an idea's political viability depends mainly on whether it falls within this range, rather than on politicians' individual preferences.
The Overton Window is an approach to identifying the ideas that define the spectrum of acceptability of governmental policies. Politicians can only act within the acceptable range. Shifting the Overton Window involves proponents of policies outside the window persuading the public to expand the window. Proponents of current policies, or similar ones within the window, seek to convince people that policies outside it should be deemed unacceptable.
In 1998, Noam Chomsky said:
"The smart way to keep people passive and obedient is to strictly limit the spectrum of acceptable opinion, but allow very lively debate within that spectrum—even encourage the more critical and dissident views. That gives people the sense that there's free thinking going on, while all the time the presuppositions of the system are being reinforced by the limits put on the range of the debate.”
― Wikipedia: Overton Window
Great articles, and perceptive, thanks!
I became a UU a few years ago and was at first very pleased seeing how I am an Enlightenment, and Age of Reason liberal. My spiritual outlooks have evolved from Calvinism to liberalism, and I rediscovered my New England Unitarian roots also.
Due to the bigotry and partisanship of the local UU congregation, who censored me for not going along with the great god DNC [blessed be their name] I have departed and have planted my feet on the old Unitarian faith, a good starting point to progress further from.
I set up a FB and other pages on the more free social media pages called THE UNITARIAN LEGACY PROJECT to promote a restoration of liberal religion, the sort that this great republic of ours was basically founded upon, a fact lost in the fog of historical ignorance today, just as what liberalism is.
I also like your article on political mis-perceptions, well thought out. All it lacked is the reality that there are not two opposing parties, but as Gore Vidal so well pointed out, one party of wealth and power with two right wings, Democrat and Republican. They are both neo-cons, one just liberal virtue signals, and unfortunately any real liberals have been sucked into it.
Today there is no liberal media, only corporate and fascist, to be honest, media, even on social media sites.
I look at my page and then others and feel very isolated, but that is fine, maybe it was my liberal upbringing, but I have always been a lot like Emerson and Thoreau, enjoying solitude, and marching to the beat of my own drummer. I like what Vidal said once, 'You have your style and don't give a damn what others think.'
Anyway, love your articles or posts, you're going in the right direction I think!
OK, I have to get back to work, two documentary films to script, and I am re-doing my ULP pages today, later.
In some ways, this is apples and oranges. Jewish community is made up mostly of people born into it. UUs don't have the same ethnic identity or shared history to comfort them. Our movement is turning leftward, but I cannot imagine the elderly Republicans I knew in UU churches thirty years ago siding with their party today.
Presumably most of the members of the synagogue are politically left, as in the UU congregation. That didn't change the rabbi's approach.