Interdependent Web: Finding our way in uncertain times

Interdependent Web: Finding our way in uncertain times

A weekly roundup of blogs and other user-generated web content about Unitarian Universalism.

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In online conversations, Unitarian Universalists continue to process their thoughts and feelings about the presidential election. This week, the discussion seems to have shifted, moving on to strategies of resistance and resilience.

The Rev. Joanna Fontaine Crawford still feels unmoored, as if the ground is shifting, and not toward justice.

I cannot be neutral. Because this isn't Democrat vs Republican vs Independent.

My very religious values as a Unitarian Universalist are being attacked. That all people have inherent supreme worth. That revelation is continuous. That we are obligated to direct our efforts toward loving community. Democratic process. Interdependent web of existence. (Facebook, November 30)

Making Chutney has no patience for empty liberal denunciations of Trump’s rhetoric.

Tell me what you’re doing to defeat the darkness, or else just shut the hell up. The din is going to wake the cat, and he’s worked harder today at defeating the darkness than you have with your Facebook posts. (Making Chutney, November 24)

The Rev. Sunshine Wolfe shares lessons learned in childhood about how to survive in difficult times.

Over and again, my parents taught me not to be a silent witness to injustice personally, locally, or globally. My father taught me to question everything. Never take what is said in the news or socially at face value. Systems of power always strive to maintain power. If they say, “Look over here!” look in the opposite direction. . . .

They taught me to survive all of this through creativity and art. Write in a journal, create music, paint a painting—anything to take the venom within and put it outside. It eases pain and helps other know they are not alone. Play lots of games with trusted friends. Laugh a lot. Find strength and solace in community—you are never alone. (Facebook, November 29)

The Rev. Tandi Rogers urges Unitarian Universalists to support public education as Trump selects a Secretary of Education whose positions undermine public schools.

Trump’s appointment to the Secretary of Education, Betsy DeVos troubles me deeply. Public school, our country’s most important civic institution, will potentially be gutted, and not in favor of fairness and equality. Trump’s appointment is a call to action and service. What will you and your congregation or Covenanting Community do to protect public education? (Putting Religious Education in Its Place, November 28)

The Rev. Dan Harper suggests that the arts, and particularly music, are helpful tools in these challenging times.

How do we get rid of the rancor and hatred that was stirred up by the recent presidential election, and rebuild democracy?

How about with music?

. . . . How are YOU using the arts to resist hatred and build democracy? (Yet Another Unitarian Universalist, November 29)

The Rev. Dawn Cooley adopts tactics for dealing with internet trolls to her approach to responding to Trump’s tweets.

When Trump tweets something ridiculous or offensive, I will try to respond . . . being creative and snarky. And I will always include a link to something I think that he is trying to distract us from. I will probably respond a whole bunch of times, with different links in each tweet response. . . .

Maybe, maybe, if we utilize the above tactics to poke him to the point that he fights back, it might eventually cause Trump to implode to such a degree that even Republican leadership can no longer deny his unsuitability to lead this country. (Speaking of, November 29)

Doug Muder writes that in the strange new world of 2016, we have to answer white nationalist and white grievance arguments.

Blacks were brought to America by force. . . . Today, many continue to live as an underclass, with slim opportunities to make a better life.

I didn’t do that to them. No living white individual did. But American society as a whole — all of it, not just the white part — bears a responsibility to correct that injustice, or at least to stop perpetuating it. . . .

So what are we being asked to do? Not to feel guilty, but to open our eyes and stop rationalizing that American society is already just and everybody is exactly where they deserve to be. To recognize the ways that the game has been rigged in our favor. (The Weekly Sift, November 28)

The Rev. Chris Buice admits that he’s glad that God loves Donald Trump.

“I am a Universalist,” says my friend the Reverend Mitra Jafarzadeh, “God loves everyone so I don’t have to.”

. . . . Her words come to mind because I have been wrestling with the fact that I do not like the president-elect of the United States. . . .

I don’t think that you have to believe in God in order to be a good person. However, periodically I find it comforting to delegate to God those tasks I personally find humanly impossible. It keeps me humble and reminds me that I am only human. (The Tao of Tennesee, November 28)

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