Commercial culture, hymnal pedagogy, and more

Unitarian Universalism and commercial culture

In his UU World article on raising Unitarian Universalist children, William Doherty warns of "three interrelated social pathologies of contemporary middle-class life—consumerism, time famine, and civic disengagement" (Spring 2008). But Kinsi of "Spirituality and Sunflowers" worries that Doherty offers a recipe for irrelevance:

By trying to remove your kids from pop culture and mainstream society, you will set their faith up for failure. The challenge of my generation, the "millennials" who are constantly busy and have been since we were born, is maintaining, no, adapting, our faith to fit our lifestyle. If we are taught that having deep Unitarian faith is only possible when we unplug from society and retreat back into the woods, then aside from feeling Unitarian guilt our faith will gradually disappear. (April 28, 2008)

Lizard Eater at "The Journey" agrees that Unitarian Universalists should not be too quick to eschew the spiritual opportunities provided by contemporary culture:

Meaning can be found in all kinds of places. It does not reside exclusively on the mountaintop, surrounded by nature and wide blue sky. Tish-tosh, who couldn’t find meaning there? But I don’t live on the mountaintop. I live down in the suburbs, and I think the Internet is a force that can pull together people like nothing else before; having "Dora the Explorer" DVDs and a portable DVD player have been lifesavers this week, and some of my favorite family memories have been us eating pizza in the living room, watching a movie or even American Idol. (April 28, 2008)

However, Hafidha Sofia of "Never Say Never to Your Traveling Self" comments at "The Journey":

I don't think there is any kind of "normal UUs" vs. "mountain top UUs" culture war going on within UUism.

There's nothing wrong with lattes, but the discussion Kinsi started . . . reminds me of the "war on Christmas" stuff, which I found to be largely manufactured. I don't like to see us going down that road because it strikes me as being divisive.

Teaching the living tradition?

After a trip to the New England Folk Festival, at which he learned about shape-note singing, the Rev. Dan Harper of "Yet Another Unitarian Universalist" critiques the current UU hymnals:

What particularly interested me is that shape-note singing connects a specific hymnal with the pedagogical method (teaching people how to sight-read music, etc.). Hymnals such as The Sacred Harp are both teaching tools, and liturgical resources. Compare that to the hymnal that I use everyday, Singing the Living Tradition, which seems to be written by musicians for other musicians; there is no concession made to the non-musician, and there are no singing schools to help people how to use that hymnal. The new Unitarian Universalist hymnal supplement, Singing the Journey, makes even less of a concession to non-musicians . . . (April 28, 2008).

Youth and young adult resolution analysis

Preparing to vote on the Youth and Young Adult Empowerment Resolution as a delegate to this summer's General Assembly, Jess of "Jess's Journal" considers her own experience as a young adult Unitarian Universalist:

As a young parent, also, I never felt welcome at any of the young adult events even locally, since they seemed focused around hooking up rather than spiritual pursuits. In short, I wanted religion, "grown-up" religion, and those programs geared toward young adults that I had access to never seemed to offer that . . .

In short, I have always felt like an outsider when it comes to the young adult "movement" within the Unitarian Universalist movement, even though I am still squarely within the target demographic. (April 28, 2008)

In a follow-up post, Jess also offers an in-depth analysis of the Youth and Young Adult Empowerment Resolution.

Not to be missed

The Rev. James Ford of "Monkey Mind" live-blogs his candidating week at the First Unitarian Church of Providence, Rhode Island, starting with his post on the eve of his first Sunday. The Rev. Victoria Weinstein of "PeaceBang" sharply criticizes the UUA's "Now Is the Time" fundraising campaign and the UUA board's decision to pare down the number of independent affiliate organizations. Stephen Lingwood at "Reignite" questions whether non-creedal religion has a place for humanists. And Elizabeth at "Elizabeth's Little Blog" adds a different perspective to last week's discussion of ethical eating.