UU marriage, being church, psychic sunscreen, and more

Describing marriage

The Rev. Daniel Harper essays "a rough description of Unitarian Universalist marriage today. I’m sure I’ve missed some things, or gotten some facts wrong. If so, please correct me in the comments below."

With all the current debate about the meaning of marriage, particularly in the context of the so-called “culture wars,” I decided to summarize what I know about marriage as it is practiced in, and understood by, Unitarian Universalist congregations today. This is a descriptive rather than a prescriptive summary; I am not trying to prescribe what “real” marriage is; I am not trying to tell how you should do marriage; I am trying to describe marriage as I have observed it in my affiliation with nine different congregations with varying theological emphases.

The topics Harper covers are: Covenantal basis | Forms | Same-sex marriage | Divorce | Changes and challenges | Life in the married state ("Yet Another Unitarian Universalist," February 2; Followup post documenting multiple-partner marriages in America, February 4)

Corporate personhood

The Rev. Mary Wellemeyer responds to the recent Supreme Court ruling regarding corporate involvement in campaigns.

So for some purposes, corporations are people, but for taxation, they are not. I say, the right of using money to talk in political campaigns should be like the taxation thing. The people who make up the corporations have the right to express themselves. Having the corporation do it too is double expression, just as taxing corporate income is double taxation. ("A Larger Faith," January 30)

Being church

"Lizard Eater" discovers "everything I needed to know about church I learned at Weight Watchers."

1) Going every week matters. . . .
2) But the real work is done during the week. . . .
3) Having someone who can speak from experience matters. . . .
4) Those who aren't in it, will think it's a cult. Tee-hee. . . .
5) If you work the program, it works. If you don't, it don't. . . .
6) It isn't for everybody. . . . ("The Journey," February 1)

The Rev. Anthony David looks at the diversity of Unitarian Universalists as a kind of bird-watching.

Certainly an obvious place to start is with our theological diversity. A quick test: how you instinctively respond to the following possible sermon topics may indicate the kind of theological bird you are: here we go:

God the Noun
God the Verb
God the Adjective
God the Expletive
Too Confused to Decide
Why Are You Doing This To Me? ("Thousand Voices," February 1)

The Rev. Daniel Harper points out that community requires commitment.

And in fact one of the great weaknesses of today’s Unitarian Universalist congregations is that so many of the people who think of themselves as Unitarian Universalists aren’t willing to sacrifice any of their autonomy to participate in the congregational community. But here, as in so many aspects of life, ya gotta pay to play. Rule number one of congregational community:—if you want a Unitarian Universalist community, you have to give up the much-loved American autonomy that says it’s better to sleep in or go for a walk or play video games on Sunday morning. Then add some volunteer hours on top of that. Otherwise, you’re not part of a community. ("Yet Another Unitarian Universalist," February 1)

Around the blogosphere

Former UU World editor Tom Stites has won the 2010 We Media Game Changer Community Choice award, which recognizes "people, projects, ideas, and organizations leading change and inspiring a better world through media." Stites was nominated for the Banyan Project, which "aims to strengthen democracy through high-quality, Web-based journalism that engages the civic energy of less-than-affluent everyday citizens"

The Rev. W. Frederick Wooden wishes his therapists had provided some "psychic sunscreen."

They told me, taught me, to be in touch with my emotions, not to bottle things up and stuff like that. Now, I cannot stop them. They are present constantly, inconveniently, embarrassingly, disturbingly, almost daily. ("Aside From The Obvious," January 30)

"Yewtree" answers the question, "since the [biblical] story isn't literally true, why not just jettison it completely? Why bother reinterpreting it?"

I think the answer to this is because we are taught these stories as children and they have a way of lodging in the psyche / being embedded in the subconscious (nasty infectious memes!) and if we reinterpret them, it helps the psyche to recover from the unpleasant results of them. Just telling yourself they are not true isn't enough—it works for the rational mind but not the irrational subconscious. The subconscious works in terms of stories and myths (that's why they're important) so if you want to re-educate the subconscious, you have to tell it new stories, or new interpretations of the old stories. ("the dance of the elements," January 31)

Geocaching, "a worldwide game of hiding and seeking treasure" has a UU component: Henry Ducky Thoreau.

Henry dreams of being an itinerant Unitarian Universalist preacher. He would like to travel to and have his picture taken at Unitarian Universalist churches, with Unitarian Universalist ministers, at Unitarian Universalist events, or at other significant places in Unitarian Universalist history. ("Cachers of a Feather," February 1)

In the world of blogging themes, cooking ranks right up there with cats, and the Rev. Jull Terwilliger provides us with a recipe for "Kraupsua," Finnish oven pancakes. ("The Forest and the Trees," February 3)

And "Harrumpher" describes cooking unfamiliar root vegetables.

I have largely looked at the bins of uglies for a long time. Lately, I've been buying and then researching this or that. Latino markets, like Hi Lo in JP, the Haymarket, and more recently Stop & Shop have produce bins of the funkiest looking roots—stuff that seems to come out of an animator's spare cycles.

Unfortunately for us ignorant sorts, the markets are generally not much help. I've asked. At Hi Lo, Latino shoppers would say they don't use something, that their grandmother did but they never liked it or just "boil it." Haymarket vendors are even less help as is Kenny and the other Italian-American staff at Baby Nat's at the top of Roslindale. They sell the stuff because, well, it sells. They don't know what to do with it. ("Harrumph!" January 30)