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A harvest of violence
The Rev. James Ford recoils from the idea that nothing can be done about gun violence.
Here in America, we are not bound inevitably to this vicious cycle of violence fed in great part by an unconstrained access by anyone to pretty much any weapons we want. There are things we can do.
The question only is, do we want to? Or, will we let our various ideologies and that deep propensity rule?
That much is in our hands. Ordinary human hands. (Monkey Mind, October 2)
John Beckett writes that guns are so entrenched in our culture, that only incremental change is possible.
The thousands of gun deaths each year and the handful of mass shootings that grab our attention are the inevitable result of a culture that values power over life and dominance over cooperation. We are reaping what we have sowed.
But we don’t have to keep planting the same crops over and over again. (Under the Ancient Oaks, October 3)
Tina Porter is “done accepting people being shot as a part of the social contract of being an American.”
Let’s stop the killing of our children, of our teachers, and of our freedom. Let’s stop being the country who can’t. More than anything, let’s stop being the country that won’t.
Let’s be brave, together, and say what we will not tolerate: the death of another innocent because guns are just too damn easy to obtain. (Ugly Pies, October 3)
Religion in the public square
Liz Fischer ties current attacks on Planned Parenthood to the story of Pandora’s Box.
Some folklorists believe Pandora’s Box has become a metaphor for a woman’s womb. Perhaps being forced to have children against her will is a punishment for the woman opening her “box” when she has been forbidden to do so. In other words, by claiming their rights to determine their own sexual behavior and relationship to motherhood, women are visiting all manner of evil on the world. (Nature’s Path, October 7)
The Rev. Tom Schade explains part of the political context of the meeting between Pope Francis and Kim Davis.
Pope Francis has not changed any of the teachings of the church. But he argued for a different priority in the public political practice of the church: away from the 'culture wars' and towards immigration, climate justice and inequality.
Pope Francis' priorities drive a wedge into the conservative coalition in the United States. . . . That is why the purpose and meaning of the Pope's meeting with Kim Davis is important. (The Lively Tradition, October 2)
The Rev. Daniel Harper asks, “What does it look like when you have an appropriate expression of a religious worldview in the public square?”
[If] ours is a truly multicultural democracy, we should allow space in the public square for a variety of worldviews, without letting any one worldview dominance over the others. This becomes a delicate balancing act. (Yet Another Unitarian Universalist, October 5)
Personal stories
Christine Slocum has become a religious “seeker.”
I have a strange relationship with religion at the moment. I belong to a faith whose strong suit is “community” but in practice this generally means the community that meets within its walls. . . . It is not necessarily what I seek right now. . . . [This] is what my atheist self is seeking right now: ways to connect to sacred things. Ways to reassure myself I am connected and a part of the broader web of sanctity. (Christine Slocum, October 2)
Diana McLean shares her experience the one-year anniversary of her father’s death.
When someone you love dies, people tell you that the one-year anniversary will be hard. You nod, thinking you know what they mean. At least, that's what I did—nodded and thought, "Of course, I know that." I didn't, though. Not really. It's one of those things you can't know until you live it for yourself. (Poetic Justice, October 3)
The Rev. Amy Zucker Morgenstern writes a poem in response to Pablo Neruda’s question, “And why do they strike the rock with so much wasted passion?”
The rock yearns to be rolled,
The passion to be spent,
The world to be rocked. (Sermons in Stones, October 5)
The Rev. Sam Trumbore admits to being on his own journey about the Black Lives Matter slogan.
Initially I thought we should be celebrating all lives matter since that is our first principle celebrating everyone’s inherent worth and dignity. I needed to learn that the statement draws our attention to the lived reality of many people of African descent, that their lives don’t matter, or matter less, far less, than the lives of white people. . . .
And to learn I had to listen. (Rev. Sam Trumbore, October 6)
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