Followup on Microsoft Office 2007 File Formats

This blog post is a follow-up to my earlier post on Microsoft Office 2007 and the "incompatible" file formats for Word, Excel, and PowerPoint ("incompatible" for those who are using an older version of Microsoft Office, open-source software, Mac OS X, or Linux).

The first possible solution is an article from the Tidbits Mac news site:

MacLinkPlus Deluxe Converts Word/Excel 2007 Documents
Thanks to Jim Dewitt, who alerted me that DataViz's venerable MacLinkPlus Deluxe, now at version 16, also includes read-only support for the file formats used by Word 2007 and Excel 2007 under Windows. So, if Microsoft's free beta converter doesn't work for you (see "Microsoft Office Open XML File Format Converter in Beta," 2007-05-21), and you want an alternative to Panergy's docXConverter, check out MacLinkPlus Deluxe. DataViz deserves kudos for sticking with the conversion game for so long and with such a large list of file formats. My experience is that conversions are seldom perfect, but any automatic tool that brings you closer to the desired result is a good thing.

The second solution was also mentioned on the Tidbits news site and may be useful for Windows and Mac OS X users:

docXConverter
You have received a file from the new Office 2007 and cannot open it...

If this file is a Word file (generally with the extension docx)

. . . have a look at docXConverter today!

With docXConverter you can simply:

Forget that one minute ago you couldn't open this file.
Continue your work without missing a single comma.
With docXConverter there is:

Nothing lost and nothing new to learn. Just double-click on the file and let docXConverter work for you, silently and without getting in the way.

docXConverter version 1.3 works on the following systems:

Windows 98 to Vista
Mac OS X version 10.2 to 10.4
Mac OS 9.2

Finally, a older Tidbits article also mentioned some future updates for the Mac OS X file format converter software for the Mac OS X version of Microsoft Office:

Microsoft Office Open XML File Format Converter in Beta
If you find yourself needing to access Office Open XML documents created by Windows users in Word 2007, Microsoft now has a free beta converter that may help. The Microsoft Office Open XML File Format Converter for Mac 0.1b can convert .docx and .docm documents (the latter are Word macro-enabled documents) into RTF format, which can be opened in Word 2004 and Word X on the Mac. The converter provides both individual file and batch conversion.

In this beta release, macros and Visual Basic scripts are dropped from the converted file, and charts and SmartArt graphics are converted to pictures. Other problems that might crop up in the beta include resizing of graphics, loss of color fills and shading in tables, loss of certain document formatting and layout, loss of some Unicode characters and picture bullets, and font substitution. The conversion might fail entirely if the document contains a bibliography, citations, WordArt, or very large pictures, or if you use an SMB network volume as the destination. To summarize all that, most documents should convert fine, but some that use less-common features may have troubles. Nonetheless, it's great to see Microsoft's Mac Business Unit releasing this beta now; even though it's clearly not done, it will undoubtedly be useful to Mac users right away. Now if only they could give it a snappier name.

The Microsoft Office Open XML File Format Converter for Mac beta is a 24.9 MB download and expires on 31-Dec-07. It requires Mac OS X 10.4.8, and either at least Office 2004 11.3.4 or Office X 10.1.9 to open the converted documents. Free upgrades to both versions of Office are available from Microsoft's Mac Downloads page.

If you find yourself needing a conversion capability that this free beta doesn't support, it's worth taking a look at Panergy's $20 docXConverter, which promises to convert the majority of Word 2007 features to RTF as well.

Microsoft tells us that updates to the converter in a few months will include support for PowerPoint and Excel documents, and a version of it that provides read/write conversion will be integrated into Office 2004 six to eight weeks after the release of Office 2008 for Mac. For more about it, check out Geoff Price's post in the Mac Mojo blog.

These options may be useful for you when you receive a newsletter article or other church business documents in these new "incompatible" Microsoft Office file formats.

Speculation on UUA Independent Affiliate Decisions

Within the past week, there has been some speculation on the recently announced ("leaked"?) decision by the Unitarian Universalist Association Board of Trustees to reduce the number of non-congregational Independent Affiliates.

Some speculation has mentioned the Unitarian Universalists for Polyamory Awareness (UUPA) as a factor for this decision.

Here's a sample quote from The UU Enforcer blog that illustrates a representative example of this speculation:

"I have been thinking and talking and reading about the whole independent affiliate status tussle going on and one of the things that was pointed out to me was that this occurred, this being a whole lot of bureaucratic hoops to jump through, because no one wanted to come out and say to the Polyamorists get out! Yup instead of having some back bone and saying "sorry you missed the sixties, but you can't try and relive it here" the UUA board tried to avoid the conversation and set up some pretty high bars for groups to reach."

If that's the "real" reason behind this decision (and I hope it's not), I would find it troubling.

To me, this decision might be analogous to the tactics used by the Salt Lake City school administration to eliminate all extra-curricular student clubs because fairness and equal treatment laws demanded that the school officials allow for a Gay-Straight Alliance (GSA) in the public schools. The ACLU of Utah has background info on this case here.

The school administrators were forced to allow GSA groups if they allowed extra-curricular clubs. The "fairness" requirement was externally imposed by the Federal Law guaranteeing equal access for student-led clubs.

For Unitarian Universalists, our "fairness" requirement was not externally imposed by legislation. It comes from our Principles and Purposes along with the mostly implicit theology that our principles come from.

Like the Salt Lake City schools facing the GSA decision, it's possible that our UUA Board side-stepped any future decisions regarding the UUPA and official recognition by raising the bar.

And it's one way to avoid our theological requirement for fairness in who we choose to welcome or not welcome in our faith community.

For folks who are traveling to General Assembly in Portland, there will be a series of meetings to examine the future of non-congregational affiliates. More details can be found here.

"Critiquing Ideology" or "Bashing Another's Beliefs"

This past week, several discussions (many very heated) have popped up in a response to a Church of the Larger Fellowship article.

This article briefly mentioned the decision at Starr King School for the Ministry to stop using the term "brown bag" to describe lunchtime talks where one brings one's lunch to the talk. This is due to the historical association between brown bags and colorism discrimination.

One good place to find many links to these blog conversations is Philocrites blog article "Brown bag landmines, culling the affiliates, and more."

The Unitarian Universalist minister author of Ms. Kitty's Saloon and Road Show commented on her concerns about ministerial collegiality in the "brown bag" blog conversations.

One of the replies to Ms. Kitty's concerns voiced her belief that a criticism of an ideology should be permissible:

"An ideology was being critiqued. Ain't no guidelines against that and I hope to God there never will be."

Of course, this comment opens up the question what's an ideology and what's a sincerely held religious belief?

The online Merriam-Websters provides "a systematic body of concepts especially about human life or culture" as one definition for "ideology."

Since an ideology is just a term to describe an organized collection of ideas, the term would include most religious belief systems (e.g. Christianity, Islam, Buddhism, Paganism, Humanism, etc).

Do we want any ideologies to be off-limits from criticism in Unitarian Universalist communities?

For example, would a "Dawkins" or "Harris" criticism of belief in God and traditional religion be OK or would that be off-limits in a Unitarian Universalist setting?

I guess that Unitarian Universalist Christians will need to remove the term "Christian-bashing" from their vocabularies for two reasons:

1. To the best of my knowledge, no one has ever been "bashed" (physically assaulted) for being a Christian in a Unitarian Universalist congregation or other settings -- mostly it's a verbal criticism of ideology.
   
2. Criticism of ideology is OK for some Unitarian Universalists and some Unitarian Universalist Christians.
   

But do we want to live in a congregation where this frank criticism of ideology happens?

I think that no ideology or system of belief is so sacred that we cannot look at it critically.

However, I do see a problem with excessive criticism of ideologies in our congregations.

How do we examine an ideology critically in such a way that we don't shut down communication and eventually end up in the heated ritualistic exchange of verb-pronoun combinations?

Microsoft Office 2007 and the New File Formats

Thanks again for Microsoft to try creating a document "standard" that is not compatible with other office application suites.

If you haven't noticed this problem yet, it will probably affect you when a church volunteer sends you a Microsoft Word, Excel, or PowerPoint document created with the latest version of Microsoft Office for Windows -- Office 2007.

The new file formats are not compatible with Office 2003 or earlier versions of Microsoft Office (more to follow on this).

These formats are also not compatible with the current version of Microsoft Office for Mac OS X or the current OpenOffice or NeoOffice programs (more to follow on this).

Here's the details on the new file format from Wikipedia:

"Microsoft Office uses a new file format, called Office OpenXML, as the default file format. It is based on XML and uses the ZIP file container. According to Microsoft, documents created in this format are up to 75% smaller than the same documents saved with previous Microsoft Office file formats, owing to data compression.

Word documents without macro extensions are now saved using a .docx extension rather than the traditional .doc extension. Files containing macros are saved with the extension .docm. You can save your 2007 Word documents in the old format so that they will still be usable in previous versions of Word. If not, you will have to download a free converter from Microsoft for older versions of Word to be able to open documents created in the new format."

If you're using Microsoft Office 2003, Office 2002, or Office 2000; your best option is to download the "Microsoft Office Compatibility Pack for Word, Excel, and PowerPoint 2007 File Formats."

According to Wikipedia, the next version of Microsoft Office for Mac OS X (Office 2008) will be file-compatible with the Windows Office 2007 version and should be available in the second half 0f 2007. I cannot find any information on the requirements for Office 2008.

Microsoft has released a beta version of the XML filter for Microsoft Office 2004 for Mac OS X. This filter only converts Office 2007 Word documents (.docx, .docm). Here are the requirements for this conversion filter:

• Microsoft Office 2004 11.3.4 or later
• Office v. X 10.1.9 or later
• Mac OS X 10.4.8 (Tiger) or a later version of Mac OS

A search on the openoffice.org site provided some information for users of OpenOffice. OpenOffice users should expect import filters for OpenOffice between summer and autumn 2007.

If you're using Microsoft Office 2003/2002/2000, you should install Microsoft's compatibility filter.

If you're a Mac OS X user who is using OS X 10.4.8 or later and Microsoft Office, you can install the Microsoft Word compatibility filter for using Office 2007 word documents. You will still need to have the people you work with save their Excel and PowerPoint documents in the older formats (Excel .xls and PowerPoint .ppt).

If you're an OpenOffice user on any platform or using a Mac OS X version 10.4.7 or earlier, you will need to ask the person who sent you the Office 2007 document to save the document in the earlier Microsoft Office formats (.doc, .xls, .ppt).

If this file format issue seems confusing, you can thank Microsoft for creating this confusion for you, your congregation, and everyone else.

E-Mail Is Out With Today's Younger Web Users

On the previous blog post about security issues, I mentioned a disadvantage of using HTML-formatted email for church marketing. But there's another disadvantage of using email for church marketing and communication.

It's a communication tool used more by older people and used less by younger people.

Here's another article from InformationWeek about this demographic difference in internet communication -- a brief quote from the article:

"For most of us in the business world, e-mail is an integral part of our work lives. But for the millennials -- the generation between ages 13 and 24 -- e-mail is for old people. That's right, the first form of communication that brought many of us into the online world is now as outdated as a leisure suit.

For younger Webizens, e-mail today is like sending a letter -- something you do when you have to but not a primary means of communication. For these users text messaging, instant messaging, and social networking sites are the ways they communicate and stay in touch."

This affects many areas of congregational life.

How do we address these preferred means of communication for youth in our congregational safety policies?

How do we ensure that our religious professionals and congregational leaders can use them effectively? Our congregational leaders may have who may be unwilling and/or uncomfortable with these newer methods of communication

Another observation from this article related to campus communication at Virginia Tech during the shooting incident:

"Signs of this shift were evident last week during the horrible shootings at Virginia Tech. Students relied on text messaging and Web 2.0 technologies like blogs and social networks for updates and for social support.

University officials faced criticism for e-mailing out alerts more than two hours after the first wave of shootings. In the wake of this tragedy, technologists have called for universities to adopt technologies like text messaging to build more immediate alert systems instead of relying on systems like e-mail."

The final quote from this article provides three possible explanations behind this generational shift in internet communication:

"So why is e-mail dying? I think there are a couple of reasons. First, younger users want more controlled systems of messaging. The advantage of text messaging, IM, and social network sites, compared with e-mail, is that these systems are controlled by users' buddy lists. While spamming inside these modes of communications does happen, it's still much harder and more expensive to spam people through IM, text, and social networks than it is through e-mail.

The second is immediacy. IM is instant and so, too, is SMS. Social networks are immediate, too. E-mail is slower. Users have to wait for a response and e-mail communication isn't, in most cases, a real-time dialogue.

And the third reason is personalization. E-mail is a cold medium. It's not as personal as social networking, where message updates and friend connections extend users' online personas through their communications. Cell phones are, almost by definition, highly personal devices and, likewise, younger users see text messages as more intimate."

So ... I suppose if our congregations want to appear cold and impersonal to younger members and potential members, email is the way to go.

5 Cheap But Effective Tips To Improve Security

Here's another article from InformationWeek to improve computer security for your church. A summary listing of the five tips can be found below:

1. Periodically check for rogue wireless access points in corporate buildings
2. Enable Windows Update on all computers
3. Don't allow html e-mail through
4. Training, whether for users or the IT staff, will pay off in the long run
5. Consider using Mozilla Foundation's Thunderbird and Firefox as possible alternatives to Outlook and Internet Explorer

The entire article can be found online here.

The second suggestion on this list could be generalized to suggest updating and patching all systems and software used in the church to ensure they are protected (e.g. Linux, Mac OS X, Firefox, Thunderbird, PowerChurch, etc).

The third suggestion could impact churches that want to use HTML-formatted email for marketing purposes. HTML-formatted email as a marketing tool was a suggestion from the Unitarian Universalist Association's District Services Staff. They recommended using an email marketing vendor called Constant Contact. One disadvantage of using HTML-formatted email can be found on Wikipedia:

" ... the sheer volume of spam e-mail has led some users to mistake legitimate commercial e-mail (for instance, a mailing list to which the user subscribed) for spam — especially when the two have a similar appearance, as when messages include HTML and flashy graphics."

If our church outreach materials were to be lumped in with "spam" junk mail through filtering, it won't be very effective. Plain-text email would be preferable to HTML-formatted email due to this concern.

Using Firefox for web browsing and Thunderbird for email instead of the Internet Explorer and Outlook programs that are bundled with Microsoft Windows is one of the best suggestions on this list in my opinion.

Endpoint Security -- 6 Questions To Ask Before You Buy

Endpoint security solutions enable organizations to evaluate, protect, and repair managed and unmanaged systems as they connect to corporate assets.

Any endpoint security beyond client antivirus software, client firewall software, and a hardware firewall/router for sharing a broadband the is probably overkill for smaller congregations but larger congregations may consider these security resources due to their larger and more "corporate" nature.

This article in InformationWeek provides some basic questions to ask before buying security resources.

"The Best Macintosh Office Suite Money Can't Buy"

For Macintosh users, there is an office suite option that is both compatible with Microsoft Office and very affordable.

The cost is $0.00 and it's freely downloadable.

This office suite is NeoOffice, which is described on Wikipedia as:

" ... a fork of the free/open source OpenOffice.org office suite that is ported to Mac OS X. It implements nearly all of the features of the corresponding OpenOffice.org version, including a word processor, spreadsheet, presentation program, and graphics program. It is developed by Planamesa Software, and uses Java technology to integrate OpenOffice.org — originally developed for Solaris and Linux — with the Aqua interface of Mac OS X."

Unlike the existing version of OpenOffice suite for the Macintosh, NeoOffice does not require the X11 windowing system and it has the expected look and feel of Aqua interface applications on Mac OS X.

Check out this online review of NeoOffice from InformationWeek magazine.

The magazine reviewer does suggest that the $400.00 you save by not buying Microsoft Office for your Mac could be used for buying an iPhone instead.

Southwest District Our Whole Lives Training

The Southwest Unitarian Universalist Conference (aka "Southwest District" or "SWUUC") is hosting an all-ages Our Whole Lives training weekend on 8-10 June 2007.

Our Whole Lives (OWL) is the lifespan, comprehensive sexuality education program jointly developed by the Unitarian Universalist Association and the United Church of Christ.

This weekend will offer three separate facilitator training tracks.

Here's a brief summary of the details:

When -- 8-10 June 2007, Friday 6:00 PM until Sunday 4 PM

Where -- Live Oak Unitarian Universalist Church, 3315 El Salido Parkway, Cedar Park, TX 78613-3357, 512-219-9008

Facilitators

• Grades K-1/4-6 -- Presented by Sherry Kircus and John Sulzmann
• Grades 7-9/10-12 -- Presented by Mary McIntosh and Peter D'Ascoli
• Adult -- Presented by Penny Ramsdell and Steve Caldwell

The registration deadline for this weekend workshop is 28 May 2007.

Ideally, a church or community organization would send a male-female teaching team for training in the age/grade level desired.

This OWL Teacher Training weekend is sponsored by the Southwest Unitarian Universalist Conference Religious Education Committee.

Online Registration

Downloadable Registration Forms

For more information or if you need to inquire about last-minute registrations, contact Jennifer Nichols-Payne at jnichols-payne@sbcglobal.net.

"Push Polling" and Louisiana Attorney General Race

Last night, I received a phone call for a person who was conducting a political opinion poll related to Royal Alexander, Charles Foti, and the Louisiana Attorney General race.

After a few minutes, it became very clear that this poll wasn't a real poll but rather a "push poll" being conducted by Mr. Alexander's campaign or by a group sympathetic to Mr. Alexander's campaign.

A "push poll" is defined as:

" ... a political campaign technique in which an individual or organization attempts to influence or alter the view of respondents under the guise of conducting a poll. Push polls are generally viewed as a form of negative campaigning."

This so-called "poll" asked a few questions about my familiarity with Charles Foti, Royal Alexander, and the Attorney General election. The pollster then went on to read a series of statements that portrayed Mr. Foti in a negative light (e.g. arresting medical professionals for engaging in euthanasia and "playing God" in the Hurricane Katrina aftermath and then not pressing charges against these folks) and would then if the statement would affect my opinion of Mr. Foti.

After a few statements, I asked the pollster if this was a "push poll" and she refused to answer my question. I then said that I would not participate in this type of negative campaigning.

I think this is a newsworthy issue and I'll probably write a letter to the editor about this negative campaigning.

Sexuality and the "Direct Experience of That Transcending Mystery and Wonder"

Back in February 2005, I had blogged about how self-discovery through masturbation could be viewed as a "spiritual practice" akin to prayer, meditation, journaling, etc.

This past weekend, I discovered a similar suggestion about the connection between sexual ecstasy and spiritual exploration on Greta Christina's blog. The following quote is a reader reply to Greta from Nina Hartley:

When I got older I found Betty Dodson's book and began using sexual energy as my "way in" to myself and, like you, found that ecstasy, joy, love, abundance, etc., were physiologic states that could be accessed through many doors: fasting; meditation; self-flagellation; twirling (as in Sufism); psychoactive drugs; chanting; drumming; dancing; prayer; singing and, most universally, sexual pleasure and orgasm. No wonder the powers that be want to keep little children from touching their genitals! We'd all see that we can talk to god anytime we want to, simply by touching our vulvas and penises, breathing deeply and paying attention to what feels good. Too easy.

These feelings emanate from our mid-brains and the limbic system. They have no words or images associated with them, they simply are. It's our pesky forebrains that must label every sensation and thought that comes through. So religiously indoctrinated people would label it "god," and I would label it "good." All these people seeking god, when he or she is at the end of our arms and the junction of our legs, there for the knowing.

And that's why religion spends so much time obsessing on sex and sex pleasure -- they need to keep up the lie that the average person needs an intermediary between him and god, and the priest class is that go-between. If more people found joy on their own, the church might go out of business. Hmm, it's an idea ...

Unlike some religions, Unitarian Universalism is OK with the sort of spiritual exploration described by Nina. While we haven't taken a vote at General Assembly in support of it, our lifespan sexuality education programs affirm both pleasure and self-discovery.

I don't think that Unitarian Universalism will go out of business because of it.

Religion Without Supernatural Theism?

The retired Episcopal Bishop John Shelby Spong has written a book titled titled Why Christianity Must Change or Die.

Implict in this book title are the two possible outcomes for Christianity (and perhaps some other religions as well) in North America and Western Europe -- adapting or dying.

The death could be in a literal sense like the shrinking influence of religion in Western Europe or it could be an intellectual death where the religion still exists and has influence in the world but is unable to adapt to changing times.

I'm curious to see where our Methodist, Anglican, and other Christian neighbors will be in 50 years. Will they be moving towards a "Spong" form of Christianity or will they be moving towards an "Akinola" form of Christianity?

The criticisms of Richard Dawkins, Sam Harris, and others may sound harsh. But many of the ideas raised in their "Atheist" books have also been raised by Spong, Crossan, and others in "Christian" books.

For example, John Dominic Crossan has suggested that we have a good empirical benchmark for the ability of God to perform miracles.

The shrines at Lourdes and Fatima have discarded crutches testifying to the miraculous healings. But there are no discarded artificial limbs testifying to miracles of regeneration. Apparently, there are some limits to God's power in the world. Here's a brief quote from Crossan's book Who Is Jesus?: Answers to Your Questions about the Historical Jesus:

I have visited Lourdes in France and Fatima in Portugal, healing shrines of the Christian Virgin Mary. I have also visited Epidaurus in Greece and Pergamum in Turkey, healing shrines of the pagan god Asklepios. the miraculous healings recorded in both places were remarkably the same. There are, for example, many crutches hanging in the grotto of Lourdes, mute witness to those who arrived lame and left whole. There are, however, no prosthetic limbs among them, not witnesses to paraplegics whose lost limbs were restored. What do I conclude?

Faith heals! That is as sure as anything we can ever know. Certain diseases for certain people under certain circumstances can be healed by faith in that very possibility -- at Epidaurus for a pagan, at Lourdes for a Christian, at Benares for a Hindu, and so on. But certain diseases only, certain people only, and certain conditions only.

Another limit to God's power in the world is the trend towards shrinking area of responsibility for God to use God's divine power.

The atheist blogger Greta Christina has pointed out that the trend has been for natural explanations to replace supernatural explanations in the world. And there are no documented cases of a natural explanation being discarded in favor of a supernatural explanation. Here's a brief quote from Greta's blog:

When you look at the history of the world, you see thousands -- tens of thousands, arguably hundreds of thousands or more -- of phenomena for which a supernatural explanation has been replaced by a natural one. Why the sun rises and sets; what thunder and lightning are; how and why illness happens and spreads; why people look like their parents; how people got to be here in the first place… all these things, and thousands more, were once explained by gods or spirits or mystical energies. And now all of them have natural, physical explanations.

Natural explanations, I should point out, with mountains of solid, carefully collected, replicable evidence to support them.

Now, how many times in the history of the world has a natural explanation of a phenomenon been supplanted by a supernatural one?

As far as I am aware, exactly zero.

Of course, people are coming up with new supernatural explanations of naturally-explained phenomena all the time. Intelligent design is the most obvious example. You can pick up any New Age magazine to find more.

But explanations with evidence? Replicable evidence? Carefully gathered, patiently tested, rigorously reviewed evidence? Internally consistent evidence? Large amounts of it, from many different sources?

Again, as far as I'm aware -- none.

Which brings me to my point: the question of likelihood.

Given this pattern -- thousands upon thousands upon thousands of natural explanations accurately supplanting supernatural ones, zero supernatural explanations accurately supplanting natural ones -- doesn't it seem that any given unexplained phenomenon is far more likely to have a natural explanation than a supernatural one?

This all leads to a few interesting questions and suggests to me that the supernatural in religion has a limited future.

But will supernatural theism remain a part of Christianity and other religions?

And what will happen to Christianity and other religion if the supernatural theism is gone?

Do We Really Talk Too Much About Sex?

My blog post is a response to Rev. Christine Robinson's concern that we spend too much time on sexuality education in Unitarian Universalist congregations.

Wow ... where should I start?

I hate it when folks use numbers as a rhetorical device and not as a tool for conveying accurate information. I think I've said this a million times that we should not exaggerate numbers for rhetorical effect.

First, the 25% of religious education contact time spent on the Our Whole Lives program isn't factually accurate.

And the misunderstanding that the Our Whole Lives (OWL) sexuality education program isn't "real" religious education (grounded in Unitarian Universalist theology and/or the United Church of Christ understanding of the Bible and their theology) is all too common among some folks who are not familiar with the Our Whole Lives program and the Unitarian Universalist/United Church of Christ Sexuality and Our Faith religious supplement for the Our Whole Lives program.

When one realizes that "sexuality" is more than body parts and lubricated friction and that it includes friendships, relationships, discovering who one is, etc, the time spent in OWL class isn't excessive at all.

This is one religious education (RE) class that we know our youth will use as adults.

Dr. Rebecca Parker has a very short and concise explanation of what Unitarian Universalist soteriology that she presented at the Liberal Religious Educator Association Fall Conference back in 2002. She says that we offer salvation from those things that deny life or make life less whole.

Using this view of salvation, I would suggest that the Our Whole Lives program is part of that salvation that we offer a world badly in need of salvation.

That's enough theology -- let's go back to the numbers.

Here's a breakdown of the time spent in the Our Whole Lives program at each age/grade level for Unitarian Universalists who are not adults:

Grades K-1 - 8 sessions (8 hours)

Grades 4-6 - 8 sessions (8 hours)

Grades 7-9 - 27 sessions (41- 54 hours, depending on the amount of religious ritual used with the basic 90 minute sessions)

Grades 10-12 - 14 sessions (28 hours)

The total amount of time spent in formal sexuality education classes is 98 hours (based on the figures provided above).

The estimate of time spent in all RE activities (based on Christine's estimate) is 520 hours.

Assuming that OWL program happens on Sunday morning instead of non-OWL RE classes, the percentage is not 25% -- 18.9% is what I come up with.

However, I doubt that the figure is any near 18% in most Unitarian Universalist congregations.

For example, my congregation only offers the grades 7-9 program and I suspect this is true for many other congregations (the grades 7-9 program is viewed by many as the replacement for About Your Sexuality, the earlier UUA sexuality education program).

Furthermore, we offer the program outside the Sunday morning RE time slot and it doesn't replace the non-OWL RE program. It supplements it. For my congregation and for many others like it the actual figure is 9.4%.

It's rare to find a congregation that offers OWL at all age/grade levels. I know this from my experience as a trainer in my district. The only OWL training workshop that has happened every year in my district is the training for adolescent OWL. Some years, the children and adult programs don't make the minimum enrollment number.

However, there are some congregations that do offer all age/grade levels of OWL. But they offer them outside Sunday morning as a supplement to the non-OWL RE program. In those cases, the percentage isn't 18%. For these congregations, the percentage is closer to 15%.

Finally, I'm sure that somebody is wondering why anyone would need 27 weeks and 40-52 hours to talk about sex. If all we provided in the OWL program was just the biological - medical facts about anatomy, reproduction, disease prevention, etc, 52 hours of class time would seem excessive.

However, we cover more than just "sexual health and reproduction" in the OWL program.

We talk about sensuality -- body awareness - how we feel about our bodies, how it looks, feels and what it can do. Sensuality is about being aware of and in touch with the pleasure our bodies can give us and others.

We talk about intimacy -- the basic need to be emotionally close to another person or persons and have that closeness returned. Relationships give us a sense of belonging, connection, and affection. Relationships can be friendships, family relationships, or romantic relationships.

We talk about sexual identity -- who we are sexually, including our sense of gender; the ways we express our gender; and the direction of our romantic and sexual attractions.

We talk about sexualization -- the use of sex or sexuality to influence, manipulate, or control other people. Sexualization is not always negative. It can range from harmless flirting to extreme violence.

This multi-faceted and complex model of sexuality that we use in the OWL program can be found online here:

Circles of Sexuality

Teaching abstinence or condom use are both simple skills that can be taught in less than 1 hour. The hard part is providing the opportunity for folks to explore the relationship issues so our youth have the ability to negotiate effective and safe sexual decisions with their partners as adolescents and as adults in the future.

End of my rant.

Podcast Update -- All Souls Shreveport

Last Sunday, I had prepared our second podcast recording for uploading to our web site (Rev. Jonalu Johnstone, President of Interweave, spoke at our church).

I also used the sample RSS feed template from the Apple iTunes web pages to create the RSS syndication feed.

I've also submitted the RSS feed for inclusion as a free podcast in Apple iTunes music store.



If one does a search within the iTunes online store, we are the only search result for a "shreveport unitarian" search.

"Why Do You Live in Louisiana?"

Between 13 and 15 April 2007, I was visiting the Pacific Southwest District of the Unitarian Universalist Association. I was there to co-facilitate a facilitators training workshop for the Our Whole Lives Grades 7-9 and 10-12 comprehensive sexuality education curriculum jointly developed by the Unitarian Universalist Association and the United Church of Christ.

During the weekend, I would related experiences with sexuality education, bisexual - gay - lesbian - transgender rights, and the local "Bible Belt" culture from my time in Northwest Louisiana and the Southwest District of the Unitarian Universalist Association. These experiences would cause participants to ask me "Why do you live there?"

I think I found the answer in Monday's Shreveport, Louisiana daily newspaper. I can guarantee that the following letter to the editor would never be found in the Los Angeles Times:

Outlawing this sport (cockfighting) will put a lot of people of out jobs and hurt the economy of all Louisiana. They don't think of the people that will be put out of work. The feed stores will lose about one-third of their sales, that is a lot of business. Grain the farmers grow to feed these birds will not be bought by the feed stores, hurting the farmers. Hotels, gas stations and restaurants these people patronize will no longer get this business. Towns these fights are held in have come to depend on the out-of-town people to help them survive. At times, there are a thousand people coming into these towns for four to five days to stay and spend money. Some people raise chickens to sell to others, taking away their livelihood. These chickens have to have medicine and be wormed each month; this will hurt the veterinarian.

When you think outlawing cockfighting will help, think of the people you know it will hurt. Then decide what is more important — people losing their jobs and livelihoods, towns losing business they need to help survive, making outlaws out of honest people, or giving in to these animal rights groups that will leave Louisiana when they get what they want, but your fellow Louisianans will still be here without the way of life we love and without the revenue the sport generates.

In a sportsman magazine, the Humane Society said cormorants should be left on the endangered list and not be punished for what they do naturally, which is eating fish. Why can't a game rooster do what he does naturally, which is fight?

Tony Pickard
Sarepta LA

And opinions like this are what makes our region so unique and special. According to Wikipedia, cockfighting is illegal in all 50 states and the District of Columbia with the singular exception of Louisiana.

As Unitarian Universalists and religious liberals, we will never run out of social justice work in my state. There's always something that needs fixing.

Two Computer Articles For Churches And Other Small-Budget Non-Profit Organizations

I found two articles today that may be useful for churches and other small-budget non-profit organizations:

How To Revive An Old PC With Linux

The article is described as a "short guide to getting your old clunker up and running again with a free Linux download and a reasonably quick installation."

The second article deals with computer security and personal computer firewalls:

How To Secure Desktop PCs With Personal Firewalls

This article may be useful for your church staff persons who travel and use wireless networks away from the secure network that one controls in your church.

Exploring Digital Audio Recording at My Church

I've had the good fortune of having both an old computer that was gathering dust in our choir loft and ready access to "open source" audio recording and editing software at my congregation.

I've been experimenting with adding digital audio recording at All Souls Unitarian Universalist Church in Shreveport, Louisiana. This is yet another way to allow members, friends, and potential members to participate in congregational life and learn more about Unitarian Universalism. It's also something that our minister wants to start doing.

Digital recording allows our members who want a recording of the worship service to have it on audio CD. Audio CDs are useful for members who want a worship recording but don't have a cassette player in the car. The digital recording will also let us put digital audio files on the congregation's web site.

The old computer that I've plugged into our sanctuary sound board is a generic Windows PC-compatible clone that was formerly used by our office administrator until June 2006. It had an AMD Athlon 1200 MHz CPU, 768 megabytes RAM, 40 gigabyte hard drive, and a CD/RW drive. This older computer was purchased at least 4 to 5 years ago and had been upgraded from Windows ME to Windows XP Professional during its time as the office administrator's computer.

Since we don't have wired internet access in our sanctuary, I've installed a D-Link WDA-1320 PCI 802.11 b/g wireless LAN card on this computer. This allows me to access the internet using our church's wireless router (e.g. installing the latest software patches and security updates, uploading files to our congregation's web site, etc without having to drag the computer to a 10/100-Base-T internet connection in the church office). The reason for choosing this type of wireless LAN card is past experience using this card with Ubuntu Linux. It works "out of the box" without any special trick for the "Dapper Drake" and "Edgy Eft" releases).

To get the best performance out of this older computer, I installed Ubuntu 6.06 "Dapper Drake" on this computer instead of the Windows XP operating system. After installing the basic "Dapper" install and the latest security updates, I used the "Unofficial Ubuntu 6.06 (Dapper Drake) Starter Guide" to assist me in finishing the setup. The starter guide provides step-by-step instructions for installing "Automatrix2" on our computer. Automatrix2 automates most of the multi-media setup required for setting a computer that can read and write mp3 podcast files.

Ubuntu records the audio files in the "ogg" open-standard format. To edit these files (e.g. cutting out dead air time) and to convert the digital audio file into mp3 format used by nearly every portable audio player, I installed "Audacity," an open-source audio editor for Windows, Macintosh, and Linux.

Now that I've confirmed that all the hardware and software works during today's worship, I need to create some user documentation for the volunteers who run our worship audio system so they know how to record digital audio, edit for length if needed, and burn the digital audio to CD.

I will need to find some time to do that between the Our Whole Lives trainings I'm co-leading between now and June 2007.

There will be more to follow on this documentation in a future blog article.

Who Speaks for Unitarian Universalism on the Web?

In a blog article about the Unitarian Universalist Association's web site text describing the role of Christianity in modern-day Unitarian Universalism, UU blogger and minister Scott Wells raises the following questions:

"But today, with increasingly decentralized Internet communication and the name recognition this brings, editorial control for Unitarian Universalism is now much wider than the UUA staff and a few independent (but low circulation) periodicals. The emerging 'how long' question is 'how long will it be before an outsider won't necessarily go to UUA.org first?'"

Based on the search results on Google for Unitarian Universalism, this may already be happening.

The first search result listed isn't the "official" Unitarian Universalist Association's web site (which if you haven't noticed, has undergone a major redesign).

The first search result reported is the Wikipedia article on Unitarian Universalism. For comparison's sake, the first Google search result reported for Unitarian and Universalist are the "official" UUA web site.

For those Unitarian Universalists who are "polity wonks" (my adaptation of "policy wonk" to describe those who are concerned with congregational and association governance issues), who speaks for Unitarian Universalism on the web is an important question.

The Unitarian Universalist Association is the member congregations and the paid and volunteer staff should be responsive to the desires of the member congregations. The collective authorship of Wikipedia may be responsive to the Wikipedia readership but it may not be responsive to UUA member congregations.

This doesn't mean that Wikipedia is less accurate than the UUA web site. Wikipedia will probably cover some controversies that the UUA would not prominently cover on their web site (e.g. the "language of reverence" and "borrowing from other religions" debates). And the "group editing" process may more accurately reflect reality (even if this isn't the "corporate message" that our congregations want to present to the world). The Wikipedia article on us is pretty accurate.

For example, the UUA web site does mention the "hot-button" polyamory topic (based on a Google search of www.uua.org). Some of the search results are still active pages and some are not active after the web site redesign.

However, the UUA web site does not list Unitarian Universalists for Polyamory Awareness as an official UUA affiliate organization. However, Wikipedia does list it as an official independent affiliate. I'm sure that this doesn't sit well with persons who disapprove of this perceived connection between polyamory and Unitarian Universalism.

My concern with the trend towards decentralized communication is a lack of accountability. Who would our future decentralized internet voices for Unitarian Unversalism be accountable to? The loudest voice speaking about Unitarian Universalism on the internet may not reflect the desires of our congregations through an open and democratic process but rather something else entirely different.

Viewing Anti-Christian Anger Through an Anti-Oppression Lens -- Greta Christina's Defense of the "Blasphemy Challenge"

Greta Christina is a San Francisco area writer who blogs about sexuality, atheism, politics and many other subjects.

She has written a defense of the "Blasphemy Challenge" on her blog after she took the challenge herself.

Part of her defense mentions the anger in the Blasphemy Challenge video clips. Greta touches on anti-oppression issues surrounding the unearned power and privilege that Christianity has in our society:

"And you know what? I'm proud and happy to stand up with the angry, pissy, juvenile ones, too. I see them, and my heart just breaks. I know that when you hear someone say something like "The Holy Spirit rapes children," what you hear is a terrible thing being said about your faith. But what I hear (although to be fair, I haven't seen that particular video and am just going on your description of it) is someone who, I'm betting, had an appalling religious upbringing, one in which they were taught cruel, traumatic, bigoted, and flat-out untrue things, and told that to even question them would send them to be burned and tortured in Hell… and who's only now coming to realize just how fucked up that was, and just how full of rage they are about it. (Or if they didn't go through that themselves, they know and love someone who did.) You see the insult -- I see the anger, the frustration, the trauma, the feeling of helplessness. And while I wish those people would express their rage in a better way than namecalling and insults, and while I hope they can move on from that eventually, my heart goes out to them. I get that this is where they need to be right now, and I want to stand with them and tell them that they're not alone.

Now, maybe that's not fair. Maybe it's not fair to be sympathetic with atheists who are angry about religion, and yet expect religious believers to get over their anger about atheists. But I feel the same way about women's anger towards men versus men's anger towards women; queer folks' anger towards straight people versus straight peoples' anger towards queers. The difference is in which group has the power. And in this case, it's not atheists."

This is very close to an article on my blog from March 2005 titled "Christian and Non-Christian Unitarian Universalists -- Anti-Oppression Implications."

I wrote about the negative attitudes expressed towards Unitarian Universalist (UU) Christians who belong to predominantly non-Christian UU congregations:

"UU [Unitarian Universalist] Christians need to remember that they are walking in the door of a church wearing a garment of 'power and privilege' that was not freely accepted but rather forced on them by our wider North American culture. UU Christians joining a predominantly non-Christian UU congregation are (unknowingly?) engaging in anti-oppression work by giving up unearned power and privilege granted to them by the wider culture. This is the theological equivalent of an adult advisor working with youth where the advisor gives up some of the unearned privilege that comes with being an adult."

Using this anti-oppression perspective allows us to understand why some Unitarian Universalists are strongly critical of Jesus, the Bible, and God but seem to be OK with non-Christian religious expression in their UU congregations.

Asking Senators to Co-sponsor the REAL Act

Today, youth and young adult members of Unitarian Universalist churches, United Church of Christ churches, and other religious liberal groups were lobbying congress today in support of the REAL Act (Responsible Education about Life Act -- S. 368). The UUA and UCC were also sponsoring a REAL Act call-in day for lobbying our Senators for folks around the country to participate in this lobbying by phone.

The REAL Act would give states and communities the option to freely choose between abstinence-only sexuality education and comprehensive sexuality education by providing funding for both options.

After calling my Senators, I visited the Advocates for Youth web site. Here's my modified version of the sample letter provided on the Advocates for Youth web site that I sent to my Senators:

I am writing to ask you to cosponsor the REAL Act (Responsible Education about Life Act -- S. 368).

This legislation, introduced by Representative Barbara Lee (D-CA) and Senator Frank Lautenberg (D-NJ), would provide federal support for comprehensive sex education programs.

The United States has the highest rate of unintended teen pregnancies among all industrialized nations and American teens acquire an estimated 9.1 million sexually transmitted diseases a year. An average of two young people in the U.S. are infected with HIV every hour of every day.

Clearly, young people's health and lives are at risk, yet the federal government has spent over $1.4 billion over the past 10 years on abstinence-only programs that censor information about the health benefits of contraceptives and condoms.

Research indicates that teenagers who receive information about both abstinence and contraception are more likely to delay sexual activity and to have fewer partners and use condoms and contraception when they do become sexually active.

The most trusted medical and scientific institutions in our nation, such as the American Medical Association, the Society for Adolescent Medicine, the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists, and the American Public Health Association, all recommend comprehensive sex education as well.

For the past 10 years, the federal government has invested money into abstinence-only programs, which do not give teens the resources they need.

It's time for a change.

The REAL Act authorizes much-needed funding for programs that give teens the information and skills they need to make responsible decisions.

As a religious person who is active in my church and a parent of two teens, I'm outraged with our government's immoral and ineffective abstinence-only funding policies that fail to protect the health of young people. The abstinence-only programs are based in flawed ideology -- not reality -- and do harm our young people.

I urge you to become a cosponsor of the REAL Act.

Asking Senators and Representatives to Co-sponsor Access to Legal Pharmaceuticals Act

Today, I sent a letter from the Advocates for Youth web page to my Senators and my Congressman asking them to co-sponsor the Access to Legal Pharmaceuticals Act (H.R. 1652 / S. 809). Here's my modification to the pre-written Advocates for Youth letter:

I am outraged that young women across America are being denied safe and legal pharmaceutical products based on the ideological views of a few. Pharmacists have a responsibility to provide medications without judgment or fear.

The Access to Legal Pharmaceuticals Act (H.R. 1652 / S. 809) is designed to preserve the right to safe, legal, pharmaceuticals prescribed by a medical professional.

Decisions about whether to use safe and legal birth control should be made by a woman and her doctor, without restrictions by pharmacists.

98% of women use birth control at some point in their childbearing years and experts predict that access to emergency contraceptives alone could prevent as many as fifty percent of the 841,000 unplanned teen pregnancies every year.

However, because of barriers, only thirty seven percent of young women seeking contraceptive services ever receive them.

Young women are uniquely affected when a pharmacist refuses to fill a prescription because, as they may have limited access to transportation and funds, they can't afford to track down a pharmacist who will.

These young women, who are making the responsible decision to access birth control methods, should not be faced with a hassle or a judgment at the pharmacy. Pharmacists have a right to their personal beliefs about dispensing birth control, but cannot be allowed to impose those beliefs on women.

As a father of a teen daughter who is attending college and as a religious churchgoing person, I'm outraged that my daughter's reproductive freedoms could be harmed through a pharmacist who refuses to perform his or her professional duties.

I urge you to support the Access to Legal Pharmaceuticals Act and protect the right of responsible young women to receive safe, legally prescribed pharmaceuticals.

A Radically Nonsensical Literal Reading of Leviticus 18:22

Here is a radically literal but tongue-in-cheek interpretation of Leviticus 18:22 that popped into my head this afternoon.

This verse is often cited as a scriptural condemnation of homosexuality.

However -- when one reads the text literally, it doesn't prohibit all male-male sexual intercourse.

Here's the verse as translated in the Revised Standard Version:

"You shall not lie with a male as with a woman; it is an abomination."

The literal text only addresses male-male intercourse when the participants are prone.

It doesn't ban anal sex when both men are standing nor does it ban oral sex when one man is standing and the other man is kneeling. And -- for the incredibly gymnastic -- it doesn't ban the standing "69" position either. And it certainly doesn't ban mutual masturbation as long as the two men are not prone.

I suppose we can now legalize same-sex marriage as long as we require the use of twin beds by male-male couples. We would also need to ban double beds, queen-sized beds, king-sized beds, etc for male-male couples as well.

I'm pretty sure that bunk beds would be OK.

And male-male sex in hot tubs (which involves "floating" instead of "lying") would be acceptable within this Leviticus 18:22 framework.

This example shows the absurdity of trying to read the Bible as a literal sex manual in modern times.

The Bible (like many other ancient scriptures) works best when viewed holistic sense that provides us example of how to live ethically with each other.

"What about those who have never heard about Christ? Is is fair they be 'damned' just because they were never exposed to Christianity?"

If you find these questions seem to be odd from a Unitarian Universalist perspective, then you're probably wondering why I've used them for the title of this blog article.

These questions are the topic for next Wednesday's meeting for my congregation's Unitarian Universalist Christian Fellowship Bible Study Group (this group is one of our congregation's "covenant groups"). Our local UUCF group is hosting a multi-week forum on "Questions and Concerns About Christianity" and these two questions will be discussed next week.

I'm surprised to know that these questions are current concerns for modern-day Unitarian Universalist Christians because I thought they were discussed in-depth during the 1800s and we have moved on to other aspects of Christianity in the Unitarian Universalist tradition.

Our Unitarian, Universalist, and Unitarian Universalist heritage is rooted in the Protestant Chirstian tradition and our tradition has looked at these questions in depth.

The early 1800s Unitarian view was one of "salvation by character." Rev. Jane Rzepka (Senior Minister, Church of the Larger Fellowship) describes "salvation by character" using the following words in her 2003 General Assembly CLF Worship Service:

"We are Unitarian Universalists, and our salvation comes not in the rapture but, historically at least, in 'salvation by character.' We believe there is something wonderful inside us -- you could call it inherent dignity and worth -- that allows us to work toward good character, wholeness, healing, and all that is good. We have within us a little core of natural hope -- Thoreau's bug in the sixty year old table metaphor could work here [refers to reading] -- some little bit of hopeful life that lies waiting to spring into action. And even better, most UUs don't just sit for sixty years waiting, we act to realize that hope, that life, that wholeness. In spite of the difficulties in our own experience and of life in the larger world, we do what we can. Therein lies our Unitarian Universalist salvation."

The early 1800s Universalist view was one of "salvation irrespective of character." That is best described using the words of Hosea Ballou in the address he gave to the 1851 Universalist General Convention in Boston (as recorded in his online biography page):

"In homely language, he summed up his belief in a God who, as a Father, loves all his children: 'Your child has fallen into the mire, and its body and its garments are defiled. You cleanse it, and array it in clean robes. The query is, Do you love your child because you have washed it? Or, Did you wash it because you loved it?"

A recent summary of the origins of modern-day Unitarian Universalist soteriology (theology of salvation) can be found in "Unitarian Universalist Identity" curriculum for young adults by Katie Tweedie Erslev:

UU Soteriology: Raising the Roof
"Once again, in contrast to the predominant foundation of the theology of Calvinism, our roof was raised by the 19th century Universalists. Universalism gave us a roof that saved us all. They said that what saves us is the power of creative love made viable to us in the person of Jesus.

Do we need to be saved from Hell? The Universalists said that we create heaven and hell on earth. We need to be saved from the Hells that we create."

So ... I guess that many Unitarian Universalists would view Jesus, his teachings, and the example he set during his pre-Easter life on Earth as one example of creative love saving others.

But I don't think that we would say that Jesus is the only example of creative love saving others.

These questions may be important for Christian newcomers to our congregation who are dealing with concerns about competing claims over Christian exclusiveness and religious pluralism.

But while this theology is an important part of our heritage that we should celebrate, it's not an urgent theological concern for most Unitarian Universalists today.

If one doesn't believe in Hell other than the hells we create in the here-and-now, is there any point in talking about it or wondering if those who have not heard about Christ are possibly condemned to hellfire and damnation?

And that's why I would find the discussion questions for this group's next meeting to be odd from my Unitarian Universalist perspective.

Altruism, the "Open Source" Economy, and Churches

In a recent column in Time Magazine ("Getting Rich off Those Who Work for Free"), Justin Fox discusses non-monetary motivations in the marketplace. Here's a quote from the column:

It might seem very odd to look to a long-dead Russian anarchist for business advice. But Peter Kropotkin's big idea -- that there are important human motivations beyond what he called "reckless individualism" -- is very relevant these days. That's because one of the most interesting questions in business has become how much work people will do for free.

Kropotkin was an aristocrat who, after being imprisoned for his insurrectionist activities, escaped and fled to England in 1876. He also drew the first good topographic maps of Siberia and wrote a memoir of his revolutionary days that has become a minor classic. More to the point, he proposed in his 1902 book, Mutual Aid: A Factor of Evolution, that the survival of animal species and much of human progress depended on the tendency to help others.

That I even know of Kropotkin comes courtesy of the Wikipedia entry for the "gift economy," the current term of art for this altruistic approach. Wikipedia is, of course, a prime example of the gift economy at work. Argue about its inaccuracies all you want, but the volunteer-authored online encyclopedia is on its way to becoming (if it isn't already) the world's dominant reference resource.

Open-source, volunteer-created computer software like the Linux operating system and the Firefox Web browser have also established themselves as significant and lasting economic realities. That's not true yet in the worlds of science, news and entertainment: we're still figuring out what the role of volunteers will be, but that it will be much bigger than in the past seems obvious.

Many will point out that Unitarian Universalist churches have operated as mostly volunteer-run operations with limited paid staff contributions. And many of our small lay-led fellowships are totally volunteer-run organizations. However, church volunteer may limit their cooperative sharing to internal congregational work and not result in forming cooperative sharing networks with other congregations.

For Unitarian Universalists, we have some resources for sharing our resources with other congregations and learning from the experience of others:

• UUWiki
• UUA-Sponsored Email Lists
• WorshipWeb
• Young Adult Worship, Social Justice, and Activities Archives
• Youth Resources (contributions from local and district youth groups)

Using these online resource would move Unitarian Universalism towards a cooperative "open source" sharing model where hard-earned experiences in a local congregation can benefit all.

Best Explanation of Recent Anglican Primate Meeting

The best explanation of the recent events in the Anglican Communion at their Primates Meeting in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania can be found online here:

The Primates Meeting

This is the work of the British cartoonist Dave Walker. His work includes the cartoon summary of the Windsor Report and other church-related humor.

Resources on History of Congregational Polity Within Unitarian Universalism

In a recent post, Paul Wilczynski mentioned the Cambridge Platform. The Cambridge Platform is an important historical document for the Unitarian part of our heritage. It is the foundation of our congregational polity.

Congregational polity is a subset of a larger topic -- ecclesiastical polity. Wikipedia defines "ecclesiastical polity" as:

" ... the operational and governance structure of a church or Christian denomination. It also denotes the ministerial structure of the church and the authority relationships between churches. Polity is closely related to Ecclesiology, the study of doctrine and theology relating to church organization."

And Wikipedia defines "congregational polity" as:

"Congregationalist polity dispenses with elders or bishops as a requirement of church structure. The local congregation rules itself, though local leaders and councils may be appointed.

Members may be sent from the congregation to associations that are sometimes identified with the church bodies formed by Lutherans, Presbyterians, Anglicans, and other non-congregational Protestants. The similarity is deceptive, however, because the congregationalist associations do not exercise control over their members (other than ending their membership in the association). Many congregationalist churches are complete independent on principle.

It is a principle of congregationalism that ministers do not govern congregations by themselves. They may preside over the congregation, but it is the congregation which exerts its authority in the end.

Congregational polity is sometimes called "baptist polity", as it is the characteristic polity of baptist churches."

Two resources on congregational polity can be found on the UUA web site:

• Interdependence: Renewing Congregational Polity (1997 Commission on Appraisal Report)
• Congregational Polity: A Historical Survey of Unitarian and Universalist Practice by Conrad Wright

Both of these resources talk about the Cambridge Platform within the context of Unitarian Universalist history. And both are free downloads from the Unitarian Universalist Association's web site.

MyHeritage Face Recognition and Celebrity Look-Alikes

It's a slow day at work and I was able to use my annual award package official photo for some entertainment:

"Gifts To The World" -- Rock Music Commentary on the "Meaning of Christmas"

Is Christmas a "Christian" holiday where we celebrate the birth of Jesus? Or is it a syncrestic holiday blend of Pagan and Christian elements? Or is it a totally secular holiday where we get presents?

Related to the mishmash of Christian and Pagan elements is the recent rock video from the band Sin Destroyers. Their video can be seen online here via youtube or Google video:

They appear to be a tongue-in-cheek parody of a heavy metal Christian rock band -- one press quote about them says:

“If Iron Maiden had attended Catholic school, this would be their garage band."

Concerns Over Southwest District Youth Camp Decision Process

This morning I received a link to an online petition from a fellow youth advisor in my district regarding the decision process used with a radical restructuring of our district's very successful youth summer camp.

Before you get into the petition, here's a brief glossary of the acronyms used in it:

SWUUC -- Southwest Unitarian Universalist Conference (aka "Southwest District")
SWUUSI -- Southwest Unitarian Universalist Summer Institute
YRUU -- Young Religious Unitarian Universalists

The petition is copied here:

To: SWUUC Board

Whereas the SWUUSI Youth camp has for many years been a popular and successful youth-governed program that convenes the same week as the SWUUSI intergenerational camp at a separate site on Lake Murray in Oklahoma,


Whereas Jennifer Nichols-Payne reported to district SWUUC that the SWUUSI Board agreed to change the Youth Camp to a different time and place (July 3-8 at Briarwood Retreat Center in North Texas) without involving the YRUU in that decision,


We, the undersigned, propose that SWUUSI youth camp take place at the same time and place as it has in past years for the summer of 2007. We further propose that a task force involving youth, parents, and advisors be formed to discuss the concerns articulated by Jennifer Nichols-Payne and that the task force make changes to address those concerns while maintaining the youth-centered character of the camp.


Sincerely,
The Undersigned

And you can sign the petition using this link. Thanks for your support.

Non-Transgender Privilege

I learned about this non-transgender privilege list at a recent workshop at my church that was presented by the founder of the Transgender Alternatives Project (TGAP) in Shreveport, Louisiana.

The author of this list is the very prolific "unknown author" according to the web site were this list was found. This list is based on Peggy McIntosh's White Privilege: Unpacking the Invisible Knapsack.

1) Strangers don't assume they can ask me what my genitals look like and how I have sex.

2) My validity as a man/woman/human is not based upon how much surgery I've had or how well I "pass" as a non-Trans person.

3) When initiating sex with someone, I do not have to worry that they won't be able to deal with my parts or that having sex with me will cause my partner to question his or her own sexual orientation.

4) I am not excluded from events which are either explicitly or de facto* men-born-men or women-born-women only. (*basically anything involving nudity)

5) My politics are not questioned based on the choices I make with regard to my body.

6) I don't have to hear "so have you had THE surgery?" or "oh, so you're REALLY a [incorrect sex or gender]?" each time I come out to someone.

7) I am not expected to constantly defend my medical decisions.

8) Strangers do not ask me what my "real name" [birth name] is and then assume that they have a right to call me by that name.

9) People do not disrespect me by using incorrect pronouns even after they've been corrected.

10) I do not have to worry that someone wants to be my friend or have sex with me in order to prove his or her "hipness" or good politics.

11) I do not have to worry about whether I will be able to find a bathroom to use or whether I will be safe changing in a locker room.

12) When engaging in political action, I do not have to worry about the *gendered* repercussions of being arrested. (i.e. what will happen to me if the cops find out that my genitals do not match my gendered appearance? Will I end up in a cell with people of my own gender?)

13) I do not have to defend my right to be a part of "Queer" and gays and lesbians will not try to exclude me from OUR movement in order to gain political legitimacy for themselves.

14) My experience of gender (or gendered spaces) is not viewed as "baggage" by others of the gender in which I live.

15) I do not have to choose between either invisibility ("passing") or being consistently "othered" and/or tokenized based on my gender.

16) I am not told that my sexual orientation and gender identity are mutually exclusive.

17) When I go to the gym or a public pool, I can use the showers.

18) If I end up in the emergency room, I do not have to worry that my gender will keep me from receiving appropriate treatment nor will all of my medical issues be seen as a product of my gender. ("Your nose is running and your throat hurts? Must be due to the hormones!")

19) My health insurance provider (or public health system) does not specifically exclude me from receiving benefits or treatments available to others because of my gender.

20) When I express my internal identities in my daily life, I am not considered "mentally ill" by the medical establishment.

21) I am not required to undergo extensive psychological evaluation in order to receive basic medical care.

22) The medical establishment does not serve as a "gatekeeper" which disallows self-determination of what happens to my body.

23) People do not use me as a scapegoat for their own unresolved gender issues.

While searching for this list online, I also learned a new bit of jargon. Instead of using the term "non-transgender," one can use the term "cisgender." According to Wikipedia:

"Cis is a Latin noun or prefix, meaning "on the same side [of]" or "on this side [of]". It is the opposite of trans, which means "on the opposite side"."

A cisgender person is a person who presents a gender identity that society considers a match for the person's biological sex. Wikipedia has a page on cisgender here.

Cisgender is an example of inclusive language. Other terms like "normal" and "non-transgender" implicitly suggest that cisgender is normative and everything else isn't (sorta like describing men as non-female or women as non-male).

Nostalgia for "About Your Sexuality" Curriculum?

During recent Our Whole Lives (OWL) curriculum training workshops for Grades 7-9 and Grades 10-12, I've heard adult participants who attended the earlier Unitarian Universalist About Your Sexuality (AYS) program while they were adolescents voice nostalgia for the earlier AYS program and the sexually explicit filmstrip visuals used in AYS.

I've also heard some criticism of the decision in the OWL Grades 7-9 program to use hand-drawn images instead of photographs in this program's visuals.

I mentioned this AYS nostalgia on another blog as a comment. This blog's author said that she isn't nostalgic for the AYS images, would never be nostalgic for the AYS images, and the AYS images almost turned her off sex entirely.

This wide range of observed recollections (nostalgic memories and unpleasant memories) is very normal. This probably reflects a very normal human variation ("your actual mileage may vary" as they say in the TV ads).

I suspect that there's a self-selection involved when a person decides to attend an OWL facilitator training workshop. If a person was uncomfortable with the earlier AYS filmstrips, then he or she probably won't decide to spend 2 1/2 days in an OWL Grades 7-9/10-12 facilitator training workshop.

This wide range of reactions has me curious. If you attended AYS as an adolescent and would feel comfortable sharing your reaction to the AYS filmstrips, please comment on this thread.

Thanks.

PS -- Here's some background history on AYS for those who are curious about the sexuality education program offered before OWL:

Our Whole Lives -- Interfaith Roots (from the UUA web site)

When The Public Eye met a private institution's program: Taking sexuality education out of context (article by Rev. Sarah Gibb, former Outreach Coordinator Sexuality Education Task Force -- Unitarian Universalist Association and United Church of Christ and current Adult Programs Director -- Lifespan Faith Development Staff Group, Unitarian Universalist Association

About Your Sexuality (Wikipedia article)

Online Youth Ministry Survey

The Consultation on Ministry to and with Youth is a two-year process to revision, renew and support the Unitarian Universalist Association's ministry to and with youth. This process is intended to gather inputs from the widest possible spectrum of stakeholders in Unitarian Universalist youth ministry.

Part of this gathering of inputs is an online youth advisor survey. Check out the information below on this survey:

Dear Youth Advisor,

Thank you for your commitment to Unitarian Universalist youth. The Task Force of the Consultation on Ministry To and With Youth would like to better understand the vital roles and complex experiences of adults who work directly with youth. That's you!

Not only do we wish to learn from your expertise and feedback, but we also hope to better understand the diversity of adult involvement in the spiritual lives of youth across the Association. To do this, we ask you to complete this survey.

In these 20 to 30 minutes of questions, we ask you to reflect on support, training, vision for youth ministry, and the definition of youth empowerment as well as offer demographic information. We realize the limitations of survey data; however, we hope that open-ended questions create the space to communicate your unique and significant knowledge.

As a religious community, we can and must do a better job of supporting and sustaining you in your ministry to and with youth. In the spirit of youth ministry, we hope that this survey serves as a window into the lived experiences of youth advisors.

We will keep the link to this survey "live" from December 1, 2006, until February 28, 2007. If you have any questions or concerns, feel free to contact us by email or phone.

In faith,

Megan Dowdell
Co-convener
(508) 314-0783
mdowdell@uua.org


Jesse Jaeger
Youth Program Director
(617) 948-4359
jjaeger@uua.org