Useful Tidbits From A Free Computer Trade Publication

Computerworld magazine is one of the "free" trade magazines that I get at work. I was cleaning off my desk and found some useful resources in the back issues I had collected.

• Linux Command-Line Cheat Sheet
• Portable Devices Pose Growing IT Security Threat (A church member's privacy could be violated through use of a USB thumb drive)
• Linux Text Editors (personally, I'm OK with the "standard" gedit text editor that comes with the Gnome desktop -- I use for editing my church's podcast RSS feed)
• Ten Claims That Scare Security Pros
• Ten Lousy Pieces of Security Advice
• Eight Most Dangerous Consumer Technologies (A church member's privacy could be violated through use of a USB thumb drive, cell phone camera, etc -- I'm sure it would be easy to do this in most congregations with personal data such as pledging information)
• Moving From Windows to Linux
• Blogger Beware! The Legal Risks of Corporate Blogging (these risks could even affect the churches of ministers and other religious professionals who blog under pseudonyms)
• Mac Email Showdown (personally, I'm OK with the "standard" Mail program that comes with Mac OS X)
• FAQ: Getting Ready to Leap to Leopard (useful to me because I've been asked by our minister to help her install Mac OS X 10.5 on her Macbook)

Good luck using these computer resources in your congregation and other Unitarian Universalist settings.

Quiz: What kind of Christian are you?

I retook the "What kind of Christian are you?" Beliefnet quiz again tonight.

My score (105 on a scale of 0 to 400) is slightly different from the first time that I took this quiz, but the category result remained unchanged.

Apparently, I'm still a "Bishop Spong Christian" -- here's a breakdown for the scale used in this quiz:

• 0 - 59 -- You are a Jesse Ventura Christian (a.k.a. a "Secularist" or non-Christian)
• 60 - 149 -- You are a Bishop Spong Christian (a.k.a. "Biblical Revisionist")
• 150 - 249 -- You are a Hillary Rodham Clinton Christian (a.k.a. "Left-Leaning Traditionalist")
• 250 - 329 -- You are a George Bush Sr. Christian (a.k.a. "Right-Leaning Traditionalist")
• 330 - 400 -- You are a Jerry Falwell Christian (a.k.a "Historicist")

I think my result comes from reading too much Jesus Seminar, John Dominic Crossan, Bishop Spong, etc -- I don't believe in God and no quiz answer I gave required my belief in the divine.

Yet somehow I'm considered a "Bishop Spong" Christian even though I don't believe in what most Christians traditionally believe about God, Jesus, his birth, his death, etc -- very puzzling.

I wonder what result other Unitarian Universalists would get on this quiz.

Eschatology Quiz Results

Here's my quiz results ...

What's your eschatology? created with QuizFarm.com

You scored as Moltmannian Eschatology Jürgen Moltmann is one of the key eschatological thinkers of the 20th Century. Eschatology is not only about heaven and hell, but God's plan to make all things new. This should spur us on to political and social action in the present. Moltmannian Eschatology 75% Amillenialist 75% Preterist 50% Dispensationalist 25% Premillenialist 0% Left Behind 0% Postmillenialist 0%

Just imagine the remake of Mr. Ed ...

With the recent "reboots" of old TV sci-fi franchises like Battlestar Galactica and Bionic Woman, I'm wondering what old TV series will be made over next.

Will they make a "reboot" of Mister Ed where the ethical issues of recombinant DNA experiments using horse and human DNA are explored through science fiction?

"Gangs of America"

The Unitarian Universalist Association has criticized the legal fiction of "corporate personhood" as part of its social and economic justice work. Some of this was covered in the May/June 2003 issue of UU World.

• "Government for Whom?" by Tom Stites
• "Corporations 1, Citizens 0" by David Wolman and Heather Wax
• "Communities Fight Back" by Jane Greer
• "A Prodemocracy Visionary" by Kimberly French

Another non-UU resource related to this issue is the book Gangs of America: The Rise of Corporate Power and the Disabling of Democracy by Peachpit Press founder Ted Nace. You can download this book free from the author's website as a free Adobe Acrobat PDF.

[Hat tip to Glenn Fleishman of the Tidbits Macintosh news web site for pointing out this resource.]

Red State Update Responds to the "Jena Six" Case

Hatred found in online comments shocking (Shreveport Times Letter to the Editor)

Today, The Shreveport Times published my letter about the racist online comments from the newspaper readers in response the the recent "Jena Six" coverage.

I'm reprinting it for you below.

On Sept. 16, my church hosted a prayer worship service in support of the six black youths accused of crimes in Jena. I read the news coverage about this story ("Religious groups unite, pray for Jena Six," Sept. 17). I read the online reader comments and I was shocked at the level of hatred and racist invective. Here are a few sample quotes that were found on the shreveporttimes.com web site:

• "Everywhere Black people integrate, crime and deterioration and hate sets in. Integration is the problem with our schools." (written by the anonymous author "CHILIDOG")
• "Let's see, how do we start this prayer? Oh God let us pray for these kids that are only black, because we don't care about the white kid that they tried to kill. Now God it is off to the next place where we can help only blacks that is why we call ourselves the Rainbow Coalition." (written by the anonymous author "Creekdweller")

I also read about the upcoming prayer service ("Community Briefly: Church holding rally today to support 'Jena Six,'" Sept. 15). This article also elicited racism and hatred from our community in the online reader comments.

This story's comments also contain some ignorant religious bigotry directed towards my Unitarian Universalist faith as well.

I'm in favor of free speech even when it's racist and religious bigotry like the examples cited above. I would never want to see expression banned even though it hurts our community both morally and economically. Ask yourself: What would a business leader think about Shreveport after reading these comments online?

I also question the tacit endorsement of The Times and Gannett in publishing these comments online on the shreveporttimes.com Web site.

I disagree with The Times policy of allowing bigots to hide behind anonymous screen names. I suspect those who post anonymous hatred online would not if their real identity were attached to their comments.

"Jena Six" Photo Diary (Part I)

Here's a collection of photographs from the Shreveport Times and from my cell phone camera.

The entire gallery of Shreveport Times photos showing local church members departing early on Thursday morning can be found online in the online collection "Leaving for Jena."

(Members of All Souls Shreveport waiting to get on the bus - 20 September 2007, from the Shreveport Times)

(Daniel and Ashley modeling the event t-shirts provided by our minister - 20 September 2007, from the Shreveport Times)

(On the right in the red polo shirt, Len Frank, member of Steeple Chase Baptist Church and retired GM employee who sat across the bus aisle from me - 20 September 2007, from the Shreveport Times)

(On the left in the clerical shirt, Rev. Eliza Galagher, minister of Wildflower Unitarian Universalist Church, Austin TX - 20 September 2007, from the Shreveport Times)

(On the left in the "Justice for Jena" t-shirt, Rev. Lyn Oglesby, minister of All Souls Unitarian Universalist Church, Shreveport LA - 20 September 2007, from the Shreveport Times)

(I'm holding a pillow and rushing to catch the bus - 20 September 2007, from the Shreveport Times)

(View from my bus window while stopped in Pineville LA - photo provided by Steve Caldwell, 20 September 2007)

(View of charter buses stopped on the roadside in Pineville LA - photo provided by Steve Caldwell, 20 September 2007)

(View of charter buses stopped on the roadside in Pineville LA - photo provided by Steve Caldwell, 20 September 2007)

(View from the crowd in Jena LA - photo provided by Steve Caldwell, 20 September 2007)

(View from the crowd in Jena LA - photo provided by Steve Caldwell, 20 September 2007)

(View from the crowd in Jena LA - photo provided by Steve Caldwell, 20 September 2007)

I really need to get a digital camera for documenting things like this.

"I wish we had a charge in Louisiana for aggravated ignorance"

This story was briefly reported in the Shreveport Times today:

"And Thursday night, police in nearby Alexandria arrested two people after they stopped a red pickup that was traveling through the city with nooses hanging from it.

'I wish we had a charge in Louisiana for aggravated ignorance, because this is a classic case,' Alexandria police Sgt. Clifford Gatlin said of the incident in his city the same day rallies in support of the Jena Six — the name given to six black teenagers charged in a December incident that left a white teen unconscious and bleeding — were held in Jena. Some supporters used Alexandria as a staging area for the march on Jena."

Initial Comments After "Jena Six" March

On Thursday (20 September 2007), two buses full of people representing three congregations traveled from Shreveport, Louisiana to Jena, Louisiana to participate in the 20 September 2007 National Day of Action to support the "Jena Six" defendants. These congregations were Evergreen Baptist Church, Steeple Chase Baptist Church, and All Souls Unitarian Universalist Church.

As part of this group, we had 3 Unitarian Universalist ministers traveling with us (Rev. Lyn Oglesby - All Souls Shreveport, Rev. Fred Hammond - UU Jackson MS, and Rev. Eliza Galaher - Wildflower UU Austin TX). We also had several laypeople from All Souls Shreveport who also traveled to Jena as well.

After catching this bus at 5 AM, I'm still a bit tired from the trip and walking around Jena.

The crowd in Jena was huge yesterday. The Shreveport Times was estimating as many as 60,000 people were at the event.

As we exited I-49 in Alexandria towards Jena, there was a traffic jam of chartered buses headed towards Jena. As we drove through Pineville, the local and state law enforcement folks had a large group of charter buses pull over. They were planning on having us go into Jena as a bus caravan.

While waiting by the roadside, I saw dozens of buses waiting for the last leg of this trip into Jena.

Just before getting off the bus, one of Baptist ministers led us in a prayer where he quoted Amos' words that are used in the familiar hymn "Come Build A Land."

We got off the bus just outside Jena near their Wal-Mart and walked into town.

The only retail business that I saw as open for business was Wal-Mart (the only event that Wal-Mart would close for is Jesus' birthday every December). The rest of the local businesses in Jena were closed and many of them had yellow plastic "crime scene" tape and "no tresspassing" signs marking their property boundaries.

A group was "passing the hat" to raise the bail money for Mychel Bell -- they raised over $17,000 of the required $10,000 bail bond to get the remaining Jena Six defendant out of jail (Mychel's bail was set at $90,000). This money was given to Mychel's grandmother and Mychel should be out of jail as he is re-tried as a minor for the incident real soon. Mychel has been in jail since last December -- he's served over 8 months in the parish jail for a schoolyard fight.

We wandered around some more and found that folks wanted to photograph and interview us. Susan said that she hadn't been photographed this much in one day since our wedding. The All Souls members were wearing cream-colored t-shirts that said "Justice for Jena" on the front and had our church name on the back. Susan said that one person thanked her for being there because it meant that our black neighbors were not alone in protesting the racial and class injustice in the Louisiana legal system.

One very puzzling thing in Jena for me was the lack of trash cans for our trash. After finishing a bottle of water, I had to search behind a closed business for a trash can to dispose of my trash. I kept the rest of my lunch trash in my backpack. But it was very puzzling -- if tens of thousands were visiting my town, it would make sense to have trash cans for our trash.

I've already seen a few conservative critics complain on the Shreveport Times web site reader comments about the trash left by the crowd. I expect that some Jena residents are going to complain about the costs of the cleanup. But there were no trash cans on the sidewalks or other public spaces in Jena. I'm not in favor of littering but I realize that the backpacker "pack it in, pack it out" ethic is not a universal one especially in populated areas. The post-event litter is partly the responsibility of the town that didn't provide trash cans for this event.

I've got some pictures from my cell phone camera (I really need to get a digital camera) and from the local paper for this event. I will also get some digital photographs from church members as well. The photo diary on this blog will happen later.

The "Old South" Is Not Dead -- Shreveport Times Reader Responses to the "Jena Six" Rally

Tonight, All Souls Unitarian Universalist Church of Shreveport, Louisiana hosted an interfaith rally and prayer service in support of the "Jena Six" youth. Here's the article about this rally from The Shreveport Times:

"Several local religious groups will hold a prayer service and rally to support the 'Jena Six' at 6 p.m. today at All Souls Unitarian Universalist Church, 9449 Ellerbe Road.

The Rev. Aaron Dobynes, pastor of Evergreen Baptist Church, will speak, along with local attorney Henry Walker. It is hosted by All Souls and Northern/Central Louisiana Interfaith.

They are seeking justice for six black high school students who were charged with attempted murder in connection with the beating of a white student."

The Shreveport Times allows for reader comment on news stories and even allows for anonymous comments. Here are two anonymous comments on the news story about our church:

dr duke -- "this darn church, and many like it, would rally for the jena thug 6 even it they had killed the white boy...but they call themselves "christian" and not racist.....hypocrisy knows no bounds.... no rally is needed - the two mlk jr wannabes are in control of the situation - unforunately for jena...."

Phalanx -- "I used to wonder why the KKK bombed and burned Colored Churches. Now I know."

In case anyone was wondering, the "Old South" is not dead at all.

And "Old South" attitudes like these will keep the South from flourishing.

Yes, this is offensive ...

... but when an organization has covered up and indirectly supported the criminal assault of minors, this criticism is not surprising:



(Hat tip to the Friendly Atheist blog)

How Do Our Churches Survive in a Non-Religious World?

On Chalice Chick's Chaliceblog, she mentioned a member of her congregation speaking this concern during a public forum:

"This year, a lady said 'I went to a book signing Richard Dawkins did a few weeks ago, and there were SO MANY young atheists there. We need more young people, and I think the problems is that our services are too theist. How can we make our church more atheist as to attract more people? If we don't, our church is going to die ... '"

Chalice Chick made the following comment about this:

"It's been my observation that cold war era kids all had justifications why their hometown, wherever they grew up, was the first place the Russians were going to attack.

I can't help but think "There are billions of people out there who believe what I do, and the church is dying because it has not properly conformed itself to what I believe. If only UUism were more theist / atheist / spiritual / pagan / multicultural / activist, then it might have a chance, but it's not and indeed my people are terribly discriminated against, so it is surely doomed" comes from the same impulse.

Why do so many of us get off on feeling so persecuted,while at the same time believing that our message will be salvific for UUism?"

And Ms. Kitty made the following observation in the comment section of this blog:

"I'll bet the ministers in the porch chat just quietly and internally sighed at the shortsightedness of this questioner."

I think that there is a kernel of truth the congregant's concern about Unitarian Universalist churches becoming less friendly and welcoming for non-theists (Atheists, Agnostics, and other non-believers).

I think we're in danger of losing Will's "Denomination of Last Resort" market niche because church attendance as a behavior and the expectation of church attendance is dropping in North America. There is no need for a "Denomination of Last Resort" if there is no community pressure to attend church weekly.

Prior to the baby boomer generation, there was a community norm that everyone should be at church on Sunday morning.

Perhaps an exception would be made for Jewish folks and Christians who held their sabbath on the 7th day of the week.

But the idea that a person would sit at home or do something else other than church on Sunday morning would be a violation of community norms.

I suggest that this may have been a reason for many older Atheist, Agnostic, and Humanist Unitarian and Unitarian Universalists joining our congregations.

If your neighbors expect you to go to church, you're going to find the one that is most Atheist-friendly. We didn't require a belief in God -- because of our non-creedal nature, we were a welcome home for Atheists and Agnostics.

But our society has changed. Sunday church attendance isn't a community norm any more.

40% of Americans (according to social science survey data) SAY they attend church weekly. When behavior is observed, the actual figure is a two-fold over-estimate. Observed weekly church attendance is closer to 20%. See the information on the Ontario Consultants for Religious Tolerance web site for details behind this change.

To further complicate this, Christianity is shrinking relative to the US population (7.3% between 1990 and 2001 according to the American Religious Identification Survey (ARIS). The "No Religion - Atheist - Agnostic" category has grown by 6.6% during this same period (8.4% of the population in 1990 vs. 15.0% of the population in 2001 according to the ARIS data).

To summarize:

(1) Church attendance isn't a social norm anymore.

(2) Because of changes in social norms (item 1), we shouldn't assume that our Atheist, Agnostic, and Humanist friends will always be in our congregations.

(3) Christianity is losing "market share" in North America.

(4) The "No Religion - Atheist - Agnostic" is gaining market share.

Given these trends, can Unitarian Universalism adapt to a North American culture that is becoming less traditionally religious and can we provide a welcoming home for the growing North American non-religious demographic?

Or will we compete over a shrinking theistic market share with our Mainline Protestant church neighbors?

What we can offer as a religion is salvation for a world badly in need of salvation here-and-now and not in the afterlife (see my blog posts here about Unitarian Universalist salvation).

How do we survive as a religious community that offers salvation in a world that is becoming less traditionally theistic and less traditionally religious so we can continue to provide this salvation?

Update: All Souls Shreveport Responses to "Jena Six" Case

Here are two responses from All Souls Unitarian Universalist Church of Shreveport, Louisiana to the recent events in Jena, Louisiana.

• Congregational Resolution (9 September 2007)
• Letter from Rev. Dr. Lyn Oglesby to Her Fellow Unitarian Universalist Ministers

Both documents require Adobe Acrobat Reader software or other PDF viewer software to read.

If you want additional information about the "Jena Six" case, please check out this online Google video also available on my blog:

Watch "This World: Race Hate in Louisiana" (BBC Documentary)

Modernism, Post-Modernism -- How to Explain the Difference?

This past Thursday, I was talking with a dear Unitarian Universalist friend about the differences between modernist and post-modernist world views that we find in Unitarian Universalism today.

I should provide a disclaimer -- I'm not a professional philosopher or theologian -- I'm just a person who has read a lot of books and web sites. And the analogy that I used is the baseball umpire analogy.

This analogy was recently quoted in a theology paper presented at the 2007 Wheaton Theology Conference by Tony Jones on emergent theological perspectives in Evangelical Christianity. Tony's paper was not published by Wheaton College with the other papers presented at this conference due to the theological disapproval of Wheaton College's officials (you can read about this incident and find the original paper on Tony's blog).

Here's the analogy:

"Of course, it’'s not lost on me that since the earliest days of the postmodern conversation, there’'s been story floating around about three umpires,

• The pre-modern umpire says, 'I call 'em as they are!'
• The modern umpire says, 'I call 'em as I see ’em!'
• The postmodern umpire says, 'They ain't nothin' 'till I call 'em!'"

This is an off-shoot of a story told by literary theorist Stanley Fish about the baseball umpire Bill Klem to explain "interpretive communities":

"[Stanley] Fish defines as the function of interpretive communities are seen here: The first of these involves baseball umpire Bill Klem, who once waited a long time to call a particular pitch. The player asked him, impatiently, 'Well, is it a ball or strike?' Klem's reply: 'Sonny, it ain't nothing 'til I call it.' What Fish is presenting here exemplifies the idea of interpretation: while baseball supplies a rulebook, it is the discretion of the umpire to judge whether or not a pitch falls into the category of ball or strike. Balls and strikes are not undeniable truths."

State Quiz Result -- I'm "Maryland"

Having grown up in the Northern Virginia suburbs near Maryland, I'm not surprised that there isn't a "Washington DC" aspect to my results.

From my experiences, the Maryland DC suburbs seem more like a "typical Washington suburb" than Northern Virginia did.

You're Maryland!

You enjoy contemplating your navel so much that you want to build a whole school devoted to said purpose. You like Chevy Chase a ton as well, maybe even more than Cal Ripken since he started doing those Century 21 commercials. Mostly, though, you want to kick back, watch the ballgame, and eat crabcakes. Brick is by far your favorite building material. You might even call yourself a brick house.


Take the State Quiz
at the Blue Pyramid.

Toles Op-Ed Cartoon Commentary on Senator Craig

This cartoon addresses the perceived concerns directed towards liberal gay-friendly bloggers on Senator Larry Craig's recent arrest (examples can be found here, here, and here).

Liberal bloggers are not criticizing him for not following some hypothetical gay "party line." They are commenting on Larry Craig being a hypocrite.

How to Make Windows XP Last for the Next Seven Years

With an installed user base of 538 million, it's very likely that your congregation is using Windows XP in your office and in the homes of your volunteers.

With the "if it ain't broke, don't fix it" philosophy in play here, I would check out this article on Computerworld magazine's web site:

How to make Windows XP last for the next seven years

"If you've got Windows XP, worry not -- you can keep it running on your hardware for years to come. As with an old car, though, if you plan to keep XP around for a while, you're going to have to spend some time maintaining it. Think of us as your virtual mechanics. We'll give you tips, tweaks and tricks so that you'll be able to keep XP running smoothly, at top performance, for smooth operation and long life."

"The company's standard life-cycle policy provides bug fixes and security patches (known as mainstream support) for five years after initial release, and security-patch-only support (known as extended support) for an additional five years. Although Microsoft often doesn't provide extended support for its consumer products, the company says that XP Home and XP Pro will get identical support periods."

"Microsoft's support road map currently says that extended support for Windows XP ends in April 2014. You need to be on the latest service pack within one year of its release for continued support, which at this point means you must be running XP Service Pack 2."

This article will help a cash-strapped congregation keep using older-but-functional hardware for several more years.

Watch "This World: Race Hate in Louisiana" (BBC Documentary)

Watch this BBC documentary on racism, segregation, threats of lynching, and racially-motivated injustice in Jena, Louisiana.





The All Souls Unitarian Universalist Church Board in Shreveport, Louisiana voted unanimously to have a special congregational meeting after church on 9 September 2007 to discuss a resolution in support of the Jena Six and to discuss what actions the congregation might want to take to support them.

Excerpt from Julia Sweeney's "Letting Go of God"

Here's an excerpt from Julia Sweeney's one-woman show "Letting Go of God":

Guess Who Said It -- Pope vs. Dalai Lama on Sexual Ethics

This video clip comes from John Safran vs. God, the Australian TV series:

What File Extension Are You?

Which File Extension are You?

Atheist Version of Pascal's Wager

I saw this on Greta Christina's blog and I thought it was worth sharing with the Unitarian Universalist blog community. It's an Atheist version of Pascal's Wager.

Greta had noticed the Atheist version of Pascal's Wager as an off-hand comment on the Pharyngula ("Evolution, development, and random biological ejaculations from a godless liberal") where they were discussing the blog article on Dilbert creator Scott Adams' blog where he defends Pascal's Wager as a reasonable case for believing in God.

"Any deity this argument (the original Pascal's Wager) applies to is evil. Honestly, E-V-I-L... You might as well take the Atheist's Wager. Do good, then if there's a evil God everybody is still screwed. If there is a good God then you go to heaven, if there is no God then doing good is its own reward."

I mention this because our congregation's Unitarian Universalist Christian Fellowship had a multi-week series on "tough issues" in Christianity with a guest minister from the Shreveport Bible Church offering Pascal's Wager as a serious argument for believing in God.

Even more fun is Scott Adams' next blog article where he addresses the previous blog article about Pascal's Wager:

"Personally, if I were more rational, and less focused on immediate gratification, I would become a moderate, peace-loving Muslim. My reasoning is that Islam has the best chance of becoming the dominant world religion in the future, and therefore probably has God’s backing, if he exists. The Muslim belief that death is sometimes a good thing is a huge advantage in a future where weapons are improving, and the only thing keeping people from using them is fear of death.

If you believe God exists, the smart money says he’s backing the team with the best strategy and long term viability. Based on what I see today, I’m betting on Islam being the only religion in a thousand years. Once you can build your own nuke from stuff you buy online, don’t be betting on the Buddhists."

And I guess this pretty much illustrates the practical limits of using probability and game theory strategies to discern theological truth.

So -- Do I have to like Jerry Lewis?

Your Inner European is French!

Smart and sophisticated. You have the best of everything - at least, *you* think so.

Who's Your Inner European?

Where Does "Theology" Stop and "Mental Masturbation" Begin?

I've been looking at the recent replies on Philocrites' blog to the "Isaac Newton's anti-Trinitarianism in the news" article.

Much of the discussion touches on speculation about Jesus and his relationship to God along with various competing christologies -- unitarian, trinitarian, etc.

Maybe I'm just too simple-minded but I'm finding most theological discussions to be "mental masturbation." The Urban Dictionary definition of this term is "The act of engaging in useless yet intellectually stimulating conversation, usually as an excuse to avoid taking constructive action in your life."

Personally, I don't totally like the term "mental masturbation" because it implies that masturbation (the physical sexual act ... not the "mental" variety) is a useless and non-productive act. I've blogged about the life-affirming and spirituality-enhancing aspects of this in the past:

• Sexuality and the "Direct Experience of That Transcending Mystery and Wonder"
• Here's Hoping That You Have a "Happy Ending"

However, I can accept this phrase as an imperfect metaphor.

So ... most theological discussions are a lot of mental fun but I find too much too much theology to be useless and non-productive for the work that needs doing in the world.

Certainly, too much theological discussion can be a real "Doritos syndrome" experience once you're done.

I'm really not that concerned about christology but I am concerned about practical soteriology.

How can Unitarian Universalists offer salvation and protect us from those things in the world that deny life or make life less whole?

To me, that is a more important question for us than the existence and the nature of God, the relationship between God and Jesus, and all the other questions that come up in most theological discussions.

But John ... if the Pirates of the Caribbean breaks down, the pirates don't eat the tourists.

You're Jurassic Park!
by Michael Crichton

You combine all the elements of a mad scientist, a brash philosopher, a humble researcher, and a money-hungry attracter of tourists. With all these features, you could build something monumental or get chased around by your own demons. Probably both, in fact. A movie based on your life would make millions, and spawn at least two sequels thatwouldn't be very good. Be very careful around islands.

Take the Book Quiz
at the Blue Pyramid.

I really don't understand the aversion to polyamory in Unitarian Universalist circles

I'm really puzzled by some of my coreligionists.

Recently on the Unitarian Universalist Minister Rev. Tom Schade's blog (The Lively Tradition), there has been some discussion on the lack of transparency surrounding the recent decision by the Unitarian Universalist Association's Board to reduce the number of Unitarian Universalist Independent Affiliates.

There's a lot of excellent commentary on the lack of openness and transparency -- you can read the most of this blog discussions using the following links:

• Serving Congregations?
• One meaning of the Independent Affiliate mystery
• The Independent Affiliate mystery deepens
• The most obvious theory about the IA mystery and what it means

I'm not blogging about the lack of transparency ... my concern is the aversion to polyamory that I'm witnessing.

Part of this discussion has been speculation on the potential role of polyamory and Unitarian Universalists for Polyamory Awareness in the recent decision to reduce the number of affiliates.

We really don't know the UUA Board's thinking here and I don't want to speculate any further than I already have online.

In the most recent blog post on Tom's blog, the blog conversation explored polyamory and asked what stand our religious movement should take on polyamory.

Fausto of The Socinian blog replied with the following about polyamory:

"As to the narrower question of polyamory, is there or is there not room at the table for a good-faith argument that polyamory is morally and spiritually dangerous, both to its practitioners and to their children, and that it therefore should not be presumptively entitled to the same societal or religious acceptance and blessing that we freely extend to monogamous unions?"

We can evaluate danger when it comes to mental health, physical health, and other empirical measures. Polyamory can be evaluated for its impact on mental and physical health. This is a social sciences question that can (in theory) be asked and answered. I'm not aware of any research on poly families.

However, "morally and spiritually dangerous" concern is something that we probably can't find common agreement on beyond agreeing that we should minimize the possiblity of harm to others and self.

However, some individuals may look at factors other than harm to others and self. This aspect of sexual morality is covered by Philadelphia Inquirer staff writer Faye Flam in her column "What fuels the hatred of homosexuality?" Here's an excerpt from this column:

Psychologist Jonathan Haidt wants to help liberal types like me understand why some people condemn homosexual relationships as immoral.

As an exercise, he says, imagine that a neighbor has installed a sign in her front yard reading Cable television will destroy society. You ask her to explain, and she responds: "Cables are an affront to the god thoth. They radiate theta waves, which make people sterile."

Now imagine another neighbor, with another sign. This one announces Gay marriage will destroy society, and she justifies the statement by saying that homosexuality is an abomination to God and will undermine marriage.

If you're a liberal, you may view both neighbors as equally out of touch with reality (though the woman with the theta-wave theory is more original). That's the way most academics would traditionally see it, too.

But Haidt, who works at the University of Virginia and specializes in issues of morality, says the conservative viewpoint isn't just theta waves - it's based on a moral compass that points in dimensions liberals simply don't perceive.

"There's been this enormous change in how scientists are thinking about morality," he says. He outlined the new view recently in the journal Science.

In Western societies, secular and liberal-minded people base their moral beliefs on fairness and the avoidance of harm. That explains why, in previous columns, I wrote that I saw nothing immoral about premarital sex, homosexuality or sex toys - except, perhaps, for nonrecyclable batteries.

Dozens of horrified readers quickly blasted me as disgusting.

Which Haidt says is exactly the point. Most people set their moral compasses based on their sense of disgust. This is an additional moral dimension, which he calls purity/sanctity.

I suppose one can speculate on health, relationship stability, and other "danger" aspects surrounding polyamory. The problem here is we've got a lot of speculation and very little information to base our decisions. When that happens, the potential for basing one's moral decisions on disgust instead of reason becomes very likely.

Fausto later wrote the following on this blog thread:

"When I talk about moral objections, I'm thinking instead about the often unappreciated but nevertheless very real potential for deep emotional, psychological, and spiritual damage that can so easily occur in polyamorous situations despite all precautions. Not only to the consenting adults (if indeed they are giving their fully informed and free consent, which is another significant question), but especially also to their children or prospective children, who need to grow up in a stable and secure environment."

The issue that I have with this line of thought is we really don't have any data to answer any of the concerns raised. Are poly relationships more dangerous? If so, are they so dangerous that we should strongly discourage them? Are poly relationships so unstable that we should discourage them in order to prevent harm to children?

To the best of my knowledge, we don't know the answers to any of these concerns. All we have with respect to poly questions are anecdotal evidence. And the plural of "anecdote" is not "data." And the collection of anecdotal evidence often is distorted by a "confirmation bias" (a tendency to search for or interpret new information in a way that confirms one's preconceptions and avoid information and interpretations which contradict prior beliefs).

Tom Schade then replied on this thread:

"Poly panels, which I have seen, are a exercise in propaganda. They are arguments from 'best-case anecdotes.' The persons who are participated in the panel are currently happy in their relationships and will willingly testify to the joy of their lives."

I'll agree that guest panels are often the "best-case anecdotes" ... We do the same thing with sexual orientation guest panels that are used in the Our Whole Lives and Welcoming Congregation programs. I've never heard of a sexual orientation guest panel including an "ex-gay" person who has undergone "reparative therapy."

Is that one-sided propaganda or just a reasonable limitation on the information that we wish to present in our congregations and other religious settings?

Tom Schade then replied further on this thread:

"And, by restricting the 'moral' argument to these best case examples, they discount all negative experiences elsewhere. The stories about 13 year coerced brides in Utah are not relevant in those discussions, because that is bad patriarchy and we are only talking about good polyamory."

Tom ... these stories are not relevant because we're talking about consenting adults and coerced adolescents are not consenting adults. This is a "red herring" fallacy.

Tom Schade then replied further on this thread:

Regarding OWL: the guidelines you quote refer to specific sexual relationships -- not social policy and the witness of a religious movement in the cultural circumstance in which it finds itself.

Actually, the values in the curriculum go beyond the interpersonal. We need to avoid double standards in providing ministry to families. We need to promote justice and inclusivity.

Tom Schade replied again on this thread:

BTW, many of the poly panels at which I have been supposedly trained, include the testimony of someone who argued that they had numerous problems with adultery until they "came out" as a poly, realizing that they were just incapable of being faithful to one person.

Would it be better for a person to have this self-knowledge before attempting to live monogamously? One possibility with this self-knowledge is this person would know that any monogamous relationship that he or she enters will be a challenge. Another possibility would be this person would use this self-knowledge to attempt to live non-monogamously and ethically.

The danger here is assuming that everyone has the same needs and the same relationship type can meet the needs of every individual.

Congregational Goal-Setting -- All Souls Board and Council Retreat

Last Saturday (30 June 2007), I attended my congregation's annual "retreat" for the Board and Council. Here are my notes from today's Board and Council Retreat.

The word "retreat" is in quotes because only Unitarian Universalists would take a word that usually means an event where "one takes time away from everyday life, often in order to reflect or meditate" and use it to describe an all-day working meeting.

On Friday night (29 June 2007), the departing and newly elected board members met without the council members. Their group process included "SWOT analysis" where the board members brainstormed the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats of the congregation:

Top Five Strengths
1. Physical Building and Grounds
2. Innovative and Substantive Programming
3. Religious Education
4. Sense of Freedom
5. Caring Community

Top Five Weaknesses
1. Financial Shortfall
2. Diffuse/Confused Identity
3. Membership Retention
4. Small Membership
5. Religious Education

Top Three Opportunities
1. Response to Violence
2. University/Artistic/Professional Communities
3. Religious Alternatives

Top Three Threats
1. Downturn of Local Economy
2. Negative (or Non-existent) Community Perceptions
3. Out-migration of Youth/Families

Next, we looked at our congregation's mission statement:

Mission Statement
We, as a loving and caring spiritual community, resolve to:

• Promote diversity through free expression of ideas and beliefs
• Encourage intellectual and spiritual growth, and
• Provide an environment for social activism and community service

We believe the search for truth is a journey, not a destination. In this spirit, all are welcome. -- (Written by the All Souls Congregation on 25-27 January 2002, approved by congregational vote on 17 February 2002)

The "top rank objective" in our mission statement is " to encourage intellectual and spiritual growth" -- this should explain why we are here as a church and the other objectives in our mission statement are the "how" that help us achieve this intellectual and spiritual growth.

Here are the goals that came out of the board's discussion on Friday night:

1. Sharpening the profile and identity of All Souls as a religious alternative

2. Membership

• Recruiting from University / Professional / Artistic communities
• Retention of Members

3. Balance the Budget

4. Develop a Response to Community and International Violence

On Saturday, the group facilitators talked about items 2 and 3. During the discussion, we decided that they were "means" and not "ends" that our goals should be "ends" that we are working towards.

The Saturday discussion was to re-examine the long-term goals of the congregation and to categorize them into the following two categories:

1. Product Development

2. Organizational Maintenance and Development

The following discussion resulted in the brainstorming of sub-goals that would fit within these two major goals.

1.0 Product Development Goals

1.1 Inspiring Sunday Worship That Transform Lives

- support and enhance music in worship

- lay reader skill development

- encourage reverence

- continue diversity of worship services

- minimize "business" on Sunday mornings (e.g. active recruiting of volunteers) -- see UUA Drive Time Essay on this topic

1.2 Focusing, Refining, Embracing, Our Common Identity

- sermons, classes, other content on our commonality

- covenant of right relationships

- enhancing connection with wider denomination (connections, resources, etc)

- appreciation of our heritage

- build more denominational bridges

- increase denominational event involvement

1.3 Nurturing All Souls Community

- Healing on Welcoming Congregation issue and other tough issues

- Creating a "Calm" Committee

- Reconstitute Food/Folks/Fun Committee

- Small Group Ministry and Covenant Groups

1.4 Continue Ministry and Service to Community

- Develop a response to violence to community and international violence (Alternatives to Violence Project would be a good start for this)

- "Give Away the Plate" on second Sunday of the month

- Division over social justice issues -- goal 1.3 would offer solutions for this

- Interfaith involvement - World Religion Day, other interfaith groups addressing racism and other issues in our community

- Build relationships with sister churches/organizations (Zion Community Ministries)

2.0 Organizational Maintenance and Development

2.1 Membership Growth and Retention

- Continue orientation meetings

- RE class for new members

- Establish plan to target university, artistic, professional communities

- Find strategies for creating engaging youth programming

- Add sexuality education info to the web site as a marketing strategy

2.2 Fiscal Stability

- Improve planned giving efforts

- Strengthen fund-raising strategies that require minimum investment of member time and also draw funds from outside the congregation

- Implement "steps" pledge drive program

This discussion summary is not the official record of the retreat. Eventually, our congregation will have the complete info posted on the congregation web site.

A Result of Cold War Aircrew Duty in Strategic Air Command ...

... and the fact that B-52s were rarely sent outside the CONUS (continental United States) until recently (Desert Storm, combat in former Yugoslavia, and post-9/11 combat in Afghanistan and Iraq):



create your own visited countries map
or vertaling Duits Nederlands

Must Be a Result of 20+ Years of Military Service ...

... and growing up as military brat (hat tip to Boy in the Bands for pointing out this web quiz):



create your own visited states map
or check out these Google Hacks.

Nerd Test Results ...

I was bored at work on a Friday ... thanks to Rev. Sean at ministrare for pointing this test out:

The Perfect Geek Rating for an Our Whole Lives Educator ...

Thanks to Boy in the Bands for mentioning this online quiz ...

69% Geek

Back with the "R" Rating ...

All it took was one post on pornography and liberal religion to regain my R rating:

According to the Mingle2 rating web site, my rating was determined based on the presence of the following words:

• porn (5x)
• sex (4x)
• bomb (1x)

Pornography and Liberal Religion

Reason and Reverence and El Cáliz Azul (The Blue Chalice) and have both commented on the question of the responses that liberal religion should take towards pornography. You can read both blog posts here:

• Pornography: why religious liberals should care
• What is a liberal religious response to pornography?

Both posts raise some concerns with pornography and ethics. Specifically, Reason and Reverence mentions the following concerns about pornography as a social ill:

I need look no farther than the UU principles as a start for why religious liberals may want to start thinking about why pornography is a social problem. The first two principles:

• The inherent worth and dignity of every person
• Justice, equity and compassion in human relations

Pornography seems to seriously violate both of these cherished principles. It is a humongous, selfish, disgusting industry that belittles and trivializes human sexuality. It objectifies and commodifies men and women. It portrays sex in a brutal, selfish, unrealistic way.

I'll agree that there are segments of the pornography and sexually-related businesses that are selfish and inconsiderate.

Some sexually-related businesses do belittle and trivialize human sexuality. And some do economically exploit their workers.

However, the objectification and brutality mentioned above sounds like a description of the "Gonzo Porn" genre. These objections may not apply to all pornography. Like other types of media, there is a wide range of normal variation in pornography.

The explicit values in the Our Whole Lives (OWL) curriculum jointly developed by the Unitarian Universalist Association and the United Church of Christ may be useful for exploring pornography as a values issue. You can find the OWL values online here.

The OWL curriculum spends very little time discussing pornography. Most of the discussion of porn as a values issue happens in the adult curriculum where many views are presented and it's left as an open-ended question for the group to discuss.

Let's look at the list of issues that Reason and Reverence raised with pornography:

• Humongous, selfish, disgusting industry
• Belittles and trivializes human sexuality
• Objectifies and commodifies men and women
• Portrays sex in a brutal, selfish, unrealistic way

I wonder if we can peel back the layers of concern here to discover if pornography can exist in a manner consistent with the sexual values promoted by Unitarian Universalists.

Is pornography innately incompatible with our religious values? Or the problems that we've identified with pornography due to the corporate commercial culture that produces much of the pornography in North America?

For example, would amateur porn made by lesbians for lesbians be OK within our values?

This hypothetical example would eliminate the commercialization issues and the patriarchy oppression issues commonly associated with pornography. However, it would still involve people obtaining pleasure from viewing sexually explicit images.

Personally, I've enjoyed the sex-positive feminist perspective on porn issues. Here are some sex-positive feminist web resources that you can check out:

• Susie Bright's Journal
• Greta Christina's Blog
• Sexual Intelligence (Dr. Marty Klein)
• Joani Blank (UU tidbit -- Joani is a member of First UU Church of Oakland CA)
• Betty Dodson
  

For an example of visually erotic but non-explotative pornography, you may want to check out Nothing but the Girl: The Blatant Lesbian Image as an example of sex-positive feminism in action. Susie Bright has a sampling of photos from this book on her web site here.

Blog Rating Update ... I'm now PG

Apparently, the online blog rating system is just as inconsistent in applying ratings as the real-life MPAA rating system.

Here's my rating as of this morning:

My Blog is Rated "R" ...

I saw this blog rating service mentioned on Adrastos, the blog that belongs to a family friend in New Orleans who blogs about post-Katrina life in his city.

Apparently, my blog isn't acceptable for all ages:

I was also curious to see what the rating for my congregation's web site was using this service:

I'm pretty sure that my congregation's leadership will be relieved to know they are safe for all ages.

In case anyone is interested, here's the ratings for several blogs that I routinely read:

• PG -- Peacebang
• PG-13 -- Philocrites
• G -- Boy in the Bands
  
• G -- Radical Hapa
  
• NC-17 -- Sexuality and Religion
  
• R -- The Chaliceblog
  
• NC-17 -- Susie Bright's Blog
  
• NC-17 -- Greta Christina's Blog
  

And this blog content rating service is just as openly transparent as the MPAA (Motion Picture Association of America) rating system for movies that is often criticized for its effect on artistic expression in film. The documentary This Film Is Not Yet Rated examines the problems with the MPAA ratings and the non-transparency of the MPAA process.

Sokal Affair and Theological Writing

After reading about the Sokal Affair (a hoax by physicist Alan Sokal perpetrated on the editorial staff and readership of a then-non-peer-reviewed postmodern cultural studies journal called Social Text), I'm curious about another application of Sokal's technique.

Has anyone ever tried Sokal's experiment with a theology journal? Some skeptics like Richard Dawkins are critical of many theologians. The counter-charge is that folks like Dawkins are not well-read in the current theological literature.

A successful Sokal experiment involving a theology journal would address some of the criticism that the current crop of Atheist writers should know more about current trends in theology.

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?