Unitarian Universalist Church of Jackson

NUUSLETTER

 A Newsletter for our Members and Friends

May 2007 - Web Edition

Love is the spirit of this church, and service is our law.

To dwell together in peace, to seek the truth in love, and to help one another.

This is our covenant

WORSHIP SCHEDULE

Every Sunday Forum at 9:30am, Service at 11:00am

 

May 6

Forum: Wal-Mart: The High Cost of Low Prices Brian Heffner

Screening of the second part of this compelling investigation looking into business practices of this multi-national giant, focusing on the effect on Wal-Mart's employees and factory workers overseas. Discussion following.

Service: Transitions Bob Buckner

Share Bob Buckner's spiritual journey from ordained Baptist minister to Unitarian Universalist.

 

May 13

Forum: The Motherhood Manifesto Stacy Callender

A 59 minute lm about the discrimination that mothers face. Come early!

Service: Mother's Day Flower Service The Reverend Jacqueline Luck

Continuing the tradition begun by Unitarian Minister Norbert Capek in Czechoslovakia before he was killed in the Holocaust, we will celebrate the beloved community and that which nurtures. Please bring a flower to share with another of the congregation.

May 20

Forum: Scientic God Stacy Callender

Discussion of recent books about God/religion written by famous scientists.

Service: The Inherent Worth and Dignity of All? The Reverend Jacqueline Luck

There will be a ceremony welcoming new members into this beloved community of the Unitarian Universalist Church of Jackson. The sermon will consider the first principle that this congregation and its sister congregations covenant to affirm and support. What's the deal? This sermon is in response to a request from the congregation.

May 27

Forum: Breakthrough Congregation The Reverend Jacqueline Luck

A 30 minute DVD about UU congregations with a discussion following.

Service: How Did Things Go So Right? The Reverend Jacqueline Luck

I've been thinking about what causes things to go well and things that causes us to ask the reverse question. I'll be drawing on Stumbling on Happiness, by Daniel Gilbert, and a few things I've garnered from my experience.

 

 

Deadline for submissions to the June UUCJ NUUSletter: May 18.  Please make submissions to Susan Voisin at NUUSletter@uujackson.org.

If you would like to receive the NUUsletter by email, please user our NUUS subscription form.

Mississippi Musings

There is much congregational energy at UUCJ, and I invite you to attend. Come celebrate with us. each Sunday is an important day in the life of the beloved community. 

Some of you know that on Sundays I am the happy recipient of various interesting articles and other bits to read or to chuckle over during the coming week. Recently I was given a provocative page entitled : "Just how much do you know about religion? " from the March 24 issue of the Dallas Morning News. 

It includes a quiz by Stephen Prothero. I think it might be interesting and fun, and perhaps educational, if I share a few of the questions and answers, which appear elsewhere in the NUUSletter. Enjoy!

1. Name the four Gospels.

2. Name a sacred text of Hinduism. 

3 What is the name of the holy book of Islam?

4. What is the Golden Rule?

5. List the Four Noble Truths of Buddhism.

6. The First Amendment says two things about religion, each in its own "clause." What
are the two religion clauses of the First Amendment?

7. What are the first five books of the Hebrew Bible?

8. What is Ramadan? In what religion is it celebrated?

See the answers below.

Jacqueline  

The President’s Corner

At its annual meeting on March 25, 2007, the congregation elected new members to its Board of Trustees for the new administrative church year. Reverend Luck installed the newly configured Board on Sunday, April 1, 2007. The transitional Board met on Friday, April 13, 2007, with out-going President, Waverly Liles, passing the gavel. My sincere thanks and appreciation go to Waverly for all of his help and hand-holding during this transition.

I am honored and greatly humbled that the congregation has asked me to be part of its leadership team. UUCJ has been part of my life for many years and I am happy to be able to offer my services in this capacity for the next two years. 

The April Board meeting served as an orientation to issues currently facing the Board as well as an initiation about issues that will face us during this administrative year. The most immediate issue concerns options available to the congregation regarding a minister. As you know, Reverend Luck has accepted a position to become the settled minister with another congregation. Given that, our congregation must make decisions about its desires and needs for a minister. 

Two driving forces in that decision-making process are the congregation's finances and the availability of professional Unitarian Universalist ministry in Mississippi. The Board will be working to gather information about possible options and bring them to the congregation over the next weeks.

We are all committed to this beloved community in various and unique ways. May we join together our "commitments" to strengthen and sustain our congregation's mission and vision.

Gwen Combs

 

Announcements

Fair Trade chocolate bars, coffee, tea and cocoa are available in the kitchen. Please leave your payment in the envelopes provided.

Detention Center donations of underwear are being collected.

Answers to Quiz on Religion

1. Matthew, Mark, Luke and John

2. A few include the Vedas, Brahmanas, Upanishads, Bhagavad-Gita, Kuma Sutra

3. Quran

4. "Do unto others as you would have them do unto you" (Matthew 7:12), or a similar sentiment from Rabbi Hillel or Confucius. "Love your neighbor as yourself," is not the Golden Rule.

5. Life is suffering / Suffering has an origin / Suffering can be overcome (nirvana) / The path to overcoming suffering is the Noble Eightfold Path.

6. "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof." The words before the comma are referred to as the establishment clause; the words that follow constitute the free exercise clause.

7. Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy (same as the Christian Old Testament)

8. Ramadan is a Muslim holiday characterized by a month of fasting.

Who Is Your God?

The following was presented at the UU service on April 14 within a service titled "What God Is. What God Isn't." While you may or may not agree with his premise, author Bill Gressett is fairly certain it will make you think. If it does that, it's done its job.

The God of Retardation

I strongly suspect that God is a consequence of our neurobiological evolution. However, I realize that this may be the result of our cerebral energies having the ability to communicate with this other
dimension rather than our ability to construct such an existence. In either case, all that really matters is that we have an awareness of the God concept as that which is basically good in each of us. This would allow us to treat each other with more respect than a Godless mind would. Then why do we, as so-called "Godly people," behave and maintain the seemingly godless world we exist in?

Could it be that God is retarded? I realize that this is not a comforting idea. However, it is a possibility; it is as possible as the idea of God existing at all. Operating on the assumption that a God exists and created the cosmos, including us, one would have to assume that the created entities are reflections of the creator in various ways. I am told that we are created in God's image. Well, this being assumed again to be the case, what a seemingly bad miscalculation on God's part. Oh, I know, it is part of a grand plan beyond our limited mental abilities to comprehend. But, we mortals, limited as we may be, must nevertheless exist in these moments of infinity known as our history.

Now, let us briefly review our existence in this world. We have managed to have countless wars and conflicts resulting in incalculable death and destruction over the millennia. Most of this is based on our bad decisions concerning greed and power, true enough, but what designed this law called human reasoning? I am told God designed us in his or her image. Since we behave in such a retarded way I can only reach the logical conclusion that God is in some way retarded.

Now I realize humans have accomplished much over the centuries in terms of science, medicine and social design in general. However, we always manage to convert these achievements into corruption - the pursuit of wealth and power at each other's expense. In some retarded twist of things, we managed to split the atom, but before we generated electrical power, we destroyed Hiroshima and more than 80 percent of its inhabitants. We managed to recombine DNA, but before we engineered better agriculture, we managed to design more lethal viruses for biological warfare and use the food technology for blackmail against oil deals. We created a free market, but soon had CEO greed and loss of trust - the very thing that drives free markets. We help the needy by creating the Great Society that demands handouts rather than work.

Yes, we make these choices, but what designed such a faulty computer, such a retarded system of logic incapable of operating in a "justice for all" mode? We could only create an absurd Old Testament God of jealousy and wrath that smites entire generations when angered - a product of retardation, whether it created us or us it. Either way retardation is the modus operandi. 

Just because we insist that God is omnipotent and just, it is possible that we are children of a retarded father. You know it happens in families, which, by the way, are products of God. So, it could have been that the original cause, God, was retarded. We, as evolving entities, must be compassionate rather than angry about this and rather than ask God for guidance in our prayers, offer them as therapy. Maybe a rational God will emerge from the treatment and a more rational world will result. Let's help God get better. Maybe he will then be able to better help us. 

I must believe there is hope. and I will try not to anger the Almighty, but pray for healing. Prayer and meditation are but therapy for our souls and the creators. This is our only hope - we are that part of God trying to heal itself.