more on liberal values

On the subject of what liberal values really mean, Sara Robinson at Orcinus tells it like it really is in Of Madmen and Martyrs.

liberal values

People often refer to liberals as woolly, vacillating and so on, but they are wrong.

The Unitarian Universalists are about as liberal as it is possible to be. They stand up for gay rights, women's rights, and include gays, Pagans, Buddhists, Hindus & Jews in their congregations. Two of them died for their beliefs last Sunday. You can't call that "vacillating". They stood in front of other members of their congregation to shield them from a gunman who was shooting at them. The gunman shot at them specifically for their liberal and inclusive attitudes. Their liberality is not built on shifting sands; it is an ever-expanding circle of inclusivity. Their Kingdom of Heaven is not receding from them as they march towards it; they are building it here on earth.

I am truly honoured to count myself as a Unitarian knowing that such people are Unitarians.

condolences

The Tennessee Valley Unitarian Universalist Church was attacked yesterday by an anti-gay extremist with a gun, who killed two members of the congregation.

It is terribly sad that people were killed for being open, inclusive and loving to other people.

My heart goes out to the congregation and the families of those who died, and they are in my thoughts and prayers.

You can leave condolences at this special blog set up by the Unitarian Universalist Association.

There's also an update on UUA News.

The only thing to hold on to, in the midst of such an experience and the aftermath, is that we can hold on to each other and affirm the web of love and compassion that unifies us even in such dark moments.
- Rev Steve Dick

The androgynous divine

Rabbi unveils a secret of God

Finally the mainstream has noticed what mystics and occultists have known for centuries: the "divine" contains both masculine and feminine, but transcends them.

"This is the kind of God I believe in, the kind of God that makes sense to me, in a language that speaks very, very deeply to human aspirations and striving," Sameth said. "How could God be male and not female?"

Rabbi Mark Sameth noticed that the Tetragrammaton (YHWH) read backwards spells 'hu, hi' (he, she in Hebrew). How marvellous. This will give new impetus to people trying to use gender-inclusive and gender-neutral language in both Judaism and Christianity. Hurrah!

Hebrew	Letter name	Pronunciation
י	Yodh	"Y"
ה	He (pronounced "hey")	"H" (or sometimes silent)
ו	Vav	"V" or placeholder for "O"/"U"
ה	He	"H" or silent

source: Wikipedia

April winds are magical

Emerson in mythopoeic mode:

April

The April winds are magical
And thrill our tuneful frames;
The garden walks are passional
To bachelors and dames.
The hedge is gemmed with diamonds,
The air with Cupids full,
The cobweb clues of Rosamond
Guide lovers to the pool.
Each dimple in the water,
Each leaf that shades the rock
Can cozen, pique and flatter,
Can parley and provoke.
Goodfellow, Puck and goblins,
Know more than any book.
Down with your doleful problems,
And court the sunny brook.
The south-winds are quick-witted,
The schools are sad and slow,
The masters quite omitted
The lore we care to know.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

moving accurately

This is one of my favourite quotes of all time; it keeps me going when times seem hard or there's a difficult decision to be made. It also seems to express the idea that the way to move through life is to follow your bliss and act as seems right to you, because no matter how unlikely it seems that your endeavour will have a successful outcome, if it's the right thing to do then it will open doors in unexpected ways.

Only one heart had to find its true position and travel on from there and all the rest would follow, for no matter how isolated the one felt itself to be, in the deeps of all life all were united and no one could move accurately without all ultimately moving with it...

~ A Far-Off Place, p.304, Laurens van der Post

There are many wonderful bits in this book, and I highly recommend it.

you are the hands of the Divine

Today's Poetry Chaikhana has a poem with an excellent message of responsibility for everyday practical compassion and working for justice:

You are Christ's Hands

By Teresa of Avila
(1515 - 1582)

Christ has no body now on earth but yours,
no hands but yours,
no feet but yours,
Yours are the eyes through which to look out
Christ's compassion to the world
Yours are the feet with which he is to go about
doing good;
Yours are the hands with which he is to bless men now.

-- from The Essential Mystics: Selections from the World's Great Wisdom Traditions, Edited by Andrew Harvey

I've liked the message of this poem for a while now. Never mind about what or who you think the Christos is; just think about the message that only we, who have hands to heal and bless and mend, can actually do the practical work of compassion.

As Ivan (the editor of Poetry Chaikhana) remarks:

It is a prayer of supreme spiritual maturity. It is not someone imploring Christ to come and fix everything in the external way imagined by so many fundamentalist sects; rather, it recognizes the presence of the Divine within each of us and our sacred responsibility to embody that compassion and service to the world. Each one of us is the vehicle through which Christ (or Ishwara, or however you name the personal form of the Divine) sends blessings. Our job is to get out of the way and let that sacred current flow through us unhindered.