Comments on: Scribe Jamboree: 10/13/2006

By: ck

ck — Sun, 15 Oct 2006 21:55:11 +0000

kim, I think Shawn is a Trinitarian — check out his most recent post about the puppy his family adopted. As far as the emergent church, it’s confusing to me too–you might be able to make a start in understanding it by looking at the Emergent channel on The Daily Scribe (then report back to me to explain, since I’m still in the dark!).

My intuition is that the Pop Occulture post and Chutney’s description of it are only hitting one side of the issue. Of course it’s valid to say religion comforts the afflicted–but that doesn’t make the flip side (religion is a challenge not a comfort) any less applicable.

By: kim

kim — Sat, 14 Oct 2006 19:07:48 +0000

“Religion is a challenge, not a comfort” is too narrow. The quote we hear a lot around my church is that religion is to “comfort the afflicted and afflict the comfortable”. I think that is more reasonable — why would one want a religion that didn’t give comfort in times of grief and weakness? but what good is it if it only gives comfort and doesn’t challenge us to grow further?

By: kim

kim — Sat, 14 Oct 2006 18:59:03 +0000

OK, I can see I came in on the middle of something, but what the heck is “the emergent church”? I couldn’t figure it out from that article and comments.

By: kim

kim — Sat, 14 Oct 2006 18:17:44 +0000

Thank you for linking to Shawn’s discussion. I read it all, but i am left with a question, and he closed the thread: Is he now a Trinitarian? Or a unitarian Christian? He doesn’t say.
Christianity is not my path, but I respect any well-considered path. He obviously agonized over his decision, so I’m sure he made the right one for him.
I loved the Thoreau quote someone put into the discussion there.

By: Kevin

Kevin — Sat, 14 Oct 2006 01:23:17 +0000

It’s interesting. I find that convert UUs often drift in from Methodism *raises hand* but I’ve never seen it go the other way round.

As for me, I can’t say that I anticipate going back to Christianity at any point in time. Good friend of mine is Methodist and I went to a service with him back in the summertime. It just didn’t feel right; it felt like putting the left shoe on your right foot. I didn’t have any sort of problem with it, I just kept thinking “I don’t believe any of this anymore”.

And as I think back upon it, after age 10 when I really started to question, I don’t think I have. There’s a large part of me who will always be skeptical and I doubt there’s any sort of true believerism in me. But then again, I think about what H.L. Mencken said: “I have never met a true believer worth knowing”.

Mr. of Nazareth serves as an example to me of the way to lead a proper life and he had many words of wisdom but I am too grounded in realism and rationalism to believe in “just because” anymore. God is three forms and one at the same time just because. Jesus was the son of God just because. Why? Well, just because is faith.

And I guess just because is more attuned with secular humanism. I can get my arms around a human being’s peculiarities more than any sort of Deity.

By: James

James — Fri, 13 Oct 2006 18:40:32 +0000

It’s funny. There’s one line from Shawn’s farewell to UU post that jumped out at me, “Those who wander only get lost. Trust me, itâ€™s true.” I was going to comment about how in my own wanderings (literal and metaphorical,) no matter how lost I seemed I always found what I was looking for. Instead, I’m going to stick with my thingy (Idiom, sir?) Yes, idiom, and sing a little song. Well, not literally, since I don’t have the gear to record me singing the song. Post the lyrics, alright? Sheesh. Anyway, “I Know Things Now,” from Stephen Sondheim’s Into the Woods.

Mother daid,
“Straight ahead,”
Not to delay
or be misled.
I should have heeded
Her advice…
But he seemed so nice.

And he showed me things
Many beautiful things,
That I hadn’t thought to explore.
They were off my path,
So I never had dared.
I had been so careful,
I never had cared.
And he made me feel excited-
Well, excited and scared.

When he said, “Come in!”
With that sickening grin,
How could I know what was in store?
Once his teeth were bared,
Though, I really got scared-
Well, excited and scared-
But he drew me close
And he swallowed me down,
Down a dark slimy path
Where lie secrets that I never want to know,
And when everything familiar
Seemed to disappear forever,
At the end of the path
Was Granny once again.

So we wait in the dark
Until someone sets us free,
And we’re brought into the light,
And we’re back at the start.

And I know things now,
Many valuable things,
That I hadn’t known before:
Do not put your faith
In a cape and a hood,
They will not protect you
The way that they should.
And take extra care with strangers,
Even flowers have their dangers.
And though scary is exciting,
Nice is different than good.

Now I know:
Don’t be scared.
Granny is right,
Just be prepared.

Isn’t it nice to know a lot!
And a little bit not…