Comments on: Religions Are Different, Liberals

By: Bruce

Bruce — Wed, 19 May 2010 15:44:43 +0000

I think Karen Armstrong is right about what religions have in common. The problem comes when we reduce religions to what they have in common and say they’re only that. I’ve seen a lot of UUs do that over the years.

By: UU blogs on immigration, declining membership, and board activity « uuworld.org : The Interdependent Web

Mon, 03 May 2010 16:30:17 +0000

[…] liberals are about: tolerance and abstract democratic ideals. Dumb religious particularists! If only they were smarter, they’d be UUs! (“Making Chutney,” April […]

By: Jim

Jim — Tue, 27 Apr 2010 20:39:59 +0000

Thanks for clarifying. Except for a few memorable instances, I guess I just haven’t seen many UUs doing what you describe. If I saw it happenng a lot, I’d probably react as you do.

By: chutney

chutney — Tue, 27 Apr 2010 19:49:08 +0000

By: Jim

Jim — Tue, 27 Apr 2010 14:48:57 +0000

Yes, I do recognize that many ritual observances connect people to each other and to the transcendent (another commonality among many religions!). But it seems to me that the specific examples that you cite serve to demonstrate the very commonalities that you seem eager to ignore or trivialize.

I have no desire to ignore, disprespect, misrepresent or trivialize anyone’s rituals. But I also recognize the importance of noticing commonalities.

I really do get your point about not glossing over differences. But do you not see any value whatsoever in thinking about important commonalities?

It’s not at all clear to me that “most religious people throughout history” disagree with me, but if they do, then that is yet another thing they have in common!

By: chutney

chutney — Tue, 27 Apr 2010 14:10:09 +0000

Doing a mitzvah, paying a tithe, and giving a zakat, to cite just three examples, are not abstract, and all are framed specifically by practitioners’ religions. “Practical acts of compassion” is helpful in pointing out a commonality, but it papers over the specificity of what actual practitioners understand themselves to be doing.

And, actually, most religious people understand themselves to be experiencing that transcendence precisely because of specific rituals and techniques proscribed by their religions, many of which take years to master. Most religious people throughout history disagree with you.

By: Jim

Jim — Tue, 27 Apr 2010 03:38:47 +0000

I’m not quite sure how you view “a personal sense of connection to a greater transcendent reality and the need for practical acts of compassion” as being “pretty abstract stuff.”

Practical acts of compassion are abstract? Ditto a personal sense of connection? Rituals and statements of belief are one or two steps removed from direct experience and seem to me to be greater abstractions than simple acts of compassion and a personal experience of the transcendent.

The criticism about trivializing differences is certainly valid (and you’re right to call people out on it), but trivializing the commonalities seems equally flawed.

And who knows? Maybe someday I will discover that I really am an anonymous Scientologist.