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In this episode, Scot Nakagawa talks about how storytelling has been effectively used by conservatives and the religious right to move power. He goes deep into explaining why all politics is identity politics. He talks about the need to build both the popular front and the united front.
Scot is a senior partner with ChangeLab, a grassroots racial justice laboratory. He’s a long-time activist, community organizer and provocative thinker.
The VUU is hosted by Meg Riley, Joanna Fontaine Crawford, Aisha Hauser, Hank Peirce, and Alicia Forde, with production support provided by Terri Burnor. The VUU streams live on Thursdays at 11 am ET. This episode aired on December 8, 2016.
Note: The audio above has been slightly edited for a better listening experience. View the live original recording on YouTube.
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Our guests, the Rev. Dr. Rebecca Parker and Donna Red Wing, talk about resistance and resilience in our personal lives, activist circles, and religious communities. This rich conversation explores both the outside and inside work that is needed, embodied intersectional living, and how spirituality enhances resiliency.
The VUU is hosted by Meg Riley, Joanna Fontaine Crawford, Aisha Hauser, Hank Peirce, and Alicia Forde, with production support provided by Terri Burnor. The VUU streams live on Thursdays at 11 am ET. This episode aired on December 1, 2016.
Note: The audio above has been slightly edited for a better listening experience. View the live original recording on YouTube.
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In his well-known poem “If,” Rudyard Kipling states: “If you can wait and not be tired by waiting.…” Read more →
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…that the CLF is hoping to send holiday cards to our more than 700 prisoner members? You can help. Read more →
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Prepare the way to welcome your inner Christ child—the being of love and light, the spark of holiness that lies deep in us all. Read more →
December 2016
Patience is not simply the ability to wait—it’s how we behave while we’re waiting. —Joyce Meyer
Here is another story for the season, one that is very much about waiting. This is the story of a special child. Like every child, his parents waited eagerly for his birth. More than 2,000 years later, Christians as well as many Unitarian Universalists celebrate this birth at Christmas.
This month we celebrate Charles Dickens, British Unitarian, and author of A Christmas Carol. When Dickens wrote A Christmas Carol in 1843, many Christmas traditions had almost died out, and the holiday was hardly celebrated. England was becoming more and more industrial, and people leaving farms to work in factories had left their old customs behind.
But the story, which was wildly popular, brought enthusiasm back to the cities for practices like singing Christmas carols and feasting on special foods. The picture of the Cratchit family celebrating their Christmas together inspired people to find a way to celebrate Christmas in the cities, and the change of heart which comes to Ebeneezer Scrooge reminded people that Christmas was traditionally a time when the wealthy folk shared with the poorer people.
In fact, Dickens was very concerned with the conditions of poor people in England at a time when the gap between the rich and the poor was getting wider and wider. Many of his books deal with this theme, and he became a Unitarian because, as he said, they “would do something for human improvement if they could; and practice charity and toleration.”
Interested in learning more about Charles Dickens, our religious ancestor? Here are a few additional resources:
A 2005 UU World article, “Ebenezer Scrooge’s Conversion,” by Michael Timko, describes how Charles Dickens’s story, A Christmas Carol, exemplified 19th-century Unitarianism.
In the Tapestry of Faith children’s religious education curriculum Windows and Mirrors, Session 13 (Images of Injustice) addresses Charles Dickens, his work and his dedication to improving the lives of the poorest English workers and their families. From the introduction to the lesson:
As Unitarian Universalists, we do not turn away from noticing the gaps that separate “haves” from “have nots.” To work against inequity, we know we first have to see it. Unitarian Charles Dickens saw it. Born poor, he later earned a living as a writer and joined a more comfortable economic class. Dickens used colorful character portraits and complex, often humorous plots, to expose tragic inequities in 19th-century British society. He showed that people at opposite ends of an economic spectrum belong to the same “we,” united by our common humanity and destiny—a lesson which resounds with our contemporary Unitarian Universalist Principles.
The website Charles Dickens online has well as the Dictionary of Unitarian and Universalist Biography offer biographical information and many other resources.
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Dr. Takiyah Amin and Kenny Wiley from the Black Lives of Unitarian Universalism organizing collective join us!
The VUU is hosted by Meg Riley, Joanna Fontaine Crawford, Aisha Hauser, Hank Peirce, and Alicia Forde, with production support provided by Lori Stone Sirtosky. The VUU airs Thursdays at 11 am ET. This episode aired on November 17, 2016.
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We talk with Peggy Clarke, who is one of many UU leaders standing with the water protectors at Standing Rock to stop the Dakota Access Pipeline from being built.
Links from today’s broadcast:
Tips from VUU hosts for moving through the aftermath of the Trump election (mentioned at end of broadcast):
The VUU is hosted by Meg Riley, Joanna Fontaine Crawford, Aisha Hauser, Hank Peirce, Alicia Forde, and Michael Tino with production support from Lori Stone Sirtosky. The VUU airs Thursdays at 11 am ET. This episode originally aired on November 10, 2016.
Note: The audio above has been slightly edited for a better listening experience. View the live original recording on YouTube.
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As a Unitarian Universalist congregation with no geographical boundary, the CLF creates global spiritual community, rooted in profound love, which cultivates wonder, imagination, and the courage to act.