Did You Know?
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That the CLF offers resources on our website for children, families and religious educators? Check out the Family Quest page. Read more →
Forgiveness
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You want me to forgive him?!
I want you to forgive. Read more →
Apologies and Forgiveness
Rev. Lynn Ungar shares a story about offering the right kind of apology, one that asks real forgiveness.
Adin Ballou: Peace and Forgiveness
This month, as we think about forgiveness, we honor Universalist minister Adin Ballou (not to be confused with his earlier Universalist ancestor Hosea Ballou).
Adin Ballou came to believe that his religion called him to practice peace in all things, following the message of Jesus, who said that if someone slaps your cheek, that rather than hitting back it is better to offer your other cheek to be slapped.
Adin founded a community called Hopedale, which was based on these principles of radical peace and non-violence.
One day a man came to Hopedale, hungry and homeless. They offered him food and a place to stay the night. Later that night two young girls heard noises downstairs and went to investigate. They saw feet sticking out from the couch, and a bag full of dishes and candlesticks!
They called their parents down, and quickly determined that the feet belonged to the man they had fed and sheltered. The parents called in their community leader, Adin Ballou, who helped the man out from under the couch. The man explained that he was desperate, with no food or job, and he figured that if he was caught stealing he would be sent to jail, where at least he would be able to eat. Instead of sending the man to jail, Adin not only forgave the man, he even invited the him to join their community, and to make a home with them!
Let your anger guide you to beloved action: Join me in Ferguson
I’m angry. I’m not even sure that’s a big enough word for what I’m feeling. The rage is deep, so pervasive at times it threatens to paralyze me into inaction. I struggle against the threat of being rendered immobile by this anger every day.
This week, I braced myself for the release of another video of a heinous police shooting of an unarmed black man, this time in Cincinnati, Ohio. I must fight with every fiber of my being to stay in my body, to stay connected to my feelings and ground myself, bracing for another wave of grief and pain that feeds my deeper rage.
That’s why on August 7-10, I am responding to the call of leaders in Ferguson to show up and take collective action for racial justice on the anniversary of the Ferguson uprising. Read more →
Prayers for Chattanooga
We grieve with the families and friends of the Marines killed in Chattanooga, and we pray for the full recovery of those who were injured. We are heartsick at another incident in which gun violence took the lives of innocent victims. Read more →
The Coming WORR: A Week of Righteous Resistance July 12 – 18
Last November, I lay down with just under a hundred other people on an interstate highway in Minneapolis. Along with thousands in cities across the country, we stopped the cars, we carried signs and we chanted and sang, saying Black Lives Matter in every way that we could. My brother called me from Texas, and said, “Hey, did you shut down I-35 today?” I responded, “Well, yes, me and a few others.” He said, “It made news down here. That’s dope. My freedom fighter sister.” That was just over six months ago, it was the start of what has been a nonstop whirlwind of actions, public witness, and personal challenges for me. Read more →
Notes to a white religious leader
Notes to a white religious leader in a majority white denomination preparing to give a #BlackLivesMatter sermon:
- Nurture the hearts and souls of the congregation . . . to be able to look at the racist institutional and cultural violence that is burning all around us. To acknowledge the despair, the pain, the heartbreak, and to collectively grieve – to assume that everyone there, on some level, is grieving and to invite them into that space, rather then assume they are indifferent and uncaring, even if potentially one could assume them outwardly from their actions/inaction. We are not there to pass judgement on who we think are, but to create support for who people want to be, who we know they can be, who these times call on our people to be.
“Stars,” by Namoli Brennet
“Stars,” by Namoli Brennet
Lyrics:
Maybe we’re just one of a million tiny galaxies
Hurtling on towards some unrevealed destiny
Maybe we’re somebody’s unfinished symphony
Maybe we’re the defenders of the indefensible
Just trying to make sense of the incomprehensible
And what if we, what if we are
What if we, what if we are
Stars
Maybe we’re the victims of reincarnation
Maybe we’re the phantoms of manifestation
Maybe we’re just here to fix our mistakes again
Maybe we’re planets like Venus and Saturn
Surrounded by gases and protons and atoms
And what if we, what if we are
What if we, what if we are
Only stars
Maybe this world is just thinner than it seems
Maybe we’re all partners in the same lucid dream, yeah
Well maybe we’re vapors, and maybe we’re just steam
Maybe we’re creatures of habit and malice
That pale in the light of aurora borealis
And what if we, what if we are
What if we, what if we are
Only stars
Only stars
in the dark
just a
spark
Maybe we’re just lucky and blest to bear witness
to the flashing of this meteor, the tale of this comet
Maybe we’re cursed, and maybe we’re fortunate
Maybe we just go on our milky white way
Maybe we get to stay
And what if we, what if we are
What if we, what if we are
Stars
From the album Chrysanthemum, available here for download.
Part of the Great Story
“The Future Is Calling Us to Greatness,” a children’s story told by Connie Barlow at the Unitarian Universalist Congregation of Monmouth County, New Jersey, October 2013.
