#beyond sundays

[i-am-uu]

Justice must be Intentional and Institutional

Justice must be Intentional and Institutional: Being good in our own lives isn't going to ensure goodness for the future. We must build goodness into society and justice into governance.

The Principles of Unitarian Universalism dedicate us to building a world that is just, compassionate, and equitable. That will never come about by accident or even charity. People have fought their whole lives to see the world get better on any one of those points. They come together and build movements and organizations to do the work better. They knew what some still deny: If we want that…

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Gratitude as a Spark

Gratitude as a Spark

In spite of what you might read in up-lifting memes and blogs, Happiness is not always just a thought away. Happiness and sadness are reactions, not choices. Some of us have a lot of trouble accessing Happiness moment to moment.

Gratitude, though, is a choice. It is an option in how we choose to react to the world, and it changes how the world feels. It might be impossible to simply choose…

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The Choice to be Grateful

The Choice to be Grateful: We cannot always choose to be happy, but we can chose to be grateful, and that can help us find reasons to be happy even when things don't go as planned...

In spite of what you might read in up-lifting memes and blogs, Happiness is not always just a thought away. Happiness and sadness are reactions. Some of us have a lot of trouble accessing Happiness moment to moment.

Gratitude, though, is a choice. It is an option in how we choose to react to the world, and it changes how the world feels. It might be hard to choose happiness, but choosing…

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Liberal Religion is Resistance to Authoritarianism

Liberal Religion is Resistance to Authoritarianism: Our instance on compassion & justice and ability to share religious language with other traditions is a bulwark against fundamentalism...

Here at the I Am UU project, we believe that the best way to ensure things like compassion, justice, and the democratic process are affirmed and promoted in the world is to build up institutions to make it happen. Those institutions pool the resources of many and put them to their best use (we hope), so that everyone’s own best is utilized in fulfilling the shared vision.

The institution we give…

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Why Unitarian Universalism?

Why Unitarian Universalism? We aren't the only liberal religion, & why liberal religion, anyway? Well, I can answer all of that:

I know there are several other forms of Liberal Religion. The UUA and our individual congregations work with a lot of churches on specific projects and we share goals for the world with those churches. So, why am I UU? What is it about Unitarian Universalism that has earned my fervent support?

Firstly, let me say that I am a believer in institutions. I do not believe we can have real justice,…

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You've Got to Do.

You've Got to Do: Unitarian Universalism is an active faith, committed to doing and building rather than just hoping for Heaven.

Roughly 100 years ago, in his book “Which way? A study of Universalists and Universalism”, Rev. Lewis B. Fisher tried to answer the question “What do Universalists stand for?” in a clever way.

The only true answer to give to this question is that we do not stand at all, we move…

We are not stationary nor are we defending any final position.

We come from a tradition of those who see faith as an…

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Unitarian Universalism & Social Media: Facebook Keeps Changing

Unitarian Universalism & Social Media: Facebook Keeps Changing. Here is what we know, what we think we know, & what you can do to start taking control back from The Algorithm (& what that is).

It has become pretty common knowledge over the last couple of years that Facebook makes choices for you. Facebook has developed very clever programs, like robots that watch the site for them. Those programs pick what goes on your screen in hopes of keep you looking at the screen longer and seeing just a few more ads each day. How they do this is a trade secret, but what we have figured out allows…

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Church Can Be Different

Church Can Be Different: Church doesn't have to be stuck in the last century, or any of the 19 that come before that. We can offer something new. We have something new, but we should be offering it to people.

Church can be people who trust one another. Church can be people who accept and encourage each other. Church can be a place where it’s ok to be imperfect, and the effort counts for something. Church can be a place where we ask the important questions and admit to one another that we don’t know. Church can be a place where we comfort one another over the fact that there aren’t a lot of absolutes…

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