Byron Carrier – Page 20 – Earthly Religion

Why We Need Each Other – A Meditation on Left and Right

January 24, 2012
Byron Carrier

Our America eagle can’t survive without both a right and left wing. As is, it wars against itself, one wing battering the other, flapping around in circles. The dangerous divide in our country between left and right – between red states and blue states, between city and rural, between educated and not, between moneyed and not – cannot grow in rancor without ruining our common condition. Nor can our Unitarian Universalist congregations be whole without honoring and including so-called left and right types of thinking. …

January 24, 2012
Byron Carrier

The most unusual wedding I ever performed was of a woman to herself. On the shore of Lake Michigan I pronounced this lovely, creative creature One, adding, “What God hath joined together, let no one rent asunder.” Of course, this was a spiritual ceremony, not a legal contract, though the marriage issue could be stretched to consider calling such a union a marriage. Or should it? Just what is a marriage, who qualifies, and who decides? Let us consider marriage, gay marriage, and the…

January 24, 2012
Byron Carrier

To be liberal means being generous, open minded, innovative, and kind. It is the force of the new, the progressive. It is inclusive and visionary, seeking freedom and progress for the whole of society. It does not war against conservative forces, but uses them to stabilize a system while innovating within it. Conservative and liberal are dynamics of nature -- structure, experimentation, and new birth. It is a sign of how regressive an era we live in that the word liberal is used as…

January 24, 2012
Byron Carrier

“My Goddess Gave Birth to Your God” reads the bumper sticker. The growing notion that God is not just and only male is well known in our UU churches and in other niches in society. Feminism has grown with us for decades and centuries. Gradually, it spreads around the world, bringing women status, freedoms, compensation, and rights in societies where patriarchy has ruled unquestioned for millennia. We need the Divine Mother, not just Our Father. But let’s also be careful to not just honor the…

January 24, 2012
Byron Carrier

Focus on the Family, a conservative Christian group, teaches that “the foundation of society for the family is marriage of a man and a woman for life.” “One man, one woman, one life” is deemed to be God’s plan and instruction. This group is largely against homosexual marriage, but it also rails against no-fault divorce, pre-marital and extra-marital sex, group marriage, and other variations of their ideal scheme. They cite decent research showing the benefits of a stable traditional family, and they warn weakening the…

January 24, 2012
Byron Carrier

Between the Lincoln Memorial and the White House is a statue of Christopher Columbus. It is a grand image, inspiring, but perverse for the lie it perpetuates. His horse rears. His breastplate makes him look muscular and Roman. He is bringing European sensibilities to the sub-human savages of the New World. Of course, it’s all grandiose posturing, ego writ larger than life, as if that’s good. We still celebrate Columbus with a holiday even though we know how cruel he was. He waged invasion and…

January 24, 2012
Byron Carrier

It is not just the Unitarian Universalists who hold democracy as scared duty and hope; much of humanity honors mutual self rule. We no longer believe a king or pope has the right to rule us, for the divine hierarchy isn’t top down, it’s inner out, both individualistic and communal. This isn’t a passive putting up with bossy rulers; it is protecting, perfecting, and promoting humanity’s rising to be itself. By democracy I don’t merely mean voting. Voting for others to represent us is…

January 24, 2012
Byron Carrier

What has become of civility in our society? Civility is inherent in civilization. To civilize is to instruct on the arts of life, to enlighten and refine them, to bring our society out of a state of barbarism. However, a wave of incivility has us headed back to barbarism, diverting us from any sensible dialog or progress, especially as we consider health care reform. My concern here is not just for health care. Our health care system is exemplified by Paul Goodman’s comment about…

January 24, 2012
Byron Carrier

Welcome to this church service where "Citizens Speak to Would-be Presidents." I thank you for your attention and invite you to add to what I will say. As you can see, I have arranged for some video cameras and a microphone to be present. Not only will we partake of this exercise, others will be able to see and hear what we did. I hope and trust the cameras will not detract from our service. It's just a way to include more people in our…

January 24, 2012
Byron Carrier

Happy New Year! I know the new year started recently during the Jewish high holy days, and earlier than that at the end of February when the Chinese started theirs, and earlier than that on January 1st. It turns out the year can start almost any time and I don’t mind it starting over and over. As harvest season ends for us in the Northern Hemisphere, Halloween makes as good of a time to end and start the years as any other. Halloween turns…

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The dream of an Earthly Religion…

Earthly: our precious natural earth which allows us our bodies, lives, cultures and future.

Religion: from the old root words religare and religio, meaning “to bind back to the root and be whole again.” This does not assume we need to believe in God or the Bible. Rather, we should be well-related with our own bodies, each other, natural life, and natural existence as it actually is. If there is connection with divinity or God, it is in and through our bodies and beings that we relate primarily, not via scriptures, traditions, rituals, or supposed religious authorities. In short, by religion we mean “relating well with reality.”

The emphasis here is on the earthly. It is not an afterlife or an instead-of-life that interests us. Living well here on earth together does.

While we take our religious perspective and work seriously, we don’t want it to be stuffy. Too often, religions can be alien to the human condition rather than affirming of it. They can be demeaning and demoralizing, dull and bossy, ponderously pretentious. We lean more towards the fun and sexy, natural and lively, human and humane, thoughtful and pertinent.

Reality: the obvious and inescapable stuff of physical existence. We intend to enjoy and tend our lives in these bodies, for our time, in our cultures, for our singular and interrelated ecosystem. There may be more, but there is AT LEAST THIS of which we are born, in which we live, and into which we will die.

God or no-God is not the point; Earth is. Both believers and non-believers are welcome here, for we all share a common source, opportunity, and responsibility: life as it is and could be. This ranges from simply improving one’s own life to your helping save and restore Eden’s, not just to “sustain” it, but veering it to thrive as never before. If you value your life, each other’s, and Earth’s – welcome!

Learn more…

Why We Need Each Other – A Meditation on Left and Right

Marriage, Gay Marriage and the Human Family

Lovely, Lonely Liberals

For Mary

Focus on the Family

Fear, Force and Faith

Destroying or Developing Democracy

Civility and Health Care

Citizens Speak to Would-be Presidents (in 2000)

All Hallowed