Editorials – Earthly Religion

Too Political?

January 25, 2012
Byron Carrier

Carrier’s Comments for The Catalyst, a UU Newsletter From time to time I hear I’m “too political.” As a minister, this perplexes me, but I’m willing to listen so I can address your concern and fulfill mine. Wouldn’t it be ironic to claim Martin Luther King was too political? Or Jesus, or Amos? The Kingdom of Heaven is to be made manifest, incarnated; not constrained to other realms only. Or put humanistically, the world is as much ours as any one else’s. It…

January 25, 2012
Byron Carrier

Carrier’s Comments in November, 2008 Catalyst Newsletter Federal tax law bars me from a partisan directive to you on how to vote. I wouldn’t presume to do that anyway. The intent of the separation of church & state is to bar the government from promoting, or persecuting, any religion in order that the religions have the latitude to speak to social trends & issues. The church should not be beholden to, or afraid of, the government. To suggest that religions should remain silent on political…

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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!

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