Ithaca Activists to trade protest experiences (at unitarian church event)

Ithaca Journal (Third Item) ^ | Local News - Wednesday, December 10, 2003 | Briefly in Tompkins

[Behind Liberal Lines]

ITHACA -- Activists from the Ithaca area who participated in the recent protest demonstrations around the nation will share their experiences with the community and join with others to examine the issues from the perspectives of labor, faith and spirituality, and human and civil rights at a gathering on Thursday, Dec. 11 in the Unitarian Church Annex, 208 E. Buffalo St.

A video presentation is at 6 p.m., followed by discussion from 7-9 p.m.

The meeting is being hosted by Ithaca Unitarian-Universalist Service Committee. All are welcome.

[Behind Liberal Lines]

Is it just me, or the Unitarian Church nothing but a place for hippies to meet and swap stories? Or is that just in Ithaca, the City of Evil?

[Behind Liberal Lines]

City of Evil bump

[Moose4]

It isn't just in Ithaca. The first craft show my wife and I ever did when we were trying to get our jewelry business off the ground was four years ago at the local Unitarian "church". It featured a bunch of little white kids getting up on stage and chanting "We all come from Africa." (Oh, really? Well, did Mugabe kick you out?) Along with the skanked-out druid chicks in the next room selling "Gaia-friendly" products.

I don't know what they believe in (other than "Jesus was a wonderful teacher, but he was just one of many"). I don't know if they believe in ANYTHING. I do hear, though, if you piss them off, they burn a question mark on your lawn...

}:-)4

[Jimmy Valentine's brother]

Maybe you could show a copy of the Protest Warrior video!

;>)

[mewzilla]

Around here it's the United Methodists.

[AppyPappy]

They don't believe in anything.....I mean, they believe in everything.

Same difference.

[AppyPappy]

In the Appalachian hills, the Methodists are amazingly spiritual. I recently attended a Promise Keepers-style men's rally at a local Methodist church. They are generally considered very conservative.

[.cnI redruM]

>>>>>>>Along with the skanked-out druid chicks in the next room selling "Gaia-friendly" products.

They're easy lays if you can convince them to take a shower first.

[BikerNYC]

The U-U C website says:

With its historical roots in the Jewish and Christian traditions, Unitarian Universalism is a liberal religion -- that is, a religion that keeps an open mind to the religious questions people have struggled with in all times and places. We believe that personal experience, conscience and reason should be the final authorities in religion, and that in the end religious authority lies not in a book or person or institution, but in ourselves. We are a "non-creedal" religion: we do not ask anyone to subscribe to a creed.

Our congregations are self-governing. Authority and responsibility are vested in the membership of the congregation. Each Unitarian Universalist congregation is involved in many kinds of programs. Worship is held regularly, the insights of the past and the present are shared with those who will create the future, service to the community is undertaken, and friendships are made. A visitor to a UU congregation will very likely find events and activities such as church school, day-care centers, lectures and forums, support groups, poetry festivals, family events, adult education classes and study groups.

[Behind Liberal Lines]

We are a "non-creedal" religion: we do not ask anyone to subscribe to a creed.

I'm no religious scholar, but how can you have a religion that doesn't require you to believe anything?

[Moose4]

They're easy lays if you can convince them to take a shower first.

Shower or no shower, I wouldn't have done those two with Al Gore's digitally-enhanced-on-the-cover-of-Rolling-Stone unit. Not on a dare, not on a bet. They'd have probably had me strapped down in the middle of an oak grove as a Samhain sacrifice.

Those UUs were just scary. They seemed like they'd found the ultimate Morrison's Cafeteria-style religion. Don't like those nasssssty prohibitions against extra-marital boinking? No problemo, just forget 'em, if they interfere with your personal experiences. The UUs make fluffy-headed "bright blessings!" Wiccans look like Wahabbi hard-asses.

}:-)4

[gdc61]

where is around here?

[.cnI redruM]

Oh, and feed them some steak first. A woman needs a little meat on her bones. Vegan, Pagan, lesbian whatever-women need to figure that out.

[Alouette]

UNITARIAN CHURCH : Reform Judaism, without the lox and bagels.

[BikerNYC]

It sounds like they view religion as a process, not a body of dogma. Those predisposed to that religion probably like it because they are not told what to believe, but helped to understand what they want to believe. Works for some, not satisfying for others.

[Kudsman]

All are welcome.

At the Unitarian enclave (I refuse to call it a church) I visited this is not true. I printed out an "All are welcome" handbill and attended one of their clandestine basement soirees. The "preacher" attacked me and tried to rip my notepad away from me. You will not be welcomed if you are not part of the hive mentality.

We believe that personal experience, conscience and reason should be the final authorities in religion,

There it is in a nutshell. Humanism. Moral relativism. Garbage IMO.

[mewzilla]

Conservative? Boy, not ours.

[mewzilla]

Upstate NY. One of the red bits :)

[BikerNYC]

You will not be welcomed if you are not part of the hive mentality.

That is true for almost every religion. You must believe what they say or risk excommunication.

There it is in a nutshell. Humanism. Moral relativism. Garbage IMO.

All religions rely on humans to tell the rest of us what the religion entails. Nothing new there.

[NeoCaveman]

That is true for almost every religion. You must believe what they say or risk excommunication.

How could one be excommunicated from a creedless religion?