tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1237087217187172116.post9084845557107142190..comments2024-03-28T10:44:30.518-06:00Comments on American Creation: What's a Cult Anyway, Part IIBrad Harthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17669677047039491864noreply@blogger.comBlogger3125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1237087217187172116.post-6210796716912811672017-09-28T15:19:31.758-06:002017-09-28T15:19:31.758-06:00Huh? Today's American Protestant mainline read...<i>Huh? Today's American Protestant mainline reads like the Democratic Party platform.</i><br /><br />When your clergy consists of people who want to be den mothers on salary and organizers of potlucks and your seminary faculty consists of people who want to play word games and school aspirant den-mothers-on-salary and your denominational leadership consists of the den-mothers-on-salary most inclined to institutional politics and silly PR babble, that's what happens.<br /><br />I'd refer you to an issue of the <i>New York Times Magazine</i> which profiled a tool named Jeffrey Vamos, then enrolled at (IIRC) Union Theological Seminary. Unlike the vast majority of seminary graduates. he went into f/t ministry and is still employed in that capacity 30-odd years later.<br /><br />https://pclawrenceville.org/our-staff/the-rev-jeffrey-a-vamos/<br /><br /><br />The remaining laity are those who put up with these characters.<br /><br />Art Decohttp://wwrtc.blogspot.comnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1237087217187172116.post-54381816810638349492017-09-27T02:16:27.026-06:002017-09-27T02:16:27.026-06:00One thing about Mr. Masters' teachings that bo...<i> One thing about Mr. Masters' teachings that bother me is his theology is extremely politicized.</i><br /><br />Huh? Today's American Protestant mainline reads like the Democratic Party platform.<br /><br />http://www.christianpost.com/news/pcusa-church-ordains-first-married-lesbian-couple-as-ministers-days-after-denominations-marriage-amendment-136111/<br /><br />As for the Unitarian Universalists, it is impossible to cleave to this "religion" without a belief in leftism; belief in God is optional.<br /><br />http://www.uuworld.org/articles/there-no-going-back<br /><br /><b>In the middle of the twentieth century, when contemporary Unitarian Universalism was formed, our public theology was shaped by our resistance to the public civic Christianity of the day. Because we had adopted humanism so thoroughly (even our theists and Christians were humanists), we were the church that allowed disbelief at a time when church membership and attendance was at an all time high. We believed in “deeds not creeds” and in building heaven on Earth and in “social action.” We were militants about the separation of church and state. We were increasingly drawn toward an oppositional stance in society.<br /><br />We have identified systemic oppression as what Unitarian Universalism’s Seven Principles oppose. <br /><br />On a theological level, we were quite content to be sure of what we didn’t believe and much more vague about what we did believe.<br /><br />Then, the 1960s turned to the ’70s and then to the ’80s, and political conservatism came to dominate U.S. culture. Liberals were thrown on the defensive, and UU congregations became, in many parts of the country, safe havens and sanctuaries for beleaguered social liberals, cultural liberals, and political liberals. We described our congregations as gatherings of “like-minded people.” We said that our congregations were “beacons of liberal religion,” which betrayed the assumption that aside from the light of our steeple, it was mostly dark out there.</b>Tom Van Dykehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07121072404143877596noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1237087217187172116.post-23317604246596040832017-09-25T08:49:52.238-06:002017-09-25T08:49:52.238-06:00And they teach moral truth is on the side of the p...<i>And they teach moral truth is on the side of the political Right. The extreme socially conservative Right.</i><br /><br />Waal. Try to make a career for yourself in the Democratic Party if you argue<br /><br />1. Abortion should be unsafe, illegal, and rare.<br /><br />2. Enforced secularism is neither constitutionally required nor good policy.<br /><br />3. No one has an enforceable entitlement to traffick in pornography<br /><br />4. Consensual sodomy is an abuse of human sexuality and properly treated as a common crime (see prostitution). <br /><br />5. 'Academic freedom' is not a license to turn public education into a sandbox for political sectaries. <br /><br />6. The state should not subsidize the traffick in contraceptives.<br /><br />7. The state should not conduct or mandate discussion of human sexuality in the public schools.<br /><br />8. Schooling is a fee-for-service activity which should be (most places) financed by vouchers and conducted by private philanthropies.<br /><br /><br />Only this last observation would have been particularly contentious in 1948.Art Decohttp://wwrtc.blogspot.comnoreply@blogger.com