This past weekend in Salt Lake City, Utah was the Unitarian-Universalist Association’s yearly General Assembly. This year, in addition to electing a new president, members of the UUA voted on a proposed amendment to its bylaws. The amendment, composed by the Commission on Appraisal, would have eliminated the now-familiar “6 sources”, which included the long-campaigned for sixth source, acknowledging the contributions of “earth-centered” (Pagan) traditions.

“Spiritual teachings of earth-centered traditions which celebrate the sacred circle of life and instruct us to live in harmony with the rhythms of nature.”

The revised amendment consisted of the following text.

“Unitarian Universalism is not contained in any single book or creed. Its religious authority lies in the individual, nurtured and tested in the congregation and the wider world.  As an evolving religion, it draws from the teachings, practices, and wisdom of the world’s religions. Humanism, earth-centered spiritual traditions, and Eastern religions have served as vital sources.  Unitarian Universalism has been influenced by mysticism, theism, skepticism, naturalism, and process thought as well as feminist and liberation theologies. It is informed by direct experiences of mystery and wonder, beauty and joy. It is enriched by the creative power of the arts, the guidance of reason, and the lessons of the sciences.”

This, naturally, made some UU Pagans very unhappy.

“Several pagan UUs lamented the loss of the language in the Sixth Source—”spiritual teachings of earth-centered traditions which celebrate the sacred circle of life and instruct us to live in harmony with the rhythms of nature.” Michael Hart, of First Unitarian Universalist Church of Houston, said, “I just want to talk about how this makes me feel as a UU pagan: It’s a blow in the solar plexus, a punch in the gut.” “We’ve gone from a bullet point about earth-centered spirituality that explains what we mean, as UUs, what it means to us, to a footnote buried in lots of very nice verbiage,” Hart said.”

The proposed language truncating the sources was also formally rejected by UU Pagan organization, CUUPs. In a very close vote, the revised language was rejected, preserving the current language for another two years.

“By a very close vote, the motion to amend Article II of the UUA Bylaws has failed. The final vote was 573 for and 586 against.”

As a Pagan, and Pagan with a history of involvement with the UUA, I’m happy to see our contributions not turned into a footnote written in the past tense. I have no real problem with the UUA’s bylaws being revised, but I do think future proposed revisions, and other decisions by the UUA BOD, shouldn’t continue the trend of making Pagans feel unwelcome. Pagans (and other “earth-centered” practitioners) make up a significant portion of the modern UUA, and I think it’s only fair that our contributions to this liberal denomination be acknowledged and respected.

A North Carolina UU Church has made the news over a minor controversy concerning a member’s hunting knife.

“A member of the Unitarian Universalist Fellowship in Franklin is prohibited from bringing his hunting knife to church after another member saw him with the blade at a Sunday service and got worried. The knife carrier, Charles Rowe, said there is no reason to be alarmed by his utensil. He simply wants to wear his knife to church because, “It’s part of me and part of who I am.” But even in Appalachia, where mountain men once thrived, Dr. Bill David, the complainant, said knives still shouldn’t be allowed in church … The debate has resulted in the church adopting a no weapons policy and sparked a vigorous discussion over an individual’s rights.”

Rowe is a Pagan and has been wearing the knife on his belt for the four years he’s been attending the Unitarian Universalist Fellowship of Franklin, but recent uneasiness about weapons in the wake of the Tennessee Valley Unitarian Universalist Church shootings have raised sensitivities about possible weapons in the church. It should be interesting to see how the implementation (or renewal) of weapon bans in UU churches affect UU Pagans. Is an unsharpened athame a weapon? How that question is answered could cause tensions within churches that house thriving CUUPs or UU Pagan groups.

The Medusa Coils blog recently alerted me to the fact that the (in)famous feminist thealogy course “Cakes for the Queen of Heaven” (the title taken from a famous Bible verse) has released a new and updated version, now available through the Unitarian-Universalist Women & Religion non-profit group.

In the past 20 years it is estimated that 80% of UU congregations have offered the “Cakes” curriculum. Many congregations have offered the series repeatedly. Women who participated state that, “Cakes changed my life! . . . It connected me with my spirituality. . . . It made me aware that history often excludes herstory.” Even when the curriculum was out of print, some congregations continued to offer the series, using well worn, if not battered materials. Today there are many women who are young or new to UU or who have never experienced this series. The woman affirming message of “Cakes” is still just as relevant and necessary today as it was twenty years ago. With the newly revised and republished materials, we can begin anew.

It is safe to say that this course has had a large affect on the growth of feminist thealogy, Pagan religion, and recognition of the feminine divine in our culture. Over twenty years later, despite this growth in popularity of more female-focused or gender-balanced faiths, the mere idea of a female divinity (let alone the “Queen of Heaven”) is still enough to drive some monotheistic adherents to distraction. The vitality and endurance of  “Cakes for the Queen of Heaven” can perhaps be measured by the  scandals that erupt whenever the course, or one like it, dares to emerge outside the permissive boundaries of the UU church.

It should be interesting to see what the next twenty years of grass-roots feminist thealogy might do. Not only to Unitarian-Universalism, Goddess worshipers, and Pagans, but to the faiths with a vested interest in seeing women as subordinate. Check out the new “Cakes For The Queen of Heaven” blog, as well as samples from the course and a FAQ for more information.

Chris Walton at Philocrites has news concerning Jim David Adkisson, who attacked a Knoxville Unitarian Universalist congregation with a shotgun last July, killing two and injuring six. Adkisson, who defined himself to neighbors as a “Confederate” and a “believer in the old South”, plead guilty and was sentenced to life in prison. The Knoxville News Sentinel also got to read Adkisson’s four-page manifesto, where he calls the UU church his ex-wife once attended “a den of un-American vipers” and bemoans the fact that he couldn’t kill every Democrat in Congress.

“This was a symbolic killing,” Adkisson wrote. “Who I wanted to kill was every Democrat in the Senate and House, the 100 people in Bernard Goldberg’s book. I’d like to kill everyone in the mainstream media. But I knew these people were inaccessible to me. “I couldn’t get to the generals and high-ranking officers of the Marxist movement so I went after the foot soldiers, the chicken (expletive) liberals that vote in these traitorous people.”

By all accounts Adkisson was remorseless during the trial, and while his defense attorney claimed he could have argued an insanity plea, prosecutors say they had clear evidence of extensive planning and premeditation before the murders. For extensive coverage of the shootings, check out the Knoxville News Sentinel’s special page devoted to the incident. With this murderer behind bars forever, here’s hoping that healing and closure can come to the Tennessee Valley Unitarian Universalist Church and the friends and family of those affected by this tragedy.

It’s not just businesses large and small that are hurting from our current economic crisis. As people lose jobs, and others tighten their belts, charitable giving to religious institutions has also dropped precipitously. According to conservative Christian polling firm The Barna Group,  this drop in giving will “cripple thousands of smaller and less stable donor-supported organizations.” This shortfall in charitable giving is now hitting the Pagan-friendly Unitarian-Universalists.

One of the largest congregations in the Unitarian Universalist Association, First Unitarian Church of Portland, Oregon, came up $185,000 short in its annual fundraising drive — and announced this past weekend that the church will simply shut down for the month of July. No services, no programs, and the staff will take a month-long unpaid leave. Meanwhile, the UUA itself is projecting a $1.8 million revenue drop in fiscal year 2010, which begins in July. That’s a 10 percent drop. The UUA has already implemented several cost-cutting measures in fiscal year 2009, but many more are expected in the 2010 budget the administration will present to the board in April.

Which raises the question, how will modern Paganism fare during this recession? In some ways little will change. “Paganism” isn’t a denomination or institution, and the several small individual faiths under that wide umbrella will most likely continue to perform their rites and worship their gods (and goddesses) as they did before. Collectively, you could say that we’re way ahead of many Christians regarding the “home church” movement. What’s less certain is how well the bigger pan-Pagan events and institutions that tend to bind us together culturally and socially will persevere over the next five to ten years.

Will our Pagan periodicals survive the current swarm of magazine deaths? Will the Pagan publishing industry reel from major chains like Borders going under? How will attendance fluctuate at the bigger festivals? Will we see some smaller ones close down or go on hiatus? Does Pagan Spirit Gathering’s recent move from Wisteria to Camp Zoe have anything to do with economics? While I doubt we’ll see insitutions like Starwood or PSG grind to a halt any time soon, we may see a general contraction as Pagans lose income or jobs. The common wisdom is that religion, like entertainment, is often recession-proof. But in today’s world, nothing involving money seems certain.

In the coming weeks I’ll be talking to some folks in the know, and taking the temperature of the Pagan economy to see how well we’ll collectively weather this storm. In the meantime, if  you have seen any signs of the recession hitting the Pagan community, feel free to share in the comments.

The Maryland Business Gazette, covering the nationwide anti-Prop. 8 protests in their own backyard, gives us an example of how marriage inequality translates into religious inequality.

“Debby Morris, a gay woman who has married her partner three times, once in a Wiccan religious ceremony in 1999, in the marriage demonstration at the Millennium March in 2000 and in Massachusetts in 2004, said they plan next to head to Connecticut which recently legalized same sex marriage … Morris … said Proposition 8 makes her a “second class citizen,” and her demonstration in front of the LDS Temple was in reaction to the role of the church in financing Proposition 8 advertising. “I don’t force my religion on other people, don’t force yours on me,” Morris said.”

Thanks to the current situation of marriage being a religious/civil hybrid, Christians, Mormons, and other supporters of “traditional marriage” are, in essence, defining marriage for Pagans, Unitarian-Universalists, certain progressive Christian denominations, and other faith groups willing to provide the blessing of marriage to gay couples. And yes, LGBT Pagans are taking it personally that Mormons and Christians are telling them their religious rites can’t be legally valid.

“Yesterday morning, as my spouse (and using that word is a spell) was sobbing, she kept repeating ‘why do they hate us so much?’. I told her…amidst my own tears…. that it wasn’t so much hate as fear. Fear of difference, fear of change, fear of sexuality, and fear of all of us being fully in our power. Love is the antidote and it will prevail. Harvey Milk was right when he said we must ‘come out, come out, wherever you are’.”

As the dust settles on the initial electoral defeat, religious groups who bless, honor, and perform same-sex marriages are getting involved in the judicial struggle to overturn Proposition 8.

“The religious institutions that file this petition … count on article XVIII to ensure that the California Constitution’s guarantee of equal protection for religious minorities cannot be taken away without a deliberative process of the utmost care possible in a representative democracy. If Proposition 8 is upheld, however, the assurance will disappear– for, just as surely as gay men and lesbians could be deprived of equal protection by a simple majority vote, so too could religious minorities be deprived of equal protection– a terrible irony in a nation founded by people who emigrated to escape religious persecution.”

The above quote, from a legal petition to void Proposition 8, comes from a coalition that includes the United Church of Christ, the California Council of Churches, and the Unitarian Universalist Association of Congregations (among others). They realize that the precedent created here not only stops future same-sex marriages in California, but also creates an unequal religious hierarchy with the “winners” getting legal blessings for their marriages.

In a land of real religious equality Debby Morris’s first wedding, her Wiccan handfasting, would have been the only one she needed. The fact that she has to find loopholes and travel the country to find some sort of legal recognition is not only an insult to all loving same-sex couples, but an insult to the Wiccans who performed that ceremony. As the battle rages on, it is becoming increasingly clear that it isn’t only about what gays are legally allowed to do, but about what religious minorities are legally allowed to do. A shift in thinking that may change the entire battle.

“When I first heard the news, even before anything about the gunman’s motives were known, I couldn’t help but guess that it was because the UU *is* the sort of church it is – welcoming, and accepting of pagans, of religious diversity, of glbt, and human diversity.” – Sangrail

As we continue to learn more about the tragic shooting at the Tennessee Valley Unitarian Universalist Church, the Unitarian-Universalist blogosphere, and its allies, react.

Over at Religion Dispatches, Laurie Patton remarks on growing up in a UU congregation, and how the shooting reminded her of her place in the “culture wars”.

“Sunday’s horrifying episode reminded me that as a liberal I was, and am, part of the culture wars—and that those culture wars are sometimes far more than just “culture.” They are, by now, a deeply rooted part of the split in American life, whereby those who legitimately seek inclusion and change are pitted against those who legitimately wish to conserve the best of our culture. The divide is so deep that those who are already unstable and prone to violence can draw upon those culture wars to justify violence—the same way that anti-Semitism or anti-Muslim sentiments have surfaced in violent acts perpetrated by unstable (and some alarmingly stable) people in recent memory, such as the shooting at the Jewish Community Center in Seattle and attacks on the mosques in the wake of 9-11.”

David Neiwert at the Orcinus blog notes that threatening to kill liberals is no longer ‘just a joke’.

“In Tennessee this weekend, the chickens came home to roost when a gunman named James David Adkisson walked into a Unitarian Universalist Church and began shooting. So far, two people are dead, and seven more were wounded. He was saying “hateful things,” according to all the news reports … Right-wingers love to “joke” about mowing down, rounding up, and otherwise “wiping out” all things liberal. It’s become a standard feature of conservative-movement rhetoric. And whenever anyone calls them on it, they have a standard response: “Aw, c’mon — it’s just a joke!” In reality, of course, rhetoric like this has historically played a critical role in some of the ugliest episodes in American history, as well as thousands of little acts of xenophobic brutality: functionally speaking, it gives violent — and frequently unstable — actors permission to act on these impulses.”

Transient and Permanent looks at the history of violence against UUs.

“Domestic terrorism has been an ongoing threat to Unitarian-Universalists because they tend to embody cutting edge trends that society is slowly, painfully moving toward. The issues change through the decades–integration, civil rights, women’s rights, pacificism, gay rights, environmental conservation, universal healthcare, religious pluralism, and so on–but the Unitarian-Universalists remain ahead of the pack year after year. Even though society generally catches up with them in time (by which point the UUs have typically already moved ahead once again), being on the fringe of the mainstream is a dangerous place, in America and in most any country. At various times and in their homes, churches, and out in public, UUs have been beaten, stabbed, shot, or blown up simply for their beliefs, and there is no reason to assume this will ever come to a complete end.”

Finally, Sara Robinson, also at the Orcinus blog, puts lie to the myth that UUs are “weak” or “soft”.

“Conventional wisdom says that we’re soft in all the places our society values toughness. Our refusal to adhere to any dogma must mean that we’re soft in our convictions. Our reflexive open-mindedness is often derided as evidence that we’re soft in the head. Our persistent and gentle insistence on liberal values is evidence of hearts too soft to set boundaries. And all of this together leads to a public image of a mushy gathering of feckless intellectuals that somehow lacks cohesion, backbone, focus, or purpose. You can only believe this if you don’t know either the history or the modern reality of Unitarian Universalism.”

For more reactions from the Unitarian-Universalist blogosphere, head over to the definitive UUpdates. The UUA has set up a special blog entitled Supporting Our Friends in Knoxville where you are invited to leave comments of love and support.

On Sunday morning Jim Adkisson, who defined himself to neighbors as a “Confederate” and a “believer in the old South”, walked into the Tennessee Valley Unitarian Universalist Church and opened fire with a shotgun. Nine people were inured by gunfire, two have died.

“KPD Chief Sterling Owen said … that mental illness is not believed to be a factor in the suspect’s actions. Owen also said the FBI is now involved in the investigation. Owen confirmed witness reports indicating that the suspect arrived on the scene with a large quantity of ammunition. He also noted that the suspect had attempted to conceal the 12 gauge shotgun he used in the shooting by carrying it in a guitar case.”

There were around 200 people in attendance, and children were singing songs for the congregation when the shooting started. Four members of the congregation managed to tackle and subdue Adkisson. The minister of TVUUC has asked people to “pray for us”. Knox County Mayor Mike Ragsdale has issued a written statement of support and sympathy:

“When we go to our places of worship, we go expecting to have a time of reflection and fellowship. Today’s violence is the worst sort of desecration and should be renounced by citizens of all faiths. I join all Knox Countians in offering our prayers to the families affected by this terrible tragedy. This is a time for all of us to come together to lend our complete support to this church family.”

As a member of the extended UU family, I want to say that my thoughts and prayers go out to the TVUUC community, may they find the strength to recover and move forward. May healing come to those still in the hospital, and may justice be done.

More information: CNN, Knoxville News Sentinel, Reuters, New York Times, Statement from Rev. William G. Sinkford, President, Unitarian Universalist Association.

ADDENDUM: From Philocrites: Gunman targeted the UUs for their ‘liberal stance’ and their acceptance of gays.

For those of you who are UU-Pagans, the Unitarian-Universalist Association has released a new 10-minute promotional DVD (part of a larger national campaign to increase membership) to entice potential members of the liberal faith. Sadly, all the voices in the in the film seem to come from liberal monotheists (who are a distinct minority in the UUA), and other theological perspectives aren’t even mentioned (except for a glancing aside that “atheists” are accepted within the UUA). The only nod to UU-Pagans and earth-centered spirituality (which makes up 20% of the UUA) comes during a one-second flash of a bulletin board for a Pagan study group.

Blink and you’ll miss it!

Which makes me wonder if this video represents what the “powers that be” wishes UU-ism was, a body of liberal monotheists with a sprinkling of “atheists” and other believers on the theological spectrum. Some liberal Christians checking out a UU Church for the first time may well be shocked when they find out the reverend is a Humanist (or a Buddhist) and doesn’t recognize a Christian conception of deity. You can judge the film for yourself by checking it out on YouTube.

Being a non-creedal faith, the UUA and the larger Pagan community have entered into a somewhat symbiotic relationship. Many Pagans isolated from larger communities (or dissatisfied with the community they have) seek out UU Churches as a safe and accepting spiritual home, and UU Churches are often the home for Pagan Pride Day events across the country. Notable UU-identified Pagans include Margot Adler, and Isaac Bonewits. So with this strong (and growing) connection between the two faith communities, it is surprising the UUA hasn’t done more to market themselves directly to Pagans (or at least acknowledge our importance in its marketing materials) instead of trying to win over liberal believers who may find find themselves deeply uncomfortable in a non-creedal setting.