My congregation has me, a straight white cishet dude for a minister. Our board president is transgender and our vice president is lesbian. And they get undermined regularly. I am trying to feed healthy behavior, but it is an uphill battle.
Thank God for the Internet so I can explore many different thoughts or feelings...as l seek peace, harmony, rhythm and a balanced flow of energy towards a more perfect union
Could it be that they just don't agree with what you are preaching? We don't have a young queer minister who isn't a dude in our church, so I have no experience here to go on. I think it is a shame the UU movement is tearing itself apart with posturing and virtue signaling. I fear we are doing it because we don't know how to recruit young families to our churches and we have a need to blame each other.
"I have no experience to go on." is the point in the conversation where you stop talking and listen to the lived experience of those who are speaking an uncomfortable truth. Mansplaining is not cool, dude.
I am a member of a congregation with one minister, a white woman, and almost no members of color which reflects our community, Marietta Ohio. I am sorry your congregations are tearing themselves apart with recriminations, I hope it doesn't happen here. This is a general phenomenon in progressive organizations today, take a look at https://theintercept.com/2022/06/13/progressive-organizing-infighting-callout-culture/
Elephant in the Zoom.
which gives the experiences of a great many people.
I did reread it, and I read the book Mistakes and Miracles all the way through. What I get from her post is that a lot of members are trying to support and even love her but don't really feel comfortable with what she wants them to do. I was in a UU church in New Jersey years ago that hired a young woman who was a radical feminist and was felt to be threatening by many of the women in the church who were married and wanted to stay that way. What I get from Kemberley's post is that she has been criticized by people in her congregation and that she is suspicious of "dudes". To reach any kind of judgment I would want to hear from the people who are critical of her, I would want to hear from both sides in any controversy. What I get from the Mistakes and Miracles book, which is the "UU Common Read" is that the attempt to make building "antiracial Beloved Community" as the guiding philosophy for UU churches generally hasn't worked. An awful lot of what they were doing didn't work well. I doubt that it has increased Black membership, although I haven't been able to get statistics on membership trends by race from the UUA, although they ask us to report the racial composition of our membership.
Given that ministers are charged "to comfort the afflicted and afflict the comfortable," if folks "don't really feel comfortable," it follows that, 1) said folks might oughta ask themselves why, and, 2) said minister is doing their job.
My congregation has me, a straight white cishet dude for a minister. Our board president is transgender and our vice president is lesbian. And they get undermined regularly. I am trying to feed healthy behavior, but it is an uphill battle.
Brilliant!
Thank God for the Internet so I can explore many different thoughts or feelings...as l seek peace, harmony, rhythm and a balanced flow of energy towards a more perfect union
Could it be that they just don't agree with what you are preaching? We don't have a young queer minister who isn't a dude in our church, so I have no experience here to go on. I think it is a shame the UU movement is tearing itself apart with posturing and virtue signaling. I fear we are doing it because we don't know how to recruit young families to our churches and we have a need to blame each other.
"I have no experience to go on." is the point in the conversation where you stop talking and listen to the lived experience of those who are speaking an uncomfortable truth. Mansplaining is not cool, dude.
I am a member of a congregation with one minister, a white woman, and almost no members of color which reflects our community, Marietta Ohio. I am sorry your congregations are tearing themselves apart with recriminations, I hope it doesn't happen here. This is a general phenomenon in progressive organizations today, take a look at https://theintercept.com/2022/06/13/progressive-organizing-infighting-callout-culture/
Elephant in the Zoom.
which gives the experiences of a great many people.
"Could it be that they just don't agree with what you are preaching?"
Could you maybe reread what Kimberley wrote and see if the answer is in there?
I did reread it, and I read the book Mistakes and Miracles all the way through. What I get from her post is that a lot of members are trying to support and even love her but don't really feel comfortable with what she wants them to do. I was in a UU church in New Jersey years ago that hired a young woman who was a radical feminist and was felt to be threatening by many of the women in the church who were married and wanted to stay that way. What I get from Kemberley's post is that she has been criticized by people in her congregation and that she is suspicious of "dudes". To reach any kind of judgment I would want to hear from the people who are critical of her, I would want to hear from both sides in any controversy. What I get from the Mistakes and Miracles book, which is the "UU Common Read" is that the attempt to make building "antiracial Beloved Community" as the guiding philosophy for UU churches generally hasn't worked. An awful lot of what they were doing didn't work well. I doubt that it has increased Black membership, although I haven't been able to get statistics on membership trends by race from the UUA, although they ask us to report the racial composition of our membership.
1. If you think the article was about one minister's experience, you need to look at it again.
2. Building anti-racial Beloved Community is about more than a congregation. It's about transforming the world.
3. It's not all about you/your congregation. Listen to the lived experience of people different from you, please.
Given that ministers are charged "to comfort the afflicted and afflict the comfortable," if folks "don't really feel comfortable," it follows that, 1) said folks might oughta ask themselves why, and, 2) said minister is doing their job.