Right-Wing UUs

[Ernest]

Don't know if this thread is still active...hope so.....good to know others with views similar to mine go to UU.

[freddiehayek]

I am new to this sort of thing. What's a thread?

freddie

[lostsheep]

Originally Posted by freddiehayek

I am new to this sort of thing. What's a thread?

freddie

Probably best to answer your question with an example.

The thread we're on right now is called Right-Wing UUs.

[freddiehayek]

Thank you for the definition of thread.

[Trey of Diamonds]

I have met lots of UUs who consider themselves fiscally conservative but socially liberal. I take this to mean they are capitalists but support same sex marriage. The thing to remember about the terms liberal and conservative is that it often changes from topic to topic rather than an overall blanket, especially in the UU Church where members tend to analyze all aspects of life instead of following a party line.

I'm very liberal on social issues such as gay marriage and health care. I feel our economic system works because it blends both capitalism and socialism together. I support the military and do not think we need to cut back on military spending. I believe in the right to bear arms and generally think the gun control laws lean to far towards removing all guns. I'm an independent and vote for who I think is the better person.

The devils in the details...

[applewuud]

The reason "Sunday is the most segregated day in America" is that people tend to hang out with people who agree with their (most of their) views. It's a relief to be somewhere where you don't have to justify or defend yourself all the time, especially when you're in a minority. Religious liberals are a minority of religious people, and to the extent UUs belong to an "organized religion", we're probably a minority of liberal people. That makes us ever more likely to make a UU church an exclusive "club" with no "outsiders" welcome.

So it's understandable, but unfortunate as Meg Riley preached, that we think our co-religionists are co-everything-else.

Former chairpeople of the local Democratic and Republican county committees were both members of my congregation. But politics has become such a wrestling match in this country, with the media whipping up antagonism to fill air time and having a vested interest in fanning flames, that the bad feelings spill over into churches both left and right.

It does bear mentioning that many people in Unitarian churches or fellowships were driven out of other churches for their views, and they carry some bitterness. We would do will to consider these words written by Harry Emerson Fosdick in "Shall the Fundamentalists Win?":

There are many opinions in the field of modern controversy concerning which I am not sure whether they are right or wrong, but there is one thing I am sure of: courtesy and kindliness and tolerance and humility and fairness are right. Opinions may be mistaken; love never is.

[freddiehayek]

I have a mild objection to the statement that religious liberals are a minority of religious people. Liberals believe that God will provide all the money to fund their programs to end "oppression" and restore "fairness", or to put it more bluntly that God will always provide enough rich people to be shorn to foot the bills. Conservatives are not that sure.

Freddie

[Lucian]

If I may comment from this side of the huge lake, both political parties in the United States are "right-wing". I also wonder why people don't consider the other political parties for a change.

[freddiehayek]

Votes for political parties other than Democratic or Republican do nothing to help candidates running because there are never enough votes to make a difference. In this presidential election a vote for Romney or Obama will count but a vote for anyone else is really a passive vote for Obama, the incumbent at this time.

Freddie

[Antiochian]

I can't really say I fully embrace either the Democrat or Republican party, though I agree with some ideas of both (D more than R, to be sure). I was tempted to join the Socialist party at one time. More recently, I've toyed with the idea of joining the Green party, or maybe even the Libertarian or Reform party. Ultimately, no single political party or ideology is going to solve all our problems. Democrats get some things right, Marxists get some things right, Republicans get some things right (albeit not many IMO), and so on.

We Americans love to preach the greatness of democracy. But as the highly publicized vote in North Carolina recently showed, democracy is really just the tyranny of the majority. Sadly there's no perfect political system and I dare say there never will be.

BTW, I realize a Green party or Libertarian party presidential candidate has basically no chance of winning. Yet I've voted 3rd party out of principle. I despise Romney. I'm somewhat wary of Obama. Perhaps I'll write in Andy Griffith. He seemed to run Mayberry pretty well... (RIP)