A Blog Article for my fellow UU's to read

[Davidium]

Hello fellow UU's...

I have been sitting here for about ten minutes, debating whether to post this...

I have decided instead to simply put up a link to a Blog Article by Major Greg Rouillard, who is a UU Military member who served in Iraq. The post is in relation to some conversations between Maj. Greg and the magazine UU World.

I will keep my opinion of this off Religious Forum... but just provide the link and ask my fellow UU's to take a look at it.

http://uumilitaryblog.blogspot.com/

Thank you all for your attention...

Yours in Faith,

David

 

[Karl R]

Quoted from the article:

I think that we UUs in general are actually pretty intolerant when it comes to people who aren't "like" us. This seems to include military members, Christians, political conservatives, and doubtless others. We talk the talk of inclusion and acceptance, but we don't always walk the walk.

While I agree with the author's assessment, I have noticed a major difference between UUs and most others.

At the UU church I attend, I have repeatedly heard UUs mention about how they aren't always tolerant of others. This acknowledgement of a flaw isn't something I'm accustomed to hearing discussed so frequently.

Do UUs need to work on being more tolerant? Absolutely. Are they working on becoming more tolerant? It seems to me they are.

It's hard to be tolerant of people who are intolerant. UU attitudes reflect that.

When I realized that UUs aren't always tolerant toward christians, it was obvious to me what I needed to do. I'm openly christian and unapologetic about it at church. So far, nobody's had a problem with that.

I really hadn't thought about UUs in the military until I read the blog article, but here's my perspective: This country needs a military, and I'd rather have that military made up of ethical and tolerant people than people who aren't. Kudos to people like Greg who make it work.

 

[Green Gaia]

Thanks David for posting that link. Not being in the military I have a hard time understanding some things about it, but I would have liked to have read the UUs in the military comments about the war in the UU World article. It would have been more well-rounded and given all sides of the story from the UUs perspective.

We're not always tolerant of others. It is something we need to work on and do work on.

Thanks again for sharing the UUs in the military perspective with us.

 

[Chattan]

David,

Thank you for sharing that. I am lucky in that I attend a UU church that tends to be tolerant and inclusive of many different views. This does not mean that fundamentalism is viewed with tolerance. It just means that we try to be open to different ideas and find common ground.

There are certain views that are not very welcome such as homophobia but you cannot be all inclusive of all views. Nor would I want them to be. We cannot possible tolerate all views and this is mainly focused on those that are anti-freedom and anti-democratic. I would not want to belong to a church that valued Islamic fundamentalism or that valued a view that homosexuals are less than human.

Tolerance must be balanced with freedom and democracy. This means that we can be critical of those views which violate our principles but we must remember that the military is not part of that which violates our principles. A free religion based on the concept of classical liberalism must be open to reasonable differences and be tolerant of those differences.

Military personnel are welcomed and respected at my church and are honored as they should be. Are there those that don't like the military? Yes. However, they realize that particular opinion is theres and they do not speak for the church but for themselves. Let us not forget that the anti-military attitudes that are part of the UU come from the old guard that come from the 1960's and are not indicative of everyday UU's. Younger UU's are much more open and tolerant of differing ideas than the older generations because they have grown up in a time that stresses real tolerance except for totalitarian and/or anti-freedom ideas.

Most don't realize that most people in the military will never see combat but will spend most of their time doing humanitarian work. It is unfortunate that more don't know how much of this the military really does every year. It would surprise many. Is the military perfect? Certainly not. There concept of "don't ask, don't tell" is unfair and should be changed. However, we must realize that this will only be done by freethinking and tolerant individuals being involved in the military and changing it from within.

I know that there are intolerant UU's but I have run into few and for that I am grateful. I feel free to express myself in all aspects without problem. I attended a class recently and everyone there came to develop their theology and spirituality rather than their politics. We even talked about war and all agreed that it should be the last thing that we resort but not that we should never do it.

I am lucky and I know that. I am just glad that UUism is headed away from the problems that have plagued it in the past. As UU's, we must oppose extremism whether it comes from the right or left and work to find common ground among ourselves. If we cannot do it then how to we expect the rest of the world to do it.

I am happy in what I see in the up and coming generations. They are much more open to new and differing ideas than are the older generations and tend to focus on listening rather than talking except when needed. There is hope yet. This type of thing just shows that a free religion based on democratic ideals must watch even itself so that all sides of a particular issue (within reason of course) are heard.

Joe

 

[lilithu]

When I realized that UUs aren't always tolerant toward christians, it was obvious to me what I needed to do. I'm openly christian and unapologetic about it at church. So far, nobody's had a problem with that.

Rock on Karl, :jam:

I really hadn't thought about UUs in the military until I read the blog article, but here's my perspective: This country needs a military, and I'd rather have that military made up of ethical and tolerant people than people who aren't. Kudos to people like Greg who make it work.

And to David! :jam:

I have not heard any overt anti-military sentiment in my congregation. Some of our members have gone or returned from serving and these are announced from the pulpit with concern or joy respectively. There was one time when it seemed like someone was about to say something critical but the other people in the group made it so clear that they supported our soldiers that I could literally see her bite her tongue.

 

[mtatum4496]

There are many different reasons why someone would choose to go into the military - and many reasons why one would choose to not do so.

Far too often, I have seen the military identified as nothing more than a group of warmongers. My experiences with family, friends, and acquaintances does not bear this out.

Fortunately, I have seen very little intolerance toward the military among the UU's I know. Still, I think that as a denomination it is like the proverbial elephant sitting in the corner of the room - we all know it is there, but only a few brave souls are willing to acknowledge the situation and dialogue about it.

Often the best way to dispel preconceived notions about others is to spend a little time with them. Maybe in our congregations we could make it a point to get to get to know our brothers and sisters in the armed forces a little better?