Sunday Service: Where is the Love in the Political Parties? Sunday May 10th 2015

Where is the Love in the Political Parties?

By Reverend Tom Capo

Preached on 5/10/2015

In Washington and in most state capitols, finger pointing, blaming, yelling, discrediting, and finding fault in the “other” political party is how our government is working, or rather not working.  Calling Republicans Nazis and Democrats Communists is not uncommon for political pundits on the left and on the right.  Gerrymandering districts and huge amounts of money, with the accompanying political influence, are the way politicians stay in power.  

Here is Political Scientist, Paul Enrique C. Casas’ view of today’s political conundrum.   Liberals feel change is good.  And those on the extreme left want lots of change/change everything. Conservatives want to change slowly and have very little change.  And on the extreme right, they want no change or even want some of the changes that has happened reversed.    Both Democrats and Republicans who are moderate in their political views want to change some things and leave others alone.  At least right now few of those moderates are getting elected or even want to be involved in politics because they believe that the radicals and reactionaries in the two political parties have taken over and are unwilling to compromise.   

With the extreme left and right controlling the political parties, it is not surprising that the party who is in the majority acts like the crocodile man who owns fire and refuses to share it.  Is it any wonder there is so little love between our politicians and political parties?  Where is the rainbow bird to whisk away the fire, to show them how to share that power?

Get Ready for The DUUC COFFEE SMACK DOWN!

Coffee, our final frontier. These are the voyages of the Dupage UU Church.. Its Saturday mission: to explore strange new brews, to seek out new blends, and new percolations, 
to boldly go where no coffee has gone before........

**cue music** 

ON SATURDAY, MAY 4th  

9:30am

AT DUUC 

there will be a 

Coffee

SMACKDOWN!

All are Welcome! 

We have a New Sanctuary!

We have New Water!

and soon we're going to have....

NEW COFFEE!!

Come to DUUC and for a mere $10 you can decide the bold (or mild, or in-between)  New Future of DUUC coffee!! (Organic Fair Trade Coffee, as always)Spend your morning in the most meaningful way --
Perfecting. The. NEW. Blend. Of. Coffee. That. We. Will. Boldly. Bring. Into. Our. New. Sanctuary! (Thank you William Shatner)

Questions? Brilliant insights? contact our "Bold Barista in Charge" Jill Wallace

The Right of Conscience and the Use of the Democratic Process within our Congregations and in Society at Large

My first experience with the exercise of this principle came shortly after I started attending our church. The morning announcements included one that there would be a congregational meeting to vote on an expenditure. I’d often heard that visitors were welcome at all meetings, so I decided to stay and observe. I’d been involved in another volunteer organization that had been distinctly non-democratic for many years and had witnessed the growing pains around its attempts to distribute responsibility and decision-making to the local level. So I was intensely curious about how this new-to-me community managed such a feat.

Our congregation uses Roberts’ Rules of Order to organize congregational meetings. I was familiar enough with those rules that I could follow the talk of motions and seconds and calls. Although I don’t remember the substance of that meeting, the conduct of it felt fair to me.

Over time, I’ve seen our congregation use Roberts’ Rules and democratic process with varying degrees of familiarity and skill. But the sense of fairness has remained. We embody the spirit of democratic process. Some people have more to say than others, but the group works to be sure that everybody has a chance to speak if they want to. When one person has trouble expressing themselves, others will help them clarify and express their ideas. When the meeting starts to run long, someone will mention that and encourage us to reach whatever consensus is possible rather than talk the issue to death.

People occasionally become overwrought about one issue or another. But they seem to remember that they want to live in peace with one another, so they don’t burn bridges even over issues that burn in their souls. They trust that they will get a chance to speak about their concerns again or to act on them in some other way. They trust that they won’t be ostracized for having minority views.

We work to teach these principles to our youth in our religious education program, too. We have our principles on plaques on the walls of all our religious education classrooms, although written in simpler language. I’ll never forget the time I was teaching a class of 5 to 6-year-olds and the kids were all talking at once. “Hold on,” I said, as I pointed to the plaque on the wall. “We believe that everybody should have a chance to talk about things that are important to them. Let’s speak one at a time.”
They stopped talking all at once and gave the floor to the one who had been trying to say something. They did it peacefully. I was amazed. As I looked around the room, I got the sense that they really understood the value of the idea and agreed with it. They weren't complying with me as an authority figure. They were living the spirit of democratic process. They were practicing fairness. That’s just one of the reasons why I love my community.

Submitted by Jo Linsley