Sorry I haven't posted for awhile, but I took a little vacation a couple of weeks back, and last week was pretty full with preparations for this year's General Assembly in St. Louis, Missouri. Actually, I'm in St. Louis right now. I've been meeting all day with my district staff collegues. For those of us who work for the UUA or one of the districts, GA can be a bit of a marathon. In addition to the regular events (which begin this year on Wednesday night and end on Sunday evening), we often have to be here two or three days earlier. Tomorrow, for example, many district staff members will be attending programming for UU ministers, while others will be joining lay leaders from throughout the country for UU University. And others will be attending meetings with the Liberal Religious Educators Association. So, it can be quite busy.

 

After GA I'll be home for a week before heading off to North Carolina for RE Week at the Mountain, where I'll be presenting a workshop on The Foundations of Liberal Family Ministry. I'm really quite excited about the program--I hope to cover the why and how of liberal family ministry, including offering a vision of what a congregation that fully embraces families looks like. If you're free the week of July 2 through July 7 and would like to learn more about family ministry for religious liberals and spiritual progressives, there's still room for you. You can find out more about the program at the Mountain's website. Check it out!

For the last few years I've been refining my response to the "Five Great Motivators" used by advertisers to get people to buy items that they don't really need. Here's what Herschell Gordon Lewis, author of The Art of Writing Copy, has to say about them: “Anyone who might be moved by food, clothing and shelter is not worth your promotional dollars. Gourmet food? Yes. Designer clothing? Yes. Status-laden shelter? Yes. But it's the qualifier words that give us the motivators, not the bald requirements of life.” It seems to me that religion, spirituality, and faith are, indeed, about the bald requirements of life, such as the need for belonging and attachment with others or the need to feel at home in the universe. So how do we respond to the "Five Great Motivators" advertisers use to make us feel so insecure that we'll never be satisfied and always want more?

 

I believe that Robert Wuthnow's notion of "practice-oriented spirituality" may be helpful for those who are interested in living a truly fulfilling life (be they people of faith or people who prefer to think of themselves as "spiritual, but not religious"). Wuthnow suggests that this kind of spirituality "emphasiz[es] the need to reflect and to deliberate on the ultimate sources of one’s moral commitments," which is the exact opposite of what Madison Avenue wants us to believe we need. So in response to the "Five Great Motivators" of Fear, Exclusivity, Guilt, Greed, and Ego Gratification, I suggest we develop some practices that help us reflect and deliberate on what really matters most in life.

 

As I said earlier, I've been refining these responses for a few years now, and I think I've come up with what I would call the Five Essential Practices for Spiritual Progressives, practices that help us resist the shrill and unceasing clamor of the market-driven media while putting us in touch with "the ultimate sources of [our] moral commitments." And thanks to Fredric and Mary Ann Brussat of SpiritualityandPractice.com, we can find ways to start putting these practices into, er, practice right away. They are: Hope rather than Fear, Hospitality rather than Exclusivity, Forgiveness rather than Guilt, Gratitude rather than Greed, and Compassion rather than Ego Gratification.

 

Wuthnow believes that "practice-oriented spirituality can best be nurtured by practice-oriented religious organizations—that is, by churches, synagogues, mosques, temples, and other places of worship that define their primary mission as one of strengthening the spiritual discipline of their members." But "they must also be performed individually if they are to be personally meaningful and enriching." I believe that our congregations need to be actively promoting practices like these to help individuals and families face the ubiquitous presence of advertising in their daily lives. Unfortunately, not every congregation has as its mission "strengthening the spiritual discipline of their members." The good news is even if your community of faith isn't promoting these practices, or if you're not part of a community of faith, you can still develop these practices on your own.
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