What Are You Thinking??

So there I was, in the hairdresser's chair. Who is also my neighbor.

It took me a long time to get there. I mean, I had a hairdresser, nearby, handy, OK ... you know how it is when you just move someplace. Nice gal, good enough job. She didn't dye my eyebrows when she did my hair, though, which was an annoyance, much less would she wax them.

And as for a pedicure - you had to be a contortionist -- no chairs or special equipment.

About two years ago we got new nextdoor neighbors. (Actually, every house around us has sold, more are on the market -- and these are new houses built in 2003 and 2004 with people deciding to move back home to Mom and Dad, or to get a different new house several blocks away, or .... It amazes me how many people can afford to move so often - but that's another blog.)

The new neighbor, Lance (name changed to protect the innocent, and that's not just a phrase as you'll soon learn) runs one of the best hairdressing establishments in town. Why was I so long delaying giving him a try? Well, inertia is a powerful universal force, that's my excuse.

Soooo - There we were, chatting as usual, when Lance allows as how his feelings have been quite hurt in the neighborhood. Turns out his other next door neighbor was doing some yardwork for the lady across the street when she said, "Do you know anything about the people in that house (meaning Lance). Are they drug dealers??"

The lady watches too much television. Her assumption was based on the fact that there are a lot of cars around quite often. Yeaaaaa - Lance is young, single, and has lots of friends. His house-mate/cost sharer Carol is also young, single, and has lots of friends. They have a neat swimming pool and a hot tub. Result -- lots of happy visitors. Considering how early everyone gets up out here in the desert, even their parties are over by 9pm. Good grief. She's seen one too many CSI's where they know it's a drug house because there are several cars outside.

What a comment that is about how many people live today! Hidden behind our woven impenetrable-to-the-eye shades. No cars in the drive-way but our own. Touchy enough that any sounds at all, even happy ones, that remind us there are other people in the world are interpreted as threats, assaults which shouldn't be there. No wonder many people here do not know many of their neighbors, especially in the newer developments. Makes you wonder what assumptions they're all making about each other! And what ones I make about people, too.

Church is Not Actually All About Community

Now I'm no enemy of the small-group, covenant-group, call it what you will movement among UUs at the moment. Hell, I facilitate such a group! (Though not much longer, too busy, will be glad to continue belonging to a group though).

But, folks, but ... when I hear ministers increasingly say things like "Ah, community is what church is all about" I feel like shouting (rather than muttering, which is what I actually do), "The Hell it is! Andrew Wizowaty didn't risk life and limb in Poland to create a cozy little family church, but to create churches that focussed on what was actually true in their religion as opposed to the falsehoods other churches, even powerful ones, taught.

Do you really think William Ellery Channing, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Theodore Parker were all about creating cozy little communities? Well, I don't. And I worry that we are taking refuge in creating our cozy little sweet groups because we don't know how to raise meaningful religious voices about truth and falsehood in the world anymore.

We should listen up to the words of Justin Lee, reported in today's New York Times. Justin is an evangelical Christian, believing in the Virgin Birth, Heaven and Hell, and salvation only through Christ. He also believes he was born gay and is unable to change.

What he said that we UUs may particularly need to hear is: "Church is not about membership in groups. It is about what I believe."

And, for all those UU folk who take offense when some little something or otherthing isn't to their immediate delight and leave in a huff, he goes on: "Just because some people who believe the same things I do aren't very loving doesn't mean I stop believing what I do."

Hmmmm.