The three stages of spiritual development of raised Unitarian Universalists

So M. Scott Peck a psychologist and the other of The Road Less Traveled postulates that there are four stages of human spiritual development. He argues that while transitions from Stage I to Stage II are sharp, transitions from Stage III to Stage IV are gradual. Nonetheless, these changes according to him are very noticeable and mark a significant difference in the personality of the individual. I for one believes children raised in almost any of the major western religious communities will indeed go throw the first two of Peck’s stages. I also believes that if they do ever get to Peck’s Stage III, they may begin to question and or reject the beliefs of their religious community. This I believe can lead to the total rejection of organized religious/spiritual community or in the case of others it mite simply lead to the seeking out of a new more compatible religious/spiritual community, such as in the case of the adult Unitarian Universalist (UU) joiners, UUism itself. Or it can simply lead to them understanding and appreciating their religion in a different but still meaningful way and yes continuing to develop as Peck suggests one would.

I also theories that M. Scott Peck’s four Stages of human spiritual development are not the same stages of spiritual development that one being raised in UU community will go throw. I suggests one who is raised in UU community will instead go throw these three stages of spiritual development. And it should be noted that my First Stage has the same characteristics as that of Peck’s Stage III. And here are my three stages:

·For a child being raised in UU community the First Stage of spiritual development is the stage of scientific scepticism and inquisitivity. And one in this stage does not accept things on faith but only accepts them if convinced logically. And a UU child often stays in this stage up until they become a junior youth at the age of 11 or 12-years. And even in some cases (more common for male UU children) right up until they becomes a youth at about 14-years of age.

·For a child being raised in UU community their Second Stage of spiritual development is a transition stage. Wile this stage is still a stage of scientific scepticism and inquisitivity like that of the First Stage, one in this stage is moving in the direction of basing things more on their own experiential experiences. And a child being raised in UU community usually enters this stage upon becoming a youth at about 14-years of age. And one in this stage usually evolve beyond it upon reaching young adulthood at anywhere from 18-years to 20-years of age or stay in this stage till mid young adulthood (about 26 years of age) and even in some cases till they enter their mid 30’s.

·And for adults who where raised in UU community the Third Stage is commonly the stage to which they occupy. And one in this stage bases things almost exclusively on the experiential experiences that they are having and have had in the past.

It should be noted that I indeed believe those that join UU community as an adult, come having gone throw stages I and II of Peck’s theory. I also thinks that they come having progressed to Peck’s stage III which is the First Stage for UU children. And I believes it is at this stage that they will stay in for a vary long time. And in some cases I thinks they will never evolve beyond it. But I believes if they do ever evolve beyond it they will indeed go though stages roughly equivalent to the raised UUs second and third stages. Thus giving them five stages of spiritual development. I also feel that because most of the UU adult joiners are in their third stage, a roughly equivalent stage to the raised UU’s First Stage, and seeing as must UU adults are adult UU joiners, it is not suppressing that many of the raised UU adults find the adult UU world to be often not well suited to them who are in their third and final stage. A stage roughly equivalent to what would be the UU adult joiners fifth and finale stage.

A personal journey to loving God – God loving UUs and a need for acceptance in the UU fold

As I’m a strong Unitarian Universalist (UU) identifying person who grew up and is still active in the UU religion, it might come as quit a shock to those of you who know anything about UUism that, over the past at least seven years or so I’ve come more and more to believe in God. As you might know it’s ok for all those involved in UU community, be it official member UUs or just mere friends of UU to openly give praise and show support for the gays and lesbians within the UU fold and their right to live as who they are within UU community. But do the majority of UUs show the same courtesy for anther of the minorities within UU, the God loving UUs (of which I’m now one myself)? I would say not. To borrow a phrase often expressed by the gay and lesbians in our society at large, I would say sometimes I feel I have to hide in the closet, well my belief in God and my need to honour and praise him from my fellow UUs that is. I say this ought not to be so seeing as my fellow UUs like to loudly proclaim that they respect and even welcome those who have different beliefs from them into the UU fold (so long as they don’t impinge on their right to express what they individually believe, or intentionally heart anyone, which I think is only fair).

So how did I come to this belief in God? One only has to look at the forth
principle of the UU list of seven principles which is as fallows “a free and
responsible search for truth and meaning”. Yes it was through a search for
truth and meaning, well more accurately, a need to find truth and meaning,
that has led me to this belief. But I have always kept in mind the other parts
of this principle as well. For one my responsibility to have a responsible
search. By responsible I interpret it in great UU fashion as my responsibility
to not assume that what I find to be truths that work for me (that include
my belief in God) to be truths that will work for others or even things to
which I should impose on them. But then there’s the last part, the free part.
This part of the principle is the part that I fell some UUs don’t fully grasp.
To me it doesn’t just mean allowing someone the space to search and seek
for their truths, but also the space needed to tryout what is being
discovered or may have been discovered as a result of this search and
seeking.

So why would they have a problem with us, the God loving UUs trying out we have discovered and are discovering? Well one reason for this is likely the fact that many UUs came to UUism fleeing Christian denominations, like Roman Catholic and Anglican, and as a result have negative associations linked to the concept of God, to which many who come from a different back ground, take me for example, who was raised UU may not have. Well one of the things they may have observed is people in authority using the concept of God to justify harsh or restrictive rules or actions, those leaving their faith in God shaken. I for one never have observed this. In fact it wasn’t until I was having a sever crises of faith that I really started giving the concept of God any real consideration.

My belief in God came from a crises of faith. Well actually to be more accurate I have always been on the brink of taking the God belief plunge and it was only this crises that pushed my to certainty in Him (God). So why did it take me 20 years and a crises to start to believe in God. The reason for this I would say was the fact that as a child I had mostly secular humanist and atheist for Sunday school teachers, who in my children’s religious exploration classes told me more about human sexuality and things about science then what they believed about religion (all worthy thinks to teach to children). Sure they did encourage me to search for my religious beliefs, but it was only through brief and as I now know insufficient glimpses of what others delved in, and rarely what UUs believe and never what they believed abut religion. I guess even if the concept of God was something that I needed, it was always going to take a crises for me to believe in Him. Well ‘cause I knew no UUs that believed or at least expressed openly a belief in God as a child. But I could never fully go join them in their rejection of God. And with this crises of faith I began to come to my belief in God over the past seven years or so.

The crises of faith of mine was precipitated by the fact that I had bad thing don to me as well as hearing of bad thing having been don to others. Things like bullying and the divorce of parents. All things that I could not and still can not accept as having happened for no reason. I felt and still feel they most have happened for some divine reason, either to teach use some lesion or to move our lives in a better direction. Also the fact that I could not accept the fact that evolution to which I did and still do believe in, just some how spontaneously started to happen and evolve over time. I still believe this about evolution.

So why do I believe in God? Because I believe that creation was not something that just spontaneously started to happen one day and the fact that bad things to which we experience must be brought to be for some useful reason. And ‘cause I believe in God I fell the need to honour Him and yes even praise Him. Yes all things to which leave many of the former Christians within the UU fold uneasy.

Not reading the Bible, rode the World Naked Bike Ride and am seeing some live music

I know I said I was going to try to read the whole Bible this summer, but I have not been reading for a long time now. I know it’s a bit of a feet but that is not the reason I stopped. The reason I stopped reading was that it was rather quite a violent set of books. Well I know that it’s only really mostly just the books of the old testament that are violent laden. But seeing as I am one who deplores valence and was taught in Unitarian Universalist children’s religious exploration classes to love all and be kind to all, I couldn’t handle it. Well maybe I will try and read more of it some other time, but not right now at least. Instead I will do more peaceful things like the World Naked Bike Ride which I did back in June.

Yes it was on Saturday, June 13th that I did ride for the second year in the Ottawa edition of the World Naked Bike Ride. I rode in the ride with my brother and we were 50 to 60 all with varying degrees of nakedness. It was some what more of a subdued group then last year, but at least the cops rode bikes this year instead of in cars. I went fully naked again this year, well except for my chalice pendent, shoes and socks, glasses and bike helmet that is. It was a wonderful time and I plan to do the Montreal edition next year as I will be living their starting in the Fall.

I have been seeing tons of live music this summer. Starting with the free festival held here in Ottawa in the neighbourhood of Westboro the vary same day as the World Naked Bike Ride. There I saw Prairie Oyster with my brother and on Canada day at Major’s Hill Park I saw with my dad, Alex Cuba among others. And me and my dad have this past week been hitting up the Ottawa Bluesfest. We have seen some good music like the The Road Hammers, Punch Brothers, Estelle (at her show my dad got himself invited up onstage to dance during a number along with her dancers) and Joe Cocker. But we have not seen all the same concerts. I also saw, Sergent Garcia, Ryan Shaw and, Loreena McKennitt among others and my dad saw Jackson Brawn among others. We are going to see more shows at Ottawa Bluesfest this week as well.

I am going to read the Bible in 90 days…

I have discovered this Bible reading program called The Bible in 90 Days. It divides the Bible into 88 day chunks, with two lag days, thus it enables you to read the Bible in 90 days like its name applies. And yes I am going to attempt to do this program starting on Monday, meaning I should be finishing reading the bible by the end of August. As one who was raised in a Unitarian Universalist community, I did not get much bible education back in my childhood Sunday school’s religious exploration classes. Well except a bit about Moses, the Passover story and yes the Christmas story. So this is going to be quit a learning experience for me. So why am I embarking on this summer reading challenge? Well the more I hear about liberal Christian beliefs, especially Trinitarian ones, the more I find myself feeling yes these things seem right for me. So I am going to read the bible to find out more about them. Yes there is nothing better then an exploration of the sources of something to understand it better. And the bible translation I have chosen to use is the New Living Translation. So at least ons or twice over this summer I will post about this. And I will do a overall review of this and post it in early September. So if you won’t to take this challenge up too, just head over to BibleGateway.com and search for 90 Days under the Reading Plans section. And yes you don’t even need to own your own copy of the bible because over on BibleGateway.com you can choose from many of the most popular translations and read it right there in its entirety.

Devin Murphy’s List of Life Goals (Version 1.1)

This is a revision of my personal list of life goals. If you go here and have a look at the original incarnation you will notes that their were some things on the list that I have removed from this list do to the fact I did not have the financial ability to attend and the resulting fact they have taken place with out me being at them. Also you will notes I have added an item to the list as well as completing one of them.

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What fallow is a list of goals to which I hop to achieve. And some of these goals are short-term goals achievable in a few years, months or even just weeks. But others are more long-term goals only achievable by the fruition of some of the short-term goals. And it is worth noting that this list was inspired by a workshop, which was port of a coming of age retreat to which I helped to facilitate not this Fall but last Fall. And it is also worth noting that the very workshop that inspired this list was itself inspired by the one and only John Goddard and his “Life List” of 127 goals to which he wrote way back in 1940 at the age of 15 will living in LA. It is as well worth mentioning he has to date completed 104 of his 127 goals. Now I am not saying that I will necessarily be like John and complete the majority of my goals, but I do hop to complete a godly some of them over the coming years of my life. Ok I am only 26 not as young as Goddard was wen he wrote his list but I still think I am young enough to make a big bent in my list. A list to which I am sure will continue to wax and wane as I complete and add new stuff to the list and from time to time even removing a few items from the list whether do to an inability to no longer achieve them or a change of interest on my part.

Devin Murphy’s List of Life Goals

Things To study/research:
-The long-term affects of bullying on the bullied
-Learning styles
-Teaching styles and teaching techniques/approaches
-The causes of bullying
-From grate masters in the felled of education (I have yet to determine who the masters are but I will and then I will study/learn from a few of them)

Things To Accomplish:
-Open an alternative high school and tech their
-Marry and domestically adopt two children
-Became a Unitarian Universalist youth adviser
-Read the bible, both the new and old testaments (in 90 day)
-Have some of my art displayed in the lounge at “My Church” the First Unitarian Congregation of Ottawa as the fetched artiest of the month
-Put out a CD of original poetry and/or songs
-Finely get the “Secondary Potential” web site on line (I completed this task)
-go to university (Concordia in Montreal, Quebec) to study and get accreditation to be able to teach art at a secondary level (i.e. in high schools)

Events to Attend:
-The CUC ACM 2008 in Ottawa from May 16th-19th (I completed this task)

Do lifelong UU identifying young folk feel connected to UUism?

I thick before I go any further I should disclose that I was raised in UU community. So here goes. This is what I have to say. And I mean no offence to by it.

I feel to often UUs (individuals and their communities (churches, fellowships and societies)) go out of their way to make newcomers feel welcome. This is done throw providing things like special green mugs during the Sunday fellowship hour and courses such as “Introduction to UUism”; intended to give them some further knowledge on their new spiritual community and the history of the religion it’s a member of (UU). This is all fine and well but sometimes it feels to me that this is all done at the expense of the needs of the ones who grew up in UU communities. Well maybe this is only do to the fact that most of those that are active in UU communities came as adults having either grown up in another religious tradition or a lack of one, that this mite be going on. I mean maybe the adults are thinking on an unconscious level that you can’t expect to find the spiritual fulfilment that is right for you in the places you grew up in, you see we didn’t.

So I am not suggesting we as UUs stop trying to welcome new people and our attempts to help them feel welcome in our midst. But I do think this will never help UU communities to grow which, I always hear is a big goal for UU communities and the wider UU movement. Well I mean that they will never grow unless we try and respond to the needs and honour the religious/spiritual discovers made by those of us UUs who went throw UU religious exploration classes and YRUU. Just tack a look at the current results of this poll being don on FUUSE the online community for UU and Unitarian youth and young adults. It should be noted that most of the members of FUUSE either have gone throw the YRUU experience and or a young adult one modelled after the YRUU one. So what is this poll saying? Well, it asks the question “Do you feel yourself connected to Unitarian Universalism?” and these are the options and the results (as of 10:45 pm EST).

“Yes, better than ever 34 (28.10%)
Sometimes 25 (20.66%)
I used to, but not so much anymore 37 (30.58%)
Nope 16 (13.22%)
No, I never identified as a UU 0 (0.00%)
No, I’m in the process of finding a new faith community 9
(7.44%)”

So as you can see out of the 121 respondents 62 (51.24%) a little over half of them are struggling with their connections to UUism or have decided it’s better to go look for a new religious/spiritual community and another 25 (20.66%) only feel connected to UUism sometimes. And 34 (28.10%) said “Yes, better than ever”. So what does this all tell us abut the way UU treats its young long time members? Well if the results of this poll are representative of UU identifying young folk (and I think it is) then I feel UUism and its communities thy have a major problem which needs urgent addressing if UUism is to stay vibrant and flourish for a long time to come.

I know I haven’t posted here in a long time…

I know I haven’t posted here in a long time. But I will try from now on to post at least one post every couple of moths if not one every moth to this blog. And I know I posted this youth and young adult resolution hear that I said I wanted to try and get passed at this years Canadian Unitarian Council’s Annual Conference and Meeting. But I have not been able to get my act together to put it forward for consideration. And further more I am not even able to go to the conference this year after all. Oh well at least there is a birthday party for my Nana happening in Toronto the same weekend, the May long weekend, that shooed end up being quit a good time. Well maybe I will make it to Thunder Bay but not this year.

My new sister blog

I have started a sister blog to this one. But unlike this blog, this new one of mine it will have a more focused reason for being. And that reason for being will be to serve as the online home of my new Unitarian Universalist (UU) journey, which I am dubbing UU Quest along with the blog itself. And this new journey in brief will seek to understand the needs of raised UUs wen it comes to them being full and active members of UU communities. It will also be seeking to help strengthen the aspects and components of UU, which are authentically unique to it. And this blog will be the repository of the stuff-gathered throughout this journey.

I’m bringing copies of my resolution to the CUC ACM

I’m bringing copies of my resolution (the “Youth and Young Adult Empowerment Resolution”) to the Canadian Unitarian Council’s (CUC) Annual Conference and Meeting (ACM) in the hopes of spreading the word about it and it’s importance. As I have already stated in some of my previous posts, I am planing to get it on the agenda for next year. But what I have not mentioned is the process I most fallow to have it put on to the agenda. Well my resolution is not a General Social Responsibility Resolution and I was tolled it is not a Social Responsibility Resolution without Notice, so then what is it? Well apparently it is a Social Responsibility Resolution with Notes. So what dose that men? Well it means that in order for it to go on the agenda it must be sinned by at least 15 delegates, which represent at least 5 congregations, and this most be don by the time all the delegates are chosen. Apparently this is 3 months or so before the CUC ACM. And the sinned copes most be sent to the CUC’s offices in Toronto ones they are sinned. Well in order for it to be approved in time to go out with all the other resolutions in the pre-ACM packet which is sent to the congregations and their delegates.

Youth and Young Adult Empowerment Resolution Canadian adaptation – condensed version

After reviewing the Canadian adaptation I made of the Youth and Young Adult Empowerment Resolution written by Victoria Mitchell and Kimberlee Tomczak as well as their newly edited and condensed version, I came to the conclusion my adapted Canadian version it to could be condensed as well. So here is a condensed version of the Youth and Young Adult Empowerment Resolution Canadian adaptation. And I hope a finale version will be ready for adoption by the delegates at next years Annual Business Meeting of the Canadian Unitarian Council tacking place in Thunder Bay over the May long weekend.

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Youth and Young Adult Empowerment Resolution

WHEREAS the future of our organization benefits from the full participation of youth and young adults to enliven, grow and sustain our Unitarian Universalist movement, principles and ideals, including the use of the democratic process within our congregations and society at large; and

WHEREAS Youth and Young Adult empowerment is an attitudinal, structural and cultural process whereby young people gain the ability, authority and agency to make decisions and implement change in their own lives and the lives of other people to create multigenerational equity; and

WHEREAS unique opportunities at the congregational, regional, national and continental level for youth and young adult self-direction create synergy for a larger youth and young adult identity and promote communication and connections between local youth and young adults across the nation and the continent;

BE IT RESOLVED that the delegates at the 2009 Annual Business Meeting of the Canadian Unitarian Council mandate the Canadian Unitarian Council and its member congregations to:
1. Invite ministerial support to youth and young adults through inclusive worship and intentional presence; and
2. Invest financial support in youth and young adult, regional and national leadership bodies when viable; and
3. Provide and promote youth and young adult conferences, leadership and spiritual development events on the regional and national level including appropriate resources to insure they are accessible by all youth and young adults who which to attend them; and
4. Provide support for youth and young adult staff and volunteers to receive suitable training and resources; and
5. Support youth and young adult self-directed anti-racism and anti-oppression work; and
6. Provide and support Our Whole Lives for both youth and young adults; and
7. Attend to the needs of youth and young adult constituents with marginalized identities by providing resources and opportunities within the congregation and at the regional and national level; and
8. Establish and maintain a formal process of cooperation between the Canadian Unitarian Council and the Unitarian Universalists Association and its affiliated organizations (such as YRUU and C*UUYAN), with the stated goal of insuring long-lasting and healthy continental programming for both youth and young adults.