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.

Wikipedia And UU…

Wikipedia is the fist place I go to read and find out stuff about this and that subject, including to see if the Unitarian Universalist (UU) stuff reflects what I know to be accurate about it. And if it is not accurate and I can correct it, I do. I also try to add new info on other UU stuff, stuff that will give a more holistic and well-rounded view of UUism. The reason I work one the UU articles, is that as a UU myself, one who uses Wikipedia as one of his first spots on the web to learn and discover info, I am sure others are doing the same including those that are seeking a spiritual/religious home. So I feel it is our duty to show them the most accurate face of who we our. And that in my opinion includes info on UU youth culture, so a will back I got to work on helping to improve the article on Young Religious Unitarian Universalists (YRUU) which is the head organization for UU youth in the United States of America and Canada. And as well as being a contributor to the YRUU article I also created an article on UU youth conferences. The reason I felt there to be a need for a UU youth conferences article was I knew that UU youth conferences or cons for short, are one of, if not the biggest part of a youths life within YRUU. Not to mention that there was no way that the YRUU article could fully delve in and explain all the ins and outs of it with out getting really lengthy. So I created the con article and worked really hared at making sure that it and the YRUU one had the most accurate info I could find, and that included adding sources that backed up the info. I did right a previous post on this vary subject. And it wasn’t long after I started this work that a team of editors put those articles up for deletion but, ultimately convincing enough Wikipedia editers to side with them and they where eventually deleted. Well along with a few other UU articles including a stub on the Unitarian Universalist Young Adult Network (UUYAN) the head organization for young adults with in the Canadian and American UU Worlds. Their reasoning for deleting these articles was this, they claimed the sources wore not valid because they were all from in house web sites (i.e. not from third party sources). I to this day think it was and is not a valid reason for the deletion of these articles, but what can I do, what can I do… I think this from the user page of Wikipedia user Thanos6 says it all.

“The Fun Destroyers are the rot that is slowly eating away at Wikipedia. If something doesn’t satisfy their small-minded, tunnelvision version of “notability,” then like mindless, shrieking harpies, they fall upon it with cries of “cruft” and “trivia” and “non-notable” and get it deleted, sucking much enjoyment out of Wikipedia for everyone else. Well, no more, I say. We must stand up to the Fun Destroyers and keep this site worth coming to!”

My suggested statement of shared principles and sources

The Catholics have the Vatican which is the head quarters of their faith and it is kind of like what Canadian Unitarian Universalist have in the Canadian Unitarian Council or simply the CUC, well not quiet the same. You see the CUC is an organization of all the Unitarian Universalist congregations in Canada, which are mad up of their members who decide thing by the democratic process or even sometimes by consensus, unlike the Vatican which makes decisions from only the opinions of some select influential men. And like all Christians who have the 10 commandments which where handed dawn to them from God himself to help guide them in righteous living, Unitarian Universalist have a statement of shared principles and a list of sources. The sources represent influences which Unitarian Universalist feel have helped them in crafting their principles, principles which are periodically revised to reflect the changing viewpoints of Unitarian Universalist. And the CUC is currently in a process of possibly revising the version of the Unitarian Universalist statement of shared Principles and sources that it uses. And the am of this is to better represent the views held be Canadian Unitarian Universalists to which I am on. And what fallow is a version of the statement of shared Principles and sources to which I am suggesting for adoption be the CUC as its new version. It can be contrasted with the CUC’s current version fond in my last post.

The Shared Principles and Sources of Our Religious Community

Principles

We, the member congregations of the Canadian Unitarian Council, covenant to affirm, practise and promote:

· the inherent worth and dignity of every person;
· compassion, generosity and integrity in all relations;
· the celebration of the diversity of human gender, sexuality, sexual preference, ethnicity, ability, nationality and life stages;
· a free and responsible search for truth and meaning;
· spiritual growth and learning at all ages and stages of human development;
· the right of conscience and the use of the democratic process;
· the fostering of fair, diverse and sustainable local and global community;
· respect for the interdependent web of all existence of which we are a part.

Sources

The living tradition that we share draws from many sources:

· the Unitarian challenge to Church doctrine;
· the Universalist belief in unconditional divine love;
· direct experiences of transcending mystery and wonder, which moves us to renew our spirit and our connection with the forces, which create and uphold life;
· prophetic words and deeds which challenge us to confront powers and structures of evil with justice, compassion, and the transforming power of love;
· wisdom from the world’s religions, which inspires us in our ethical and spiritual life, and which call us to love our neighbours as we would love ourselves;
· Humanist teachings, which counsel us to heed the guidance of reason and the results of science, and warn us against idolatries of the mind and spirit;
· spiritual teachings of Earth-centred traditions, which celebrate the sacred circle of life and instruct us to live harmoniously with the rhythms of nature;
· and the legacy of those who have served and will serve this, our living tradition.