(no subject)

[phineasjones]

::slumps::

just home now from shopping in boston and cambridge all day. well, all day after church. it was semi-fruitful shopping-wise and very pleasant socially. rach's friend C came shopping with us and we met up with my friend R from grad school who's around for the day. it was lovely to spend time with both of them. it occurs to me that i never mentioned to anyone in the valley that i wouldn't be around all day. oops. this is what it's like, walking around in the haze that is my brain these days.

church was nice enough today... but i find i have very little tolerance for things like when the minister referred to the immaculate conception of jesus. um, that wasn't jesus. fcol, she's the one who went to divinity school, why doesn't she know that? but hey, i fuck up all the time so why does that bother me so much? i don't know. maybe i just want the UUs to be on top of their game... you know, better able to withstand criticism and such. or whatever, maybe i'm just fussy today.

and still, most of my thoughts are with rotk.

Comments

[wildgreentide.livejournal.com]

but i find i have very little tolerance for things like when the minister referred to the immaculate conception of jesus. um, that wasn't jesus.

Wait, it wasn't? Please to explain?

[phineasjones.livejournal.com]

it was mary. her birth. the taint of sin was miraculously removed from her conception, thus making her wholey pure. those wacky catholics.

[starbuckle.livejournal.com]

i heart being wacky.

[wildgreentide.livejournal.com]

So it was actually Mary's mother who conceived Mary immaculately? I'm still confused. That doesn't make sense to me. I've always thought that it was Mary who conceived Jesus immaculately, hence her title the Virgin Mary.

[phineasjones.livejournal.com]

yes, mary's parents had sinless sex apparently. lucky them, huh? i think most people think the immaculate conception was of jesus. but no. i was enlightened my first year of college. the pope declared the conception of mary to have been without sin in, like, 1890 or something oddly recent like that.

waitaminit...

[katuah]

a UU minister talking at all about immaculate conception seems a bit..odd.. to me anyway. context? surely something "neo-educational"?

Re: waitaminit...

[phineasjones.livejournal.com]

well. there are some christian UUs out there. UUs can really believe anything they want, within reason. some of them do believe in the immaculate conception/purity of mary/divinity of jesus. not our minister, however. this is christmas time and our church celebrates it, along with chanukah and solstice etc. and i'm glad to say that our church doesn't ignore the 'reason for the season' as it were and tends to talk about jesus around christmas. this sermon was about joseph and his absence in much christmas celebration versus his relative importance in at least the matthew gospel account of christmas. references to other religion's beliefs is par for the course in any UU church. and then it's up to the listeners to decide whether it's educational or spiritual or whatever.

in case you're wondering, i'm not exactly a UU, but i work for two UU chruches and thus am surrounded by their discussion all the time.

Re: waitaminit...

[katuah]

no great explication was necessary. I *am* a UU. ;-) The context you just described is exactly what I was referring to as "neo-educational," i.e. the references to various religions, discussion from alternate perspectives, etc.

so, what is it like to work for UU's without being one? I still think a lot of the people at our church are a little too intellectual about their religion. (shudder - I said "our church." that still freaks me out occasionally! I'm *so* not a church-y person)

Re: waitaminit...

[phineasjones.livejournal.com]

oh! well then, i don't need to tell you, clearly. i just get prickly when people who don't get the UU thing are like, wait, UUs can't do that because really, i feel like UUs can do whatever the hell they want, that's the whole point. and that's also my excuse as music director for doing things like masses and requiems. heeheh.

to work for UUs is prett much good. i once worked for a congregational church and that was less good. while everyone was nice and all, they assumed i was a christian like them and it made me feel very weird. people assuming i'm a UU doesn't really mean much of anything, since most of my beliefs about the world aren't far from theirs. and i probably will be a UU some day but i'm just not there in my head. i grew up with no religion and, while i sometimes crave the ritual and community aspects of it, i don't know that i actually feel a need for a 'spiritual' component to my life. and thus, calling myself a UU or anything else feels dishonest. yeah, i spend a lot of time thinking about this. but generally, UUs pay well and are great to work for. ;)