Rev. Carol Huston

30 years

2009-03-27T12:40:00.001-05:00

NPR reminds me that this is the 30th anniversary of the Three Mile Island nuclear plant incident. Which reminds me that I was in the first trimester of a pregnancy 30 years ago. Which reminds me that my younger daughter will be 30 in the fall. I'll have to blog about that later.

We were living in Newark, Delaware, then, less than 100 miles down-wind from Three Mile Island. The friends who knew about my pregnancy worried about me at the time, but the worry faded as weeks went by, and I've never had any reason to believe that it had any effect on me or my daughter.

No physical effect -- but I realize now that the psychological effect has been there. I can't believe that it is ethically right to put a Three Mile Island or an Indian Point anywhere near pregnant mothers, nursing mothers, babies, children, people! We are told that in the US we are oversensitive to these fears. Other developed nations, like France, have gone much further with nuclear power. And do you know where France has put its nuclear power plants? Out on the borders of the country, as far away from French population centers as possible.

When the half human/half god Prometheus gave fire to humans, he was soundly punished. It seems to me that there is still punishment whenever we unleash power from wood, oil, gas, the nucleus of the atom. The best course is to use less of all kinds of power. I started to learn that 30 years ago.

Right On, Whales!

2009-03-17T14:05:00.001-05:00

In August, 1992, I took a whale watching tour off of Cape Cod and saw more than one percent of the world population of Right Whales. We watched three adults play around our little boat for a long time, and then suddenly our guide noticed that there was a baby with one of the adults. Four right whales, out of the population of 300 then remaining.

Since then I've sometimes checked in on that right whale population, and usually I could Google up a relatively current source that would tell me that there were about 300 right whales in the world. Not up, but not down. Okay.

Today, the New York Times Science section carries an article by Cornelia Dean which tells me, glory halleluia!, that there are now more than 325 right whales in the world. Recent changes in the design of fishing gear and in the designation of shipping lanes have lowered the number of accidental right whale casualties each year and the population has been growing. This makes my day!

The article admits that it is expensive to monitor and advocate for this population of 325 whales. In a world where millions of people are hungry and hurting, how can we rationalize this expense? I say that we must defend this different kind of scientience that we watched playing, -- yes playing -- around our boat in 1992. A world without right whales would be a lesser place.

International UU Women's Convocation

2009-03-03T12:52:00.001-05:00

I am back from what I hope will be the first of a long line of international gatherings for Unitarian Universalist women. Almost 500 women made the journey to Houston, Texas, including 35 women from outside the USA. Most of us made it home in a timely fashion as well, but that's another story, -- based on a winter storm and the mysteries of why some flights get cancelled and others don't. We'll never know why my flight went on time and my daughter Linnea had to stay an extra day.

But until we got to the problems of departure, the Convocation was a joy. Yes, there were probably too many speakers shoe-horned into the time available, but we wanted and needed to hear all of the speakers. They told us the story of women's challenges around the world, and gave us a vision of how we might stand together to improve the lives of all of us. The conference was based in concrete experience.

I was glad to have some responsibility for the arc of worship along the four days. Because there were four days, I thought of the four elements as a unifying pattern and that seemed to work well. And serendipity was active in these worships. Lisa Friedman, preaching on Friday morning, used the image of an eagle circling above, looking down on a wide view. Laurel Hallman, preaching on Sunday morning, talked about looking up at a sky filled with V's of migrating geese. Neither preacher knew the other image was going to be used, and I was probably the only one in the whole convocation who really noticed this progression of images, from individual to community, from intentional circles to motion toward something. But it was thrilling to experience that strand coming together, and I know that other strands were being pulled true as well.

We finished the convocation promising to work on women's issues in the specific areas of education, health/reproductive rights, and violence. This is going to help me focus the Partner Church efforts here at this congregation. I also intend to get another Non-Violent Communication class on the schedule.

This was a new form of women's gathering, full of strength and intention to make change. May we continue to gather in this spirit.

February 12, 2009

2009-02-12T14:43:00.001-05:00

Happy 200^th to Charles Darwin and Abraham Lincoln!

If spirituality resides in connection, as I believe it does, this is truly a spiritual day. It is amazing to recognize that these two major figures in the history of Western thought and action were born on the very same day. Certainly it is an accidental intersection, but it is enlightening to think of the qualities that Darwin and Lincoln shared.

Both lost their mothers before age ten. Both lost children, -- but then everyone lost children back then. More significantly, both lost children at times when the pressures of their pursuits were heavy on them. Lincoln lost a son on the day of the first Union victory of the war. Darwin lost a son during the month when he was preparing �Origin� for first publication. Both were near that child�s death, and both mourned but also pushed forward with their work.

They were men of sorrow. Both Darwin and Lincoln were burdened with emotional or physical illness. Both were troubled by theological questions. At the same time, both had the strength and courage to bring important changes to our world view. And both had the talents for writing that served them well.

Both were human. They hesitated and stumbled. Their motives were created in their time, not in ours, and so they may not always have been up to our �high standards�. But change the world they did, with words and patterns of thought that are with us still, and will be with humanity when these men hit the big 300!

Many happy returns.

Universalism lives!

2009-01-21T20:20:00.001-05:00

Last June, the Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life released survey results which indicated that more than 70% of American Catholics and Mainline Protestants believe that many of the world's religions could lead to eternal life. More than half of those questioned even said that atheists and people from no religious background would be saved as well. These findings were so surprising that Pew repeated the survey in August, with the same results. Charles M. Blow reported this in a New York Times Op-Ed article on December 27, 2008. I responded to the piece with the following letter.

To the Editors of the New York Times:

As a minister in the Unitarian Universalist tradition, I was not surprised to see that a substantial number of American Christians believe that people from many religious backgrounds, or from none, can find eternal life ("Heaven for the Godless?" Dec. 27).

The Universalist denomination arose in the United States in the late 1700s, declaring that a loving God would not condemn any creatures to eternal torment in Hell. That view stood in contrast with the mainstream vision of a judgmental God, who would only save those of a specific creed and rigorously correct behavior. Around 1840, Universalism was a popular grassroots religious movement, one of the ten largest denominations in America. But by the early twentieth century, the number of Universalists had plummeted. Why? American Christians had quietly embraced the Universalist vision of a loving and accepting God, ready to receive anyone – perhaps after a period of repentance and purification – into life eternal. The Pew Forum statistics show that though the Universalist Church was a tiny remnant of its former self when it merged with Unitarianism in 1961, Universalist theology is alive and well today.

(The Rev.) Carol A. Huston
December 28, 2008

October 12, 2006

2006-10-12T13:00:00.000-05:00

Ethical Eating II

One element of ethical eating is to buy local in order to avoid the long supply lines and usage of fossil fuel which are part of our current food supply. The other equally important element is to encourage farming techniques which do not make animals into suffering commodities. The factory farm has come to dominate the American food supply in the last 30 years. In this process, animals are, among other things, confined to pens and cages and given food that isn't good for them metabolically. They are treated like objects, not beings who feel pain and fear.

In response to this, some choose to become vegetarian. But there is also a growing movement among smaller farmers who want to maintain older techniques of feeding and pasturing which are more humane, and many supermarkets carry meat, eggs and dairy products which foods are labeled to how they have been produced. Those of us who buy animal based food can vote with our shopping selections, paying more for food that was more humanely produced/

Unfortunately, this is not as easy as it might be. There are no unified definitions for labeling and no inspections that would help us to know for certain what is the best to buy on humanitarian grounds. Something that sounds great, like �free range,� has no real meaning � that freedom might simply be a door opening that none of the creatures will actually find and use. Even so, I think there is something to be gained from buying these products. In doing so, we are demonstrating that we want and are willing to pay for something from our food supply besides economy and efficiency.

At the moment, I don't buy pork and I have never eaten veal, whose inhumane growing process predates the factory farm. When I buy beef or dairy products, I try to find �pasture-fed� beef. �Grass fed� is better than �grain fed� because a cow�s digestive tract does better with grass, but �grass fed� probably means that the cow is getting its grass while confined in a feed-lot. For chicken, I am buying a �certified humane� product at D�Agostino's. And I recommend buying �cage-free� eggs, which I have found in several supermarkets. Factory egg production is the nastiest process of them all, with chickens packed tight in wire cages; it doesn't matter if chickens damage their own bodies in tight cages when the food product is the egg rather than the flesh.

I will come back to this theme in other postings.

October 11, 2006

2006-10-11T13:27:00.000-05:00

Ethical Eating

In the service last Sunday, I talked about being mindful in our food shopping in three particular ways. The first has to do with health; the second with fossil fuel consumption, and the third with the humane treatment of animals in our food industry.

On the matters of health, I don�t have anything to add to the constant barrage of health warnings that we get on our food supply. I must leave you to sort those out yourselves. But I have some suggestions on the other two matters.

The way we manage our food supply today is based on fossil fuel, and thus our food choices have an impact on oil dependency and global warming. As an example last Sunday, I noted the fact from The Omnivore�s Dilemma (Michael Pollan) that the bag or box of organic salad-ready greens that you get at the supermarket has used a pint of fossil fuel for its harvesting, chilling, washing, and transportation from large California farms.

What to do? Shop at farmer�s markets whenever you can, to support regional farms and to eat food from a shorter transportation line. When those markets aren�t open, look for indications of local sources in your supermarkets. Meat and dairy products often have places of origin on them. And we should start asking produce managers where their goods come from. Let them know that we are interested in buying local when we can. Processed food, almost by definition, has long transportation links in its production and even food additives are drawn from petrochemicals. Processed foods have a place in our lives, but we also need to recognize that fossil fuel usage is at the heart of these foods.

My next post will outline how you might find ethically produced meat and dair products.

Immigrant Solidarity

2006-05-01T13:05:00.000-05:00

Prayer and Reflections

Ecumenical Service at Mision Bautista Hispana de Westchester

May 1, 2006

In 1892, an 8 year old named Ernie Brownsword came into this country with his mother and father. They came from the coal mining country of Western England, following older brothers and sisters who had come earlier.

18 years later, John Skriletz and Bertha Nyerges came here from Eastern Europe, fleeing a place where clouds of war were on the horizon. They were teenagers: they met about a year later and married.

Ernie Brownsword, John Skriletz, and Bertha Nyerges � three of my four grandparents were immigrants. I'm struck today of the fear and uncertainty that must have been in their hearts as they made their journeys and learned to be in a new place.

We are all immigrants here � some further back than others � but few are the families in this country who do not have in their backgrounds the hope and the frustrations of the immigrant experience. I believe that it makes this country what it is, a country that most of our families � not all of course � but a country that most of our families chose to come to.

This country treated Ernie pretty well He never had more than an 8^th grade education, but the work of his hands and his head gave him a long career in management in a tire factory. This country did not treat John and Bertha quite so well; John committed suicide during the Depression of the 1930s, -- but their four children got enough education to lead them to decent, settled lives.

We are all immigrants here. It has been easier for some than for others. Certain times and generations have welcomed immigrants better than other times and generations. We are all immigrants here, but sometimes we forget that. Too often we take for granted the opportunities that were offered to us, and do not send them along to others.

I am a Unitarian Universalist. In my faith we have certain stated principles which remind us how to live moral and ethical lives. The first of our principles reminds us to hold sacred the inherent worth and dignity of every person. That�s every person, no matter what their race, origin, economic status, gender, sexual orientation, age, level of ability. The inherent worth and dignity of every person. That is why I stand with you today. I believe that we are all called to respect the inherent worth and dignity of all � not to discriminate, not to exclude, not to use a person�s work and discard his or her soul. And this teaching is not simply an affirmation of my faith. It is there at the core of what Jesus taught the world, what all the great saints and religious teachers told us � that we should love one another.

Let us pray.

Dear God, source of all that is good, and whole, and just. Help us to look into the faces of every person we meet and see that that person is a brother or a sister. Help us to recognize that people are not to be used and then thrown aside. Help us to recognize that there is worth and dignity in all, because we are all the good creation of the spirit of life.

In these days may we be witnesses and advocates for justice. May we remember with gratitude all the gifts that have been given to us and make certain that others will receive the gift of hope and opportunity as well. May we have the courage to share what we have, to care for the aged, to protect and encourage the young and the vulnerable, without questioning where they came from, why they are here. May we know the lesson taught by all the great religions � that all are worthy of our compassion and concern.

Dear God, we are all immigrants, everyone in the world. All immigrants, still on the road, looking for the beloved community which will bring peace and justice for all. May we be one with you, oh God, in creating that community here and forevermore..

So be it and amen

scripture

2006-04-08T12:16:00.000-05:00

I preached on the theme of "scripture" last week, with two goals in mind -- to encourage Unitarian Universalists to take a fresh look at Hebrew and Christian Scripture, and to encourage us as well to develop personal scripture, keeping our eyes open for those works or passages that bring light or fresh challenge to our personal lives.

Of course one of the functions of scripture is to build group identity, and that is something that a notebook full of personally selected scripture cannot do. In the sermon I made a passing reference to the idea that our hymnal contains a wealth of writings (scripture) that we hold as a community. That passing comment has brought a lot of response from the people who heard the sermon. I'm glad to know that some of you are already using the hymnal in this way and that others of you welcomed this suggestion. I hope that many of you will find time (not during a sermon, however!) to browse through the treasurers in the back of our hymnal. Not all of these writings will appeal to you, but it is fine to pick and choose within scripture and discover that which speaks to you and your particular needs.

Carol Huston

revcarol@earthlink.net

Back from the Tour

2006-03-31T13:19:00.000-05:00

What a dreamer I was to think that I would have the time and energy to post to this BLOG while on my 8-day Civil Rights Tour. What a dreamer I was to think that when I returned I would have the energy to post something immediately. It's taken me four days to find the energy and a few minutes to make this post.

The fact is that trip was truly overwhelming, and truly enlightening. The days were filled with people telling their stories, hoping that they can spread the word about the battles that were won in the 60s and the changes that have come to the South.

We heard from a woman who was there on Bloody Sunday in Selma (March, 1965) and is now giving all her energy to building a grassroots museum to the Voting Rights Struggles.

We heard from a man who was the on-the-spot coordinator of lunch counter sit-ins in Jackson, Mississippi, and later worked closely with Martin Luther King.

We heard from (and sang with) the church organist in Ralph Abernathy's church -- she was generally called on to be present for large meetings so that they could sing "Lift Every Voice and Sing" with her up-tempo accompaniment.

We heard from an African American man who was among the first to attend "Ole Miss" after it was integrated. He was expelled for protest activity, but he returned as a quiet, intense graduate student in mathematics, and he teaches there now.

And that's just the top of the iceberg. I will be processing this for a long time. It was also good to make the trip with Petra Thombs. We will work together to tell you the stories.

Carol Huston

revcarol@earthlink.net

Why Wait? Move to EarthLink.

At the movies

2006-03-08T14:59:00.000-05:00

It's interesting to see the columnists making excuses for the selection of the film "Crash" as best picture in the Academy Awards. After all, they say, the voters all live in Los Angeles, and this was a film about Los Angeles.

I don't believe that for a minute, because I have seen our youth group here in suburban New York completely bowled over by that film and wanting to make a response. The theme quotation for their Youth Service last Sunday came from the beginning of "Crash." The film spoke to their lives. Be sure that you see this film.

Also seek out the winner of the Foreign Film award -- "Tsotsi", from South Africa. We may not see our own lives in this one, but we will see a life we need to understand -- one of those orphans raised on junk piles in the wake of wars and AIDS. It is the most moving film I've seen in years, amazingly acted by young South Africans.

And, my friends, the Johannesburg area really does look like that -- wind and lightening in dry storms, and red/orange pollution hanging in the air (gold-dust, they say).. South Africa: You have the most beautiful cities in the world (Cape Town, Durban), and you have Johannesburg.

Carol Huston

revcarol@earthlink.net

Why Wait? Move to EarthLink.

Ash Wednesday

2006-03-01T15:47:00.000-05:00

When I was a kid, my next-door neighbor and almost-best-friend was Catholic, but I don't recall knowing much about her family's religious practices. I must have heard about "giving things up for Lent" through my young adult years, but I don't specifically remember it. And so I have to say that I first learned about Lent in a Unitarian Universalist context. The church I attended in St. Louis published Lenten Meditation Manuals several years running -- a wonderful custom. Members of the congregation submitted short written passages, and we put together enough of them to have one reading a day for the 40 days of Lent. I hope that some day my present congregation will take on that project.

I have come to like the idea of Lent, understood as a time for greater awareness and introspection. It is longer than a month, but it's not a whole year, and it happens at the time when we in the Northern Hemisphere are feeling the birth of spring around us. This can encourage us to keep going with our discipline, even if it is difficult.

I have actually given up things in some years. One year I gave up food cooked in restaurants -- I could still eat salads. Isn't it fun to split hairs about your self-deprivation? Because the temptation to split hairs is so great, I haven't given up things in more recent years. I have instead added things to my life -- promises to meditate or journal every day. That's what I think I will do this year.

Carol

February 20, 2006

2006-02-20T19:59:00.000-05:00

On this President's Day, my thoughts are on Abraham Lincoln, who was able to say in his 2nd Inaugural address, with reference to the two sides in the Civil War: "Both read the same Bible, and pray to the same God; and each invokes (God�s) aid against the other."

Obviously it was more literally true then, but I think that a great leader like Lincoln would still understand today that forces or love and compassion can exist on all sides of a conflict.

He closed that address -- written close to the end of his life -- with these words: "With malice toward none; with charity for all; with firmness in the right, as God gives us to see the right, let us strive on to finish the work we are in; to bind up the nation�s wounds; to care for him who shall have bourne the battle, and for his widow and his orphan � to do all which may achieve and cherish a just and lasting peace, among ourselves and with all nations."

May it be so.

February 17

2006-02-17T12:56:00.000-05:00

I continue to be troubled by the "cartoon controversy" that confronts us daily in the news. The violence of the Muslim response is horrible to see, but it is happening in areas where these responses can be whipped up and exaggerated. I don't believe there have been even peaceful protests from Muslim communities here in the United States. There are moderate Muslims in the world -- look right around you and see.

I certainly believe in freedom of the press, but I have to put forward the wish that the Danish press had shown some restraint. In a way they did -- the "cartoons," which I finally looked at on-line, are not howlingly funny or grossly caricatured. They had become much worse in my imagination than they were in actuality.

But the fact that they were printed points up a characteristic of Northern European thinking which does not surprise me. Northern Europe has a certain blindness toward religious energy. Citizens of Scandinavia, Britain, and other nations in northwestern Europe usually belong to state churches, but they take no active part in religious matters. Church attendance is almost zero -- and those who bother to go to church keep it a secret. For them, religion is something they have managed to grow out of, and they think it follows that other parts of the world will grow out of as well, just give them a few years. And so Europeans can be blind-sided by religious response.

Am I creating stereotypes of Europeans here? Perhaps. Am I exaggerating the case? No. I've had it reinforced again and again that there is a difference here between European and American rationalists (among which we American UUs should count ourselves). We Americans know that religious furvor is real because we see it around us. It's not going away as quickly as the Europeans think it might.

This cartoon controversy will die away when the next new problem comes along. But it will leave in its wake more fear of what religious fundamentalism can do. It will leave in its wake more hesitancy on the part of the free press. And it may even leave a bit more distance between Europeans and Americans.

I talked with a group yesterday which included a good number of older culturally Jewish Americans. They reminded me of what Denmark had done during World War II to defend its own Jewish population and to save other Jews. It's a proud heritage for a nation whose motives and interests should be above reproach. But at the core of what Denmark was doing in World War II was the hope for a future in which there would be no distinctions based on culture, religion, race, or history. That future will not come.

(To respond to this or any other posting here, please e-mail me at revcarol@earthlink.net.)

January 26

2006-01-28T17:50:00.000-05:00

January 26, 2006

I was delighted to learn that I would have a letter printed on the Letters to the Editor page of the New York Times. First word came last Friday, January 20, four days after I submitted the letter. The notification was in an e-mail at 5:10 on Friday afternoon, and the page editor wanted my approval by 5:30. Whatever gods there are that help UUs had kept me in the office late that Friday, and so I saw the e-mail and made the approving response.

Then the wait began. A friend who works at the Times told me that the letter was, in fact, on the Monday page, but then it was bumped. And it wasn't there on Tuesday, even though that page included quite a number of other Roe v. Wade relevant letters. I began to despair. But my letter was finally printed on Wednesday, and it read as follows.

To the Editor:

I read with interest your article about crisis pregnancy centers ("Some

Abortion Foes Forgo Politics for Quiet Talk," front page, Jan. 16). I had

encountered these organizations several years ago when I lived in the

Midwest, and I was dismayed by the fuzzy science that the centers used to

build medical arguments against abortion.

As I learned how a crisis pregnancy center operated, I was even more

dismayed by something your article did not mention: that these centers also

use inaccurate and misleading evidence to tell women that medical birth

control does not work. In their ongoing relationship with women, they

discourage the use of the birth control methods that would keep the women

from further unplanned pregnancies.

Anyone who seriously wants to reduce abortion has a moral obligation to

encourage the use of birth control.

(Rev.) Carol A. Huston

White Plains, Jan. 17, 2006

And now I may have my name on a Journal News letter in the next few days, a letter written by WESPAC. There was conversation about this very matter in an Adult Education meeting this week, and in our exciting Spanish class, there is often talk about the problems of immigrants (and I am increasingly able to follow that conversation, even though it is in Spanish!). With that background, I felt compelled to join other civic and religious organizations in signing on to this letter.

Village of Mamaroneck

123 Mamaroneck Ave

Mamaroneck, NY 10543

January 26, 2006

To the Village of Mamaroneck:

We are writing to you today to represent the voices of tens of thousands of Westchester County residents that have been deeply offended by the remarks of Joseph Angilletta, a member of the Board of Trustees of the Village of Mamaroneck.

He was quoted in the Journal Newspaper yesterday as referring to the day laborer community as �locusts�.

"These are not residents of the village. They are locusts. They are takers. They come in here and take, and they won't ever give back to the community," Trustee Joseph Angilletta said about laborers from other communities who gather in Mamaroneck village. "I was elected to protect the residents of the village."

The following organizations find it unacceptable for a public official to dehumanize an entire group of people by calling them �locusts�. We demand, at the very least, that Mr. Angilletta apologize to the day laborers, to the Hispanic Community and to all residents of Westchester County for using hateful language in his position as a public servant of the local community:

Nada Khader, WESPAC Foundation

Carol Huston

revcarol@earthlink.net

Why Wait? Move to EarthLink.

post 1/19/06

2006-01-19T15:27:00.000-05:00

Martin Luther King's Birthday has long been an important date on the calendar for me. Not as important as Christmas or family birthdays, but it certainly comes out ahead of Valentine's Day and most of the other days.

King inspires Unitarian Universalists, and liberals in general, to move forward in our lives. He calls us to communicate across lines of diversity, he calls us to work for social and economic justice, he hopes we will end war, and he requires us to do all of this with brave non-violence.

It was a joy to help give birth to the Martin Luther King Day Celebration in Rochester, Michigan, in 1995 and to watch it grow through the years. This year, there were multiple celebrations -- a morning and an afternoon service at Community Unitarian Church in White Plains on Sunday, and then attendance at two big civic events on the holiday. It was an honor to provide the Invocation for the Slater Center Breakfast in White Plains. The text is below.

Invocation for the Martin Luther King Day Breakfast, White Plains, NY

The Rev. Carol A. Huston

January 16, 2006

The Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. said, �I have the audacity to believe that peoples everywhere can have three meals a day for their bodies, education and culture for their minds, and dignity, equality and freedom for their spirits.�

Spirit of justice, truth, and love, the One that many call God and that others hesitate to name, be with us this morning. Dr. King would want us to share in his audacity � his courage, his energy, his creative hope. And so, on this day make us audacious, oh God. May we have the audacity to believe that the vision Dr. King held out to us is still possible. May we have the audacity to believe that there can be a world where women and men and children will not hunger for food or education or personal dignity. May we have the audacity to believe that equality, freedom, and above all, peace are possible. And may we be most audacious in doing the work which will bring Dr. King�s dream to this troubled world � bit by bit, step by step.

We thank you for this time together. We thank you for the opportunity to break bread, to meet and greet others with whom we can travel the road toward justice. And we thank you, most of all, for the life that was given to the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. to be a blessing and inspiration for all.

We pray in the name of all that is most holy. Amen

Carol Huston

revcarol@earthlink.net

Why Wait? Move to EarthLink.

Testing

2005-12-14T10:27:00.000-05:00

Testing first blog