Spiritual Life of College Students project

A major new study released by the Higher Education Research Institute revealed important information about the spiritual life of college students, including those identifying as "Unitarian."
The survey found that a large percentage of first-year students have an interest in spirituality (80%) and are searching for meaning and purpose in their lives (76%). In addition, researchers found that 48% of students described their current view of spiritual and religious matters as "seeking," "conflicted," and/or "doubting."

Of the 19 religious groups featured in the survey, UU students had the highest response scores on measures of spiritual searching, volunteer service, social justice work, caring for others, and interest in/respect for different religious viewpoints.

For the full text of the story visit the UUA's website, at http://www.uua.org/.
Detailed information on Spiritual Life of College Students project can be found at http://www.spirituality.ucla.edu/.

Sent on behalf of the UUA Office of Information & Public Witness by
Kasey MelskiElectronic Media CoordinatorUUA Office of Electronic Communicationoec@uua.org

What's your dream "Learning Resource Center"?

In his books, John Holt advocates replacing schools with "LearningResource Centers". Here's a thought experiment, if you could design a"Learning Resource Center" that you as a homeschooler would use, whatwould it have?

Debbie

The place of liberal faith...

What are your thoughts? Is it realistic to keep religion out of politics, or is it time for liberal faith to step up the plate?


Losing our religion

Complete story at Christian Science Monitor:
http://www.csmonitor.com/2005/0420/p09s02-coop.html?s=hns
By Jonathan Zimmerman

NEW YORK – They still don't get it. If you want to see why Democrats keep losing national elections, look no further than the most recent controversy over President Bush's judicial nominations.GOP majority leader Bill Frist will participate this Sunday in aconservative Christian telecast that denounces Democrats forthreatening to filibuster the nominations. "The filibuster was onceabused to protect racial bias," declared the Family Research Council,which is sponsoring the telecast, "and it is now being used againstpeople of faith."And the Democrats' response? "I cannot imagine that God ... is going to take the time to debate the filibuster in heaven," Sen. RichardDurbin (D) of Illinois said Friday, denouncing Senator Frist forlending his name to the campaign. "God does not take part in partisanpolitics," echoed Senate minority leader Harry Reid.

That's bad history, and even worse politics. Every great movement forsocial justice in America has been powered by religious sentiment.Instead of demanding that conservatives omit religion from politics,liberals should reclaim the religious mantle themselves.…Instead of telling Republicans to leave their religion out of thejudicial nomination battle, then, the Democrats should challenge the nominations on religious grounds. One of the nominees, Janice Rogers Brown, has suggested that minimum-wage laws might be unconstitutional; a second one, William G. Myers III, has cast doubt upon the constitutionality of the Endangered Species and Clean Wateracts.

All of these federal regulations interfere with the "right to property," you see, which these jurists view as sacrosanct. But there's another view, derived from Scripture itself, that says they're wrong; that poverty and pollution - like slavery - insult the majesty of Heaven; that God shall save the children of the needy;that the meek shall inherit the earth; and that Jesus was more than autopian dreamer. It says that the Lord wants us to share our wealth,and to care for each other. And if the Democrats can't bring themselves to say that, God save us all.

• Jonathan Zimmerman teaches history and education at New YorkUniversity. He is the author of 'Whose America? Culture Wars in thePublic Schools.'

Unitarian Jihadists Unite!

Jon Carroll
Read the entire commentary at The San Francisco Chronicle:
http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/chronicle/archive/2005/04/08/DDG27BCFLG1.DTL

Friday, April 8, 2005


The following is the first communique from a group calling itself Unitarian Jihad. It was sent to me at The Chronicle via an anonymous spam remailer. I have no idea whether other news organizations have received this communique, and, if so, why they have not chosen to print it. Perhaps they fear starting a panic. I feel strongly that the truth, no matter how alarming, trivial or disgusting, must always be told. I am pleased to report that the words below are at least not disgusting:

Greetings to the Imprisoned Citizens of the United States. We are Unitarian Jihad. There is only God, unless there is more than one God. The vote of our God subcommittee is 10-8 in favor of one God, with two abstentions. Brother Flaming Sword of Moderation noted the possibility of there being no God at all, and his objection was noted with love by the secretary.

Greetings to the Imprisoned Citizens of the United States! Too long has your attention been waylaid by the bright baubles of extremist thought. Too long have fundamentalist yahoos of all religions (except Buddhism -- 14-5 vote, no abstentions, fundamentalism subcommittee) made your head hurt. Too long have you been buffeted by angry people who think that God talks to them. You have a right to your moderation! You have the power to be calm! We will use the IED of truth to explode the SUV of dogmatic expression!

______________

Sister Pepperspray of Englightenment ;-)

Happy Spring

Photos capture Hummingbird emergence.

Thought I would share this.

Unschooling

What does "unschooling" mean to you?

What else do you want to talk about?

Homeschoolers and community service?

Homeschoolers and politics?

How we learn?

Why we learn?

You name it and we'll blog it!

Liberal home educators

Do you think we're as really as few and far between as we seem? How are we different? How do our politics inform our home education?

Religious Education

What's the purpose? Share your thoughts, insights and ideas about religious education here.

Look! We have a Blog!

UU Homeschoolers has a blog! Give it a shot -- share your thoughts on anything and everything.

Terri