Former Obama speechwriter, Jon Lovett (writer for the show, 1600 Penn), gave the commencement address at Pitzer college last May.\u00a0 He said we\u2019re \u201cdrowning in BS, utterances true enough not to be lies, wrecking our trust, lowering our standards for the truth and making it hard to achieve anything.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n There\u2019s a book about BS by Laura Penny called:\u00a0 \u201cYour call is important to us\u201d.\u00a0 One reviewer said Penny \u201cdisembowels the culture of globalized, supersized, consumerized BS, from Bush\u2019s White House to Big Pharma. \u00a0She shows us how this smorgasbord of phoniness alienates us from one another, breeds apathy, and makes us just plain stupid.\u201d<\/p>\n So, is religion an oasis of sincerity in this morass of lies?\u00a0 Billions turn to it as a bastion of sincerity and authenticity.\u00a0 But even a glance tells us that it must be a purveyor of mis and disinformation.\u00a0 Even if one of the religions is true, that leaves billions of wrong believers!\u00a0 If they\u2019re all wrong, well, then the whole religious world just is BS with no pool because there\u2019s no dry land at all.\u00a0 In such a climate, merely stating the obvious is an invigorating tonic, but it\u2019s one that can cost you votes, your job, or your friends.\u00a0 So what role does religion have to play in our culture?\u00a0 UU says it is a religion, but what does saying it is a religion add?\u00a0 Perhaps religion is just an imperialistic term, one that claims what is best about being human, but adds nothing of its own.<\/p>\n I\u2019d like to share bits of my lifelong encounter with religion, and how I ended up with you, here, for now. Some of what I\u2019ll share are skirmishes I\u2019ve had in the culture war.\u00a0 I don\u2019t like conflict, but I don\u2019t avoid it at any cost.\u00a0 There are times I will speak up, just as we speak up when our kids are in danger or not getting their needs met.<\/p>\n When American Atheists held their national convention in Des Moines in 2011, I contacted their president, David Silverman, and suggested we invite the UUs to host a booth.\u00a0 He said, \u201cNope.\u00a0 No religions.\u201d\u00a0 He told me they had tried it before and it didn\u2019t work, because in the public\u2019s eyes, religion just means supernaturalism, favoritism and unsupported faith claims.\u00a0 He understands he has many friends in UU churches, but he\u2019s a savvy marketer and can\u2019t afford to muddle his message:\u00a0 religion is the problem.\u00a0 Because I\u2019m not in his position, I can afford to be more accommodating.\u00a0 There is much good in religion because there are good people in it.\u00a0 It has never made sense that being religious requires belief on poor, or purely subjective, evidence.\u00a0 I used to say I was a religious atheist, but I had to explain myself every time I said it.\u00a0 And it was an affront to my atheist friends.\u00a0 I\u2019m religious in the sense I\u2019m devoted to life\u2019s ultimate concerns and I\u2019m comfortable in churches, at least ones that will have me.\u00a0 But life\u2019s ultimate concerns don\u2019t need religion!\u00a0 \u2018Religion\u2019 is a word we use as a marker, and it can be used to set us apart.\u00a0 Religion doesn\u2019t own life\u2019s richest experiences.\u00a0 The rising number of \u2018nones\u2019, the religiously unaffiliated, know that.\u00a0 And people who sleep in on Sundays know that.\u00a0 They aren\u2019t missing anything; they just aren\u2019t religious.<\/p>\n Of course, UUs aren\u2019t part of the BS problem.\u00a0 We can\u2019t be wrong because we\u2019re creedless.\u00a0 Instead of creeds, we have values.\u00a0 We\u2019re clean, but risk being seen as empty.\u00a0 We\u2019re mostly earthly and don\u2019t offer the grand things usually associated with religion.\u00a0 The GOP is struggling with its creed, trying to update its platform without losing who they are.\u00a0 But will it pay the price?\u00a0 The price is putting reason and evidence above doctrine, and billions of people have been told that\u2019s the wrong thing to do, by religion.\u00a0 UU is well-situated to serve the growing number of people who love religion, but demand modernity:\u00a0 acceptance of science and rejection of sectarian, supremacist views.<\/p>\n So, what to do? \u00a0Lovett\u2019s hoping we have reached Peak BS.\u00a0 He thinks there is a demand for Authenticity.\u00a0 He cites Jon Stewart and Louis CK.\u00a0 We trust the satirists more than the ones pretending to be sincere.\u00a0 We\u2019re sick of the postmodern rootlessness, but we\u2019re skeptical of anything that lays claim to truth.\u00a0 Good, we should be.\u00a0 And we should be.<\/p>\n Lovett told the graduating students to be cognizant of their inexperience, but recognize the value in their fresh sets of eyes.\u00a0 Likewise, we have to admit our ignorance, while speaking our truth.\u00a0 We know some things, and that\u2019s not our fault.\u00a0 Once you care about anything, there are better and worse ways to behave.\u00a0 These ways fall out and follow from whatever we value.<\/p>\n He cites the subway rule:\u00a0 If you see something, say something.\u00a0 I\u2019ve come to appreciate this stance, for several reasons.\u00a0 First, when I am silent, I am not standing up for myself.\u00a0 Second, I am letting others who might think as I do think that they\u2019re alone, when they\u2019re not.\u00a0 Finally, I am giving the impression there is no issue at all.\u00a0 I\u2019m looking the other way.\u00a0 I might be wrong about an issue, but it would be further wrong to stay quiet out of fear that I might be wrong.\u00a0 The subway rule encourages us to speak up, just in case there\u2019s an issue.<\/p>\n But wait.\u00a0 The subway rule is about stopping terrorist bombers and the like.\u00a0 Religion is often comforting and harmless, right?\u00a0 Of course, it often is, but not always.\u00a0 So, it\u2019s not religion that\u2019s the problem.\u00a0 It is BS, whether it\u2019s found in religion or not.\u00a0 Religion is not the only source of BS. \u00a0Here are just a few examples.<\/p>\n A psychic in Hardin, Texas was recently hit with a $6.8 million defamation judgment for telling 911 that 32 bodies were buried in some poor family\u2019s backyard.\u00a0 Of course, that claim was unfounded.\u00a0 \u00a0Psychic Sylvia Browne told Amanda Berry\u2019s mother that her daughter was dead, then we learned she had been kept for 10 years in a Cleveland home.\u00a0 Does UU \u2018make room\u2019 for psychic ability?\u00a0 I worry that it does.\u00a0 And we\u2019re prone to saying things like The arc of the moral universe bends toward justice.\u00a0 Or The earth is our mother.\u00a0 (I can tell you this much, she\u2019s not like my mother.)\u00a0 The weird thing is this:\u00a0 we can say these things only if they aren\u2019t taken too seriously!\u00a0 But if other people really make important decisions based on them or their emotions are involved, well, we had better clarify we\u2019re speaking poetically, or be ready to back up such statements.\u00a0 So, what do you mean \u2018the earth is our mother\u2019?\u00a0 Will she drive me around and pay for college?<\/p>\n I heard a successful, liberal minister speak about how to get \u2018spiritual, not religious\u2019 people to come back to church.\u00a0 His main argument was that \u2018the church offers eternity\u2019.\u00a0 He invited questions, so I spoke up.\u00a0 I said that many of those people aren\u2019t buying the afterlife bit.\u00a0 They are grateful to have this one life, the one we are sure of.\u00a0 If there is an afterlife, they don\u2019t think churches have special access to it.\u00a0 I\u2019d like to tell people who have left church that we need them, not that they need us.\u00a0 And living forever isn\u2019t necessary for meaning.\u00a0 If life is not meaningful now, how will extending it forever make it meaningful?\u00a0 And if life is meaningful now, how does its ending reach back in time and remove that meaning?\u00a0 I spoke up because I knew I couldn\u2019t be the only one who felt that way in this large group of liberal religious people.\u00a0 In such situations, there can be a conspiracy of silence.\u00a0 Almost everyone privately has doubts, but assumes everyone else is in agreement, so they keep quiet.<\/p>\n Oprah recently delivered the commencement address at Harvard and received an honorary doctorate of law.\u00a0 In an article about her speech in Time, \u201cFormer Dean of Harvard College,\u00a0Harry Lewis<\/a>, pointedly noted that, \u201cIt seems very odd for Harvard to honor such a high profile popularizer of the irrational. I can\u2019t square this in my mind, at a time when political and religious nonsense so imperil the rule of reason in this allegedly enlightened democracy and around the world.\u201d\u00a0 He spoke up.<\/p>\n Time continued:\u00a0 \u201cExamples of the disrespect for, and not just misunderstanding of, science are everywhere. It\u2019s not just those who ignore climate science (alas, at our peril). [Recall how one candidate] mocked research<\/a>\u00a0on fruit flies, ignoring the reality that most of modern genetics is built on the study of this organism, or the\u00a0factually incorrect<\/a>\u00a0belief that women can \u2018shut the whole thing down<\/a>\u2018 when they are raped to avoid conception.\u201d \u201cIs not a good fit for\u2026\u201d This is the kind of careful observation we can always make:\u00a0 X does not fit with Y.\u00a0 I often feel obligated to make them, because being silent doesn\u2019t fit with my other values!\u00a0 If you see something, say something.\u00a0 Subway rule.<\/p>\n Am I being too hard on Oprah?\u00a0 Too scientistic?\u00a0 Too arrogant, too closed-minded?<\/p>\n Louisiana recently rejected another attempt to repeal the \u201cLouisiana Science Education Act\u201d<\/a>, which allows creationism to be taught in schools.\u00a0 It lost by one vote, cast by a believer in shamanic rituals, who was worried that much of life\u2019s meaning would be lost if we only taught science in the schools.\u00a0 There\u2019s more to life than science.<\/p>\n Does religion play loose like this?\u00a0 Um, yes, because people do it.\u00a0 God loves you.\u00a0 Prayer works: \u00a0God always says Yes, No or Not Yet.\u00a0 God has a plan that includes Moore, OK.\u00a0 The arc of the moral universe bends toward justice.\u00a0 The earth is our mother.\u00a0 I don\u2019t want to ban these statements, but they should raise an eyebrow.<\/p>\n I\u2019d like the religion of the 21st<\/sup> century to avoid any whiff of being a confidence game, of playing on people\u2019s emotions or psychological needs.\u00a0 It should try to be of service in those areas, but avoid any attempts to manipulate them.\u00a0 Of course, there will always be people who want to be manipulated.\u00a0 I don\u2019t want to outlaw hucksterism.\u00a0 I just want to expose it.\u00a0 And I\u2019d like UU to have nothing to do with it.<\/p>\n Ok, so religions contain some BS and UU isn\u2019t immune, but that doesn\u2019t mean we should throw it out.\u00a0 In the current issue of UUWorld, Rev. Victoria Safford asks,\u00a0 \u201cHow do I decide which beautiful, clumsy, and imperfect institutions will carry and hold my \u201cname, hand, and heart\u201d?<\/p>\n In March of 2011, I heard Nate Phelps speak at the Reason Rally on the national mall in Washington, DC.\u00a0 Nate is the son of Fred Phelps, and some protestors from Westboro Baptist Church were in the free speech area while Nate was on stage.\u00a0 Nate escaped from his family at midnight on his 18th<\/sup> birthday.\u00a0 Nate said, \u201cThey called me a rebel. For years, I wore that name with shame until I realized that confronted with the god of my father, rebellion was the only moral option.\u201d\u00a0 This is my experience.\u00a0 When I got to know the God I was raised to believe in, the only moral option was rebellion.<\/p>\n Many UUs are defectors.\u00a0 Some are refugees, but our camp is so comfortable it\u2019s hard to call them that.\u00a0 Some of us are activists.\u00a0 But most of the ones I have met, and the ones who write for UU publications, are gentle activists.\u00a0 We abhor what we\u2019ve seen in human history, the trading of one dogmatic tyranny for another.\u00a0 So, we\u2019re meek, but we do have spines.<\/p>\n We have public and private faces.\u00a0 In private, many of us have robust, red-meat beliefs, but we\u2019d never presume to foist them on anyone else.\u00a0 But that belief is one that we insist on:\u00a0 that no belief should be forced on anyone, and everyone should be treated equally.\u00a0 We leave personal convictions alone, but public assertions are fair game and often challenged.\u00a0 Holly Near\u2019s \u201cSinging for our lives\u201d, in our songbook as \u201cWe are a gentle, angry people\u201d, sums it up.<\/p>\n In The End of Faith, Sam Harris woke many liberal and moderate believers from a comfortable, ecumenical sleep.\u00a0 The deference we normally show religion can cause us to be silent in the presence of evil.\u00a0 If we work for equality, we have to say some positions are wrong, even if they have a religious pedigree.\u00a0\u00a0 And this is hard for us since we value freedom and equality.\u00a0 But treating people equally does not require us to treat all beliefs equally.\u00a0 In fact, it seems that to be moral ourselves, we can\u2019t.\u00a0 We have to discriminate.\u00a0 Discrimination usually has a negative connotation, but we can\u2019t be moral actors at all without it.<\/p>\n So, to be moral, I have to continually re-evaluate my associations.\u00a0 I\u2019m an American, but should I be?\u00a0 Well, I have to live somewhere, and I can work for change while remaining a citizen.\u00a0 And I can\u2019t avoid responsibility, wherever I go.<\/p>\n Practicality gets in my way.\u00a0 I share many of the motivations behind vegetarianism, I just don\u2019t care enough.\u00a0 I\u2019m not green enough:\u00a0 I don\u2019t live near my job.\u00a0 I don\u2019t ride the bus.\u00a0 I don\u2019t ride my bike.\u00a0 I\u2019m overweight.\u00a0 I don\u2019t give enough to the desperately poor.\u00a0 I look the other way while the NSA performs unreasonable searches.\u00a0 I\u2019ll change if the whole culture changes, but I go along with a lot of evil.\u00a0 I can\u2019t do it all.\u00a0 But I can speak up.<\/p>\n
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\nTime magazine said, \u201cOprah\u2019s passionate advocacy extends, unfortunately, to a hearty embrace of phony science.\u00a0\u2026Oprah\u2019s particular brand of celebrity is not a good fit for the values of a university whose motto, Veritas, means truth.\u201d<\/i><\/p>\n
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<\/a> tells me about his God.\u00a0 I have to openly reject that God, whether he exists or not.\u00a0 When he brings up his conception of God, to be silent is complicity. \u00a0It gives the impression there is no problem. \u00a0I stand with Nate Phelps on that.\u00a0 I myself can\u2019t be an apatheist.\u00a0 I do care.<\/p>\n