Unitarian Fellowship of Huntington, 619 6th Avenue, Huntington, WV  25701-2103

Member of the Unitarian Universalist Association  '  Newsletter Number 2009:27



The Free Thinker

Newsletter of the Unitarian Fellowship of Huntington, WV

November 4 , 2009

Events for Sunday, November 8, 2009

10:00 A.M.   WORSHIP  with the Reverend Jack Wilkinson.

HOMILY:  "As Above, So Below"

Heaven and Earth work together.  One without the other is irrelevant.   We shall briefly examine how the human body replicates the cosmos and how the human prototype is fashioned after the prototype of the Father God.

10:30 A.M.   Coffee Break

11:00 A.M.   PROGRAM with the U. U. Fellowship

Eugene Trout, M.D. on "Weight Loss and Spirituality"

In his semi-retirement years Dr. Trout has changed his specialty from general surgery to weight loss counseling, which includes natural hormone therapy and mental attitude.  I, for one, am eager to turn in my obesity for enhanced self-esteem.

Programs for the rest of November and December (programs are held at 11:00 AM)

Note: Worship Services with The Rev. Jack Wilkinson will be held every Sunday at 10:00 A.M.

November 15th:   “Autobiography” with Mike Moore

November 22nd:    The Rev. Joan Van Becelaere. Director, Ohio Meadville District,   "How the OMD Can Help the Huntington Congregation"

November 29th:  Potluck Sunday Dinner

December 6th:      Open Discussion

December 13th:    Ed Necco on "Secular Humanism"

December 20th:    "Autobiography" with Randy Miller

December 27th:    The Rev. Jack Wilkinson on "Unitarian Universalism"

Retrospective of Last Sunday
Our monthly Open Discussion began with a brief look at immigration, as per your Editor's request.  I began with the irony of Arizona U U's being incarcerated for littering because they put bottles of water in the desert to save Mexican illegals from dying of thirst.  Ian McKenzie made an impassioned speech on behalf of our nation's immigrant nature and at the same time made us aware of the non-incarnadine hue of our own skins, which debarred us from original inhabitant conceits.
Surprisingly to me, the discussion moved into the realm of illegal drugs and their need to be reclassified.  A consensus formed around the need for drug legalization in general, because we had better things to do with our police power than round up self-medicators.  Beau Necco suggested that drugs were always a good excuse for people to get together and socialize.  Responsible recreational uses will grow with human experience.  Together we enjoy food, drugs and entertainment with increasing maturity and sophistication.

Light from Jack's Lantern:  "The Ecstasy of Moral Outrage"
Having just finished Abraham Bowden's An Echo from Dealy Plaza I am once more fired up over man's inhumanity to man.  Bowden's a black man, who President Kennedy picked for his Secret Service.  After the assassination Bowden began pointing out ways in which the laxity of the Secret Service contributed to the tragedy.  Quickly the Service closed ranks and arrested Bowden on trumped-up charges and convicted him with the naked complicity of the presiding judge.  Bowden spend six years in jail, during which time he had to thwart the attempts of the prison system to drug him into a soporific state in order to classify him as a mental patient.  After serving his six years he was finally given his opportunity to testify to the Warren Commission and to the Commission on Assassinations.
This story was a glimpse of evil at work in our justice system, and it was a book I needed to read in order to keep my sense of outrage intact.  In fact, as religious liberals this is what we all need.  We need to look back in time into our religious history, own it, and then excoriate ourselves for the atrocities of the Roman church committed in the name of religious hegemony.  A litany of Catholic crimes in the fourth through sixth centuries against Universalists includes:  the ghoulish murder of Hypatia, the closing of the school at Alexandria,the burning of the library there and the excommunication of Origen by Emperor Justinian.  Then in the sixteenth century they expelled the Unitarians (then called Socinians) from Poland.  However, these depredations pale in comparison to the suppression of the Cathars in the thirteenth century, which is a horror story of great magnitude.
We needs must from time to time look back in anger at our church history and at our nation's history and turn that anger into justice at last.



President: Bob Williams  '  Vice President/Programs Director: Randy Miller  '  Treasurer: Jim Maphet

Newsletter Editor: Jack Wilkinson III  (304-521-9201)