Words --

"Religion Word That Move us, religion Word that Don't: I was reading the various threads that started this UUCarnival, when I opened the fifth edition of "The Universalist Manual, or book of Prayers and other religious exercises:..." (1853) - and saw this hymn "GREAT PARENT!" "Great Parent! Oh, direct our ways, Exalt our hearts, accept our praise; As children on a father dear, We humbly wait thy presence here." It reminded me that our ancestors faced the same things that we do - how do we best express the meaning of our faith. To some the old words are comfortable and warm - but to others those exact same words are cold and menacing. Do we force others to hear words of coldness or do we cut ourselves off from the warmth is never an easy choice. The writer of "Great Parent!" knew that sometimes the words lose their meaning through their very familiarity or assumed familiarity - sometimes we need to move the word around to make sure we see the word again. How about the "Church of the Divine Paternity" - that was a rather popular Universalist name of 100 years ago -- it's a name that is similar to other denominations, yet distinctive enough to wake one up....To see things with different eyes.... There are lots of words that some UUs have trouble with - indeed I've heard that if we take away all the theological terms that some UUs would be uncomfortable with, then we'd be left with only one word: Coffee. But there are ways around that uncomfortableness to increase communication. If to some theist is a word to describe a believer of a fable of an old man sitting on throne of gold - isn't there another word we can use to say what we really mean - to help someone to pay attention. The same with the other non-coffee words including humanist and pagan --- That doesn't mean I don't think we shouldn't use those fine words God, Lord, human potential; onward and upward --- sometimes those are the right words. Period. If it's the job of religion to comfort the afflicted, and to afflict the comfortable --- then one of the things we have to do is to see beyond the words to the meanings of the words....