Cecil Bohannon

Dean Drake

Ron Robertson

3069 Blue State Church – Red State Nation

Moderator:

Dean Drake, President, Conservative Forum , and a member of the Epiphany Community Church in Fenton, MI

Panelists:

Ron Robertson, Executive Director of UU Christian Fellowship (he lives in "red" portion of Oklahoma, very heavily Republican)
Cecil Bohannon, member of Conservative Forum, teaches Economics at Ball State University, and considers himself a libertarian

Sponsor: Conservative Forum for UUs

Prepared for UUA.org by: Allan Stern, Reporter; Jone Johnson Lewis, Editor

Are there really two Americas, one conservative and one liberal? If so, what do individual UU churches do if they're located in a "red" state?

The Conservative Forum has been around since 1985. "We want to make the Unitarian Universalism safe for Republicans, too."

There are two models of church composition:

• The Fortress church. It builds up walls and provides a safe haven for those in the community. It really isn't reflective of the community.
• The Community church: It reflects the composition of the community; it's a lot more tolerant of diverse views and different viewpoint. These churches are becoming rarer, unfortunately. More and more, our churches are becoming Fortress congregations.

Cecil Bohannon: Are there two Americas ?

Yes, there are differences between communities. Though some will take extreme positions, most people are somewhere in the middle. Most people have core values, if we spent more time thinking about what unifies us, we'd be better off. There IS a cultural lifestyle divide but I don't know how great it is.

Dean Drake: There ARE two Americas. My travels by auto on the backroads of the US have formed my opinions. Having guns is a cultural value in rural Indiana, for example. Having an SUV is a necessity. Why are we so divided?

Opposites can get along on a one-to-one basis but not politically. But there is profit to be made in division, more than in unity. Everybody plays that game. Everybody says "we represent the good guys, our opponents are the bad guys and everything they say is wrong....the only thing that will stop them is if you will send us money."

The media certainly profits by the division, as well.

But MOST Americans want common-ground solutions; if you don't like the blue/red state divide, maybe it should start changing here, with Unitarian Universalism. Politicians feel powerless to change this because of forces driving people apart. The PEOPLE need to force this change.

What's it like to live in a red state?

Ron Robertson: Living in a fundamentalist community: the UU church was talking about not dealing with issues so as not to offend the community, but what's the purpose of you being there if you don't define your issues?

Churches need to be "non-anxious" presences; one way to do this (from family systems work) is to have a sense of humor about things; reducing the anxiety is very necessary.

You must understand the grief and the fear that people have. You must talk about despair. You must understand the shades of diversity; when you cut yourself off in a fortress community, you increase the tension among yourselves as well.

Cecil Bohannon: the only fun things to talk about are religion and politics; everything else is boring (this is how my family taught me). If you're always talking to people you agree with, you're not having much of a real conversation.

I have real reservations about churches getting too involved in politics. Churches promote very narrow agendas at the expense of the wider public need. It's important that churches have role in articulating the goals of a just society, but they get in trouble when they start advocating particular methods of doing that.

Dean Drake: this issue will ultimately be decided by individual people taking steps, not by institutions. People of different political views should be able to get along in a church.

For any group of people to go into voluntary association with each other, they must have something in common. Generally with churches, it's the theology. UUs have elected to disagree on theology..so what is the unifying association? For some churches, it's class -- UUs are a highly educated group.

When you agree on the theology, everything else can become more diverse. Dean's church in Fenton, Michigan is an example of this, with many diverse elements.

What we think are liberal/conservative issues really are not. The way things often break down is not what you think. When you get right down to it, there is a lot more common ground than we believe. All we need to do is talk to each other. Political parties try to make this idea non-existent. One core value is the right to have an opinion on anything, and believe it. The idea of compromise used to be a positive word; now it seems to be a dirty word.

The answer is to be more of a community church, to recognize common ground and to reach out. Emphasizing differences may give you more short-term benefit but not in the long run.

Question Period

Mary Bernard, Skinner House books – our goal at Skinner House Books is to serve as many UUs as humanly possible; if you have idea for books for people who are not being represented, let us know at our website (www.uua.org/skinner).

John Washburn, Community Church of New York

What can you say about institutions that may be more open to compromise?

Answer: Organizations that are more idea-driven than dollars-and-cents driven can be more amendable to compromise.

Gwen Gibson, Westside Church, Fort Worth: Our church is definitely a fortress church; it's nice to be there, and comforting.

Cecil Bohannon: You need to have a thick skin to have colloquies with those you disagree with, but you also need to be sensitive in what you say to people.

The key in any church is where your minister stands....if your minister is open to change and compromise, and into encouraging dialogue, then it's a whole lot easier to talk about controversial topics.

In electoral politics, the primary is now more important than the general election, and politicians have to appeal to the extremes on both spectrums; that's why it's hard to get politicians to be moderate.

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