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Showing posts from November, 2013

"Our Community" vs. "The Community"

Does your church take care of "their" community or "the" community? I drive through a neighborhood that has a little park with a playground. They have a prominent sign warning that the park is for the residents' use only.   It's for their community, not the community. I was having coffee with my Red Pill brother, Tony Lorenzen , and we talked about this in terms of churches. About how "community" can mean such different things. "Our community" has boundaries, it has gated access and the teeth of guard dogs. The community is boundless. Tony pointed out that the history of Unitarian Universalism is one of "The Community," not "Our Community." This isn't just fuzzy theoretical musings. It's why we got the buildings, the membership rolls, and the communion silver. (Even if it took a while to collect the latter.) In 1818, the community of Dedham, Massachusetts called a liberal (what wo