Notes from GA 2003
By Donald Whisenhunt, FUSS delegate to GA:
This was my 3rd GA and it was great. To be in the same room with 6000+ UUs was an amazing experience. The exhibition was, as always, great -- way too much cool stuff to buy. I attended these sessions:
What Sons Need From Their Dads (Neil Chethik). This was a very interesting talk based on Neil's interviews with a number of men and boys about their fathers. As a son and the father of a young son it was interesting to hear the things men remember about their fathers. You can read a summary here: <http://www.uua.org/ga/ga03/2012.html>
Savage Love: Skipping Towards Gomorrah (Dan Savage): This was a lot of fun. It was a full room (3000+ people) and there was a lot of laughter. He reminded me of a gay, liberal Dr. Laura. He was very no nonsense and forthright about what he believes. He did cause some disagreements in the audience with his views on sexual identity. It reinforced to me that UUs take themselves very seriously. Read more here: <http://www.uua.org/ga/ga03/2089.html>
If Not God, What? A Humanist Elevator Speech. This was a very well-attended session.
There were probably 400 people in a room for 300. Three religious humanists
told their stories and
each summarized with an "elevator" speech designed to explain humanism or religious humanism. In my opinion they were all great, but too long. My elevator speech is: "Humanism is a religious philosophy that emphasizes the relationship between humans over any relationship between humans and god or gods". At my job the elevator speeches have to be really short. This was a feel good type of event for humanists. Read more here: <http://www.uua.org/ga/ga03/3022.html>
Born Again Unitarian Universalism. An excellent talk by Forrest Church with almost 1000 people in attendance (I actually only heard him speak since I was sitting on the floor). His basic message was that we should be ready and proud to discuss our faith and the "good news" that liberal religion has to offer. I really like his analogy "Faith is like being in a house with many windows. The fundamentalists believe that the sun is only shining through their window while liberal religions believe that the sun is shining through all the windows (there is no one truth)." Read more here: <http://www.uua.org/ga/ga03/3079.
html>
Church-State Relations: The Next Generation (Barry Lynn and The Rev. Tom Goldsmith). Barry Lynn from Americans United gave an update for his group and the status of church-state separation in general. While there have been some legal victories, the separation between church and state in the US is shrinking. This is in no little part due to the current administration in Washington. The Rev. Tom Goldsmith gave an excellent update on how the UU church in Salt Lake City and the ACLU pulled together to defend civil liberties in Salt Lake City against the LDS. The UU church has been vilified in the local (Mormon) newspapers for opposing the selling of main street Salt Lake City to the LDS church. The church then regulated speech and dress on Main Street. While the UU church and the ACLU won the court case the city eventually gave in and gave the LDS church full control of main street, basically nullifying the court victory (the city had retained certain easement rights to main street which formed the basis of the law suit). It was very inspiring to hear how the UU congregation came together to oppose the LDS power grab, but as Rev. Goldsmith said "in Utah the church (LDS) always gets its way". Read more here: <http://www.uua.org/ga/ga03/3052.html>
Finally, Alex and I really enjoyed marching in the banner parade during the opening ceremonies! It is great to meet UUs from all over the world.
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