RevCyn

Right now the Michigan governor is deciding whether or not to appoint an "Emergency Financial Manager" (EFM) for the city of Detroit.  A Michigan political blog, the Eclectablog , points out that if the governor does so, 49% of African-Americans in the state of Michigan will be residing in places under EFM rule. Why this is such a big deal, and why the EFM law is such a big deal to begin with, is that an EFM replaces local democratically-elected government with a person appointed by the governor.  The people residing in cities run by an EFM still have a mayor and city council, but the mayor and city council no longer make any financial decisions, which is to say they have extremely limited power. Here's Rachel Maddow, a year ago, as the first city, Benton Harbor, was getting its EFM explaining how this is anti-democratic. (She starts talking about the EFM law about six minutes in.) If you think this isn't really anti-democratic, consider this...  Last Novembe...

A popular UU blogger asked recently on Facebook what we think of this preliminary and much-changed GA schedule . Some of the reasons for the changes are explained by the fact that they are working towards some goals outlined in this document from the Fifth Principle Task Force . Here's my response, which I posted on Facebook. I think the advantages of this schedule are outweighed by the disadvantages. The main advantages I see is that people who are not delegates can leave early and people who are only focused on business can arrive late if they have no pre-GA events to attend. Also, if you're primarily focused on either workshops or plenaries you have big blocks you're not focused on where you can skip out to go sight-seeing. Disadvantages: ***People really do start leaving early by the droves on Sunday. They have to get to work on Monday, and their flight leaves early, etc. You're going to lose huge amounts of involvement in the plenary Sunday afternoon. Also, I th...

In honor of the somewhat newly created, and not yet fully embraced, holiday " Chalica ," I'm doing a series of posts on the Seven Principles this week. This is my post for Friday. Day Five: The right of conscience and the use of the democratic process within our congregations and in society at large. This year being such an exciting election year, I feel like I've already reflected and written extensively on the democratic process. That being the case, let me point you to some other great words on democracy and this past election that inspired me. Jim Wallis - " My Personal 'Faith Priorities' for This Election " Forrest Church - " Religion and the Body Politic " Where we struggle with democracy is when the vote goes against what we wanted, of course, and the results of a vote can easily go against one of our other principles. However, we must remain true to the idea of democracy, even when we disagree with the results of it. I'm not g...