Our dear friend Heartha passed on March 13, 2012.

People are posting farewells on her Facebook page: http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100000432266896

We lit a candle and listened to some of Heartha's poetry at BUUF on Sunday March 18. A memorial service will be held at BUUF the afternoon of July 22. You can still read Heartha's musings on our website.

Here's one of Heartha's poems from her book Ramblings of a Renaissance Mind.

One thing I have noticed about UUs is that we are reluctant to speak of our faith outside of our religious circle. I suppose that one reason for this is that we know that it may cause difficulties in social relations. Truthfully, it probably would. I think we need to take that chance.

To many of you this sounds crazy. Why stir things up with my family or friends by talking about something that is private. Here is the deal. I don’t think that faith is entirely a private matter. What we believe and how we act on those beliefs affects everybody on the planet. Let me give you a few examples. The Mormon Church has been, for some time, baptizing deceased victims of the Holocaust. Two US military officers were shot to death in Afghanistan, because copies of the Koran were burned. A former US senator vying to become a presidential candidate has recently called non-biblical theology phony. As you can see, what we have faith in affects us all. If our faith is narrow and fundamentalist, people can and do suffer.

OK, let us take a look at the dynamics of faith. Faith is trust in something. It is always (no matter whether you are a Baptist, a Hindu, or an atheist) faith in the same thing. What is that same thing? It is faith in a particular worldview. Here is the thing, worldviews are all constructions of the human mind. Culture is entirely a human product. In Christian theology it is a sin to worship anything that is made by humans. To make absolute a culture, such as ideas about a god, a holy book, or a prophet is a profound error. As I have said many times: "We do not apprehend reality directly. We create our own experience of reality by using human-made culture tools." This means that we are 100% responsible for our own experience. It also means that the atheist is just as much a person of faith as the extreme Islamist.

So, you say, what can I do? Well, let us suppose that every Thanksgiving your whole extended family comes over for dinner. Your extended family includes Uncle Bob, a lay preacher down at the Independent People of God Bible Church. Uncle Bob always says grace, which is a windy 10 minute affair designed to show that Uncle Bob is a really great prayer. Uncle Bob always concludes his prayer with the sincere wish to see everybody accept Jesus as their personal savior, so that everyone around the table can be together in heaven. At this point the turkey is already cold, but not as cold as the knot in your stomach. Frankly, Uncle Bob is making you a little angry. Furthermore, if Heaven is going to be filled with guys like Uncle Bob, mouthing sanctimonious sentiments, you wouldn't want to spend a minute there, much less an eternity. This is the time to practice loving kindness. Remember something good about Uncle Bob. Like the time he slipped you a dollar when your Dad wasn't looking. And how you took the whole dollar to the five and dime store and bought about 3 pounds of hard candy. And how you hid the candy in your room so that every night for 6 weeks you sucked on a piece (even though you had already brushed your teeth) while falling asleep. So it turns out that you really do love Uncle Bob, but you are getting pretty darned tired of those annual T-day prayers. So, when the time is right, you approach Uncle Bob. You let Uncle Bob know that your faith (you may be an atheist and a humanist) is just as important to you as his is to him. Your faith sustains you in times of trouble and brings you great joy. You can also let him know that, while you do not connect to the sacred dimension of life through Jesus, your connection to Life is very strong and satisfying. Thank Uncle Bob for the prayers and let him know that next year you will be doing a UU thing before eating.

It is OK for us to share our faith. I think the world needs it.

Jim