UU La Crosse

A Unitarian Universalist Fellowship

March, 2019

Monthly Newsletter

How can we know the truth?

“The truth will set you free. But not until it is

finished with you.”   David Foster Wallace

I spent 5 years in graduate school before entering seminary. I studied history, largely because I was good at it and didn’t know what else to do with my life. The truth I lived at that time was that this was something I could do, and since nothing else had presented itself, this was what I would do. That truth was good enough for quite some time.

My area of specialization was historiography. Historiography is the history of history. The main question we ask is what is motivating the histories that we create? What unquestioned assumptions are guiding the way we tell the stories of the past? What questions are driving what we are searching for and how we interpret our primary sources? The basis premise of historiography is that we must understand the pressing issues of the present moment that are energizing how we are searching for and generating the stories we tell about the past. The present informs the past, more than the other way around. 

I delighted in revisionist history, where the standard stories were teased apart by doubts nurtured from the margins – when working class historians tore apart the histories written by elites, when women historians asked questions against the grain to raise doubt about the canons written by men, and when people of color demanded that their stories not simply be added to dominant narratives, but rather fully inform and possibly subvert them. All of this rocked my world. Even when I decided that academia was not my true path, it continued to inform my work as a Unitarian Universalist minister committed to the free and responsible search for truth and meaning.

It really makes you wonder how you know what is true and what is not. There are basic truths, like “I didn’t get that job.” But a question like,  “Why didn’t I get that job?” involves a different path to truth.  Generations of people of color often wonder why they didn’t get the job. Were they passed over based on merit, or did implicit racism lead the decision makers towards a different applicant? Women who have broken those glass ceilings, and are still trying to break them know that they have to fight against certain truths that still try to define who they are and what they can be. 

As children we are often protected from difficult family stories and when we are older and learn the stories, it can change how we see ourselves and our families.  Was our earlier understanding of our family a lie because we know something different now, or was it still true because we lived it and because it shaped who we became?

Immigrants are struggling against assertions of truth that have the power to offer hope or strangle it. Our current president portrays most immigrants as rapists, murderers, drug dealers, and thieves. His opponents portray immigrants as victims fleeing war, violence, corruption and poverty, as ordinary people seeking safety and a better life, and sometimes as heroes seeking freedom and democracy. Whose truth wins is having huge consequences for millions of people who call the United States home or want to call it home.

This month we are talking about truth - how we seek the truth, how we tell the truth, how we determine the truth, how truth frees and how truth draws us into beloved communities of hope where we strive towards freedom and justice.  

See you in March.

Yours in faith

Rev. Krista.  

From the Board

We LOVE Our Staff And Are Grateful For Their Service

Please Help Us Tell Them

The Board and I would like to share our deep gratitude for the staff of our Fellowship.  We celebrate one new hire and several staff anniversaries of anywhere from 6 months to 3 years. Please share in thanking our many child care workers, child care coordinator-Kristie Neve, acting religious education director-Delena Leon, choir director-  Rita Koch Thometz , pianist-Carol Rhodes, Membership Co-Coordinators-Jenn Miller and Donna Bauer, office administrator-Emmy Carlson, technology & office assistant-Giorgia Brennan, and minister-Rev. Krista Taves. We equally appreciate our contractors for book keeping: Drew Neve, building cleaning-Deb Treangen, and snow removal-Jeff Niebuhr .   The Board would appreciate you sharing with us AND with the staff what you value about their roles.  Do continue to show your support with your patience, offers to help, and kindness.   Please take the time this month to approach as many of them as you can, personally, and let them know how much you appreciate them!

Social Justice News-- March, 2019

February in La Crosse was marked by an incident that was ugly, and a response to that incident that was strong and positive.

Employees of a local cab company whose owner is Muslim discovered that the company garage had been defaced with an ugly phrase expressing hate toward those of Middle Eastern background. A rally at the site of the incident was called by the Muslim advocacy group LISSN (La Crosse Interfaith Shoulder-to-Shoulder Network). Speakers at the rally included Wale Elegbede, who spoke last year at our Fellowship; Mayor Tim Kabat; and Deputy Police Chief Rob Abraham, who denounced hate, and told those attending that he is of Syrian background. Local artists covered the awful graffiti with a beautifully-colored mural communicating a strong anti-hate message. And we should be proud that, out of the approximately 100 people who stood outdoors in near zero temperatures, 14 or 15 were from our Fellowship.

February also marked the first meeting of our Activist Support Group. This group will be focused on providing uplift and support for those doing the racial justice and environmental work needed in these difficult times. Feel free to join us in the conference room for our next meeting on Monday, March 25, from 7:00 to 8:30 PM, or contact me with questions.

As we look ahead the coming months, members of this fellowship, particularly our BCOR (Beloved Conversations Opposing Racism) group, will be very active in the leadership group promoting racial dialogue in the greater La Crosse area. The current focus is on launching a communitywide read of the book “Waking Up White” by Debbie Irving. For anyone who has not yet picked up this book, I encourage you to do so.

If you’re interested in joining our social justice team to work on a particular project is very welcome to email me at Ron [email protected].

Toward justice,

Ron

Ron Malzer,

Social Justice Team Chair