Saturday, April 10, 2010

Ted Koppel, Glenn Beck, and the Little Red Church on the Hill

I love The Interdependent Web, a weekly round up of Unitarian Universalist blog posts by Chris Walton at UU World. It provides a brief description and intro into interesting posts by UUs everywhere -- if you are intrigued, you just click and follow the link to read the entire post.

I recently followed one of these threads to a video by Glenn Beck about President Obama's early childhood experience under the influence of his maternal grandparents, who were members of "the little red church on the hill". It reminded me of a presentation I recently attended by Ted Koppel, whose condemnation of most of today's media was pretty strong (NPR excepted). He encouraged the audience to take the time to read/watch what was going on out there, rather than sit back and blissfully watch only "ours". He made connections to the complacency of Germans in the 1930s, or other societies who just could not believe that anyone took "those idiots" seriously until it was too late. He predicted that Sarah Palin would be a serious presidential candidate, and could win.

As Unitarian Universalists, we are fairly good at not taking our freedoms for granted. And we are not so good at seeing/reading/talking with those we really disagree with, without dismissing what they believe in -- and why.

3 comments:

Christopher L. Walton said...

I'm glad you enjoy "The Interdependent Web," but I should point out that managing editor Kenneth Sutton is the most frequent contributor to the blog. (I fill in when he's unavailable.)

Bill Baar said...

Obama would have been far better off had he stuck with the UU's over at Chicago's All Souls Free Religious Fellowship who meet all of a few blocks from Wright's Trinity... there a nice group of folks with a far more rational religion than that preached by Rev Wright. Not a Congregation though that could launch a political career.

Robin Edgar said...

Are you saying that Barack Obama was at one time a member of the Chicago's All Souls Free Religious Fellowship Bill?