edenfalling | sometimes it's very frustrating to remain UU when my own religion keeps trying to exclude me (Reply)

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edenfalling

I borrowed a book from our DRE a couple weeks ago, mostly for my general edification but at least partially because I knew I was going to have a kid in RE this year who has a history of being disruptive in class -- very high energy and all over the place. So I picked up Jennifer's copy of Welcoming Children with Special Needs: A Guidebook for Faith Communities, by Sally Patton.

...I am reminded yet again why I find the vast majority of books with a religious perspective (rather than books about religion from a historical or sociological or comparative religions perspective) cloying at best and outright infuriating at worst.

I mean, this one opens the introduction with the following sentence: "If we believe that every person is born with a mission and a purpose, what does this mean for our ministry to children with special challenges?"

To which my immediate response is, "But I don't believe that. I don't think anyone is born with a mission and a purpose. That implies there is a "meaning of life" to which individual lives conform. But there is no meaning to life. The universe just is. Life just is. If anyone thinks they have a purpose, it is because they chose to have that purpose and live accordingly. If anyone thinks their life has meaning, it's because they chose to invest it with that meaning. I think choice is much more awe-inspiring than some deity or principle handing out assignments."

That is a perfectly valid religious perspective, damn it all, and I wish one day I would encounter a book written by someone who shares that idea without being a Richard Dawkins-style anti-organized-religion militant atheist.

*sulks*

I can't speak for the rest of the book, as I'm still in the introductory chapters where Patton talks about general theory and congregational task forces and stuff. I may report back when I reach the parts with more practical classroom details.

Current Mood: frustrated
Current Location: ithaca, ny
Crossposts: http://edenfalling.livejournal.com/565595.html

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Elizabeth Culmer

January 2026

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