Flower-Breathing Dragons

[selenite0]

We went to the Unitarian service yesterday. They made an announcement that we'd had a registered sex offender in the congregation and that he'd been asked to stay away. Didn't mention he was a pedophile. Did have the announcement made by the highest-ranking woman in the church leadership. But complaints aside they did make a clear announcement. Had an interesting sermon, which concentrated on how more people were doing good and only a small fraction were evil.

It's nice to hear a Unitarian talking about evil. Lots of them seem to have trouble with the concept. There's a lot of fluffy "can't we all just get along" attitude.

Case in point--last week's service. I'm there being twitchy about the pedophile just being outed (and the idiot president of the congregation called him up and told him--"hey, so-and-so found out you're violating your parole, so don't come to the church any more"--so I was listening for sounds of a nasty intruder). It was a children's service, with some classic kid's stories being read. The director of religious education came up with her guitar and started telling the story of a village that was burned down by a dragon every week. This made the villagers unhappy because they had to build their houses again every week. So when a brave frog came by they asked him to go make the dragon stop. The frog confronts the dragon, who explains, he's sorry, he can't help breathing flame, it's just his way. He'd rather breath flowers than flames. Cue guitar and she launches into "If I could breathe you springtime."

I walked out.

My favorite description of fairy tales:

"Fairy tales do not tell children the dragons exist. Children already know that dragons exist. Fairy tales tell children the dragons can be killed."
- attributed to G. K. Chesterton

The world has evil people in it. Some are just evil because they cause harm through careless. Other enjoy hurting people for their own profit. The most evil have a grand scheme they want to force everyone into regardless of the cost. But in all cases you have to confront them and defeat them if they don't yield. True yielding means making atonement for past sins, not just empty promises about being better in the future. Evil people who won't atone must be destroyed or rendered harmless some other way. That's a lot of work. It's a big temptation to say "he promised he'd do better, we can stop worrying about it now" but that just lets them try to hurt people again.

I don't want pedophiles in my church. And I do want my children learning that dragons who destroy a village are things you kill, not sing pretty songs with.

Comments

[mycroftca.livejournal.com]

Love the Chesterton quote; I'm going to borrow it for my LJ if you don't mind...

[kd5mdk.livejournal.com]

Virigins and Dragons

[joyeuse13.livejournal.com]

I wouldn't actually object to the flower-breathing dragon story, if that weren't the end of the story. I know I'd much rather have flowers coming out of my mouth than flames; it's a worthy goal, so let's hear about how the dragon achieved it. It could be turned into a great moral allegory.

To paraphrase Granny Weatherwax--the greatest evil comes when you start to treat people like things.

[technomom]

Good quote. I've found Scott Peck's book People of the Lie to be a pretty good one for getting newage folks to accept the existence of evil.

I have seriously objected to some of the children's stories told in UU congregations. They're often very anti-capitalist and full of rabid ecoterrorist bullshit. I was nearly frothing at the mouth with the need to refute the completely fabricated "facts" someone was spouting at the kids in a congregation we attended several years ago.

Fortunately, we've taught our kids that while they must act with respect towards such figures, they're supposed to use good judgment and check out whatever they're teaching. It's good to inoculate them against ALL kinds of bullshit, liberal or conservative or anything else.

A Better Mouse, er, Dragon Trap

[bkseiver.livejournal.com]

So write a better story, the one you wish your kids could hear. Start an album of them, and read them more than once.

[archangelbeth]

True yielding means making atonement for past sins, not just empty promises about being better in the future.

As we've told the minx a score of times, "You can promise to be better, but you are not getting X until you have been better. You have to be good, not promise to be good."

Perhaps the childrens' room staff will tell the parents. O:/

[selenite.livejournal.com]

Unfortunately the singer has been consistently in the line of "everyone's a good person once you get to know them." She reminds me of the Barney episode where the kids run into a bear cub in the woods, and run away in fear. Then Barney tells them "don't do that, you're hurting their feelings" and leads them back to sing and dance with the cubs. "Paging Mr. Darwin. Mr. Charles Darwin, your party is waiting."

To be fair, it's necessary to have a counterpoint to the "everyone with race/religion X is evil" memes that are floating out there. But I think pushing it to where you're teaching kids to never be afraid of anyone is a bad idea.

[selenite.livejournal.com]

Ours hasn't been that bad--just fluffiness rather than being actively harmful.

Re: A Better Mouse, er, Dragon Trap

[selenite.livejournal.com]

Oh, we've got a pile of them. Going back to Aesop. Laura's already doing storytime in evenings for them.

I should check out if I can be storyteller at the church sometime.

Re: Serious question.

[selenite.livejournal.com]

You have a good point, but "church" covers a number of roles. Helping save lost souls is one of them. Another is to provide a safe place of community for people to make connections. There's a conflict there--if we're a secure group I can be much more relaxed about letting my kids play with the others during potlucks and such, and not panic if they go out of sight for a minute or two. With felons about we have to behave differently. So those roles can't be mixed. A single church could try to serve both by having seperate times for a penitent's service, but if it's one community it shouldn't switch roles without warning people that it's no longer what they were led to believe.

Re: Serious question.

[celticdragonfly.livejournal.com]

I gave some serious thought to this. If a pedophile wanted to be redeemed, he could do it. (He for sake of argument, they're mostly he's) He could come to a church, and at the very beginning, speak to the pastor and ask to speak to the congregation. He could tell them what he was convicted for, and that this is public information. He could tell them that yes, he knows they won't trust him around their kids, he doesn't expect them to. He could say that he wants to come pray, that he wants to be reformed, and offer to be willing to have a picture and warning up in the hall by the kids' classrooms, warning everyone so they know not to trust him. Scarlet-letter style. If a pedophile did that, I would say he should be accepted into the church so he can work towards being reformed.

This guy was lying and hiding it. I do not believe he wanted to reform. I have also been told he was showing up to the CUUPS events but then always vanished during the circles. I think he was casing the place for opportunities.

Re: Serious question.

[selenite.livejournal.com]

I'd start with http://www.uua.org/aboutuu/uufaq.html

But a one-line summary is that Unitarians don't believe in answers, they believe in questions. So you have Christians, atheists, and pagans all together.

Re: Serious question.

[celticdragonfly.livejournal.com]

re: terrible degree of openness

I don't think he should give details in public. But that he was convicted for child molestation, yes. At least to the parents. What they choose to discuss with their kids is up to them. Usually, the kids aren't in the service, or at least are not in all of it, just the older teens.