Phil's Little Blog on the Prairie

I'm at home watching Henry at the moment. Okay, I'm not actually watching him--he's taking a nap. But this does give me a little time to write a quick post about something that I've had on my mind every since the Prairie Star District's Executive Committee meeting a week or so ago. We spent a good portion of that meeting making plans for our August retreat with the PSD Program Council at Shalom Hill Farms, and it looks like one of the big topics is going to be moving beyond our Vision 2010 and begin thinking about what the future of Unitarian Universalism in Prairie Star might look like.

At one point, we started to speculate on we how might arrive at some goals for 2015, etc., and that's when I was reminded of something I had heard a month earlier, at the Convocation for students graduating from United Theological Seminary in New Brighton, Minnesota. I made a mental note when I heard this from David Schoen, one of the guys responsible for the "God is Still Speaking" campaign of the United Church of Christ (his exact title is Congregational Vitality Initiative Coordinator). He mentioned how once, when he was looking into Jewish commentaries about the scene in the Torah where God replies to Moses' question about who God is by saying "I AM" (or "I am what I am, I am what I have been, I am what I will be"), he found one of the commentaries that had this great interpretation of what God's name really means: “I will be what the future demands.”

And that got me thinking about goals for the future in Prairie Star. You see, the Vision 2010 has lots of great ideas in it, lots of hopes and dreams. And a considerable number of them have actually been achieved. However, there's been an incredible number other good things that have happened since that vision was cast in 2000, things that we couldn't even imagine then: new congregations starting on their own, added staff, advances in technology. While the vision may have helped us somewhat to get were we are today, I think it was really something else, something akin to interpretation of God's answer to Moses.

So rather than coming up with a list (long or short) of things we'd like to see by 2015 (or 2020 or whenever), I'd like to see us come up with a vision that we can make happen right now instead of having to wait 10 or 20 years. And it goes something like this: I envision a Unitarian Universalist faith for Prairie Star that helps us all to become what the future demands. I don't know what kind of congregations we'll need to serve people in 2020 or even 2015. And I don't know what kind of district structure we'll need to help those congregations, either. But I do know that we'll need to have people who are prepared for what the future demands, and I think we need to start being those people today. I've got a feeling that this is where the future of faith development is.
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Sorry I haven't posted in awhile, but it has been a pretty busy week or two. Once Julia and Henry David and I returned from Winnipeg, we had a night to ourselves, then my mother and niece arrived from Elkhart, Indiana to stay for a few days. And the next day Julia's sister and her daughter flew in from Vancouver for a long visit. Then I had the Prairie Star District Executive Board meeting to attend. (Photos here. It was a good meeting...we discussed plans for next August's Board/Program Council Retreat). In addition to all of this, I got a call from Rockford, Illinois from a family I had officiated a wedding for when I was the ministerial intern there (photos here). The father of the family had died, and they wanted me to do the memorial service. Thing is, of all the weddings I've performed, this man was the only father-of-the-bride that I remember (he was a big guy, literally and figuratively). So I said yes, which meant flying down to Rockford on Monday, meeting with the family, going to a hotel and putting together a service (including a eulogy), then leading the service the next day. Very busy, indeed. To top it all off, Henry David's been sick since last Friday (he's just getting better today). So. Busy, busy, busy. I'm looking forward to catching up on work at the office and getting ready for GA, which is just a couple of weeks away!
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Julia and Henry and I are spending the long Memorial Day Weekend visiting Julia's Aunt Sarah in Winnipeg, and I thought I'd take advantage of our proximity to a couple of UU churches and check them out. On Friday, we spent the night in Fargo, North Dakota, so before dinner at Red Lobster we stopped by the Fargo-Moorhead Unitarian Universalist church. I took a few photos of what we found, which I'll post here. We were pleased to find some of the church's volunteer landscapers just finishing up a day's work. They gladly opened the church up for us and told us a little bit about the building's history. It was built as a Unitarian church in 1892, has gone through several changes in ownership (always somehow related to religion, like a synagogue or a Latter Day Saints congregation), and finally ended up back in the hands of the Unitarian Universalists. They recently added an, er, addition, and they've got plenty of well-lit accessible space. I hope they invite me back to preach there soon!

And this morning, after visiting Aunt Sarah's Mennonite congregation (it's Pentecost Sunday, by the way--we all got red carnations pinned on us!), we drove by First UU Church of Winnipeg. I stopped to take a couple of pictures (view here). It's a lovely building and there were a lot of kids playing out front in the sunshine. One of our Prairie Star ministers, Wendy Jerome, is going to be the interim minister there next year. I'm going to give Wendy a call when we get back to Minnesota and tell her that I'd love to come up and preach sometime next year. Looks like my preaching calendar for next year may already be filling up, so if you'd like me to come preach about Lifespan Faith Development at your congregation next year, please drop me a line, either e-mail or just leave a comment here! I try to preach at least once a month, so there's about 6 or 7 dates still available.
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Notice: "The Unitarian Congregation of Niagara has voted to ban bottled water in non-biodegradable plastic bottles from its premises. We ask that you respect this ban. Thank you for you [sic] help in saving the environment!"

Okay, this is what I love about Unitarian Universalists. We can be so concerned about a just cause (in this case "disrespect[ing] one aspect of [the 'whole web of life'], be it the earth, the ground, the trees, the water"), that we forget that as a religious organization, we're dealing primarily with human beings. And human beings can be a little sensitive, especially when they're just beginning to test the waters of a new congregation to see if they want to dive in.

I mean nothing says "You May Not Be Welcome Here" more clearly than the No Symbol plastered to the main entrance of your church. But that's exactly what the directors of the Unitarian Congregation of Niagara in St. Catherines have done. It's one thing "to ban all bottled water in plastic non-biodegradable, non-refillable bottles from use at all church functions." That's reasonable policy for members of the church to follow when they plan events. Don't offer bottled water. And it's fine to expect renters to respect the congregation's policy. But to greet visitors with a sign telling them that they're not welcome if they happen to have a plastic non-biodegradable, non-refillable bottle of water with them in a bit off-putting, don't you think?
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I'm trying to increase the number of Our Whole Lives (OWL) trainings we offer each year in Prairie Star, and I have to say that this year has been pretty much a success. We had two different trainings last fall, one in Topeka, KS and one in Annandale, MN. The Topeka training was Jr./Sr. High only, and the Annandale training was all levels: Combined Elementary, Jr./Sr. High, and Adult. This was the first time we managed to do that in our district, and I hope we'll be able to make that sort of large scale combined training a regular event.

We had one final training OWL training this past weekend in New Brighton, MN, and it was fantastic--as far as the enthusiasm of the participants and facilitators went. The food service left a little to be desired, but we're going to work on that (like having a place on the registration form for participants to check off their beverage of choice--we had a TON of requests for Diet Coke!). At any rate, the reason that most of these trainings came off so well is Kiely Todd Roska.

Kiely's the executive director of the Minnesota Religious Coalition for Reproductive Choice, and she's helped me plan two of the OWL trainings we offered this year, Annandale and New Brighton. The big plus, other than having an incredibly committed and competent colleague to work with, is that Kiely has been heavily promoting these trainings to United Church of Christ congregations in Minnesota. The result? The New Brighton training actually had more UCC participants than UUA folks--a first for these joint trainings. The benefit for UUs is enormous because the more trainings we can offer, the easier it is for religious educators to get folks trained.

So thanks to Kiely, and to our two great facilitators, T. Michael and Laura (you can see them in action here). If you would like to see a joint UUA/UCC OWL training in your part of the district, let me know and we'll start working on the logistics ASAP. It's win/win situation for everyone!
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For the last week or so, I've been thinking about what a post about the need to attract men to our congregations might say, and I'm almost ready to share my thoughts. In the meantime, I'd like to pass along this announcement from the UUA's Lifespan Faith Development Staff Group:

Attention ministers, religious educators, and adult program chairs--announcing:

Spirit of Life:
Spirituality workshops for UU adults
by Rev. Barbara Hamilton-Holway

Part of the Tapestry of Faith lifespan series.

The Lifespan Faith Development staff group of the Unitarian Universalist Association is seeking congregations, camps, and conference centers to field test nine workshops on UU spirituality between September 2007 and January 2008.

This is good news, as far as I'm concerned. As I've said here before, I completely agree with Robert Wuthnow when he "suggests that congregations should define their primary mission as strengthening the spiritual discipline of their members." An adult curriculum specifically about UU spirituality could fill the bill. What's more, the call for field testers means that your congregation could try Spirit of Life absolutely free this coming fall. And the best news of all is that once the curriculum has been revised, it will be available free and online to all UU congregations!

I do have one concern, however. Since it seems that attracting men to our congregations may be what's needed for us to grow beyond our current national rate of 1% or so a year, I wonder consideration was given to the differences between men's and women's spirituality when this curriculum was written. I'll write more about those differences in a future post. For now, I wonder whether or not the Lifespan Faith Development Staff Group would be interested in how well this curriculum worked with a men's spirituality group? And if you are interested in field testing Spirit of Life, please write for more information and an application:

Rev. Sarah Gibb Millspaugh
UUA Adult Programs Director, Lifespan Faith Development Staff Group
25 Beacon Street; Boston, MA 02108
smillspaugh@uua.org

Just a quick post to let you know that photos from my trip to Bismarck, ND are up on my flickr account. I also wanted to point out a few things that I really liked about the congregation (there are many things, of course, but these are the highlights). I was really impressed by how public this congregation is about their UU values: their sign doubles as a Wayside Pulpit (and it announces the fact that the fellowship is a Welcoming Congregation); there's a huge chalice on the front of the building that's clearly visible from the street; there's a Civil Marriage is a Civil Right banner; and there's a Peace Pole right out front. Add to this the sign for the Quakers (who also meet at the fellowship) and there's no doubt where to find the liberal religious people in Bismarck Mandan.

The Sunday service went extremely well, in my opinion, and we had an excellent discussion following the sermon. I was asked what I thought might be the cause of the disconnection our children and youth (and ourselves?) feel in this society, and I mentioned the work of French literary theorist and analyst Julia Kristeva, who attributes contemporary malaise to our souls being flattened by spending too much time in front of two-dimensional screens. I think that it may also be the cause of the disconnection (read lack of connected community) that we are all prone to suffer from. And indeed, one of the top stories on Google News this morning is "Despite warnings, most U.S. babies watch TV, DVDs." Which is why I hope that the Bismarck Mandan UU Fellowship (as well as all of our congregations) will make nurturing connected community a top priority.
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I'm in Bismarck, ND right now, logged on to the free Wi-Fi at the Fairfield Inn. Getting ready to preach tomorrow morning--an encore of the Connected Community sermon I did in Fridley last Sunday. But since I had to drive six and a half hours to get here (rather than a half an hour to Fridley), I scheduled a couple of other things. At four this afternoon, I met with six members of the Bismarck Mandan UU Fellowhip to talk about lifespan faith development. Since this is a smallish congregation, I suggested they think seriously about using the RE Express resource from the Church of the Larger Fellowship, which they've already looked into and are pretty excited about. We also talked about safety issues, and I mentioned the Safety Award in Reducing the Risk of Child Sexual Abuse program that the district is going to promote--a program in which they seem very interested. We also spent some time talking about what it takes to get children coming to Sunday school on a regular basis. I suggested that it's really a matter of building a community for the entire family, which could mean having up to eight intergenerational events a year. We also talked about programs that attracted men so fathers would bring their children. All in all, it was a very enjoyable visit. A few of us when out for dinner afterwards at a place called DiDonna's Italian Restaurant ("Great food. Pub-like atmosphere. Hearty portions for the price"). I had the South American special (shrimp, chicken, and sausage on beans and rice). Yum! Took a few photos, too. I'll post those once I get back to St. Paul.
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I wrote about the lack of men in church a while back, and it provoked a bit of discussion here. The subject hasn't gone away, of course. In fact, there's even more evidence now that attracting men to our congregations needs to be more of a priority. Check out Chance Hunter's post on the subject at Open the Doors: "Seems safe to say...that faith communities choose to do church primarily for women. Which is a polite way of saying we choose to not do church for men." Chance directs his readers to David Murrow's Church for Men site, which may be a little over-the-top for Unitarian Universalists, but it does contain a few good ideas (which I'll blog about soon).

But what really caught my attention recently was this fact from the most recent FACT's (Faith Communities Today) survey: "As American congregations become increasingly populated by women, those congregations that are able to even out the proportions of males and females are those most likely to grow...." This adds weight to the claim that the number one obstacle to growth in congregations if fewer men than women (according to the U.S. Congregation's survey). Here's the thing: I just received a draft of the Plan for UU Congregational Growth from the UUA's Growth Team, and guess how many times the words "man, "men," "male," or "boy" show up? Zero, of course. There's mention of "culturally marginalized groups," and congregations are encouraged "to collect demographic information that help assess the effectiveness of outreach strategies to specific demographic groups such as youth and young adults, families with children, [and] racial/ethnic groups," but there's no mention of any effort whatsoever of attracting and retaining men. As Chance Hunter says, "we choose to not do church for men."
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I took my camera with me this morning when I went to preach at the Michael Servetus Unitarian Society/Church (it's called a "Society" on the bulletin, but a "Church" on the sign in front). I thought I'd have all of these great photos to choose from, but wouldn't you know it, my batteries died after three snaps. The three pictures I did take were carefully planned, however, and you can see them at by clicking here. The first photo shows the sign the church has put on the street you need to turn from in order to find the them. The second one is the sign you see on the way into the parking lot. And the third is of the church itself. I wanted to take a picture of the interior of their wonderful chapel, but that's when my batteries ran out. You can see it on their website, though: www.msuu.org.

At any rate, I did preach there this morning, which happened to be their Religious Education Appreciation day. I wish I could tell you more about what happened, but I'm trying to keep my posts to a reasonable size. I can tell you this: it was one of the most heartfelt and genuine RE Appreciation Sundays I've every attended. And it was a privilege for me to be part of it. The sermon I preached was called "Connected Community" which was really just a slightly altered version of my sermon "And How Are the Children." The three main concepts are: one, we need to assess how well we're doing in the world by continually asking ourselves, "How are the children?"; two, what children need is "Connected Community"; and three, a big part of creating and sustaining a connected community is knowing the kind of people we aspire to be. You can read more about those last two points in some previous posts of mine, one about the "Hardwired to Connect" report, and another about the Lifespan Faith Development Staff Group's Vision Statement. I preached this sermon several times this church year, but it seems to me that this Sunday was the Sunday it was truly meant for (or, for which it was truly meant).

This is a small congregation that's been around for over 40 years. They've had their share of joys and sorrows, and they've just recently come through a difficult time. But the spirit of life is alive and well in Fridley. And they care about their children--deeply. As I said, it's heartfelt and genuine. If someone were to ask me, "How are the children at the Michael Servetus Unitarian Society?" I'd say without hesitation, "The children are well...the children are well."
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We've received a working draft of a report prepared by the UUA's Youth Office detailing the results of our recent district-level Consultation on Ministry To and With Youth. Feel free to download a copy of the report and look over the results of almost four hours of intensive work at our recent Annual Meeting by over 40 youth and adults from around the Prairie Star District. I'm pleased with the contents of the report--it gives us a lot to work with on both the congregational and the district level. Here are some of my favorite proposed changes:

Youth involved in congregational leadership, including intergenerational activities, programs and classes...
Relax and just have fun – intergenerationally. Variety of activities in RE, congregational youth activities, services, other activities...
Lots of committed youth representation at congregational and district levels.

I think there's a real need for more inter- and multigenerational activities in our congregations, and an even realer (I know, bad grammar) need for more youth leadership on congregational and district committees. I'm talking about real leadership, too--getting youth to help us make some decisions about who we are as a people of faith/principle and what we want to accomplish in the world.

At any rate, read the report for yourself and feel free to offer your comments here. We'll have the final report up on the website (hopefully with pictures of the event) soon. I'll keep you posted.
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Okay, so I haven't kept my promise to post more frequently, but it's been a really busy couple of weeks. Of course, blogging about what I'm doing during busy weeks like these was part of my promise, too. So here's a quick update on what's happening.

Right now I'm at the Mt. Olivet Retreat Center in Farmington, Minnesota for our district's post-Annual Conference Ministers & Religious Educators Retreat. We're working with Barbara Hummel on Circles of Trust, a concept developed by Parker Palmer. It's very interesting, very useful, and very exhausting. In fact, I'm skipping a breakout session at this very moment.

So rather than doing some small group sharing, I'd like to offer this highlight from the Prairie Star District's Annual Conference. There were a lot of things to like about the conference, but the moment that captured my heart was the post-banquet dance on Saturday night. I was out running an errand during most of the dance, but when I returned to the hotel, I found a multigenerational group in the center of a darkened room, doing a simple dance to the tune of "Goodnight Irene." There were elders and youth and children and young adults, and the band (Wild Rhubarb) was playing sweetly and simply, like the song itself. Someone motioned for me to join in, and I did, taking the hand of my welcoming neighbors on each side and effortlessly joining the dance.

It was a wonderful moment, and it got me thinking: How often to any of our congregations host multigenerational dances? My guess: not very often. And that's a shame because dancing together among the generations is an essential part of many cultures, including most the cultures of most of our ancestors. I'm thinking that such dances should be a regular part of our congregational celebrations. What do you think?

According to ScreenNow, "Registered sex offender record information from all 50 states and the District of Columbia is available through the U.S. Department of Justice Web site." The site, known as the Dru Sjodin National Sex Offender Public Registry (named after the North Dakota woman who was murdered by a known sex offender), "is a cooperative effort between the state agencies hosting public sexual offender registries and the federal government. This web site is a search tool allowing a user to submit a single national query to obtain information about sex offenders through a number of search options:"

By Name
By ZIP Code
By County (if provided by state)
By City/Town (if provided by state)
By State (one or multiple)
National

Now there are some restrictions on how the information available on this site can be used. Most states more or less say the same thing South Dakota does:

ANY PERSON WHO USES INFORMATION CONTAINED IN OR ACCESSED THROUGH THIS WEBSITE TO THREATEN, INTIMIDATE, OR HARASS ANY INDIVIDUAL, INCLUDING REGISTRANTS OR FAMILY MEMBERS, OR WHO OTHERWISE MISUSES THIS INFORMATION, MAY BE SUBJECT TO CRIMINAL PROSECUTION.

There are no restrictions that I know of, however, in the states that make up Prairie Star (Iowa, Kansas, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska, North Dakota, South Dakota, and Wisconsin) when it comes to using this information to decide whether or not a congregation should allow someone to volunteer to work with children, youth, or vulnerable adults. What this means is that there are absolutely no more excuses ("We can't afford it," "We don't know what to do, " etc.) for congregations not to at least check to see if a volunteer wanting to work with children, youth, or vulnerable adults is a registered sex offender. This is the bare minimum when it comes to protecting our children.

For more information on protecting children, youth, and vulnerable adults, click here.

I'm back in the office after a week away on business/pleasure in the Pacific Northwest. As I mentioned before, the business was Julia's actually--her professional association's annual meeting. My job was to watch Henry and try to get a little work done. In addition to visiting Seattle, we spent a few days in Vancouver, B.C. to see Henry's cousin, Lyra, and her parents, Julia's sister Christine and her husband Mike. It was a good trip, but it's nice to be back home.

It's also nice to see a new blog by a Prairie Star religious educator. Lori Allen, religious growth director at the Unitarian Church in Lincoln, Nebraska, is now blogging at Lori's Lincoln (b)Log. I have to hand it to her for coming up with a nifty name. I also appreciate the way Lori's using her blog: it's a nice mix of church-related business with some personal stuff mixed in. (Take a look at the photos of Lori's growing family!) At any rate, this is exactly the kind of connections I'd like to see religious educators making here in Prairie Star. I'd be happy to coach anyone out there who's interested in starting a blog. Just drop me a line at psdlund@earthlink.net.
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One really nice fringe benefit of being the Prairie Star District’s Lifespan Program Director is the opportunity to see newsletters from all over the plains and prairie states that make up PSD. I’ve been trying to share some of the best things I’ve found in those newsletters through the Faith Developments “blog” I started a year or so ago. Usually it’s a column from a Prairie Star religious educator, although sometimes I post something from a volunteer or a youth advisor. Thing is, this really isn’t a blog (or web log) for a couple of reasons: one is that these are newsletter columns and not blog posts (there’s a difference); the other reason is that I haven’t been able to post things as frequently as I’d like. Ideally, a blog should have a new post at least once a week—preferably two or three times a week.

So I’d like to start making a slight change to the way I’m posting items on Faith Developments. I’m going to continue to post the best of what I’m reading in newsletters around the district on the Faith Developments blog. But I’m going to start summarizing those posts here as well. I’ll also provide a link to the online version of the newsletter in which I found the post here. That way you can go and read it for yourself in context. Going directly to someone else’s site to read a post is the more acceptable way of sharing information on the internet, especially if that other site is a blog itself. And that, my friends, is my plan: to have more and more PSD religious educators, ministers, youth advisors, and lay leaders sharing their thoughts and expertise on the internet through blogs. It may take awhile, but that’s the dream.

So, here’s a quick rundown of an interesting column I read in Expressions, the monthly newsletter from the Unitarian Universalist Church of Minnetonka. It’s by their Religious Educator Director, Andrea Heier. What impressed my about this article is the subject matter: Putting Family First, which is not just a phrase, but the name of an organization whose mission is “to raise awareness about the crucial connections between parents and children, and helps families find balance in their lives.” Andrea has helped to make families a priority in her congregation, and she’s done a great job of using Putting Family First as a resource. You can take a look at Andrea’s original article here (PDF), or by visiting Faith Developments.
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I promised my colleague at the Minnesota Religious Coalition for Reproductive Choice that I'd write a post about this upcoming event (which is particularly appropriate given the subject matter of my last few posts). It's a Call-In Day to Support Comprehensive Sexuality Education, and it's happening this coming Monday, March 26, 2007. Here's the deal: our UUA Washington Office would like youth, young adults, and anyone interested in supporting Comprehensive Sexuality Education to call or e-mail their senators and urge them to support the Responsible Education About Life Act. You can download a PFD with complete information here. All you have to tell them is this:

I’m calling today to ask for the Senator’s support of the REAL Act which would provide federal funding for comprehensive sexuality education programs. As a religious person I'm outraged that we're failing to protect the health of our nation's young people by funding abstinence-only programs that promote medically inaccurate information. Please co-sponsor the REAL act today.

It's that easy. And you can find out more about the REAL Act here. It's definitely worth our support.
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A quick post this morning before Julia, Henry, and I head off to Seattle for a meeting of TESOL, Julia's professional association. (We're going to mix a little pleasure with our business, too, and visit our Canadian kin in Vancouver after the conference!). I just wanted to call your attention to a couple of things. One is the new blogroll I'm trying out (you can find it below the "Recent Comments" section to the right). It's powered by FeedBlitz, and the reason I like this particular service is that it gives you two different ways to subscribe to the blogs listed: either through an RSS feed, or via e-mail. Now if none of this makes sense to you, don't worry--it didn't make much sense to me, either, until I started reading up on blogs and how to best use them. What I'd like to do with my blogroll is offer a list of blogs intended primarily for Prairie Star District religious educators, ministers, and lay people interested in issues around lifespan faith development. And what would really make it cool is if more and more RE folks in our district had blogs of their own. That way we could have an interconnected web of weblogs!

The other thing I wanted to call your attention to is Debra Haffner's blog Sexuality and Religion: What's the Connection? It's a perfect example of the importance of blogs for keeping up with issues that affect us all. Debra blogs regularly about sexuality and religion, and as you know from previous posts, her resources are essential reading for those of us interested in making our congregations as safe as possible. Her blog is essential reading, too. So if you'd like to try out the FeedBlitz service, click on the icons next to here blog at the left. Consider subscribing via RSS or directly to your e-mail inbox. And if you have any questions about what this means, drop me a line and I'll walk you through it.
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I'm spending a few moments this morning catching up on blog posts that have been delivered to my NewsGator inbox (it's a great way to keep track of your favorite blogs without having to visit each site!). Anyway, I noticed this post from Philocrites (aka Chris Walton, senior editor of the UU World, and the driving force behind the World's award-winning online version). He points out that the UU Church of Berkeley "has started using YouTube, the social-networking video site, to host a welcome message from the ministers (featured on the front page of the church's site) and selected worship services." That's brilliant, if you ask me. I could see a congregation having multiple videos: in addition to a welcome message and selected worship services, one could also post videos about the children's programs, the youth group, multigenerational events, teasers for adult religious education classes, and so forth. We have the technology. If we use it, they will come!
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Last week I sent out a special edition of the new Lifespan Faith Development newsletter that's e-mailed to religious educators, youth advisors, ministers, and lay leaders in the Prairie Star District (if you're not currently getting the newsletter, send me an e-mail at plund@psduua.org and I'll add you to the list). The subject of the special e-mail was concern over the number of reports regarding known or suspected sex offenders attending UU congregations in Prairie Star. I didn't mention this in the e-mail, but I'm especially concerned about this increase because it means, in my opinion, one of two things: either we've had these sex offenders in our congregations for quite sometime and are only now discovering it (because of increased use of required background checks, etc.); or know sex offenders are deliberately targeting UU congregations because the word has spread that we're soft touches who make it fairly easy for a "repentant" offender to have unsupervised access to children, youth, and vulnerable adults.

How might this word have gotten out? Well, apparently congregational leaders aren't the only group of web-saavy folks in the word. It seems that pedophiles have developed quite a online community to support one another in their specific interests (sex with children or adolescents, boys or girls, etc.) and to help each other find ways to gain unsupervised access to victims. There was a article published in the New York Times last year clearly shows the lengths to which sex offenders will go in order to get close to the objects of their sexual desire. Please read "Dark Corners: On the Web, Pedophiles Extend Their Reach" for yourself, especially if you or someone in your congregation has any thoughts whatsoever that a known sex offender in your community has reformed and can be trusted around children, youth, or vulnerable adults. If you have any doubts at all, consider this exchange reported in the article:

Using deception to gain access to children is a recurring theme. For example, on a site for adults attracted to boys, someone calling himself Vespucci asked in June whether a single man could become a foster father. The respondents cautioned Vespucci to disguise his pedophilia.

“You better have a darned good excuse why you never married, such as your fiancée died in a car wreck,” replied a man calling himself simply “d.” “I highly recommend you date women for several years and keep at least a couple of those relationships going for at least a couple of months. Around the women, make a point of being nice to children.”

The deception would be worthwhile, d wrote. “It will help out in the reference-check dept. when you apply.”

If a pedophile is willing to date a woman for several years in order to get a good reference as a foster parent, what makes us thing a convicted sex offender wouldn't hang around a UU congregation for a few years in order to gain unsupervised access to children, youth, and vulnerable adults?
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