​Unitarian Universalist​
Fellowship of the Peninsula

Grow in Wonder — Connect in Love — Engage in Service — Inspire Generosity

Sunday Morning Forum

Spirit.  Intellect.  Community.
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Contact:  adultre@uufp.org.
Sunday Morning Forum began many years ago in complement to minister led worship on Sunday mornings. With our Unitarian Universalist values as both foundation and springboard, the Forum has grown into a well moderated, high quality, adult discussion group that promotes learning on a wide variety of topics. It is a classroom of people who trust each other's good intentions and value each other's diverse opinions.

Together, UUFP's pastoral and laity-led educational opportunities nourish the mind and spirit and infuse us to be Light in the world!
Join us!
Every Sunday at 11:00 a.m. - 12:00 noon in the UUFP Office Building
13136 Warwick Boulevard, Newport News
Parking is available in the Office and Sanctuary lots and on both sides of Youngs Mill Lane.
Visit Sunday Morning Forum Archive to view our library of stimulating discussions.
Upcoming and most recent Forums are highlighted below.

Two Sunday Series:  April 22 & 29, 2018
​“Paperclips and Butterflies”

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Center Photo: Brent Moore
Presented by
Dennis Show and Julian Padowicz
How much is a million?  Can you even visualize six million?  This was a challenge for a group of middle-schoolers in tiny Whitwell, Tennessee.  The students could not grasp the enormity of the number of Jews murdered in the holocaust—six million.  When they came up with a plan to illustrate this figure, the response was overwhelming and led to an international story of love and remembrance.  A unique memorial was established at the school, drawing visitors from around the world.  Come on consecutive Sundays, April 22 and 29, see an award winning video and discuss what these amazing kids accomplished.  Your facilitators will be Dennis Shaw and Julian Padowicz, himself a survivor of the holocaust.
Previously at the Sunday Morning Adult Forum

“Prosperity Gospel: Evangelical Thought on Pre-existing Conditions”

Presented by Ken Goodrich
April 8 & 15, 2018
In this two Sunday series, we'll take up the Prosperity Gospel, one of the strongest and most controversial forces in American religion today.  With roots stretching back to transcendentalists like Ralph Waldo Emerson, the American Prosperity Gospel movement combines the power of positive thinking, self-empowerment, and a God who wants the faithful not only to have eternal life, but prosperity in the here and on.  Going beyond the pulpit, prosperity theology's foundational notion that individual success or failure are powerful indicators of divine worthiness is becoming a powerful undercurrent in the public sphere.

“Bumper Sticker Philosophy:  Plumbing the Depths”

Presented by Lehni Lebert
April 1, 2018
Our times are measured in 30 second sound bites and 140 character blurbs.  Is our philosophy reduced to what fits on bumper stickers? Or can they be deeper than a surface reflection?Topic promises to be both interesting and fun, so bring your favorite bumper sticker sayings!

​“The Ennea-What Now???”

Presented by Sarah Davis
​March 25, 2018
We’ll take a look at “The Enneagram of personality or simply the Enneagram; a description of the human psyche which is principally understood and taught as a typology of nine interconnected personality types.”  Wikipedia

March 18, 2018:  Loved Individuals, Beloved Community

By Kathryn Ozyurt
Christine Woods, who has been a long time favorite Sunday Morning Forum moderator, helped forum participants (via the Socratic method) choose their own subject for discussion on March 18.  A vote on topics such as, “why are people afraid of students speaking out,” and “how do we support young people with their efforts,” led to the choice of “how do we balance the right of the individual against the needs of the community.”
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Our thanks to Christine Woods, our faithful Socrates Café moderator! (Click to enlarge.)
This topic brought forth some interesting thoughts.  When people’s needs are not met, it leads to unrest.  Those who can, leave.  The original idea of democracy was to enable all voices to be heard.  Unfortunately, more and more, the emphasis on individual rights leads some to resort to violence when they can’t obtain what they feel they need.​​

Historically, a threat from outside, such as a World War, a natural disaster or fear of Communism, will cause people to band together.  However, the hurricane devastation of Puerto Rico, for example, did not bring America together.  So many disparate sources of information about a disaster or a horrible situation muddy the issues.  Sometimes we have too much information about too many events.  At the same time, distinguishing between propaganda and facts remains a tremendous challenge.  A New York Times article summarized this by saying that if we can’t agree on what is true, we can’t arrive at compromise.  Without compromise, we cannot work together.
 
There was also discussion about the media using individuals as focus points for various issues that affect the community, the nation or the world.  Unfortunately there is so much outrage and fear that our society is beginning to fall into collective exhaustion and is losing the ability to react to new events.  There was a Unitarian Universalist article several years ago that addressed this, saying that we should not let fear be our motivator.  One of our science fiction fans reminded us that in the novel “Dune,” The Bene Gesserit taught that “fear is the mind killer.”
 
Despite the divisiveness and fear in our society that lead us to focus on the individual to the detriment of the community, forum participants came to the conclusion that we could be a force of positive change.  We need to focus less on the myriad issues surrounding us and go small and personal through networking with others.  We can meet our own and our community’s needs by building the beloved community, both within our fellowship and in our surrounding neighborhoods.  The beloved community is the place where the individual is willing to compromise needs by conceding something to the greater community.  The beloved community accepts and supports the individual.  The beloved community builds bridges.

For those who would like to explore additional interesting topics, Christine also leads Socrates Café on the first Thursday of the month at 5:30 p.m. at the Charles H. Taylor Arts Center in Hampton, Virginia.

“Socrates Café”

Presented by Christine Woods
March 18, 2018
In this ever popular session, Christine Woods will moderate a discussion on a topic selected by Forum participants, using the Socratic technique. She will ask questions and challenge statements to stimulate critical thinking about the subject, and elicit logical conclusions.  
​Socrates Café are gatherings around the world where people from different backgrounds get together and exchange thoughtful ideas and experiences while embracing the central theme of Socializing; the idea that we learn more when we question and question with others.

March 11, 2018:  Fighting to End Virginia's Gerrymandering

By Mason Moseley
 “GERRYMANDERING is the deliberate manipulation of legislative district boundaries to advantage or benefit a particular party or group, or to cause disadvantage or harm to an opposing party or group.  It distorts the electoral process, undermines democracy, and renders legislative elections a meaningless exercise.” -OneVirginia2021​
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ONE PERSON, ONE VOTE
In theory, each person would have one equal vote. But depending on how those votes are grouped in the redistricting process that occurs every 10 years after the census, one vote per person may not be so straightforward.  To make matters worse, the establishment of the political boundaries that occur in redistricting has, over the years, resulted in an unscrupulous process known as "gerrymandering"—with Virginia being ranked as one of the most gerrymandered states in the country!
 
To shed light on this matter, the UUFP* Adult Form welcomed guest speakers on March 11, 2018, to educate listeners on gerrymandering and the current efforts underway to promote fair, non-partisan redistricting.  Brian Cannon, executive director of OneVirginia2021, was unable to facilitate the discussion as originally planned; however, he provided presenters of note: his mentor, Rebecca Green, professor of law at the William and Mary Law School, and Janice Bayer, an avid volunteer at OneVirginia2021.
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Professor Rebecca Green describes gerrymandering fundaments. (Click to enlarge.)
Professor Green began the presentation with a powerful illustration, demonstrating the challenges of fair redistricting.  While drawing straight lines on a map seemed to be the most "fair" approach, Professor Green showed that cities and communities could easily be divided in a way where citizens would not receive adequate representation (such as when redistricting lines are drawn through the center of a major city).  Also, the United States Constitution has two criteria for districting that must be met:  equal population, and racial and ethnic fairness.  Today’s sophisticated demographic data makes it possible to restrict ethnic diversity and group like-minded voters in districts, thus ensuring the balance of power remains with the party in charge at the time the lines are drawn.
Beyond the U.S. Constitutional districting requirements, the Virginia Constitution demands that congressional and state legislative districts be contiguous (touching) and compact.  To circumvent these requirements, two principal gerrymandering tactics are used:  "cracking" and "packing."  "Cracking" dilutes the voting power of the opposing party's supporters across many districts. "Packing" concentrates the opposing party's voting power in one district to reduce their voting power in other districts.

Although a legislature drawing its own district lines presents a conflict of interest, there has been no agreement on a standard redistricting process.  Different states have different laws for redistricting, allowing gerrymandering to flourish.  Applying legislation such as the Voting Rights Act and the First Amendment, court cases challenging gerrymandering have been percolating all over the country.
 
One attempt to create a standard measurement of partisan gerrymandering is the “Efficiency Gap,” which measures each party's "wasted" votes—votes that don't contribute to a candidate's win beyond the 51 percent majority needed for victory.  In an ideal, two-party world, the votes within a district should split roughly 50/50. In gerrymandering, however, one party seeks to minimize its wasted votes while maximizing the wasted votes of the opposing party.  By measuring how many "wasted" votes are cast in an election, the Efficiency Gap test can help determine if gerrymandering has occurred.
 
However, the Supreme Court has been wary of setting a standard of fairness beyond race and ethnicity, which would require lines be redrawn.  Professor Green pointed out how Supreme Court Justice Anthony Kennedy has left an “open door” regarding the establishment of a redistricting standard based on a First Amendment challenge from Maryland.  Precedent from the Constitution's Framers is elusive, as there were no political parties at the time.  Baker v. Carr, 369 U.S 186 (1962) was the case setting up federal court review of redistricting cases.
Janice Bayer then spoke on specific efforts by OneVirginia2021 to prepare for the redistricting that will occur after the 2020 census. OneVirginia2021's goal is to amend the State Constitution to have an independent commission conduct the state's redistricting.  As Bayer showed, amending the Constitution is difficult; however, redistricting has become a bipartisan issue, as the party who wrote the last plan will want “fairness” if they find themselves in the minority after any future census.  Also, the makeup of the State legislature determines many matters in people’s lives and should represent the views of all citizens. ​
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Janice Bayer explains the process involved in amending the State Constitution to stop gerrymandering. (Click to enlarge.)
*Unitarian Universalist Fellowship of the Peninsula
OneVirginia2021 is currently seeking voters to sign petitions and contact legislators in its 10-month push to address gerrymandering in the next legislative session.  Want your one vote back in your hands?  You can sign the petition here:  Participate - Sign Petition.
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