Mailbox, Spring 2008

Article on Unitarian Universalism and class continues to draw responses.
By Jane Greer
Spring 2008 2.15.08

We received a total of 58 letters after the publication of our Winter 2007 issue. The largest number, ten, continued the conversation about the Fall 2007 issue’s cover story, “Not My Father’s Religion: Unitarian Universalism and the Working Class,” by Doug Muder, which received a record-breaking 70 letters (many featured in the Winter letters column). Six letters reacted to the Winter issue’s cover story, “Divine Order vs. Sacred Liberty: America’s Founding Faiths,” by Forrest Church; four to the “Forum” article on mandatory minimum sentencing for drug-related crimes; and nine to various news and “Reflections” pieces.

Melissa Mummert’s “Forum” article, “Tragic Consequences of the War on Drugs,” elicited two re­sponses from incarcerated UUs. “Mummert deserves accolades for her work exposing the folly of mandatory sentencing,” wrote Mark L. Brown of La­Grange, Kentucky, “but changing the state and/or federal schemes may be too lofty a goal especially as legislators continue to be re-elected by appearing to be ‘tough on crime.’” Michael (last name withheld at writer’s request) in Safford, Arizona, praised the article as “a clear voice of reform and justice seldom heard in any media.” He urged UUs to help prisoners by participating in the Church of the Larger Fellowship’s prison letter-writing ministry.

James Q. Burgess of Englewood, Florida, wrote to say how much he appreciated Donald E. Skinner’s “Con­gregational Life” article, “Con­gregations Welcome Trans­gender People.” “Transgender phenomena have occupied a major part of my life,” he wrote. “The lay UUs I have met, and their propensity to question everything, have been exceptionally helpful in understanding why I enjoy the symbolic connection with the feminine through clothing.”

In the “other” file were missives on global warming, the need for greater recognition for Native Americans, a complaint about the UUA logo, and a call to “redefine the sinful benefits of chocolate.”