{"id":4554,"date":"2012-10-14T18:03:47","date_gmt":"2012-10-14T22:03:47","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/beginnersheart\/?p=4554"},"modified":"2012-10-14T18:03:47","modified_gmt":"2012-10-14T22:03:47","slug":"un-learning-when-buddhism-unitarian-universalism-conflate","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/beginnersheart\/2012\/10\/un-learning-when-buddhism-unitarian-universalism-conflate.html","title":{"rendered":"un-learning (when Buddhism & Unitarian Universalism conflate) ~"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>I don’t go to church much. When I do, I go to All Souls Unitarian Universalist<\/a>, the largest UU church in the world. In Tulsa.\u00a0 Tulsa.<\/p>\n

Today I went to see my nephew officially welcomed in to the congregation.\u00a0 His significant other is UU from her earliest childhood — grew up at All Souls — and he also has found a home there. It’s one of the most welcoming churches I’ve been to.<\/p>\n

The\u00a0 sermon was a prime example of why I consider myself as much UU as Buddhist. The senior minister’s ‘sermon’ — more a reflection and sharing of thoughts — was about what we need to ‘un-learn.’ And there is much, especially here in the home of the 4th worst race riot in American history.<\/p>\n

Tulsa is a city deeply divided. Has been for generations, and still reaps the stunted harvest of violence & difference. We are an essentially segregated city, divided into de facto<\/em> quarters: north Tulsa is African American; east Tulsa is Hispanic; south Tulsa is upper middle class white; west Tulsa is blue collar white. The old centre of town is old money, all white. And even within that enclave, there is the Maplewood area — which used to be Jewish — and ‘other’ money.<\/p>\n

Newcomers don’t see this immediately. And whites often reject this map, saying that segregation ‘is all behind us.’ Well, no. It’s not. But at All Souls — flagship of a religion\/ belief system seen by many as a liberal white country club — the UU congregation is walking the walk it’s also talking. Because All Souls is moving. Not immediately, but soon. North. Out of the old money neighbourhood, out of the beautiful white church w\/ the bright light falling in great shafts through the tall windows.\u00a0 North.<\/p>\n

Did I mention there’s a lot to unlearn in Tulsa? Racial stereotypes, \"\"<\/a>ethnic stereotypes, gender & class & political and every kind of stereotype you can imagine. We’re a kind of confluence of the vectors blowing across America. Right outside of Tulsa we have both a major KKK office and a major neo-Nazi party office. But we also have the Sherwin Miller Museum of Jewish Art, and the Jewish Federation’s amazing Holocaust Council. We have the John Hope Franklin Center for Reconciliation, trying hard to move this fractured city beyond the Tulsa Race Riot of 1921 (it still haunts us…). And we have All Souls, actively working to promote social justice and access.<\/p>\n

I talk much in this space about learning beginner’s heart. But today, something said in church resonated strongly: to be filled w\/ new learning, there needs to be emptiness, too. It seemed the perfect meeting of Buddhism & Unitarian Universalism<\/a>.\u00a0 There needs to be stillness, space for the new. Breathe out, in other words. Then you can breathe in…<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I don’t go to church much. When I do, I go to All Souls Unitarian Universalist, the largest UU church in the world. In Tulsa.\u00a0 Tulsa. Today I went to see my nephew officially welcomed in to the congregation.\u00a0 His significant other is UU from her earliest childhood — grew up at All Souls —…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":398,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[37,4,68],"tags":[11,1187,262,1179,1204],"class_list":["post-4554","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-family","category-unitarian","category-universalism","tag-beginners-heart","tag-buddhism","tag-buddhist-blogs","tag-unitarian","tag-universalism"],"yoast_head":"\nun-learning (when Buddhism & Unitarian Universalism conflate) ~ - Beginner's Heart<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"I don't go to church much. When I do, I go to All Souls Unitarian Universalist, the largest UU church in the world. In Tulsa.\u00a0 Tulsa. Today I went to see\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/beginnersheart\/2012\/10\/un-learning-when-buddhism-unitarian-universalism-conflate.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"un-learning (when Buddhism & Unitarian Universalism conflate) ~ - Beginner's Heart\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"I don't go to church much. When I do, I go to All Souls Unitarian Universalist, the largest UU church in the world. In Tulsa.\u00a0 Tulsa. Today I went to see\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/beginnersheart\/2012\/10\/un-learning-when-buddhism-unitarian-universalism-conflate.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Beginner's Heart\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2012-10-14T22:03:47+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/beginnersheart\/files\/2012\/10\/all-souls-church.jpg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Britton Gildersleeve\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"un-learning (when Buddhism & Unitarian Universalism conflate) ~ - Beginner's Heart","description":"I don't go to church much. When I do, I go to All Souls Unitarian Universalist, the largest UU church in the world. In Tulsa.\u00a0 Tulsa. Today I went to see","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/beginnersheart\/2012\/10\/un-learning-when-buddhism-unitarian-universalism-conflate.html","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"un-learning (when Buddhism & Unitarian Universalism conflate) ~ - Beginner's Heart","og_description":"I don't go to church much. When I do, I go to All Souls Unitarian Universalist, the largest UU church in the world. In Tulsa.\u00a0 Tulsa. Today I went to see","og_url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/beginnersheart\/2012\/10\/un-learning-when-buddhism-unitarian-universalism-conflate.html","og_site_name":"Beginner's Heart","article_published_time":"2012-10-14T22:03:47+00:00","og_image":[{"url":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/beginnersheart\/files\/2012\/10\/all-souls-church.jpg"}],"author":"Britton Gildersleeve","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/beginnersheart\/2012\/10\/un-learning-when-buddhism-unitarian-universalism-conflate.html","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/beginnersheart\/2012\/10\/un-learning-when-buddhism-unitarian-universalism-conflate.html","name":"un-learning (when Buddhism & Unitarian Universalism conflate) ~ - Beginner's Heart","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/beginnersheart\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/beginnersheart\/2012\/10\/un-learning-when-buddhism-unitarian-universalism-conflate.html#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/beginnersheart\/2012\/10\/un-learning-when-buddhism-unitarian-universalism-conflate.html#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/beginnersheart\/files\/2012\/10\/all-souls-church.jpg","datePublished":"2012-10-14T22:03:47+00:00","dateModified":"2012-10-14T22:03:47+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/beginnersheart\/#\/schema\/person\/b4348bfbe2223c0ec325db830aa95f52"},"description":"I don't go to church much. When I do, I go to All Souls Unitarian Universalist, the largest UU church in the world. In Tulsa.\u00a0 Tulsa. Today I went to see","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/beginnersheart\/2012\/10\/un-learning-when-buddhism-unitarian-universalism-conflate.html#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/beginnersheart\/2012\/10\/un-learning-when-buddhism-unitarian-universalism-conflate.html"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/beginnersheart\/2012\/10\/un-learning-when-buddhism-unitarian-universalism-conflate.html#primaryimage","url":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/beginnersheart\/files\/2012\/10\/all-souls-church.jpg","contentUrl":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/beginnersheart\/files\/2012\/10\/all-souls-church.jpg"},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/beginnersheart\/2012\/10\/un-learning-when-buddhism-unitarian-universalism-conflate.html#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/beginnersheart"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"un-learning (when Buddhism & Unitarian Universalism conflate) ~"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/beginnersheart\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/beginnersheart\/","name":"Beginner's Heart","description":"Beliefnet Voices - Britton Gildersleeve","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/beginnersheart\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/beginnersheart\/#\/schema\/person\/b4348bfbe2223c0ec325db830aa95f52","name":"Britton Gildersleeve","description":"Britton Gildersleeve is a 'third culture kid.' Years spent living on the margins - in places with exotic names and food shortages - have left her with a visceral response to folks \u2018without,\u2019 as well as a desire to live her Buddhism in an engaged fashion. She\u2019s a writer and a teacher, the former director of a federal non-profit for teachers who write. She believes that if we talk to each other, we can learn to love each other (but she's still learning how). And she believes in tea. She is (still) working on her beginner's heart ~","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/beginnersheart\/author\/brittongildersleeve"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/beginnersheart\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4554","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/beginnersheart\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/beginnersheart\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/beginnersheart\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/398"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/beginnersheart\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4554"}],"version-history":[{"count":11,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/beginnersheart\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4554\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4567,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/beginnersheart\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4554\/revisions\/4567"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/beginnersheart\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4554"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/beginnersheart\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4554"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/beginnersheart\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4554"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}