• Story, "Amy"
• Participant journals
• Variety of writing and drawing implements
• Optional: Microphone

• Review the story so you can present it effectively.
• Copy the story for all participants.
• Arrange for a volunteer to read the story. If possible, give the volunteer the story ahead of time.

Share with participants:

Schulz does not preach the assurance of faith. He preaches the practice of steadfastness. Schulz believes, "Religion exists in large measure to help us confront the scariest things under the sun: things like boundless injustice, the explosion of dreams, the hard edge of suffering, and the magnet of death." He says we must learn how to stay the course through our own anxious feelings. So Schulz encourages us to be "a little less ashamed of our anxieties."

Distribute the story. Introduce it as a personal experience Schulz relates to help explain his view. Invite a volunteer to read the story aloud; participants may either listen closely or read along, whichever will best help them absorb the full impact of the story. After the reading, invite participants to respond to the story in their theology journals. After five minutes, read Schulz's own reflections on his experience:

We are all tempted, in the face of our own failings, to lash out at others. But from a religious perspective, the appropriate response to a recognition of our own demons is not to demonize others. It is to seek out common bonds. It is to recognize that virtually all people, of whatever stripe, feel the need to be safe in their homes, to be treated fairly by the authorities; to pass on a better life to their children; and to enjoy their rightful share of the earth's abundance. Part of the job of a government is to make it as easy as possible for its citizens to be good, to be their best selves, not their most ugly and degraded, and part of religion's job is to help us understand what those best selves look like. (See Leader Resource 2)

Continue with these or similar words:

Part of the role of both government and faith community, Schulz says, is "to save us from our basest passions in order to extract some semblance of worth and dignity out of the muck and meanness that infects our hearts." He disputes the idea that the worth and dignity of every person is inherent, and asks who assigns worth and dignity. Of the available options-divinity, natural law, and global public consensus-he believes that public consensus is the only viable option.

It is important to remember here that Schulz defines himself as someone who begins with lived experience. He understands human beings based on the experiences that shape their interests, guide their lives, and help them restrain or release their basest impulses. For Schulz, communities play a major role in shaping the experiences of the individual. Schulz's experiences as executive director of Amnesty International, USA, for 12 years caused him to fundamentally shift his perspective on human nature and the individual. Moreover, the role of the community (of nations, of worshippers, etc.) in shaping the individual's actions and mores gained new centrality in his thinking. He emerged from his Amnesty experiences with an even more firm belief in the power of our own worship services to be-even when they don't quite work-the "incarnational power of our faith."

Schulz believes "religion is not solely a matter of true or false beliefs. "Religion," he says, "is also a matter of practice and praise, feelings and faith. It is, that is to say, not just about the running itself; it is also about the catching of breath and the feel of the wind."

Invite participants to consider Schulz's observations and reflections about the role of religion and the faith community in saving us from our basest passions and helping us understand what our best selves look like. Allow two minutes of silent reflection and/or journaling. Then invite participants to form their small groups of three to share their personal experiences of the role their Unitarian Universalist community's worship life plays in their spiritual life. Would you think of it as the institutional incarnation of your faith, as Schultz suggests? Invite them to recall their example, thoughts, and reflections from Activity 1 to help them explain their response in concrete experiential terms.

Explain the small group process in these or similar words:

Listen deeply and caringly to the personal reflections of the other members of the group as each person speaks in turn for about three minutes. After each person has spoken a first time, the group is encouraged to move to a second round of reflection so each member may offer personal insights and ideas resulting from the first round of sharing. Please share your own feelings and thoughts rather than discussing or critiquing the thoughts and feelings of the other members of the group.

Allow 15 minutes for small group reflections.