UU Sunday, February 14th, 2010 - Commitment in Romance

Last modified on 2010-02-08 00:30:25 GMT. 0 comments. Top.

Commitment in Romance:  An Old-Fashioned, Religious, but Free-Thought Defense

American culture, and Western culture generally, is reviewing and changing its understanding of romantic commitment.  The old ideal - a life-long promise of sexual and emotional exclusiveness - is increasingly seen as unnatural, as a constraint upon our human capacities to include others in our love.  The emerging ideal promotes multiple romantic loves, sees exclusiveness as a temporary preference at best, and understands itself as more natural.  The old ideal, by contrast, is seen as possessive and controlling.

But are ‘possessiveness’ and ‘control’ the goal when we promise to ‘foresake all others’?  Does the free love ideal, by contrast, deliver on its promise to expand human love?   Andrew Kerr, Speaker of the Free Congregation, will argue that intimacy is the goal of the old exclusive ideal.  The emotions surrounding intimacy - meaning, courage, trust, peace - require an exclusive commitment precisely because these emotions are unnatural.  The natural emotions encouraged by the free love ideal - happiness, pleasure, excitement, contentment - will never bring us to our full humanity.

Please bring a flower for joys and concerns and share a special romantic love or moment.

Enjoy watching Molly and Bill Arbogast perform the Balcony Scene from Romeo and Juliet!

Bring chocolates to share after the program!  We’ll also have some cheese, and bread, and red wine!

“A Book of Verses underneath the Bough,
A Jug of Wine, a Loaf of Bread–and Thou
Beside me singing in the Wilderness–
Oh, Wilderness were Paradise enow!“

Welcome to the Free Congregation of Sauk County

We are a religious community made up of people from diverse backgrounds and different faith traditions who have chosen to embrace some common principles, among them the freedom to engage in our own personal search for truth and meaning. We require of no one a profession of theological belief or disbelief; rather, we seek to continually examine and clarify our basic principles and world views. We view religion as a question to be explored rather than as an answer to be received or revealed.  We believe that ethical behavior and action is the only reasonable course for humans to pursue; consistent with that belief, we are united in our conviction that only by helping others and seeking to improve the world can we realize our full humanity.