Our Spiritual Theme for May is

 

Dear Beloveds,

I remember reading a newspaper story about online anonymity a few years ago about a small business owner whose business was almost ruined by anonymous online critical reviews. Like many businesses this one had an online marketing and social media presence. Although there was an occasional bad review or poor opinion of the business posted, most were favorable and sometimes even contained helpful critical feedback. Then one day dozens upon dozens of bad reviews started showing up on the business’s Facebook page, Instagram, Yelp entry, and Google entry.  After some investigation, it turned out that every single one of them was being posted by an employee at a rival local small business.  The person posting had never used the business but invented made-up stories critical of the business. The critic didn’t use their own online account to post the criticisms but create dozens and dozens of fake Facebook accounts from which they trashed the other business.   Not only was this behavior unethical, but it also lacked the most basic personal integrity.   We live in the era of “fake news” and we all know now the dangers of posting and spreading lies and false or incomplete information. Yet there is another aspect to this type of incident that often goes unexplored.  If you’re the business owner who has been the victim of this slander against your business, how do you know when any new criticism of the business or any suggestion for improvement is valid?  I imagine it becomes difficult to take comments and reviews at face value and causes you to want to look up, and verify if possible, the identity of every single person posting a comment or review. Who has that time or emotional energy?

The article I read went on to talk about the difficulties of business ethics, as if somehow business ethics is or should be an oxymoron, especially now in the digital age. It reminded me once again that ethics, integrity, kindness, and compassion can’t be legislated or mandated and is even more powerful and important than rules and laws.  How we choose to act matters. Our actions and words can help and heal or harm and hurt.  It’s important to act and speak with honesty and integrity.   To speak and act with honesty and integrity we need to understand, know, and live by our own authentic story; to live into what we say we believe – to walk our talk.   This sounds simple enough and easy enough, but we can often forget or neglect to practice this, especially when what we have to say is difficult and might put us at odds with family, friends, or neighbors.  This month let’s make one of our practices owing and sharing our own authentic story.

With love,
Rev. Tony 

Tune in at 10:20 a.m. for announcements, and the service begins at 10:30 a.m. You do not need a Facebook account to view the service. 
 

Hymn of the Month:  Singers of All Kinds Wanted for the UUOne Virtual Choir's NEXT HYMN:  "Spirit of Life", one of our most revered pieces of music.  If you're not on our email list and would like to be included, we'd LOVE to hear from you -- please contact Ann Quackenbos or Jeff May.  We will be using this hymn many times, and the more voices we have, the better.  

 

Justice Woodbury – meets Sundays at 12:30 p.m. at North Green in Woodbury. Justice Southbury – meets Sundays at 2 p.m. at Playhouse Corner