The Orange Songbook: Recent Episodes
The Orange Songbook
Season One comes to a conclusion as the Orange Songbook team contemplate the culture of communication within the Unificationist community.
With a degree of self-reflection, the lads consider the impact of the OSB project on promoting wider discussion, and invite you - the listeners - to get more involved in Season Two.
How did True Father respond to the trauma of family tragedy during his adolescence? Was he justified for fighting against Japanese imperialist occupation? And did True Father have an irresponsible attitude towards money?
Continuing through True Father's autobiography, 'As a Peace-Loving Global Citizen', the chaps consider the relatable lessons that can be learnt from his late teen and early adult years, which include how to earn an income and how to respond to suffering.
Was Sun Myung Moon a perfect child? Did his early years affect his worldview? And just how reliable is the autobiography as a window into the real story of our True Father?
The OSB team are starting a sporadic series of episodes during which they journey through a story, starting with the autobiography of Sun Myung Moon, "As a Peace-Loving Global Citizen." This week, the geezers review Chapter One, ruminating on True Father's language skills, his treatment of cows and his ability to spin a story.
Are 1st generation members generally faithful, uneducated, traumatised, vertically oriented and unable to work in groups? Are 2nd generation members generally cynical, career focused, traumatised, suspicious of leadership and naturally able to make friends and work in teams?
1st and 2nd generation members increasingly need to work together. This is no more so apparent in the process of 2nd generation matching and blessing, which requires the cooperation of parents and children. However there's a significant tension between the generations due to some qualitative differences. This week the blokes compare sweeping generalisations about the first two generations and wonder if they'll ever be able to work together effectively.
How do you become a member of the Unification Church? What barrier is there to membership and what benefits does membership provide? Does membership of a religious organisation even matter?
Not many people are joining the FFWPU in Britain, so for many who grew up in the British Unificationist community, it's hard to imagine how a person becomes a member. This week the fellas compare the membership processes of other faith communities and wonder if the blessing is a barrier (or even the gate) to Unificationist membership. They also discuss whether or not it's possible to leave the church even if you were born into the community.
Who and what is the messiah? Is it a title you are born with, or is it a position that is earnt? Do we even need to be saved?
Unificationists generally consider True Parents to be a messianic couple, completing the mission of saving humanity left unaccomplished by Jesus. But all Unificationists are also called to be messiahs in our own right. This week, the chaps wonder if they themselves are messiahs, or are they just naughty boys? And God save them if they get it wrong!
Do you get annoyed by the way some people pray? Are some people's prayers too predictable? And do some people substitute action with prayer when actually actions would be better?
Prayer is an important string on the bow of spiritual exercises, practised by many faith communities. The Unificationist prayer could be said to be characterised by profuse tears. Or be repetitions of the same mindless words. This week, the gents explore their experiences of prayer within the Unificationist community (and beyond) and particularly ask whether or not prayer substitutes for action, when in fact actions would be more appropriate.
What's the point of leaders meetings? Aren't they a waste of time and resources? What impact do they have anyway? And can we trust the so-called "leaders" who attend them?
Leaders from Unificationist communities and organisations from around the world regularly gather for leaders meetings on local, national and regional levels, but often those who attend them feel frustrated that the meetings could be run better. In this week's episode the lads sneak into the PeaceTV studios in Korea and reflect on their experiences of past and recent meetings, considering how they could be better.
What is grace? Do we deserve to be forgiven? Doesn't it help to regret the things we've done wrong? And does forgiveness work even if you never confess to another person?
Unificationists around the world have been invited to offer specific conditions of devotion in order to qualify to receive a Special Grace. The guidelines sent from the International HQ try to help members navigate their way through these conditions, but do they present more problems? This is not the first time a universal amnesty has been offered to FFWPU members; who's to say we won't make big mistakes again anyway? Isn't it fair to expect that another chance to receive grace will emerge in the future some time? In this episode, the lads explore their reaction to this Special Grace and ask whether or not it could be meaningful to them.
What are conditions and why do unificationists do them? Do they actually make a difference and, if they do, how do they affect our lives?
Sometimes doing prayer conditions or 40 bows for some obscure reason has been so much of what a religious lifestyle has been. Because of this, we can easily overlook what the actual reason for doing conditions is. We can sometimes end up doing these conditions out of faith alone, ignoring the bigger offering and the effects that conditions have on our own personal growth. In this episode the guys try to make sense of religious conditions and ask the question "what is the point of doing them"?