Rescuing America and Christianity from Conservatives

I’m wearing this impractical but elegant ceremonial robe to illustrate the longer and larger tradition of friendliness in American sectarian relations. Baptist deacon Norman Bennet liked what we did at the Red Hill Universalist Church in rural southeast North Carolina, a liberal Christian congregation going back some 150 years. Norm liked me so much he bought my graduation robe. He gave me it and a 12 gauge shotgun, which I also still have. Norman valued our liberal religious ways because they provide needed balance to…

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Religiously Political

Announcements for November 2  “Religiously Political” with Rev. Brad Carrier (See also accompanying newsletter entry "Religiously Political prep" in Editorials) We inherit the responsibility and opportunity to tend to our own government.  We should vote, but that is the minimum we can do.  Citizens can more importantly speak their truth in community discourse.  Authenticity and honesty are the fruit, flower and seed of democracy.  Let’s remember our founder’s intent and evaluate our political directions according to our religious values and aspirations. Sermon We’re so inundated…

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Religious Values in our Election (2004)

Whether we’re conservative or liberal it’s ours to tell what values we hold, no matter what we’re told. Christianity, the Renaissance, the Enlightenment, and our own beloved rights-based democracy in America - all increasingly entrusted us with our free will. We sovereign citizens should know, share and vote our own free conscience, not what someone tells us. Lately, we’re told certain religious values in the election prevailed and should prevail. We’re told that decent people in the heartland, feeling culturally ignored, voted against their pockets…

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Recession’s Lessons

“Where there is no vision, there is no hope,” said George Washington Carver.  This current recession, the worst since the Great Depression, has shocked us out of the empty hope for endless free money and replaced it with the dashed hopes of missing money, lost jobs, and less happiness.  Stress signs are everywhere, from increased drug abuse and family violence to empty stores, vacant homes, and bankruptcies little and large.  Our fear circuits, worn ragged since 9-11, are roused again.  Petty crime is on the…

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Passion’s Fog: a Review of “The Passion of the Christ” and “The Fog of War.”

Passion can fog the mind. We can get so roused or riled we no longer think clear or heed our conscience. We can get so swept up in lust, love or anger we think of nothing else. We can get so full of zeal we barely notice or care what it does to others. I’m not against passion. We need passion to enliven us. Like Rod Stewart’s song says, “Even the president needs some passion, passion.” The mild twinges of passion we get from watching…

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Why We Need Each Other – A Meditation on Left and Right

Our America eagle can’t survive without both a right and left wing.  As is, it wars against itself, one wing battering the other, flapping around in circles.  The dangerous divide in our country between left and right – between red states and blue states, between city and rural, between educated and not, between moneyed and not – cannot grow in rancor without ruining our common condition. Nor can our Unitarian Universalist congregations be whole without honoring and including so-called left and right types of thinking. …

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Marriage, Gay Marriage and the Human Family

The most unusual wedding I ever performed was of a woman to herself.  On the shore of Lake Michigan I pronounced this lovely, creative creature One, adding, “What God hath joined together, let no one rent asunder.”  Of course, this was a spiritual ceremony, not a legal contract, though the marriage issue could be stretched to consider calling such a union a marriage.  Or should it?  Just what is a marriage, who qualifies, and who decides?   Let us consider marriage, gay marriage, and the…

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Lovely, Lonely Liberals

To be liberal means being generous, open minded, innovative, and kind.  It is the force of the new, the progressive.  It is inclusive and visionary, seeking freedom and progress for the whole of society.   It does not war against conservative forces, but uses them to stabilize a system while innovating within it.  Conservative and liberal are dynamics of nature -- structure, experimentation, and new birth.   It is a sign of how regressive an era we live in that the word liberal is used as…

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For Mary

“My Goddess Gave Birth to Your God” reads the bumper sticker.  The growing notion that God is not just and only male is well known in our UU churches and in other niches in society.  Feminism has grown with us for decades and centuries.  Gradually, it spreads around the world, bringing women status, freedoms, compensation, and rights in societies where patriarchy has ruled unquestioned for millennia.  We need the Divine Mother, not just Our Father.  But let’s also be careful to not just honor the…

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Focus on the Family

Focus on the Family, a conservative Christian group, teaches that “the foundation of society for the family is marriage of a man and a woman for life.”  “One man, one woman, one life” is deemed to be God’s plan and instruction.  This group is largely against homosexual marriage, but it also rails against no-fault divorce, pre-marital and extra-marital sex, group marriage, and other variations of their ideal scheme.  They cite decent research showing the benefits of a stable traditional family, and they warn weakening the…

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