I have a small scar on my hip, a little reminder: “You can’t toy with the ocean.” I was body surfing in Laguna Beach, riding the big waves in, using my chest as if a surfboard. I had a wonderful day. What fun! I wanted it to go on. The waves seemed to be changing, as if to say, “Go in,” but I was greedy for one more ride. I got that ride and then some. A huge wave sped me towards shore, but it…
Nude Sermon: Deeper than Shame is Glory Intro This sermon comes in response to Ashland’s recent ban on nudity in public places. Thanks to Eric Navickas and Carol Voisin for trying to defend nudity, difficult and edgy though that cause was. Eric’s reasoning and passion inspired me to contribute my art to this event. Thanks to Amy Godard for opening MAda Shell Gallery for nude art, music, and sermon. Though I came to Ashland in 1986 to be the first minister of the RVUUF (for…
God’s Goods is not primarily about God. God’s Goods is about the goods “God” “created” and called “good,” and it is about the violation of those goods by the three theistic religions. God’s Goods is not a Christian religion, nor even primarily theistic. It is a humanistic, naturalistic, deistic religious perspective that seeks to reconnect humanity to its natural origin, home, responsibilities, and possibilities. God, for Better or Worse Cultures generate god-images which then orient and guide those cultures. Humans may be seen as the…
Faith in the Larger Liberty: American Deism Picture this: Our president in the White House takes scissors to Bible, cutting out of the New Testament all that makes Jesus more God than human. Out goes the virgin birth story, the miracles, even the resurrection. When preachers object, he calls them “soothsayers and necromancers.” To top it off, he is having an extended affair with his half-black servant, fathering children with her. Such a scandal would leave Fox News sputtering, unsure how to begin the spin…
First off, let’s admit we all need to eat something. All living things take something in and let something out. Whether through a cell membrane or a mouth and anus, we need to eat and expel to live. There is no shame in that. Even the sun eats and expels to exist. We are made of the cooled matter of an old star explosion. We are lighted, warmed, and powered by our current star, and we will be eaten by it farther in the…
It ain’t necessarily so, no it ain’t necessarily so. The things that you’re liable to read in the Bible It ain’t necessarily so. Mathusala lived nine hundred years, yea, Mathusala lived nine hundred years. But who calls that livin’ when no gal will give in to No man what’s nine hundred years. I’m glad to be in a religious tradition where both aspects of this naughty song can be sung in church: the Bible might not be true, and a sex joke. Both…
Minor Mind Mending An outgoing, uplifting stage personality killed herself recently. Who would have suspected such a powerhouse of positivity would have such a dark side as to tragically die too early because of it? Everyone was shocked. Towards six hundred people attended her memorial service at our university in Ashland. I wanted to put her loss to the community’s gain and so joined an ad-hoc group. We wanted somehow to help prevent suicides. Quickly, we entered the difficult and overwhelming world of mental…
THC, MDMA, LSD, DMT, etc. These letters are acronyms for four kinds of drugs that I would like to explore in this sermon. Basically, I will recommend them as possibly problematic but potentially beneficial for persons and society. On the whole, and especially compared with the Counter Culture, I have not found a lot of interest in entheogens or other drugs in our UU culture. UU’s have concern for civil liberties, curtailing a needless and excessive police/prison state, the right for people to live…
[Intro to this post.] Mel Gibson’s “The Passion of the Christ” is offensive. It starts dreary and goes gory. The brave honesty and loving kindness of Jesus is absent. Undeserved agony is the only story. Then, in the end, poof! He’s all cleaned up and fresh again, miraculously. It offends as Christianity does, making Jesus fit its scheme: An inscrutable God sends his own son to suffer and die for the sins we do in order to save us from the even more hideous hell…
