Jobs, Jobs and Job Jobs, we all want jobs. Or so we repeatedly hear. I don’t join that throng. I’m at that place in life where I only want to do what I want to do, and that is to serve this wayward, wanting world. Yet, as I listened to C-SPAN programs of election debates across the country in this 2014 election season, “creating jobs” was the main mantra. Millions of offshored jobs, and then a lasting recession. People are desperate for jobs, any jobs,…
I stand before you today with a mixture of trepidation and daring. Like often, I think we can consider touchy and complex issues with broad-minded thinking and good-hearted caring. I’ve no particular authority or expertise other than tending to think for myself and speak out loud in a setting of the “free and responsible search for truth and meaning.” So I dare, though I am uneasy; I trust we can handle it together. The topic is easy for some, unsettling for others. Homosexuality is a…
I was interviewed by my dear friend, Aletha Nowitzky, on her Saturday morning (10 - 11AM) radio show "Tasty Topics and Tantalizing Tunes" on KSKQ in Ashland, Oregon. (A low-power local station, but you can listen live on line.) She posted the show on their archive. Take a listen; it does a good job of exploring fatherhood, especially from my dad and for my three sons: http://www.kskq.org/index.php/145-tasty-topics-and-tantalizing-tunes/2048-tasty-topics-and-tantalizing-tunes-hosted-by-aletha-nowitzky-6-15-2013-an-innerview-with-ashland-dad-brad-carrier-in-honor-of-father-s-day
Better than Guns "Speaking is difficult, but I need to say something important. . . Violence is a big problem. Too many children are dying. Too many children. We must do something. It will be hard, but the time is now. You must act. Be bold, be courageous, Americans are counting on you. Thank you." Gabby Gifford I do not mock Gabby here; I join her in desperate vulnerability. We’re all vulnerable. We’re vulnerable to a whole host of problems before and beyond guns –…
America the Beautiful Because of Liberals and Conservatives An eagle soars high only on two wings. If such a grand bird were to use one of its wings against the other, it would be only crippled and crazy. America is a bird divided against itself. Instead of having a higher view, it flops and flounders on the ground. Such a bird needs psychiatric help or prophetic warning. That is my intent here today: I want to help America soar again. I see my beloved…
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…
We all will eventually die; moralists in congress want to make sure we’ll die slowly and expensively. Piously pretending to protect our human dignity, they instead rob us of it, commanding we subject our private lives to their national drug laws and presumptuous morality, no matter what we want. Lawmakers may deny the right to decide to die, but people usually have had the power to do so, when and how they choose. As a funeral director and clergyman, I’ve seen lots of people die.…
The Problem of Religion and the Promise of Creation Have you noticed that the three great monotheistic religions of the world are also the three great problem makers in the world? Is God the problem? Does God want these vast forces to wage war with the others? We’re told lately that society has gotten too secular, too wayward, and that we should return to our religions and have more faith. But should we? Haven’t religions often been the source of problems – from stifling knowledge…