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Are UU’s Christian?

Are Unitarian Universalists Christian?  Some are.  Some aren’t.  The question is as old as the religions themselves, going back to their forming and founding.  The answer depends on who gets to answer.  If orthodox (that is, “conforming to approved doctrine”) Christians get to determine, then no, we’re not.  We’re heretics, which word comes from “those who choose,” because we choose to see and say our truth, our Christianity, as our religion.  That’s older than the Protestant Reformation, for the early Christians differed too, some claiming…

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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 their own lives as long as…

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Sex? Yes!

(I believe in human wholeness – not fragmentation, not partiality, not alienation.  Does this include sex?  Yes!  What the Creator built in we should not shame and alienate.  The topic is vast, the approaches to it are many, and the feelings about it can be prone to upheaval.  What I offer here is limited, provocative, reasonable, and sincere.  I appreciate my liberal congregation, which took this in thoughtful stride.  The version they heard was about half as long as what here follows.)   “Oh, God!”…

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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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Loving More and More Loving

“These things abide: faith, hope, and love, but the greatest of these is love.” (1 Cor. 13:13) “Love, oh love, you crazy love.” Love is the cause and core of being human. Lusty love, luscious love, languid love, lively love, lovely love, we yearn for love, go wild in love, grow stale in love, grant our love, give it, get it, grasp it, lose it, find it, make it, grow it, get saved by it. Annoying love, obsessive love, exploring love, ignoring love, deploring love,…

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Human Music

Dogs don’t dance.  I’ve been to many a bouncy dance situation where everyone is jerking and swaying, but the dogs just walk around.  They’re not alone.  Lots of animals don’t display an interest in music or dancing, and I’ve noticed most young children also don’t dance.  Only a few rare ones seem to get the beat and try to bob up and down with it.  As they mature, though, they do get it and start liking certain songs, going to dances, and sometimes playing an…

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Alternatives to the War on Drugs (2002)

Thirty years ago as a young student minister in Michigan I preached against our government’s persecution and prohibition of drugs. In the back of the room the local police and prosecutors sat, glowering. In the front, in the pulpit, I rolled what appeared to be a joint. However, because marijuana was illegal, I had to use imaginary marijuana, relying only on the placebo effect for our shared spiritual experience. I toked it up, held my breath, and passed it around as a communion. Most people…

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The Answer to Our Humanistic Prayers

Humanists tend not to believe in prayer.  Humanists believe in human ability and choice in a natural universe.  Miracles are either impossible or explainable.  Working material and social reality by merely thinking something fervently just doesn’t happen.  Scientific evidence for the effect of prayer is scant.  But personal experience of many is profound.   Prayer may not be humanistic, but is human.  Many humans in all sorts of cultures pray.  They talk as with ancestors, saints, gods, or God.  Healing is an act of both…

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From Passive Tolerance to Dynamic Mutuality

The issue I wish to address today involves the inevitable tensions that can grow between the good souls of a church or fellowship.  My concern is twofold: how do we maintain and improve a dynamic, satisfying fellowship for all of us, and how do we model the dynamic mutuality possible in a pluralistic democracy?  These issues go to the heart of our congregational and societal relations.   I’m glad I don’t have any particular complaint or crisis in mind.  This really has to do with…

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Emerson, on his 200th

On May 25th of this year we could celebrate the 200th birthday of a quintessential American: Ralph Waldo Emerson.  Emerson exemplified American individualism as the holy duty of being human.  He was the ultimate Protestant, preaching we should be ourselves as daringly, caringly and authentically as we can – that is God’s infinite creativity made manifest and satisfied.   “Man is timid and apologetic; he dares not say, “I think,” “I am,” but quotes some saint or sage,” said Emerson.  I don’t mind the irony. …

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