The huge full moon, the amazingly colorful solstice morning, and Christmas all came together in a beautiful way that seemed to portend a beautiful upcoming year. I hope so. 2021 was a bit of a dreary, frustrating challenge. We're all worn by social, political, and medical worries. I hope and pray we regain a healthy community. Here's the sky on solstice: Solstice Sky Same solstice sky, another view I appreciate those few of you who came here to read what I post. However, it was…
I was born only two hours before the atomic bomb annihilated Hiroshima, so don’t blame me for it. You and I are born into hate-ridden tragedies usurping hopeful visions of kindness, justice, and mutual happiness. Perhaps you agree. Nor should I (or you) be blamed for Korea, Vietnam, Granada, Panama, or the wars on Central America, or Iraq, or Afghanistan, or the needless new ones brewing on Venezuela and Iran. Please don’t blame me for my country’s growing alliances with murderous dictators and dangerous war-mongers…
Carrier’s Comments for The Catalyst, a UU Newsletter From time to time I hear I’m “too political.” As a minister, this perplexes me, but I’m willing to listen so I can address your concern and fulfill mine. Wouldn’t it be ironic to claim Martin Luther King was too political? Or Jesus, or Amos? The Kingdom of Heaven is to be made manifest, incarnated; not constrained to other realms only. Or put humanistically, the world is as much ours as any one else’s. It…
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…
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. …
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…
Many religions have one thing in common: each believes it has the best truth. It is bold or predictable for me to preach on why our religion has the best truth? I suspect many UUs would resist such an attempt. Everyone has the right to their own way, we believe. What works for some wouldn’t work for us, yet we’re glad that others have their ways. We’re not evangelical. We don’t proselytize. We’re a “live and let live” religion. Meanwhile other religions insist…