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Select a Month August 2017 July 2017 June 2017 May 2017 April 2017 March 2017 February 2017 January 2017 December 2016 November 2016 October 2016 September 2016 August 2016 July 2016 June 2016 May 2016 April 2016 March 2016 February 2016 January 2016 December 2015 November 2015 October 2015 September 2015 August 2015 July 2015 June 2015 May 2015 April 2015 March 2015 February 2015 January 2015 December 2014 November 2014 October 2014 September 2014 August 2014 July 2014 June 2014 May 2014 April 2014 March 2014 February 2014 January 2014 December 2013 November 2013 October 2013 September 2013 August 2013 July 2013 June 2013 May 2013 April 2013 March 2013 February 2013 January 2013 December 2012 November 2012 October 2012 September 2012 August 2012 July 2012 June 2012 May 2012

November 2015

November 26, 2015

Grace for the Rest of Us

Grace. Some say it before meals. Some have it for a name. Grace-ful people have...

November 24, 2015

Fear Not

“The one most frequently repeated command in the Bible is not “love your neighbor,” but...

November 19, 2015

#Terrorism: Religion and Nationalism Aren’t Fixing It

Nothing like a crisis to clarify values. If the terrorist attacks in Paris have clarified...

November 11, 2015

The “Trinsics”: Where are You Coming From?

Psychologist Gordon Allport argued that there are two types of religious experience—the extrinsic and the...

November 10, 2015

People Who Have Come ALIVE!

What makes you come alive my friend? This week I grateful to bear witness to...

November 05, 2015

Congregational Humanist Liturgy: Creating a Religion-Neutral Zone

The Daoist philosopher Zhuangzi (370-287 BCE) told this story: Once three friends were discussing life....

October 2015

October 29, 2015

Words, Words, and the Word Was With . . .

In his play Hamlet, Shakespeare has the character Polonius ask Hamlet, “What do you read,...

October 22, 2015

Why Does a Super-Nice Word Like “Spiritual” Make Humanists All Itchy?

Here is what Plato had to say about the body and the soul: Does not...

October 21, 2015

Things that get in the way

I often tell the story of the time my Chaplain Supervisor told me, “Deanna, I...

October 15, 2015

Death of the Curate

Art museums are currently going through a sea change, and that sea change is about...

October 08, 2015

Putting First Things First: Congregations of Philosophers

In 1931 the Humanist Unitarian minister Curtis Reese looked into his crystal ball and wrote...

October 01, 2015

Looking For #Happiness, Epicurean Style

Who doesn’t want to be happy? Everybody wants to be happy. The trouble starts when...

September 2015

September 24, 2015

Musing On Relevance

I meet monthly with clergy colleagues, Jewish, Muslim, and Christian of various stripes, all of...

September 22, 2015

When I breathe in…

A few weeks ago, I shared a sermon called Still We Rise with a congregation in the...

September 17, 2015

Mansplaining, Whitesplaning, and the Power of Listening

Totally unprepared are you To face a world of men Timid and shy and scared...

September 15, 2015

In this time of intense polarization

I cannot help but to wonder:

September 10, 2015

Five Reasons to Congregate in a Congregation

Why bother joining a congregation rather than, oh, say, a bowling league? 1. To meet...

September 08, 2015

A little respite for our souls…

I need a little respite for my soul, soul, soul take a little time to...

September 03, 2015

Integrity and the Big Hole in Wholeness

You’ve heard it; you’ve thought it; perhaps you’ve even said it: “She is SO together!”...

September 01, 2015

And Still We Rise

The poet Mark Nepo writes that when “we find ourselves in an emergency at night,...

August 2015

August 27, 2015

The Duality Fallacy

The Methodist Church across the street from my church has a large lighted sign that...

August 25, 2015

As we re-member, a love note to NOLA and to life

This is a love note to my people, to friends and family and strangers who...

August 20, 2015

How Secular is “Religious”?

We don’t know how the ready access to information will ultimately change the human condition,...

August 18, 2015

In times of grief and struggle, remember, friends

August 06, 2015

On the Right to Take Up Space

(homily for a prayer vigil for those murdered at Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church, Charleston,...

July 2015

July 28, 2015

BLACK LIVES MATTER

“BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that the 2015 General Assembly recognizes that the fight for civil...

July 23, 2015

Informed Eclecticism: Why Unitarian Universalism Needs Wing Nuts

The Very Hungry Syncretism Orthodox Unitarian Universalism is syncretic, in theologian-lingo. In philosophy and the...

July 16, 2015

Guest Blogger Maria Greene asks, Why is Humanism So Scary for the UUA?

In the late 1960s—like so many other liberal movements—Humanism lost its way. Understandably, many Universalist...

July 14, 2015

It’s a Both/And kind of world

There is a lot of either/or thinking in the common narrative today...and I think the world is...

July 09, 2015

Unitarian Humanism, That Peculiar Animal

Integrity. The word comes from the Latin, integer, “intact.” Related words include integer, a “whole...