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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

July 2017

July 27, 2017

Steal Your Fire, Drink Your Tea

In the late nineteenth and into the twentieth-century a good many Unitarian congregations sponsored Prometheus Clubs....

June 2017

June 22, 2017

The Lesson of Sunday School Cards

My dad was out of work a lot when I was a kid, so we...

April 2017

April 27, 2017

Ashes to Ashes, Humus to Humus, and Humility

Humility. Everyone knows it’s a virtue, since its opposite is . . . what? hubris?...

March 2017

March 09, 2017

Bad Theology=Bad Politics

I hear an undercurrent of assumption in much of the current liberal rhetoric—a mythology that...

February 2017

February 09, 2017

The True Origin Story

February 12th is the 208th birthday of Charles Darwin. In celebration, I want to look...

February 02, 2017

Building Walls, Banning the Human

“Blame is a valuable antidote to helplessness.” Martha Nussbaum I spent last Monday morning in...

January 2017

January 26, 2017

Alternative Facts and Reason in Religion

There are no alternative facts. There are alternative theories when we don't know the...

November 2016

November 24, 2016

At #Thanksgiving, A Wish for Freedoms

I lost one of my cousins this week. (As a hillbilly, I have lots of...

November 17, 2016

Kick the Dog, Pet the Dog—Off-Loading Anxiety

There’s two things we can do with suffering: we can kick the dog; or we...

November 03, 2016

Social Gospel 2.0: Public Theology and #StandingWithStandingRock

#MoralMonday, #MoralRevival, and #StandingWithStandingRock have ushered in a new day for public theology. Religions can...

October 2016

October 20, 2016

Outsourced Morality

True confession: I understand Trump voters. I come from that place. We’re the same people...

September 2016

September 22, 2016

Ganesha, Nietzsche, Truth, Consequences

The story goes that Shiva—one of the chief manifestations of divinity in Hinduism—and his...

September 15, 2016

Humanism: Without God, Not Anti-God

The September 2016 Atlantic features an article about new Humanist communities titled “A Less Lonely...

September 08, 2016

Sharing in the Anthropocene

My ethics in terms of economics comes from the first of the Humanist Manifestos: “Humanists...

September 01, 2016

The Mindfulness of Stoicism, Part Five

Last week I continued a discussion of the Stoic methods of inner-discipline (what’s popularly called...

August 2016

August 18, 2016

The Mindfulness of Stoicism, Part Three

Last week I continued a discussion of the seven Stoic methods of inner-discipline (what’s popularly...

August 04, 2016

Stoic Mindfulness

As the number of the post-religious skyrockets in the United States, the “mindfulness” train is...

July 2016

July 12, 2016

A Review of Grace Without God: the Search for Meaning, Purpose, and Belonging in a Secular Age by Katherine Ozment.

By Rev. Dr. David Breeden A question from one of her children sends Ozment on...

July 07, 2016

They Ain’t Heavy: UU Pluralism and Its Discontents

One of the most serious issues for a tradition such as Unitarian Universalism that has...

June 2016

June 30, 2016

Beyond the Congeries of Banks: Finding a Moral Center

After the September 1938 Munich Pact with which the European democracies ceded territory to Nazi...

June 28, 2016

You should start a meme, they said…

June 16, 2016

Swing Vote in the Bitter Election: Reflections on Orlando

The recent massacre in the gay nightclub Pulse in Orlando, Florida is unfortunately an example...

June 09, 2016

No Gods, No Masters, and the Humanist Way of Thinking

Humanism developed in late Medieval Christianity, but moved on. European humanism reached high points in...

June 02, 2016

Cafeteria, Smorgasbord, Grubhub: Religion Delivery Today

A Twitter meme says, “Spiritual but not religious: people who prefer to make up their own...

May 2016

May 05, 2016

#Mindfulness and the View We Take of Things

One on Every Corner There’s a lot of talk about spiritual practice these days. “Mindfulness”...

April 2016

April 07, 2016

Humanist Humility

One of the most persistent cliches about humanists is that we are human-o-centric and egotistical....

March 2016

March 31, 2016

What’s the Beef with Purple Cows? On Logos and Mythos

What's the difference between a poem and a mathematical equation? Say, between Einstein’s E=MC2 and...

March 24, 2016

Cutting Some Slack for Integrity

Reformers. Protestants. Heretics. Loudmouths. William Tyndale’s (1494-1536) crime was translating the bible into English. Tyndale said,...

February 2016

February 18, 2016

To Whom It May Concern: the Humanist/Theist Split in Unitarian Universalism

Since I’m an out-there Humanist, I get asked fairly often how Unitarian Universalists might go...

February 11, 2016

On Prayer

Emily Dickinson wrote, Of Course I prayed And did God Care? He cared as much...