Unitarian Universalism is sometimes portrayed, even by UUs, as a religion for individuals. You are responsible for your own theology. You have to develop your own relationship with the divine. You have to choose your level of commitment and involvement. Those things are all true. But, Unitarian Universalism is a covenantal religion. It is made […]
Unitarian Universalism is a liberal religion, meaning that we do not claim absolute truth or authority and admit that we are still learning things that we need to know about the universe. The word “liberal” means “not bound by authoritarianism, orthodoxy, or traditional forms” according the Merriam-Webster, and shares its root with Liberty, a Latin […]
Church can be people who trust one another. Church can be people who accept and encourage each other. Church can be a place where it’s ok to be imperfect, and the effort counts for something. Church can be a place where we ask the important questions and admit to one another that we don’t know. […]
Most of the people who will read this were born with some blessings; health, access to education, access to technology, and the mental capability to put them all to use are all blessings; many people lack one or more in their lives. Some of us have been given blessings we don’t even know to count. […]
Your worth and dignity are inherent. They cannot be discarded or taken away. Maybe you made terrible choices yesterday or all last year. Today, you can choose to be different; today you can choose to be your best. While one’s worth and dignity can be tarnished or buried, made hard to see, there is no […]
It has been said many times, many ways, that you cannot force a flower to bloom. The conditions have to be right, and you cannot force the issue by shaming the flower. Rumi reminds us that it is rain, not thunder, that nourishes the plants. If you want to see flowers and fruit, you have […]
Carl Sagan once said “Skeptical scrutiny is the means, in both science and religion, by which deep thoughts can be winnowed from deep nonsense.” Unitarian Universalism promises each of us a free search for truth and meaning but also warns us to be ready to be held responsible for our beliefs. In our sources, we […]
One of the great liberal theologians of the 20th century was James Luther Adams. His work “Guiding Principles for a Free Faith”, as published in On Being Human Religiously, he proposed “5 Smooth Stones of Liberal Religion”. These 5 concepts are presented as Adams’ defense of liberal religion against the rise of conservatism in the […]
This post is going to upset some people. I’m aware of that, and I hope I am going to get feedback, because the point of this post is to be better listeners. I am a progressive straight, white, cisgendered man.I am hardly ever left out of anything. If a story features someone who looks like […]
Today is Presidents’ Day, and I want to get into civics and democracy. I am still haunted by the events of last week, though. Luckily, the topics overlap in a way that deserves discussion. Last week, as well as the month before and so many times before that, I heard a lot of people telling […]