Back in 2008, my life fell apart. I won’t go into the real details, but I was homeless, unemployed, recently divorced after a long separation, and had come to the realization that the friendships of my early 20s were not supporting me in my 30s. I moved away from those friends and my now ex-wife […]
Hi there. My name is Thomas Earthman and I run the I Am UU Facebook page, Twitter account, and this website. I make a small amount of money doing so, though a lot of what is raised goes into software fees, hosting costs, and other business expenses for the project. I never wanted to be […]
The Principles of Unitarian Universalism dedicate us to building a world that is just, compassionate, and equitable. That will never come about by accident or even charity. People have fought their whole lives to see the world get better on any one of those points. They come together and build movements and organizations to do […]
“Religious liberalism affirms the moral obligation to direct one’s effort toward the establishment of a just and loving community.” ~ James Luther Adams While many UUs believe that there might be, even must be, life after death, the heaven we all commit to is here on Earth. The name we’ve been calling that heaven for […]
We must not forget that, even while we aspire to accept and encourage every person who enters a UU space, whether online or in person, we are a covenantal religion; covenant means that responsibility and respect must go both ways. While we affirm the worth and dignity of every person, we do not need to […]
“Charity is commendable; everyone should be charitable. But justice aims to create a social order in which, if individuals choose not to be charitable, people still don’t go hungry, unschooled or sick without care. Charity depends on the vicissitudes of whim and personal wealth; justice depends on commitment instead of circumstance.” ~ Bill Moyers Unitarian […]
“Nothing ventured, nothing gained.” It is an old saying. Put more simply, if we aren’t risking anything, we aren’t likely to see much in the way of results. You can’t be great at everything the first time you try; you have to be willing to risk failure. You learn from failure. You get better. A […]
Roughly 100 years ago, in his book “Which way? A study of Universalists and Universalism”, Rev. Lewis B. Fisher tried to answer the question “What do Universalists stand for?” in a clever way. The only true answer to give to this question is that we do not stand at all, we move… We are not […]
After giving whatever your elevator speech, anyone with time and interest still remaining is very likely to ask you, How do you have a church where people have different religions? Firstly, while we may have different beliefs and practices, we have one religion. It is a religion that allows us to worship together as well […]
Unitarian Universalism has no creed. We don’t have an oath to an outside power. There is no pledge to a single entity, concept, or ideal. What then does it mean to be a Unitarian Universalist? We do have Principles. But those still aren’t really what defines us as a movement. Our Principles are all phrased […]
Wearing a t-shirt or drinking from a mug with a flaming chalice on it is a very low-pressure way to invite questions and conversation about liberal religion.
