Seriously? The following story confuses and frustrates me on so many levels. Why are we still wrestling with this issue? Why is it still a question? Why are people, like Aris Fokas, who have shown that they are extremely competent and called, dismissed from their duties because of their sexual orientation? “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” is wrong. Period. It should be repealed. Read more…
Tufts University Chaplain Scotty McLennan, in a book titled Finding Your Religion: When the Faith You Grew Up With Has Lost Its Meaning, offers his readers a sort of faith stage checklist. My own evolving religious experience tells me that while lists of this sort are neither exhaustive, nor universal, they are fairly accurate, and at the very least they are good guides that challenge us to practice deeper self-awareness, if nothing else. Practicing more self-awareness is always a good thing. Read more…
I just found an old essay living an an even older hard drive that has been buried under a dusty pile of books in the attic. I wrote this essay way back in January of 2004. The topic: Voluntary Euthanasia. I’m not even sure I still hold the same views and opinions that I held concerning Euthanasia, but it is interesting to re-read old personal expressions and gauge just how much one’s expression has changed over time.
Note: My style has improved over the years too. I have neither the energy, nor the desire to edit the following essay properly, so it appears just as I wrote in 2004. Do forgive my past addiction to ellipses, mechanical verbiage, making up words and general wordiness. I exhaust myself reading myself in my former style. I apologize in advance. Read more…
I recently had to explain the title “Unitarian Universalist Christian.” It was an interesting conversation, to be sure, and I found myself explaining both classical expressions of Unitarianism (think early American, New England expressions of the faith) and more contemporary developments within the Unitarian Universalist Association (think 1961 merger of the American Unitarian Association and the Universalist Church of America). Personally, I identify with aspects of both these days. I deeply appreciate elements of the classical expression, and I resonate with much that is advanced by the contemporary iteration as a result of my growing understanding of postmodernism, human religiousness, sacred lit, culture, and the importance of myth. Then again, I’m always curious and changing and growing and evolving too, and perhaps that’s the main source of the aforementioned resonance. Read more…
You’ve heard of Occam’s Razor, right? It’s a philosophical concept that when used judiciously is supposed to facilitate rational decision making in situations wherein two or more choices or theories or whatever present themselves as competing alternatives. Basically, Occam’s Razor advances the idea that the less complicated explanation or action is the best one. There is no need, according to this principle, to seek a more complicated answer if a simpler one indeed exists. Sounds pretty solid, right? Well, it’s supposed to be simple, but some seem incessant on making a lot of things more complicated than they need be. Why? Who really knows?!? Read more…
