We come together as flame in a living Chalice. We are the fuel: hearts and minds in community. We are the oxygen: the breath we share in words, music, tears, and laughter. May the heat of our passion and com-passion, our hope, our faith, our honest striving light this beacon, and may it guide us […]
Can an Atheist Have a Spiritual Conversation?
While I was away on my five-week “Great Western Pilgrimage,” my better half, Kate, entertained a longtime friend from the east coast. The friend appreciated that I was a minister, now retired. Upon hearing about my “Gentle Atheist” website, though, she was plainly taken aback. “How can a minister be an atheist?” She asked. “How can […]
What’s a God-Centered Atheist?
Many a year ago I interned at People’s Church in Kalamazoo, Michigan. People’s Church had been a fierce bastion of Unitarian Universalist Humanism through much of the 20th century. A series of strictly Humanist Ministers eschewed pulpit robes or any kind of “God-talk.” They had not preached “sermons,” they had delivered “discourses.” Even while I was […]
Little Celebrations #3: Liturgical Quotables
We humbly gather, gaining in mutuality a level of strength and compassion we did not possess as individuals. We gather to support and affirm one another even as we challenge and are challenged by one another. We gather to learn ways to actually keep the faith we proclaim. We gather to seek the […]
I Could Be Darren Wilson
Institutional racism harms everyone it touches: even the privileged, from brilliant Thomas Jefferson to rather average me. It is a rot which eats away at our common humanity. I feel a lot of compassion for Ferguson, Missouri, police officer Darren Wilson. He could have been me. There are differences, of course. Darren Wilson is a […]