I almost never just post a video, but I was inspired this moring by my friend James doing so on his blog, Monkey Mind. I have been a fan of Peter Mayer since long before his recent performance at GA, and while I love the song that James highlighted (Holy Now), and while I had [...]
Categories: General Assembly, God, theology
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Tags: faith, God, God is the River, Holy Now, Peter Mayer, Prophetic Voice, religion, theology
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1 comment
I want to be very clear at the beginning of this article that it applies to the religious right, the religious center, and the religious left, and I’m going to focus on the religious left. This is something within human nature, not within specific religious traditions. If there is a difference in how this article applies [...]
Categories: Care of the Soul, UU Movement, theology
| Tags: certainity, Equality, faith, formism, fundamentalism, God, idyllic forms, justice, love, spirit, spiritual, Spiritual Practice, standing on the side of love, totality, ultimacy
| 1 comment
I love it when the responses to an article prompt me to another article. One of my most respected teachers, Joshin Roshi, responded to my last article on the symbolic construction of reality by reminding me not to miss the forest for the trees… to not discount the direct experience of totality amid all of [...]
Categories: Interfaith, theology
| Tags: authentic experience, awe, direct experience, direct experience of the transcending, experience of god, God, kensho, models of God, oneness, theology, totality, trancendant, transcendent, wonder
| No comments
Among all of the things said at the recent teabag/anti-health care reform/birther protests, I have felt emotionally moved by the individuals who, in tears and in anger, have shouted or cried something along the lines of “I want my country back!” or “I feel my country is being taken away from me”, or “I feel [...]
Categories: History, Patriotism, theology
| Tags: bible, country stolen, God, health care, I want my country back, idol, idolatry, image, map and territory, reform protest, symbol, tea-bag
| 16 comments
Recently in an email someone said to me that they were still a “lamb of God”, even though they were working through some issues in their faith. As Jacob once did, they have been “wrestling with God”. I remember the metaphor “be ye lambs of God”. I remember those words written above a painting of [...]
Categories: God, Ministry, theology
| Tags: belief, bible, Christian, faith, God, hope, Jesus, lamb, lamb of God, relationship with God, Unitarian Universalist
| 2 comments
As January has arrived, so has January Intensives at the Meadville Lombard Theological School. As such, much of my attention and writing will be focused on the insantiy of Master’s level courses conducted in just one week (not including preparation and post-class writing assignments). I began my time at Meadville taking January intensives, and so it is a fun, [...]
Categories: Deism, God, Spiritual Practice, theology
| Tags: framework, God, Meadville Lombard, seminary, theology, worldview
| 6 comments
Some words have so many meanings that they become near incomprehensible, and almost unusable. When I use the generic word “meditation”, I usually mean Zazen meditation, or sitting on a cushion and following my breath. But “meditation” means about a thousand different things, from concentration on a passage of scripture to leaving the body behind [...]
Categories: Defining Religious Langauge, God, Principles and Purposes, Spiritual Practice
| Tags: Defining God, faith, God, practice, Zazen, Zen
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This past summer I had a conversation with a very conservative Christian pastor at the U.S. Army Chaplain School, in which I, a Unitarian Universalist, had the audacity to use the word “God”. He looked at me with an angry eye and said “So who’s your God, Mammon?!?”
I have heard it said many times that [...]
Categories: God, History, Interfaith
| Tags: experience, God, Jesus, knowing
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“All instruction is but a finger pointing to the moon; and those whose gaze is fixed upon the pointer will never see beyond. Even let him catch sight of the moon, and still he cannot see its beauty.” — Buddha
I can imagine the Buddha, seated in the Jeta Grove, his hand outstretched pointing towards the [...]
Categories: Interfaith, Reflection on Quotes, Religious Freedom
| Tags: Buddhism, Christianity, dharma, God, idolatry, Interfaith, Jesus, quote
| 4 comments
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