Posted by Rev. David on September 14, 2012
Freedom is one of the most misunderstood concepts in the United States, and perhaps in the world. Be it Religious Freedom, or Freedom of Speech, or the Freedom of the Press, the Freedom of Association, or any of the common conceptions of freedom that we experience in the United States, I believe that we as [...]
Categories: Defining Religious Langauge, Patriotism, politics, Prophetic Voice
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Tags: American freedom, attack, embassy, free, freedom, freedom of association, freedom of religion, Freedom of Speech, freedom of the press, History, Islam, liberal, liberalism, politics, Prophetic Voice, protests, relationship, religion, responsibility, violence
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7 comments
Posted by Rev. David on May 10, 2012
One of the genre’s of Science Fiction that I love is what is called “near future Sci-Fi”. These are stories set to occur in the next 200 years or so. What I love about them is that they “forecast” out not into some far off fantastic future, but into the coming decades and centuries. In [...]
Categories: Patriotism, politics, Prophetic Voice
| Tags: academic achievement, America, American, American Exceptionalism, American irrelevance, american military power, city on a hill, diplomacy, History, justice, liberal, liberal faith, liberalism, politics, Prophetic Voice, sermon on the mount, technology, theology, United States military power
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Posted by Rev. David on January 2, 2012
I love politics. I love politics the way other people love football. I watch 24 hour news channels in political seasons the way other people watch ESPN. The minor of my Bachelor’s degree is in Political Science (Major in History), and I would describe my knowledge of practical politics by saying that I have just [...]
Categories: politics
| Tags: 2012 election, activism, election, electoral politics, football, History, Iowa caucus, liberal, liberalism, news channels, Obama, political news, politics
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Posted by Rev. David on November 18, 2011
It is far easier for us humans to know what we are against than it is for us to know what we are for. Learned responses and internal morality can tell us if we are “against” something that we experience in our lives. We can know that we do not like the way our banking [...]
Categories: History, liberal faith, Patriotism, politics, Social Engagement
| Tags: activism, clergy, Equality, History, hope, justice, liberal, liberal faith, liberalism, occupy, occupy clergy, occupy movement, occupy protest, occupy wall street, politics, populism, populist, Prophetic Voice, relationship, responsibility, revolt, revolution, revolutionary
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Posted by Rev. David on November 11, 2011
When I reflect on the few years after “coming home” from Bosnia, the years before some friends and a veteran counselor helped me to “get my head back on straight”, I realize that I had more than my share of luck. I was lucky to be in a university that had a large and experienced [...]
Categories: Military, Turnings, Veterans
| Tags: activism, Bosnia, chaplain, Chrys Parker, combat stress reaction, David Pyle, faith, History, homeless veteran, homelessness, hunkered in the bunker, justice, Military, military chaplain, Prophetic Voice, ptsd, relationship, responsibility, veteran, Veteran's Day, war
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Posted by Rev. David on November 7, 2011
My dear friend, Chaplain the Rev. Seanan Holland visited us this weekend, and as usual he and I got into one of our hours-long rolling discussions about Life, the Universe, and Everything. This time in particular, we were rolling around the origin and nature of religion, the fundamental flaw in Friedman Economics, a mathematical definition [...]
Categories: Faith, God, History, liberal faith
| Tags: Christian, faith, fear, fear of death, fear of humans, fear of nature, fear of people, fear of uncertainity, four great fears, fundamentalism, great fear, History, Jesus, liberal, liberal faith, liberalism, meaning of religion, politics, relationship, religion, religious fear, responsibility, theology, types of religion, war
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Posted by Rev. David on October 11, 2011
Over the last few weeks, I’ve had some hesitancy to write about my thoughts on the “Occupy Wall Street” protests, and the reaction to them that is happening in the more conservative ends of our country. The reason for my hesitancy is that this is a place where my theoretical understanding of what is (and [...]
Categories: politics, Social Engagement
| Tags: activism, american communism, american populism, american socialism, chicago protests, conservative, corporate greed, election, Glenn Beck, History, hope, insurgency, justice, k street, liberal, los angeles protests, mass protest, new american revolution, new york protests, occupy k street, occupy wall street, police violence, politics, populism, power of mass protest, Prophetic Voice, protest, relationship, responsibility, revolution, violence, wall street, wall street protest
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Posted by Rev. David on October 3, 2011
In the last few months, I have heard the word Oligarchy being bandied around on the edges of American political circles. In the Tea-Party wing, they are using it as a new word for “Hollywood Elite” and “Liberal Media”. On the semi-far left it is being used to refer to corporations and the wealthy. In [...]
Categories: Patriotism, politics
| Tags: activism, bureaucracy, bureaucrat, David Pyle, democracy, election, Equality, federal, federalist, feudal, feudalism, feudalist, governance, government, governmental systems, History, justice, liberal, liberalism, liberty, military junta, monarch, monarchy, oligarch, oligarchic, oligarchy, politics, Prophetic Voice, relationship, Republican, responsibility, technocracy, technocrat, totalitarian, tyranny, tyrant
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Posted by Rev. David on May 30, 2011
This Sunday, I preached a “sermon-in-dialog” with Roy Wedge, a member of the UU Fellowship of Midland, a Vietnam era Air Force Veteran, and a singer/songwriter. Below is the final section of that sermon, written and preached by myself, telling the story of the last time I visited the National War Memorials in Washington DC. [...]
Categories: History, Military, Veterans
| Tags: chaplain, fear, History, hope, Korean War Memorial, lincoln memorial, Memorial Day, Military, military chaplain, national war memorials, unitairan, Unitarian Universalism, Unitarian Universalist, Universalist, UU, Vietnam memorial, vietnam wall, war memorials, WWI memorial, WWII memorial
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Posted by Rev. David on March 23, 2011
For all our power in the world, the United States is still a very young nation. Unlike the modern states in Europe, in Asia, and in the Middle East, we do not stand upon thousands of years of history in the location where our nation is. Because of our youth as a nation, and a [...]
Categories: History, Military, Patriotism, politics, Turnings
| Tags: america as gods chosen people, America as new rome, American empire, American Exceptionalism, American superiority, David Pyle, divine right, Doctrine of Exceptionalism, Exceptionalism, growing up, History, justice, liberal, Libya, Military, politics, responsibility, superpower, U.S. superiority, war
| 6 comments
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