“The realization that there is no better time to stand up for your values than when they are under attack, that bigotry concealed doesn’t go away, it only festers underground. It’s only when the poison of prejudice emerges out in the open that it can be confronted directly.”
Category Archives: Equality
Benjamin Rush
“A belief in God’s universal love to all his creatures, and that he will finally restore all those of them that are miserable to happiness, is a polar truth. It leads to truths upon all subjects, more especially upon the subject of government. It establishes the equality of mankind–it abolishes … Read more →
Kahlil Gibran
“I love you when you bow in your mosque, kneel in your temple, pray in your church. For you and I are sons of one religion, and it is the spirit.”
Gandhi
“I learnt the lesson on nonviolence from my wife, when I tried to bend her to my will. Her determined resistance to my will on the one hand, and her quiet submission to the suffering my stupidity involved on the other, ultimately made me ashamed of myself and cured me … Read more →
Abraham Lincoln
“Let us discard all this quibbling about this man and the other man–this race and that race and the other race being inferior, and therefore they must be placed in and inferior position…Let us discard all these things, and unite as one people throughout this land, until we shall once … Read more →
Confucius
“When you meet someone better than yourself, turn your thoughts to becoming his equal. When you meet someone not as good as you are, look within and examine your own self.”
Martin Luther King, Jr.
“I look forward confidently to the day when all who work for a living will be one with no thought to their separateness as Negroes, Jews, Italians or any other distinctions. This will be the day when we bring into full realization the American dream — a dream yet unfulfilled. … Read more →
Senator Jake Garn
“You recognize that the Russians, the Nicaraguans, the Canadians, the Filipinos — it doesn’t matter where they’re from, all they want to do is raise their kids and educate them, just as we do.”
President Obama is Not a Liberal Socialist… I Am
I promised myself that I would not move into my “occasional political musings” this election season until after the conventions were over. Well, the speeches in Charlotte and Tampa are done, and now I feel that there are some things that I have to say… President Obama is not a … Read more →
Is This Really Where We Are? — A Psalm of Lament
Oh Lord, Is this really where we are? A man once said, “I believe, but help my unbelief”. I’m not sure I ever understood, until I myself had to cry out to you, Is this really where we are, oh Lord. Are we really as far from the Kingdom of … Read more →
I’m Sick Unto Death of Hearing about Protecting the Religious Liberty of Military Chaplains
I remember something that my Drill Sergeant said to me, my first day of Basic Training some 20 years ago, when I was an 18 year old private at Ft. Leonard Wood Missouri. We were all in one of our first formations, and he asked us if any of us … Read more →
The Role of Faith for the Military Chaplain
In the fall of 2011 I was honored to attend the first ever OutServe Leadership Conference. This was the first time for this organization of LGB persons actively serving in the military to gather publicly, since such public gatherings and recognition was made possible by the repeal of Don’t Ask, … Read more →
Bearing Witness or Smug Paternalism?
Recently, there has been some chatter in UU Ministerial and Lay-Leadership circles around the upcoming plans for the Unitarian Universalist Association “Justice GA” in Phoenix Arizona, focusing on how it is planned for those who attend to do far more learning and bearing witness on the issue of immigration, than … Read more →
The Dream of Dr. King — Sermon by the Rev. David Pyle
Last preached on January 16th, 2011 There once was a young African American seminary student, attending the Theology School at Boston University, and looking for his spiritual home, both as a religious human being and as a future minister. His wife had attended Unitarian Churches in the years before … Read more →
The Myth of a Post-Racial America
When I visited the Smithsonian Museum of American History over the summer, there was one transition between exhibits that disturbed me deeply. It was not the content of either of the exhibits, but rather that one led directly into the other. As I was coming out of the exhibit on … Read more →
Please put the Government between me and my Health Care!
I have been debating whether or not to talk about this, because in one respect it is a little embarrassing. No one wants to admit that there are times in their lives where they were living not only paycheck to paycheck, but sometimes day to day… and even with that … Read more →
Grudgingly for State Recognition of Marriage Equality
I grudgingly support the equality of state recognition of all people to get married, regardless of their sexual orientation. Why grudgingly? Not because I do not believe in the rights of each and every person to have equal protection before the law… I certainly do. Not because I do not … Read more →
Diversity as Good Business Sense
The past few days I have been struck by how obvious is the practical need for diversity in the workplace, be it the offices of mayors, the offices of a major newspaper, or a piping factory in Paris Texas. Lets step away from such issues (for a second) as institutional … Read more →
It’s More Complicated than White
This past week, I have been taking a January Intensive course (a semester’s worth of lectures and class time crammed into one week) taught by the Rev. Mark Morrison-Reed. He has a new book out, In Between, but his most well known work is Black Pioneers in a White Denomination. … Read more →
The Foundation of My Identity
This essay is a class assignment for Rev. Mark Morrison-Reed’s class “Afro-Americans and the Unitarians, Universalists, and the Unitarian Universalists.” It is an attempt to locate myself with regards to race, both in heritage and in belief. My first memory of my “nana”, my father’s grandmother, is from when I was ten … Read more →
Investigating Liberals for being Anti-American?
On the Sunday nearest 4th of July this year, I felt called to preach a sermon entitled “Being a Liberal Patriot”, on what I mean when I call myself a Liberal. I do not usually talk about my sermons on the Celestial Lands Blog, because the blog is my pre-writing … Read more →
Center for the Intrepid
Today, I went on an amazing tour of the Center for the Intrepid, here at the Brooke Army Medical Center in San Antonio, Texas. I don’t know what I expected, but what I found there was so much more amazing than anything I could have imagined. The Center for the … Read more →
Depends On the Part of Town…
Over the last 17 days, I have been working with the North Central Chaplain Recruiting team, mostly answering phones, visiting schools, and doing database work. Mixing that with my Summer Ministry and my work for the Central Midwest District of the UUA has been why the blog has been a … Read more →
Defining Religious Language: Tolerance and Engagement
Tolerance is a word that gets used a lot, often by people who have not thought through the implications of the word. When we say that we are tolerant of someone, or that we practice tolerance, or that we believe in religious tolerance… what we are really doing is reinforcing … Read more →
Keep the Faith SPC Hall and Rev. Matt
I do not usually cross-post to other blogs here on Celestial Lands. I use this blog as my public pre-writing for sermons and other essays… to clarify my own thoughts, to get them down in written form, and to do so while practicing my public, prophetic voice. But as many … Read more →
Principles as Spiritual Practice – Why Inherent? (1.4)
“I take up the way of affirming the inherent worth and dignity of every person.” I mentioned in an earlier article in this series that, for years I added my own little caveat to the first principle… that I believed everyone was born with the same inherent worth and dignity, … Read more →
A Dream and a Young Boy
I grew up in what I can only describe as an integrated community, at least as far as race is concerned. Simply put, the subject never came up. You see, I grew up in the military. The other children that I played soccer with, played marbles with, went to classes … Read more →
The Dream of Inherent Worth and Dignity — Sermon by the Rev. David Pyle
Last preached January 17th, 2007 I have a dream….. What a powerful concept is contained in those four small words. It could be argued that those words contain within them what it means to be human. I have a dream….. “I have a dream that my four children will one … Read more →