First there was the news, back in September, that an award winning British film about the British Unitarian, Charles Darwin, was not going to get U.S. distribution rights because it offended people on the religious right.

Why would it offend? Because it suggested Darwin might have moved from his Unitarian Christian theology to more of an agnostic one. According to a British newspaper the film’s producers say the American religious right waged a campaign against its distribution.

Too bad, because I think the movie looks pretty interesting.

Not all religious denominations have trouble with Darwin. The Roman Catholic church finds nothing incompatible with Darwin’s contributions to science and religion. The title of the story called “Vatican Gives Darwin a Big Birthday Hug, Leaving Creationists on the Fringes,” almost sums it up.

Protestant fundamentalists on the other hand, have an entirely different take. But theirs is a minority position according to…

Doors represent both the barriers to entry and the high levels of commitment common to strict churches

Saturday morning I was cleaning the house in my pajamas when the doorbell rang. Two young Jehovah’s Witnesses stood amid the leaves on my porch, and after excusing myself to change clothes I invited them in for a moment, as I try to do when they appear from time to time.  Perched side by side on my couch with Bible in hand, the pair brought to mind my own experiences as a young Mormon missionary in Portugal, and I was happy to read a verse of scripture with them.

Something about this young man and woman prompted me to put the conversation on a more personal tack, and I asked them to tell me how they came to be affiliated with the Witnesses. Despite the friendly front-room visits I’ve shared with Jehovah’s Witnesses over the…

Vaclav Havel, center in red scarf, placing a candle at a Prague commemoration of the Velvet Revolution (Petr David Josek/AP)

The New York Times did a nice retrospective yesterday on Czechoslovakia’s Velvet Revolution on its 20th anniversary. I was 15 years old when the Berlin Wall fell along with all the other Eastern European dominoes that fell in its wake. Just old enough to have a global consciousness, but not quite old enough to have a sense of what it all meant and what it still means today. I’m still learning.

Of course, the Times didn’t mention the role religion played in the Czech Republic’s peaceful move toward a free democracy and society. That doesn’t bother me; that’s what we’re here for. And by sheer coincidence I ran across this passage last week by Stanley Hauerwas, written in his book After Christendom, not long after the monumental events of 1989.

These questions [about the "awkward" role of…

Our attempt to conquer nature now knows no gain, but only error and extinction. Our attempt to conquer men now meets no merit, but only error and exhaustion.

The winner produces enmity, because in suffering the defeated one lies down.
Being settled beyond victory and defeat, comfortably in peace one lies down.
- The Dhammapada, 201

The one who desires happiness causing others’ suffering
Is not freed from enmity but entangled in the snares of enmity.
- Op.cit., 291

Enmity is never appeased by enmity here,
but by non-enmity. This is the truth forever.
-Op.cit., 5

Human suffering comes from the delusion of independent and eternal ego. There is no such thing as the self-same, self-sovereign self. Our delusion and desire create bubbles of ego and economy in the great sea of eco-system. Bubbles burst but the sea remains.

Self-centeredness ends in wars, the worst, wishful, wasteful…

Right after the events of 9-11 (September 11, 2001), a group of people began to meet as an interfaith dialogue group one Wednesday a month.

And they have met every month since. They are from varied backgrounds including: Muslim, Catholic, Baptist, Buddhist, Lutheran, Unitarian, and Christian Science.

There are about 15 to 20 folks, most lay people. They meet on the 3rd Wednesday of the month at Eliot Unitarian Chapel in Kirkwood, from 11:30 to 1:30 p.m.

Their leader is Brenton Dodge, a retired American Baptist minister (dodgebc@sbcglobal.net).

They often have a book or news clippings to discuss. And they weigh in on how their religion might interpret an event or give instructions as to how to act.

I’m usually eating lunch and working at church while they meet in the fellowship hall, but occasionally I hear bits of conversation, and it seems to me they are thoughtful, good natured, and genuinely committed not only to…

For those new to the controversy, a quick refresher:

B.C. is the abbreviation for Before Christ while A.D. is the abbreviation for Anno Domini (Latin, “in the year of the Lord”). The new designations allegedly remove the Christian implications and stand for Common Era and Before Common Era.

Does it matter whether we use B.C. or B.C.E?

Some comments from Rockwood Superintendent Craig Larson, from Townsend’s article:

“There’s no agenda here,” he said. “We’re just teaching kids how to understand dates.”

Last week, Larson reacted to the debate on his blog.

“Within the last 10-15 years, CE/BCE has started to appear in student textbooks, usually along with AD/BC and…

Jim and Betty, myparentswereawesome.com

Several months back a Facebook friend sent me a link to the website People of Walmart and I quickly became addicted to it.  People of Walmart is crowdsourced, meaning that it is dependent on contributions from the masses for its content.  The format is simple:  contributors submit photos taken at any WalMart   The photos are accompanied by captions; some clever, others just vicious.  What will you find at the site?  Many large people in tiny clothes, people in almost no clothes, lots of mullets and other eccentric hairstyles, semi-committed cross dressers, shockingly obscene t-shirts, creepy clowns and disturbing tattoos.  None of it is pretty.  Study some paintings by Bruegel the Elder and you’ll wind up with a similar sensation.  Humanity as displayed on People of Walmart is nasty, brutish and extremely overweight.    The site is funny, and wildly popular.  You can now purchase People of Walmart t-shirts and hoodies to…

Authors note: This is probably not the kind of post your used to reading.  This is not the kind of post I ever envisioned writing.  But the muse struck.  Please excuse me, while I honor the muses.  Think of this as a one act, one scene play.  Please don’t take the characters seriously.  I used them to present a problem, not be an answer.  I consider none superior to the other two.

Fundie, Libby, and Abbie are resting on a park bench, musing about the nature of Truth and God.  The conversation is hours old and the three are at that philosophical place where all are making their final claims.  Fundie starts…

Truth must be absolute.  Why do you think they call it the Truth?  God gave me the ability to conceptualize absolute truth and it is absurd to suggest that God’s gift be for nothing.  Plato was right, if absolute truth…

Recently the annual IUCN Red List of Threatened Species was published. It shows that 70 percent of identified plants, 35 percent of invertebrates, 37 percent of freshwater fish, 30 percent of amphibians, 28 percent of reptiles, and 12 percent of birds are under threat. The survival of a total of 17,921 species is in jeopardy. This is just the tip of the iceberg.

We humans are causing the sixth mass extinction, with more than a hundred species becoming extinct per day. We have created the global problematique, with population explosion (a 50 percent increase is expected worldwide in several decades), habitat devastation, environmental pollution, resource exhaustion, climate change, desertification, and wars all intertwined. We face ecological and economic collapse, twin human-centered devastations that have become the ego-logical problematique of our age.

This is due to our karma. Most advanced in selfishness, societies, statuses, symbolism, and sciences, humankind is acting as a cancer, causing…

I am deeply moved by so many elements of our Torah’s depiction of this reunion. How wonderful it is to see a seasoned “manager of human resources” who is so willing to share - freely - of his vast knowledge! How refreshing to come across a powerful and accomplished “Chief Spiritual Officer” of a nation who is both humble and open enough to hear constructive criticism…