A FOOLISH CONSISTENCY IS THE HOBGOBLIN OF LITTLE MINDS… ~ RALPH WALDO EMERSON
I’m excited to announce that, with Sade Perkins, I’ll be a Crossroads Project Fellow for 2022-2023 for a project we’re doing on “Religion in Houston’s Pan-African Community.” We’ll be facilitating a series of public conversations and oral histories with community elders about the relationship between their justice work and religious beliefs and spiritual...
as preached at the First Unitarian Universalist Church of Houston, December 24, 2021 “For there exists a great realm and a boundlessness whose measure no angelic race has comprehended.” I start my annual Christmas homily with words you have probably never heard before. They come from a text that I suspect is equally unfamiliar, the second century Gospel of Judas. The words and the text are...
as preached at the First Unitarian Universalist Church of Houston, February 5, 2022 It is good to be back in the pulpit. I miss you when I am gone. Not that I particularly went anywhere. I spent most of the last month holed up in my home office working on finishing the manuscript for the book I have been writing on populism and religion. I am grateful to have had the support of this congregation...
My father and I have an article in the most recent issue of KATALOG–Journal of Photography & VIdeo. “Life played out in images: The self-portraiture of Libuše Jarcovjáková” is our second piece for the publication. It is also a teaser for an exhibition of Jarcovjákova’s work that we’re planning for FotoFest 2022. KATALOG is a beautiful publication and lives up to its name, more art...
This past year I read around the same number of books that I read the year prior. I mention this only because it indicative of the way that the pandemic has impacted my time and ability to focus. These last two years I have read far less than at almost any other point in my life. I am hoping that will shift this year. I have a sabbatical planned for June through August and the pandemic has...
In this sermon in honor of MLK's birthday, I consider where we might find revolutionary love today.
In January, I try to make two blog posts: one compiling the list of books I read over the previous year and the other listing my most popular blog posts. I usually start with the list of most popular blog posts. Here it is: Most Read Blog Posts of 2021 A Prayer for DemocracyThe Senate Should Expel Senators Cruz and HawleyJoe Manchin Might be a Senator from West Virginia but He’s Paid for by...
as preached at the First Unitarian Universalist Church of Houston, December 12, 2021 This is my second sermon on the theme of reimagining possibilities. Last week, at the end of my first sermon on the series, I invited you to attend to the world and share with me something beautifully unanticipated that you encountered: an exquisite movement, an inspiring sound, or a wondrous object. Several of...
I am excited to announce that both the Hibbert Trust and the Unitarian Universalist Association’s Joseph Gittler Fund for Religion and Ethics will be partially funding the research for my forthcoming book (w/ Brill) “Unitarian Universalist Theologies” (publication anticipated in spring 2023).
In this sermon, I encourage us to open ourselves to the beauty of the world and the miracles that surround us.