A sermon celebrating the history of the First Unitarian Universalist Church of Houston.
To Make This World A Paradise: First Unitarian Universalist’s ANNIVERSARY
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Juneteenth
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My sermon celebrating Juneteenth, 2023.
Missing Malcolm in Michigan
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as preached at the First Unitarian Universalist Church of Houston, February 20, 2022 “Did you ever talk to Brother Malcolm? Did you ever touch him or have him smile at you? Did you ever really listen to him?,” I begin my sermon with these words from Ossie Davis for a simple reason. Tomorrow marks the fifty-seventh anniversary of the assassination of el-Hajj Malik el-Shabazz, best known as Malcolm...
Struggling with Revolutionary Love
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In this sermon in honor of MLK's birthday, I consider where we might find revolutionary love today.
Mourning the Past
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In this sermon I consider how we might re-imagine mourning the past.
When the Spirit Says Do
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as preached at the First Unitarian Universalist Church of Houston, August 29, 2021 Thank you, Sophia for that exquisite violin performance. It is a blessing to have such talent in our congregation. I think that I can speak for the entire community when I say that we are proud of your achievements and wish you the very best as you continue your musical education. I am certain that you will bless...
The Senate Should Expel Senators Cruz and Hawley
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Note: I wrote this op-ed on Friday and sent it to the Houston Chronicle with the intention of sending it on to the Kansas City Star and the St. Louis Post-Dispatch if the Chronicle declined to run it. Since writing it the editorial boards of all three newspapers have written editorials calling for resignations and so I have decided to just post it to my blog. The Chronicle’s op-ed calling...
Truth and Reconciliation: An Open Letter to President-Elect Joe Biden
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The United States needs to establish a National Commission for Truth and Reconciliation if it is to ever address systematic racism, rural poverty, and white supremacy.
Sermon: Foundations
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Over the years, I have tried to follow the injunction, attributed to Karl Barth but probably apocryphal, to preach with “the Bible in one hand and the newspaper in the other.” Not being a Christian, I have never taken the injunction literally. Rather I have understood it to mean, root yourself in your tradition, ground yourself in the goodness of the Earth, and from that foundation offer up what...
The Fierce Urgency of Now
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This past Friday the Washington Post journalist Robert Samuels put out a simple eleven-word tweet. Over an image of the Post, he wrote, “Have mercy. Every story in this front page made m[e] gasp.” The articles offered a litany of woes: “Trump suggests delaying election;” “U.S. economy contracts at record rate;” “Mail backlog raises fears of delays in ballot delivery;” “DHS gathers ‘intelligence’...