A View from the Religious Left Podcasts

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presentations by the Rev Dr Randolph WBBecker Primary Format : Religion Also Listed as: Religious City : Park Forest State/Province : IL Country : USA Country : NA User Tags: Warning: mysql_fetch_object(): supplied argument is not a valid MySQL result resource in /usr/home/sites/www.podcastdirectory.com/web/podcasts/index.php on line 218 User Votes: RSS Feed Website People found this Podcast Searching for: Religion | Religious | View this Podcast on a Google Map. Add to iTunes Text Only listing of A View from the Religious Left Podcasts Trumix.com listings available of A View from the Religious Left Podcasts Click Here to Update the directory of this podcasts programs.

Trumix.com listings available of A View from the Religious Left Podcasts Build your own playlists with this podcast. FASTING WITH A MESSENGER OF MOHAMMED - the Rev. Dr. Randolph W.B. Becker - September 14, 2008 First in a year-long series of conversations with religious figures. This week, a conversation with a messenger of Mohammed about the nature and meaning of Islam. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website DARING, NOT RISKY - the Rev. Dr. Randolph W.B. Becker - September 7, 2008 Perhaps the way to deal with the anxieties of life is to know the difference between risking living and daring living. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website SEARCHING FOR OUR CORE - the Rev. Dr. Randolph W.B. Becker - August 31, 2008 Unitarian Universalists often seem obsessed with finding a unique core of our faith - maybe we are looking in the wrong direction. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website THE 10 ENCOURAGEMENTS - the Rev. Dr. Randolph W.B. Becker - June 1, 2008 What if, when Moses went up the mountain, he had met a different kind of deity? The PowerPoint presentation that accompanied this sermon, of slides from Diane English's drawings (copyright 1996 Diane English) can be downloaded at http://www.uufkw.org/encouragements.ppt . Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website REMEMBERING MEMORIES: A Memorial Sunday Service - the Rev. Dr. Randolph W.B. Becker - May 25, 2008 Sometimes our losses keep us from remembering what cannot be lost. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website APPRECIATIVE INQUIRY - the Rev. Dr. Randolph WB Becker - May 18, 2008 What changes when the starting point of action is "What is right?" as opposed to the usual "What is the problem? A PowerPoint presentation of the slides used in this sercive is available at http://www.uufkw.org/appreciative.ppt . Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website A MOTHERS' PEACE DAY CELEBRATION - the Rev. Dr. Randolph WB Becker - May 11, 2008 Honoring the initial idea of Mother's Day with its emphasis on mothers as instruments of universal and continuing peace. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website WHY KEY WEST NEEDS LIBERAL RELIGION - the Rev. Dr. Randolph WB Becker - May 4, 2008 Five factors which show that Key West (or any other community) needs liberal religion. A PowerPoint presentation of the slides used in this service is available at http://www.uufkw.org/liberal.ppt . Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website The Flaming Stake: DARING DISSENT - the Rev. Dr. Randolph W.B. Becker - March 30, 2008 Did Spaniard Michael Servetus' death by being burned at the stake in Geneva for his Unitarian views cement his place in history? But his death was only one point in his life, a life much more defined by something else. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website The Empty Tomb: FINDING FULFILLMENT - the Rev. Dr. Randolph W.B. Becker - March 23, 2008 A central metaphor of Easter is the empty tomb. Why did it need to be empty for the deepest message of Jesus to become realized? Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website HANDS UP and PALM DOWN - the Rev. Dr. Randolph W.B. Becker - March 16, 2008 What can Palm Sunday mean to a religious humanist? Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website In the Beginning: EMBODYING CREATION - the Rev. Dr. Randolph W.B. Becker - March 2, 2008 Every religious tradition has a story of creation AND every religious tradition also has a theology of existence. How the stories and theologies match, or don't match, can give us clues of how we might live our own lives. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website SETTING THE WORLD ABLAZE- the Rev. Dr. Randolph WB Becker - December 9, 2007 The light calls to us - in tribal fires, in beacon flares, in Menorah candles, in distant stars, in the hearts of all who want to work together to express the human capacity for change. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website AWAITING THE UNEXPECTED TOGETHER - the Rev. Dr. Randolph WB Becker - December 2, 2007 In the traditional season of Advent, we remember the human capacity for hope. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website SOURCES OF THOUGHTFULNESS AND THANKFULNESS - the Rev. Dr. Randolph WB Becker - November 18, 2007 What are the abiding sources for our thoughtfulness and thankfulness? Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website IN THE MYSTICAL REALM - the Rev. Dr. Randolph WB Becker - November 11, 2007 A experiential sermon (with two preceding readings) that explores the mystical basis of faith. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website RELIGIOUS EXPERIENCE TAKES PRACTICE - the Rev. Dr. Randolph WB Becker - November 4, 2007 Most people yearn for peak experiences, moment of great insight. Religion teaches us that practice is a pre-requisite to a life of such experience. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website THE STILLBORN GOD - the Rev. Dr. Randolph WB Becker - October 21, 2007 Starting with Mark Lilla's theory of historical political theology, do we detect a failure of western democracy to find a viable substitute compelling unifying vision for the religious one which was removed in the Great Separation? Or, in other words, are the politics which flow from the enlightenment a deadend because they do not have a passionate, rallying spiritual vision? Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website CRITICAL RELIGION or RELIGION OF PRAISE - the Rev. Dr. Randolph W.B. Becker - October 14, 2007 Which is Unitarian Universalism - a Critical Religion or a Religion of Praise? Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website WAITING FOR SOMEONE TO REALLY DISCOVER AMERICA - the Rev. Dr. Randolph W.B. Becker - October 7, 2007 I count seven America's - six in history and one in vision. What are they? And when will WE discover the 7th? Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website EXPLORING THE JESUS MYSTERIES- the Rev. Dr. Randolph WB Becker - September 30, 2007 As the meaning of the many alternative gospels are explored and expanded following discoveries of ancient scrolls and texts, where do we place the central story of Christianity in the context of similar religious mystery stories? Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website HOLDING OUR LIVES IN THE BALANCE - the Rev. Dr. Randolph WB Becker - September 23, 2007 On the occasion of the Autumnal Equinox, an exploration of balance. Should life be lived with by keeping a balance between the good and the bad, by seeking a balance through moderation, or something more essential and visionary? Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website WORKERS OF THE WORLD - UNITE(D): A Labor Day Sermon - the Rev. Dr. Randolph WB Becker - September 2, 2007 What does it mean to be a worker? Is work about achieving things or achieving self or achieving the commonweal? Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website RE-THINKING LIBERAL RELIGION - the Rev. Dr. Randolph WB Becker - August 12, 2007 Preached at the UU Congregation of Utica, NY. Isn't it time to ask what liberal religion needs to be if it is to not only survive but thrive into the 21st century? Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website THREE MEASURES OF LIFE- the Rev. Dr. Randolph WB Becker - July 22, 2007 What simple three measures, borrowed from education, might help us evaluate our lives? Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website HARD LESSONS FROM GOOD DECISIONS - the Rev. Dr. Randolph W.B. Becker - July 15, 2007 A Bastille Day sermon. What lessons can we really learn from the French Revolution? Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website THE GREAT DISSENTERS - the Rev. Dr. Randolph W.B. Becker - July 8, 2007 How a book found as a teen ("The Great Dissenters") has shaped my life, and my perspective on what it means to be a dissenters. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website THE REAL RELIGION OF OUR NATION'S FOUNDERS - the Rev. Dr. Randolph WB Becker - July 1, 2007 How dare the religious right claim that the United States is a Christian nation when its founders would roll over in their graves at such an assertion? Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website NO EXIT - the Rev. Dr. Randolph WB Becker - June 10, 2007 From Sartre's Edwardian Drawing room "hell," consider what liberal religion has to say to life. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website PRIDE GOETH BEFORE IT ALL - A PrideFest 2007 Sermon - the Rev. Dr. Randolph WB Becker - JUNE 3, 2007 If you want to oppress someone, rob her/him of pride! If you want to liberate yourself, find and live your pride! Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website WE REMEMBER THEM - A Memorial Day Sermon - the Rev. Dr. Randolph WB Becker - May 27, 2007 How does human memory function and why? How do we use this gift of memory to honor those who have gone before us? Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website WHAT IF LIFE HAD A SOUND TRACK? - the Rev. Dr. Randolph WB Becker - May 20, 2007 If you could decide a soundtrack for your life, what would it be? Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website THE STORY OF A STORY - the Rev. Dr. Randolph WB Becker - May 19, 2007 A sermon preached at the annual Men's and Women's Day Celebration Service of the Cornish Memorial AME Zion Church of Key West. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website O, MOTHER! - Pam Strother, Barb Dreher, Elissa Bishop-Becker, Cliff Saylor, Marilyn Smith - May 13, 2007 A Mother's Day Celebration of the Complexity of Motherhood. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website CHURCH and STATE: STRANGE BEDFELLOWS - the Rev. Dr. Randolph WB Becker - May 6, 2007 In remembering the development of the separation of church and state, maybe it is time to rethink what the relationship should be. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website ECOLOGICAL THEOLOGY - the Rev. Dr. Randolph WB Becker - April 22, 2007 What theology might treat our environment better than either dominion or stewardship? Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website PROPHETS, DREAMERS, SAGES, and SEERS - the Rev. Dr. Randolph WB Becker - April 15, 2007 We usually lump these descriptive terms together, as if they were all the same. But, they are not! Which one would we rather be? Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website EASTER 2007 - LET ALL PEOPLE LIVE - the Rev. Dr. Randolph WB Becker - April 8, 2007 Why are the various accounts of the Easter experience so different? What were people trying to preserve in their accounts of the empty tomb? Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website LET MY PEOPLE GO - A Passover Sermon - the Rev. Dr. Randolph WB Becker - April 1, 2007 What is often overlooked in the story of the Passover? What is the difference between freedom and liberty? Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website HEY, TAKE IT EASY - the Rev. Dr. Randolph WB Becker - March 25, 2007 When was the last time you went to sleep without anything on your "to do" list? How do we fill life with something more than activities? Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website THE SOCIAL IMPLICATIONS OF TRANSCENDENTALISM - Robert Richardson - March 18, 2007 HOw was transcendentalism more than just a philosophy? World renown Emerson and Thoreau scholar RObert Richardson seeks out the larger implications of this movement. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website LIVING WITH TIME - the Rev. Dr. Randolph WB Becker - March 11, 2007 What is this thing we call "time"? Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website YOU DIDN'T LOSE IT - YOU JUST NEVER HAD IT! - the Rev. Dr. Randolph WB Becker - February 18, 2007 TV's "Deal or No Deal" is a paragon of the contemporary propensity to grieve over things we don't have rather than over things we have actually lost. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website THE STRANGE TWIST OF HERESY - the Rev. Dr. Randolph WB Becker - March 4, 2007 How do we create a community that allows us to really know each other?> Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website GETTING TO KNOW YOU - the Rev. Dr. Randolph WB Becker - February 4, 2007 How do we create a community that allows us to really know each other?> Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website CHARACTERS OF RELIGION - Ministers - the Rev. Dr. Randolph WB Becker - January 21, 2007 My final sermon in Park Forest - podcast will continue from Key West - new address: http://www.spiritualpersistence.com/rss3.xml - see you there Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website WHAT IS SPIRITUALITY? - the Rev Dr Randolph WB Becker - January 7, 2007 What is spirituality and who needs it? Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website CHARACTERS OF RELIGION: Saviours and Messsiahs - the Rev Dr Randolph WB Becker - December 31, 2006 Who are Saviours and Messiahs and what role do they play in religion? Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website THREE NAMES YOU OUGHT TO KNOW - the Rev Dr Randolph WB Becker - December 17, 2006 What's in a name . . . especially when we are more likely to pay attention to titles. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website A STEP IS NOT A JOURNEY - the Rev Dr Randolph WB Becker - December 10, 2006 while it is true that "A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step," the quality of that journey depends on what kind of steps we take. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Henri Nouwen's "Reaching Out" Part 3: FROM ILLUSION TO PRAYER - the Rev Dr Randolph WB Becker - December 3, 2006 Our spiritual journeys must be based on reality not illusion. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Henri Nouwen's "Reaching Out" Part 2: FROM HOSTILITY TO HOSPITALITY - the Rev Dr Randolph WB Becker - November 26, 2006 How do we move from seeing the stranger as a danger to welcoming the stranger into our lives with integrity? Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Henri Nouwen's "Reaching Out" Part 1: FROM LONELINESS TO SOLITUDE - the Rev. Dr. Randolph WB Becker - November 19, 2006 If the world is to move from hostility to hospitality through our reaching out to it, how do we find a spiritual center from which to reach out? Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website MATTERS OF WAR and PEACE - the Rev Dr Randolph WB Becker - November 12, 2006 When we pause to honor those who have served their country, we are called upon think about the choices and responsibilities of war, and also of peace. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website CHARACTERS OF RELIGION: PROPHETS - the Rev Dr Randolph WB Becker - October 22, 2006 Who are the "prophets" and what role do they play in religion? Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website 5 CHALLENGES OF ETHICAL LIVING - the Rev Dr Randolph WB Becker - October 15, 2006 We all strive to live ethical lives, but in doing so we face five major challenges. Ironically, any single religion often fails to deal with more than one of these challenges. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website IF I HAD TO TELL MY CHILDREN 5 THINGS ABOUT RELIGION - the Rev Dr Randolph WB Becker - October 8, 2006 Even the children of ministers ask what religion is about. What would I tell them? Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website MAKING A PROFOUND DIFFERENCE - the Rev Dr Randolph WB Becker - October 1, 2006 Remember people who made a profound difference in our lives, and our obligation to pass that difference on to a world hungering, thirsting, yearning to be changed. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website CHARACTERS OF RELIGION: Matriarchs and Patriarchs - the Rev Dr Randolph WB Becker - September 24, 2006 Why should religions settle for iconic figures of men and women when our own lives are touched by real people? Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website WHEN FEAR OF TERRORISM ECLIPSES FAITH IN TOMORROW- the Rev Dr Randolph WB Becker - September 17, 2006 Living in a culture of fear is debilitating, and denies the very principles upon which civilization is founded. How do we turn this country around, back to being an America with a faith in tomorrow? Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website THE CASSANDRA EFFECT- the Rev Dr Randolph WB Becker - September 3, 2006 How has the image of Cassandra, the cursed seer, been co-opted by those who define themselves through a critical approach to all life? Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website THE CHARACTERS OF RELIGION: Gods and Goddesses - the Rev Dr Randolph WB Becker - August 27, 2006 First in a series of sermons on the various characters found in the usual script of "religion." Let's start with gods and goddesses. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website TAKING A LIBERAL LEAP OF FAITH - the Rev Dr Randolph WB Becker - August 20, 2006 Have we been fighting an old battle (religion versus science) to avoid focusing on our unique religious perspective? Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website TAKING GRACE TO LUNCH - the Rev Dr Randolph WB Becker - July 16, 2006 What is the alternative to a religion of fear or a religion of reward? Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website A WHOLE GREATER THAN THE SUM OF ITS PARTS - the Rev Dr Randolph WB Becker - June 11, 2006 The whole existence is based on combinations which yield a whole greater than the sum of the parts - but is that true of your life? Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website WHO NEEDS THIS PLACE ANYWAY? - the Rev Dr Randolph WB Becker - June 4, 2006 Modernism claimed that it would eliminate the need for religion. What happened? Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website ARE WE LITTERING OUR SPIRITUAL PATHS? - the Rev Dr Randolph WB Becker - May 14, 2006 Three ways in which we litter our spiritual paths, making it hard for others to follow and even harder for us to proceed with integrity. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website CULTURAL APPROPRIATION: The Shadow Side of Our Religious Inclusivity - the Rev Dr Randolph WB Becker - April 30, 2006 Do we betray other cultures by appropriating their spiritual traditions, or do we betray our religious tradition by not exploring all spiritual paths . . . or is the real question much larger and more challenging? (includes a story for youth, two readings, and a sermon) Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website HOW A LIBERAL CAN SPEAK TRUTH TO EVIL - the Rev. Dr. Randolph WB Becker - April 23, 2006 Liberals are often accused of having nothing to say to evil because they do not recognize original sin - but the reality can be just the opposite. However, We need to be able to be persistent, focused, and value-oriented if we want to speak truth to evil. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website THERE'S A RUMOR GOING 'ROUND - An Easter Sermon - the Rev Dr Randolph WB Becker - April 16, 2006 An Easter sermon peeling away 20 centuries of theological dogna to see if we can detect the essential first century message of the season. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website LAYING OUT THE WELCOME MAT - the Rev Dr Randolph WB Becker - April 9, 2006 What does it mean to really extend a welcome? Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website PRACTICAL THEOLOGY and THEOLOGICAL PRACTICE - the Rev Dr Randolph WB Becker - March 26, 2006 Assisted by the Chicago Area UU Coming-of-Age Program, explore ten of life's essential questions. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website 1931 GERMANY/ 2006 AMERICA - the Rev Dr Randolph WB Becker - March 26, 2006 The frightening parallels between 1931 Germany and 2006 America, with a call to action! Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website SPIRITUAL EQUINOX - the Rev Dr Randolph WB Becker - March 19, 2006 A meditation on the equinox, spiritual depression, and the development of religious community for all seasons of the spirit. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website BUILDING BLOCKS - the Rev Dr Randolph WB Becker - March 12, 2006 In conjunction with the Chicago Area Coming-of-Age Program, a presentation on the building blocks of religion. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website IN DREAMS BEGINS RESPONSIBILITY - the Rev Dr Randolph WB Becker - March 5, 2006 In a religion of transformation rather than salvation, four steps to fulfillment imply action on our part. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website SPIRITUAL POLITICS - the Rev Dr Randolph WB Becker - February 26, 2006 What does it mean to have spiritual values in a political culture? Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website A LINCOLN PORTRAIT - a multimedia experience - the Rev. Dr. Randolph WB Becker - February 19, 2006 In honor of Presidents' Day, a multi-media presentation featuring Aaron Copeland's "A Lincoln Portrait" and selected images to honor Lincoln's place in the development of the United States. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website EVOLVED INTELLIGENCE,NOT INTELLIGENT DESIGN - A Darwin Commemoration - the Rev Dr Randolph WB Becker - February 12, 2006 Understanding how Darwin challenged, but did not deny, the role of religion. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website IDOLATRIES OF MIND AND SPIRIT - the Rev Dr Randolph WB Becker - February 5, 2006 A Chanukkah service of a story, a song, and reflections. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website A PLAIN MAN OF LOFTY IDEALS - Hosea Ballou Learn more about this "father of the second generation of Universalism" Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website RIGHTS and BLESSINGS If you follow your own "roots," what actions of welcome and what rights of immigration are you called to? Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website PROPHETIC WOMEN and MEN . . . and US What do we mean when we say we honor the words of prophetic women and men? Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website WHOLENESS, HOLISM, and HOLINESS If saints are people of great holiness, who are the saint of a liberal religion which teaches that wholeness of self is a holy thing? Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website BURNING DESIRES - A New Year's Ritual How do we celebrate the new year's challenge of letting go and taking up? Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website THE PULSING OF THE PLANET Lessons from a wobbly, spinning, tilted planet for this season of coldness and darkness. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website HOPE, NOT HELL What can we learn from a Universalist ministry over two centuries ago about issues in our own time? Ministerial Intern Ed Loomis preaches. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website LEARNING (and REMEMBERING) TO SAY THANKS If you were an alien seated at a Thanksgiving feast. what would you learn about the holiday? Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website EIGHT DAYS OF WONDER - A Chanukkah Service A Chanukkah service of a story, a song, and reflections. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website WHAT IF IT'S ALL MAKE-BELIEVE: a Christmas Eve Service A Christmas Eve service of readings, music, and homily. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website PROPHET OF AN OLD "NEW AGE" - William Ellery Channing What does a 19th century have to say to the 21st century? Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website THE MOST IMPORTANT WALL IN AMERICA The wall that separates church and state can be either an albatross or a valuable tool - which will it be for us? Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website THE THINNING VEIL - Life and Death on the Edge It is the time of the year when the ancient felt the veil between the living and dead thinned - how do we experience this sense of a turning of the seasons? Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website EVERY TIME I FEEL THE SPIRIT - Direct Experience in Religion What is the source of a religion of vision? How do we create that community of religious vision? Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website BEING DISCOVERED - The Indigenous Experience The ships on the horizon slowly approach, and you are about to be "discovered." Who is the hero here, the explorer, or the discovered? Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website THE DILEMMA OF THE DISCONNECTED WORLD Thomas Barnett argues that the greatest threats to our modern world are not military forces but rather parts of a disconnected world. What does this new map of the world mean for us, globally and locally? Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website A SUMMONS UNTO HUMANITY The name "John Haynes Holmes" is one that almost every liberal of the first half of the twentieth century would have known, and would have spoken with deep appreciation. Do you know who he is? Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website RELIGION WITHOUT SCRIPTURE Long ago, a nomadic tribe adrift in the desert chose to follow the religious path of "the word." Was there another option? What would religion based on that other option look like? Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website One More Day What would you do if you found out your could have a "bonus day," one more day in your life? Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website UNNECESSARY ENEMIES A lesson from the past, when religious liberals created unnecessary enemies, may help us find a better way to deal with current challenges from religious conservatives. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website FOOLISH WISDOM or WISE FOOLISHNESS? One of our great human fears is to appear the fool - but isn't it worse to foolishly appear wise by accepting without question what other fools have called wisdom? Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website OUR QUIET PRINCIPLES? Some religious principles seem to scream themselves atindividuals and society, while others more quietly offer a greater depth of meaning. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website GOOD GOD, WHY IS THERE EVIL? A consideration of the concept of "evil" from a liberalreligious perspective. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website IS THIS LIFE AS WE KNOW IT? In a world in which various religious systems try to tell us what "reality" is, do those theological descriptions match our own experience? Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website THE TASK OF FRAMING Building on the insights of George Lakoff, a consideration of four tasks for liberal religion in a conservative age. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website DECLARE WHAT IS REALLY IMPORTANT Fellow Unitarian Thomas Jefferson declared some essential values over two centuries ago . . . what would we declare today with equal conviction and passion? Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website WHAT MEN HAVE TAUGHT ME a sermon in four acts: A Father's Day sermon that considers the great gifts I have received from men - four qualities of manhood worthy of praise and uniquely offered man to man. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website SEEING HORIZONS FROM DEEP VALLEYS We all experience them - the deep valleys of life. What can religion offer us then? A magical way out, or the tools, lessons, and community through which we find our own way up? Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website MAKING A DIFFERENCE or A DIFFERENCE IN THE MAKING Religion should be about transformation. There are two ways of being transformational, one as a change agent and the other as a supporter of change agents. Truly religious communities contain both. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website MOTHER COURAGES and HER CHILDREN A Mother's Day sermon that explores the territory between the idealized, stylized culture of greeting card mothers and the demonic motherhood of Mother Courage . . . and how real mothers live between those two poles. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website WE BELIEVE: The Sources of Meaning Are Manifold As a religion of process, not creeds, we find the unity of all creation mirrored in a universality of sources of understanding and meaning. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website WE BELIEVE: NO ONE STANDS ALONE Most religions claim that a "religious person" is someone who denies some aspect of themselves. We embrace the value of each individual, but only as we learn to not stand alone. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website DIGGING EASTER A sermon on Easter Sunday, exploring the ways in which Biblical Archeology does great disservice to both fact and faith. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website A NOT-SO-QUIET WEEK IN LAKE WOBEGON What if in a week you found you had been robbed, threatened, and lied-to?What if you discovered the culprit, and the culprit was war? How can we change a culture of conflict, an attitude of scarcity, and a climate of division? Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website IF WE PRINTED MONEY, WHOSE FACE WOULD BE ON IT? Suppose we printed our own money . . . what values would we express through its design? What if our money had our own picture on it and people could then see how we spend our money . . . what values does our spending affirm? Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website FAITH IS A VERB A story of the Buddha, diagramming the central sentence in the Abrahamic tradition, and a call to a radical understanding of the role of truly alive values in individual lives. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website DIMENSIONS OF LOVE At St. Valentine's Day, we consider love and its intrinsic connection to spirituality - including a concise definition of spirituality. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website WE BELIEVE: There is an Ultimate Interdependence to ALL Existence What are the deeper, religious implications of affirming the reality of interdependence? Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Diversity is Enriching and Fulfilling A sermon on the ways in which a belief in the value of diversity challenges us to not only affirm diversity but to actively choose to allow contrary ideas to affect on us. Those on the left who avoid or ignore the ideas of the right do so at the perild of their own espoused values. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website