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Unitarian Universalism

The Unitarian Universalist congregation’s fragile ecosystem

The social ecosystems of our churches are at risk at the local community level, at the congregational level, and at the denominational level.

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Unitarian Universalism

Concluding my professional service to UU organizations

Stepping down as editor of UU World magazine marks the end of 25 years of professional service to Unitarian Universalist communities.

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Site News

The long afterlife of a blog

Philocrites finds its way into bibliographies and footnotes.

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Christianity in America Politics

Dean: Northern evangelist.

‘Dean’s rhetoric — like his campaign structure — is deeply grounded in the social practices of a branch of radical Protestantism whose tenets still wield power in the structures of Vermont’s government.’

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Site News

Traffic report.

We zoomed through November with 6402 visits and 2912 unique visitors. (In October, those numbers — which I’ve now figured out how to extract from my host — were 5426 visits and 2753 unique visitors.) Thank you, everybody — and I especially appreciate your comments. People are still inexplicably drawn to my essays about Max […]

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Worship

Calling.

‘What I worship cleaves the rock and makes the rain and melts the snow. It is a god of transformation…’

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Marriage Sexuality

Spouse and spouse?

I don’t think we’re going to get very far by taking gender out of marriage entirely, or by discounting the differences between one form of partnership and another.

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Christianity in America Sociology of Religion

‘God on the Quad.’

A good cover story in the Boston Globe Magazine about the evangelical trend among MIT and Harvard undergraduates. (It’s a trend I think about often when riding the Red Line downtown to attend King’s Chapel on Sunday mornings. I get off at Park Street with countless young people, who all walk up the steps to […]

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Christianity in America Conservatism Politics

Faith-based pork.

Mary Leonard writes in a front-page Boston Globe article that President Bush’s faith-based initiatives might have the surprising side-effect — yes, you could put quotes around “surprising” and “side-effect” — of picking up a few more votes and helping attract some diversity to the Republican base. And, while the Christian Right is squawking about the […]

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Sexuality Theology

Imago dei.

“Human beings are made in the image of God,” writes Joe Perez at Soulful Blogger. Even gay people . . .