Hating Hateful Haters

August 28, 2012 By 1 Comment

Last week, advertisements began appearing at commuter train stations in the county where I live that, it would seem, blame all of Islam for the actions of violent extremists who are Muslim. Debate over the ads here in Westchester, including in the congregation I serve as minister, has centered on the question of “hate speech.” [...]

Filed Under: Diversity, Healing, LGBT Issues, Peace, Religion, Social Justice, Spirituality, Women's Issues, World Community Tagged With: , , , , , , , , , , , 1 Comment

Legitimacy

August 25, 2012 By Leave a Comment

The furor over Rep. Todd Akin’s astonishingly irresponsible and oft-quoted remarks this week has once again thrown a complex moral, religious, legal and personal controversy in our country into stark relief, the question of abortion. It seems to me that the burning question about abortion in the United States is not primarily about whether or [...]

Filed Under: Abortion, Faith Development, Parenting, Religion, Social Justice, Values, Women's Issues Leave a Comment

The Mean Season

August 21, 2012 By Leave a Comment

Like many of you, I am already bemoaning the tone and tenor of the Presidential campaign.  I’m not surprised, mind you, nor are you, I’m sure.  While we might have hoped that the candidates and their surrogates would “take the high road” and focus on issues in substantive ways, this fall promises to be the [...]

Filed Under: Digital Life, Diversity, Healing, Hospitality, Peace, Relationships, Religion, Spirituality, Uncategorized, Values, World Community Leave a Comment

In solidarity with our Sikh sisters and brothers

August 11, 2012 By 2 Comments

This past Sunday’s horrific shooting at the Oak Creek Sikh Temple just outside Milwaukee is more than just news headlines to Unitarian Universalists. It took place just a week after the four-year anniversary of an unnervingly similar crime, the killing of two and wounding of seven on July 27, 2008 at the Tennessee Valley Unitarian [...]

Filed Under: Diversity, Mortality, Religion, Social Justice 2 Comments

Every Jot and Tittle

July 31, 2012 By Leave a Comment

Yesterday was my birthday, so I thought I’d explain how I came about my name Matthew Tittle. In the Christian Scriptures, in the King James Version of the Book of Matthew (5:17-18), during the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus is recorded as having said: Think not that I am come to destroy the law, or [...]

Filed Under: Religion, Scripture Tagged With: , , , , , Leave a Comment

Context and interpretation

July 28, 2012 By 1 Comment

In matters of interpretation, it’s important for us to try to understand context. This is an essential assumption inherent in a liberal religious outlook. Religious liberalism tends to discourage an enthusiasm for absolutes and universals, embracing instead a sense that the milieu in which something comes into being is almost always relevant in some way. [...]

Filed Under: Religion, Scripture, Social Justice, Uncategorized 1 Comment

Holding to the Wrong Anchor

July 26, 2012 By 2 Comments

Yesterday I was listening to a radio interview with the Catholic bishop who had been charged with responding to the Leadership Conference of Women Religious. Basically, his stance was that the group, which represents 80% of Catholic nuns, was just flat-out wrong when they suggested that the Catholic Church needs to re-examine its stance on [...]

Filed Under: LGBT Issues, Religion, Women's Issues Tagged With: , , , 2 Comments

The Meaning of Faith

July 19, 2012 By 8 Comments

Faith is not about belief. Faith in fact has very little to do with what beliefs you hold, other than that it allows you to hold them. Faith is a sacred, deep, emotionally involved kind of trust. Faith is the kind of trust that you enter into with your whole being. Faith is the kind [...]

Filed Under: Faith Development, Religion Tagged With: , , , , , , , 8 Comments

A Response to “Can Liberal Christianity Be Saved?”

July 16, 2012 By 10 Comments

In yesterday’s New York Times, op-ed columnist, Ross Douthat, published “Can Liberal Christianity Be Saved?”  My first reaction upon reading the article was to launch a strident refutation. Other people of liberal faith already have. But as I thought more deeply about Mr. Douthat’s indictments, I found more truth and realized that my own reaction [...]

Filed Under: Religion Tagged With: , , , , , , , , 10 Comments

Being Good for Nothing

July 12, 2012 By 7 Comments

I suppose I shouldn’t have said anything. But letting these things slide is, shall we say, not my strong suit. So when a Facebook friend posted a picture of a gun mounted under a car’s steering wheel with a caption about it being an “an anti-carjacking device,” accompanied by her wish that this were legal, [...]

Filed Under: Religion Tagged With: , , , , 7 Comments