JFK, Sorenson, and Unitarian Universalism

Last updated on: November 26, 2013 at 6:05 pm By Carl Gregg

I was reading an article recently on “The Tyranny of Excellence,” which concludes with a fascinating passage about Unitarian Universalist influences on President Kennedy. This Friday’s 50th Anniversary of Kennedy’s tragic assassination seems like an appropriate occasion to share these words, which are from a review of Ted Sorenson’s book Counselor, A Life on the Edge History. Sorensen was a legendary speech writer for Kennedy as well as a trusted advisor, but it is less well known that Ted Sorensen... Read more

Lost Christianities and Banned Books of the Bible

Last updated on: December 27, 2014 at 8:58 am By Carl Gregg

I would like to invite you to reflect on your relationship over time with what is sometimes called the “canonical Bible”: the version of the Bible that we are most accustomed to seeing, with all the books that weren’t banned, were chosen by the group that became Christian orthodoxy, and were eventually anthologized together into the book we know as “The Bible.” (As a brief aside, I should perhaps note that the word Bible itself betrays that it is nothing... Read more

New Lectionary Resource for Progressive Christians

Last updated on: November 13, 2013 at 6:34 pm By Carl Gregg

December 1, 2013 marks the beginning of a new three-year lectionary cycle in Christian congregations. For a new perspective on these texts, this guest post is from a member of my congregation, who is in the middle of publishing a trilogy of resources: Theology from Exile: Commentary on the Revised Common Lectionary for an Emerging Christianity by Sea Raven, D.Min.: Volume 1 The Year of Luke (published January 2013) Volume 2 The Year of Matthew (September 2013) Volume 3 The Year... Read more

After Trauma & Loss: What (Not) To Say

Last updated on: December 27, 2014 at 8:57 am By Carl Gregg

This summer I took a unit of CPE (“Clinical Pastoral Education”), which is a continuing education program that helps reflect on becoming more compassionately present to others. My experience reaffirmed for me the old saying that, “Intention does not equal impact.” In other words, even with the best of intentions, the impact of our words and deeds may unintentionally wound another. Along those lines, the following are a few highlights from my CPE training offered in the hope that others... Read more

Tweeting John Caputo’s “The Insistence of God: A Theology of Perhaps”

Last updated on: December 27, 2014 at 9:07 am By Carl Gregg

John Caputo is one of my favorite philosophers of religion. His writing is delightfully playful and creative as well as deeply profound and insightful. For an extended review of his latest book The Insistence of God: A Theology of Perhaps, see the Theo-Blogger tour, which covers each chapter in turn. Instead of trying to duplicate that impressive effort, the following are some passages that I tweeted as I read the book because they particularly stood out to me as significant: “I do... Read more

Pagan Reflections on the Season of Samhain: Speaking to the Spark within the Darkness

Last updated on: October 30, 2013 at 11:15 am By Carl Gregg

Yesterday, I posted on Scarred, Scared, and Sacred: Spiritual Practices for the Fall Triduum of Halloween, Samhain, and All Souls Day. Continuing on the theme of that post, this reflection is a guest post from Irene Jericho, a member of my congregation at the Unitarian Universalist Congregation of Frederick, Maryland, and a leader of our Earth-centered Spirituality (“UU Pagan”) group. When I was 13, one of my closest friends lost a lengthy battle with childhood leukemia. It was my first... Read more

Scarred, Scared, and Sacred: Spiritual Practices for the Fall Triduum of Halloween, Samhain, and All Souls Day

Last updated on: December 27, 2014 at 9:05 am By Carl Gregg

Can you feel the Wheel of the Year turning? Can you feel fall in the air — the chilling breeze and changing leaves, the tell tale signs of winter’s coming? In this season of each day growing incrementally shorter, can you sense our inexorable movement, here in the Northern Hemisphere, toward Winter Solstice, the darkest day of the year? If you imagine the year as a circle, our Western, secular calendar marks four major seasonal turning points: Winter Solstice (the... Read more

Cisgender and Transgender

Last updated on: October 15, 2013 at 6:08 pm By Carl Gregg

Most people are more familiar with the term transgender than with the term cisgender. The term transgender came first, adding the Latin prefix “trans-” (meaning, “across from” or “on the other side of”) to the word gender to indicate a person, whose gender identity or gender expression does not match their biological sex. Cisgender was coined as a complementary term from the Latin prefix cis-, (meaning “on this side of”), indicating a person, whose gender identity and gender expression for... Read more

Building the Beloved Community: Anti-racism and Multiculturalism in a Local Congregation

Last updated on: October 12, 2013 at 9:19 am By Carl Gregg

Blackmail, blacklist, black mark. Black Monday, black mood, black-hearted. Black plague, black mass, black market Good guys wear white, bad guys wear black. We fear black cats, and the Dark Continent. But it’s okay to tell a white lie, lily-white hands are coveted, it’s great to be pure as the driven snow. Angels and brides wear white. Devil’s food cake is chocolate; angel’s food cake is white! We shape language and we are shaped by it. In our culture, white... Read more

A Spirituality of Stability

Last updated on: December 27, 2014 at 9:05 am By Carl Gregg

The congregation where I serve as minister recently celebrated the 10th anniversary of our building dedication. This occasion was significant for many reason including that for the previous 42 years of this congregation’s history, they were a semi-nomadic people without a permanent home. This anniversary has inspired me to reflect on what it can mean to practice an intentional spirituality of stability — in our spiritual communities, with our families, even at work. Speaking personally, the group that has taught... Read more