Power and privilege are often associated with their abuses and abusers. However, like any tool, power and privilege can be used for good or evil, to oppress or liberate, harm or heal, destroy or create. Rather than demonizing power itself or drowning in guilt over our privilege, can we learn to use our power and […]
A number of psychologists have recently explored the divide between liberals and conservatives–in religion, politics, and morality. The problem, some argue, may be the ethical/spiritual foundations each group is most comfortable with: Care vs. harm, Fairness vs. cheating, Loyalty vs. betrayal, Authority vs. subversion, Sanctity vs. degradation, and Liberty vs. oppression. Liberals tend to pay […]
Are expectations good? Bad? Neither? Tony Larsen will explore this subject with us, and he assures that there is not necessarily a simple answer to this question. Rev. Dr. Tony Larsen has been pastor of Olympia Brown UU Church in Racine since 1975 (yes, that’s 40 years and probably a record!). He is an annual guest […]
It has been said that Unitarian Universalism suffers from lack of a “Great Story”. While this may be true concerning its origin, many “saints” (an informal assignment in UU-ism) have lived extraordinary lives in our liberal faith. On Thoreau’s 198th birthday, Joan offers a very personal appreciation for the remarkable philosopher, conservationist, inventor and civil […]
The existence of the human species poses questions about how and why we act as we do – individually and collectively. Religious thinkers, philosophers, literary writers and scientists have offered many descriptions and interpretations of what it means to be human. As the archeological record expands, we get new insights on how our species evolved, […]
Today we will explore people’s ever-changing estimation of Jesus over the centuries. Although orthodox Christianity describes Christ as being the same “yesterday, today and forever” that has hardly been the case. Michael A. Schuler has served for twenty-seven years as the Parish Minister of the 1450 member First Unitarian Society of Madison, one of the […]
Roger Bertschausen’s favorite poet is Wislawa Szymborska, the late Nobel Prize-winning Polish poet. Some of Roger’s all-time favorite services at the Fellowship have been collaborative sermons with the accomplished mezzo-soprano, Cynthia Stiehl. So you can imagine Roger’s excitement that his last collaboration with Cyndy at the Fellowship will feature three poems by Szymborska, set to […]
The violence and disorder that rages around the world today is a sign that we are in a period where the global system is breaking down. Our participation in finding a path forward can’t be limited by “mind forged manacles” that define practicality in terms of prevailing definitions of “common sense.” How can we find […]
From a Buddhist perspective, this is the great conundrum of our lives: we are simultaneously one vast living organism and a distinct living person. And we are vastly more comfortable with those whom we perceive to be like ourselves, at least on the surface. There are powerful barriers to recognizing that we and others share the same universal […]
We are alive and we are going to die. Religion is our response to these two realities. We are, in fact, the religious animal. Death casts a mantle over everything we do. The answers we seek have to find meaning beyond our mortality. A major conundrum of our life is the tension between embracing the world […]