Living Prophets: sermons from liberal religion

One of the ways that empires have controlled populations is by rewriting history to reshape our heritage and cultural identity. Centuries later, when the truth is discovered, people still struggle to accept how their identity has been crafted by past deception. This is the story of the Phoenician Irish, the Mauritanian Welsh, the Islamic Kingdom […]

This month the world announced thousands of sanctions against Russia in retaliation for its criminal invasion of Ukraine in 2022. This episode dives into trade as a weapon wielded by (and against) empires. How is fair trade different from exploitation? Is capitalism truly the source of freedom in the world? (hint: it’s complicated). Is socialism […]

During the age of imperialism, in the nineteenth century, Europe’s empires ruled over 80 percent of the people of Earth despite being a fraction of the world. That all changed when Gandhi demonstrated that active nonviolent resistance worked. This episode dives into the life and lessons of Gandhi, culminating with modern research that shows his methods […]

Season 3 (2022) begins with an episode (#71) that illustrates the structure of empire using Rome as the prototype. We examine its rivalry with Carthage and the racism and genocide that are the inevitable result of the way empires function. This introduces the themes that we will explore in the next 10 episodes. Why are […]

What gives you hope? What sustains you? How could the way we see things be fundamental to our ability to change the world? The Gratitudes are short stories of people showing courage and resolve to overcome tragedy and change the world within their reach.

Do you find yourself in conversations with people who believe all the right things, but who remain stuck, unable to act in any meaningful way to fight racism? Doing the “usual stuff” to fight racism isn’t working because it is only a quarter of what is needed. As I explain the “liberal myth,” find out […]

Continuing to explore the ways that Christian churches talk about race, here is Bishop Michael Curry of the Episcopal church speaking in Charlottesville VA one year after the race riots about love, titled “There is another way.” [Listen 18:39]

It has been many years since “Black Lives Matter” and “#Metoo” have been part of everyday conversation. Yet many churches struggle in confronting race issues from the pulpit head-on. Few are laying bare the dark legacy that organized religion has had in forming a society that sees humanity through the lens of race. “From the […]

America is founded on some lofty ideals, but baked into its ethos and history are many contradictions. We claim to be a moral force for good in the world yet embrace the tenets of imperialism. The service unpacks these contradictions and looks ahead to what we can do in 2020 to transform the covid-19 era […]

As protests continue against systemic police brutality in the US, and activists demand that we defund the police, episode #65 explains how to start “the uncomfortable conversation” with a friend or family member — the one about white privilege, implicit bias, and a journey towards understanding. Being a bridge between your moral center and the people […]

What should we think about riots during a pandemic, following a murder in Minneapolis by the hands of police? People respond in two ways: The descend into sectarianism or rise with a Harambee attitude. Hear about the power of interdependence from Fred Small and Martin Luther King, Jr — this is how we build an […]

2020 – the year of the covid19 lockdown – is quickly becoming a repeat of the year of the Jubilee from leviticus. A time when wrongs were righted and agriculture came to a halt. The wisdom of this time, as we think about the kind of world we will be restarting, is that there is […]

As we shelter-in-place during covid19, I wanted to share some of the more inspiring things happening around the world. There is a twitter hashtag #thebestofus that people use to share stories of others making a difference. And, as bad as things seem, did you know that this was the first century in the last 700 […]

Disease and Dis-Ease Symptoms: Anthropologist Margaret Mead once said that the first sign of civilization in an ancient cultures is digging up a femur (thigh bone) that had been broken and had been allowed to heal. In the ancient world, if you broke your leg, you’d die. A broken femur that has healed is evidence […]

In these trying times, we need to be reminded that we are where we are in the world because past leaders have inspired us to work for the benefit of humankind, to sacrifice for noble causes that have made the world as wonderful as it is today. Here are three speeches that can serve to […]

Two sermons from 2019 and 2020 about resisting the trap of feeling contempt for people that we disagree with. We are in a national crisis of contempt and it is tearing our world apart. Listen to episode #59 (21:15)

Reverend Rob Hardies explains the three things we must all go through before we can truly forgive. The title draws upon a prayer from Desmond Tutu during the South African Truth and Reconciliation Process in the 1990s. And in Part II Jean Botham speaks in court and forgives Amber Guyger for shooting his brother. If […]

Peacemaking has many flavors. The language of how we make peace is a spectrum: Forgiveness, contrition, amnesty, reconciliation, retribution, restoration. Hear stories of how Truth and Reconciliation efforts are the bridge between those unwilling to forgive and those unready to own up to past misdeeds. Listen to Episode #57 [20:42] (Sources: UU Oklohoma City, BBC […]

Most people have heard of Quakers, but few actually know what they believe. Herein: stories from Quakers about peacemaking, and their own flavor of prayer and activism, captured in the phrase, “Hold them in the Light.” (Music from Alaska Tapes and Joseph Arthur) [Listen 25:19]

  UU Minister John Crestwell speaks about race, the 2014 Ferguson, MO shooting, Martin Luther King Jr, building relationships with the “other” all under the theme of building the beloved community together. His sermon is mixed to the soundtrack of the Interstellar soundtrack – music by Hans Zimmer. Images and context The QuikTrip That Burned […]

The Rev. Sophia Betancourt talks about her immigrant heritage and the struggle to live in ways – at risk to herself – that help others. What will you give up for our collective salvation? How does a community stand for justice? How does the “moral arc of the universe” bend towards justice? She shares answers […]

Tolerance is the cornerstone of a pluralistic society. So it should surprise us that many religious leaders from the conservative to the liberal end of the spectrum preach against tolerance. Both sides oppose tolerance — for a “society gone wrong” and tolerance for intolerance. What matters is how our different understandings of who is harmed […]

In this episode I share stories of activists walking the border and telling stories of the people who cross into the US. Then I launch into a deeper dive on understanding the politics of the Southern border wall through a spiritual lens: The Gospel of Prosperity is the underpinning of Conservative ideas, and on the […]

Elections don’t unite, they divide. Here are seven reasons why we must prepare ourselves to be transformers – and role models of understanding – in the face of conflict. When elections end, the hard work begins to heal and unite the divided, angry, bewildered peoples of our world. Speakers: Rev Justin Osterman, Rev Rob Hardies, […]

How much does our identity, and not our values, define our politics? In episode 50, I share my own journey to understand my father – a kind and generous person who vents anger on twitter – through the lens of identity politics.  Meg Barnhouse explains the divided camps of “radicals” and “respectables” behind all social […]

What did it mean to be a woman in the time of Jesus? A child? a tax collector? A foreigner? Deniece Mason shares three stories about Jesus bringing dignity to outcasts. Their meanings change when read in the original Greek, and when viewed in the context of the times and when looking at what stories they […]

Bryan Stevenson, founder of the Equal Justice Initiative (EJI), shares three life lessons from his time as a lawyer just starting to work with death row inmates – many of whom were later found innocent and exonerated. (Listen – sound quality isn’t great)

This time: Stories about the false promise of empowerment, and how the attitudes of colonialism, imperialism, and empire continue to affect our efforts at creating a more perfect world. The final mini sermon explains how this can be traced back to the moment the purpose of Christianity was twisted by the Roman Empire that adopted […]

Meg Barnhouse tells stories about gender and its ambiguities, about raising children that are not pidgeonholed, and helps us become better listeners when others are expressing their true identity. (Episode 46)

  Christ Church (Anglican) Cathedral in Indianapolis, IN decided to cage the holy family in chainlink on their front lawn to prove a point about immigrants and refugees, and remind us about the Gospel message. This is the sermon that accompanied that protest.

In the sermon from the 2018 Wedding of Prince Harry and Meghan Markle, American Episcopal Bishop Michael Curry gave an impassioned plea to live by the power of love. Inspired by MLK’s sermon about how to love your enemy, Curry reminds us that love could transform the world, if we could just be open to […]

Rob Hardies shares a personal journey of losing faith in God and calling himself an atheist out of pain, not belief. After coming out, he couldn’t accept that God loved him as he was, and so he stopped believing in God to get back at him. But time and healing brought him back to Life […]

“The arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends towards justice” is an often spoken idea from abolitionists to civil rights leaders. Martin Luther King used it often. This episode explains and illustrates what this means. This pulls from a 2007 William Schulz sermon – Schulz was a one-time President of Amnesty International […]

Two sermonlets about the power found in a name. Rev Justin Osterman (UU Raleigh) tells his story of when we served as a translator in Guantanamo. When he entered the prison cell, he did the most natural human thing. In another story Rev Rob Hardies (All Souls UU DC) tells the story of Moses and […]

A core part of effective activism is individual witness – standing up to those who one sees and works with every day. This sermon captures the story of one minister’s behind-the-scenes efforts to cleanse her church’s leadership of sexism and sexual predators and the conflicts that emerged. It reveals how even the most liberal institutions […]

Martin Luther King, Jr was an amazing preacher. Listen to excerpts from one of his sermons on how to love your enemies. He says, “Jesus has become the practical realist… his commandment [to love your enemies] is an absolute necessity for the survival of our civilization.” He argues it is the only pragmatic way to […]

There are three parts of being an effective activist: (1) To protect and serve the vulnerable. (2) To wake people up to the plight of the marginalized. And (3) to practice individual witness to those who stand against progress as a bridge towards mutual understanding, reconciliation, and restoring justice. This explains is what that third […]

“Do you need to be an activist to be a Unitarian?” That was the question posed to Rev Dr Justin Osterman of the Raleigh UU fellowship (http://www.uufr.org/). His answer is the best 20 minute explanation of how to be an effective activist I’ve ever heard.

Two sermons from two Unitarian Universalist churches (Washington DC and Tulsa OK) from MLK Sunday (2018) about courage and the journey towards justice that continues, 50 years later. Both tell the story of James Reeb – a UU minister and activist martyred in 1965 – an event that triggered the signing of the voting rights […]

This combines two sermons from All Souls UU Church in Washington, DC 2010. Rev. Rob Hardies and Louise Green speak about grief, and finding a way to express both the pain of loss and the praise for life. Our tears are a lament and a prayer – of thanksgiving for what life offers us every […]

Reverend Deniece Mason tells two stories: Trekking in the Himalayas as a teenager with friends, and an episode of a woman in a nice neighborhood who noticed a homeless figure sleeping for days on a bench at the bus stop on her street. Both stories are a reminder that Jesus is not high on a […]

Doug Brown draws parallels between the story of Jesus healing the 10 lepers and how we approach outsiders in our communities today. Jesus was himself an outsider, and that gave him a perspective that revealed more truth. In this story, though all ten lepers were cleansed (cured) as they traveled to present themselves to the […]

With news of Trump in Korea this week, and talk of the unlimited potential of human endeavors to reshape the planet as a technology-enabled paradise, this parable of the red cranes offers a different viewpoint. In the DMZ between North and South Korea there live rare majestic birds whose habitat would be crushed by development […]

Deneice Mason tells the story of an early Christian peacemaker who bought an end to the circus of death in Rome, and asks us how are we bringing Peace and fostering dialogue in these times of political strife. Source: Pleasant Valley UMC

“Find a god as you understand God. That was the key to my spiritual liberation,” explains Father Leo Booth. Booth (http://fatherleo.com/ a recording from 2000) shares his story of struggle with addiction and with the essential ingredients of the disease, and his redemption. These feelings mirror those of victims of sexual assault, as Rev Kathy […]

“The danger for us is to think too small. Buy into other people’s power rather than the power that we have. In every solitary one of us, there is a Martin Luther King.” Father Leo Booth provides makes a compelling case that addiction and recovery are a spiritual journey of becoming aware of our own […]

Dear Friends, on the 9th of October 2012, the Taliban shot me on the left side of my forehead. They shot my friends too. They thought that the bullets would silence us. But they failed. And then, out of that silence came, thousands of voices. The terrorists thought that they would change our aims and […]

U2’s singer Bono used to be a believer in Karma but through his journey, he’s grown to be a firm believer in Grace. Most religions are based on Karma. The ancient Israelites believed in Karma (“we are God’s chosen people” and “lepers must have sinned to be diseased”). Hinduism and the caste system is about […]

Most religions are based on Karma. The ancient Israelites believed in Karma (“we are God’s chosen people” and “lepers must have sinned to be diseased”). This is about how U2’s singer Bono used to be a believer in Karma but through his journey, he’s grown to be a firm believer in Grace.

We have a prophetic vision of peace, not unlike we see in a local nonprofit – they are cutting up military uniforms, pressing the fibers into pulp to make paper, and transforming ex-soldiers into artists. Peace and justice are built around rebuilding relationships. Jesus dismantled the law, the commandments and the ordinances in order to […]

“They shall beat their swords into plowshares and their spears into pruning hooks.” Pastor Deniece Mason explains what this means in a modern context. She points out that Memorial Day wasn’t a holiday before 1971. And long before that, it’s origins come from women in Mississippi who, while decorating the graves of their ancestors in […]