The Pulpiteer

"If you love someone, set them free." - Sting How can this way of putting Love at the Center, inform how we approach Religion as modern UU's? Not just in how we serve the adults in our community, but in how and what we teach our youth?

There is a wall, a veil, between our world and the spirit world... the sages and prophets found ways through the wall, they brought back teachings from the spirit world. They left behind signs so that we could find our way through. Some folks who came after, got really into sign making. Some thought that the tunnels through the wall should be enlarged, decorated, celebrated... Some spent their lives making their religion's entrance look more beautiful and inviting than others' Some forgot that the signs were about getting through the wall - they just wanted to celebrate the tunnel as a beautiful place to BE.

In our third and final service in the Simone Weil Series, we'll explore the culminating movement of her thought: DECREATION. I'll get you pointed in the right direction with this teaser: "We do not become just by adding virtue. We become just by subtracting the self that blocks reality." Mic. Drop.

For Women's History Month, we'll continue our exploration of the work of Simone Weil - moving from her work on attention as spiritual practice, to her social justice oriented work on the necessity of obligations preceding rights.

In this special episode of the podcast, we'll talk with June Williams and Ashley Blackwell - our co-conspirators in griefwork: sharing stories of how we got here and where we might be headed. Join us, won't you?For your reference, here are some of the books mentioned in the episode: The Wild Edge of Sorrow by Francis WellerThe Smell of Rain on Dust by Martin PrechtelDie Wise by Stephen Jenkinson.

What if your attention is your most valuable resource and the primary responsibility of your own stewardship? Let's follow French mystic-philosopher into the depths as we explore the depths of the soul's attention.

Greensleeves is one of the oldest and most familiar songs in our tradition—tender, plaintive, and enduring. It has been sung as a love song, a lament, and a prayer, carried across centuries and cultures. This Sunday, we’ll listen to it together, reflect on what it has meant, and consider what it might still be teaching us. We’ll sing it, sit with it, and listen again—trusting that sometimes an old song can open new space when we give it our full attention.

I got on a bus headed south, past San Antonio to a community called Dilley, Texas. There is a modern day American internment / concentration / prison camp there, we call it a detention center. Let's talk about what I saw, what I learned, and what we might all need to learn if we want things to change.

Here on the precipice of MLK Day 2026, we ask a question, "Could it be that one of the most effective ways to subvert a prophet is to turn them into an idol?" There is a case to be made that this is what "the church" has done to Jesus. There is a case to be made that this is what American Culture has done with Dr. King. If we toss the idol, maybe we can ask what the prophet was trying to teach.

What if resistance isn't noise and chaos and struggle? What if it is silence and presence? What if supplication to the silence is the key to breaking bad habits, to unlearning that which no longer serves us, to finding the narrow path through acceptance into enjoyment and beyond into enthusiasm... what if... what if...

What is it that the seven generations need from those of us living today? What is it that we are called to mature into? And how is it that we might answer that call?

What is left of hope when we discard the near enemy of optimism? What is left of realism when we discard the near enemy of pessimism? In this episode, I'll suggest that what might be left is to become faithful witnesses to what is. To bear faithful witness as a responsibility, a duty that is elder-making.

Religion without spirit forgets the fire. Spirit without religion forgets the hearth. Religion without spirit stagnates and calcifies. Spirit without religion drifts and evaporates. A community that holds the tension between them becomes sacred. Religion without spirit hardens and cracks. Spirit without religion melts and runs away. A community that holds them in balance becomes a vessel for truth. Religion without spirit becomes brittle and hollow. Spirit without religion becomes scattered and thin. Only a community willing to bear the tension can flourish. Religion without spirit forgets fire. Spirit without religion forgets the hearth. Let us claim this hearth here for its rightful purpose. To hold the fire that we are.

You remember the children's rhyme, "Sticks and stones may break my bones, but words will never hurt me." Sometimes this landed as good and helpful advice, not to take on the harm that others wanted to inflict on us with their words. Other times, it just feels deeply untrue. For many of us some of the most painful hurts we've ever received have been delivered mostly through words. So, we'll spend some time with this worthy paradox - and hopefully leave with a deepened sense of stewardship over our own utterances.

What if AI isn't an enemy, but an ally in the search for wisdom? That's what we'll do our best to explore in this episode. So join Mimas and I as we try to develop a skin-to-silicon covenant and approach the event horizon that is the divine.

Join us as we honor, celebrate, and reflect on the Mexican tradition of the Ofrenda here in the heart of Texas and in the time of Dia de los Muertos - the Day of the Dead. What can modern westerners learn from these indigenous roots that we sorely need in this day and age?

It's easy to nurture gratitude for our joys. But what does it look like, what could it mean, what could it lead to... if we can discover how to nurture gratitude for our sorrows? Could it be part of the narrow path to wise elderhood that we've been longing for?

If the science teaches us, that through both confirmation bias and negativity bias, we overemphasize the negative and the dangerous - and that we amplify this with news and media and social media... What is the appropriate spiritual response? Might not an intentional focus on positivity be, not an act of naivety, but an act of informed courage? Let's dig in and wrestle with this worthy conundrum.

"Just remember the world is not a playground but a schoolroom. Life is not a holiday but an education. One eternal lesson for us all: to teach us how better we should love"

Unitarianism began as a heretical protest against 'the church': God is One, not Three. And to this day - Unitarian Christians and other explicitly unitarian denominations vastly outnumber Unitarian Universalists (UU''s). Not to mention that the really big slices of the American religious pie are all explicitly Trinitarian sects of Christianity, except for the really big slice of unaffiliated folks (None's or Spiritual but not Religious - SBNR) - So, as much as we love our heresies - I have to ask. Is this label of Unitarianism still serving us? Do we really care how many pieces folks want to carve God into? 0, 1, 3, 100, 1000, even i (the square root of -1) - how ever you slice up God - you're welcome here.

Maybe nothing is more salient this week - how do we listen? how do we show up with one another? are we seeking understanding or are we trying to show how right and clever we are?

Join us for our annual water communion ceremony and a short message about building belonging.

In this final episode of our 8 part series on Love at the Center - we'll look at the thing itself: Love. Join Kenneth Witherspoon (Mr. Spoon) and myself for this tour of the mysterious. Mr. Spoon's subtitle is: When Love Becomes Diety...

Join us for special guest Lou Snead as we continue our eight part series on Love at the Center, with our next shared value: JUSTICE!

Join us for part 6 of an 8 part series exploring the official "Principles & Purposes" of the Unitarian Universalist Association. Love at the Center has 6 shared values surrounding it, the next one we will explore is Generosity.

Join us for part 5 of an 8 part series exploring the official "Principles & Purposes" of the Unitarian Universalist Association. Love at the Center has 6 shared values surrounding it, the next one we will explore is Pluralism.

Join us for part 4 of an 8 part series exploring the official "Principles & Purposes" of the Unitarian Universalist Association. Love at the Center has 6 shared values surrounding it, the third one we will explore is Transformation.

Join us for part 3 of an 8 part series exploring the official "Principles & Purposes" of the Unitarian Universalist Association. Love at the Center has 6 shared values surrounding it, the second one we will explore is Equity.

Join us for part 2 of an 8 part series exploring the official "Principles & Purposes" of the Unitarian Universalist Association. 'Love at the Center' has 6 shared values surrounding it, the first one we will explore is Interdependence.

Join us for a Star Wars, May the Fourth Be With You, inspired look at the topic of imagination, we'll weave in some magic and some reflection on the power of telling our own stories, just for good measure.

Reflections on the first year of The Pulpiteer & ministry in the San Gabriel pulpit.

Join us for part 1 of an 8 part series exploring the official "Principles & Purposes" of the Unitarian Universalist Association. In this first session we'll take a look back in time at the founding of the Unitarian Universalist Association & the adoption of the 7 principles. We'll explore the gap between 'wanting to be non-creedal' and 'being non-creedal'.

This episode is inspired by and named after the eighth chapter of What It Takes To Heal by Prentis Hemphill, our congregational read for 2024-25. Join us, won't you?

Join us for a view of Joy through the lens of an April Fool's prank gone wrong... well, received wrong anyway... through this lens we'll try to get at the question of whether humorlessness has something to teach us. (Warning: this episode has audio quality issues - listen at your own peril.)

Trust. Some stories from my experience and some work from Brene Brown on BRAVING. Hope you enjoy. Shout out to Soul Matters for the theme & supporting materials.

Explore the Seventh Chapter (Things Fall Apart) of our Congregational Read: What It Takes to Heal by Prentis Hemphill. Come prepared to share, so will I. We'll see if we can't do some healing and grow past, or perhaps through, crisis, together. Also, we'll make some space to laugh together with some salty humor on the eve of International Transgender Day of Visibility.

This week is a special episode as I'm joined in the pulpit by Sky Makare, a young woman from the San Gabriel congregation. Tune in as we explore issues of beauty and ugliness, cat calling and the threat of sexual violence, and the many unfairness's and injustices that continue to negatively impact the lives of women in today's America.

Spurred by Texas HB 2548, Chas Moore of Austin Justice Coalition invited me and other community members to a press conference on February 20, 2025. Join me for an exploration of the White Christian Nationalist roots of these anti-diversity, anti-equity, and anti-inclusion bills - and a call to our brothers, sisters, and siblings who identify that way to a deeper relationship with God, the world as it is, and all of us... a relationship that must be the source of our healing.

What does it mean to be a healthy man in today's America? In today's world? Are we providing our young men with prosocial and compassionate ways to express their masculinity - some troubling data suggests not. How do our historical and cultural understandings of masculinity need to change to adapt to feminism, anti-racism, and post-colonialism without simply regressing to patriarchy and supremacy? Join us in this important struggle.

Read the Sixth Chapter (Expanding Our We) of our Congregational Read: What It Takes to Heal by Prentis Hemphill. Come prepared to share, so will I. We'll see if we can't do some healing and expand our we, together.Starting and ending with the Metta Meditation, we'll explore who is worthy of the protections of being human? Is there a threshold beyond which those who are damaged or do damage to others are no longer worthy of human protection?

Join us this week for a colloquy on race through the lens of the magical negro. I am honored to have as partner and co-conspirator in this work - Mr. Spoon. Hear the song never sung & more...

Engage with the World is inspired and named for chapter five of our congregational read for this year, Prentis Hemphill’s book What It Takes To Heal: How Transforming Ourselves Can Change the World. In it, we struggle with what it means to hold love at the center, with how we so easily and often get it wrong, with the eternal search for a place to stand and a lever to move the world.

We explore the power of story to blind us to the world that is, to remake the world as it wishes to become, and to transform our relationships with one another. 

A good-old-fashioned fire-communion, some Dr. Seuss for the kid in all of us, and some James Baldwin to invite us deeper than we ever wanted to go. That sounds like the recipe for a strong start to the new year. Join us won't you? ...God gave Noah the rainbow sign, no more water, the fire next time...

This week is a live recording inspired and named for chapter four of our congregational read for this year, Prentis Hemphill’s book What It Takes To Heal: How Transforming Ourselves Can Change the World. If you, as a podcast listener, would like to read along, we’d love the company. Our plan is to do a chapter a month, usually on the third Sunday of each month - with the podcast coming out the following week.

What is the right relationship between body, mind, emotion, and spirit? And what does any of that have to do with presence? What if these questions aren't two different ones, but one question from two perspectives. What if one pathway to both questions lies upon the path of meditation? Let's explore...

This week is a live recording and it is inspired by (and named after) chapter three of our congregational read for this year, Prentis Hemphill’s book What It Takes To Heal: How Transforming Ourselves Can Change the World.

This episode is inspired by Robin Wall Kimmerer’s book Braiding Sweetgrass & addresses itself to the American national election that just passed. Special thanks to the Haudenosaunee people for their capacious sharing of the Thanksgiving Address.

What does Sanctuary mean? What do we need from our sanctuary - from our sacred spaces - in this moment? Can they be safe enough for us to complete the dissolution necessary to our transformation? Safe enough to fall all the way apart? Would that allow us to reconfigure ourselves in ways previously unimagined? Do concepts like 'wisdom' and 'stranger' help us in this struggle? Join us and let's find out, together.

This mythological and mystical story comes to us from renowned storyteller Dr. Martin Shaw and is the second in our Smoke Hole series. It is a tale of patience and boldness, of duty and nature's allies, and ultimately about distinguishing between what is essential and what is superfluous. Join us around our imaginary fire as we spin a tale from the troves of old Europe.