Archive for January, 2008

Al Gore kind of Baptists

Thursday, January 31st, 2008

One of my favorite D.C. churches is First Baptist. Really. One reason: I like how the senior minister “tell[s] people we are the ‘Jimmy Carter kind of Baptists’ and not the Jerry Falwell kind,” which strikes me as a very evocative way of identifying a church. I’d take evocation over description almost every time.

That said, […]

Morales campaign site up

Thursday, January 31st, 2008

Thanks to Jaume for pointing out that Peter Morales, one of two declared candidates for the presidency of the Unitarian Universalist Association, now has a campaign site up. When Chris Walton (Philocrites) noted that Morales and Laurel Hallman were running, only she had a site.

I am not currently supporting either candidate.

No thanks to UU Blog Awards

Tuesday, January 29th, 2008

This is what I sent the UUpdater a moment ago:

I would like to be removed from consideration for the UU Blog Awards.

While I appreciate the notion (and the continuing effort of UUpdates.net), the only justification for awards is to celebrate and encourage excellence. Yet this system, lacking established standards and a clear voting mechanism, quickly […]

James Relly’s Union restored

Sunday, January 27th, 2008

A reader inquired about the copy of James Relly’s masterwork, Union: or, a Treatise of the Consanguinity and Affinity between Christ and his Church which I put up at my long-suffering UniversalistChurch.net site.

Seem that when I last updated the Drupal content management system, I somehow disabled the feature that allows me to store documents […]

Wikipedia helps for preaching

Saturday, January 26th, 2008

If Google Docs can help me loose weight, why not Wikipedia for preaching? (Not that I’m preaching much these days.)

Not for fact-checking (though I find a well-cited article is helpful for follow-up reading) but for style. Wikipedia has a house style that helps improve reading and factual quality while smoothing out writer idiosyncrasies. While […]

Best comment of the day

Thursday, January 24th, 2008

Responding to “Tips for surviving a recession” by Kathleen Pender (SFGate.com)

“OMG! I just figured it out, the Cloverfield monster is really the impending recession.”

Thanks to SFGate.com reader gatorfree for the laugh/groan/queasy feeling. Now even queasier, because I bet Cloverfield is at least as live a subject in the United States as a recession, and less […]

Universal restoration blogger watch

Wednesday, January 23rd, 2008

This will come as old news for some, but Graham, writing at the Anabaptist blog Leaving Muenster is wresting with universal salvation. His recent blogging covers affiliated subjects.

He writes quite well and on a variety of Christian subject and I’ve read his blog for a couple of years; no matter how he comes out on […]

The church should be countercultural

Tuesday, January 22nd, 2008

The Unitarian Universalist Church of Akron blog considers the Story of Stuff video, which you can watch online, download or read the transcript. (PDF link) It has been well-received but there’s something in it that deserves to be uplifted.

A candid, postwar quotation from retailing analyst Victor Lebow: “Our enormously productive economy . . . demands […]

Sermon writing workflow?

Monday, January 21st, 2008

A simple request. Do any of the preachers who read this blog have an accustomed workflow for preparing sermons that you would like to share?

The great credit card opt-out

Saturday, January 19th, 2008

I’m trying to save you some toxic junk mail.

Discontinuous Permafrost is surely the most northerly Unitarian Universalist blog. Its Fairbanks-based anonymous author has his own way of sticking it to the Credit Card Offer Industrial Complex (”The Credit Card Resistance Movement (CRAM)“) — shared incidentally by people I respect — and I have mine.

Opt out. […]


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