Our intern minister, Carrie, has a poster up in her office, reminding her that “We are many, they are few.” These days, it’s an important reminder. The laws passed by our legislature, and around the country, try to tell us otherwise. It is easy to believe that those of us...
“May 29, May 29, May 29,” I have been singing naively in my head since about, well, since about January. Monday was “Sine Die,” the last day of the Texas Lege regular session, their 140 days of what has often felt like brutal assaults against our religiously pluralist society and...
As I’ve shared before, I create videos on TikTok, mostly to teach about Unitarian Universalism. When my father was a young man, out in the panhandle of Texas, he heard a Unitarian minister named A. Powell Davies on the radio, preaching and occasionally challenging fundamentalist Billy Graham to a debate....
Ministers of UU churches in blue states have reached out to me, wanting to know how they can help. We are all at a loss and we search in vain for historical references that might provide instruction: do we need an underground railroad, church partnerships like the American/Transylvanian churches, are...
Being a part of the Live Oak community means that each of us is a member of the pastoral care team, even if we never attend a meeting. We have created an intentional, intergenerational “village” here, where we both give and receive care. What is pastoral care, anyway? I imagine...
Someone I know called me this week to say they had been hit by scammers. But the more they told me about it, the more alarm bells were ringing. Guess what? There are scams based in protecting you from scams! It’s called phishing, and even though we most often hear...
I know that many of our members were concerned when last week, when we saw the Tennessee House of Representatives vote to expel two of their members for “breaking decorum.” Unitarian Universalist President, Rev. Susan Frederick-Gray issued a press release, titled Tennessee Teaches Us We Cannot Normalize Authoritarianism. We Must...
I read that a few years ago in a psychology article and the truth of it has stayed with me. There is something about being human that often the thing we cannot withstand is to sit in the discomfort of knowing that we often have little control over so many...
A couple of young men from a radical conservative show had already tried to get me and my daughter on camera when we sat in the main rotunda of the Texas Capitol. I have learned to never agree to an interview without vetting the show, but I didn’t need to...
Have you heard the term “Scottie” at Live Oak? We use that term to talk about a special Sunday greeter, who is knowledgeable about Live Oak and Unitarian Universalism and can talk in-depth about both, answering questions a first-time visitor might have. The term comes from the name of a...
