Eclectic Itchings gives us an image of German pastors saluting Hitler under a swaztika-emblazened cross.  Couldn’t ever happen here.  Cause like Germans are so different from Americans.  Nope.  Never.

A pharmaceutical company is blocking a cheap, effective treatment for macular degeneration because it wants to repackage the treatment at 100 times the cost. That’s some expensive packaging. (Hat tip.)

I’m officiating a wedding for Mr. P’body and Hakeber this weekend.  Nice hotel.  No teevees, but wi-fi and rocking chairs instead.  My kind of registered historical building.

Comic Maestro and Crohn’s sufferer Mark Millar is organizing a weekly auction to raise money for a puported Crohn’s disease vaccine.  The money is to put the vaccine through human trials in the UK.  I’d assume US trials won’t be far behind.

A follow up to “Calling the question“:

There have been a couple of comments about this line:

To state it baldly: we [UUs] do not have the luxury of doing things that do not transform lives (or lead to transformed lives).

I thought I’d try to fill that out a little. Click to continue reading “Liberating faith, not liberal faith”

So it’s time for Making Chutney to jump in on the controversy surrounding Rev. Peacebang’s recent post, “Having Opinions.” Better late than never, eh?

To summarize her critique of UUism, which grows ever more precise:

• The Eternal Sharing of Opinions About Who We Areâ„¢.1 A potential turn off to new folks. Boring. And offers nothing new to lifelong UUs. (I recently learned that some lifelong UUs will even attend seminary just to ask “where’s the beef?”)
• Vague Religious Seekingâ„¢, a three-pronged practice involving (a) reading books, (b) coffee houring, and (c) Having Opinionsâ„¢. Problem because it directly counters UUs’ belief in Our Terminal Uniquenessâ„¢, at least in any town with a bookstore or coffee shop. Another problem: who gives a damn that We Have Opinionsâ„¢?
• She attributes the situation to a lack of options to do otherwise, or, more specifically, to a lack of training and teaching to do otherwise. In our ardor to avoid one-path-ism, we have defaulted to charting no paths, or at least no path that hasn’t been charted by PBS and the local book club.

The main problem with Peacebang’s analysis, as I see it, is that she’s right.  Click to continue reading “Calling the question”

1. Trademarks go to Peacebang, of course. [↩]