Unitarian Universalists, like many other religious groups in this country, are seeing their numbers decline. We say we have what people are looking for—freedom to explore personal beliefs, commitment to social justice, a caring community—and we want to attract people who may have these concerns, but why us? Do we have the answers when the questions may have changed?
This year marks the seventh annual Evolution Weekend, sponsored by the Clergy Letter Project. It is an opportunity for serious discussion and reflection on the relationship between religion and science. You are invited to consider in advance the following five questions to be discussed during the service: 1) Are you astonished by existence? 2) Is the science of evolution at odds with religion? 3) Does evolution mean that individuals alive now are the finest that have ever lived? 4) Does evolution's example teach us that life, of which we are a part, is amoral? 5) How urgent and prevalent does the threat to teaching evolution continue to be be in America's public schools?
David Eaton was a UU minister of color for 23 years at All Souls Church, Unitarian in Washington DC.
One of David Eaton's favorite poems he found on a public restroom wall when he was working to pay for graduate school
and he shared it many times with his congregation to challenge them individually and collectively.
I am not dead. I am hurt but I am not slain. I'll lay me down and bleed a while, and then rise up to fight again.
How can our ministry be inspired by David Eaton today?
Theology is just a fancy word for one's view of the world and our place, as human beings, in it. One of the best questions to uncover someone's underlying theology is to ask about human nature. In other words, what should human beings think of themselves? Are human beings fundamentally good?