Sermons by Rev. Rick Hoyt-McDaniels

Sermons by Rev. Rick Hoyt-McDaniels

How Rare, How Lovely, This Fellowship

The most important value for a religious community is the community. As a faith community, our fellowship is at the ground of all we receive for ourselves and offer to the larger world. When we begin to move other organizations to the center of our mission, we begin to lose our unique purpose and strength.

The Truth Hurts, Falsehood Destroys

As we observed over the last year, a post-truth society is a pre-tyranny society. Without truth all liberal systems suffer: science, economics, democracy, and religion. Truth is strong but new technologies and siloed communities threaten to overwhelm truth with conspiracy theories and confirmation bias. Our world is facing an epistemological crisis. How do we know the truth?

Liberal Religion

Unitarian Universalism is a liberal religion, not because of our progressive politics but because of our commitment to the ideals of liberalism. Liberalism in the classic sense is not an ideology, but a method for resolving conflict, gaining knowledge, and advancing toward truth. Our liberal approach to religion and to all that concerns us as religious people is a precious inheritance.