The “noble savage” is a stock character in Western literature of the Romantic Period, the early 1800s. Primitive people were seen as good and moral, representing a harmony with nature that grasping, acquisitive Europeans longed for. At first, the races in North America traded and got along, but soon the natives were provoked to war. … Continue reading The Noble Savage (myths about American Indians)
Last year, the U.S. surgeon general, Vivek Murthy, issued a 71-page advisory warning of an American ‘epidemic of loneliness and isolation.’ The study estimates that a lack of social connection currently affects more Americans than, say, diabetes or obesity. In many ways, this is not surprising for a nation where the average American will spend … Continue reading The Growing Religion of Loneliness
One of the most common tenates within the world’s varied spiritual truths is to do your best and let go of the outcomes. No matter how the election works out, there is work that needs open hearts and loving hands. We will have our very first Action Sunday – a new process for doing worship … Continue reading Action Sunday – Putting Our Values into Action
If you grow up in a democracy, in a place where ‘the common good’ and ‘love thy neighbor’ are even slightly familiar – and then you learn about Naziism and the holocaust, it is almost impossible not to ask, ‘how could such a thing happen?’ This is a service that explores that question drawing from … Continue reading How Facism Gains a Following – Even Where It Isn’t Wanted
