Edict of Torda
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Dueling Authoritarianisms: When the Liberal Church is Stuck in the Middle
a politics of grace, all-or-nothing thinking, Animal Farm, authoritarianism, black-or-white mentality, Cas Mudde, Democracy, echo chamber, Edict of Torda, Emily Chamlee-Wright, George Orwell, human fallibility, hypocrisy, illiberalism, Left-wing authoritarianism, liberal religion, liberal society, liberalism, Maurice Mitchell, maximalism, megalothymia, Plato, politics, power, Right-wing authoritarianism, Sarah McBride, social media, thymos, Tolerance, utopia, white savior complex
Sermon delivered July 27, 2025 at the Chautauqua Institution The topic of authoritarianism gathers us together for Week Six of the Chautauqua Institution, and we do well to invoke the wisdom of one of authoritarianism’s sharpest observers and critics: George Orwell. His novel 1984 is masterful, and then there is Animal Farm, in which the…
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The Church You Choose
I hope everyone has had a chance to read this pledge brochure that came in the mail around two weeks ago. We’ve got some extras if you did not receive it. The Church You Choose is the headline. Or, to be more precise, The Church UU Choose. We have to thank Kip for this language.…
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Tolerance. Today we are talking about tolerance, and it’s near and dear to the Unitarian Universalist heart. In 1568, the first and only Unitarian King in history—King John Sigismund—issued the Edict of Torda which established tolerance within and among the churches of Transylvania (now the northern region of Romania). King John essentially said that church…
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All year long, we have been on a voyage of aliveness, in search of truths from the various world’s religions. Today, our voyage culminates with Unitarian Universalism—and I say “culminates” intentionally, because one of the distinctive features of our faith is our core conviction that no one book or tradition is in possession of the…
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At times, I am asked about what Unitarian Universalists have in the way of scriptures. What’s our sacred text, what’s our holy book? What do you say to that, when you believe that truth is abundantly present in the world, comes from many sources, and never ends in its evolution? How do you bind something…
Spiritflow 