Human beings are irrepressibly religious. Our souls, even if ignored, will always seek transcendence, wonder, and a way to connect with something larger than the small world of our own egos and social groups. Modernity excluded and maligned religion (often for good reason), but at great cost. Without good religion, human beings are adrift in the cosmos; we are lost to the things that help us find meaning, identity, and wholeness. Religion can be a healing force if we bring new life to it.

Here’s my sermon from August 18, 2019 . . .

Last month, I experienced the acclaimed American poet, Anne Waldman, perform a series of her poems, along with her band, at the Corrala de Santiago, in Granada, Spain. She is an electrifying presence, a flaming advocate for the vitality of poetry to keep open possibility in this time when the Powers are trying to shut resistance down, put a lid on opportunity, and turn the clock backward.

No one ever knows, nor therefore has grounds to judge, what goes on between two people, often not even the people themselves, half-opaque as we are to ourselves. One thing is certain: The quotient of intimacy cannot be contained in a label like “Uranian”—or “queer,” or whatever comes next. The human heart is an ancient beast that roars and purrs with the same passions, whatever labels we may give them.