Sci-fi without science, religion without orthodoxy, and bloggers at GA

The Rev. Timothy Jensen writes about visiting a parishioner in jail ("One Day Isle," May 18).

Pagan blogger and journalist Jason Pitzl-Waters defends Wicca's honor from a New York Times op-ed ("The Wild Hunt," May 19).

Logan Geen writes that each of us is a little bit orthodox, a little bit heretical ("The New Unitarian Universalist," May 19). The Rev. James Ford takes up a similar topic in a post about what defines a Buddhist ("Monkey Mind," May 19).

LaVerne Coan writes that, "deep in my gut, I see myself as a Christian," even though she disagrees with things that many people see as defining Christianity. She offers some Unitarian Universalist definitions of Christian belief instead ("Lifting the Spirit," May 22).

The Rev. Thomas Perchlik complains that there's not much science in the science-fiction blockbuster Star Trek: The Future Begins:

Unitarians and Unitarian Universalists have long valued integrity between science and religion. We have long insisted that supernatural ideas be taken with a grain of agnosticism and that science is of great value. Many of UUs have loved Star Trek shows because they blended science and religion in fun ways . . . Now a movie is made with no science at all. And we wonder why Kansas schools and others are trying to present religious ideas like Creationism (AKA “intelligent design”) as if they were good science! (May 20)

Steve Caldwell, meanwhile, challenges an unnamed UU theologian who had suggested that modern science is a form of faith ("Liberal Faith Development," May 23).

Rebecca Hecking marks Endangered Species Day and Memorial Day: "I cannot help but wonder how different things would be if we remembered the passing into extinction of so many fellow earth creatures with the same fervor that we remember our military" ("The Sustainable Soul," May 21).

Ginger Root celebrates her congregation's first Coming of Age program ("Carrots and Ginger," May 21).

Kari Kopnick is dismayed to learn that UU World will no longer be including the children's insert uu&me! ("Chalice Spark," May 21; see "From the Editor," UU World Summer 2009). Kopnick also writes about the demands of her job as a religious education director:

I have a job that is like a little glass of water. Have you ever accidentally spilled a small glass of water on the kitchen table? Isn't it amazing how that little bit of water SPREADS out so far and wide? Being a Religious Educator is like that. It could fit in a tidy small jelly jar, but if it spills out---whhhoooo boy, holy take-over-your-life Batman! ("Chalice Spark," May 23)

The Rev. Daniel O'Connell describes how his congregation is casting its 12 votes in the UUA presidential election next month ("UUA Politics," May 22). The Laurel Hallman campaign, meanwhile, has set up a blog, although its contents are also published on the campaign's main website. (See UUA.org/elections for information about both candidates and voting guidelines for congregations.)

The Rev. Kit Ketcham comments about the draft Statement of Conscience on Peacemaking that the UUA General Assembly will consider in June: "We tend to disapprove of most war, but to proclaim ourselves a pacifist denomination would be a departure from what I think of as our primary mission, that of unity within diversity" ("Ms. Kitty's Saloon and Road Show," May 23).

Joel Monka is organizing UU bloggers who will be attending the UUA General Assembly in Salt Lake City in June ("CUUMBAYA," May 21).

Dan McKanan, Harvard Divinity School's first Ralph Waldo Emerson Unitarian Universalist Association Senior Lecturer in Divinity, delivered his first public lecture, "Unless a Seed Falls: Cultivating Liberal Institutions," on May 7. Watch the lecture here. Read an interview with McKanan.