tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-90662892009-12-31T13:42:13.553-05:00Thoughts about liberal religion (I'm a Unitarian Universalist), liberal/progressive politics, and increasingly more other subjects.Paul Wilczynskihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14345851400121369359noreply@blogger.comBlogger1072125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9066289.post-78263000855063459072009-09-14T08:56:00.001-04:002009-09-14T08:56:35.192-04:00

Paul Wilczynskihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14345851400121369359noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9066289.post-66035660439482236392009-07-29T09:24:00.002-04:002009-07-29T09:29:16.429-04:00

I attended a talk by Peter Morales (the new president of the Unitarian Universalist Association of Congregations) at SUUSI this past week. He spoke about "the future of our movement". I wanted to pass along several thoughts he spoke about. We have around 150,000 members, and the best estimate is that we get about 250,000 visitors per year. Our growth problem, then, is not marketing - it's

Paul Wilczynskihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14345851400121369359noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9066289.post-79402935106718180652009-05-18T12:04:00.002-04:002009-05-18T12:27:09.624-04:00

This past Sunday, I was elected to serve on the Vestry (the governing body) of the Unitarian Church in Charleston (SC). Because we just moved to Charleston in late August of last year, I'm a quite new member. I expect my experience serving on the Board of Governors of United First Parish in Quincy, MA was one of the reasons I was honored with the nomination. On the previous Sunday, there was a

Paul Wilczynskihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14345851400121369359noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9066289.post-16863261485144425372009-04-30T19:31:00.004-04:002009-04-30T19:38:16.494-04:00

I had a job interview about a week or so ago. (As background, I have experience being a software developer using Oracle databases, but not as a Data Base Administrator, who works directly with the database itself.) The job had a number of technical requirements related to Oracle database work. I told the recruiter that I had experience with about 1/2 of them, and didn't have any experience

Paul Wilczynskihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14345851400121369359noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9066289.post-1441192066652960882009-04-27T14:36:00.004-04:002009-04-27T14:43:21.671-04:00

Doug Mudar, in a UUWorld article called Holding the Center, discusses James P. Carse's The Religious Case Against Belief in which Carse lays out a distinction between belief systems and religions: In a nutshell, belief systems provide the comfort of clear answers; religions provide a sense of wonder in the contemplation of mystery. By this definition, fundamentalism and atheism fall the

Paul Wilczynskihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14345851400121369359noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9066289.post-86054712080203412302009-03-20T13:45:00.002-04:002009-03-20T13:49:47.952-04:00

According to an article in Newsweek, some Christians are now referring to themselves as "followers of Jesus" because that phrase doesn't carry the apparent baggage that "Christians" does. You can wear it abroad, in Islamic countries, or at home with your Jewish or Buddhist friends, without causing offense. Second, it distances the bearer from the culture wars that have made American politics so

Paul Wilczynskihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14345851400121369359noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9066289.post-11707088212649208922009-03-18T12:44:00.002-04:002009-03-18T12:48:24.841-04:00

By Tal Ben Shahar, Author of The Pursuit of Perfect: to Stop Chasing and Start Living a Richer, Happier Life "The important work of moving the world forward does not wait to be done by perfect men"-George Eliot We are constantly bombarded with perfection. Adonis on the cover of Men'sHealth and Helen on the cover of Vogue; women and men getting together on the larger-than-life screen,

Paul Wilczynskihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14345851400121369359noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9066289.post-26095041510476023312009-03-13T18:00:00.004-04:002009-03-13T20:53:58.437-04:00

Before I get to the point of this post, let me say that I'm the sort of person who on occasion speaks to a manager of a business to pass along my thoughts about it. Most frequently, that might be the manager of a restaurant, for example. I've told managers that the service I got from a waitperson was really great, that the food was really good, or that there was a little slippery spot on the

Paul Wilczynskihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14345851400121369359noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9066289.post-43455537935908314212009-03-09T14:40:00.002-04:002009-03-09T14:57:26.355-04:00

Back in the middle of February, Senator Lindsey Graham (R-SC) took some time out his busy schedule to walk down the main street of the business district of the Park Circle area of North Charleston, SC badmouthing the stimulus bill. It got me to wondering: assuming that someone as busy as Senator Graham does nothing without a specific purpose, what was the purpose of this trash-talk walk? To

Paul Wilczynskihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14345851400121369359noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9066289.post-73997995568135877062009-03-09T10:34:00.002-04:002009-03-09T10:37:02.251-04:00

I ran into an interesting site called UpDown.com where you can practice your investment skills. They give you a virtual $1 million account and the people who beat the Standard and Poors 500 Index every month win money. Hey, you can't do much worse than than experienced investment bankers have been doing!

Paul Wilczynskihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14345851400121369359noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9066289.post-86775722909555642902009-02-22T15:50:00.002-05:002009-02-22T15:54:10.774-05:00

Here's where part of the banking bailout money is going ... 37-year-old Nigerian scammer Paul Gabriel Amos convinced Citibank officials to wire him $27 million belonging to Ethiopia. Rather than go with the usual Nigerian nom de plumes like prince or will executor, Famous Amos pretended to be an official with the National Bank of Ethiopia. Amos forged "official-looking" documents that confirmed

Paul Wilczynskihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14345851400121369359noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9066289.post-22063812543484066492009-02-16T13:21:00.003-05:002009-02-16T13:29:52.800-05:00

I've got my resume up on Monster. As those of you who know me know, I'm an IT (Information Technology) kinda of guy. (For those of you who don't know me, I'm also an IT kind of guy). So my resume is full of words and expressions like Oracle SQL, UNIX , and COBOL. Helps to use the right buzzwords. So I got a lead today from Monster - I was psyched! Somebody's hiring! Here's the email:

Paul Wilczynskihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14345851400121369359noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9066289.post-14187692007310471252009-02-06T12:39:00.002-05:002009-02-06T12:42:03.509-05:00

I found a great new word today: Apatheism. Wikipedia defines it as acting with apathy, disregard, or lack of interest towards belief, or lack of belief in a deity. Apatheism describes the manner of acting towards a belief or lack of a belief in a deity; so applies to both theism and atheism. An apatheist is also someone who is not interested in accepting or denying any claims that gods exist or

Paul Wilczynskihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14345851400121369359noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9066289.post-36455349624190200272009-02-05T12:36:00.001-05:002009-02-05T12:37:59.737-05:00

Since my favorite food store, Trader Joe's (which doesn't exist in South Carolina!) doesn't make TV commercials, someone made one for them:

Paul Wilczynskihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14345851400121369359noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9066289.post-81631400862313392702009-02-02T12:10:00.003-05:002009-02-04T09:58:16.614-05:00

In January 2009, the Unitarian Universalist Thomas Jefferson District held a Growth Conference. One presentation outlined which factors promote church group in UU congregations. Below are notes from that presentation, written by Rev. Peter Lanzillotta of the Unitarian Church in Charleston (SC) which sponsored the event. The notes are reproduced with permission. 1) Churches located in cities

Paul Wilczynskihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14345851400121369359noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9066289.post-35541820457828437162009-01-15T15:50:00.002-05:002009-01-15T15:57:56.333-05:00

I had the opportunity to see the film Bin Yah a few nights ago as part of a film series in Park Circle (North Charleston). It's a documentary presented by The ChasDOC Film Society that explores the potential loss of important historic African American communities in Mt. Pleasant, S.C due to growth and development. "Bin yah" is Gullah and it sort of means "been here (for a long time)". It's

Paul Wilczynskihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14345851400121369359noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9066289.post-6649378331711103522008-12-31T08:51:00.001-05:002008-12-31T08:53:26.959-05:00

A song by Joyce Dowling and Connie Coombs of the Davies Memorial Unitarian Universalist Church in Camp Springs, Maryland ...

Paul Wilczynskihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14345851400121369359noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9066289.post-47912428426801899452008-12-23T15:36:00.002-05:002008-12-23T15:39:56.689-05:00

If you're wondering how to get a handful or so of the billions of dollars the Treasury is giving to banks, here's the 2-page application (with instructions). The entire first of the 2 pages is name, address, phone stuff. No address - apparently they'll know where to send the check. Should take about 5 minutes for anyone with decent hand-printing skills to complete.

Paul Wilczynskihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14345851400121369359noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9066289.post-25643588087477560372008-12-23T11:20:00.003-05:002008-12-23T11:30:03.930-05:00

I've been following the social lending concept for a few years. One of the older ones is Prosper, but that one is currently closed to investors because they're in a lender "quiet period" and going through a registration process. Another social lending site is Lending Club. Here's how they describe themselves: Borrowers with good credit can get personal loans at interest rates they find more

Paul Wilczynskihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14345851400121369359noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9066289.post-84311615515020777072008-12-15T19:17:00.000-05:002008-12-15T19:18:30.608-05:00

The President of the Unitarian Universalist Association, recently returned from a pilgrimage to Africa, offers his thoughts on our reasons for concern as well as hope in this season of renewal.

Paul Wilczynskihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14345851400121369359noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9066289.post-21576948096685339612008-12-15T15:28:00.002-05:002008-12-15T15:43:34.807-05:00

Unitarian Universalist Minister/Blogger Known As Peacebang has written a piece called How To Write and Deliver a Sermon. I'm not a minister, of course, so I can't comment on most of her points from experience (although intuitively they make sense). The one I can totally agree with - from the perspective of someone who listens to UU sermons weekly is this: Sermons are not "talks" or lectures.

Paul Wilczynskihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14345851400121369359noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9066289.post-34314358804423273662008-11-26T10:37:00.001-05:002008-11-26T10:40:37.046-05:00

Thanks to the Socinian for passing this song by The Righteous Mothers along.

Paul Wilczynskihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14345851400121369359noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9066289.post-27230200148365626882008-11-25T14:52:00.003-05:002008-11-25T14:58:13.064-05:00

In case you think making a sandwich is easy, McDonalds has filed for a patent for a combination of a tool and methods for making a sandwich. The present invention relates to methods of making a sandwich. In one aspect, the invention relates to pre-assembly of sandwich components and simultaneous preparation of different parts of the same sandwich. In one aspect, the invention relates to one or

Paul Wilczynskihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14345851400121369359noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9066289.post-65928709257626438302008-11-17T13:16:00.001-05:002008-11-17T13:17:27.290-05:00

From James Ishmael Ford, senior minister of the First Unitarian Church of Providence, Rhode Island. God is a hole in the language into which we throw all our hopes and fears.

Paul Wilczynskihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14345851400121369359noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9066289.post-8247489160773796792008-11-17T12:53:00.001-05:002008-11-17T12:54:29.671-05:00

A video by the Unitarian Universalist Association of Congregations in support of gay marriage ...

Paul Wilczynskihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14345851400121369359noreply@blogger.com0