Featured Ministers

Site Moving to Wordpress

This author can now be accessed through http://politywonk. wordpress. com. At some point, when I figure out how, I will move some of these old posts over there. Right now, there's just a tho... [read more]

PolityWonk

Rev. Elz Curtiss

Complexity vs Simplicty and Shared Responsibility

Great thread on intra-British racism in response to my last post. My reading list just got longer. I would add one question for us to contemplate:Does the will-to-power manifest itsel... [read more]

PolityWonk

Rev. Elz Curtiss

How to Identify Yourself When Commenting on LiveJournal

We interrupt this momentous discussion -- which I am very much enjoying -- to say that at the top of the Reply box, there are three options you can use for identifying yourself. It seems to ... [read more]

PolityWonk

Rev. Elz Curtiss

Teasing Out Some Questions on Anti-Racism

I've been in a couple of deep discussions on racism over on facebook. Their well-framed questions and statements have shown me a couple of basic dividing lines I wish to articulate here for... [read more]

PolityWonk

Rev. Elz Curtiss

Warning Signs for Women

Pity poor Charles Francis Adams I, born on this date in 1807. His father and grandfather had been presidents of the United States, but that was not his problem. His family had a passi... [read more]

PolityWonk

Rev. Elz Curtiss

A Historical Distinction to Consider

A combination of Facebook, blogging, and some UU chat lists is helping me sort out my views on immigration and racism issues. Here is a single question that I want to throw in the mix today, as imp... [read more]

PolityWonk

Rev. Elz Curtiss

Many Kinds of "Anchor Babies" -- Some Local, Some Not

My mother had her anchor baby moment. "Anchor babies" is the pejorative term anti-Latinos are using to describe babies born in the US to illegal aliens. As Clyde Grubbs points out,... [read more]

PolityWonk

Rev. Elz Curtiss

Separating Various Kinds of Illegal Immigrants

My journey has given me several episodes for learning about immigration law. Most fundamentally, in 1981-82 (August to August), I worked in the US Refugee Program in Southeast Asia. ... [read more]

PolityWonk

Rev. Elz Curtiss

Foot Almost Healed

My great dream is to write a history of pastoral care in what is now the UUA. Pieces of it have been presenting themselves to me, through the work of others, and the urgency of it has been m... [read more]

PolityWonk

Rev. Elz Curtiss

Teaching Somebody To Fish

I can't remember seeing this directly, but everything about the career of Samuel Atkins Eliot -- and the many he influenced throughout the twentieth century -- suggests he believed in the old adag... [read more]

PolityWonk

Rev. Elz Curtiss

Pausing to Thank Arizona Demonstrators

These have been working-through-it posts, not polished works of art. I have probably said things that were painful and insulting to people I did not wish to pain or insult. So let me just pa... [read more]

PolityWonk

Rev. Elz Curtiss

Altruism and Pragmatism: Next Steps

Yesterday I referred to people who "felt the need to demonstrate and get arrested. " Since I just spent last night in my own nice bed, and they spent their in jail, I hope they will... [read more]

PolityWonk

Rev. Elz Curtiss

Philosophy, please

I came home from kayaking (I've been feeding and strengthening three broken bones since last December 9) fully expecting to see what I saw on my computer: UUs rejoicing about the arrest of our den... [read more]

PolityWonk

Rev. Elz Curtiss

Soul-Lessons from Loved Ones with Neurological Conditions

All my life I have pursued intellectual hyper-drive. For shaking off the Midwest-- San Francisco. For culture -- New York City. For politics -- DC. For social justice --... [read more]

PolityWonk

Rev. Elz Curtiss

Better Living with Storge

Now that we're eight months into it, I've been noticing how I've changed due to living with my roommate. She is a wonderful friend, someone whose company I long have enjoyed. We li... [read more]

PolityWonk

Rev. Elz Curtiss

Disagreements

Wow, I've been a negative force this summer so far! Lots of "devil's advocate" stuff about all kinds of political initiatives that other ministers are happy to finally have the t... [read more]

PolityWonk

Rev. Elz Curtiss

Re-discovering Black Conservatism

It was one of those moments of instant enlightenment. Book TV was interviewing Lee Walker about his book, Re Discovering Black Conservatism. After five minutes I had to turn it off --... [read more]

PolityWonk

Rev. Elz Curtiss

From Priestley to Personal

Last night, while idly watching Star Trek: the Next Generation ("The Outcast"), I googled my own name. And what should I find but my mother's father's long-lost lineage! W... [read more]

PolityWonk

Rev. Elz Curtiss

The Detroit Religion?

A small group of clergy seems to be amusing itself with a suggestion I made, half in jest, that Unitarian Universalists ought to move their headquarters out of Boston to someplace more central and ... [read more]

PolityWonk

Rev. Elz Curtiss

Samuel Atkins Eliot on the Function of the AUA Board of Trustees

When polity issues come up, I pull out a box of old American Unitarian Association Annual Meetings to look at the founding generation of our corporate polity. Universalists correctly objecte... [read more]

PolityWonk

Rev. Elz Curtiss

Keith Goheen on GA and AZ

Dear Sisters and Brothers:In the midst of our travel preparations, Reverend Keith Goheen pulled together some thoughts on AZ and GA that really capture much of what matters to me in so many areas o... [read more]

PolityWonk

Rev. Elz Curtiss

My Triggers, My Sorrows, My Fears

I'm feeling really sad about the impact of the debate on Arizona 1070 among us. As my previous two posts suggest, I've been in it, I've been fighting hard to share my twenty-twenty hindsi... [read more]

PolityWonk

Rev. Elz Curtiss

Why We Loved the Civil Rights Movement

As the 1940s drew to a close, the American Unitarian Association boiled over with acrimonious accusations. Evidence suggested that someone in the leadership was trying to redefine the orga... [read more]

PolityWonk

Rev. Elz Curtiss

Know Your Triggers

It happens again and again: someone in a group is telling a story, and someone else hears a phrase or a name or a particular event -- and loses control of their ears, their heart, their mind, their... [read more]

PolityWonk

Rev. Elz Curtiss

After the Power Years

This morning I have to make the hardest of the phone calls canceling my trip to GA and subsequent lavish visits in the Midwest. It was going to be like that old Girl Scout song, "Make n... [read more]

PolityWonk

Rev. Elz Curtiss