Oscar Wilde (1854-1900) Irish poet and playwright Reading Our Unitarian and Universalist Histories are full of agitators. In fact, both terms Unitarian and Universalist were considered, and for some they still are, heretic. Michael Servetus was killed for not recanting his belief on the lack of biblical basis for the concept of the trinity. William Ellery Channing was the first to reclaim the name Unitarian for those who believed in the unity of God, but until then, the word was used as an insult for the anti-Trinitarians of the time. During the 19th century, many Unitarians spoke against slavery and many Unitarian and Universalist women were suffragettes. This April 2018, a new series will air on That tell the story of pastor Carlton Netflix ¨Come Sunday” Pearson. A famous megachurch pastor who literally lost everything and caused a lot of controversy when he declared that he in hell and was didn’t believe deemed a heretic. And even the Pope found himself in troubled waters last week when a journalist published an interview saying the Pope didn’t believe hell existed. The Vatican, of course, immediately released a statement denying the story. I used to think about agitators as people taking on the streets, yelling, and creating disturbances. But thinking about the things I have read and know that have agitated people in the past, it take much. Agitation occurs doesn’t really where there´s a dissonance between our sense of being and beliefs and an external stimulus that challenges them. Though I only gave examples related to our community of faith, agitation occurs also in the personal realm. Think about the morning you woke up knowing you for that company anymore, or be in a specific relationship, or to couldn’t work continue on whatever path you were on. A sense of agitation you recognized as a call to make a move, to go somewhere else, to continue your search, to make a change. Agitation, whether personal or social, can be a gift in a sense that it calls our attention to make a change, to tell us that something that isn’t completely right, for too long. It is an invitation to reassess where we we’ve been too comfortable
Oscar Wilde (1854-1900) Irish poet and playwright Reading Our Unitarian and Universalist Histories are full of agitators. In fact, both terms Unitarian and Universalist were considered, and for some they still are, heretic. Michael Servetus was killed for not recanting his belief on the lack of biblical basis for the concept of the trinity. William Ellery Channing was the first to reclaim the name Unitarian for those who believed in the unity of God, but until then, the word was used as an insult for the anti-Trinitarians of the time. During the 19th century, many Unitarians spoke against slavery and many Unitarian and Universalist women were suffragettes. This April 2018, a new series will air on Netflix ¨Come Sunday” That tell the story of pastor Carlton Pearson. A famous megachurch pastor who literally lost everything and caused a lot of controversy when he declared that he didn’t believe in hell and was deemed a heretic. And even the Pope found himself in troubled waters last week when a journalist published an interview saying the Pope didn’t believe hell existed. The Vatican, of course, immediately released a statement denying the story. I used to think about agitators as people taking on the streets, yelling, and creating disturbances. But thinking about the things I have read and know that have agitated people in the past, it doesn’t really take much. Agitation occurs where there´s a dissonance between our sense of being and beliefs and an external stimulus that challenges them. Though I only gave examples related to our community of faith, agitation occurs also in the personal realm. Think about the morning you woke up knowing you couldn’t work for that company anymore, or be in a specific relationship, or to continue on whatever path you were on. A sense of agitation you recognized as a call to make a move, to go somewhere else, to continue your search, to make a change. Agitation, whether personal or social, can be a gift in a sense that it calls our attention to make a change, to tell us that something isn’t completely right, that we’ve been too comfortable for too long. It is an invitation to reassess where we