Speaker: Kirk Newport
Bonhoeffer Moments with Kirk Newport
About the Service
Dietrich Bonhoeffer was a prominent German theologian in the 1930’s and 1940’s. Had it not been for the rise of fascism, his legacy would probably have remained confined to seminary and graduate level theology students. Alas, that was not to be. In recent … read more.
Lightening the Load with Kirk Newport
About the Service:
Sometimes it’s easy to ignore the elephant in the room, or rooms in this case. We seem to have a lot of “stuff.” So much so that our modern popular culture seems based on looking for, advertising, buying, storing and selling stuff. There’s … read more.
The Parable of the Empty Boat
Watch this service on YouTube.
About the Service:
The Empty Boat is a Buddhist parable dating back to the 4th century BCE. Parables are interesting because they can express complex ideas in simple, concise stories—and The Empty Boat is no exception. Kirk hopes to use this parable to illuminate a … read more.
The Lure of Vengeance with Kirk Newport
Watch this service on YouTube.
About the service:
Vengeance, revenge, retribution, payback, “eye for an eye”: These are just some of the terms that we use to describe a very special type of “justice.” We know it when we see it. Vengeance is a common, if … read more.
Ethical Case Studies for UUs
Do the “right thing,” right? How hard can that be? Do we even need to talk about it? Actually, yes. It’s a tough world out there. Come hear how tough it really is and how we might use our values to be prepared for just … read more.
Christmas in the Age of Anxiety
Kirk Newport was born in New Orleans, Louisiana, but raised in California. After college at San Francisco State University, he served 3 years in the United States Army, followed by careers in hospital clinical laboratories and teaching clinical lab science at Del Mar College. He … read more.
The Mysterious Journey of Alfred Russel Wallace
2023 marks the bicentennial of the birth of England’s second-most famous naturalist, Alfred Russel Wallace. A younger contemporary of Charles Darwin, Wallace traveled to even more extreme, far-flung locales, made copious notes of his observations, and independently proposed the theory of biological evolution. So, it … read more.
Is Pastafarianism a Religion?
Pastafarianism, also known as the Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster, is a relatively recent “faux” religion that appears to mock many of the traditional characteristics of established religions. But is it actually a “real” religion after all? Is it a cult? Is it a … read more.
Are You Talking to Me?
One of the great ironies of our times has to be the inverse relationship between our technical abilities to communicate with each other and our ability to communicate in any kind of meaningful, effective, or thoughtful manner. How can we use our UU principles to … read more.