Progressive Faith Sermons - Dr. Roger Ray

Opioid overdoses increased by 18% in March, 29% in April, and 42% in May making addiction and overdose deaths a silent pandemic within the viral pandemic. To respond to this crisis, today’s message is a panel presentation from our pastor, a physician who is an addiction specialist, and a psychologist who specializes in suicide prevention and addiction. Even if you are not personally in danger of drug or alcohol abuse, you can be assured that someone you know well is and this information may be very helpful to you as you reach out to those who are in danger.

Direct download: 20200726_Service.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 11:33am EDT

When we begin to give up the formal, creedal faith of our youth, accepting that no religion is entirely true and no sacred text was actually written by God, many people will abandon the journey of faith entirely. But for those of us who find value in a spiritual life, we are inclined to turn away from the false certainty of formal religion and turn towards the more honest uncertainty of a mystical faith in which we accept the “isness” of God, as Meister Eckhart said, “God is a word unspoken, a thought not thought, a belief unbelieved.” For those of us raised in a formal church, the mental prison of belief is hard to leave behind . . . especially for the clergy!

Direct download: 20200719_Service.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 11:00am EDT

The anti-mask vs pro-mask divide in this stage of the global pandemic becomes an interesting litmus test for either an empathetic world view or a kind of apologetic for being something of a sociopath. Given the irresponsible leadership of Trump in America, Bolsonaro in Brazil, and Boris Johnson in the UK, we can see how many people are willing to follow the lead of a public figure who denies science, evidence, and expert medical advice with horrifying consequences. To many of us, this indifference towards public health looks evil but we may actually be seeing a kind of emotional exhaustion that becomes defiantly self-serving. A spiritual world view asks us to change our behaviors, even when we don’t feel like we have anything left to give emotionally, to stretch ourselves to simply take on the habit of caring, even when we cannot feel it, until, miraculously, we can feel the desire to be empathic again.

Direct download: 20200712_Service.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 11:34am EDT

Far too often, patriotism is expressed as enthusiasm for wars as if the battlefield was the only way to become a hero or to find virtue when, in almost every case, the opposite is true. As Jimmy Carter recently observed, no nation on earth has ever been as engaged in warfare as the USA and it has cost us the ability to protect our environment, build sustainable energy infrastructure, to feed, educated, house, and provide healthcare for our people. America’s greatness is yet to be realized, but it is within our grasp.

Direct download: 20200705_Service.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 11:29am EDT

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