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(CNN) -- The brief detention in Havana, Cuba, last week of a Portland, Oregon, church group comes on the heels of the detention of an American contractor and could indicate an increasingly chilly reception for some American visitors, according to the church travelers. The December 26 trip for 14 members of the First Unitarian Church of Portland is a reminder of the entrenched tensions between Cuba and the United States despite the Obama administration's loosening of previous restrictions.

June 14, 2009Obama's Other Controversial ChurchBy Andrew Walden "This is a guy (former Weatherman terror-bomber Bill Ayers) who lives in my neighborhood ... the notion that somehow as a consequence of me knowing somebody who engaged in detestable acts 40 years ago - when I was 8 years old - somehow reflects on me and my values doesn't make much sense." -- Barack Obama on the Campaign trail, 2008 As President Obama prepared to commemorate D-Day, the Associated Press dug up old details and photos to write a warm fuzzy story about the WW2 service record of Obama's maternal grandfather...

...Had a reporter asked Obama: "So what were you doing during Bill Ayers' fugitive days?" An honest answer would be: "I was going to Sunday school at a church which had provided sanctuary to US military deserters." While John McCain was being tortured as a prisoner of war in Hanoi, First Unitarian Church of Honolulu -- at which the elementary-age Obama would later attend Sunday school after returning from Indonesia in 1970 or 71 -- was sheltering deserters and AWOLs recruited by ‘flirty fishing' coeds from a Students for a Democratic Society (SDS) group known as "The Resistance". The deserters'...

"This is a guy (former Weatherman terror-bomber Bill Ayers) who lives in my neighborhood ... the notion that somehow as a consequence of me knowing somebody who engaged in detestable acts 40 years ago - when I was 8 years old - somehow reflects on me and my values doesn't make much sense." -- Barack Obama on the Campaign trail, 2008 As President Obama prepared to commemorate D-Day, the Associated Press dug up old details and photos to write a warm fuzzy story about the WW2 service record of Obama's maternal grandfather and grand uncle. One could conclude that the...

A non-denominational Mississauga church known for its liberal religious practices has taken the unusual step of hiring an outspoken Muslim woman to run its youth programs. The Unitarian Congregation announced yesterday it has appointed Farzana Hassan as director of spiritual exploration. Hassan is a well-known author and poet and an outspoken activist who has butted heads with orthodox imams on issues such as hijab, polygamy and terrorism. The Mississauga resident is also a past president of the Muslim Canadian Congress. Hassan will be responsible for introducing and running children and youth programs for the church. This is not the first...

Debra Haffner delights in the reactions she gets when strangers ask her what she does for a living. "I'm a minister and a sexologist," she says. They blink their eyes and try to reconcile what seems to them to be two opposing forces. Religion in the U.S., after all, seems to have quite a reputation for trying to stifle the joy of sex. So how could she joyfully live in these two worlds of church and sexuality? "Our sexuality and our spirituality are intimately connected," Haffner told a crowd at the First Unitarian Society in Madison earlier this month. At...

The Rev. Michael Dowd gave up a permanent home to travel the country spreading his gospel in the hope of reconciling disparate beliefs. But the former pastor's gospel may shock many Christians. Dowd preaches "evolution theology," a view that promotes evolutionary science and God as the ultimate reality. In Dowd's mind, you can have Darwin and the divine. Dowd is so committed to spreading his message that he offers his book — "Thank God for Evolution! How the Marriage of Science and Religion Will Transform Your Life and Our World" — as a free download on his Web site. The...

The secret war On the North-West Frontier, soldiers are trying to tighten the noose around bin Laden's forces. But in Europe and America, there is no clear enemy to fight - yet every expert knows that a terrorist atrocity is coming Mark Townsend in Tangier, John Hooper in Madrid, Greg Bearup in Peshawar, Paul Harris in Washington, Peter Beaumont in Baghdad, Antony Barnett, Martin Bright, Jason Burke and Nick Pelham in London Sunday March 21, 2004 The Observer There were shadows in the rocks. As the 12 US Special Forces soldiers arrived at a remote mountain region in eastern Afghanistan...

Garrison Keillor has long joked that Unitarian missionaries founded Lake Wobegon after a failed attempt to convert American Indians through interpretive dance. The Prairie Home Companion host has miffed some members of the free-thinking, socially conscious faith with quips like, if you offend a Unitarian, you risk having a question mark burned in your front lawn. Now, Unitarians are seeking converts and hoping radio spots on the iconoclastic Companion will draw the same earthy, progressive, crowd the show does. Seventeen Bay Area Unitarian Universalist congregations have launched a $300,000 marketing campaign financed by 600 member donors. Its theme: "Imagine A...

Apparently the Moonbats have gotten an agreement from Virginia RINO, Tom Davis, to attend (and speak at) a Moonbat Town Hall Meeting in Burke, VA on Thursday, August 23rd from 2:00 until 3:00 pm. The Moonbats hosting this event call themselves "Americans Against the Escalation in Iraq." At this meeting they intend to ask questions of Davis, "regarding the Iraq war and Rep. Davis' rubberstamping of Bush's Iraq policies despite stating many times that he is against the war." Best news of all is that they have invited you Virginians who may be interested, to attend the meeting! So, if...

PORTLAND, Ore. -- Joseph Santos-Lyons is this city's first homegrown minister of color in the Unitarian Universalist Association of Congregations, the church that proudly represents the far left pole of American religion. During the UUA's recent national General Assembly here, Santos-Lyons was "fellowshipped" (the equivalent of a large-scale ordination), a milestone for the liberal UUA, which is 92 percent white, by its own estimates. But as he assumes his minister's mantle, Santos-Lyons is speaking out about the elephant in the room: Liberals embrace multiculturalism in theory, he says, but there's a reason the UUA and other progressive movements, from anti-war...

WASHINGTON - Although Sen. Barack Obama is a Christian, his childhood and family connections to Islam are beginning to complicate his presidential ambitions. The Illinois Democrat spent much of last week refuting unfounded reports that he had been educated in a madrassa, or radical Islamic school, when he lived in Indonesia as a boy. “The Indonesian school Obama attended in Jakarta is a public school that is not and never has been a Madrassa,” said a statement put out by the senator’s staff. But the school did teach the Quran, Islam’s holy book, along with subjects such as math and...

I am a retired university administrator and faculty member, a lifelong Methodist (now United Methodist), a clergy wife, a mother and a grandmother. At this age I had imagined that I would be happily treasuring traditional Christian views, following the well-worn path to the church, and participating in all the usual “keep-’em-busy-and-involved” church activities. Here I am at 78 raising more questions about the Christian faith than ever before. I am offended by the continued use of sexist language and bored by the endless rehearsal of our ancient doctrines. I can no longer think like a first century Christian, the...

Outspoken Iraq War protester Cindy Sheehan spoke at the Unitarian Universalist Church last night, asking a crowd of about 250 people to follow her lead and exercise their First Amendment rights by speaking out against President Bush and the war, which she called “an illegal occupation.” Sheehan, who famously camped out at Bush’s ranch in Crawford, Texas last summer after her son was killed while fighting in Iraq, told listeners that her story is proof that one person can make a difference in the world. The event was organized by the Peace and Justice Committee of the Unitarian Church. A...

The difference between Universalists and Unitarians (the old joke has it) is that Universalists believe that God is too good to damn them, whereas Unitarians believe that they’re too good to be damned. I am a Universalist. For all my many failings, the day I wake up dead I won’t be in a cattle car on the fast train to Satan’s fiery pit. Nor will you. And neither will Old Scratch himself. If he actually exists, the devil too will be saved. In the good news of universalism, God is a loving God who will not rest until the entire...

Unitarian minister gets mixed reviews for sermon accusing Bush administration of terrorism. By Eileen E. Flynn AMERICAN-STATESMAN STAFF Saturday, March 11, 2006 Unitarian minister Davidson Loehr was roiling with anger when he sat down to finish writing his sermon on a recent Friday. He'd been reading "Confessions of an Economic Hit Man" by John Perkins, who paints the U.S. government as a corrupt force willing to sacrifice people for profits. And that Sunday, Feb. 12, Loehr let his fury loose in the sermon's conclusion. The Bush administration, he told members of the First Unitarian Universalist Church, orchestrated the Sept. 11...

The following "sermon" was delivered on the Sunday after the 2004 Presidential election at the First Unitarian "Church" of Portland, Ore., by "Pastor" Marilyn Sewell. ********************************************************** This country has just been engaged in a huge exercise of power. Power has been used, and it has been misused. The upside to this election is that never have I seen so many people so passionately engaged in our political life. Never has our vote seemed so precious. Never have so many of us sent money to candidates and organizations supporting our views. I count all this as a great positive influence. And...

Church Holds Ceremony for Same-Sex Couples More than three dozen couples exchange vows at Arlington’s Unitarian Universalist church. The Unitarian Universalist Church of Arlington voted to support marriage equality in 2004. At the end of a week that saw legislators in Richmond give their blessing to a constitutional amendment banning gay marriage, Patricia Joyner and Rebecca Lovelace cemented their five-year relationship by publicly exchanging vows for the first time. The couple were joined by more than 50 same-sex partners and heterosexual couples who reaffirmed their commitment to each other during an emotional ceremony at the Unitarian Universalist Church of Arlington...

The head of the Presbyterian Church U.S.A. has endorsed a call for McDonalds to improve working conditions and raise the pay of its tomato pickers. In a letter released on Wednesday, the Rev. Clifton Kirkpatrick, stated clerk of the two-million-member denomination, challenged the fast food chain giant to “put an end to human rights violations” by bringing an “adequate solution to the grievous conditions and sub-poverty wages of farmworkers.” "Farmworkers are explicitly excluded from the National Labor Relations Act, which denies them the right to organize, the right to negotiate with their employers, and the right to appeal grievances to...

This Sunday, Buddha Buck and his friends made so many pancakes at Ithaca's First Unitarian Church that they ran out of batter. The breakfast that dozens enjoyed in the church's parlor was the fourth annual "Pancakes with the Pagans" breakfast within Ithaca's Unitarian Universalist (UU) Society. Some might see a contradiction between pagans and church, but in the First Unitarian Church of Ithaca, there is none. "It's not like we're trying to get pagans together with southern Baptists," Buck joked, explaining that his pagan group is actually a group within the UU congregation of Ithaca. Buck added there are numerous...