Reignite

... do you get given a copy of "The God Delusion" by Richard Dawkins as an induction present.

This post has been brewing in me since January. I have to say that I'm sickened by the American UUA presidential election process. "Sickened" may seem like an overly-dramatic word, but I genuinely feel kind of sick when I see the process happening. If you need convincing that religion apes culture, then all you need to do is look at how American Unitarian Universalists have organised their denomination to look exactly like the US politicial system: they elect a President for four years, with the possibility of standing for a second four year term, exactly like the national system. And it seems to me the UUA system has all the disadvantages of the secular system it's imitating: elections last a mind-boggling long time (18 months), they cost a ridiculous amount of money, and they are founded on egotistical self-promotion. It's not suprising I suppose. UUs are often political junkies that are very into elections, they were up last week celebrating at the Obama victor...

Gore Vidal on the BBC coverage

Accidentally, I've dropped into doing a sermon-series. I've found myself preaching on a lot of divine-human encounters in the Hebrew Bible: Moses and the burning bush, Samuel in the temple, Jacob wrestling with God etc. But all of these feature men. So I'm wondering where there are stories in the Hebrew Bible in which God speaks to a woman. Or at least passages where you can read between the lines to find something of a divine encounter with a woman. So I'm making a request: can anyone point me in a good direction to find a story that can give some gender-balance to this series?