America's Evolutionary Evangelists

Rev. Michael Dowd shapes his evolutionary message for a New Thought audience (Unity of Portland, Oregon) on the first Sunday following the November 2016 elections. His three main points: (1) Decline is divine and chaos catalyzes creativity; (2) Interpretations matter — and mythic interpretations matter most; (3) You can't know the impact of your actions, so get on with it.

Connie Barlow and Michael Dowd reflect on the past year of learnings and insights, stimulated by listening to the final chapter of William Catton's book, Overshoot. Content is expanded in Dowd's 2016 video trilogy Standing for the Future (on youtube) and in Dowd's Grace Limits Audios webpage compilation.

Terry Patten

February 7, 2016 Michael Dowd delivered this guest sermon at South Valley Unitarian Universalist Society of Cottonwood Heights, Utah.

This is the third in a trilogy of sermons that Michael Dowd delivered at Peoples Church Unitarian, Ludington Michigan, during the summer of 2015. (The other two sermons are posted as episodes 52 and 53 in this podcast series.) You can also view this sermon on youtube in video format.

This is the second in a trilogy of sermons that Michael Dowd delivered at Peoples Church Unitarian, Ludington Michigan, during the summer of 2015. (The other two sermons are posted as episodes 52 and 54 in this podcast series.) You can also view this sermon on youtube in video format.

Michael Dowd delivered a sermon series in Summer 2015 at Peoples Church Unitarian, Ludington Michigan. This first sermon in the trilogy is titled "When Religion Fails, Economics Becomes Demonic." You can also view it on youtube in video format.

Michael Dowd delivered on 4 January 2015 a guest sermon at the Unitarian Universalist Church of Fort Myers, Florida. His 3 points: (1) Challenging times remind us of our humanity and promote humility; (2) Challenging times help us embrace our mortality; (3) Challenging times help us clarify what matters most. Topics include Dowd's advocacy of "legacy consciousness" and living in accordance with "the fundamental law of life," which he speaks of by resurrecting a legal/moral term that was a central concern for Thomas Jefferson: usufruct. Dowd concludes, "Religions have been failing in their most important task, which is helping us live in right relationship to reality and ensuring a healthy future." 

Michael Dowd was interviewed mid-December 2014 by the hosts of the podcast series Everyone's Agnostic. We edited it down to an hour for our America's Evolutionary Evangelists series. Climate change is front and center for Michael, and you will hear how the interviewers affirm Michael's view. Key points include: "God is Reality with a personality — not a person outside of Reality." Also, "The role of religion has always been to shame any individual or group of individuals who are harming the community or the future. Religion has not been playing that role in our time because of what I call 'the triple idolatries': idolatry of the written word, idolatry of the otherworldly, and idolatry of beliefs."

Visit the "What's new?" page of our website, TheGreatStory.org, to access videos we recorded this year.

Michael Dowd delivered on 8 September 2014 a a guest sermon at the Unitarian Universalist Congregation of Indianapolis, Indiana. His three points: (1) We are bigger, older, and more deeply related than we thought; (2) Nature is more holy, more divine, than we've been led to believe; (3) Our way into the future is crystal clear. Dowd begins with a reading from Thomas Berry and ends with a prophetic call:"The past is rooting for us, and the future is calling us to greatness!"