On Sunday, November 10, 2024, I delivered a sermon at The Unitarian Universalist Church of the Shenandoah Valley (UU Shenandoah).  One hallmark of the Unitarian Universalist ministry is having the right and responsibility of the “free pulpit”.  This sermon was my personal response to the 2024 Presidential election and I make no claim to represent the full views of the church.

In this message, I call out misogyny, racism and the long history of bodies being used as targets and tools for manipulating power.  It is with that history in mind that the result of the election felt, for me, akin to a lynching.  The United States could not figure out how to make lynching a federal crime for over 100 years, and apparently still can’t figure out how to empower women or maintain lasting protections to keep marginalized people safe in their own bodies on their own terms.

–ALD

Please listen to the audio of this sermon below:

(trigger warning: I speak about rape and racial violence)

Full Text: What Next – Sermon

Hidden Roots of White Supremacy – Book Review

In the sermon I mention Robert P. Jones excellent and engaging book, The Hidden Roots of White Supremacy.  I encourage you to read it as part of an essential education in the intersection between whiteness, religion and power over bodies and space in the long conquest that has resulted in the America we know today. Below is my brief review (from January 2024):

Learn more about Robert P. Jones writing at this link to his Author Page: